22 October

Started a 6 week French course - weird to be talking French again, seeing as I had mostly forgotten everything I once knew. I think they put me in slightly higher class than I should have been in, but it's cool because the people in the class are real nice. Also, the other class I might have been in was full of Mexicans - and as I would soon discover, when speaking to Spanish speakers I got easily confused by the accent and came out with Spanish words accidentally. I'll write more about this when I finish the course...

It's still only as cold as Blighty.

20 October

Went to La Ronde, the biggest theme park in Quebec. Unfortunately we only managed to go on 3 rides, one of which was Bob l'Eponge (Spongebob Squarepants), a 3D film type ride which, looking back, was probably a bad use of time. By far the least time-efficient ride, however, was Goliath - an old style (as in, hilly) rollercoaster with a monumental drop at the start and an equally monumental queue to match. After waiting for 2 or 3 hours we were nearly thwarted by the wind too, but ended up being some of the last people to be let on before closing time. Through various means we managed to get in for £2.50 each! Beat that, Alton Towers.

19 October

Met Emilie's sister, Marie-Claude, for the first time properly. She came round chez nous for dinner, and we played 20 questions. I was Stevie Wonder at one point (Am I black? Still? Oh, not Michael Jackson then).

It's still about as cold as England here.

16 October - QOTSA

Went to see Queens of the Stone Age, who, of course, rocked big time. Highlights were No One Knows (played first) and Song For The Dead (played last), so I guess it was a bit of a lull between by comparison! The venue was real good too, and I witnessed the strange Canadian system of the barman bringing drinks into the crowd and selling them there! What genius! I'm sure in England that wouldn't last long before some chav would tip them onto the floor, just for a laff.

15 October

Went for a walk around Old Montreal - that is, the tourist area. Saw the town hall, and other such things and basically just looked at the nice architecture. Also tried a Tim Hortons for the first time. It's basically a fastfood place but with more doughnuts - everything there is entirely made from sugar, it seems.

It's about as cold as England at the moment.

10th Oct

... but go there I did! And I got in at about 8 in the evening (Canadian time) to be greeted by Emilie at the airport. Needless to say, it was bloody great to see her again.

9th Oct

And finally the time has come! After a wait of over 3 months without seeing Emilie, I am finally going to Canada, And I can't wait any longer. Each of the last few days, and particularly these last hours, has felt long and drawn out, and now more than ever the thought of me actually being in Canada seems farfetched...

7th Oct

I returned home from London in time for my last family meal (before going to Canada), which was the old classic, Wing Wah. Good stuff as always, and in the evening The Maccabees were kind enough to give me a send-off gig - they're good lads. Paul, Andrew and Martyn came along for the ride too.

After that Andrew and I stayed up and, amidst Drambuie persuaded from Dad, played chess until the wee small hours.

4th - 6th Oct

On the Thursday I stayed at Charles' Aunt's place in London, and went for a Nepalese with him and one of his work mates.

Friday ended up being a really good evening, going for a meal with Carmen and Ferret, then back to his to have my first play of a Nintendo Wii! We played on WarioWare until about 6 in the morning, and polished off a bottle of Vodka in the process. Somehow Ferret went to a wedding the next day. What a trooper.

2nd Oct

Saw The Bourne Ultimatum with Little Jon and his dad!

28 - 30 Sept

Strangely, I went to Bristol to celebrate the birthday of a girl I had never met. However, being Pit's girlfriend it makes a bit more sense, and I got to see lots of people I would not see for a while. I also had a ride in Paul (Randall)'s new car, and the word "new" has never been so misused. No seatbelts, clown-style horn and dodgy brakes made for an experience to rival Alton Towers the previous week (and a darn sight cheaper). Anyway, we went to The Tube and danced (or, in my case, sat) the night away.

The next day I went to The Flyer with Bea and co., and had a merry time. The weekend was capped off with a really good day with Shads, Rhi, Jiminy and Mattie - kind of having a long, drawn out, leisurely pub crawl, with a Pieminister to boot.

21 - 23 September

Real good release, which I went to (almost) straight from my presentation - celebrating Pete's birthday at Martyn's in Nottingham. We went out on Friday night, getting suitably wrecked ready for Alton Towers the next day. I have never seen Martyn look quite as rough as when we arrived, ready for a day of rollercoasters and the like. He was fine at the start of the journey, but then fell deathly silent for the last hour, and I think the fact he didn't chuck is a remarkable achievement.

We saw Doors Alive (tribute band) in the evening, which were good despite the fact I hardly know any Doors stuff. Went out in Nottingham after that, to either the Cookie Club or The Social (we went to the other on the Friday, but not sure which is which!)

20 September

Dissertation Deadline. After working pretty hard over the summer (more so in the few days before this), and finishing it at about 2:00 the night before, I managed to hand my dissertation in just three minutes before the 12:00 deadline. Good timing!

I also had to give a presentation the next day which, despite Virginie Ruiz's (mostly) incorrect corrections, didn't go too badly. Ignoring technical glitches.

Basically I was just very happy to have this over with, so didn't care much how well or badly it went - this was the last thing I would have to do for the MSc, so it felt good to have a year of hardcore work officially behind me.

14 - 16 September

Although it almost turned sour due to several money issues, a good weekend was certainly had (hopefully by all), surfing in the Gower. Having said that, my surfboard remained firmly attached to my car the whole time, as the water was flatter than Holland. Laura organised a cottage for a bunch of us, and I spent enough time on the beach to get a bit pink. Spending your time reading, lying just on one side, does not make for a good tan. Neither does putting no cream on.

1 - 2 Sept

Saw Ferret first (which was real good as I hadn't spoken to him for ages), then went to Martyn's for the evening. We watched, of all things, the Eurovision Dance Contest - the first spin-off competition (perhaps of many) from the entirely non-political campfest. It was suitably awful, but entertaining.

24 - 27 August

Katie (SB's) birthday weekend, surfing in Cornwall. Was mondo-radical - it had been ages since I'd last surfed (last time was in Costa Rica), and (at least on the first day) the surf was good. It was so good to see people I hadn't seen in ages too - all the usual Bristol suspects, although conspicuously missing Tim (as he was off being French).

I was having an amazing weekend, but then there's nothing like having your car clamped and being fined £85 to really put a dampener on things! This was due to parking confusion and was nobodies fault really, except the sneaky money-grabbing campsite.

Still, all in all was a really good weekend, the sun was doing its job well, and what with the extended (Bank Holiday) weekend, the consensus was that it had felt like a real holiday somewhere faraway.

20 August

Saw Interpol with Dave Hill, Andrew and a few of his buds. They rocked! A lot more than last time I saw them anyway (when they were rubbish). And, totally unexpectedly, The Maccabees were supporting, which was a pretty good bonus. Even though I was going to see them a few weeks later.

3-5th Aug - Gay Pride

As the title suggests, this weekend was Gay Pride! And what better place to do that than Brighton? Ok, maybe Rio, shush. But Brighton is definitely the Queen of Pride Parades in this country, and unsurprisingly the atmosphere was suitably pink. Windfred of course came along for the ride, and fitted in perfectly (although I don't think he was particularly welcome in the supermarket).

We spent most of the day sat on the grass, soaking in the atmosphere, with a bit of dancing and a healthy portion of drinking. The best bit about Gay Pride is the people-watching - mostly the outlandishly ostentatious costumes, but also the openly gay couples. It's so strange that you don't see gay couples being open like that anywhere/time else really, and even stranger to think that the whole thing was illegal 40 years ago. I suppose it takes a long time for a culture shift like that to fully sink in, which is perhaps why there were protesters holding up placards and chanting about the professed evil of sodomy. Still, there's a time and a place, and I don't think they were particularly welcome.

All in all it was a seriously good weekend, but (at the risk of this sounding strangely insulting) seeing all those gay couples in love made me really miss Emilie. Only two-and-a-half months to go before I'll see her again...

21st July

Yet again, the end of an era. These era-endings do come around soon. It's been about a year since I moved to Reading, which just about makes it time to move on. So today I packed all my stuff (and Emilie's stuff!) into my car and relocated to Birmingham. It's a shame to leave - I've had a really good time here. But I also can't wait to move to Montreal...

9th July

Today was my interview for a PGCE (in Maths, at Bristol), and I had thought I had a reasonable chance of getting it. However, my luck was not running high that day, and I was rejected before I had even returned home. The lady assured me that it was because my MSc clashed with the PGCE by over 2 weeks, and she encouraged me to reapply next year and get some experience instead (but I'm still a bit annoyed I didn't get a deferred entry). Anyway that's what I'm going to do, except I'm going to get my experience... in Canada! Yup, I'm going to move to Montreal with Emilie and try to get work teaching over there. It'll be cool though, i'll get to meet her friends and parents properly (hopefully make a better impression with her Mum (see 27th May)), see a bit of Canada (which I've always wanted to do), and perhaps most importantly, try some real Poutine.

5th July

They're dropping like flies! The next one to flee the country is none other than Emilie, to Quebec. What is this obsession with french-speaking countries all of a sudden? Fair enough it is where she and her family are from and stuff, but still! Very rude. As things have turned out (see 9th July) this will be our longest break apart from each other - 3 months at least, and I am not looking forward so much to the rest of this Summer. Only to Autumn.

29th June

England has finally got rid of that pesky Harrison! We left the cottage to go to Bristol, and Tim's leaving celebrations, which were fun, but kind of weird as a part of me thought he would be a permanent Bristol fixture. How wrong could I be! Off to France for a year, and who knows what after that?

As always, it was good to be in Bristol again. It always feels like home every time I go back, and having a Little Jon Special for breakfast the next day was just the icing on the cake.

27-29th June

Went to the cottage with Emilie, which was real nice. Peace and quiet, and a couple of days where neither of us had to do any of the boring stuff. So good to get away, and going to the cottage is never a chore.

27th June

In preparation for my impending PGCE interview, I went for a day's observation in a school (in my Mum's school actually, as it was way easier to set up). The day was interesting - I saw both Maths and Physics lessons, but I have to say that from what I witnessed, Maths teachers spend half their time playing cards with the kids. I think it's the job for me!

20-25th June, Glastonbury

...followed by another!

Seasick Steve, Maximo Park, Arcade Fire, Chemical Brothers, Noisettes and Sunshine Underground (for 2 minutes each), !!! (twice), Rufus Wainwright (who was so ridiculously bad I'm not sure why I put him on the list), Iggy and the Stooges, The View, the Marley Brothers, Bjork, Bloc Party, The Fratellis, CSS, and I'm sure there were more but I can't be expected to remember everything.

And of course, how could I not mention Windfred, the chirpy gay frog that struggled (and sometimes failed) to keep the whole group together, but never complained about it once, despite having a large pole in an uncomfortable place. I also have to mention the portable toilet "invented" by Ben - a groundsheet that one can wear to cover one's bum whilst one relieves oneself into an empty Carling box. I thought he was joking for such a long time, until he made the whole thing and, as every inventor must do, tested the prototype.

The best moment: the build-up to Arcade Fire. The atmosphere was amazing - they were late, and everyone in the crowd was cheering the hook from "Wake Up". When they eventually came on, they were amazing.

The worst moment: about 10 minutes later. Three songs into Arcade Fire, Kate (one of the girls I was camping with) collapsed in the crowd. Her eyes just glazed over and she dropped. We later found out it was a claustrophobic attack, and she was fine, but it was pretty scary for a while.

Anyway, despite that it was brilliant. I was worried before, as the only people I knew who were going were Martyn, Pete, Nige, Bea and D. But it turned out the other people I was camping with (Pete's friends: Charlotte (his girlfriend), Ben, Kate, Mark and Faye) were all excellent too.

9-16th June, Croatia

Yeah! What better way to enjoy the lack of exams than to fly to a totally random country and lie on the beach all day? The answer to that is: fly to a random country, drink beer and play volleyball all day! Excusing the Flip-Flop Saga (the inability to find a decent pair in the whole of Novi Vinodolski), the threat of a Great White Shark attack, and almost heated discussions about the presence of streaky patches on the water (I'm telling you, it's the freshwater streams emerging under the surface!), the holiday was an amazing success...

29th May

After months of solid working, the likes of which I never even had to do during my degree, I have finally finished all my projects and all my exams - just the dissertation to go. As always, I am sooo relieved to have them behind me, and have a huge list of things that I've been waiting to do. Of course, I'll probably never do them - but I knew that all along. For the next (almost) 2 weeks I'll just enjoy the freedom of not having to get up early in the morning, spend all day and evening in the library, and be so drained at the end of it that all I can do is watch eTV (sorry Emilie, for my consistent failure to keep a sensible conversation. But then what's new?!).

27th May

Met Emilie's parents for the first time, although really I should say I eMet them, as it was over a webcam. As I was telling myself beforehand, meeting a girlfriend's parents for the first time is a very important moment. First impressions cannot be undone, and this kind of thing could affect the course of the rest of the relationship. Unfortunately, I managed to inadvertantly call her mum a racist. Actually, it was a dicey joke that luckily went well - her dad found it hilarious. But right after I said it I was counting myself incredibly lucky that it had got away with it. The rest of the meeting went well, although I wished I could speak more French.

17th March

Andrew's birthday party in Nottingham, and Emilie and I decided to make a weekend of it - hiring a car to take us up there, and stopping at home for Mothers' Day on the way back. At the party Andrew (guitar, sax, vocals) played a few songs with Chan (violin, guitar, piano), some with Rob (guitar), and they were of course the highlight of the evening. Chan (violin) also formed half of a duo with Alex Tew (beatbox) - the theme from Requiem for a Dream being especially amazing. I think the Most Valuable Player award for this one has to go to Chan and his loop pedal. St. Patrick's Day got in the way of our pub lunch a bit, but apart from that, the weekend was all good.

9th March

Went to a public lecture by Nick Yarris, a guy who spent 22 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit, generally getting beaten, put into solitary confinement, and bumraped. Despite this he's jovial and doesn't seem too bitter, which kind of puts your life into perspective. Anyway he campaigns for the abolition of capital punishment, and I feel like I should at least mention his website.

Lost - 24 Feb

Today we did Lost, which is not a horrendous grammatical error on my part, but a charity hitchhiking event organised by Reading RAG. It involved being driven, blindfolded, to a mystery location within 100 miles of Reading.

On emerging from the coach, the abundant signposts around Bexhill-on-Sea did nothing to disguise its geographical location, so before long we were on our way back to Reading - the mission being to do so without spending any of our own money. Some groups tried to raise money for train tickets home, and they were invariably still trying to do so many hours into the event. Luckily we went for the more predictable hitchhiking route.

Our first lift came unexpectedly - ten minutes after asking for directions from an old couple out for a walk - they took pity on us (obviously having little faith in our hitching abilities), and came to pick us up in their car. They were a godsend, going miles out of their way to take us to Polegate, and furnishing us with an English road atlas to help us on the way!

Our biggest lift (our next) was from a softly spoken doctor who took us all the way to Newbury - but as I had trouble hearing what he was saying I cannot really tell you much about him. I don't think I/you missed much to be honest.

Typical of our day, we only waited for a few minutes at Newbury services for a lift that took us all the way to the University campus - from a guy who was "just out for a drive", was from London, and had absolutely no reason to go to Reading whatsoever. Still, we couldn't complain, and made it back 6th out of 24 groups - pretty good in my books!

Harry Potter - 23 Feb

What an excellent idea! This was a Harry Potter themed formal dinner at the Halls of which we (Nicky, Emilie and I) are honorary members (Wantage). The Magical Menu included "baked hippogriff", "sanguinated mandrake-leaf", "boiled tuberosities", "sweetened flobberworm exudate" and the lazily named "muggle carrots", and the evening featured a highly fought contest for the Hogwarts Cup. We were members of Slytherin (ie we had to dress in black and green wizard outfits). We also had the support of Professor Snape, which may have helped us to win the Cup - probably my proudest achievement that evening.

This Year So Far

It's now almost the end of February, and this year so far has been absolutely, entirely filled with work. I've never done so much in my life, no exaggeration - way more than I ever had to do for my degree. Most days I am working from 9 in the morning until about 8 in the eve, sometimes more. I've had 4 assessed assignments in so far this term, some of them huge, although I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In for Monday is a 3500 word "literature survey of evolutionary algorithms for molecular control" (even less exciting than it sounds), and that is my last piece of written work this term.

Regarding my previous one, Richard Mitchell is officially my least favourite person on this planet. Just look at his smug face, thinking "I've just set the most impenetrably hard assignment I could think of, and have deliberately written it in a ridiculiusly abbreviated form of the English language so that no-one will be able to understand what I'm even asking, mwaahahahahaha!". Seriously, he really is retarded and I don't quite know how he got to be a University lecturer. Ok, I admit he actually looks like he's a nice guy on that picture. He isn't. As you can see from that page, he did his degree at Reading and hasn't left since. What a loser.

Talking of which, it looks like I might be doing a PhD here (at least it's on the cards), in BCIs, which is Brain Computer Interfaces to you and me. To learn about that, my MSc dissertation might be on designing a device such that you can control a robot (or maybe a remote-controlled car) using just your brain. How cool is that?!

More about boring work, I had Xia Hong's assignment back yesterday, and I got 70, ie I scraped a 1st, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Unfortunately that one's coupled with Richard Mitchell's so I could still fail that module miserably.

Ok now I've got that out of my system, no more work talk I promise! For now...

1 - 10 January

This action-packed time was pretty much spent working, staring moronically at a computer screen that I wanted to rip wire from wire, getting more and more frustrated with Xia Hong's surprisingly evil assignment, the first one I've completed since starting the course. But, having properly slaved over it for far too long (I was planning to finish two over the break, but it basically monopolised), I am pretty pleased with the result. So we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll keep you posted. Maybe I'll forget. Maybe I'll be too embarrassed.

These few days have been one of those rare times when I would be quite happy to just forgo my life for a while. As in, just skip to the 13th and ignore everything inbetween. Surely everyone gets times like that? Like when you're revising and it's beautifully sunny outside. In this case, Emilie gets back on the 13th, and I think it's safe to say I'm missing her.

New Year's Eve

Went to a living room party at Tim's, which mostly consisted of blowing latex gloves up as big as we could and drawing on them and tings. Also a couple of half-assed games; perudo, spelunki and name that choon - none of which got off the ground nearly as well as a pair of inflated latex gloves.

Christmas Eve/Day

Well we had a bit of a massive family argument (I guess Christmas wouldn't be complete without it) on the Eve so, whereas we have had a family meal every other Christmas Eve since the beginning of time, instead it was called off last minute and we all went out to get pissed instead. Which I did marvelously - a few pints whilst we were out, and then most of a bottle of port when we got back really did the trick quite well. I was sick in my sink and had a bit of a fall-out with Andrew to cap it all off. Merry Christmas!

But then the next day it was (barring my physical condition) all much better. Andrew had put a Christmas card under my door to apologise (which was much appreciated), and things seemed to have quitened down on the family front. But my head was seriously bearing a grudge on behalf of my liver, which wasn't helped by Paul firing a Party Popper at me, and far too many bottles of wine constantly in my field of vision. I managed less than a plateful of Xmas dinner, which I was pretty disappointed with. However, I was still pretty drunk so it was all quite amusing.

I got a load of good presents from everyone, especially Triolet (a bit like Scrabble but with maths), surfboard 'soft straps' for my car, a Mogwai album, some good books. Opening a bottle of Port made my stomach lurch slightly, but I know i'll appreciate it in the long run.

18th December

Emilie left me.

To go to Canada for a WHOLE month. How rude is that? I mean, ok, she has family there and stuff, and it's Christmas, but still, how inconsiderate can you get?

15th December - Vanderpump and Wellbelove

Today saw the dawning of a new era in Popular Music. Yes, that's true, it's finally happened. The long awaited first practice of the critically acclaimed three-piece "Vanderpump and Wellbelove" (me, Emilie and Nicky) happened in a now historical practice room near Reading centre. Yes, I know it's hard to be critically acclaimed before your first practice, but I guess we're just that good.

Even though Nicky was playing a keyboard that decided of its own accord whether or not to actually make a sound upon the pressing of a key (so I guess we're a four-piece, with a saboteur), and even though I hadn't played the drums in something like 5 months, and even though I was singing (a musical faux-pas in anyone's books), somehow we muddled through most of Neil Young's "Winterlong" (although we're playing it more like the Pixies do).