An interesting week

Why am I writing this? Because Donna is making me stay till 2. I want to give up writing my dissertation now but she is making me stay for a bit longer.

I have already regaled you with tales of my Tuesday night with the zombies. Other than that it has been a very interesting 10 days. I didn’t write about how last week we had a French band come and stay at our house.

They were a band from Strasbourg who had got in contact through couchsurfing and asked to stay. They offered free tickets so we said yes. The gig was loud but good and I got a shout out from the band on stage. They were supporting blood red shoes. We went back to ours and got to know each other a bit better and had a good quite evening as a group. There was the band, me Cearuil and Gabrielle. They came bearing gifts of wine and promptly opened a couple of bottles. Eventually, one by one people went to bed, couch or floor and there was only the three of us and Etienne left. We decided to make a cake and some pizza. Cake turned out to taste like an Italian Rosetta cake or something but I liked the pizza…mainly because I made it. We started watching escape from New York and only myself and Cearuil stayed awake. By about 7 I realised I had a meeting early the next day so I thought I may as well stay awake.

I decided to make a juggling ball out of some curtain. Pretty good for a first attempt.

People started rising and the band were all up before any one else in the house. Not a real rock band if you ask me. This was their first experience of CS and I hoped they enjoyed it. In the end they gave me a lift to my meeting and we said our goodbyes.

The day was a lovely one and I decided I would spend it in the garden. By the time I got back Cearuil and Gabrielle were already up and I joined them for breakfast. The day was glorious and lazy and everything you want from a day. Lying in the grass, sitting in a chair or standing on your head, you couldn’t help but feel an aura of calm come over you under the blue sky with the odd cloud floating by. Not much of anything happened really but it was still fun. For tea we decided to go to the playground to eat.

Swinging on the swings while there are some local kids playing chasing is a great way to spend an evening. Gabrielle being herself joined in playing tag and Cearuil brought the food for us. After eating and climbing the climbing frame that smelt of cat pee we headed back to the sanctuary of the back garden and lying in the grass once more. Cearuil and Gabrielle decided to climb onto the roof of the next door neighbours but were promptly told to piss off.

Had been practising my juggling all day and it appears to be coming along…that is until the juggling ball I had made earlier burst and the rice went everywhere.

The day ended as any day should; in a state of exhaustion and with a smile on my face. I had had fun. It had been so long, I had almost forgotten what it was like.

……….

The weekend wasn’t so interesting as it was mainly to do with my dissertation…as far as I can remember, except Sunday…we watched The NET with Sandra bullock. That was the last film I have seen. Not normal for me. Don’t normally go two days without watching a film and I seem to be coping alright. I had to have a draft of the dissertation in for Tuesday and when I sent that off, I went in search of zombies all night, as you can read elsewhere.

Wednesday I went and had a meeting about how bad the draft I sent the previous day was….it was very bad. The amount of pencil markings on the pages were staggering, so I set about changing a fair bit of it….actually who am I kidding, it was sunny so I sat in the garden and then went to bed early.

That is until people start to call me and wake me up. All I can remember about Donna’s phone call is that I kept repeating that she woke me up and then hung up on her. The next was a text from Gabrielle saying she had fallen from her bike outside the house so I got up to check if she was ok but no sign was to be seen. Gave her a text and it turns out she was around the corner where I went and met her and brought her in for a cuppa. Very good conversations about anything and everything ensued and I was given the chance to rant about all that ailed me as she seemed only intent on the lamp. Her apathy helped and in the end, sleep engulfed the room.

There is a rule I try and follow to make myself have a good day. It is: I only get out of bed when the sky is blue. It might seem a little trivial or pointless but you wouldn’t believe how much better you feel when the sky is blue and you’re up and about. It may be hard at times to follow this rule religiously in a place like Aberdeen but if possible it must be done. If something is important enough to go to unhappy then you have to break the rule…however, one must do so at great risk.

After waiting in bed for a few hours for the sky to turn blue I eventually got up at lunch time. I wandered over to the computers, wrote a few hundred words and then got bored, went to get the paper and did the sudoku outside in the sun. I have become a big fan of this new way of leading my life and I feel it should be embraced by one and all. Later on Thursday, I went to poker at the casino for a competition and came third and won £30. This new rule was paying dividends already. I knew it was a good idea.

Friday began the way any good day should; I peaked under the curtain and it was glorious outside, not a cloud in the sky. I got up with a spring in my step and had Cearuil wash me, I then washed him as his back needed a scrubbing. After being clean we set off on our adventure for the day…to find Mel Gibson so we could make tofu for ourselves…wait what am I saying? Make tofu for cearuil, while I ask Mel about lethal weapon. On our way, we met up with our accomplice for the day. We sauntered down George Street and down Union Street looking for Mel but we had no luck. He wasn’t in any of the health food stores we looked in. I had a look in some charity shops and poundland in case he was looking for a bargain. But no luck.

We headed home, stopping off in Jeff’s house for some supplies and began to concoct ideas about what we would make on making day. In all I made soup, soap, a wallet, bread, magnets and some other stuff. The others made peanut butter, taini or some fancy sounding crap, vegan brownies and we all painted a bit. In the end I went off in a huff as drunken tuire pissed me off and I went to bed fully clothed listening to air excessively loud after my first smoke in a while had kicked in.

In the morning, with everyone left, or I thought left, I put the stereo in the hallway and played the Juno soundtrack at full volume. It really is a good soundtrack. Probably better than the film. And I liked the film. Little did I know, Gabrielle had stayed the night and was upstairs. She came down disgruntled I had woken her but she joined me in waiting for the sky to turn blue. Today it took far longer but it did happen and happen it did. It was a lovely day and we sat in the garden doing a sudoku and drinking tea while the Juno soundtrack played on loop from the house. As the sun departed from the back garden we decided we didn’t want to go indoors and so we brought the chairs around to the front and sat there while we ate the homemade chips and practiced our juggling. Ignoring the entire affair of torcher parade we set off for a radio show at 8pm. Jeff filled in for Donna who was at home and we had a good show. It turned out people were listening and there was nobody on after us so we continued on having fun. We continued on and on and on until it was 5 in the morning. We had just done a 9 hour radio show and it was great. We learnt afterwards that we were being played in the watering hole, the student bar in halls and people were enjoying listening to the show. We tried setting people up on dates and played some Barry white to get them in the mood. I think it worked. We didn’t hear anything back so I presume they were too busy making sweet sweet love to email. I don’t begrudge them that. After the show, I went home with the sun rising and decided to sleep in the attic.

Waking at 4 in the attic is not a good idea. The reason being, you can’t see if the sky is blue. When I got down stairs, it was borderline blue and I was nervous about the day ahead. I went to work on my dissertation and didn’t get much done and so went to old next doors and watched match of the day 2 and then back to computers. There I got a text that knocked me for 7 and I got no more work done. That is why I write this now…well not really now but this is a continuation of what I was writing then. It is now Tuesday and again I procrastinate.

On Monday the sky wasn’t blue but I felt I had to get up. I went to the computers and got a little work done. Then an ex walked into the room and I slyly dodged that bullet….shouldn’t have gotten up when the sky wasn’t blue, I knew when I did it, something was going to happen but running into my ex wasn’t going to be it. Instead I got a message from a friend saying she was sick and had been puking all day.

Seeing as my getting up had caused her to be ill, I felt obliged to help her out in any way I could. I brought over some flat coke at her request and stayed with her for the day. Now I’m not saying this wasn’t fun but it was a brilliant way of not doing work. I mean staying in bed with a girl is always fun but doing it so I didn’t have to write my dissertation is even better.

Anyway I made her raw toast and filled her hot water bottle when needed and I read Calvin and Hobbes the rest of the time. I ended up falling asleep myself and in the morning the sky was the brightest shade of blue I have ever seen it. I had appeased the blue sky lords. In not wanting to displease the sky lords any further promptly got up and made ready to leave. I wrote a note for my host with good wishes and the suggestion that if she needed anything further, she merely had to ask. Off I went.

The sun shone so bright I thought I might melt. Luckily I didn’t. I went home, had a shower and thought about what type of day it would be. I decided it would be a good day. I dressed once more and giving careless abandon I left the house without a jumper. Now this is very unusual in Aberdeen. Aberdeen is cold, even when sunny, but today I didn’t care. I was going to walk proud under the blue sky above. Nothing was going to dampen my spirits and I set off to the computers to get my days quota done for the day. When half way there after only half an hour I decided that the day was too good not to spend outside so I saved what I had written and planned on finishing writing later. I contacted my ailing friend and asked if she felt up for a walk. She did but she was still in bed and hadn’t eaten since the previous morning except some plain toast which is never fun. I said I would make her breakfast.

Beans on toast later and my smile was unwavering. Out the door we went in no direction in particular. We ended up by the art gallery sitting on the ground, where there happens to be a hot spot and she checked her email and what not while I once again practiced my juggling. By now I can keep going for a while or until I get bored. I need to try to learn a trick or two. Maybe juggling one handed.

Anyway with not much else happening in the day of note, well except that united won, I shall terminate this spiel and wish you all a very blue skied day tomorrow.

Adieu.