The day didnt have the most exciting start of all as I had the first of my summer exams, The physics practical which to all extents seemed to go quite well despite my revision really being limited to about 5-10 minutes but that test is as much about common sense as it is about physics so that was ok.

After the exam me and 'da physics crew' as I have decided to call us all went down to wimbledon for a nice little meal at pizza hut express which was pretty tastey and then as I was going to put my rubbish in the bin I managed to chuck it onto a nearby customer which I must say was a tad embarrasing. I then quickly ran out of the area. We then trundled down to HMV where I bought the Boy Kill Boy album and also the Little Man Tate single on a special edition yellow vinyl. Leander and Ian romantically went to see mission impossible 3 together and me and matt went our seperate ways home, knowing that seeing the movie first would make it hard to get ready in time for gig.

So the original ticket holders for the gig were me, dave, shane, mike, matt bond, blondie and rossy but unfortunately both mike and rossy had to pull out so I had to quickly get in some replacements and they were in the form of Tony and John(PNB if any of you old readers still care). John didnt join us 'till later as he was shopping in sainsburys or something. Anyway we got to the 100 club pretty much bang on time and on my way in I saw the lead singer of Little Man Tate and did a friendly nod in his direction and he said "alright mate" in his strong sheffield accent which was nice. 7:30 turned out to be too early really as the 1st band didnt get on until about 8:15 but by then i was already into my second drink so it wasn't too much of a downer.

I have absolutely no idea what the name of the 1st band was and so I will merely describe in the best way possible, a bunch of middle aged men with very little talent. Saying that though they werent boring as the lead guy enjoyed his crowd involvement jumping off the stage on numerous occasions once pointing and singing at me and another sitting next to Matt and singing into his eyes, Matt didnt seem to enjoy it unfortunately giving the man the dirtiest look youve ever seen. During the set whilst I went to get another drink I managed to pull of another embarrasing feat, this time whilst trying to step over a chair, knocking it over, stamping on it and making a louder noise than the actual band, but this time i had nowhere to run so i just sat down quickly and looked sheepish. John arrived shortly after the band finished their set and so he bought me another drink cos he didnt have to pay for a ticket as such.

The second band were a damn sight more talented than the 1st but again I missed the name which is actually quite annoying cos I wouldnt mind finding some of their tunes. The lead singer of this band was clearly gay, wearing his tight pink top, tight jeans and pointy shoes. John being John went up to him after their set and actually asked him if he was which was interesting as he said he wasnt but I am pretty sure he was lying. Their bass player thought he was Flea from the red hot chili peppers as well and apparently looked like some actor or something according to Dave. But as I said they were pretty good. During this set, Matt managed to out embarras me by spilling over some strangers pint and thus having to buy him a new one.

So finally on to Little Man Tate and what can I say they were great, they really got the crowd going from the openers 'Man I hate Your Band' and 'Court report' you could see that the majority of the crowd knew the words and were singing along. Again I managed to take up the place behind the pillar but this time I didnt stand for it and moved round to get myself a better position even if it meant pushing through.  By the middle of the set the crowd was getting nice and lively and me and John had managed to get quite close to the front. The odd crowd surfing incident started to happen which didnt please the security people too much. I was getting in the crowd and jumping and singing all over the shop, it was fantastic, probably the most energetic of my limited gig going career. The climax of the set was 'Down on Marie' which was clearly a crowd pleaser and the whole place went mental, crowd surfers being chucked around everywhere and jumping and pushing (no random beatings so i refuse to call it moshing). And that was it the gig was over and it left me wanting more and so as I did at the last gig I went straight off to buy a t-shirt and also one for tate who unfortunately couldnt be there. If you ignore the startled look upon my noggin you should be able to see the magnificent t-shirt. It also has Little Man Tate written on the back. It is most beautiful.

I also fancied the poster off the wall and so with the help of Shane it was mine and as you can see from my scanned image it is great, I think I might put it up on my wall, but then I would have to get more posters so then again I might not.

And that was the end of the night for Dave, Shane, Matt and Tony but stupidly me and Blondie trusted John to take us to some place afterwards that he said would be great. Of course he didnt actually know where it was and by the time we got there it had just closed so that was a complete waste of time. We ended up walking around central London for about an hour before I gave in and just said I wanted to go home as it was about 12:30. And the worst bit is, it means John still owes me another drink.

I got home at about 1-1:30 and watched a bit of big brother, played the single once more and then nodded off to sleep and so the end of another great adventure. Until next time goodbye

So here I am 18 years of age and I have finished school, before friday night it hadnt really crossed my mind that it is actually quite a big change in my life really. People who I have got used to seeing every day, things that I have done, places I wont go. Yes maybe it is a bit premature for this sort of blog considering I still have my exams to go and I will see people and go into school etc, but it feels right that I do it now as my schooling has officilally finished.

So my final day of school started with a nice late start at around 11:15ish where I had a nice sit down with some tea and biscuits and of course a nice little chat amongst friends.

Then around midday we had our final assembly where we were greeted with the expected "you have been a great year speach" from the teachers and we were each handed a certificate stating what we had done as a sixth form students including great tasks such as setting up a bank account and in one case having a pen pal in Finland which came as a nice surprise for Dave. Luckily in this pack I also recieved a certificate about to say how I had completed my mentoring course and also a nice little badge with the Wimbledon College crest on (Unfortunately I left all of this in Mikes car and so probably wont see them again). Then to the important bit of the assembly, the prize giving and of course there was only one award I was anticipating with any great awe and that was of course the contribution to hair award which although I was nominated for didnt win which was a shame.

 Then back to the sixth form area for a lunch of pasta and garlic bread which was tasteless at best but its the thought that counts and all that. After lunch people handed round their yearbooks to get signed, me being the cheapo that I am not usually didnt buy a yearbook so instead made people sign the back of a Krispy Kreme Doughnut reciept. (which it wont let me put up but you can see if you click on the word) It is beautiful, shows how all of my friends love me in a very homsexual way, made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

After lunch came the goodbye mass and then into the hall where they had a selection of goodies including doughnuts, chocolate fingers and jam tarts to name but a few. After nearly making myself sick trying to get eat as much food as I possibly could, you just have to in those situations, we went outside to the balcony and had photos done as a group. Not particularly clear BUT from left to right: Matt Tate, Matt Bond, Little Dave (standing on a ledge) Matt Steel, Mike, Dave Mc, Leander, MEEEEE, Tom, Austin

And that was it for school, FOR EVER, never again will I mix with all those people in the same way ~sighs~

A few of us did go to the local pub after for a little drinky which was a nice way to end it all, putting Cliff Richards Millenium Prayer on the juke box was a bit special, yet greeted with a surprisingly small reaction by everyone else in the pub. Of course we were there laughing our heads off. And then we left, went home, end of, fini, etc etc.

I was tempted to break into a blog about memories of school life from what I remember of my nursery days up until now, 15 or so years of education which is now over. But i dont feel that anyone really needs to know but if there are any requests for it I would grant them cos that is just the kind of guy I am.

See you all later and to all those leaving school about now Good Luck in your Lives XXX

If im honest it wasn't quite 23 hours but it was close enough and im sure u will not begrudge me a few minutes when i tell you about the tiring day I had on election day, Thursday 4th May 2006.

I am not actually going to start my story on Thursday I will start with the events on Wednesday afternoon where I attended a small conference type thingamyjig where i met the prime minister. Yes I Ant D have now met Tony Blair, the current, even if not for very long, Prime Minister. Also I again met the chancellor and Tessa Jowell but as I have already met them its not quite as big. Unfortunately I dont have a picture of this but if you happened to purchase a copy of the national guardian on Thursday you may have seen me.

So on to Thursday and what a horrible start. 5:45 am and i had to wake up to get to the "election centre" for 6am so I could deliver some ealry morning leaflets to people persuading them to come out and vote. This I did for 2 and a half hours before coming back for a nice full english at the local cafe courtesy of my Godmother. Then I went out to do my duty for the first time. Ahh what fun can be had from putting a little cross in a few boxes. After that I again reported back to the election centre to get some more jobs, I did a bit more leafletting before my first ever canvassing session. On this occasion I merely watched as others did i, just so i could get a feel for the occasion before my first official job of the day.

The job of an election teller is a dull and.. no just dull one. The objective is to obtain the polling number (the number that you are given to prove you are a vote carrying citizen) so that I can give it to my colleagues at the election centre so they can know who has voted. I had this job for 2 long hours.. although it wasnt all that bad, I started talking to the guy who was doing the job for the Green party (the main evil in this election campaign) and he turned out to be the dad of someone i used to go to school with or something. Nice guy he was despite working for the enemy.

After my 2 hours were up I went again back to the election centre and again out to canvass. This time I actually did go knocking on peoples doors reminding them to vote and it was on occasion strangely satisfying especially when knocking on the 2 peoples doors who said that they had forgotten it was election day and that they were thankful for me reminding them. (just to clarify I was only knocking on doors of known Labour party supporters)

The rest of the day was split up between more leafletting and canvassing untill 10pm when the polling stations closed, it was then time to go to the count...

The count was by far the most fun part of the day/night as it didnt involve walking up and down streets and although quite intense a job was greeted with good humour amongst most people on the winning side. First there was the process of splitting the votes into straight party voting (3 for the same party) and the split votes. During this process, the official watching people of whom I was one get to look at the ballot papers and if they think it is unclear who the person is voting for put it into the doubtful pile. Now to most this may sound quite dull but it was actually quite fun as I myself got a few out but the more experienced at the job put papers in the doubtful pile even though they were quite clearly valid and watching how the opposition get uptight was hilarious.

After this the numbers of straight votes are counted up, and already by this stage we were pretty confident of the win having 1400 compared to the 800 for the Greens and despite knowing that the Greens would do slightly better from the split votes it was never likely that they would catch up. And when the official adjudicators came round, your usually mild mannered author couldn't help but join in a slagging match against the opposition to get votes disqualified. I even made him show me the rule book at one point even though i knew it was a legitimate vote. I just got caught up in the emotion of the evening.

Of course we went on to win quite comprehensively, my dad who was one of the candidates got the highest with 1,700+ votes and the other two Labour candidates got 1,500+ and 1,300+ respectively. Leaving the Greens lagging behind with their best candidate getting into the low 1100s. This result for my dad i later found out was the highest in Colliers Wood since Siobhain McDonagh was councillor and as we all know she is now the MP, but I dont see my dad going on to that level.. well in fact i know he wouldnt. Unfortunately not all other wards in the borough had the same success and Labour ended up losing overall control of the London Borough of Merton but the fact that the tories did not actually gain the overall control meant that Merton bucked the inevitable trend and so did better than expected.

The count was finally finished at approximately quater to 4 and i was home by ten past or something and went straight to sleep, so as i said at the beginning not quite 23 hours but bloody long enough.

END

p.s. no apologies to anyone who is apathetic about politics, it is an important part of life and you SHOULD be interested