Well campers I guess it is time I do update the blog, after comments from Thursday night where I was asked why I hadn’t updated in so long.

Truth be told other things have taken a priority. Uni with assignments for Systems Analysis, Network Concepts had to be completed, and I have got to make a major start now on the PHP MySQL Website, I have the information I need to make a basic site atm, and it is just a case of sifting through all the rubbish to achieve my goal, well finishing the project, World Domination will just have to wait.

But I suspect that only two or three of you want to hear about Computer stuff, the rest want the juicy gear as to what I going on in Funkytown out and about and also to catch up with what happened in London, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry and even Ruthin.

Yes over the past couple of weeks, I have gone across England, and a tiny bit of Wales, in search of S**ts and giggles. I tell you what, with all that has been going on, I suppose I could write an autobiographical masterpiece, hell I counted the words of the blog using Word (and 5 spare minutes at work!! : ), and found that since the start of the blog which was end of August, or roundabouts I had already gone over 14,000 words, and Chris Moyles’ autobiography (which I have just purchased and reading the first bit of it, it is very funny) was around 70,000 words.

I admit a lot of it is waffle and a lot can be got rid of, but events that have taken place in my life had been described in great detail. Perhaps a year in the life of….. Book, of just one person who isn’t famous, lives out his meagre existence, just going here there, meeting various characters and enjoying. The “adventure” is chronicled and then all nicely separated into 12 chapters each for a month of the year. Of course the back story to me some of it would have to be there in order for some of it to make sense, which regrettably and in a few cases painfully, will bring back some of the ghosts from the past only one of which has actually been documented, there are many other cases where I and other people have been right so-and-so’s which, well for the moment, enough said. I know I would lose friends. Any any case, it does sound like a plan, and indeed one I will investigate further.

In the meantime Let’s play blockbusters!!

26th October, 8pm. I had met with Natalie to have some dinner at a pizza place in Shrewsbury before travelling down to London on the train. The tickets were booked quite late in the night travelling as I thought college / Uni / Evil lair would be on that week, but when it came to it, it was Half term! DOH! We got to Birmingham for the change and had a brief wander round as it’s been quite a while since I had last been there, Natalie loved the place, with the City lit up and the fountain by the library. Of course there were no people about, and it was just all good, despite getting tired. We were staying at one of her friend’s flats who lived in the docklands and because we were arriving at one in the morning at Euston (I buggered it up a bit!) we would be getting a taxi. We had lots of fun driving past canary wharf, and then getting lost up and down the same road because the one bloody road we were looking for wasn’t signposted! YARRR! Despite this, we were only charged 25 quid for the whole lot which is absolutely fantastic for London really, you would expect the cabbies to be robbing b******ds, but no the one we had was nothing short of brilliant. Squire, I salute you.

Having got to the flat we just settled down for the night on a nice air bed on her friends room, which bleeding escapes me what her name is. Think dammit think! Right where was I? ah yes, we awoke the next day, all tired and happy, and had a jolly good natter with (insert name here when you can remember what her name was!!) all about how she’s enjoying London, the fact that 6 people live in the same place, the gigs that go on, etc. The view was nice, with the Dome viewable. Is it me, or could the dome be turned upside down and turned into a huge wok? The world biggest stir fry…hmmmmm

Our quest for the holy foreign passport of woe lay before us this day. We would fight many foes plundering said treasure from the clutches of Balddourzer, lord of the Passport underworld. True, he send his minions upon us, but we will crush them, and find out truly who is number one…or something similar.

You see, the Department of Work and Pensions , the great people that they are, you know you love them, lost her passport and then proceeded to blame it on the post. Therefore she had to travel to the embassy down London way and fill out huge amounts of paperwork. The place is small, busy packed with other nationals, kids screaming (universal language there it seems), and I had a chance to see what the fuss of vinous is about. Looks nice at least….umm, that’s about it. Wait hang on, they are all into Jazz in a big way. And some of the Lithuanian women are smoking my friends, Oh yes, it appears that a fair few women who turned up that day were pleasing to the eye. Makes you wonder about other countries doesn’t it? Mentioned this to Natalie, who agreed. Absolutely bizarre, that I can carry on perving away at women, making all sorts of comments and Nat joins in!! Every man’s dream!!

After a lot of running around for forms, new passport photos because the size is wrong or something stupid like that, she finally got told the news that it would be 2 months till it was ready! God bless burecracy! Which even better means that she is here over new year!! Proper Bo selecta! Granted though it seems I am delaying the heartache of when she goes, but the whole point of this is that I have no idea what I am going to do. It may carry on regardless, which as it stands I hope it does. We spent the rest of the day walking around London, we took in the national art gallery, which had Van Gogh’s Sunflowers on show, which was nice! Here’s Nat outside, who looked like a bleeding Eskimo for most of the day:

For someone who comes from a cold country, she is constantly freezing over here, and it isn’t any where near as bad. Asked about this and apparently there are different kinds of cold. Wet cold and dry cold for instance. Sounds like Bollocks to me…
Anyway, we walked by the Thames at night, had a look a the big hamster wheel they put up by Parliament, Watched a video on a big screen as it was the Times’ Film Festival down there, the film was shit. Asbo boy legging it from three people who looked alike. WOW! I could do something better if you shoved a mop up my arse and I was bouncing on a trampoline. Along the way, we saw a classical band performing in convent garden of which a picture is here.

They were great chasing people around still playing their fiddles, and had a bloody good natter. We got back to Shrewsbury about 1 in the morning again! Oswestry at 2am. Twas long but well worth it.

Enough of this mushy shite. I am a man, I do manly things. I fart, belch, swear, leer at women, and have laughs at people’s expense. Right now I am in the zone! Go forth my children, spread the good word of the Hughes.

The rest of the weekend past without too much excitement I guess, except, for one or two moments. The next exciting thing on the horizon was of course Shrewsbury, and our monthly outing to Liquid to “boogie” and get home with the downies or is that the other way around? There were indeed a few highlights of note from that night. One, I managed to convince Chris Hancock to actually come out to Shrewsbury for the first time in ages, he has been the butt of many jokes (not just the name, sports fans…?) because at the last minute he always found something better to do. Our ranks had swelled. Another fact was that Laura, a lovely woman I must say, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, had said she’s getting divorced and made it clear, on numerous occasions throughout the night, and even now, she was single again. At first I thought it was a joke, and said yeah, yeah, blah, blah, insert sexist comment here there, then she held up her hand to show no wedding ring. I became a shop window dummy.

I had sneaky suspicions for a while after we had seen husband and wife together, but just thought ah, tis marriage, it’s meant to be shit. And then after seeing and hearing this, the 1st thought I had was, there is a god. 2nd thought, can’t and won’t do anything about it. 3rd thought, more booze. Anyhoo, a good night was had by all, and another of the highlights for me was grabbing both Laura’s and Natalie’s arses at the same time at the bar. Think I could chalk that down as a tick in the box of life!! Had to mention it because I still can’t believe I got to do it! I feel like the fonz.

The next day, we were around Shrewsbury, getting a few bits and bobs before heading to Mancot and then to Liverpool, the three stooges, Larry, curly and everyone’s favourite, Mo. I even managed to get us lost twice, once before even getting to Liverpool (which was nice) and when actually at Liverpool, (which was even nicer!) We got to the academy and took our places at the stage. Place was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but then again it did make for a more intimate and fun gig. The first band, which was called Duke Special, who I think it, is safe to say no-one has heard of, but who were actually very good. Two men, a piano and a drum kit. And this strange looking thing on a stick which the guy who played drums banged away (if you will pardon the expression) for one of the songs, was a load of instruments all duct taped on, and it was fantastic to see and hear!! Then of course the main event: The Divine Comedy

Now I had seen some of their set from earlier in the year at the V festival, you lot may remember the pictures (if not go a few pages on the blog to find them) and I was impressed then. A full set however was fantastic, with a few surprises, they did two requests of songs from their back catalogue, Neil Hannon had forgotten the words and even half the tune to the frog princess, and said “That’s why we have set-lists!” Just hearing Something for the Weekend, Die a Virgin, More Like Alfie (which was the muse for one of the blog entries) along with The Plough, Mother Dear and of course the one song which most people seem to know them for, National Express which was a huge singing session, it was just a fantastic Saturday night out! Sorry for no pictures but someone (who shall remain nameless at the moment till I get it back) didn’t give me back the digital camera, and camera phones are crap. Matt liked it, and it also meant he got out of the house instead of staying in all the time. Natalie had never known a venue like it. Well, guess you could take that one of two ways really, couldn’t you? ?

After a hearty dirty meat meal from a kebab place we went back, as other people who were going to go out, all decided to not venture out. Some for money, and the rest, well, f**k knows really. Never mind. Breakfast at tiffany’s (Mancot) the next day and we all went home. Ah, twas truly something for the Weekend, my friends.

This week, passed without too much incident until the Thursday. Had to complete the Systems Analysis assignment, and spoke to Sian Tuesday, who had indicated that a birthday out with Ruth and Laura (not camp, by the way, this Laura is from Ruthin, there is back story there with her, but as I can’t arsed typing, we won’t go into her. Don’t worry, there is not really much there at all, it just sounded good at the time of writing) was taking place. I was informed of this, but as Ruth had not contacted me, I wasn’t going. The one thing you don’t do is go to someone’s birthday night out unless you are invited by the birthday person. It just seems rude. Then again, that hasn’t stopped me in the past. That changed however at around 9:30am Thursday morning, when I received a message indicating that my presence was required. I had college then, and wasn’t sure if I could finish in time to go. Then as luck would have it, things did actually work out (my, one could say “what a coincidence, Paul just happens to be free at that point, isn’t life weird”, to which I reply “Could you point out the point at where I start caring?”), and I made my merry way to sunny Wales.

Saw Dave there, which was a welcome sight, hadn’t seen or heard from him in yonks. Hello Dave, hope the car is as good as you hoped! There we are, I have done the nice message which only Dave will understand. Isn’t padding out text fun? Anyway, also met some other people I have never seen before, and whom I got the impression merely tolerated my presence. Guess the Stranger from the outside mentality of the olde villages is still rife. Saw of course Ruth, Sian and Laura, though it was quite amusing that I hardly said a word to Ruth for most of the evening. Laura was drunk and wondering why her love life was crap. Sian and I did the talking bit. It wasn’t the best night I must confess, but at least I saw a few faces I hadn’t seen in a while, and that was good in itself. People asked about Natalie, to which I responded as best I could.

Friday, after work, found Splinter Cell 4 on my desk, and also as a side note really here, got sworn into the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. Like the freemasons except less handshakes and murders. Cheers Keith, you really got me scared with the whole ceremony thing, and when the blindfold came out, thought, yep, gonna be killed. The best part about that is I swore an oath to not write about or tell anyone about the inner workings.

Hmm, am I honourable?

NAHHHH! Except in this one instance. I signed up to see what it was like, after all they are came to Uncle Dave’s funeral last year, and performed a small ceremony at the church. It was beautiful and as such Keith, had mentioned them an awful lot. Uncle Dave was a member of them too, so I at long last agreed to see how it goes. Wish me luck!!

See what can happen if you just say yes? Bottom line after all this, life is only what you make of it yourself. This is why I do so much that I can actually write about, I make it interesting. And by just doing different things, you can get both unexpected surprises and rewards. Be they good or bad, it’s fantastic, and I sincerely hope there is a lot more to come. Right now, I am off to play Splinter Cell 4. You’all come back now ya hear!

Space Adventurer signing off.