Today is my last day at work, and then its two weeks to get everything sorted and ready before I go. I'm going to be trying not to get emotional about it, but I'm sure part of me will. It’s very rarely the job that creates this reaction, but down to the people who make it. Looking forward to seeing them everyday, and then missing them when you don't see them.
So today is a strange one. On one hand its exciting and nervy realising that this really is it and how close I now am to another little trip, but yet also a bit sad and down hearted. Saying good bye to everyone in Llandaff who I've had such a great time working with for the best part of two years. And they've had to put up with my horrendous jokes, which deserves a medal itself!
We've had some really great times, and here are a few memories that spring to immediately to mind. Two attempts at the summer regatta. First time not even winning a race, and then this year, winning every race and the whole competition! What a fantastic turnaround. All those early morning training sessions on the river before work, the closed-eyes rowing, and then on our final practice, opposite-side rowing! How good was that feeling when we crossed the final winning line guys?!
Then the annual January event this year down in London. Highlights including, (but not limited to!) Beth's new black make-up (any idea where that came from?!), the fire alarm (she was nothing to do with me... HONEST!), taking photos as all the Cardiff lot took over the dance floor, and Paul's excellent protesting signs.
Debbie, my partner-in-crime throughout our time there. How did we make it through training together? I don't know, but it was fun getting there eventually! Beth who helped with my disaster of a love-life and always there to cheer you up. Rob, who fortunately only realised he could bowl with about four rounds left, and believed the best way to cross a river was THROUGH it! And then Tony. Friday lunchtimes, following the OBO, and getting the last bus home through Creigiau just won’t be the same without you mate. And thanks for all the lifts too. I think you won our pool matches 1000 - 1, but look out I'm on a one-game winning streak!
I could sit here all day and write something about everyone here and still not cover it all, so I’m sorry I can’t mention you all, but I will remember you all and smile at the great times. If only there wasn’t the work to get in the way eh?! And I even did some work occasionally too!
Thank you all for a fantastic 18 months and some great memories.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
Karma!
Awesome!
There truly must be some greater sense of being or justice or karma in this world I think. Not mroe than two days after publicly defending the Goo Goo Dolls, and slagging off (quite rightly) Ronan Keating, an email goes round the office. "Two free pairs of tickets to see the Goo Goo Dolls tomorrow night. Reply if interested."
That is quite possibly the quickest reply I've ever written, which most of you will know is very impressive given my usual rate of one a month!
And so that is how I found myself in Cardiff Uni Students Union with the biggest smile on my face. What a fantastic night and an amazing concert! Of course the highlight of the set was Iris, with the whole audience singing their hearts out, and it sounded unbelieveable... all the heart, soul and feeling in the room came out in one go. The energy rush as the first chord sounded was off the chart.
Altogether now:
"and I don't want the world to see me, cos I don't think that they'd understand,
when everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am,
I just want you to know who I am!"
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Photos from Leicester and London.
Rich, Karen and Ozzy. Happy Birthday mate. Was great to see you all again. This was the only time in the whole weekend we managed to get Ozzy to sit still..... and what a poser he is eh?!
London and the Thames looking its radiant best on a beautiful Autumn day. This view is from Waterloo Bridge, looking back up the river with the obvious London Eye on the South Bank, and Houses of Parliament on the North.
The West entrance of Westminster Abbey. Didnt have time for a proper look otherwise I'd still be there now...... maybe!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
A blog of two halves!
To kick off... I'm still in a fab mood. This is almost slightly concerning now. I mean, its been like, about a decade since I last felt like wiping the smile off my face. One of the reasons is THIS. Now i'm ignoring the mess that is the Welsh international football team, but the mighty bloooobirds are quite a different story at the moment. FOURTEEN goals in four games, packed home games and playing brilliant football. I still fear the worst that it will all come crashing down (well it's happenend often enough before), and we almost play too much good football. Whether we'll be able to play when its wet, muddy and blowing a gale may be interesting, but right now I'm over the moon with the City.
Lots of other great stuff has been going on too, and the good thing about going away for ages is its a good excuse to try and see and catch-up with as many people as possible, and go out doing as much with those people as possible. Although all this going out does dent the bank balance a little, which hopefully wont jeopodise the whole trip thing!
And even more, as I get closer to my leaving day (which should be Nov 9th), I'm getting even more excited about the whole. Slightly nervous, but excited more than anything!
The second half is time for a rant! Been wanting to do this for ages, but just not been in a bad enough mood to do it properly... so this is a forced rant, to finally get all the issues out in the open!
First and most importantly..... Someone do something very very painful to Ronan Keating AND Will Young! Both currently jointly occupy top spot on my "top ten" list, so any pain or misfortune that could accidently occur to either of them would be most welcome. Will Young is there ofr just being permanently annoying and singing lots and lots of really very crap and annoying songs, but Ronan has done it all in one swoop! By covering the Goo-Goo Dolls fantastic "Iris" he has committed a real crime against humanity and should have his mouth sealed shut forever. A song that was pretty damn close to perfection in my personal opinion, has now had all the heart, soul and feeling sucked out of it and been left puffing, panting and wheezing its last breath of life on local radio stations all over Britain!
Sadly though its just one part of the horrible trend of music at the moment to cover songs that really dont need to be covered.... at all....... EVER! The horrendouos version of Queen's "Dont stop me now" that *spit* McFly *spit* thrust upon us, and all the great 80s songs being ripped off by dodgy, cheap and unoriginal pop-dance music. No-one growing up now realises just how good or important these songs were when they were originally done... or that they were originals in the first place!
Rant over... back into good mood mode!
Lots of other great stuff has been going on too, and the good thing about going away for ages is its a good excuse to try and see and catch-up with as many people as possible, and go out doing as much with those people as possible. Although all this going out does dent the bank balance a little, which hopefully wont jeopodise the whole trip thing!
And even more, as I get closer to my leaving day (which should be Nov 9th), I'm getting even more excited about the whole. Slightly nervous, but excited more than anything!
The second half is time for a rant! Been wanting to do this for ages, but just not been in a bad enough mood to do it properly... so this is a forced rant, to finally get all the issues out in the open!
First and most importantly..... Someone do something very very painful to Ronan Keating AND Will Young! Both currently jointly occupy top spot on my "top ten" list, so any pain or misfortune that could accidently occur to either of them would be most welcome. Will Young is there ofr just being permanently annoying and singing lots and lots of really very crap and annoying songs, but Ronan has done it all in one swoop! By covering the Goo-Goo Dolls fantastic "Iris" he has committed a real crime against humanity and should have his mouth sealed shut forever. A song that was pretty damn close to perfection in my personal opinion, has now had all the heart, soul and feeling sucked out of it and been left puffing, panting and wheezing its last breath of life on local radio stations all over Britain!
Sadly though its just one part of the horrible trend of music at the moment to cover songs that really dont need to be covered.... at all....... EVER! The horrendouos version of Queen's "Dont stop me now" that *spit* McFly *spit* thrust upon us, and all the great 80s songs being ripped off by dodgy, cheap and unoriginal pop-dance music. No-one growing up now realises just how good or important these songs were when they were originally done... or that they were originals in the first place!
Rant over... back into good mood mode!
Monday, October 09, 2006
Just getting warmed up
I have to be in the right mood for a visit to London. If you feel up for it, its a fantastic city to visit, explore and generally lose yourself in. But if you're not, it feels like the most soulless, lonely, and miserable city on the planet! So as you can imagine, turning up over 1 1/2 hours late, thanks to the M4, at Victoria coach station, knowing I'd already missed my train up to Leicester (from St Pancras... basically from the southern to northern end of central London) meant i was in a tremendous mood for the thrills and spills of the English Capital!
Little aside bit here: those of you who know the rough geography of the UK (and some of you did a geography degree with me... so own up!), will be aware that the most direct route from Cardiff to Leicester does not involve going through London (someone decided to build Birmingham in the middle of that way!). But those of you also familiar with the public transport system of the UK will also be aware, that trying to get anywhere on some weekends is nigh on impossible without pitching camp on a tesco forecourt and begging for scraps to feed you on the long lonely crawl home. And so thus it was that I came to be going from Cardiff, down the M4 to London, and then up the Midland Mainline (thankfully NOT the M1 - do i look like i enjoy torture on Britains motorways?!?!) to the fine East Midlands city of Leicester.
Fortunately, Friday evening the whole ordeal of getting from Victoria to St Pancras only took 30 mins, (when youve spent 4 hours on a bus to get there in the first place... 30 mins is a joy) and so I was left to the delightful people on Midland Mainline, who having heard my tale of woe that resulted in missing my original train, preceeded to take pity on me and give me a lovely trip up to Leicester to finally meet up with Rich and Karen for the weekend.
Having not seen them since their wedding in the summer (for which I was very honoured to be Rik's best man, and yes, there will be an update with photos etc....... eventually. I'm looking at sometime around 2012 at my current update rate!) it was long overdue...... and also Rik had my Quake 3 cd!
So two days of chatting, chilling out, watching South Park, eating take aways (its was Rik's turn to cook Saturday night), playing on the Xbox and with Ozzy, and generally catching-up passed away far too quickly. As these times always do!
So Sunday lunctime back on the train to London which not only got there on-time, but half an hour early, in the middle of a gorgeous, warm, sunny autumn day. And obviously I was now most definitely in the mood for London, so decided to use my spare two hours to have a leisurely stroll down from St Pancras to Victoria. It was lovely strolling through the restaurants of Holborn and theatres of Covent Garden. I crossed over the river on Waterloo Bridge, and had a wander along the South Bank from there to the London Eye, which was teeming with book fairs, mime artists and street performers, all lining the bank of the Thames. And then back over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Palace, and upto Victoria station. Ok I cut it a little fine, but it was well worth it.
Little aside bit here: those of you who know the rough geography of the UK (and some of you did a geography degree with me... so own up!), will be aware that the most direct route from Cardiff to Leicester does not involve going through London (someone decided to build Birmingham in the middle of that way!). But those of you also familiar with the public transport system of the UK will also be aware, that trying to get anywhere on some weekends is nigh on impossible without pitching camp on a tesco forecourt and begging for scraps to feed you on the long lonely crawl home. And so thus it was that I came to be going from Cardiff, down the M4 to London, and then up the Midland Mainline (thankfully NOT the M1 - do i look like i enjoy torture on Britains motorways?!?!) to the fine East Midlands city of Leicester.
Fortunately, Friday evening the whole ordeal of getting from Victoria to St Pancras only took 30 mins, (when youve spent 4 hours on a bus to get there in the first place... 30 mins is a joy) and so I was left to the delightful people on Midland Mainline, who having heard my tale of woe that resulted in missing my original train, preceeded to take pity on me and give me a lovely trip up to Leicester to finally meet up with Rich and Karen for the weekend.
Having not seen them since their wedding in the summer (for which I was very honoured to be Rik's best man, and yes, there will be an update with photos etc....... eventually. I'm looking at sometime around 2012 at my current update rate!) it was long overdue...... and also Rik had my Quake 3 cd!
So two days of chatting, chilling out, watching South Park, eating take aways (its was Rik's turn to cook Saturday night), playing on the Xbox and with Ozzy, and generally catching-up passed away far too quickly. As these times always do!
So Sunday lunctime back on the train to London which not only got there on-time, but half an hour early, in the middle of a gorgeous, warm, sunny autumn day. And obviously I was now most definitely in the mood for London, so decided to use my spare two hours to have a leisurely stroll down from St Pancras to Victoria. It was lovely strolling through the restaurants of Holborn and theatres of Covent Garden. I crossed over the river on Waterloo Bridge, and had a wander along the South Bank from there to the London Eye, which was teeming with book fairs, mime artists and street performers, all lining the bank of the Thames. And then back over Westminster Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Palace, and upto Victoria station. Ok I cut it a little fine, but it was well worth it.
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