Sunday 30 November 2008

Day 72 - Bad November

So in the end I stayed up till 6am watching Heroes and the only reason I stopped is because the episode I was watching stopped half way through and wouldn't load anymore meaning I had to read the recap and a review on youtube to understand what I missed. Not as good as the real thing, but I got the general idea of what happened in the last 20 minutes I missed. Anyway, due to my late night, or early morning, I was up at about 3:30pm.
I wasn't sure yet as to whether I was going to go to the jazz gig at the Old bar tonight, I wasn't really in the mood for anything.
I spent the day watching more heroes and washing my clothes till it got to about 7pm, everyone else was going to Carnage and I didn't have anything else to do, so decided to go to the gig. I got there and people were playing already, Luke called out to me (called me Winston) so I sat with him for a while.
The band that played first is a band that formed from the jazz society, their name being "Size matters not", they are really really good. Which in a way was how my bad night started. I had brought my sax along with me as I wanted to go up and play.
Eventually people said they would just do a general blues jam, so I decided to go up this time as I reckon I am alright at improvising. However for some reason most of the "good" people that were up before decided to sit this one out leaving only me, a bass player, a keyboard player and a drummer with huge eyes and a small head up on stage.
Needless to say, the performance was shit.
I didn't even know what key we were in and the whole thing basically sounded like a warm up. It was only about 3 minutes long or something, the drummer just did a fill and ended it quick as he as well as everyone else could tell how bad it was going.
Weird thing was, we got a huge cheer for it :S
Even a guy in the front shouted "YEEEAH"! Got up and started clapping.
If I didn't know any better I'd say he was taking the piss, a lot.

That kinda put me off wanting to go up and play again, as all these people were REALLY good, there were already 4 other sax players as well so I didn't really need to be there for the playing side. Not to mention I don't actually know anyone else really in the society and since it's now week 9, socialising with all new people is harder as people have already formed friendship groups.

Jessi, the leader of the society asked someone in the band (size matters not) if they had a song I could go and play with them. I told her and him I didn't want to really and would rather watch but they refused and said I had to (kinda like when you're at a disco sitting down and girls keep trying to drag you to your feet getting you to dance but you just can't be bothered and the more you decline the more it makes you look like a boring person).
In the end after looking through their book I found only one song I knew, Pedido.
However, turns out they didn't have the Eb part to it, and considering JV never did a good job at teaching me much about music, I wouldn't be able to transpose.
I said it doesn't matter and forced a conversation with someone else from the society I knew a tiny bit (mainly because he is the only other black guy there) as to draw the attention away from me looking as though I was sitting there doing nothing so wanting to play.
In the end after about 20 minutes they decided to take a break, it was about 9:50pm at this point, didn't wanna walk home late nor get a taxi and I wasn't enjoying myself at all. I casually walked out which was very unsociable of me but I couldn't be bothered to explain the reasons as to why I was leaving so early as the old "I got an essay due in for tomorrow" trick might not work.

As I walked home I saw some people from carnage in their T-shirts all staggering around Leeds. Wonder how many people will get lost along the way.

Got home and began to watch more Heroes when I heard a knock on my window. I thought it was someone playing a trick on me at first, either knocking on my window and running away or knocking on the window, hiding beneath it then jumping out at me.
So I didn't look out, but I still heard voices. Eventually I took a peep and noticed it was Ben M and Tim and they just wanted to know if I wanted a kick about.
Why not ?


So in the freezing cold we were kicking the ball about against the Tiltyard, for about 30 minutes. Then we saw community support officers approaching us on bikes.
Looks like our fun for the night was over.
Well, we thought that anyway.

"On me 'ead"!
Shouted one of them.

At first I thought he was just a friendly officer who didn't want us to kick it but was being reasonable, but Ben M didn't kick it towards him as he thought that he was going to take it.
The officer then stated how he wasn't going to and just wanted Ben to kick it to him (not sure why he said on me head, as he was wearing a helmet).

So, Ben kicked it to him and the man was pretty good actually. They just told us to make sure not to break anything but it was fine to play there. Tim said that he wished there was a field to play in, and according to them, there was.
They told us where to go and left.
They were nice officers.
Infact, think they were the same ones I saw earlier on the walk to the Old bar, who rode pass me but were making weird sounds and hanging off their bikes as if they were kids.

With these directions given to us, we decided to head down to the field, we were told a skatepark was there as well, which excited me.

The walk took about 15 minutes, we even got into a housing estate area, which since being in Leeds none of us have seen before. Passed a shop which had really good fast food deals and a pub. It was weird that this area was just over the bridge but the chances are 98% of the people from Clarence Dock would never have been here as it's te opposite direction from Uni and looks as though nothing but factories would be there.

Eventually, we found the field, but not the skatepark. Was a really good field though. Also it was a nice clear night and we began looking at the stars. Tim somehow knew the names of every single one. He never ceases to amaze me, he seems to know EVERYTHING. Yet if you met him would never gather that.

On the way back we got some food from the shop was passed as the offer was too good, £2 for 2 pieces of chicken and chips for example.
Only problem was it was about -2 outside and we had to walk home in this.
Made it worse that my hands were covered in ketchup.
By the time we got back to Clarence Dock my hands were so numb I was actually unable to take my card and keys out of my pocket to open the door, Ben had to do it for us.
I got into his kitchen and wrapped my hands up warm as they were throbbing like mad.

Whilst we ate we were talking about how things have changed since we first got to Uni and stuff that has happened on nights out. Turns out Tim can't seem to remember any of them as he always gets really drunk. During November however people haven't done much due to work load catching up on them. However amongst all of this, the past few days have been a huge downer for everyone.
It's weird how one small moment can change everything so dramatically.
The news now is that Scott has had an operation on his brain and things seem to be going Ok for the time being, but the next 72 hours are really crucial.
Personally I am quite worried for him. The last person I knew that had all the same injuries as Scott after an accident ended up dying :|
Really hope he recovers or it could ruin the first year for all of us or at the very least cause some sort of tension or break in the group.
As Tim described it, it has been a Bad November.

We left Ben's kitchen as he had work t do and we all had to get to bed (well, I say that, Tim went to play football manager and I left to watch Heroes).

Am finally up to episode 10, which means I am up to date. No longer have to worry about accidentally reading spoilers. Just hope this is all worth risking being tired tomorrow when I gotta get up for a 9am lecture.
Urgh.

Piece out, or Peace out.
Which ever you prefer.

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