Tuesday 13 October 2009

Black by popular demand

Well, what can I say, it has been too long since I did one of these. In a way I'm kinda sad I stopped as they were quite enjoyable and reading back on some of my other ones I can see how much I have changed over the year. One of the main reasons I stopped was that I would get home and end up spending hours sometimes writing up blogs and not getting enough sleep, also I went through a "dry spell" of not being able to think of anything interesting that happened during the day and be able to express it on here in a way that'd interest people, hope I haven't lost that skill...


Anyway, let's get on with this.
I am now in 2nd year, passed first year with no resists (even though I only ended up with a 2:2/ 57%....probably should have read books from the Library and done the work I was told to do instead of watching Scrubs and House all the time).
I now live in a house with 7 other people, Tim, Lewis, Harry, Abi, Lauren and Mia.
Although saying that, Tim and I were the first people to move in months ago and lived together for about 6 weeks on our own which was in some ways better.
Ah well, it's an ok house nontheless although Tim and I have already decided the people we want to be living with next year, which I'll get onto later.


First of all, the Summer. I came down to Leeds quite early to find a job, Tim had been here all Summer looking for one and didn't get a single call back. One day we both went into a pub called the Dry Dock and asked if they had any work going. They didn't, but knew the Library pub did, which was also part of the Scream pub company.
So Tim and I went down there and asked, turned out they were having a Group interview on September 2nd at 12pm.

So a week passed and Tim and I went to the "interview", we waited and waited, nobody turned up. The doors weren't even open. Eventually we saw the same girl that had told us about it turn up to work only to inform us we had come a day early...
How embarrassing, although to be fair, she told us it was the 2nd, when it was actually the 3rd.

So the next day we went back, once again, there was nobody there, apart from one other girl, Siobhan.
"Ah this will be great, only 3 people, they'll have to hire us" we thought.
Until the manager came downstairs only to tell us that we were meant to have arrived at 11am not 12pm.
For fu...

So we went upstairs to find a room full of people.
Tim and I were actually really tempted to just leave at first as our chances seemed so slim as we were told by the manager we had missed a task that involved saying who you were, your most embarrassing moment and do an animal or celebrity impression.
However we decided to stay anyway, not knowing we'd still have to do it.

Siohban went up first, and tbh, didn't really make that good of an impression as she lacked confidence. So did I, but I could easily make out that I was confident in what I was doing, I really wasn't.

I introduced myself next, told my most embarrassing moment (drinking too much and shitting myself in Scotland on a Geology trip) and my animal impression was a pig, which everyone loved, as apparently I was the only person to go down on all 4s haha.

Next in our groups we had to pretend to sell useless items to everyone, we had to chose from condoms with holes in them, a bucket with a hole in it, dog breathe smelling mouthwash, Fish smelling deodrant, black light and a solar powered torch.

We chose the deodrant and bucket.
We managed to have fun with it (by we I mean Tim and I as the girl admitted she wasn't feeling too creative today and would just let us two do it all, good)


We got up and managed to sell it to everyone saying how Aquaman uses the deodrant and now has a pg 3 girlfriend in the Daily Whale (Tim's idea, though wish I'd thought it up). Amongst other things with the bucket with a hole in it saying how you can use it for ugly friends and put it over their head.


Eventually I had a one on one interview and was told I was pretty much guarenteed the job anyway because of my pig impression haha.


Come Monday we had a social with all the staff which was fun, everyone got really drunk and I got to meet them all, it's a fun place to work.

My first shift which should have been 5 - 12:30pm on Sunday was cancelled which annoyed me, as my first one now was 8 - 2:30am on Tuesday, in Freshers week, and I had to be up for a 9am the next morning.

The shift went badly, and ok at the same time. Being my first, I had no clue what I was doing, my pints had more head than beer, it took me 5 minutes to make an order each time as I didn't know how to work the till, but amongst all this, all the customers were understanding and some even found it funny (aside from one Asian guy who claimed he was going grey cos I was taken so long, son of a bitch).


Anyway, Uni started and lectures are going fine atm. My 2nd shift was a lot better, was nowhere near as busy and I actually enjoyed it. Was a shame the week after I got a call saying that due to major hour cuts, I have been taken off the rota until further notice....

What's more annoying is that Tim has still been kept on, as have about 2 or 3 other newbies. No idea how they decided who they were gonna keep on, but it's still ruined my plans as if I don't start soon I won't have enough money to live!

Last Saturday was pretty good too. First of all got an e-mail from someone named Stuart who works with Pet Sounds saying that it's their 1st birthday and as I'm a regular I would get free entry into the Maccabees, free drinks and free entry into Pet Sounds.

Now there is an old saying that explains if someone seems too good to be true, it's usually because it is, of course in this case I seemed to forget that.

Me, Tim, Katie and Alex all turned up (as we had all got the e-mail) to find that Stuart hadn't actually told Pet Sounds he was giving away free entry to the gig to people and they were now at full capacity.

Flipping heck, we were all so annoyed as we had turned up at 8pm, sober, expecting free drinks. Tim went to a pub while I went back to Katie and Alex's house to get wasted in anger (oh yeah, Katie and Alex will be 2 of the people I'll be living with next year, the rest will be revealed in a later blog).

We arrived back at Pet Sounds and managed to get free entry, although I found out unless you had drink vouchers you couldn't get free drinks. I was starting to lose my patience. Luckily a randomer must have noticed I wasn't having the best of nights and gave me one of his vouchers which was nice of him.

Got my drink and danced the night away for a bit before heading off to a house party.
It was pretty good. In my state I got my balls out over a couple making out and a girl tried to throw me out of the house saying she had "had complaints about me getting my cock out".
I told her it wasn't me (though it's obvious it was, I was the only black guy at the party) and pulled out the race card saying she only wanted to throw me out cos I was black. It actually worked.


That's all I remember for now of all the things that'd have happened to me since I've been back, the most interesting anyway.
Stay tuned for the next post! x

Friday 20 February 2009

Day 39 - Gradually declining...

Not much to say really.
Waited around for my first and only lecture.
Went to Taekwondo which was pretty good actually, a lot of sparring and fitness. Though Claire hurt my ankle when we both kicked at the same time and I got a huge cramp in my leg when in the Library for the social afterwards.
I'm back now and it seems a lot of people have gone home for the weekend.
Rich should have arrived tonight so am most likely gonna see him and Tom tomorrow, at least I hope I will anyway.
That's all for now.

Day 38 - Sweet and sour mint

A little side note, I'm beginning to lose intrest in writing these now. Mainly as nobody actually reads them anymore it just seems a bit pointless. I said that it'd be fun to look back and read, but after doing so even I get bored of myself really quickly.
At most I will only carry this on for my 1st year, for now it's all seeming a bit futile, ah well I'll carry like normal for now.

I was ridiculously tired for my 9am lecture as well as feeling quite ill. Worst idea ever. However as the day went on and I ate something I began to feel better.
I did take a huge nap as soon as I got back to Clarence Dock though. I met Tom at Uni who said that he and Tim were gonna be in the bar that night as there wasa DJ there and people we're going mint later on that night, met Sanders going to Uni too funny enough, so looks like I'd be doing that tonight.

After a few games of pool at about 8pm I went back to my room for a bit watching Scrubs as I didn't hear anything from anyone. I was planning on just staying in if nobody phoned.
However Sanders text me at 10pm asking me where the "fk" I was as he was in the bar with everyone.
As we're broke students we kept running back to C block, downing cider then running back to the bar.
Yep, running with a full gut of cider isn't all that comfortable tbh.
As the night went on I began to dance a bit and also met Jaz and Louise (not the E block one) in there. It was her birthday and they were trying to convince me to go to mint with them.
I said that I'd stay with Tom and everyone but after declining Jaz said "At least let me buy you a drink" and got me two VKs. I couldn't turn him down now haha.
Tom said it was fine for me to go so I went and got ready.
In that time (about 5 minutes) I got back to find that Louise was crying over something outside with Ellie (another N blocker).
I asked Jaz what it was about but he told me not to worry.
We went back to their block/kitchen (which was a state. There was even a notice on the door saying their kitchen was too dirty. Plates and bowls were everywhere, it was horrible).
Not sure how or why it happened, but Louise (very drunk) had some sort of arguement with Ellie as her bf might have been going to jail. Funny thing is Louise's short term memory was going due to her intoxication and she was unable to remember why they were arguing in the first place.

After much talk in which I was the only sober one there. Jaz ordered Louise and I a taxi as he and Ellie decided they'd stay in N block.
This kinda put me on the spot, as Louise really wanted to go out, but in the state she was in I'd have no choice but to look after her all night.
Damn...
It got to 11:45pm and our taxi was there. After Louise fell over walking out of N block, she met two other people (not sure if she knew them) that were also going to mint.
We decided to share a cab with them as it'd be cheaper.
Was £4, £1 each in the end. Cab driver said it was actually £5 but there were 4 of us and he couldn't be bothered to deal with change, what a nice man.
I had to hold Louise up till we got to the queue of mint, in which we met a French man who had a fluent conversation with Louise in French (she does French as a degree).
It was funny that she was able to speak French well and clear when wasted better than English haha.

However despite everything the night was actually quite good. Louise began drinking water as soon as she got there and sobered up quickly and I met some other people that I knew, as did Louise, so we didn't have to rely on each other.

I ended up walking home with Ben about 2:10am as I got pretty tired. After a randomer asking us if we had to touch someone's nipple whether it'd be left or right, I went to bed.

Thursday 19 February 2009

Day 37 - Scott

One lecture, got back, Mike late again, traffic, printed out the directions. Got there but two at a time. Stolen van, mcdonalds then stuck in rush hour. Went bar and got chlamydia test, then went in kitchen then to fav. Rage. Abi getting into fight. Walk back.


Although nobody even reads these anymore, for those that might do in the future (God knows why), this is a long one as my past few have been pretty short.
I only had one lecture today which was good. I'd have gone to the practical afterwards but wouldn't have been back in time to go and see Scott in hospital. This means I'd have to go to the 9am one the next morning :(
Straight after the lecture Ben and I went to the I.T. centre to print off directions on how to get to Hope hospital. As I had a feeling these may get lost, I printed off 4 extras so that there'd be one for each of us coming.

After doing some shopping I got home and waited till 2pm, the time we'd leave. I suggested to Ben that we leave earlier as the times we can visit are 3pm till 4pm, it takes 51 minutes to get there but with traffic etc it'd take a lot longer but Ben said that we were already leaving "10 minutes early" sticking to the idea that it'd take no longer than 51 minutes to get thrre.
Just as we were about to leave I knocked on Mike's door, no answer.
After phoning him it turned out he was walking down the street and would be there in about 15 minutes.
I began to think that we weren't going to make it again.
However, we managed to get in the car and be on our way by about 2:10pm.
This time Lewis didn't come as his brother is still with him so he couldn't leave him there.

After a long tense drive in which there was a huge stand still and a truck driver got out and walked up to another car angrily for some reason, we reached Hope hospital. We should have just printed out instructions last time as it's not even hard to get to.
We realised however that we knew Scott was in ward C2 but didn't know the actual room, although as soon as we walked in Ben saw his Dad.
I got a quick glimpse of Scott at first, he looked as though he was lying there motionless. The nurses then came in saying that only two people are allowed to be at a bed side at any time, so Ben and Mike stayed and Tim and I left with his parents.

They informed us on everything that has happened so far. Seems his long term memory is fine but short term might be gone or damaged as he shrugs when asked if he performed a certain task a few hours before. However he has something in his throat to stop him swallowing so can't speak atm which isn't a big help. He has attempted to walk about twice. He also has a wheelchair that he can go in but the doctors said he can only manage an hour (although his parents snuck him into the waiting room once and said he was in there for 2 and a half hours and was fine).
It also seems as though he had been going through phases. Back in Leeds hospital he went through a phase of sticking his middle finger up to everyone that came to visit him, even a priest.
He was also trying to send people really abusive text messages. For example Ben text him one time saying he was in the bar missing him and that he'd come to visit soon.
Scott was about to reply "Fuck u tosser" but his Mum took the phone from him before he could press send.
Whether he did this because of the brain damage, as a joke or is just annoyed though we're not sure.
In addition to this he has a tube going into his stomach for food as when the nurses put it in his nose he kpet on pulling it out to the point they had to bandage up his hands to prevent him from doing it. When asked by his parents if he promises not to if they take them off, he wrote "I can't promise anything". This was pretty amusing.
However the worse thing was that the van which had all his stuff in it was stolen when he was in Leeds hospital.
The keys had been left on the side and someone somehow got in and stole it.
Pretty weird seeing how they knew which van the keys belonged to, still though that's a mystery. Scott has no clothes now.
However this whole thing has affected everyone.
His parents said they're really tired all the time visiting him and knows he'll soon get fed up of only having them there. Also the fact that they have no idea how long it will take for him to get better means they can't plan ahead. If the hospital had given an exact date then at least you'd know after that it'd all be over.
Atm they have said that a recovery would take 3 years at max.

Ben and Mike got back and it was time for Tim and I to go and visit him.
He was in quite a strange state really.
As soon as Tim and I walked in he stuck his thumb up and shook our hands.
We were talking to him telling him everything that has happened and he was aware of what was going on as he looked at us as we were talking.
Also when we walked in he was looking at a TV guide and was trying to show us something, we weren't sure what it was though.
However as he didn't seem to react to most things we said it makes it seem as though he couldn't hear us (he could though, he smiled/laughed slightly when I told him about LP falling off a curb and fracturing her elbow).
I didn't see him when he was in intensive care, but according to everyone else he looks a lot better.
I said I only wanted to visit him once he had woken up as I don't think I'd be able to stand looking at him when he was still in a coma with everyone not sure whether he'd live or not.
For now he looks fine apart from the top of his head which is really swollen because of the surgery.
His parents said it was drained before but keeps on filling back up so it might be part of the brain that tells the body to drain the fluid that is damaged. If that's the case it means he'll have to have a tube put in his brain permanently to drain it which is ANOTHER thing to worry about which could lead to infection, not good.
On the upside though, he has improved quicker than expected and the doctors said it was actually better he was so drunk he was hit as had he been sober he probably would have tried to get up which most likely would have caused him to die :|

That's all I really remember for now, still though I really hope he recovers soon as it created a really big E block downer when it happened.
Had it not occured he'd be living with us next year, most likely with me, Tim and Lewis. He got on with Harry too which would mean that Lewis and Tim wouldn't have anything against him either saying that he is Scott's replacement. It'd also just generally be better if he were still here with us. I guess all we can really do now though is wait and hope.

Before we got back to Clarence Dock we decided to get a Mcdonalds. This was a silly idea as it was about 4:45pm when we left meaning we got caught in Rush hour BAD.
Also the windows kept steaming up so Ben had to keep on opening his side window to let air in which in turn blasted into my face.

Finally we got back and ended up in the Clarence Dock bar. There was talk about going to the Faversham that night as it was an Indie night. At first I didn't want to go as it's so far away and I had to be up at 7:30am the next morning. However I realised I could just sleep after the lectures were over so decided to go do it anyway.
There was also a woman doing Chlamydia tests at the bar. All you had to do was urinate in a tiny jar and you'd get free condoms, highlighters, pens etc. It was awesome!
So I decided to do it too.
I managed to convince all the other guys in the bar at the time to do it too as it'd be a bit of a laugh. Urinating in the jar thing though was so hard as it was small and WOULD get all over your hands. Feck knows how girls manage to do it.
We all compared urine colours too. Ben H's was the weirdest. I was more of a peach colour than yellow and wasn't transparent either, so we think that he has chlamydia.

Also the Dan's managed to blow a condom up by putting it over their nose. Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. Especially when it burst, there was still some in Dan's hair (which he tried to get out but we told him had gone) and right after he said "Imagine how stupid you'd look going out with a Johnny in your hair haha".
After winning two games of pool against Lewis and his brother (fluke), pre-drinking in the kitchen and a visit from the Subwarden for being too loud (he came at 10:55pm meaning we still had 5 minutes, his excuse was "What if I come at 11pm and you're still making noise"....=/) we left for Faversham.
The taxi's picked us up at 11:45pm and we got there about midnight.
Was still a pretty good night though.
Rage came on and Tim and I went crazy.
Also towards the end of the night Abi almost got into a fight with a guy who kept on getting pushed into us, though she thought he was pushing her so kept pushing him back. He squared up to her and I had to pull her back before anything happened apologising to him using the "Sorry, she's really drunk" excuse.

I walked back to Clarence Dock with Tim and Robyn as everyone else got taxis back. Tim suggested we sleep in the 24 hour clusters, though whilst it seemed like a good idea, I knew that the next morning having to be up at 7:30am, in a cluster, I'd regret it, so slept in my own bed.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Day 36 - Adventure in Dry Dock

A full day, it didn't drag as much as I thought it would which was nice.
In the morning I got a message from John asking what I was doing up so early. Turns out he is back now with his fianceƩ but went home Wednesday as he has been really ill recently. Still no sign of Charlotte though, I know she is back though as her window is closed. Bad huh?


I was convinced by everyone to go out to Dry Dock that night as it was £1 a pint.
It's not as if I was going to stay in and do work, I'd just watch Scrubs, so figured I might as well go.
On the way there however it seemed really strange, around 8pm, loads of groups of teenage boys walking around. It felt like I was in Romford or something, I could feel something in the air wasn't right. In the distance there was screaming and running about.
Turns out some old tramp looking man said that these 3 girls had stolen £100 from him. Not sure if they had, but they only looked about 15/16 and to be fair, the old man was ridiculously drunk.
People were trying to hold him back and calm him down, in his defense he wasn't getting too aggressive.
After the girls ran off, he began chasing them down an alley, we were all behind him and after a quick "C'mon, let's run too" and a warrior cry, we all sprinted after him and once again tried to calm him down.
I figured it'd be best we just let him go and carry on to Dry Dock but Ben H was there for ages grabbing onto his coat talking to him, he said later that he regret touching his coat as he might have caught some sort of disease.
Eventually the old man seemed to let it go (as well as change the story from £100 being stolen from him to £200) and we carried on towards Dry Dock.
Lewis' brother was with us too. I felt a bit silly that I didn't even catch on they were siblings, despite them being dressed almost the same and talking the same (hey, one has brown hair the other is bright ginger).

Anyway the night was pretty mellow really, depsite waiting for about 30 minutes to get served after which I got bored and decided not to buy anything.
Tim and I walked home together with Lewis and Kurt (his brother).
Hopefully tomorrow we'll actually see Scott without failing again!

Monday 16 February 2009

Day 35 - Mondaze

After recieving an e-mail stating that we would have a tutorial at 11am today, it meant that I'd have 6 hours with no break of lectures.
By chance my Maths lecture was cancelled as the lecturer was ill, still though, whilst in the tutorial, in which we were informed we will need to work in groups to make a poster titled "Geology of Pembrokeshire", we were told that we'd have a tutorial every week till the term ends.
6 hours is just too much to the point I'm wondering whether I should begin skipping the last two lectures or not as the registers don't seem to get taken anymore in them. Whilst waiting outside I was suprised that the person taking the tutorial knew my name, although I have him for vertebra evolution, there has never been a time when he would have actually spoken to me one on one let alone have heard and remembered my name.
Then I realised that he had a list with him that had everyone's name and photos on it. He even got a few people wrong asking if Andrew was Tom (they look nothiing alike).
I was hoping he wouldn't need to state the obvious in my case, but he did anyway in saying,
"Well I guess for you Wesley it's quite easy to tell who you are from the pictures".
*Awkward laughter*
Guess the only way he could have made the situation more awkward would have been to ask whether I was an African international student, luckily he didn't go that far.
To sum it up, the day dragged a lot. I couldn't stay focussed for most of the lecuters (hence the title, it's another pun if you hadn't noticed).

However people said they were going to elbow room at about 5ish. Ben H was too tired so went home. After getting really lost and retracing my steps I finally got to elbow room to find that nobody was in there!
Was well annoyed!

Anyway, although I had originally planned to go out this evening, at about 8pm I was just way too tired to do anything, so spent ANOTHER evening in watching scrubs and trying to beat Matt Darby's score on tetris so that I can once again be #1 in the score ranks.
Good times.

Sunday 15 February 2009

Day 34 - LesBarian

This is gonna be a short one.
It's Sunday and I didn't really have anything to do, in terms of workload. I guess I could "revise" but it seems a bit pointless at this early stage as it'll all be gone by the time exams come round.
Turns out last night Lauren broke her elbow too because she fell off a curb.
Yes, fell off a curb.
She wasn't even drunk either, only had 2 glasses of wine.
They called an ambulance and took her to A and E which was apparently full of people in blood stained shirts (Saturday night in Leeds = drunken violence: Bad times).
However Lauren, after waiting for a while asked if she could have some paracetomal for the pain, after which they moved her to the front of the queue and she got checked which was good (still though, part of me thinks that had this been a guy that had asked he wouldn't have even been given anything for the pain let alone be let infront of everyone else).
So now she has a sling around her arm, luckily it's left, but she can't move it :(

After a full day watching Scrubs I went to the bar to play some pool. Whilst watching a girl on 4th floor calld Emily play, I noticed she kept kissing the girl she was playing with. The first time it happened I just ignored it, thinking it was a friendly kiss. Second time it was on the lips and I began to wonder something.
For the rest of the game I stared at them and noticed they held hands on the way back to the tables.
I must have made it really obvious what I was thinking as Dan immediately whispered to me "Yes..they're lesbians".

Learn something new everyday.
As for me, I've learned nothing new today, well, apart from the fact that I really enjoy watching Scrubs.