Wednesday 12 May 2010

Drawing to an end

IT HAS BEEN a while since I last updated my blog, but now Uni for the year is drawing to an end. Scarily it is now two weeks since I finished all my work for the year! I have been keeping myself busy though. Last week I helped out with ITN with ITV News election coverage, which was really interesting and great experience! As well as this I have been sorting out lots of other bits and pieces, as well as my new job presenting on tynefm.com. You can listen to me on weekdays between 4 and 6pm!

The weekend before last weekend was rather dull, as everyone went home in the flat! At least it gave me time to sort some more on my trip to Australia sorted though, I am off in just over two weeks now, so excited!

I have recently been making up for all the hard work though the year, starting with last Sunday when we went to Alton Towers. Then on Monday we went to Kiss at the MEN Arena, which was pretty cool! Taking Dawn where supporting and they were good too.

Then today I have been to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and on all the rides! All of us from my flat went so was really good day. Nathan doesn’t really like rollercoaster’s or rides in general; however we got him on a few things! Despite numerous attempts though we didn’t get him on Pepsi max, which was probably my favourite ride.



Pic thanks to FishyFish


When Nathan went home as usual last weekend he decided, as Ben had his girlfriend over which can cause trouble that he had better padlock his cupboard. I think it was probably a good idea, though Ben did attempt to burn the padlock for a while. It didn’t really achieve much though other than a boiling hot padlock and a smouldered cupboard!

I will be sad when the uni year is over as had a really good set of flat mates and another great year! Only around two weeks left now until we all move out and then I will be back here again next September! At least I have my auss trip to look forward too! :-)

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Uni done for another year!

WELL IT HAS been a busy few days and a good weekend but now all my uni work is in for another year! Apart from the work I have also been up quite a few other bits and bobs!

We had a nice BBQ on Saturday which was rather nice. Think with the nice weather suddenly a lot of people thought it was a good idea, as we weren’t on our own! Anyway after it slowly got started it was reasonably successful and we cooked a good load of food.

Then last night we went for Frankie and Bennie Monday Madness, 25% of your bill brilliant! Still not the cheapest but we had really nice meal, we were all really stuffed after that! I convinced Nathan to buy a 15” pizza which was meant to be for families, but he didn’t read that bit. Unsurprisingly he didn’t finish it, but it was a laugh.

And with the end of my work handed in there are only a few weeks until I move out for the summer! Then the new term is in sight and I will be a third year and then before I know it, it will be this time next year and I will be getting a proper job!

Thursday 22 April 2010

Nathan cooking a cake!

Nathan came back from the library the other day and we set him a challenge. We took him to the kitchen and set him the challenge of cooking a basic sponge cake. We knew this would be interesting, owing to his previously demonstrated cooking skills. We had set out all the required ingredients on the table, including a few extra like pepper and oregano.

After uming and aring for a bit and admitting he really didn’t know what he was doing he decided to get on with it. Attempt one, her put a load of plain flour in a bowl and then stirred in lots of water. He then decided this looked wrong so tipped it away and started again.
Attempt two started in much the same way with plain flour, but without water. He then preceded to add two eggs, quite a bit of water and some milk. He then decided to add some self raising flour and some sugar. It was not quite that simple, but eventually he decided it was finished.

He then set about lining the pan, which we use as a cake tin. The lining was interesting, with lots of separate bits of tin foil, however the greasing was even better with large chunks of butter left all over!

Poring in the mixture he decided it would need 2 hours on 250 degrees Celsius. After he put cake in the oven however we quickly turned the temperature down, so at least it stood a chance. It was then done and brought out of the oven. Unsurprisingly due to the lack of self raising flour it had not really risen at all.

We then got April, as it was her birthday, saying that Nathan has cooked a cake for her birthday. She cut the cake, after he had scraped it out of the pan. Then we all politely ate some, it tasted very interesting. It was a kind of mix between a pancake and sweet Yorkshire pudding, it was stodgy.

So this was Nathan’s cake cooking challenge. Please note Nathan uses explicit language



This is part 2!

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Pretty much done for another year!

WELL I HAVE been so busy getting the end of this work done for University this year! So pretty much finished for this year now. Also excitingly only a few weeks left until I am of to Australia.

With all the work though I am looking forward to going out for my friend’s birthday tomorrow night! Well I have been thinking back through the highlights off going out this year! Obviously the ultimate has to be when Nathan got brought back in handcuffs! I wasn’t actually around as I was doing Panto, but I have defiantly heard a lot about it. There was a call out in the LRV, the club at Uni, saying that could anyone who knows Nathan please go to the front. Ben went and found bouncers around Nathan, who was insisting he was all right, and kept trying to get up only to be pushed back over. Eventually when he was chucked out him and Ben started walking home only for Nathan to put to hands on a fence and decide he wasn’t moving any further.

Well after an hour or so Ben decided to get security from where we live to come. After a while of being abusive and Nathan telling them “f**k of yellow coats” they managed to just start to get him to move. However then University security from the other site rolled up telling our security, it wasn’t their patch, but Nathan knew the security from our side. Anyway at this time Nathan firmly held back on to the fence and the police where promptly called. Nathan was again abusive and told them they couldn’t tell him what to do and as such they decided to handcuff him behind his back. They then spoke to Ben deciding he wasn’t too drunk; before they marched Nathan home and Ben had to sign to be legally responsible for him! In the morning Nathan wondered why he had marks around his wrists, because he had tried to break of the handcuffs. The other amusing thing was that it was Nathans aunt who sent the police out, as she works in the control centre, so when she put two and two together she rolled up at whatever time it was in the morning to see Nathan in such a state. Following this incident Ben create a Facebook group saying Nathan should not drink!

Just another, but rather interesting day at Uni! Other than this day however there have been many more eventful nights. Nathan is usually the worst when we go out, often collapsing in the hallway, although I am often not too far behind him!

Monday 19 April 2010

Tonight I am going to eat ...

IT CAN MEAN only one thing that yet again Nathan has decided to have a tinned dinner. The only problem if of course that none of his tins have labels on them, leaving him to guess. He barely got them back from Tesco’s this time before Ben yet again got busy removing all the labels. This left Nathan with around a dozen unlabeled identical tin’s in his cupboard! Nathan does however seem pretty good at guessing what is what and yet again managed to select a curry, as he was after.

Been out all day today; busy with Uni work and shopping! I have made a few improvements today to my blog so please check out my sidebar and don’t forget to comment on my posts and let me know what you think!

Sunday 18 April 2010

All fat and fed!

YUM, ALL FAT AND FED and also good is that I have now managed to finish most of my work! Ben made his Spaghetti bolognaise for dinner which was rather good! I brought a cake tin whilst I was at home so decided to put it to good use and make a cake. I decided on making an Apple and Cinnamon cake so got going, whilst Ben was making dinner.

First problem I realised was of course no scales and I am not the best at judging amounts. Ben suggested I used my digital bathroom scales, so I tried them however they were not accurate enough, not even recognising when we put the entire bag of flour on them.

The next problem was that we didn’t have enough self raising flour, however with a quick trip around to next door that was quickly sorted. The next thing was that I didn’t have any caster sugar so Ben suggested I ground down the granulated sugar. Not having a pestel and morta I ground it down using the back of a meat tenderiser. After that I then set about adding my ingredients, I was a bit worried as it originally turned out more like dough but with a big of a extra milk it was all right. So I poured in into the tin and shoved it in the oven. Meanwhile I began to clear up as I had made rather a lot of mess!

An hour or so later it was ready and we all tried some. It tasted pretty good, considering I had guessed the amounts, I was pretty impressed. It didn’t taste quite right though, I think there was probably not enough sugar in it. But all in all was pretty impressed and even Nathan tried some as he had just got back!

Nathan managed to miss his train, so instead got a lift back with his Dad; sure he was happy with that! Ben decided to yet again wrestle him, trying to get into Nathans room. It lasted quite a while, backwards and forward with Nathan stronger but Ben kept getting his arm or leg jammed in the door. Eventually a knackered Ben gave up, allowing Nathan to quickly lock his door shut. Ben’s arm is now nicely grazed and he it knackered, but I suppose that’s what he deserved really!

Friday 16 April 2010

First hand in!

NOTHING TO EXCITING happened today, handed in my first piece of Uni work this semester which was good! My brother left off to Derby to go and do his training weekend for Amazon.

Nathan has gone home for a long weekend, so Ben is busy planning what surprise he can have ready for him when he returns! Tried to upgrade my phone, as I am due an upgrade, but was a bit expensive for the Nokia N86 that I decided I wanted!...Oh well have decided to have a think on it but at least the nice people at T-Mobile gave me £5 of my bill whilst I decide! That’s about it other than that, just work, work and work!

Thursday 15 April 2010

Curry Times!


HAD A BUSY DAY doing work before we went to the pub! We where live on Midlands today, talking ahead of the election debate. Then after we did that we headed off to Weather spoons of course being a Thursday it was curry night! So we all had a nice curry and a drink which was nice, even if I did attract one weirdo!

Then went back to the pub and watched the election debate, with Ben trying to sit on Simons lap and feel his leg throughout. It does remind you that although Ben is the oldest in the flat, he is probably the most childish!

Anyway after that BBC Midlands did enough live links on how a few of us there found it. Now just chilling at home with my brother before he leaves tomorrow. So all in all was a pretty all right day and to top it all of the sun has been shinning! :-)

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Alton Towers Fun!


HAD A GOOD DAY at Alton Towers with Ashley today! Was interesting though as there was more power cuts today, following the ones yesterday. The whole park was cut off, leaving lots of people having to be rescued off rides.

Started the day with a good time, rather busy but got in a good few rides in. We were sat eating our lunch and commented to each other that the Sky Ride has shut for a while. We then tried to access the other half of park to find out it was closed due to power problems. Whilst we were wandering around wondering what to go on next the whole park lost power. A lot of people got stuck on rides and needed evacuating!

It took them a while and a lot of people where really annoyed and wanted refunds. As there was power problems though funny how the managed to keep all the arcades open! There was an absolutely massive queue for quest services but it wasn’t really Alton Towers fault as the fault was outside the park.

Spoke to a few people who got stuck on things, including a few people who got stuck on Sky Ride for 2 hours! There was also a load of people stuck on the monorail for a good few hours! They eventually started starting up the rides though couldn’t run everything because of the ongoing power issues!

The new ride Thirteen though broke down quite a few times and once I saw them evacuating people from it down safety lines! ... Thought we where going to get stuck on ittoo, as we got to outside the station it stopped for about 5mins though eventually it started up and we went into the station.

At least all the rides where open until 19:00 and people got free return ticket, not much got for me with annual pass though!

Anyway more details of the power cut can been on my article.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Finishing the day with fruit strudle!

ANOTHER BUSY DAY, with working away at all my uni work! Had a Newsday today which went all right, I mostly covered the then breaking news of the Alton Towers power cut, pleased everyone is all right and that everything is back to normal. Especially as I am off there tomorrow for the day with my brither, Ashley.

The Newsday was all day today so left Ashley, who is up at mine, in all day and he made a fruit strudel. He wandered to Sainsbury brought the ingredients then he was back to get cooking. When I go back he said it was problematic cooking it in a student kitchen with no rolling pin and no scales, meaning a lot of guess work.

However it turned out pretty well, although the pastry was not quite right, Ashley think he probably put in too much flour! Other than that was lovely though, thanks! As he is staying here a few more days I am looking forward to some more cakes being whipped up!

Monday 12 April 2010

Back to Uni!

SORRY FOR THE slight neglect of my blog, been busy with the family over Easter. Had a good couple of weeks and am now back to Uni and work, work, work to do. My brother has come up with me from Cornwall for a few days too so have some company too!

Been busy with some of my course work today, as well as a trip into town for some shopping! Everyone is back in the flat now; I was the last to arrive yesterday night. Went on a quick Tesco trip to stock up my bare cupboard with food. Nathan came along too.

Probably a bad move no sooner had we got through the door than Ben started antanginising. First chucking Nathans shopping at him, before attempting to yet again peel the labels off the cans. He then found out that Nathan has a slight blockage in his shower and that a porter was coming round to fix it. Bad move, as Ben quickly slipped into Nathans room switching the shower on full, quickly filling the shower tray to the brim. Ben was wresting Nathan to stop him switching it off as it slower got fuller and fuller. Nathan managed to turn it off a couple of times, however Ben would keep turning it back on. Eventually Nathan managed to lock Ben out of door however by then the water had gone over and although his bathroom was slightly flooded, though not badly.

Nathan was none to impressed with Ben for this, although harsh it was slightly amusing even if was taken too far! Good news though Nathan showers has now been fixed.

It is nice to be back in the flat though with everyone, so keep looking back here for more antics!

Friday 2 April 2010

April Fools

I THINK I MAY have spoken to quickly about my little brother being able to cook well, his biscuits the other day where a little on the tough side! Apparently we didn’t have any plain flour, so instead he decided to use strong brown flour!

Heard about a funny thing from yesterday, being April fools. Well near where I lived Falmouth Coastguard received a Mayday call from MV Titanic at 7:10 on April the 1st. They first ignored the call from the boat in the Caribbean thinking it was an April Fools. It however turned out to be legitimate and US coast guard eventually rescued the boat.

As is now clear tradition, there were mainly April fools, including from all the papers. My favourite I think has to be from the Daily Mail who reported that the AA staff are going to use light weigh jet packs to beat the grid locked traffic. Also I love the Sun’s who had the first ever lickable newspaper page, the page had a small warning “may contain nuts”.

Of course it wasn’t just the newspapers and some stories, some people believed. The RSPB released a press statement, complete with pictures saying a polar bear had become exhausted and stranded on a Scottish island. This had an environment correspondent in Fleet Street very excited, until one of their colleagues pointed out the date on the top of the press release!
Check out a few of the other April fools in this amusing article. Also some amusing online stories too.

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Wind and rain!

SORRY I HAVE abandoned my blog for the last few days, however I have returned home now to Cornwall! Unfortunately however we do have reliable internet here, especially if it is windy when we quite literally do not get internet at all! We cannot get broadband at all so when it does occasionally decide to work here we only get a very slow dial up connection!

It has been very wet and windy here, forgot how much it rained in Cornwall! It is weird being home again, with the constant buzz from four younger siblings. My younger brother, who is 11, scarily losing track of how old he is! Anyway he can defiantly cook a lot better than Nathan, without any assistance, well apart from his little assistant; our 4 year old sister. He has cooked shortbread, chessey bread and scones all since I have been back!

I am defiantly enjoying the home baking though and can say it is much better than Nathan’s cooking! Although I would say he probably managed to beat Nathan with the mess he made, he did manage to spread the flour pretty far!

Well I can hear the rumours “can I cook dessert” from my brother coming from the kitchen so its looking good for me again tonight!

Friday 26 March 2010

Everyone else has gone home ...

THE FLAT IS now empty apart from me with everyone else gone back home. I shall be off tomorrow on my long drive home.

Had a busy day doing student ambassador work at Drayton Manor today unfortunately we did not get to go on the rides though! However there was lush buffet lunch, which rather filled me up.

However I was still of course hungry when I got back, so had smoked salmon with cheesy mash potato and some seasonable vegetables, well Tesco frozen mix veg really but that sounds better!

So I am now sitting here writing this feeling stuffed and tired from a long day however I should pack and also do some uni work really!

I did all the washing up that was left in the kitchen, as anything that is left dirty gets chucked out. However it occurred to me whilst I was washing up; what is the one thing on a sink that is probably even more important it is there in a student flat! A overflow drain of course, with student forgetting and leaving the taps on this could prevent a big mess. However our overflow doesn’t work and the sink fills up and then floods, no I haven’t managed to flood the kitchen before! Just thought that was a bit stupid really, well anyway. I have also emptied the fridge of all the stuff that was left in there that will go off, I think otherwise some of the stuff may have smelt and looked interesting on our return in two weeks!

Thursday 25 March 2010

Easter Nearly here ....

WELL IT APPEARS Easter is pretty much here!

Ben and Nathan have gone home today for the holiday leaving just me and Simon here for a couple of days until we will both be gone too!

I finally helped Nathan pop his balloons today, as he had quite a lot left! Apparently he does not like popping them because of the noise and that a couple of them had flour in still! His room was stinking of rubber though so it would have been awful if he left them over Easter as they continued to slowly deflate. However with a knife I quickly popped all of the balloons. Then he set off home with his Mum who had come to pick him up!

I am very pleased with my Thirteen package as it has had well over 2,000 views in just twenty four hours!

We had fun last night however I will wait to tell you about it until the video I filmed is ready, so keep an eye here! However it has something to do with Nathan attempting to cook!

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Alton Towers Th13teen!

SORRY FOR MY slight neglect for a couple of days of not posting, but Uni work has been keeping me very busy!

Ben cooked last night and I tell you he does make a nice spag bowl! Had a good morning at Alton Towers filming yesterday, the new ride Thirteen! Then we had to return to the newsroom and edit it ready for the bulletin.

Here is package we made.

Sunday 21 March 2010

Work, work work!

A FAIRLY UNEVENTFUL weekend with just work, work, work! However only a week until Easter holiday now!

Made a surprise discovery yesterday evening after trying to contact Australia to arrange a trip I want to do out there! I battled with my landline and the extension for dialing a different country. I then decided to use the other option the tour operator gave me to contact them! I downloaded and installed Skype and dialed through with it. First time no answer, second time I was forwarded and somebody answered! I was already to use instant messenger however to my shock my computer had a microphone, which I had never known about and they could hear me and before I knew it I was having a conversation. On further investigation I found out my webcam which I have never really used has the microphone within. Anyway that was my first Skype Experience!

Was not impressed with Bens cooking technique last night, he microwaved a piece of delicious salmon and then splashed it with water after he cooked it to had some moisture! Not how I would cook salmon!

Friday 19 March 2010

Best so far ...

A BUSY DAY TODAY, though nothing particularly exciting in the flat. Nathan has gone home for the weekend, as usual. This time in a week though I should be winding my way on the long journey back home to Cornwall. Looking forward to seeing my family as it has been a while!

Anyway I thought I would look back through my favourite few posts so far!

The best has to be filling up Nathans rooms with balloons, last night’s antics.
Also I like, dinner, showing how important food is to my blog!

Anyway please look through my past blog posts and don’t forget to comment!

Thursday 18 March 2010

Another day done ...

PRETTY STRESSFUL DAY today with one of the modules deadline suddenly changing, anyway it is better now! ...Enjoyed a nice wrestling match between Ben and Simon yesterday, was interesting though I think I did the wise thing and kept out the way. Eventually though Simon wrestled Ben out of his room and managed to lock it, before strolling out to his party! At least that was Ben knackered for the night.



Had a really nice Chinese all you can eat this evening, which was lush! Feeling bit stuffed now though to be completely honest, I do have the old problem of having eyes bigger than my belly! I had some lychees as I love them, but we kind of convinced Nathan they where kangaroo testicals. Perhaps unsurprisingly he turned down us trying to persuade him to try them and looked rather confused as I gobbled a load down!


Ben ate a stupid amount of cake, he took three big pieces of cake, one with profiteroles on and another was gateau and the last was chocolate cake, needless to say they where rather rich. It made us feel sick just sat there watching him eat them, swallowing big chunks in a go. The cake did beat him, he did leave a little tiny bit! I think though we all safely got our money’s worth!

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Dont get yourself locked out!

LAST NIGHT THERE was some knocking at the flat door, which I vaguely heard Ben and Simon answer. They sorted them out and the noise went away, but a bit later there was more wild banging on the door. The buzzer was also going off, saying someone wanted to get let in. I ignored it as I was doing work and thought it was just people being idiots. It carried on for a while I shouted through to Nathan through the wall and he said was he going to get it. Anyway the noise then stopped, but we both came out of our rooms to see if anyone was about.

As there was no one there we didn’t think too much of it, having a quick chat in the corridor. However the next minute security came around, Ben and Simon had managed to get themselves locked out of the flat! They had gone out too see people mucking about outside and managed to let go of the door, then realising neither of them had keys, and me and Nathan hadn’t let them back in!

The other day Ben heard the distinctive noise of tape being put down outside his door, thinking we were having fun and taping up his door he yelled out. He then came to his door only to discover two porters, now not looking so impressed, tapping the carpet back down. He has now just drunk a whole bottle of Gin straight down, so I won’t be impressed if he wakes me up tonight crashing around!

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Busy Day!

WELL ANOTHER REALLY busy day but just time to squeeze a quick blog post in before I finish my work and then bed! Had a Newsday today, didn’t go the best but still was good effort from everyone, the first two bulletins went really well though! Got to pick our options for next year now too, just brings home how close we are to being in our third and final year! But for now there are essays and assignments to be worked upon!

Somebody managed to leave the cooker on all night in the flat last night! Consequently on getting up this morning bright and early and stumbling into the kitchen it was rather shall we say on the warm side! The heat made me want to just back to sleep! Now we have some nice heat marks up the cupboard as well.

Ben also decided to try and put his mouldy bread in the hallway ceiling tiles, instead of throwing it away. Nathan tried to retrieve it however was too short but with Simons backup they managed to retrieve it and put it in the bin!

At dinner Ben some how got Chilli Con Carnie delivered to his door, I didn’t get any though!! Nathan came in and quickly warmed up another tin curry. I somehow managed to shoot part of his dinner across him, with the balloon pump, oops! Anyway after Ben had finished eating his food he quickly started hurling insults at Nathan. After he eventually got bored with that he set about trying to soft boil and egg. With asking a few people for advice he set about cooking his egg. We don’t have any egg cups, so instead he used a Shot Glass to sit the egg in. After all the effort apparently it was slightly “hard”. He also managed to tip salt in Nathans and then Simon’s hair, Simon wasn’t too amused when it was his salt he was wasting!

Monday 15 March 2010

Good Day Yesterday!

HAD A PRETTY GOOD day yesterday, nice trip to Birmingham then onto Milton Keynes. Day started by getting up and me knocking loudly on Nathans door to make sure he was on the move! Then we where off down to Birmingham, a bemused Nathan getting confused by all the loopy underpasses and overpasses as we headed into the city centre.

When we arrived at the right sort of area for the aquarium we found a car park to park in. Strangely there was a reasonable queue to get in but I waited patiently before a nice man moved a cone giving me parking space on the top level. We then realised the car park was for the NIA however after checking they said it was all right to park there. So with the direction they gave us we walked across the bridge into the aquarium.



Enjoyed our visit there however there where rather a lot of small kids, which became rather annoying! We decided to complete the quiz, ok it may have been meant for kids but we enjoyed it! If you scratched out a smiley starfish you had got it right, a dead one wrong! Perhaps more importantly I won though, getting more correct answers than Nathan! In the 4d cinema Nathan started cursing as he thought someone was kicking him the back . . . he didn’t realise it was the chair and was one of the effects!! There were a lot of good exhibits there though, really worth a visit including the massive turtles, I loved those. Unfortunately the Ray Tank was shut for improvement works.

We then got lost down the canals of Birmingham before ending up at some swanky shopping centre. Nathan wouldn’t let me go in one shop as he didn’t want me managing to knock any of the wine off. We wandered around the rest of the day, visiting various shops and shopping centre. Annoyingly I seemed to get quite few static shocks from lift buttons and such like! Also went to a Chinese Supermarket which sold lots of good stuff, Nathan wasn’t so impressed though I still managed to get him to buy some curry powder so he can cook his own curry! I wanted to buy myself a nice wok from there but Nathan didn’t want to carry it back! We then missioned back to the car before heading to Milton Keynes.

We arrived at the snow dome and after inspecting the fairground ride that catapults you into the air parked outside, we decided against it and looked for place to get some food. In typical student style it took us a while looking at the different places and how much it would cost us.
I then went skiing, leaving Nathan relaxing in the lounge. Didn’t do too much this time but went over the basics. Was all well until I wiped out not only myself by managing to ski straight across the lift path. Of course the guy coming up the lift on the sit ski, had no choice and skied straight into me knocking us both over as he continued to get dragged up the slope, until they swiftly stopped the lift!

People came up the slope and sorted out the tangled mess I had made. All the time Nathan was watching, worried if he was he still going to get a lift home or was I hurt! Luckily it was all alright and an alright session, I wanted to take it easy anyway with going on holiday in only a couple of months!


The way home was not perfect as whilst travelling up the M1 we saw signs saying the M6 was shut as a result of roadworks! Not really helpful after a tossup we decided it would best to avoid the M6 altogether, staying on the M1 and then taking the A50 back to Stoke. The A50 must be one of the worst roads ever; it’s so uneven with lots of bumps and potholes. Just to rub it in there are signs all the time saying maintained by Connect Road for the Highway Agency. Do connect roads actually do anything then? Ok I know the Highways Agency annoyingly close the roads but at least they are kept in a half decent state!

Saturday 13 March 2010

Uneventful day

NOT A VERY EVENTFUL day today. Just did some Uni work and tidied my room, that sort of thing. Anyway my room is surprisingly clean compared to normal, even Henry the hover went on a little trip to my room! .... It has been a while since he has been there, not sure when I actually last hoovered my room! .... Wasn’t too impressed just sat down after hoovering my room and Ben bounds into my room eating a packet of crisps putting crumbs on my nice clean floor!

Met Nathans grandparents today which was good, spilt the beans about what he ate, they didn’t seem too impressed with his diet! They seemed to like the extra addition of the balloons in his room though! Heard what happens when he is there too, he sit with is feet up on the sofa like a king ... while his washing whizzes around in the washing machine and his Gran does all the dishes! ... Might be fair to say with all that he doesn’t really live your average student life!

Friday 12 March 2010

Busy Day ...

BUSY DAY AT work today but now a weekend to look forward to ish. Well sorting out my room and uni work stuff tomorrow but then Milton Keynes skiing on Sunday! :-) Surprisingly Nathan has not gone home this weekend and is staying here, but Simon went home today so it is still not a full flat this weekend!

Nice bit of wrestling in kitchen between Ben and Nathan earlier, as we were trying to tie Nathan up outside, we did eventually manage to do it however it wasn’t too successful as he resisted too much and it was rather loose! Ben has previously managed to nick half of Nathans dinner, eating half of his chips! ... However being the big and strong man I am I fiercely protected my tuna pasta bake that I had made, he wernt getting any of that!

Nathan still has quite a lot of balloons left in his room from the other day! This is what it looks like now!


I went to see the Youth Political Hustings last night, at the Victoria Hall it was pretty good and of course Mick was on top form, battering the Labour representative! Was interesting evening, though did kind of make you feel Stoke-on-Trent has no future.

Well nice lay in tomorrow hopefully if my body clock isn’t too set on getting up early and then I will get all the jobs done I need too!

Thursday 11 March 2010

Last Evenings Antics...

WELL LAST NIGHT Nathan left his room unlock so of course we had to have some fun! Ok I may of had something to do with him leaving it unlocked by refusing to move from his room, but anyway that’s not the point, he left his room unlocked!

So after deliberation we decided the most appropriate thing to do would be to fill his room with balloons! .... After going to Tesco’s and deciding £1 for 10 was just not going to the job we headed to the wholesaler round the corner. We then talked our way in, gaining a temporary day pass, allowing us to buy the goods.



Anyway after a few minutes of starting to blow up the balloons we decided this just was just a too bigger task for the few of us and as such we need reinforcements so our next door neighbours came along to give a helping hand! With half of us two weedy to blow the balloons up or too clumsy to be able to knot them going was still relatively slow. Also didn’t help we brought two balloons pumps to help with the task however one didn’t work at all and the other wasn’t amazingly effective. Anyway a couple of hours later two hundred and fifty balloons down and quite a few puffed out and knackered people later this is how Nathans small room appeared!





Of course we were slightly worried all our hard work would be spoilt by him simply popping all of the balloons! So for a bit of added excitement we filled a few of the balloons with flour, water and also one with an egg! Though at least then if he popped them all it would be make quite a bit of mess! In typical Ben style he took it one stage further and filled a condom with water and put that in the middle of the balloons, just for added effect.

Later on in the evening Nathan returned to his room, swiftly exclaiming loudly before coming to find us chilling in the kitchen. It then became a who dunnit mystery; however he seemed to think that the two balloons pumps on the kitchen table were a bit of a give away! He went to his room for a bit but when we all joined him, with a few extra spectators, a few of the filled balloons burst leaving a slightly wet mess, ok they may have had a little assistance!

I also somehow managed to pop one of the balloons which had some flour and water in it over his head! Oops! ... Didn’t make too much mess as wasn’t much in it, but made enough. The flaw was that I also managed to cover myself in the process!

Well a number of the balloons were popped however there was still a lot left later when Nathan decided he wanted to go to bed. He decided to bag them up and decided when he had filled three bin bags up it was good enough he could get to his bed! So now in his room he has three bin bags of balloons and a lot of spare ones still floating around.... not sure what he is going to do with them!

Wednesday 10 March 2010

More to come ....

HOW DO YOU fancy going out for a nice meal with your family and upon returning there are over 200 hundred balloons are in your room!

Well I am knackered now and with stuff to do before I can go to sleep, but look back tomorrow for the details of our evening! :-)

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Happy!

CURSING AND SWEARING noises seeping through my thin walls! Can mean only mean one thing, Nathan has work to do or has yet again missed another deadline. It is quite amusing really him talking to himself and swearing at his computer! ... Put a smile on my face, not that I needed it today as I was already happy!



Had a good news day today and I was presenter so loved it! We had a story about eggs today so of course all the eggtastic puns came out! I enjoyed it though and everyone did well!



Ben ate his huge melon earlier, shame really as I had drawn up the top 5 things I could have done with it. At five was play a game of football with it at 4 smash it and make pretty pictures with the juice at 3 draw a happy face on it 2 Was microwave it and see what happened and at one freeze it! Might have done this last one but couldn’t fit it in the freezer!

Monday 8 March 2010

Weather doesnt bring chaos!

WHEN I GOT UP and left this morning at around 7:30am, it was really freezing. It was -6 and just gave you the impression the world was telling you, you should still be tucked up in bed! .... Well I was off to work so with half a can of anti freeze and a lot of scraping we could vaguely see out of the car, just enough to set off!

When we finished at around mid day however the weather was bliss lush sunshine and around 12 degrees! It amazing just a few hours later and it’s so much warmer. And with the warm weather coming back so did everyone else and so now I have a full flat!

Well after work it didn’t quite go to plan as I was meant to be doing a news package with someone on my course however she got to the station and did not have her bank card to buy her ticket or enough petrol in the car to drive here! .... So that put pay to that one, we didn’t do package as you may have guessed however will sort one out tomorrow!

Had to educate Nathan today that it is not time to sleep at 6pm in the evening. I banged on his door and woke him up and he said he was fast asleep! But it was 6 o’clock so not like it was time to sleep and he didn’t go out last night or anything. Anyway after that he was awake and in the kitchen I decided to take advantage of his bleary eyed state and quickly shrink wrapped him! Was not too successful but was still a laugh!

Sunday 7 March 2010

Weekend is over ...


POOR NATHAN! ... He has had to get the train home again today. He usually always gets his driver (his dad) to give him a comfy door to door service. That’s the way he likes it but I suppose he will just now start to have to get the train like millions of others! ... He has to change at Manchester Piccadilly but if 20million other passengers can manage to use it I am sure he can! :)

Done my washing today exciting as that seems and considered tiding my room, that didn’t get to far. So drifted into Simon’s room and tried to pinch his arm with his nail clippers, didn’t get too far with that either to be honest! I will have to say though I am getting a bit worried about his cooking ability? .... Is he losing his touch last night’s meal he made himself wasn’t great and today he was reduced to a fish finger sandwich for his main meal!

Now I am ready for a busy week ahead!

Saturday 6 March 2010

Work then Food!

BUSY DAY WORKING, good though! Back and forth, back and forth around campus taking and directing students to different places. Just successfully cooked a better meal than Simon, rare as he is the resident chef! Nice Chicken and Mushroom Pasta I made, yum yum!

On the subject of food Nathan whilst he is at home has apparently successfully cooked Chilli Con Carne and he says it tastes really good! So who knows, who says Nathan can’t cook! Maybe when he cooks it for us all next week we are going to be proved wrong!

Does look like a lot of my posts have revolved around food, but hay its an important part of flat life. Also with students cooking, or attempting to cook in some peoples cases, there is always something amusing happening!

Friday 5 March 2010

Weekend is Here

THE WEEKEND IS here and both Ben and Nathan have retreated home, so maybe a quiet weekend! So probably not much excitement around the flat! Nathan is practicing cooking chilli con carnie whilst he is at home to cook it for us all next week. So sure that will be interesting, especially if you bear in mind the culinary skills he has previously demonstrated! :) Look forward to it though, hopefully it’s tasty.

Anyway I have had a busy day and am knackered so am leaving it at a short post for now!

Thursday 4 March 2010

Time goes so quickly!

WELL JUST ATTEMPTED a pillow fight with Simon but I suppose unsurprisingly he won, I am putting it down to his size advantage!!

Anyway have a few busy days lined up with BJ social tonight then work first thing tomorrow followed by lecture in afternoon and then work Saturday and Monday. Thinking that I am over half way through University though is pretty scary though time goes so quickly. It seems like only the other day I started! ... Only a couple of weeks until Easter then just deadlines and pretty much done for another year and then will be in my third and final year! ... Then I will have to go and get a proper job in the real world!! On the exciting side this time in twelve weeks I will be out of the UK and down under in Australia for a month!

All sorted with where I am going to live next year now, going to stay where I am now. Nearly moved to College Court there was a pros and cons to both! Bigger room here, though is nicer at college court, but it’s up a big hill but is closer ... you get the picture! ... I will have all new flat mates next year, so hopefully I will be lucky again like this year and get a good set! .. We have had some really good times in the flat so far but hay there’s a good few weeks really left until the end of the year so let the good times roll.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Settled back to week of work

AFTER AN EXCITING weekend the week has settled back down to work and lectures. Nathan enjoyed another tinned meal last night! .... The only problem with Nathan’s tins are that they all have somehow had their labels taken off, wouldn’t like to say who had anything to do with that! .... Well it makes it quite interesting with half a dozen or so unlabeled cans, it is always good seeing what he is going to get to eat! He shakes them and feels the weight of all of them all in an attempt to work out what is what, all very amusing. Disappointingly, or luckily for him, he has always managed to open the one which he is after! There are still a few unlabeled cans left though, still waiting to be opened!

Ben has finally with a few words from Simon eventually decided to clean the blood off from the bottom of the fridge at last, nice! ... Well it is lucky he decided to clean up as he went back to his home today and is not back until next week so I didn’t really fancy it being left there or having to clean it myself.

It will be quiet in the flat this weekend, with just me and Simon as Nathan is going home too! Well surprise, surprise Nathan always goes home. We say this is his third home, after his parent’s house and the library! He says he has moved out from home however consider this; he goes home every weekend, pretty much, leaving Friday coming back late Sunday. He also goes to his aunts at least one evening a week to be fed and also his gran’s once a week. So all in all he cooks his main meal, well heats a tin up, twice a week! Of course he also has no need to do his laundry as he always takes it home with him. Most of the time he doesn’t even have to get the train home, dad’s taxi picks him up!! So do you really think he has moved out from home?

Sunday 28 February 2010

Shopping and other fun!

HAD ANOTHER GOOD evening last night, went to see the Circus of Horrors at the Victoria Hall, was good show! My flat mate Ben flooded the kitchen too, he defrosted the freezer by switching it off and putting boiling pans of water in it. Consequently the kitchen became a “wellie only zone”.

Not the only thing Ben did today, he also managed to just shove his beef joint in the fridge to defrost without putting it in a bowl. Consequently we had a nice dribble of blood all inside the fridge with a nice pond at the bottom. He vaguely wiped it up however the bottom of the fridge is really in need of a good clean now! .... When we asked Ben to clean it up properly and said it was disgusting he said “It’s only blood and what should I know about food hygiene, I work at Mc. Donolds!

Today we also set about re-filling the freezer with another mammoth Tesco’s trip! As often happens we brought too much so the discussion turned to who should make the long walk home. After a bit of bustling however we managed to jam my little car full of the four of us and all our shopping!

One of my other flat mates, Simon, also made a nice Banana cake today. It wasn’t a shock as Simon is very clearly the “cook” in the flat! We had a problem though as with a badly equipped student kitchen we did not have a cake tin to cook it in! Well this left us to have to use one of the cheap pans the University gave us, which the handle had now broken off of as our cake tin. Needless to say it was very interesting getting it out of the pan!

Saturday 27 February 2010

Dinner!

WELL TONIGHT'S DINNER, contrasted nicely between the four of us who live in the flat. I decided in my wisdom I would make a nice fish pie for everyone. Naturally two of my flatmates, Simon and Ben were keen to accept this offer, the idea of not needing to cook but still getting a nice meal would please any of us. My third flat mate, Nathan was not in at the time but anyway it is not like him to eat much that doesn’t come out of a tin or with lots of plastic packaging!





Anyway I eagerly started cooking my fish pie, reasonably successfully until I got distracted by Facebook! On returning to the kitchen I had manage to over boil fishy milk across the hobs, which had burnt on so consequently rather smelt! Apart from that slight hitch however the fish pie turned out to go pretty well and I was feeling pretty pleased as I loaded my creation into the oven.





At that time Nathan returned and after asking what was in the oven I told him. Naturally I had made too much so kindly offered him some “proper food” and to have some of my fish pie. He swiftly rejected preferring his delightful feast he had brought with him.
The four of us sat down to eat, three of us with a nice fish pie and Nathan with a polystyrene box filled with fat filled chips and greasy donner meat! Also his £3 odd for his delightful meal was almost as much as the fish pie cost for all of us! And I had some left over for lunch the following day!

Last Night Joys

ME AND SIMON went and saw Tim Vine’s tour last night he was very good. The place was completely sold out and the crowd really seemed to enjoy the show! I did think I might get bored, with lots of one line jokes but I didn’t and really enjoyed the whole show.


Tim is a friend of mine from when I did Panto so after the show we went for a few drinks with him and his gang which was a good laugh. Spent most of the night playing silly games to decide who should get the 6 cream eggs. Great laughs and a really enjoyed the night!


However after the excitement when we decided to leave in the early hours of the morning the journey home was rather interesting. First we simply followed the SatNav as you do, to the M6 taking no notice that there was rather a lot of lorries and cars on the A road for this time in the morning. Well it suddenly made sense when we attempted to join the M6, the geniuses that are the highway agency decided to close it for roadwork’s! Ok this was probably planned a fair way in advance, but on a busy Friday night closing one of the busiest motorways in Britain. Anyway we reluctantly started following the diversions with the SatNav constantly yelling at us to turn around! We joined the queue of lorries and other cars slowly winding out way back into Wolverhampton City Centre. More annoying was that we were travelling back exactly the same way we had come and to really rub salt into out wounds we went right back past where we had been only 30mins earlier.

Naturally it was late and the diversion signs were not that great so we simply followed the train of lorries. That was ok until we realised we were going into a 20mph zone in the very middle of the city centre. We went past Varsity, Walkabout and Oceana all busy on Friday night with drunks falling out onto the road. This seemed crazy that the diversion took us on this route on a busy night, were they after running over as many drunk people as possible?!


We had at this point turned the SatNav off, bored with its commands to “turn around when possible”. Well after a while of moaning about how stupid this was and continuing to follow the flow of traffic, we realised we had just done a big loop! It wasn’t just us though everyone had been doing the same thing, just following everyone else! Well after that we continued to this time successfully follow the long diversion and eventually joined the M6. Most of it back home was down to one lane, even though this was annoying I must admit I have never seen so many workmen actually doing some work, ever!!

Welcome!

HI AND A BIG welcome to my first blog! Here I will talk what has been happening in “Kieran’s World” and all the humorous things that happen! The joys of University flat life, with my three flat mates, with all the interesting antics! I will keep this updated on a regular basis with hopefully lots of interesting and often humorous stuff! :-)