Bekky Abroad

So, I moved to Malaysia for a little while. I got here on Thursday, after a mad rush of errands and commitments for about a week beforehand - I'd used up my last days of holiday from work to give myself time to wrap up all the loose ends, but as you can imagine there just weren't enough hours in the day! I was lucky enough to have an impulsive friend called Chris come to help me, and he made the trip home from my brother's university much less terrifying. I'm not a massive pansy when it comes to driving or anything (I can get all seven metres of a Mercedes Sprinter through the eye of a needle. Backwards.), but the topbox wasn't quite as attached as I would have liked (are you supposed to be able to get a topbox on a three-door Fiesta?), and was getting a severe buffeting from the torrential rain pounding down on the M40. It stayed on though, so all is well!


Enough of England though, I'm in MALAYSIA! I spent nearly an hour trying to get through immigration at the airport, which is famously one of the slowest places in the world. From personal observation I can also conclude that you will see the most hideous array of ugly and inappropriate shoes standing in the queue there...I was going to take a photo, but there was a man with a gun nearby so I thought better of it. You could tell who the Brits were because they were generally wearing a sensible pair of Clarks sandals (with the obligatory socks if they were male). The Chinese women (everyone clutches their passports, so you can have a cheeky shufty at nationality) appeared to have chosen the highest, most uncomfortable, worst-fitting shoes in the shop, and did not pick their feet up to walk. Presumably this is because if they did, their shoes would fall off. And here is a picture of the most common shoe (the term being used loosely, of course) present at KUL: I think I have quite strong opinions when it comes to footwear, but I hope that the majority of readers will understand. The majority of readers being, almost certainly, solely my friend Laurah.

Our building, in the middle

Mum came to meet me at the airport (with tears in her eyes, as predicted), and we went straight back to the apartment for a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Mum and Dad's place is truly amazing, it's on the 31st floor in the middle of the city - you can just about see the Petronas Towers from the balcony. Dad's been working from home quite a lot, so there's a space at the end of the corridor that we call 'Mission Control' where he has his desk. It's usually strewn with phones, laptops and cables and looks very high tech indeed - although saying that, there's more computing power in a netbook than NASA used to send Neil Armstrong et al to the Moon. What a feat indeed!


That night we went out for a Tiger beer at the local Irish Pub, Malone's. It's a great place and we love it, but they do get some things a bit wrong - for example, all the posters have 'Top of the day to you' written on them (rather than 'Top of the morning'), and all the locals pronounce it 'Ma-lon-ez' which is why it took me a while to realise that the two are really the same place. It reminds me of Manchester United's golden days (Solskjaer/ Giggs/ the Nevilles/Schmeichael/ Butt etc) when mum was surprised that 'Dwight and Yorke are playing together again'...how we laughed....


Yesterday was a bit of a dozy day because I'd been wide awake all night with jetlag, and we had a little jaunt out in the car (the car! In Malaysia!) to get some official documents relating to said car and to see if it would be cost effective to put me on the insurance too. The guy was very nice and said he could do it for MYR10 (~£2), so we handed over my official documents, the guy disappeared with them for a little too long, and I was suddenly insured. That's how they do it here, and it's GOOD. We went straight from there to some sort of bird sanctuary for lunch, and played the geography game that Paul, Tommy and I used to play in the kitchen in third year. One person starts by thinking of a link between a few countries (e.g. French speaking nations), and gives an example, e.g. Ivory Coast. The next person, who doesn't know what the connection is, has to guess a country and will be told by the originator if they are right or wrong. Then the next person has to guess, and so on until every player has guessed once. The originator then gives another example of a 'correct' country to keep the players on track, and you keep going till your pasta has cooked or someone has guessed the connection. It's actually quite a good game, and is potentially endless because of the massive number of possible connections.

Mum stirring some imaginary rice

That brings us, in a roundabout way, to today. I went down to the pool for a swim this morning, and while I was lounging around afterwards I caught a glimpse (well, some may say more than a glimpse, he was wearing Speedos) of a man with the lowest ripped-to-old ratio I have EVER seen (very ripped:very old) - he could easily have been classed as 'ancient', but was literally MADE of muscle - shoulders, abs, legs - the whole shebang. It was an odd combination, I'll tell you that! I'll try and take a sneaky photo if I see him again. What a sight to behold!. Dad isn't feeling very well today so in the afternoon Mum and I went for a walk, peeped at the British Council, sat and watched some dancers having a break from rehearsal on a stage (very dull, they didn't really do anything), and tried to get a cup of tea at someone's wedding. To be fair to us, it was NOT clear it was a wedding, and we realised before anyone threw confetti or projectiles.


 On that note, I shall leave you to your day - jumpa lagi!

The Petronas Towers, and some tourist

TODAY

I'm at home home at the moment, and I left my phone, which I use as an alarm clock, in Nottingham by accident. In fact, I have two interesting things to tell you about the alarm capabilities of that phone:

1) I charged it once at the end of last Summer, and it still appears to have full battery. Magic!
2) The alarm is a woman's voice saying, 'It's time to wake up. The time is *insert time here*. Unusually, the woman sounds EXACTLY like me, so the first few times I had a little bit of a fright because I thought I'd woken up in the middle of sleep talking. Now I'm used to it though, it's quite nice.

But you want to know all about THIS morning, right? Of course you do. So the alarm went off on my new phone, but I'm still getting to grips with the whole alarm business, and have a dreadful habit of just knocking it onto the floor when I try and pick it up. This generally makes it stop beeping though, so we all win in the end.

So, after coming round with the help of Scruffy - actually I'll pause here to tell you a story about something that happened yesterday...

I wasn't feeling so hot, so I was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the TV, and had a little bit of a snooze as well. I say 'snooze', but really I was out for the count. Grae texted me in the middle of it and my phone was right by my head on super-loud & vibrate etc, but I slept right through it! So anyway, I was feeling generally groggy afterwards and thought I'd never sleep that night so I decided to do some sit ups and stuff on the sitting room floor to trick my body into thinking it was awake enough to fall asleep later. That was fine, as Ross would say. As I started doing pressups however, mum, dad and the dog came in, and Scruffy took it upon himself to lie right next to me and start licking my left hand while I was being a fitness freak! I tried to carry on but it was just too funny, he was really going to town. I had to stop but he still carried on for a good five minutes or so, and then started trying to clean my wrists too, at which point I stopped him and went for a good wash. What a sweetheart!



But back to today. So far we've ascertained that I arose due to a combination of Dog and phone. After that I diligently switched on two computers, so I could transfer my lab report from a silly, silly programme into Word, which is the best thing since banana milkshakes now they've introduced the equation-writing thing. I was worried that I'd sort out the programmes and then just binge on the internet for a while, but I DIDN'T! Instead I wrote 1157 words on my lab report, had a fairly indulgent breakfast because we don't have any normal milk left, and drank a BIG cup of tea out of the new Donny & Marie Osmond cup that mum & dad brought back from Las Vegas, baby. It honestly makes everything taste miles better than it already does!

After that thoroughly epic amount of work I ventured downstairs to the sitting room to see if Pineapple Dance Studios had recorded. Now you must understand that I started watching this programme after Raghav and Sam had told me about how amazing it was, and I just couldn't put it off any longer. As it turns out, it's just amazing, and mum loves it too! The first time I watched it (last week) I texted Sam, and the following conversation ensued (I'm sure he won't mind me regaling it):

Bekky: "I'm spending the afternoon watching Pineapple Dance Studios, in honour of you!"
Sam: Thank you, I do feel honoured! Funny, I was thinking about Louie Spence in his cat costume just now" (You know, I've only just realised how vowel-heavy the name Louie is. I wonder if it's weird for him)
Bekky: "Haha, I do love your camp tendencies!"
Sam: "Lol he does actually have one though, he played Mr. Mistopholes in Cats!"
Peter: "I have pubes on my head"

Okay, well that last bit where Peter chimes in didn't actually occur during that text conversation, but he did say it, on the Indigo on a Tuesday night in March to be fair. I really don't know HOW Sam knows about Louie Spence's dance career, but I'm not going to lie: I don't know if I could handle the truth if he told me. Neither could Cheryl or Lily. Actually no, they probably could. They are Fiesty Women.

As it happens, PDS (I can call it that now because I've watched at least four episodes, so we're very well acquainted with one another) hadn't recorded because it hadn't been on. Naff!

Instead, I took the dog to the woods for a nice run. He went mental as usual, and even got lost for a little while, which is fairly standard in such an exciting place. I think the fact that I went off-piste route-wise may have thrown him a little bit. Instead of turning off at the second yellow arrow (you know, after the curve and the slope and the big tree root and the corner that you can take racing lanes on? Yeah? No? Probably not). I took the first one just for fun. We went across some lovely fields and I daydreamed about how lovely it would be to have a picnic there with a patchwork quilt and a lovely young man...group sigh please...

After the rolling fields we turned back and returned to our old routine because Scruffs was thirsty, and when I say thirsty I mean SERIOUSLY THIRSTY. To be honest I should have just said SERIOUSLY THIRSTY to start with, thereby saving this sentence. We headed on down to the river and he has a paddle and a drink at the first opportunity. When we got to our usual bit I started looking for some nice sticks to throw, but came across a semi-decomposed wooden child's shoe! At the time I just took a photo (I'll add it later), but in hindsight I should have brought it home with me for further inspection.

Bekky: "Oh look Scruffy, a semi-decomposed wooden child's shoe!"
Scruffy: "What? A Shoe for a wooden child?"
Bekky: "No, don't be silly. You know exactly what I mean. I'll just hide it in these reeds so I can inspect it again tomorrow"
Scruffy: "Please stop chatting about shoes and throw a stick in the river for me"

So I did.

Some time passed, the dog and I got tired, and we went home. I dossed around a little bit and then went into the village because I had to go to the chemist for a pregnancy test. Not really. There was a woman in there actually asking for one, though. She looked like a nice sensible woman so I expect it was a planned affair. Although, I was a bit confused about the situation because the Chemist Woman helped her choose one, and she took it half way to the till (which, to be fair, isn't very far) then changed her mind and went back to find a different one. This makes me think that maybe it was a bit of an emergency, and she therefore hadn't read up on which one she wanted. And perhaps hadn't bought one before, which was why she didn't know. She looked quite mature to be experiencing pregnancy tests for the first time though...oh, I don't know!

No matter, I got what I needed which was super-crazy iron tablets because I am teetering on the edge of death by lack of iron. Perhaps that's a little melodramatic. Revision: I have low iron. Sadly it says that the tablets have to be taken twice a day with a glass of water. Only water. It specifically says,

"NO tea. NO milk"
"Not even a little bit of tea?"
"No. NO TEA"

Damn.

A little while later, mum got home and we played dominoes at the kitchen table, like civilised people. Last time we did that, Charlie happened to drop by unexpectedly mid-game and it looked like we spent all our time engaged in wholesome family activities and sipping wine. We let him believe that, obviously. As usual, mum beat me hands down (although her dominoes weren't incorporated into elaborate towers when not in use, so I think we all know who the real winner is here...). And that pretty much brings us to now! Hopefully something properly exciting will happen in the next few days so I'll have more interesting things to write about!


Until then, my friends, adieu!

Master's Book 9th June - 29th September

Tuesday 9th June


What Happened: Dougal learning (inc. some dodges), back 6 up (it can be assumed that the front 4 went up at some point, as they were being rung when I arrived. Maybe, because the boys are so big & strong, they just went upstairs upstairs and pulled them up, rather than ringing them up. Grandsire Triples, Plain Hunt on 8, an attempt at Plain & Little Bob Minor, but it didn’t really work so we’ll try again later, if we’re feeling emotionally strong enough. Plain Bob Royal (for Alex). AJ & Peter arrive suitably late, but this means we can do Grandsire Triples(a touch thereof) later on, so I’m not complaining! Jonathan threatened to throw me, the book, my phone, or any combination of the three out of the window if I wrote about how he went wrong in Plain Hunt. As you can tell, I don’t find him the least bit threatening! Plain Hunt on 6 (for Dan), Grandsire Triples (plain course; AJ was supposed to call a touch but he didn’t), TWENTY MINUTES of Rounds and Calls – we began to wish we weren’t ringing on the back 8. Good on Rich for calling it etc, but MY GOD we were exhausted! Grandsire Triples (T)...sort of. Cambridge, Yorkshire & Lincolnshire Spliced, LB Minor (T), trebles down, back 8 down.

Sunday 14th June
No Sunday Service ringing – we were having a fab time in Newcastle!

Tuesday 16th June


What Happened: Dougal ringing up a few bells. We (me, Ed, Chris J & Dougal) had a wonderful day out in Derbyshire today – we stopped off at Ed’s house on the way there and sang some Beatles songs in his living room, and met his Grandma again. I love her! We also had some Bakewell Pudding in Bakewell, which we cut up with Dougal’s room key because we didn’t have a knife. Dougal’s dodging exercise(this is turning into an account of his life, isn’t it?). 5 & 6 up, Reverse Canterbury Pleasure Place Doubles (we got there in the end!), back 4 up, All Saints Doubles – tonight may be the night of bizarre & obscure methods. PB Minor (T) (called by C [Liz shouted ‘look to’ really loudly] hris T), Rounds & Calls on 8 (Bekky [that’s me, but Katy just told me what to write so now I sound like I’m talking {well, writing} in the third person] (parenthesis {overload}) rang the 8th, displaying her strength and skill as a bell ringer. Yes, that’s right), Cambridge S Minor for Gavin, Kent TB Minor (2nd time lucky), Grandsire Triples (T) called by AJ. Cath wandered into a rope. Touch continued unaffected. Trebles down, back 8 down. To Las Iguanas for the end-of-year meal!


Sunday 20th September – First Sunday ringing of term!


Rung: Lots of stuff has been happening in the tower over Summer – we now have an 11th bell (I thought Paul Mason was joking when he told me!) for learners and some new carpet samples for under the ropes. Front 6 up, PB Minor (T) (sort of – Ed threw a single into the mix just to scare me), Grandsire Doubles, Little Bob Minor, Rounds & Calls (courtesy of Sam), front 6 down. To Edin’s for cake!

Sunday 27th September


Rung: Front 6 up (in pairs), a bit of bitching about the Trent Barton bus service (which is usually very good), Grandsire Doubles (T), Cambridge (with a bit of a false start), sterling effort in Ed’s part. Teresa arrived, highlight of my life! Rounds & Calls for Dougal, expertly called by Gavin, Plain Bob Minor (T), front 6 down. Teresa is very impressed by how much we’ve all progressed, and loves all the new additions to the tower.

Monday 28th September
Present: B. Kennedy, P. Holtum
What Happened: Ed left Paul & Tommy’s letters (posted to Derby Rd) on top of the Master’s Cabinet, so we came to retrieve them after the High Soc Quiz at the Heart & Hand. They weren’t the letters we needed though, so we left disappointed and a little bit tipsy.

Tuesday 29th September – First Practice of the new academic year!


What Happened: An unprecedented number of freshers came! (10 to be precise). MJJ is most definitely in love with M. David Potter esq. It has become a well known fact because he never stops talking about him...poor Emma! Jonathan took 2 groups of freshers up to see the bells. Shrieks & squeals could be heard, suggesting that it was a very...comprehensive tour. Introductions, Plain Hunt on 10. Madness of trying to teach 7 learners ensues! Cambridge S Minor, 3 learners leave to go to Water Polo – remaining group is much quieter, they were obviously the troublemakers. Bristol S Major. Window is opened to let out the freshers’ flu and body heat of a group comparable in size to the population of China. More learning – hand stroke this time. Jonathan barely even scared anyone! PB Minor (T), Plain Hunt on 6, front 2 down (I beat Emma, although I did start significantly sooner), back 8 down.

Master's Book 26th April 2009 - Tuesday 12th May 2009

Sunday 26th April 2009 (I’ve got a sore thumb so I’m trying to write left-handed)


Rung: Front 6 up (various formations) (my thumb’s better after ringing up 2 bells), back 4 up, Grandsire Triples, P.B. Triples (T), debate on whether the front 2 should be rung, as we haven’t used them yet. Matthew and Jonathan therefore decide to ring Cambridge frontwork on them, the ring down and catch in Queens. It’s very funny and makes me realise what absolute GEEKS we are. I love it though! Cambridge S Minor (T), full pull & stand at backstroke.

Tuesday 28th April 2009 (Bekky ill, Liz in charge)


Rung: Back 8 pulled off backstroke, treble & 2 rung up, PB Minor (T) (back 6), Grandsire Minor (T) (front 6), rounds, firing, rounds, changes to 5,4,3,2,1,6, firing, backwards rounds, stand in backwards rounds (front 6), rounds & calls facing outwards (not looking at each other) (front 6 of back 8), front 4 down, rounds, back 6 down. PUB!

Present: E. Nicholson, R. Kennedy ← Ooops! (All the phlegm went to my head. Jonathan, when you’re reading this while doing the stats next year please remember that I’m NOT a retard!)
Sunday 3rd May
Present: E. Nicholson, R. Kennedy, C. Jones, D. Dalleywater, P. Mason, G. McLeod, A. Jackson

Rung: 10am: Just me & Ed. Knocking at door, Ed goes to investigate. Finds Chris & Dougal struggling to open the door. Back 4 of front 6 up, trebles up, Rounds & Calls, Grandsire Doubles, front 6 down.

Tuesday 5th May


Rung: Dougal learning, front 6 up, Emma learning (inc. rounds on 4), John Ware starts the evening by complaining to me again. I shout at a medium volume. From now on, if he can’t say anything nice, he shouldn’t say anything at all. Jonathan shouts because no-one is listening to him (attention seeking??). Liz suggests that the book should no longer list ‘present’ and rung’, rather ‘present’ and ‘what happened’ due to the meticulous nature of the log-keeping. Back 4 up. Jonathan worried that his ‘outburst’ was written about in the book. I made him feel better by telling him that he’s come off worse elsewhere in the book anyway. Grandsire Triples (T): got 2 blows in, messed up (technical term), started again. Altogether more successful. Chris J managed the code lock first time today; apparently the knack is to ‘push the buttons in really hard’. I wish he’d push my buttons... Rounds & Calls on 10,Cambridge S Major (T). Also, I must mention here that the most artistic NUSCRites (Ed, Dougal, AJ & Gavin) came round to my house of luuurve (soon to be Ed’s house of luuurve when he moves in with his friends next year) to decorate wooden frames for recording peals & quarters. They look lovely (even AJ’s!), and are a welcome addition to the tower. Do I sound like Teresa yet? Rounds & Calls on 5 for Emma. I love Sam! Discussion over which of the Standard 8 should be rung in *insert number of methods* spliced...discussion continues...four spliced. Plain Bob Minor (success, yippee!), trebles down, back 8 down. To the Rich Hartwell Pool Tournament!

Sunday 10th May


Rung (not ‘What Happened’ because it’s Sunday and we’re too tired to do anything worth writing about): Front 6 up, PB Doubles, LB Minor (on 2nd attempt. Sort of)(even better on 3rd attempt), Grandsire Doubles (I even managed to stand at the end! Nil points for NUSCR!) Note: we were robbed at the Crawford Cup yesterday. St. Mary’s beat us by 2 points ‘on aggregate’, but Bob didn’t stand his bell at the end and WASN’T penalised. SHOCKING), Rounds & Calls on 6 (Liz calling), front 6 down. To Trent Bridge!

Tuesday 12th May


What Happened: The lads did something to a bell (I arrived to find Sam sitting alone & bemused in the ringing chamber). Dougal learning. Back 4 up – Jonathan was very excited to be ringing the tenor. Front 6 up (supposedly in peal. It didn’t quite go as planned, but we all got there in the end. Jonathan & Matthew (good God I wish they didn’t have such long names!)rang the 6th up together. They like sharing strokes, Gavin said). Rounds & Calls on 8 for Dougal (I rang the 7th and it was VERY heavy, but I managed womanfully. I don’t know how people ring peals on the tenor at St Mary’s. They must be BEASTS (in a good way)), Grandsire Triples (probably; we can’t remember doing anything else). Rounds on the minor 5 for Emma. PB Minor, PB Major. Chris T came over with a cheeky grin on his face and a bit of fluff on his T-shirt and asked for Bristol. We’ll see. That may have sounded sinister in your head, reading this, but it really wasn’t. While I’m on the subject though, he owes the treasury the £10 that Ed found on the floor & Chris kept. Now it’s in writing, IT’S OFFICIAL! A vague attempt at Italian-style ringing. It failed miserably, but at least we tried! We’ll have another go next week if we remember. Rounds on 5 for Emma. Chris Jones got the job he wanted! Yippee! We’re all incredibly happy for him and his little cricket socks (he has 2 pairs, I’ve seen them). Rounds & Calls on 10 for little ol’ Dougal. Back to the socks (Chris J’s to be precise), he’s wearing his Homer Simpson ones today which I had the pleasure of sniffing on Sunday after the cricket when we went to his flat for tea. They smelled lovely then... I’m not so sure now they’re on his feet. At Trent Bridge, he demonstrated his talents for housewifery by producing, amongst other things: POTATO SALAD (!!!), coleslaw, couscous, a plastic plate, a coolbag, multiple types of cutlery, and an impressive knowledge of the rules of cricket. This is one of the many reasons why we love Chris Jones. Stedman Triples (T), Back 8 down, front 2 down. To the pub!

Master's Book 8th March 2009 - 21st April 2009

Hello fair readers (and not-so-fair readers because, let's face it, I'm mostly referring to bell ringers)!

Welcome to the first installment of the Master's Book from my term in office (read: in chair near cabinet)... as most of you know I've been keeping a very detailed record of
all the goings-on up the tower, and am fairly excited to finally let you read them... I hope they make you chuckle at Dougal's stupidity at the very least!

Here we go...

Sunday 8^th March 2009

Rung: (bells already up at backstroke) P.B. Doubles, Plain Hunt on 7, Cambridge Minor, Rounds & Calls on 10, trebles down, back 8 down. To Snack Attack!

Tuesday 10^th March 2009

Rung: Ringing up & down in peal for Liz, Emma D learning (pigeon snuffs it), front 6 up, back 4 up, Jonathan still not here, assumed dead. Back 4 down (v. strange noise, brave men investigate), Grandsire Doubles, Cambridge S Major, Emma learning (rounds on three), Little Bob Major, Yorkshire S Major, Jonathan arrives, alive, Grandsire Caters (T), front 2 down, back 8 down. Sorted!

Sunday 15^th March 2009 (It’s sunny!)

Rung: Front 6 up, Little Bob Minor, Grandsire Doubles (T), Plain Bob Minor (T), Plain Hunt on 5 (after Jonathan taught Bekky how to count), front 6 down. To the park, to play in the sun!

Tuesday 17^th March 2009

Present: E. Nicholson, W “Dougal” Dalleywater, R. Kennedy, J. Ratcliffe, E. Wheeler, J. Ware, D. Shearer, H. Mather, P. Mason, R. Dooley, C. Teasdale, G. McLeod, M.J. Jones, C. Jones (who has a beautiful singing voice), A. Jackson (who doesn’t), S. Clive, E. Chapman

Rung: Dougal learning, 2 & 3 down, front 6 up, Rounds & Calls on 5 (expertly called by Bekky, thanks to the rest of the tower who all helped her untangle backwards rounds), Grandsire Doubles, Cambridge S Major, Plain Bob Minor (involving lots of counting and SHOUTING), Rounds, during which John realised he was too tall. Everyone stopped while he tied a knot in his rope. Rounds again (with John facing outwards). This segues neatly into...Grandsire Doubles (T), Rounds & Calls on 6 (with Liz calling them ‘arse about face’), Yorkshire S Major, Plain Bob Minor (T), Little Bob Major, Plain Bob Major (epically long touch), Bristol S Major, front 2 down, back 8 down.

Sunday 22^nd March 2009(Mothering Sunday)

Rung: Back 3 up, other back 3 up, 3 & 4 up (AJ & Peter racing: they drew), Plain Bob Major (T), Grandsire Triples, back 8 down. [I didn’t write it in the book at the time, but the reason for our lack of ringing was that the boys all went upstairs to fiddle with the bells, leaving me & Matthew’s mum to make conversation and listen to his dad’s phone ring. We know how to live!]

Sunday 19^th April 2009(First Sunday back, yippee!)

Rung: Back 8 up, front 2 up, plain hunt on 9, Cambridge S Minor (Gavin managed to get out of it because Karen can ring inside. He’s now sitting down looking smug). (I can feel heart palpitations. If I drop dead in a minute and you read this, you’ll know why!) Grandsire Triples, Rounds & Calls on 10, front 2 down (Gavin was very good at this), back 8 down. A marvellous time was had by all!

P.S. Tom was attacked by a wayward sally after ringing down

Tuesday 21^st April 2009

Rung: Dougal learning, Emma learning. It’s a lovely sunny day today and someone (Mr. Ratcliffe) has been sitting in the garden, reading. He has a very pink face to prove it. Also, Matthew (wearing a wooly jumper) thinks that someone has added more steps to the tower. The general consensus is that he’s just eaten too many Easter eggs. Liz ringing down, back 4 up, front 6 up (with Gavin leading), front 6 down a little bit, then back up again, Grandsire Triples, Reverse Canterbury PP Doubles, Gavin spanks fantasy woman, Emma learning (rounds on four), Rounds & Calls on 6 for Dougal, Cambridge S Minor. Some announcements: Liz gave me my belated present from the Dinner (yippee!), and I cajoled some people into ringing in Market Square at 8:15am on Thursday for St. George’s Day. Stedman Triples (some of a touch – fired out), Stedman Triples (T), Grandsire Triples (T), front 2 down, back 8 down (led by Cath – I had to take her phone call from Chris T).

P.S. Jonathan wore heart-shaped sunglasses

Note: I'm only leaving attendance lists in if deemed funny; there aren't any full names or anything, but if you want taking off please let me know...

Bekky & Paul's Adventures in Leicester

After more than three months at university, when the rest of the city had gone home for Christmas, Paul and I packed up our stuff and crammed it into the back of my little Fiesta. Now I don’t want you thinking that I don’t love my car, because I do, but sometimes (well, nearly all the time) there’s something wrong with it. Recently the battery’s been really naff and losing charge because it’s been sitting on the drive for a while being chilly. Luckily one of the NUSCR freshers, Ed, has been an absolute leg-end and got his dad to bring him his battery charger to uni so I could borrow it. Actually, the day I charged the car was quite good fun and made Tommy & I feel just like locals (which I suppose we are). We worked out which way round the things went and hooked it all up, but because people were waiting at the bus stop and being generally creepy we thought it would be better to close the bonnet. Without wanting to sound mean, our drive attracts more idiots than an idiot convention in Idiotville, when the idiot circus is visiting. They watch us come out of the house and get into a the car, which they’re standing in front of. They watch us put our seatbelts on. They watch us start the engine. They watch us gesture wildly that we’re about to drive towards them and run them over. Still they stand there. Numpties, the lot of them! Anyway, I was talking about the bonnet. Those of you who have charged a car battery whilst it’s still in the car will know that the croc clips come up vertically, so closing the bonnet would knock them off. You therefore need something shoe-sized to prop it up a little bit, but obviously a shoe would get pretty dirty under there, so using our own shoes was not an option. This is where our local knowledge came in; anyone who walks past the P&J on their way to university will probably know that there’s a pair of trainer-y things that are always lined up in front of the bench in the P&J’s front garden. They’ve been there for weeks and weeks and are now wet through and disgusting – perfect for propping open a bonnet! The T-dawg and I sauntered casually down the road and over to the bench to inspect the shoes. Yes, they were just as rank up close as from a distance. Tommy almost picked one up with his bare hands but couldn’t go through with it so I pinched the laces whilst wearing gloves and we ran back to the car with our treasure. Problem solved!

Our new band uniforms

But I digress. Paul & I set off for Leicester (well, sort of south of Leicester really), but we took a wrong turning at the first roundabout because I went into autopilot and started driving to Big Asda. It was all okay though because it’s still easy to get to the M1 from there, just taking a little detour via Clifton, which was incidentally where I saw my first ever badger in real life, dead at the side of the road. Still, a badger sighting is a badger sighting! We hopped onto the M1 and cruised southward, singing along to all the songs that came on the iPod (well, I sang, Paul said funny things). We knew we had to get off the motorway at the junction after Leicester, but it didn’t seem right at the time so we carried on to the next junction, only to find that it was miles and miles and miles away! We came off at the next junction and had to drive all the way back up to Paul’s house, but it was quite nice really because the route took us through all sorts of little villages with names like ‘Husbands Bosworth’. We also went into Paul’s village via the roundabout, so we went round it twice for good measure.

Being daft in the car

No-one was in when we got home so we had some carbohydrates for lunch and dosed around with our guitars for a while. Later on we jollied off to the incredibly exciting Highcross Leicester, where Paul drove round a multi-storey car park for the first time ever.

“Oh no, oh no” said Paul
“No, it’s totally fine” said Bekky
“Oh no! Oh no!” said Paul

It really was totally fine though and we parked up safely. I embarrassed myself a little bit during the walk from the car to the stairs though by completely tripping over one of the really big sticking-up lights in the middle of the road. We laughed a lot.

Paul with the G-Star guy, just for Tommy

There’s a really nifty walkway between the car park and John Lewis (which has gorgeous fancy walls) which is made out of what we could only assume was that self-cleaning glass because the raindrops were beading even on the vertical surfaces and running off super-fast.

We had a nice little mooch around the shops before trying (and failing) to get locked in John Lewis. Something involving Paul, one of my body parts and possible amputation (or something like that) happened whilst in the games & sports section, but I can’t quite remember the specifics. We found the little children’s tennis racquets and had a little game of imaginary tennis too, which thinking about it now may have something to do with the potential incident, but as I said before, I can’t be sure. After messing about for a little while longer we moseyed on down to the cinema which, just like the one in Westfield Derby the night before, was some sort of deluxe affair. It was very impressive and we got half price tickets to a film too embarrassing to mention thanks to Pauly’s mum giving us a voucher she had. We were way to early for the film so we went upstairs to have a little look around, but there was nothing to do so we just came back down again much to the amusement of the cinema attendants, who also had nothing better to do than watch us make fools of ourselves failing to find the down escalator.

“I hope that in the coming year I can increase the frequency with which I pleasure my husband with my hands, and with my mouth” said the old woman in the film.

Aliens!

The next day I got up fairly late. Paul had been up already to get the cat, Watty, and had taken her back to bed with him, so I joined in too. Watty was having none of it though and ran to sit out on the landing.

“I’m not staying on the same bed as someone as scary as her!” said Watty.

That morning we had a nice little drive out to this place called ‘Foxton Locks’ where we had a look at a canal, and a canal boat, and a canal boat on the canal, and 10 locks, and a canal boat on the canal using one of the 10 locks. It was really nice there actually and it was a lovely morning (almost frosty walk weather!) so we had a nice wander round before stopping at the pub for a cup of tea and some chips. In fact, I had tea and Paul had coffee again, which he’s taken quite a liking to recently. In Café Nero last week he decided to have some coffee and chose an espresso. He changed his mind though when the woman behind the counter told him exactly what an espresso was, and took her suggestion of an Americano. Anyway, after a few hours at the locks (and lots of ideas for freaking out Roy Wood) we went home again (which was only possible because my wonderful car started, yippee!) and dossed on our guitars once more, this time playing Christmas songs and making vague attempts at anything written by Roy Wood. I spotted some home videos on the shelf in the sitting room so we watched one of those too. I don’t think my description of any of the funny bits will do them justice, so next time you see Paul remember to ask him to demonstrate a celebration during a game of cricket.

Paul with his mouth open in the car

Before long it was time to set out to Harborough Leisure Centre to interview Roy Wood so we had some tea (which involved beans in a bowl!) and dressed up nicely. When we got there we (well, I) were pretty jittery which was made worse by the absence of Dave, our contact at the venue. A guy went to look for him but couldn’t find him anywhere, so I gave him a ring (why I didn’t ring him first I’m not sure; all common sense had gone out of the window Roy Wood, Roy Wood!) and he wasn’t even at the leisure centre! We sat down at a little table to wait, and it felt quite like we were outside a little café in Paris or Rome so we took a photo. Looking at it now it seems nothing like that, but you have to remember that we were nervous and are always insane. We waited for absolutely ages, and then a little bit longer. At first the wait just made me more nervous, but then after a while I sort of got used to it and was back to normal by the time Roy arrived and shook my hand when we were introduced by Dave. We then had to wait a bit longer after that, but the real sound check was happening by then so at least we had something to watch. Paul and I had spent so many solid days in each others’ company by that time that, although it was amazing and we were having a faberoony time (as you all know, I love Paul! Purely dry love of course, just to clarify for you NUSCRites who know of such things), we had started talking so much rubbish you wouldn’t believe it. I can’t even remember the sort of things we were talking about, but rest assured they were thoroughly ridiculous!

What a lovely French cafe

Finally it was time to do the interview so we followed Dave, Roy and three people from Harborough FM into the ‘dressing room’, which was really just Paul’s old football changing room with some cold meats laid out on a table. We let the HFM people go first because they just wanted a photo and an autograph (so not cool!), then got down to our cut-throat groundbreaking interview. Obviously in keeping with tradition I offered him a lolly and he chose a drumstick. I warned him that it would stick his teeth together though, so he wisely held onto it till the end of the interview. Paul was not so sensible. He started trying to eat his lolly while I was talking, and got in the biggest mess I’ve ever seen anyone make with a drumstick. To start with, he could only get odd strips of the paper off so those fluffy white bits were all over it. Then the stick came out, so he just sort of had to lick it out of the wrapper and use his fingers, making a huge sticky mess that he accidentally left on the floor by his chair when we went! His contribution to the interview was also a classic.

“So…things…..tell me about them”

No, not really, he only said that in his head. This is what really happened:

“What’s the lowest turnout you’ve ever had to a gig? Has it ever been just one man and his dog?” said Bekky
“Something something something, no, we’ve always had good crowds, something something something” said Roy Wood in his Brummie accent
“What’s the biggest turnout you’ve ever had for a gig?” said Paul the Numpty

Haha, it was hilarious the way he said it, I think maybe you had to be there, but honestly it was a classic nervous Paul. It worked out really well in the end though because Roy gave us an ace answer. Cheers Pauly!

After the interview we had a quick photo with Roy, and I even managed to fit in a casual fondle of his beard. There was only a minor incident on the way out of the dressing room when I had a bit of an issue with the saloon doors which hindered the opening of the real door, but after a few loud exclamations all was resolved and we got out alive. We bounced down the corridor and into Dave, who was coming the other way. We shook his hand again and said thank you more times than I thought was humanly possible, and he took us into the roller disco hall where the gig was (who would’ve thought?!). I trailed round after Paul for a while he looked for people he knew (he found some too, including Lucy’s mum & dad in the foyer later, and one of his old teachers), and we watched the support act who was very good but to be quite honest with you was taking the piss a little bit with an hour-long set.

Eventually Roy came on, and blew us away with California Man. I’d forgotten how much I love a two and a half minute tune! Every song was fantastic, and I sang along at the top of my voice to them all. He was fab fab fab! I’ll stop now before I go crazy with musical love, except to tell you that he finished with ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’. It was as magical as you would expect, and he even did the ‘Okay you lot, take it!’ bit. What a legend!

Paul & I with our new best friend

When the gig was over and we were walking out (well, bouncing really), everyone was feeling more festive than tinsel and we met Dave, so I shook his hand again and he pulled me in, patting my back and kissing my cheek, and wished me a very merry Christmas. It was so nice! Gill from the website was there too, which was nice because she was the one who’d put me in touch with Dave in the first place. You meet the most amazing people doing this sort of thing, it makes me feel warm inside…

….so all there is left to say is….



….Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Cardiff is in Wales. ACTUAL WALES!

My second weekend of fun (not that the other weekends weren't fun too - I mean second weekend away really) started on Hallowe'en. My labs are now on Thursday, so I have Fridays free (woot to the absolute max). At sensible o'clock on Friday morning I packed up my nice shoes, knitting, snacks and altered badger costume and trekked into town. Usually the walk into town is a piece of piss, but there is only so much wool a girl can carry on her back and I think I'd reached my limit. I got to the train station just in time and, having remembered my tickets, got straight on the train.

The journey was pretty freezing, and by the end I was so cold that I had to wrap the scarf I was knitting round my head and knit really close to my face because it wasn't really long enough back then. To be honest with you it was the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances because I read somewhere that you lose about 104% of your body heat from your head, but the woman opposite me was quite clearly not of the same opinion, and after a few minutes of the new headgear she got up. I assumed she was getting off the train at the next stop, but later on I saw her sitting a few seats away! What an absolute loon!

We eventually rolled into Cardiff and I waited in WH Smith for Helen because they had the heating on. We walked through the city to her halls, which looked more like sheltered accommodation than halls from the outside, but were lovely and warm inside. I got quite emotional when we were in her room, because it felt like I was really back living in halls and I don't ever want to have to do that again! Urgh. Anyway, after a while of waiting for her fab friend Sylvester to rouse himself (this was about 6pm), I borrowed a meal card ("...if anyone asks, my name is Katie Jessica Hall") and we went for tea. They only get fed evening meals during the week, but it was quite an impressive spread, with chilli wraps and branded fizzy pop.

After tea we mosied (is that how you spell it?) on back to the halls and started getting ready for the Hallowe'en party that would be going on downstairs later. I was dressing up as the Playboy Bunny of Death, thus combining my unused Playboy Bunny costume that I was going to wear to Oceana last year, and the badger costume from 7 Legged. Really it was just the same as the badger costume without trousers. I felt a little bit like Superman actually, because I was wearing my knickers on the outside of my tights! Helen dressed up as a spider, which I thought was incredibly original and ingenious, although it took a while to understand how 2 pairs of tights gave her 8 legs (if you were wondering, which I'm sure you were, her arms and legs counted as the other four. We saw a little boy dressed as a spider in town the next day who had 12 legs, because his costume, unlike Helen's, didn'ttake into account his natural limbs). She even tied two of the legs to her wrists, so they lifted up when she raised her arms. It was great! It was a bit of a struggle to get all legs on the floor at once though, here's a picture of her trying:

Splaying of legs was needed. One might even go as far as to say that they were open for business

Just before the party started we nipped to the shop to buy some wine and, living up to our reputation of being classy ladies, we bought the cheapest bottle in the shop. Considering the price (£3.29!), it was actually okay, although I think that it's pleasantness-rating was directly proportional to how much of it we'd had to drink. Either way, it made the broom game (learned the week before with Explorers) even more hilarious that it would have otherwise been...

"Okay, you start like this...."

Helen attempting the tricky step

WILL NOT COMPUTE. WILL NOT COMPUTE!

----I'll finish this later, I should probably go and do some revision----