Tristan - enter the madness...

Thursday, March 24

Darwin Awards 2005

Yes, it's that magical time of the year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honouring the least Evolved among us. Here then, are the glorious winners. So, ladies and gentlement, without further ado, the nominees for the 2005 Darwin awards:

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.....

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and lost a finger.

The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shovelled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harareto Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer...$15.

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that He'd just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near Spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd had in years.

Wednesday, March 23

Francaise Nes Pas?

I know, I know, my french is terrible...but it'll have to do because I'm off to France on Friday at 5:30am..Nice (rhymes with "Peace") to be precise. I'm hoping it'll be sunny..but since it's March I really don't know. It is the south of france so maybe it'll be hot...who knows...it will be what it will be.

Right then..back to the business at hand. You may be confused....one post ago I was in Utah skiing (not while posting), and now I seem to be off to France????!!!? Yes! Life rocks..even more so with God *grin*

Lets get on with the update...

I left you with a bit of suspense at the end of the last blog...you wanna know what Dad bought me? Or how about the much cooler thing that happened? I'll start with the shopping (saving the best 'till last)

It's a new bass!!! A few years ago I was on my way up to Scotland with a couple of the guys to meet our scottish friends. We picked up someone called Marvin who I had never met before, and who also is a bass player. He told me about this thing called a "MusicMan" and how good they are..so I kept them in mind, having never heard of them before. Shortly after that I was in Sound Control when, lo and behold, there was a Musicman!! I immediatly asked the guy behind the counter if I could try it. His response? "So you want to have a go on one of the best basses in the world!?". Which was a good start I thought. I played it and instantly fell in love with it. It was soooo nice to play, and sounded sooooo good. Ohh yes baby! Ever since then, whenever I've seen one in a music vid or a bassist using one, it's not unheard of for me to cry "That's the bass I want!". While I was over in the Yoo Ess Eh last week I was owed some birthday/christmas money from Dad, and had a lil bit of money saved up, so was going to get one...finally! When I asked Dad how much my budget was he replied that he was going to buy the whole thing for me! I was gobsmacked! Thanks Dad!!! You're great!! (not that you're reading this). Anyways, got the bass, played it on monday night at worship practice and yesterday at another practice and it just sounds phenomenal...soooo smoooooooth. Ahhhh yeah.

Ahem...sad-bass-drooling-rant over.

Now for the even better thing that happened. Some of my more loyal readers have no doubt noticed that a regular commenter on my blog is
Mafia (aka "Lisa"). Since we started chatting through the blogs, Lisa has been out with us a few times over the past few weeks. During that time we got to know each other. Just a lil bit ;-). She's great, she's fab, she's amazing, and now, after both of us praying and giving the whole thing up to God...she's done me the huge honour of being my girlfriend.

And now she's running away home for Easter....nooooooooooo :( (never mind the fact that I'm goung to France :-P)

Aaaaaaanyways...so that was said news from previous post.

There is a *lot*of catching up to do, so I'm probably just going to be concise :-S

Skiing
Yep, went skiing. Most of the time we skiied there was just hard-pack snow (it hadn't snowed in 3 weeks) except for the last day when it snowed almost a foot and we were first up the mountain...mmm...skiing in snow up to your shins is sooo cool. I love skiing. Last day was the best cuz of snow which made it more challenging. Having flat downhills is fun for going fast, but quickly loses its appeal.

Salt Lake City...
...is full of mormons! This is the place we went skiing (not in the city itself...obviously), and the place we hung out. We ate food, and on St. Patrick's day I had a pint of Guiness to remember my Grandad by (I'm half Irish and my Grandad was fully Irish). He was great :)

Also saw a couple of movies; "The Jacket", which isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I quite liked it, and "Hostage" with Bruce Willis. Typical, fun, action, Bruce Willis movie :) Tried to get a wide-margin NKJV at "Harriet"'s request while I was over, but could only find a mormon bookshop which only mormon bibles and Catholic ones...not what I was looking for!

Weather Men - Can You Trust Them?
When it snowed on the Friday, the snow report said that there was 10" of snow everywhere except the 'Snowbird' resort which was reporting 4". Seeing as this was pretty much on the same mountain as the other resorts (indeed, it was right next to 'Alta' which was reporting 10"), we decided the weatherman was wrong and went to Snowbird. It was great! Nobody was there - I guess they believed the weather man and went elsewhere!!!! Beautiful powder up almost up to my knees..it was sooooooo much fun..much nicer to fall over in ;)

Serious Books?
When I go away, I like to try to catch up on some reading. This time I took "1984" by Orwell and "Brave New World" by Huxley. Been meadning to read "1984" for ages, but hadn't even heard of "Brave New World" until Lisa mentioned it. They were both really good! Really interesting, and scary at the same time...amazing how they've influenced culture and were really ahead of their time ("1984" was published around 1949, and "Brave New World" was published in the early 1930's!). I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who wants a deep book to read. They're not *that* long to read either :)

Afraid of Flying?
On the Saturday morning we had to fly from Salt Lake to Chicago, and then in the evening I was going back to England from Chicago. About 5 minutes after takeoff from Salt Lake, the captain came on the intercom:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may have noticed we are currently in a holding pattern. There is no cause for alarm, however currently we are unable to pressurise the main cabin..."

What!? It sounded much scarier than it was, and the result was that we had to fly around at 10,000ft for a couple of hours. This was so that we could breath @ 10,000 feet, and burn off fuel before landing back at Salt Lake. For reference, the top of one of the ski lifts during the week had a sign saying we were at 10,500 feet, so I wasn't worried about breathing. When we landed they had to check a door was shut properly (can't exactly do that in-flight!), do a bunch of tests, make us sit there for at least an hour, and then take off again. Ironically enough (and yes..it is ironic) our flight was overbooked, and we'd been offered $300 each and a later flight. We decided not to so that we could get there earlier, however if we had, we probably would have gotten to Chicago quicker, and $600 richer!!!

Fun!

Flying home that evening I had to trust the airline baggage handlers with my shiny new bass...it was traumatic I can tell you. Was quite worried that it would get to the other end in bits! Luckily, after some prayer to God (Lisa - thanks for praying xxx) I got to the UK with a whole bass intact! I walked through the "I have stuff to declare" corridor at Heathrow for the first time in my life, and paid import tax on it. Why didn't I just walk through and not pay?? Well, I've been wanting that bass for a very long time, and I really wanted to honour God for giving it to me. I really felt that it was right by God to pay the tax ("give to Caesar what is due to Caesar"). And besides, I didn't have to pay for the bass..what right have I to complain about paying only the tax on it (which came to about half the amount that my current bass cost 5 years ago!). I missed my bus back because we landed late, and had to catch a bus an hour later. I dashed home (after a lift from Adam - he's the man!), had a shower, and went to see My Girl for the rest of the avo/evening. It was sooo good to see her - that last week had been agony..I missed her so much :(

That was Sunday, and since then I've had Monday, Tuesday, and now today.

Monday
Back to work..but only for four days (not four days all on monday...four days spread over..uh..four days). I went straight from work to see Lisa. She cooked me a rather scrummy Black-Pepper chicken meal before I had to dash off to worship practice to christen my bass. I walked in, and immediately got laughed at for my burned, panda-eyed face (which, to be fair is pretty funny). I got my bass out and plugged it in, and as I was about to play it I looked up and there were about 5-10 people standing in front of me and staring at me....no pressure then! LoL. Had a lil play, and it sounded a bit better than the old one :-S however, as soon as I played a song with the full band I instantly heard how much better my Musicman sounds...ahhh yeah...it sounds soooo smooth! The difference is just amazing!! I love it :) so nice to play. And that was when God challenged me about it. I must admit I was putting a lot of value on the bass and wouldn't have dreamed of letting anyone else play it (they can play my old bass for heaven's sake!). So God told me to let Tim play it on Sunday when I'm not there...and...hard (oh so hard) as it was, I'm gonna let him. The bass is just a thing..and even more than that..it's not even my thing..it's God's! I'm glad God made me do it though, cuz it means that I know that God is the most important thing :)

All That Jazz

Tonight we've got an Alpha Course meal and they've advertised it as having some light 'Jazz' entertainment. Little did we know that we are the 'Jazz' band! We've never really played Jazz before at all, so "Harriet" worked with us a bit and we went through a few songs. Instead of my usual piano lesson on Tuesday, "Harriet" worked with me on some of the harder basslines for tonight - we're just gonna blag our way through the rest! It's scary, but gonna be great fun...always fun to play new stuff that pushes you *grin*

"Harriet" also mentioned which next new song we're probably gonna do at worship...it's such a good song..I love it. Must figure it out though *grin* I get a real buzz out of successfully figuring out basslines just from listening to it - I guess cuz I've never been any good at it, and now that I can kinda do it, it's exciting!!

Last night I went round to Lisa's again - she's going home for two weeks today :'( so had to make the most of it. We met up with Lucy & Mark for a bit, and went for a drink with them. I had Subway on the way back - haven't had one in ages...mmm...turkey, ham, salad, mustard and mayo...sooo good.

Right - I guess that's a long enough update...I've been adding to it near enough all day (on and off between work!)

Listening to: Delirious - "Majesty (Here I Am)" (World Service)

Book recommendation that every Christian man needs to read: "Wild At Heart" (by John Eldredge)

Thursday, March 17

You, Ess, Eh!!

Well, here I am in the You Ess of Eh.

On Friday night we went dry slope skiing with youth which was cool. Didn't wear my knee support, and my knee started aching. This was a good thing because I knew to use my knee suport, and when I've been skiing it's been fine! At youth they also had inflatable gladiator and stuff while we went skiing, so they all had fun. Popped in for 5 mins to say goodbye, and then went home to pack :-S Finished that at about 0230am (I think) and then went to sleep.

Catchphrase for packing: "You can never have enough underwear" (I always pack enough for 2 on each day - overkill some might say, but not if you're skiing in one set during the day ;-) )

Caught the 0630 coach, which didn't leave from the bus station!! Just about managed to run around the corner to catch it on time. I slept through that, and so the 2hrs felt like a 15 min journey..bargain!

Got to the airport and couldn't check in cuz I was too early (4 hours early for my flight), so read for a bit, then spent about 45 mins checking in. I had to do some shopping for Dad (aftershave) and I got some cigarettes for mum (cough, cough). I have given up trying to get her to quit - she's tried lots of times, so all I can do now is just make it cheaper for her :-S

Got on the gate *after* boarding had started..that was the easiest 4 hours at an airport I've ever had! Oh yeah..I forgot to mention - I got a free upgrade to "World Traveller PLUS". That basically meant a slightly more comfy seats and loads more leg room! Yay - was soooo cool.

When you go to america, you genearlly have to fill out 2 cards. One for customs to say you're not bringing anything in with you that you need to pay tax on and one for a visa if you're a foreigner. Because I'm a dual citizen (UK/USA), I don't need the second one. The first one asks for an address where you're staying, and I didn't really know, so I put "Unknown". I then had a conversation with the immigration officer about this...

Officer: "Why are you here?"
T: "Uhm, to see my dad?"
O: "Why haven't you put an address on here?"
T: "My dad just bought a condo in Chicago, and I don't know the address"
O: [condecending tone] "Do you know a number you could reach daddy on?"
T: "Uhm, no"
O: "So what happens if daddy isn't waiting for you..how are you gonna get him?"
T: "Well, that has happened in the last 15 years when he's picked me up, so I don't think it's gonna happen"

Grrr, I was sooo annoyed at him. It wasn't what he said, just the way that he treated me like a brat.....GRRRRRRRR @ him.

Anyways, got through customs, went outside to meet "Daddy"...and he wasn't there!!!! I'm not sure if that's ironic, but it's kinda funny. I waited around for a few minutes because I'd gone through customs really quickly. Then I realised I had a mobile phone number for dad. It was quite old, and he doesn't really do mobiles, but I tried it anyways. He anwered! There are two meeting areas, and he'd gone to the wrong one...phew.


All was good, and went to Dad's condo. It's soooooo cool. It's an apartment on the 12th floor with really cool city views. I'll try to post some photos when I get home.

Since then, we've come to Utah for skiing with Dad. I'll explain more later.

Oh yeah..when we got to Utah, we went 'shopping' and Dad bought me the COOOLEST thing for my b'day/Christmas present. The only thing I'm saying is that it's initials are MS5, and it has 5 strings. Mwaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Something much cooler happened too, but again, I'll fill you in on that later :)

Listening to: Keys Clicking

Friday, March 11

Victory is Mine!

Wow, has it really been that long since Monday!? It feels like it was much longer. I think even Tom has posted more often than me this week!! Right, down to business...boring stuff - me!

Monday night was worship practice. We carried on with "Geoff-Geffo's" song and then did some practice for Tim who is leading the praise on Sunday! Since I'm not there on Sunday, "Geoff-Geoffo" went on bass, and, because it was free, I decided to have a bash at joining in on piano. There were only 4 chords in the song, but it was good fun! All through the evening I was having a Dilemma, and was trying to chat to God about it. The day after "Harriet" sent me a text asking if I was okay - "Harriet" is sooo cool...he's a really good friend and a real blessing to me - THANKS "HARRIET" (even though you can't hear...and you probably don't know that you're called "Harriet" ;-) ). Anyways, I decided to just go home after worshp practice and chat on MSN for a bit..then..sleep..mmm.

Tuesday was work as per usual, then I had my piano lesson with "Harriet". In a couple of weeks the worship team has been asked to do some entertainment/Jazz stuff for a meal they're holding at church to round off the Alpha Course. Since "Harriet" is the only one who can play that kind of stuff to any standard, I suggested we have a bit of a practice and he could show me some basslines. It was quite fun, but I think I've forgotten a lot if it already! However, he did also show me some blues scales which I do remember *grin*. After that a bunch of us went to the cinema to see "Are We There Yet". The acting was...uh...crap, the storyline was predictable, yet the film was okay if you get into it. Kiddy film though. Uhm..what then? Dropped people off home and got some sleep eventually, LoL.

Wednesday - again - work. I think I've failed to mention that I've still got this sore throat, which has turned into a horrible tickly cough! Grrrr! After work I went home, showered, and then went out to a friend's for some food....mmm....honey chilli chicken gooooooooood. Then we watched "Jeepers Creepers". I'd heard it was rubbish, so I was actually just taking the mick through most of it, and also lost the plot after the half-way mark. From what I hear, it goes downhill from there anyways. Now I am *finally* in a position to watch Jeepers Creepers 2, which my bro bought aaaages ago, but I never watched cuz I hadn't seen the first one.

Thursday...nothing doing on Thursday, so I put some washing on at home and went shopping. Did I mention I'm going to Chicago tomorrow to see my dad? Meeting him in Chicago, and then going skiing in Salt Lake City!!! Yay! Well, we agreed that we'd swap Christmas pressies in March when I saw him, instead of sending stuff back and forth over the Atlantic. The shopping was in aid of getting stuff for family over there. Decided that I have no clue what size t-shirts my two bros will need in america, so will get them skate-tops when I'm over there when I can get the right size at a cheaper price. Did get myself a nice red Animal top though ;-) heh heh. Overall, a nice chilled evening last night :)

This is probably going to be my last blog until I get back from the US...even if I find an internet café, I might not blog...or maybe I will :-P

Just read Mafia's blog, and she's talking about bacon butties *stomach rumbles* - *Tristan looks around* - was that you??? :-P I'm thinking I'm gonna have a nice, unhealthy lunch seeing as I'll be getting lots of exercise skiing next week...yeah..that's a good excuse to eat The Bad Food two days in a row.

I'd better stop before I get too silly - I'm getting a bit hyper now just thinking of the fooood...mmmmmm. Have a good week everybody!!!

Listening to: Christina Aguilera - "Fighter" (Stripped)

Thursday, March 10

This Week I Have Mostly Been Listening To...

..U2's new album - "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb"

I've borrowed the new album (and since I like it, it's now been ordered from play.com and should be waiting for me when I get home). It was alright when I first got it, but it's growing quite a lot on me. There's one song in particular that I just love. I usually fall for songs for the music/singing, and then listen to the lyrics..LoL. It's just great - track 3 - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own". The verse has a nice chilled bass playing, and the chorus is just lush - some typical U2 guitary stuff going on, but it almost sends a shiver down my spine..it just sounds great!

Right - that's it for now - I'll do a proper blog some time soon. I'm off on hols on Saturday, so hopefully before then..or you've all got a looooong time to wait! :-P

Listening to: U2 - "Yaweh" (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)

Tuesday, March 8

Lunchtime

When I was on my placement year at HP, we used to have the best canteen. It had really great food for muchos cheap prices. The pie and the sausages were best...mmm. I think there was some kind of pudding I really liked too, but can't remember...maybe it was the apple crumble. During our lunch break we used to eat food (*shock*), and the go for a walk and a chat. This was partly because HP had a nice walk around it with some tress and grass and stuff, and partly so that the smokers could smoke. It was really nice in the summer. Since working in Keynsham I've never been for a walk at lunchtime, simply because everyone sits around chatting. This lunchtime I decided that I just wanted to get out and have a walk and chat to God about some stuff..so I did! Keynsham is a small town just outside Bristol, and my work is just outside Keynsham..so we're pretty much in the country. For reference, there is a cabbage field next to the carpark, and we regularly have to squeeze past tractors on our way down the lane to the main road.

I wandered down the lane and turned towards Keynsham. I noticed straight away that Keynsham cemetary was on my left - practically next door to the office!! I've been here 18 months and never noticed that before. Hmm. I decided to wander around the cemetary. I don't know why, but it's kindof peaceful to just wander around, and look at the gravestones. So many stories, so many memories. I think it's partly because cemeteries are generally peaceful places, and I just wanted a bit of peace and quiet so I could chat with God.

My old 6th form is right next to a cemetary, and when I was in the first year of 6th form and I was a bit stressed or feeling low, I'd just go for a walk in the cemetary. This was before I became a Christian. I remember I was upset one day and needed to get out, so I went for the cemetary. I was wondering around, reading the stones when a thought struck me. What's the point? Why bother with life? I'm gonna struggle for 75 years and then all that's left of me is this lump of stone with my name on - if I'm lucky! As I said, I wasn't a Christian at that point, and I kinda thought that when we died it then there was nothing. Nowt. Zip. We'd just cease to be. This really got to me, and really scared me. I didn't like the thought of just going to nothing - death was frightening. It probably didn't help that I used to be screwed up emotionally (loads of ups and downs), and looking back on it, I think I suffered from mild depression - I was not a happy 16 year old really!

Today, as I was wondering around the cemetary I just had a peace that I can only describe as coming from God. I looked at all the engravings on the stones and remembered what I used to think; what's the point in life? this is all that will be left, and it really showed me how much God's done for me. Wheras before, the graves showed me that "this little lump of rock" is all I could ever hope to achieve, now they show me a reason to live. They say things like "a wonderful and devoted husband and father" and "was dearly loved and will be sorely missed". These words aren't engraved just on gravestones, they're engraved on people's hearts. Some of these people had a huge effect on people's lives, and will be remembered for a very long time. Most of all, these words are engraved on God's heart. He was there when you were conceived. He was there when you took your first step, your first word, your first kiss. He's there for everything and I want nothing but to have these words about me engraved on His heart when I die. He is my everything, my all; I cannot be without Him, and I cannot be scared by death any more because He's taken it away.

I think I'm going to walk more often.

Monday, March 7

Update, UPdate...

Go on Tom...name the tune for that title....I bet you could ;-)

Right...last thing you heard was Thursday (besides my petition....Tom...). What did I do Thursday night? Ahhh yes..that was it, I was meant to have a busy schedule of very musical nature...meant to give Dan a bass lesson, followed by me having a piano lesson with "Harriet" and then a band practice. Bass lesson was quite cool - managed to teach Dan the intro for "Dancing Generation"...hurts his hand a lot tho, so will take lots of practice...which is good, cuz I gave it to him to strengthen his hand up a bit doing something that's fun....

****I think this is the point where I caught something that's been giving me a sore throat all weekend****

"Harriet" couldn't make the piano lesson, which was good because it meant I could go home and eat some food before band practice. Band practice was actually really, really fun...we continued doing a song that I made a funky bassline to. For a little pre-chorus bit I couldn't figure out what to do, so just did this disco-octaves thing, and it actually sounds really cool! LoL...kills my hand to play it for too long tho (which is good cuz then it gives me something cool to strengthen my hand with!). When we practice on Thursdays, dance is on at the same time, so we just to into a back room with a few guitars (4 of them) and go through the songs. We managed to get some time on the stage for half an hour after dance this time which was good. Then we went to the pub for a quick drink before I headed home.

Friday wasn't too bad at all. Work is getting quite interesting at the mo. I got some database stuff to do now that I've done the DBA course...people keep saying "Tri-i-i-iss, you know you did that DBA course....". It's kinda cool..I like having 'inside' knowledge..helps me keep my job *evil cackle*.

Dave had his last day at work on Friday..he's pretty glad to see the back of our work. He'd had a pretty stressful time of it (which is why he quit), and ever since he'd handed in his notice he's been a lot more cheerful. I think he's going into contracting now.

That evening, I managed to pursuade Mafia to come along to our Youth Club...I'm pretty sure she was petrified, but she did ever so well - it's pretty scary just meeting a few new people, let alone 80-90 new youth!!!! Afterwards we tried to go to Pizza Hut, but because we got there half and hour before closing (it was 11:30-ish pm), and there were about 15 of us, they respectfully told us to clear off unless we wanted take-away. So we went back to church for a bit. I tried to eat all of my chips, but ended up giving them to Phoebe (who wasn't hungry and doesn't like chips from that shop, but ate them anyways..LoL). Dropped people back home - had a good conversation with Mafia on the way back too.

SLEPT

Saturday was my shopping day - got some nice Sennheiser headphones for my stepdad's birthday, and some more in-ear ones for my mum (her ones broke recently). In the avo had a proper band practice. We were doing the song that Tom & I wrote for the Sunday "Let Us Entertain You Service" and needed to work on it. It was very productive and we got some stuff done for the "disco-ocave" song too. Was absolutely shattered when I got home that evening. Managed to chill for a bit, and then ended up going to see "Hide And Seek" at the cinema with Mafia , Loz & Babs. It was certainly an entertaining film..had some v.funny bits in it. Had a Maccy D's afterwards (I was starvin'!), and then dropped Mafia off home before chatting online briefly.

Sunday - My alarm wasn't working!!!! I tested it this avo and it just didn't go off! I was meant to be at church by 9:45 for the sound check - I usually aim for 9:30. I woke up this morning to a clatter from downstairs, glanced over to the clock, and it said 9:30!!!! AAAAArgh. I had a headache too, and my throat was still rough too. Man, it was rough going this morning. Went down for some ministry during the worship too - was sooo good to just let God minister to me - I don't get the chance that often cuz of the fact that I'm pretty much always on bass, and the times during worship practice when we just have ministry are really precious. I really should spend more time with God at home too :-S

Went home in the avo. Managed to get a card before I went home to give to Mum for mother's day and for my step-dad for his b'day. When I gave my step-dad his headphones he hooked them up to his new minidisc player. He seemed a bit dubious about how good they were going to be with a lil minidisc, but the first words out of his mouth were "Wow! That sounds amazing!". He's gone back to Cambridge now, but He sent me a really nice email earlier saying how much he likes the headphones! Mum liked her new headphones too - step-dad had been spending the avo trying to fix her old ones, but now didn't need to cuz I'd bought mum the new ones! All in all, a good present-giving session!

I think I had the headache cuz I was dehydrated a bit, so I drank a pint of water, ate some shepherds pie and went to sleep for an hour or so before church in the evening. Church was good - we did our song. We were introduced as "Tim's Band" cuz Sara didn't know what to call us. We're kindof a youth band, but Sara thought we had just formed a band, so we're now a band! LoL. Everyone said they quite liked the song...no pressure then! We have to write more songs now!! Someone came up with the band name of "Suggestions in a Box", and someone else came up with "Electric Tigers" (or something) - but Tom and myself thought that one screamed "Gay", LoL.

After church most people went to the pub, but I wasn't really in the mood, plus I'd promised one of the youth that I'd take them to Pizza Hut, so four of us went to Pizza Hut. It was quite cool, but the service was unusally terrible! They kept forgetting stuff, hadn't cooked a lasagne properly, didn't give us our student discount..loads of stuff! Then I came home, came online and started chatting on MSN/blogging!

Now I need to sleep desperately!

Listening to: Nothing

Friday, March 4

Petition For Tom To Post On His Blog

Ladies & Germs (and guys too...),

Due to an ongoing discussion on Tom's Blog at the bottom of his latest post, I have decided to start a petition to get Tom to update his blog. He is being pedantic and insisting that comments count as updates. Any attempts to ask him to update are being 'counted' as updating. This must stop! Tom is a Blog Leech - continually reading and commenting on people's blogs while hardly ever updating his own.

Please help stop this madness by adding a comment agreeing with the following terms being set forth to the guilty party.

1) Tom should start blogging more regularly - at least one new post a week.
2) Tom should strive to improve on this target
3) Tom should get a haircut (have you seen how big it is recently!?)

Okay, so 3) is optional....but please, let your vote count - sign the petition now!

Listening to: Feeder - "Pain On Pain" (Pushing The Senses)

Thursday, March 3

No Sleep And Much Caffeine Make Tristan Something, Something

Go Crazy? Don't mind if I do! *%^&BLLLLLLL££$£"$$$)(*!~}{::.#][:

Well again, here I am. It's lunchtime again, and nobody's here! They all had to go to some company meeting in Abbey Wood (MoD place in Filton), but I had to stay behind and do support. Aww, shucks...I really, really wish I could sit through a boring company meeting.

Me, me, me...what's happened to me in the last 24 hours? Well, I got home from work yesterday and, *shock*, went for a run! Yes - I went for a run. I left at around 16:30 and got back about 10-15 mins later feeling completely dead! The good news is that I was wearing a knee support and so my knee is fine! Yay, back to my 'getting fit again' plan. Hopefully it'll strengthen my knee a bit too for when I go skiing :-S it would suck more than anything in the world if I went to see Dad to go skiing and couldn't ski. Got home, collapsed on my bed and wheezed for a bit whilst trying to drink water. After my shower though I felt much better. It's amazing how a run and a shower can make you feel really energised!

I got changed and headed into town to meet up with
Nathan at Pizza Express. Had some kind of chicken pizza which they put prawns on instead. Not quite what I asked for, but I wanted something new, and that's what I got! We met up with Mike for the Doves concert after that. I don't get to see him that often since we left uni, so it was a good chance to catch up with him. He recommended me for a job at his place a while back, but I had to decline an interview because it's in Gloucester and I really can't be doing with all that travelling - I don't have enough time as it is! The support band were called 'HAL'. They weren't too bad - average really. Nothing special; didn't get the crowd involved at all though, so not amazing for a live band. The Doves were pretty good; they kept switching instruments and stuff, and finished up with them all doing some percussion and stuff. They were very loud tho...yes..very loud. And I'm not just getting old - my 17yr old bro said the same..and he's like...17!

I stayed up VERY late last night...I think I'm getting an addiction to MSN :-S LoL

Today I'm at work acting a bit crazy and not quite making sense when I'm trying to fix stuff...thought that might not be that much different from my normal state of mind.

Right - back to work I guess. I've got a bit of a busy evening tonight. I'm leaving work at 4pm, and hoping to grab an hour's worth of sleep. Then I'm off to Dan's to give him a bass lesson at 5:30. At 6:30 I've got a Piano lesson with "Harriet" up at the church, and then a band practice at 7:30. When that finishes, I think we're going for a drink with Lucy to celebrate that she (finally) passed her driving test!

And, to conclude, there's a very funky Cheshire Cat out there that I need to give a shout out to. I'm not quite sure what a "shout out" is, and I think people in the office wouldn't apprecate the noise much right now, so I'm just going to say "Hallllooooooooooooooooooo" *waves* "Can you see me from the back?"

Listening to: Vineyard - "With You" (Surrender)

Wednesday, March 2

Back To The Grind

Well, here I am once again. I pour out my heart cuz I know that you're there. Every word; you are reading, no matter what state my spelling is in. You are faithful to comment, with words that are true and some text that makes fun. As I see, your words, you bring a freedom to make me laugh loud. In the safety, of this place....etc...

And yes..here I am..blogging. It's my lunchbreak and it was cold in the canteen, so I came back to my computer. My boss (one of them :-S) was asking how my running was going. I told him my knee is dodgey (which it was the last 2 times I went) and he laughed. It's been about 2 months since I ran, so I reckon I'll try to go for a run tonight when I get home :)

Monday worked out well - I've got a tidier room now, lots of clean clothes, and I'm not (that) tired - yay! In the evening was worship practice and we learned Geoff-Geoffo's song that he wrote which isn't too bad. We also re-learned a song for the "Let Us Entertain You" (evangelism) evening that we're doing on Sunday...it's "
I Knew You Were Waiting For Me" by George Michael. We've done it before - I enjoy playing it cuz it's got a kinda funky bassline. I tried playing it with my fingers this time and could pretty much do it (last time we did it, I couldn't even *begin* to play it)! I'm gonna stick with my plectrum when we do it on Sunday tho cuz it'll be more consistent. OOooooh, almost forgot to mention, I also went to look at the house that I'm going to be sharing with Joe (+two random people) when I move out in the summer, and got to choose my room (I'll post photos of it when I get more time). Yay!

Got back to work yesterday and the other support guy wasn't in (day off), and I also had lots of catching up to do, so the day flew by. Didn't really get to have a look at any of the stuff I'd learned last week, but it's all good. I've been doing a little bit of fiddling...tiz fun! Bought a lil SQL Pocket Guide on Saturday in town (forgot to mention that) and have been reading chunks of that...it's really interesting. I've actually been reading some of it in work and saying "Ohhhhh, that's how you do that", closely followed by people giving me strange looks.

In the evening I tried to organise cinema to see Ocean's 12 and, yet again, didn't manage to see it! That's 3 times in a row now! Half the people have seen it, and Nige was organising to see "Coach Carter" instead, so I went to see that instead...had a fair crowd of us in the end! The film was quite decent! Samual L Jackson is always good though, so I shouldn't be surprised. The film started at 7, but By the time I had dropped everyone off home and got my Miss Millies (mmm - Megabite Meal Deal), it was 10pm! Went online for a bit, munched a bit, read for a bit and went to sleep. For a bit. I actually got to sleep before midnight (which is good for me!), and as a reward, when I woke up this morning I felt really, REALLY tired! Great! I love it when a plan comes together.

Today's not been too bad so far. Have managed to use some of my new funky SQL skills, and DBA skills...heh heh. Tonight I'm going to see the
Doves at the Colston Hall with Nath, Mike, my bro and his mate James. Nath and myself are going for food at Pizza Express first (mmm) and I have no idea who's supporting them! Mike is going to meet us there at some point before it starts (he's at uni until 6:30/7pm or something silly like that) and I have no idea where we're going to meet my bro. Inside I guess? Who knows.

I've just realised that I've been sitting here for half an hour doing my blog with my earphones in, but no music playing!! I'm not blond...honest. I'm brunette. No, really.

Hmm, anything else? Ohhh yeah! I may have mentioned before our silly lunchtime conversations at work? Well I was telling someone recently about one of them that involved cats and elephants being thrown off buildings. Apparently if you throw a cat off of a building higher than 7 stories it will survive (I thought it was 9, but I have been corrected by Ben) ! No matter how high. It's to do with terminal velocity and stuff. Anyways, bizzarely enough (after talking to someone about it recently), it got mentioned at lunchtime again:

[everyone is talking about the new office we'll be moving to that's in the other building and Tris is looking confused]
Ben: Tris! I just realised you weren't there last week when we got shown around the new office!
Tris: Ooooh, is it nice?
Ben: Yeah, it's got a nice cupboard for the support team, a lil meeting room off the side, and access to the roof for when everything gets too much
Richard: Unfortunately, it's just high enough that you'd probably only break your legs, but not die.
Tris [to Ben]: So it'd kill a cat then?
[Ben & Tris laugh]
[Richard looks puzzled]
[Ben explains]
[Andy proposes aquiring a supply of cats and founding a new research division]
[Tris suggests that we know the answer for cats, but not Elephants...how hard is it to get Elephants?]
[etc...]

Yeah, so that was lunch before I came back to blog. Now it's 1pm, so I'd better get on with some work

Listening to: Doves - "Pounding" (The Last Broadcast)