Friday, March 30, 2007
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!
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.
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