Nice Crispy's

Ceci nes pas une pipe

2005-08-12T16:36:00.000+01:00

Dante's birthday drinks last night. A horde of urbanites descended on the Trinity Arms for a night of beer. Dante got presented with his new pipe (a present from housemates & their partners) which suited him far too well for Treefrog to cope with. A very good turnout, actually - getting on for 20 people. Took it fairly easy and got to bed at a reasonable time, as did the birthday boy. Dirtyfruit and SubZeroCat apparently stayed out till closing at the DOgstar and got very messy. Tut tut tut.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm clearing an enourmous backlog of posts. Pretty much all of June and July needs to be written up, or I'll end up forgetting it!

Spinning Innit

2005-08-01T20:26:00.000+01:00

Went to a rather special Unsound on the weekend. It was Roby's birthday and it was word-of-mouth only. THe venue was a squat in peckham, sandwiched inbetween a housing estate and a railway line, in some old industrial buildings and mews. We were all expecting unsound hardcoreness, but arrived to find a yard with campfire and raked seating. It's obviously home to a fair few people - clean and nice toilets etc - looks like a lovely place to live. The dance room was a wonder to behold - a spinning 'Innit?' and giant pill with sunglasses were the highlights of a very extensive decoration effort.

It was so nice, and the weather so warm, that we stayed on till 10am, when things started aching a little bit. It was going on for one of the best parties ever, and I hardly did any dancing. Dirtyfruit and Sonja also confirmed the rumours and left together at around 3am. Aw bless. That boy needs a good woman.

Pictures

Ashton Court Festival

2005-07-17T19:29:00.000+01:00

Well, last weekend was the Ashton Court Festival in Bristol (formerly bristol community festival, but now covered ni Orange branding, which is a shame). Really did mean to get down in time for early afternoon on Saturday, but was foiled by a filthy hangover. You see, on Friday night, athere was a local community film project being projected onto the back wall of our office (it's big and white), so the boss had left us employees some wine to drink while we watched. Only me and Mark hung around, so we had a lot of wine to get through.

Anyway, I managed to briefly meet the Bristol urbanites at the festival, but watched Super Furry Animals with my brother and his mates. I love SFA and it's criminal that I hadn't seen them before. Needless to say they rocked. Could have been louder (and in trademark surround sound), but was still great fun. A long walk down the hill, broken up by a quiet spliff down by the river, and we were at Clumsy mansions for much more smoking and tea. Got to listen to some tracks off their new album, which has a nice dub/reggae tinge to it. Also listened to one of their protege bands, The Naturals, who are only 13 but already sound like a band who've been on the road for years, with inventive melodies and great lyrics. Apparently they won't sign a contract, even though labels are falling over each other to sign them. The little bastards!

FIre!

2005-05-24T01:27:00.000+01:00

Saturday night was Sparrow's birthday party, where we built and fired up one big barbecue and one small barbecue, and cooked lots and lots of meat and meat substitutes thereon. Very nice indeed. Later on, the remains of the garden were piled together and burnt as a campfire, around which we sat and drank beer. The night was finished watching Father Ted whilst bonging, followed by deep, deep sleep.

On Sunday, Dirtyfruit got up before everyone else and did one of his tidying spasms. This left us to only rake the glass out of the fire and tidy the lounge. Easy. We then finished Sparrow's mushrooms off and watched 2001. 'Echoes' by Pink Floyd does indeed synchronise perfectly with the final third (Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite)

Big Gap

2005-05-20T18:58:00.000+01:00

Yes, it's been a while.

At first I was working hard on my architecture course. Then, I finally snapped and realised that I was right a year ago and I really do want to make video games. So I've dropped out. Feels good :)

To recap the last month or so (the purpose of this thing is as a backup to my memory after all):

Sparrow's birthday was on the 18th. I'm building her a computer.

LDR's party was on Saturday 14th. Stayed up till 10am watching Futurama by the end of it all. Quite a hefty intake that night.

As was the night before - went out with Sparrow, her flatmate and their friends to a fantastic place called bar 127, which is totally hidden and chilled.

Voted Green on the 5th.

Went to the urban75 curry at Kahn's the night before. Great food at cheap prices, with lots of good company.

Folks came down the weekend before. We went to see The Producers, which was very funny indeed.

Offline was on the Thursday before (the 28th). Rob played a set, but the PA was shite and we could hardly hear him. A shame.

I think that pretty much joins things up. More regular updates in the future, I hope!

Desperate Times

2005-04-28T03:36:00.000+01:00

Call for desperate measures. I have changed my urban75 password to a string of gibberish. Only a guilt-trip-inducing click of the lost password button will let me back in. This removes the main prevarication source in the way of me getting work done. It seems to have done the trick. All I have to do now is stare ahead and not stop.

Mmmmm, fattening

2005-04-27T01:08:00.000+01:00

I am currently eating a very sticky toffee pudding, donated by Treefrog cos she didn't want it for some crazy bad reason. Turns out that hopeless feeling late Sunday night was a comedown. Of course, how silly of me not realise at the time!

Rest assured I have put the work cap back on and have drawn up a calendar of the days remaining until final crit day. There aren't many and it scares the crap out of me quite frankly. Got to fit in a dissertation proposal and a technical report at some point as well. Eek!

Monday Morning 5:19

2005-04-25T03:14:00.000+01:00

Is the title of an OK-ish song by some 90s indie band who's name escapes me for the moment.

Ok so it's a couple of hours till then, but when all my other distractions have been squeezed dry, a post to the blog seems like a good idea. The general point is : it's well late.

Had a fun weekend celebrating Treefrog's (neé Rozi) birthday. A heavy night out on the Friday involving the Albert, a free Jamm (neé Bar Lorca), an expensive George 4, then Jamm again. Needed excess medication due to caning it last weekend - time for a break from that, I feel. Treefrog's mate Gus had a much better time of it, although some random in the George 4 thought he looked at his bird funny and nearly threw a wobbler. He came out even on the night though, after a nice snog (not with the guy's bird, someone else). Finally got round to the 2CB back at Fay's. That was fun :-) Very tactile, good visuals, but not as mongy as shrooms.

Didn't really get much sleep. Roused ourselves for a BBQ, which was just meat-tastic. Then we managed to drag ourselves to the pub again and then PROD, where we attempted to dance, but probably looked like extras from Shaun of the Dead. Actually got a decent amount of sleep in and a hearty breakfast.

But now it's late late late Sunday night, and I'm supposed to pin up a draft presentation layout tomorrow. I've been prevaricating for days and basicly haven't done a fucking thing. I still can't work up the motivation to carry on working on a project I'm completely intellectually sick to the back teeth with. I've done all the thinking damnit! Why do I need to draw it all over again! At this rate, I'll have nothing useful for tomorrow whatsoever, which begs the question 'why bother going at all?'

Ah, that band was called Rialto.

Oh, sorry. Did someone say vote?

2005-04-19T00:29:00.000+01:00

Ah yes. Well, what with these figures it wouldn't really make much difference would it?

It'll have to be a protest vote then, and it's a toss up between the Greens (who I actually agree with, apart from their determined opposition to nuclear power) and scrawling "Give me a voting system where my vote counts. You cunts." all over the ballot paper. I think it'll end up depending on my mood on the day.

Seeing as I'll be joining the urban75 massive in the invasion of Kahn's curry resturant the night before, I may just vote for more nurofen and a soft toilet roll.

Techno? Techyes!

2005-04-18T18:11:00.000+01:00

Note pinned to the wallpaper on my phone (like a text to myself):

Sweet Jesus. OCB is a good party. Sweat, beats, hugs, smiles, love. :)

I wrote that at about 3am and it says it all really! The venue was a squatted pub in South London, complete with original bar. There was a comfortable chillout room, very good (and loud) techno, and decent pills at decent prices. Not a spot of trouble all night long, just fluffiness oozing out of every pore. Definately going back for the next one, whenever that will be...

From today onwards, the work levels ramp up. Had a talking to today about how we should all be getting our presentation layout together, so we can decide which drawings and models we need to work towards. Luckily, I had spent the morning at home doing exactly that :)

The end is in sight and has to be sprinted for. This may get painful. If it's not too gory, I'll be sure to share the pain.

Tech and Techno

2005-04-16T20:34:00.000+01:00

Just been round Tim (from uni)'s place to help him put together and set up his new PC, which is a Shuttle SN95G5 like mine. Loverly :)
Tonight is OCB, which should be stompin'. I've managed to miss the last three and am finally able to go. Bring on the techno!

Windswept Trees, New Zealand

2005-04-10T17:06:00.000+01:00

Just giving the nifty Picasa-Hello-Blogger integration a dry run.

These dead trees had been bleached by the sea wind and contrasted nicely with the dark shadows under the living trees behind.

Moving house is hard to do

2005-04-05T22:15:00.000+01:00

Especially when you're not sure if you're doing it or not.

The Situation:
Brainaddict will be getting back from Africa. Therefore Rozi will have to move out. Dirtyfruit's lease runs out in a month and he doesn't really like his housemates. I want to move to Brixton. So, we plan to get a flat together. We really thought we'd nailed it the other night. Saw a fantastic flat near Brockwell park. Had an attic room, fantastic furniture and big bedrooms. We said yes please and handed over a £300 holding deposit. Got a call today from the agent, who told me that the landlord had, in fact, already let the flat and was just 'hedging his bets'. What a prick. Got our cash back and now we're back at square one.

To complicate things, Sparrow and BAddict's other housemate has announced he is to leave. Does Rozi want to take his room? Does the house want her to? Can anyone in the world make up their mind about anything, ever? The magic 8-ball says : I need more information.

Tickets! Tickets!

2005-04-04T12:44:00.000+01:00

Was expecting a marathon refresh button and redial button pushing session yesterday in order to secure tickets for Glastonbury. The actual process was silky smooth, with hardly any waiting for the web page. So effortless that I thought maybe there had been a mistake and my debit card details were being sucked up into the ether to have drugs money laundered through them. But no, everything was legit and I got my confirmation email. Glasto here we come!

Unbelievably, Sparrow has never been to Glastonbury or any festival for that matter. Camp urban75 should be a more than fitting introduction :)

It was the Editor's birthday celebrations on Saturday, which took place in the top floor room of the Dogstar. Nice room, with nice furniture and nice view. Felt a bit odd though, as me and Rozi were the only nu-urban representatives. Lots of old-urban people there intimidated us with their adherence to some sort of politics and 'I-lived-here-under-the-tories' stares. We made our excuses and left, to get stoned and watch videos. The revolution has been postponed.

Effort

2005-03-31T03:42:00.000+01:00

I actually managed to make some today. An entirely productive day at work was had - no screwups, no interruptions, just smooth, satisfying, on-time work. You could even call it lovely. At home, continued the trend with a few solid pages of sketches for desert tent designs (for the architecture course. All will be revealed if I can be bothered at some point). Might try and do it again tomorrow, but I don't think going to bed this late will help a great deal.

Long Weekend concluded satisfactorily

2005-03-29T14:04:00.000+01:00

Best. Weekend. Ever. Or at least, for quite a while. After the relative sanity of Friday night, Saturday was a long night of drinks in the Albert, a fairly empty PRoD in the Windmill (so lots of space to dance!) followed by a nice munted Unsound. All back to Sparrow and Rozi's place for confused video watching and spliffs. Unfortunately, I lost my keys and so was trapped at their house until late Monday night. Sunday night got Dirtyfruit back round in the evening for a quiet BBQ and some movies. Batman was on telly, and I swear they edited Joker's line from "Where do you get those wonderful toys" to "Get those wonderful toys". Why, I don't know. Monday night was more BBQ with SZC, StdPika and Kam, followed by the Spongebob Squarepants movie, which utterly confused me (but was quite entertaining nonetheless).

Now it's Tuesday, and work must be done. Of course I'm prevaricating by reading urban and typing this, but I feel the willpower rising.

Long Weekend off to a good start

2005-03-26T16:28:00.000Z

That's been two good day's craic for sure. Thursday night so nearly didn't happen, with plans being dashed and Brixton Hill feeling the tread of our feet more times than was really neccesary. Eventually settled down in the George Four for some dirty dirty techno, some nice fluffiness and the spectacle of ket kids being taken away in an ambulance.

Friday night was a more subdued affair, consisting of kava kava (which has the foulest taste of all know drinks) and mushrooms. Managed to make it 1/2 the way through the LOTR trilogy, which was quite a result. Spent the evening wearing a skirt, after sitting in a puddle whilst tending the barbecue.

Not that private

2005-03-24T19:15:00.000Z

I saw something out of the bus window the other night. A man, on his own in his car. Balding, pot-bellied and vacant-faced, he was watching porn on the palmtop in his lap. He couldn't wank, the traffic was moving just fast enough for him to have to look up from time to time. He was completely oblivious to anyone being able to see him (I can't have been the only person on the bus who noticed). This is what the insulative power of cars does to you.

It begins

2005-03-23T00:35:00.000Z

Let's hope it doesn't end too soon, eh?