please don't shoot the piano player, he is doing the best he can...

I'm going to stop making excuses for my update-ness. Of late i have been fairly busy with university and in the first week i have managed to land myself 4 pieces of coursework to do. I'm not entirely sure how this has happened but i better start ploughing through it. This isn't an excuse, like i say, just a quick, i dunno.. thing. Which is pretty much what this post will be like; a poorly strung together rambling of thoughts, more that a well constructed story of a post... or something.

So... I'm writing this on my new computer which is very lovely, this, might i add, is not an advert for people to come and steal things from me. That would be hurtful and monumentally annoying... please don't. Theft aside, it is very pretty and i can now start recording music on it and making some of my own tracks. I am also writing this on the back end of a hangover from a night where i wasn't really intending to stay out that late. That said, it was fun, i dressed as rambo/tropic thunder as that was pretty much all i had lying around. After smearing myself with mud (genuine mud) i don't think it came together too badly. Obviously if I'm going to sleep in until 1:30 pm on a saturday afternoon. I think that this, with my mention of coursework, illustrates quite nicely my next point. I think this year isn't going to be the party that last year was. I may even be restricted to a 'one night out per week' system. 

I didn't check when my last post was so I'm assuming it was some weeks ago, i have a vague recollection of writing about Greenman Festival and some summer activities. I say 'summer' though i don't really recall any sun. Anywho, since then I went to the Azores with uni for a field trip, which was really nice. Pretty hard work as it goes but still good. Virtually everything out there is a photo opportunity, and strangely the streets seem to be compiled of at least 3 social classes. Literally a shanty-like house can be next door to some sweet americanised bungalow painted in pastel colours. Seeings as the Azores is bang in the middle of the Atlantic and is only tiny tiny, it is mega humid and as a result everything rots real fast, like the houses and things. I'm guessing people just cant afford to keep on top of that stuff. On the whole, about 40% of the time was spent in volcano craters collecting data etc. Then, on the last night we had to write 2 papers by hand. that was difficult. Oh, and also we had to revise for a test that was the following morning about 2 hours before our plane left. We didn't finish the papers until about 1am then the revision started. balls to the wall killer. All in all, it was a really good trip though, and to a place any of us are pretty unlikely ever to go again.

I have also moved into my new house with buddies, a good thing. 

Right, that's enough for now. This was practically an update due to request so sorry if its not that interesting. 

Oh, finally, I was considering moving this blog into facebook's note format. i don't know who reads this but by the looks of it it isn't that many people but if you do and you aren't a friend on facebook then comment here or message me or something and i'll probably post on both. In-fact, i might just write a blog there now, what the hell.

adios.

pastimes, past times, and passed time...

pastimes...

Many of you know, or have gathered that i have one or two pastimes a couple of which i take more seriously than others. primerily music i.e playing guitar; and riding bikes.. so i will, based on these facts, enlighten you to recent.. well.. enlightenments.
My nan died last november (but ben this doesn't sound like a pastime unless 'bikes and guitars' is a potent metaphore for 'assassinating or taxidermy'), to cut a long story short, the will has been finalised and i will be inheriting a modest sum, with which i intend to buy a guitar. i'm very excited at this prospect and will keep you posted on the outcome.
SECOND. Bikes: i come home from wales - prime riding territory (or teritory if yu are Al) - to find that my bike has been stolen*, can you believe it. some shit has stolen one of the possessions i am most bothered about... so no riding until futher notice.

past times...

hmmm.. i need to write something to justify this (sub)title... aha! To my great dismay i found that when, as a child, my girlfriend found her caring mother had inserted a CLUB into her packed lunch she was gutted as she 'didn't like clubs'. how?. these chocolatey little numbers were a mega treat when i was a lad, i was lucky to get a penguin so when clubs were there i was all in a tizz. Plus, how can she have denied a biscuit with the catchiest advert score in history, i won't write it because it takes weeks to get out of your head. Needless to say her brother agreed with me 'especially if it was an orange one'. I'm beginning to think she is one-of-them**.

passed time...

So in the couple of weeks i haven't been writitng, but some stuff has happened, namely the stuff preventing me from writing.
I went to wales for a couple of weeks(ish) and there i stayed at my girlfriends (the same one with whom i found out about clubs) and ate gloriously and went from there to Green Man Festival. What a blast. That festival is really good; so relaxed and welcoming. I'm definately considering going again. The one bad was the weather, and my hangover on the friday, but mainly the weather. if it was a sunny weekend with warm dusks then that would have tipped it to be even better. but it wasn't, it was real muddy and wet for over 50% - i'd say- of the time. still though. ace. loads of really good music and i got to see Mumford and Sons for the first time and they were the highlight for me. aswell as loads i hadn't seen, or indeed heard OR heard of, such as O'Death (might i add one of the best band names in music) and One little Plane. I urge you to check them out.
As she works in the gym, my girlfriend said i could go there for free, then when i got there, with her, her manager said it would cost 8 quid! and to be honest i didnt bring my gym stuff, just stuff for the pool. so we blagged we had no money on us and i went in and hopefully they will forget about it. But just incase, to justify the 8 notes we may have to pay, i stayed in the pool for like 2 hours without goggles, so my eyes were pretty sore thereafter... oh the reason we wanted to go is because she was working there that day and it would have been a bit boring for me on my own...

and finally...

Alex has asked me to generate my top ten songs of all time to date. An arduous task which will invariably be changed with evolving taste, but hey. much to my shame, i can't get enough of - and hey, i'm not scared to admit- Hell Song by Sum 41, im not usually a fan of them but for some reason that song strikes a chord with me, im chuckling as i write because that is a pretty disreputable admission which will undoubtedly see a tirade of abuse, by way of retrubution, from the more, say, musically knowledgable people... oh well.. its only one song. Also, do i include past favourites which still bring back memories of days gone by?.. either way, i will publish them on here and try to link all the songs somehow, if not the bands websites.

so thats about all i can remember of that, or at least all i cant think to write right now through my blind rage at being robbed of my beloved material possession.

toodles.

* based on preliminary checks. with a lot of hope, there is a legitimate reason for it not being here and it will soon be returned.
** 'one-of-them' refers to, in this situation, someone who hasnt tried something before and thusly refuses blindly to try new things as 'they know they wont like them'... god i hate that.

in a new york minute...

well well well, look what we have here: Me.

i realised today that i am starting to get sick of this whole work thing this summer. Now, before you judge me and say 'pah, typical student, never wants to work... what a lazy ass, get your lazy ass a job.. jeez, that guy is such a lazy ass.', I don't mean that i dont want to work, nor that i don't like the idea of working. I'm just beginning to get a bit sick of my schedule: work (unpaid), work (paid), get bored, sleep - repeat daily. Furthermore to your judgements, which i know you are passing despite my best efforts, i know i can throw in some fun activities here and there, but the point i am appraching is that this doesnt change the fact that most of my friends don't live i the same city as me. I'm at the brink of declaring that... maybe... holiday times suck.

I enjoy my unpaid work.. i dont particularly enjoy my paid work but, hey, it pays my bills. If only my unpaid work paid me.. that would make the whooole situation better. I cant apply too much time to unpaid work as paid work pays very little, as a result lots of my spare time is spent trying to make ends meet at the moment. This neatly brings me onto my next area of potential interest: in a weeks time i am going to Wales for a 2 week break from all work based.. well.. work. Here I will be attending the Greenman Festival, its going to be ace, hailed as the most beardy festival around. Which is good for me because i love beards. this winter i will be growing a winter beard with alex and we will (most probabaly) look like hobos, i cant wait.

I still have a couple of things to write about, but i sure hope i'm not boring you. First, I cant afford to buy a video camera, and my existing one has had it. So the plan is to use my digital camera to film some short films. I dont yet know the subjects (both ideas and people) but i think i will start with using figurines to make cheap, affordable, comedy.

Finally, I REALLY want and sort of need a Mac mini. a scaled down, inexpensive (comparably) mac. I think I am going to have to wait until around christmas until i can get that unless i manage to sell my beloved Leonard. That's right, i am pimping out my grandad to old women who still have the horn, a resource that, until recently (i.e me), has been untapped. This, of course, is a lie. Leonard is my van. I am not one to advertise in blog format - 'adverblogmat' - but i will write this once.

IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO BUY A TOYOTA HIACE POWER VAN FOR £2500 ono. THEN HIT ME UP ASAP.

this will give me the money i need and also relieve my responsibility of owning and rarely using my van, buy a mac mini, put aside for a small car when i need one, solve all of my problems simultaneously.

Which brings me to a timely, and probably much anticipated, end.

You read it, you can't unread it, TALES OF INTEREST.

white blank page

Sup sup sups uspu spsupsipps sup. Over due i know, but its not been that long eh?!...

So I just got in from a ride and i realise now, after a couple of months of not using my bike, how unfit not riding has made me. Sure, i did go for a few runs, some weeks more committed than others, but christ, i dont think i have done any proper exercise in over 5 weeks, short of walking places. I am a bad man, the kind of bad man that, in the years to come (if i dont step up) will be getting a gastric bypass operation. KAY, maybe not that extreme. But, im glad i have finally fixed up the ol' leg powered duo cyclism because i can now properly explore Dartmoor and what it has to offer.

I guess I should explain why i haven't posted... Basically in the last 5 or 6 weeks, i reckon i have been home for about 2. I have seen hundreds (girlfriend included) of people graduate, I saw an old lady (grandma) turn 80, solid, I aquired a puppy (Pepper), I found a dead woodpecker (Woody), I got a job (!!!)(Wetherspoons), worked in a lab assisting PhD research (seagrass... unpaid), I went to Wales (twice), went to Bristol (thrice), went to Birmingham (brummy), I went to cornwall (parents), I got some new headphones (sennheiser) and finally.. I played guitar hero for the first time (rdiculously addictive). That, my friends, is, in a nutshell, what i have been up to. I have also had about 4 arguments, 4 x 14-hour days of work, countless kisses, several hugs, and 3-5 awkward sliences. None, thankfully, on a journey from Bridgend (Wales) to Plymouth, a 2.5-3 hour drive with just me and my grilfriend's dad.

I think I have pretty much covered everything i have done there. It has been quite good, but im constantly tired and pretty thankful for the couple of weeks i have here until i hit Brecon for Greenman Festival and a caraven stay somewhere else in Wales. Weird, before recently i had been there about.. say.. once; just how i like it. Now, this summer, i will have been about a hundred times (4-5 times).

On a different note, i have been getting into new folk and, due to my new headphones giving me untouchable quality listening, i feel i should give a few a mention.

Bowerbirds (fantastic)
Joanna Newsome (uniquely brilliant)
Johnny Flynn (and the Sussex wit)
Laura Veirs (americanish but good)
Mumford and Sons (probabaly my favourite)
Bon Iver (heart felt)
Laura Marling (getting bigger)
Alela Diane (southern folk)
Defiance, Ohio (american folky punk)

please check out a couple of those, it really is worth it.

hmmm... anything else to report?.. no. ah yes!: After a kindly comment suggesting a job to apply for i applied and didnt get it! It's the first time i have 'not got the job' so to speak.. i genuinely think i would have been good too. oh well. you live and learn.. and set fire to the CEO's car.

buh.

no money, no job, no problem.... problem

SKINT. it sucks, we have all been there one time or another, unless you are jane. Jane is never skint. i think. Anyway, janes ineffable cashflow aside, I must find a job. The only problem is, is that i have (just about) secured some unpaid work experience in biological research.. assisting the research in the lab and the field, which has far more long term value when it comes to the cv than a job in a shitty call centre or working for debenhams holding a sign up the street saying "70% off all stuff, thataway! ---->"...and that's the problem, it's UNPAID so that means that i need to earn elsewhere with what time i have left.... I'm honestly at a wits end of what to do.. nowhere wants a guy who just needs sporadic work here and there so he can eat. If anyone out there is reading this then please suggest to me something. That said, i must remain positive. Labour Ready (i would link you but it's really not worth it, honestly) may just pull through for me, but we will see. they offer daily work, call in the morning and hope for vacancies type of thing. and to quote Norman Vincent Peale

"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that..."

And that, my friends, is exactly the way i shall confront this situation. Even if i have to sell a finger on ebay... or a little toe, a little less valuable, but nonetheless a potential revenue.

In other news i have watch three films recently, all very good in their own right.. here is a short break down:

VERY GOOD VIEWING FOR THE MOST PART

here is a slightly more comprehensive breakdown:

The Kite Runner - very good, tugs on the heart strings but leaves lots out from the book. Lara and Alex cried at least twice. comfortable 8/10
Smokin' Aces - Balls to the wall action. I liked it, not a bad story too.. easy 7/10
Half-Nelson - Very good indeed. a thinker. comes highly recommended. a solid 8/10

Better? I thought so, never judge me again.

FINALLY, a cooking tip. if you want to make a decent curry but the sauce is from a jar, then use a reputable brand and then add a jar of value curry sauce (Tesco Value, Sainbury's Basics etc.) if you need extra.. we used Sharwoods and Morrisons super ultra cheap stuff.. very nice indeed. tried and tested. good old morro's value, is there anything they cant do?

KAY, im off, i have a beer on the go and a guitar that's crying out for a play.

foreign post...

Ok, not that foreign, i'm just in Bristol again. I'm due back on Sunday so dont worry. I'm sat in the Geography Department computer room of Bristol Uni, with a baguette and some humous fraudulently being on a computer.. what a badass. I'm like when Mistique (X-Men) gets into the Whitehouse files, or when Hugh Jackman in 'Swordfish' is hacking into the Penatgon in a club, getting a blowy and with a gun to his head...This week has been a bit weird, the week before weirder still.. I'd say i have been pretty busy:

I worked the Isle of Wight festival in which the pinacle shifts was a crushing 17 hours long with a 20 min break to catch a couple of songs by The Police and have an argument with my girlfriend, then make up. I was a tough slog that festival, but hey, you gotta help family out from time to time and earn some money so you can eat and other things that being alive requires.

Second, i came home in the middle of the night on monday (from IOW), only to have to get a train to my parents on tuesday morning, needless to say i was pretty pooped. This was also the first time my gf was meeting my parents so nerves were high and hours on the train were higher. A few landslide 'Top-Trumps' victories later and the visit actually went well, i managed to get a bag for 7 quid and my pops cooking is always a treat. beers and food and laughs were afoot and then more beer and the laughs were at more and more risque jokes. The way an old school night in should be. Everyone seemed to get along and my dad and i drank whiskey until the early(ish) hours. still, no sleep for ben for a week and a half so far... and they seemed to like her.

Now i'm sat here having had 2 consecutive full nights sleep, feeling chipper and i have a ball to go to later to test out the new suit (see previous blog).

Righto i had better split, the security guard is eyeing me up and i dont think holding my thumb over 'UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH' on my ID card will blag this bristol based, computer room security cop a third time round..

adios.

the dreaded..

There i was, standing in an unfamiliar city, gun in hand, a man on his knees, back facing me. was i going to do this?.. nope.

I was in Bristol this weekend as i was meant to meet the better half's parents for the first time (properly). There had been a breif encounter of about 5 minutes some weeks earlier but that doesnt count on the account that i barely said hello. So you should know that they live in Wales. a solid 3 hours or more from mine, so it's not likely that i see much of them. But yeah.. we went for a 'meal'. i dont know why i put it in inverted commas.. we went for a meal.

To add to the pressure of this meeting it was also the birthday of said half..

'oh hello ben, what crummy present did you get for my daughter whos knickers you have undoubtedly wormed your way into?' i thought may be the initiating question. i was wrong. we were taken to a backstreet italian restaurant.. not unlike ones where a mafia boss might do a person, capiche... then ended up enjoying a delicious meal and drinking plenty of wine and having a lovely laugh. I have to say, they are a very nice bunch that family. So what did i decide to do? oh right yeah.. tell a story about how i accidently drank from a pint of an unknown donors luke warm vomit. GOOD ONE BENNY BOY. you know when you are saying something and everything in your body is shouting 'shut-the-shit-up-you-massive-bastard!!' ?.. that's exactly what happened. But my mouth and tongue kept formulating the story words.

Still, this story actually sat quite well, unbelievable.

I have since been informed that i had done well and i seem like a really nice lad according to a reliable source... what a winner.


in other news... i bought a new suit, i have applied for a job as a caretaker, a debt recovery person, and an exam invigilator. versatile eh?