Tuesday, May 25
'Twas A Very Very Good Day
I'm a little peeved and pissed off at the moment, so I'm going to cheer myself up a bit by writing about yesterday, which was a fantastic day.
Although I'm not a huge fan of getting out of bed before 10, yesterday I had good reason to: we were going to Lord's to watch the last day of the First Test between England and New Zealand. Oh, and for only a tenner for a ticket, which is a deal so good that we just had to go!
The first ultra-pleasant surprise was when I opened the door to my bedroom to be confronted by a large box with the Amazon.co.uk logo on the side. My Buffy DVDs! I'd received an email on Sunday evening telling me that they'd just been posted, but I wasn't expecting them to arrive until much later in the week, mainly because of the shocking press that the Royal Mail has received recently.
However, they had to wait until after I'd had a shower. I struggle to even stand up in the mornings until I've had a shower. Thankfully there was at least a little bit of hot water left (it's at a premium in the mornings in a house of 7 guys...), which managed to wake me from my zombie-like slumber.
Back in my room, I opened up the package and also the first few series, just to have a look at the packaging and design of the DVDs. They're very cool, especially Series 1, which opens up into a big cross design.
I then had to rush to get my shit together and throw all of the stuff I needed for the day into a backpack, before leaving the house. We stopped at Sainsbury's on the way to buy some food, and more importantly some beer. There's something a little disturbing about going to the checkout at 10am, armed only with beer, sausage rolls and Pringles.
One of my housemates had gone to Lord's earlier in the morning to pick up the tickets and get us some good seats, and he met us at the gates. Unfortunately, 2 of my beers were taken off me on the way in, since you're only allowed to take in 4 for each person. Yes, 2 of my 8 beers were taken off me to leave me with 4.
Erm...
Anyway, we found our seats, in one of the upper stands and in full glorious sunshine. The suncream was straight on (I don't usually need any, but it was going to be incredibly hot with no shade for the entire day), and the beers were swiftly opened. Again, it's a little disarming to be drinking beer before 11.30 in the morning, but so be it.
There were 6 of us there, myself, 3 housemates and 2 of their girlfriends, and we spent the whole day sinking the beers and chatting about anything and everything. The cricket was almost just the background to the scene, if it wasn't for the huge crowd and the fact that we were all facing the pitch...
The match itself was absolutely enthralling. It could have swung each way a number of times, but thankfully England came through to win it. We were treated to two half-centuries (Strauss and Thorpe), and a well-constructed century from Nasser Hussain. The only downer is that we didn't see Freddie (Flintoff) bat.
My tan was topped up even more, leaving me with a nice brown tint at the time of writing. The great thing about my skin is that I very rarely burn, tan instantly, and keep tans for a very long time. I'm not quite sure where this mediterranean, olive skin comes from in my family, but it's very cool to have it. It must be that Italian guy my Dad met once...
Either that or I'm half-Spanish on my Grandmother's best friend's side.
On the way back from Lord's (after I'd retrieved my other 2 beers from 'lost' property), we stopped at a pub called Swiss Cottage for a quick pint. Guess which area of London that pub is in...
It's not the greatest pub in the world, but is oh-so-cheap and has a beer garden. Well, a beer garden in the middle of 4 lanes of traffic on both sides. At least it's outside. It's also full of absolute scallies* for a good portion of the time. Never mind, the beer was cheap and tasty.
It was then on to Sainsbury's for the second time that day, to get a load of Meat (worthy of a capital letter) for yet another barbecue. It was too nice a day still to not have a barbecue.
I do enjoy barbecues, they're such an English thing to do. As soon as the merest hint of sun penetrates the Spring sky, everyone is out buying steaks, charcoal and suncream. 'Tis the English way, I guess.
Last night was all about stacks of quarterpounders, a shitload of sausages and some thick steaks. When we have a barbecue, it's all about the Meat. We very rarely bother with such niceties as salads or side dishes (except for the egg fried rice I cooked on Sunday), instead concentrating on cooking and eating as much Meat as is physically possible to consume.
Generally we reach the stage where it is nearing being painful to move. It takes a lot of meat to get 5 or 6 guys to that stage, so you can imagine how much money Sainsbury's is making out of us at the moment... I can see this summer being all about working in a crap job somewhere, stopping at Sainsbury's each night on the way home for beers and Meat, and then barbecues every night. You know it makes sense.
I don't know if this has escaped your attention, but the time in the story is now around 9pm, and I'm still awake. I think my intention to eat a shitload of food before drinking beer paid dividends.
Yesterday, I managed to stretch myself out until 10.30, which is when my eyes were beginning to close of their own accord. Time for bed. I blame that relatively early retirement on a number of things: the beer; the sunshine; and finally the lack of sleep on Sunday night.
Yet again, on Sunday night I ended up surfing the internet, not really doing all that much, and certainly with no goal to achieve, or piece of research to do. I really don't know how or more importantly why I do that so often. I just find something that catches my attention, find another link, then another, then another, then another, and suddenly it's 2.30am and I'm still wide awake.
That results in waking up a bit later the next day, which itself results in still feeling quite awake by midnight. That means the internet presents itself as something to do for a half-hour or so before I go to bed. Then, suddenly, it's 2.30am, and the whole cycle repeats itself.
At least if I drink beer all day and fall asleep by 10/11 in the evening, I'll be up at a reasonable hour the next day, breaking the cycle. Now, if only I could afford to drink beer all day every day!!! Anybody think I should start a drinking fund, a la N is for Neville? I even have a PayPal account already, set up and ready to go.
We'll call that Plan B, actually. Plan A can be to get up and go to bed at a reasonable hour each day. Perhaps to even do some work during that day too!
Speaking of which, I've noticed that the Internet Cafe in West Hampstead is wanting staff. I may have to pop down there with my CV tomorrow. I could definitely do that job. I'm very proficient with computers, and I'm also great at customer relations stuff. I've worked behind a bar, and in a coffee shop, so I know how to treat customers well and politely.
Plus, that job is a 2 minute walk from my house, which removes travel costs from the equation. I am definitely going to go speak to them about it tomorrow.
Oh, and one final thing. I will be shifting this blog to http://www.gooneruk.com this weekend, so please update your bookmarks / links to this blog. By the looks of my PhotoBlog, which I have already moved over to the GoonerUK.com server, this address will continue to exist, but it won't be updated. I'll leave a message here when the eventual change happens, so keep an eye out!
