Date: 22-02-05

Time: 6:00pm

Firstly, thanks to Tom for pointing out that the MP I wrote about in the last post was Ron Davies, not Ron Redwood. Near enough...

Secondly, I'm proud to announce, in association with edhenderson.com, that Rose (my cousin) and Jack (her baby) will be visiting us (i.e. me, Mam, Dad, and the girls) towards the end of March. I could find out the exact dates, but can't be bothered.

Also, thought I'd tell you about the police escort I had coming back from Treorchy this afternoon. Had been to pick up a Robin Reliant, and was about 5 minutes from the yard when I noticed a police car behind me. I looked, but couldn't see any flashing blue lights, so carried on. Pulled into the dedicated lane to turn off the road, the police car was still behind me. Went up the lane, the police car was still behind me, still with no blue lights. By this time I was wondering "what the hell?", but carried on anyway. Got back to the yard, was barely past the end of the truck when Sarah, a policewoman who bought a Bond Bug (a sporty version of the reliant) stepped out of the police car. She had seen me bringing it in, and she needed an engine for another Reliant she had, and so had got her mate to follow me all the way back to the yard...Strange...

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Date: 21/2/05

Time: 3:45pm

Well, since Craig is badgering me (not in the MP Ron Redwood (?) way) about updating the site, best get to it...

Had my meeting with Corrin this morning. What a great way to start the week...Looking at her in her low cut top and (very) tight-fitting trousers...Enough to make a guy go blind...

Anyway, the purpose of the meeting was I am now a Student Ambassador for SoC (School of Computing, for those that don't know), called in especially for the AS/A-Level conference on Wednesday. Five hours of work, including a free lunch and another hour's break...And getting paid for it!So we had a quick meeting in the board room, then out to have a wander around campus for us to get to know the route.

I also have the option of other open days work, which I will probably take them up on. Must remember to see Dave on Wednesday.

So I have to be in the G Block foyer around 8-50ish, where I'll get my nice yellow bib (for those from uni, they'll know the ones), then we're off to the car park to welcome the visitors and take them up to G Block, and stick them in a holding pen (no, really - Dave Lewis has booked two rooms which he called holding pens, so we can stick the students in there if the foyer is getting full), then back down to pick up more students.

Then I go and have a sit down in G219 while they have the talk from Peter Hodson, then they have their tour. We (the couriers) each take two groups around. Then, its back to B12, then I get an hours break...Then I pick them up again for lunch, which is where I'll grab my free lunch as well!

Then after grub I take them back to whichever room it is, and thats work done with...

Been busy this weekend, on the new Star Wars game - Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords. Great game. Bit annoyed it wouldn't work on my laptop, but it's on my desktop (forgotten how noisy that thing is!), which is actually being quite stable for a change (I've gone and jinxed it now!)

Anyway, I've got a lecture with Phil in a bit, about MCQs...lovely!

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Date: 14-2-05

Time: 9:15am

Well, I'm still not 100%. I've had a cold for the past few days, and its really taken it out of me. I came into Uni on Friday, only to hand in my milestone 2 and go back home. I see me doing something similar today - see how long I last...

I'm now officially in the employ of the Student's Union - I'm a part-time-part-time Student Courier. It's mainly for the AS/A Level Conference on the 23rd Feb in the School of Computing, but they are also going to let me know about other money-making opportunities... ;-)

Right, best get back to annoying Jess...

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Date: 7/2/05

Time: 10:15am

Well, just had my meeting with Phil, and for once, he was pleased with my progress. Ive coded the decoding sequence for text messages into VB6, and so now only have to put all the sections together for it to work. But then, this is uni work, and so anything could go wrong.

Okay, what else was I going to blog? Oh yeah, new reviews in the reviews section, CTA is now finished - episode 8 is now up, and brings to an end the story in a fitting way - with explosions and gunfire...How else could a 24-related story end?

Oh, and can Craig please remind me, when I visit you tomorrow, to get the Cardiff pics? They can then make an appearance on my site.

Sure there was something else, but I suppose it'll come to me...

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Time: 9:30am

11-9

That was the first thing I wanted to say...

Secondly was my account of events through the 21 text messages I received during that fine, fine day...

I apologise in advance for the swearing. And I apologise in retrospect for not replying to texts, but the cell network was jammed until 10pm

Well, I think I'll start at the City Arms. We (Me, James, Jon Drane and James' mate Tom) got into Cardiff at about 2:30ish, thanks to a lift from Rachel, Drane's sister - the train was so full they had trouble closing the doors - and we proceeded to the City Arms, the best place to go for matches.

We got there, and immeadiatley started to reconsider our decision - the place was packed to the rafters. Never the less, we braved the crowd and bought our drinks (two each, so we wouldn't have to queue again so soon), and went and stood outside the pub to sup our drinks and watch the supporters going past to the stadium (which wasn't open at this point, hence the crowd in the city arms, pre-game drinks :-D ).

About quarter to four, Rachel and Gavin turned up, after many phone calls, texts (and arm waving from Drane) to get them to the City Arms. By then, we had just about finished our two pints, and the crowd inside was starting to thin, so we made the decision to move inside (especially since it was starting to rain - only drizzle, but no-one likes a watered-down pint...). We bought our drinks, and had just about enough room to turn around to see the big screen for the game. Sardines in a can have more room. Seriously

It was at this point I texted Craig to ask if he was ready to be beaten by the Welsh. His reply was:

Um, im ready but sumthing tells me i'll b waiting 4 a very long time!

To which I replied "Yeah, about 80 minutes plus half-time". Again, his reply:

I was thing more in terms of years

If I hadn't known he was down the union, and was probably already drowning his sorrows, I would have thought it strange that he was thinking that far down the line...

So, kick-off at 5:30, and the atmosphere was electric. People say "the atmosphere was great" etc, but this was it. Every pass, every kick, was greeted by cheers (or boos if it was the English), and when we got to half time, every one was wondering if Wales might actually be onto something...

6pm seen the promise (from Becky) that she would be drinking with gusto that night, but she failed to answer my question on who gusto was...6:20 seen Tom texting me (from the stadium, the lucky git), saying "Grewcock is a fat saes c***" (saes = English in Welsh), to which I was inclined to agree.

Half past six, Chris, my cousin, texted me, asking if I thought they were going to hold the lead. Of course I did, and anyone in that pub who thought otherwise was an English supporter...

So, second-half started, and was interrupted by a text from Becky at 6:50, asking how my pulling was going...Not the time!

Now, when the English were one-point ahead of us, and the end drawing nigh, you could really have cut the tension with a knife. And then that penalty. I was deafened. Beer was slopped all over the place, and no-one minded. People were hugging strangers, and we mostly all missed the end. Then, Gavin Henson came on TV for the interviews at the end, and a roar went up from the crowd. I think most of them wanted him knighted, the way they were cheering!

Quarter past seven seen Chris texting me "F****ing fantastic!", which I was inclined to agree with, but the award for most odd text of the night goes to Craig, for not just his one entry, but two unsolicited entries of:

The only thing the whelsh can shag is sheep!

Now, I hate to nit-pick here (not really...), but not only has he gone and mis-spelt the nationality of the World-Champion beaters, but he's quite obviously missed off something else off the list - the English. :-D

So, we decided to try and get out of the pub so we could breathe, and then made our way to Chippy Alley. Cue shouts of "Kebab" from Drane, James, Tom, Huw and his mate (who had both joined us by then).

From Chippy Alley, onto Walkabout, where we met up with Gavin and Rachel (they decided not to go to Chippy Alley). We spent a little while in there, and then at not long after 9, we decided to move on. Gavin and Rachel decided not to join us at the next venue, and went home (the lightweights), while we went to Creation, knowing that it was free entry before 10:30.

So, off we toddled, and we firstly thought of going into bar@Creation, since it's normally a bit busier in there until the club gets going. Then Huw's mate said that the queue for the club was moving quite quickly, so we went to go in there. Now, James' mother had phoned up the day before, and had checked if it was okay for us to wear rugby shirts into the club on Saturday. They had said fine, as long as we wore smart trousers and shoes. So, to be on the safe side, we all wore a smart top under our rugby shirts, incase we weren't let in. Can you guess what happened?

Yup, they didn't let us in. So, we took off our tops, and would have gladly placed them in the cloakroom. But still no entry. James tried talking with the door manager, but to no avail. So, we decided to move back to bar@Creation instead, and we whiled away the night there, until 2am when our bus picked us up.

So, thats the Cardiff story, I think theres one or two other things to blog, but since I have a meeting with Phil soon, I'd better sign off for now. This blog post has taken me ages to write!

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