On Tuesday I went into Sutton, as you do, and I came back with a job. It is not totally coincidental as I did go into the employment plus recruitment agency but not actually looking for a job on this occasion. I had tried to get a job through the company at the start of the holiday and it had come to nothing but they had taken £36 off me to do a criminal records check and in the end it came to nothing so I wanted my money back. So I went in to complain and they cleverly twisted it round and got me a job.

So wednesday naturally was my first day. The commute is a dire one and a half hours but surely it would be worth it to get the money. Hmm I ask, is it really. I got in ridiculously early as you don't want to be late on your first day and I nervously went around the building asking where to go. I got to the floor where I was meant to be and within 15 seconds of getting there I broke the door, luckily no one saw me so I think I got away with that one, how was I supposed to know there were keys and brute force was not the answer. I eventually got into reception and asked for 'Stuart' who was the guy who I would be working for and near enough the first thing he said to me was that I should be dressed smarter.. meh, I was still tired and didn't really care so I just said yes and carried on.

So I got down to the work. ENDLESS piles of paper work that needed to be filed. I literally could do it in my sleep and I probably am half of the time. The people I work with are genuinely very nice and the guy from down the hall is massively tall which I found exciting.. that is how boring the work is, I can point out a tall person as a high point. I get 2 15 minute breaks and a half hour lunch break in my 8 hour day which is sufficient as there is absolutely nothing to do in the local area. As you may guess I don't exactly enjoy the job but it is getting me money.

That is it for that blog, it is horribly written and dull. It sounded a better idea in my head. it may have been better if I actually wrote it with the events of the first day fresher in my head but I went out with my mate Tom from uni in the evening so I didn't really get time. That or maybe I am just tiring of writing blogs again already, I hope not they do provode a good little thing to look back upon. See y'all later

END

I'm gonna get this bit out of the way first thing. Facebook. The cause of many of life's problems. Since I got it within a month or so of going to university it has been there taking up my time that would be much better used on doing more constructive things such as working or doing exercise or just about anything. But it is not the general facebook that I am going to rant about here it is the events section. You think, wow what a nice simple way to invite all your friends to a night out. NO! this is a myth, it is utterly useless.

This too was the case on this occasion. About a month or so ago I created the event Bombay Bicycle Club @ KOKO (Club NME) to which I invited a solid 30 or so people to. As expected I got a number of replies saying no they couldn't make it which is fair enough but then you get the people who say yes and don't mean it, say maybe or even don't reply. How is this useful to anyone. What does Maybe actually mean in this situation, if it is no but I don't want to say it, WHY? just say no. the same for not replying. The worst though are the people who say yes despite having no intention of going whatsoever. The group had a confirmed attendance of 7 people and yet after I called around on the day only 2 of them came. Me and Leander. Laura was there as well but she was with a bunch of her mates.

Rant over, the day started with some Labour party work, delivering leaflets, then a quick trip to meet the girlfriend (who was one of the few people to have a decent reason for not coming) and then off to Colliers Wood tube station for 8 o'clock. I had estimated that it might take us an hour to get there, but it only took about 40 minutes, so we went to the pub across the road and had a few brewskies. I hadn't intended to drink on the night but as there were only 2 of us there I thought it probably would be a bit weird not to. Don't ask me to explain that reasoning but it made sense to me. Anyway we stayed in the crescent pub until about half past 10 and then made our way into KOKO. The entrance price by this time was up to £5.00 of which Leander payed full price. I on the other hand asked the man behind the till if I got cheaper with NUS he said yes and without even checking that I had one, charged me the measly sum of £2. I of course was elated, whereas Leander was a little peaved.

We were inside and immediately I remembered why I loved KOKO so much, not only does it look amazing, they play top tunes. The first two we heard were the wombats and the view. We went up to the top bar (as it is always the emptiest) and ordered some drinks and I immediately remembered why I don't go there every week. £3.50 for a can of beer. Luckily there was some special deal going on. A concotion called a granite something, not entirely sure what it contained but it tasted largely of ginger beer, which wasnt a bad thing and it was by far the cheapest drink there. We went back into the main room again and what song came on next. GENERATOR! by the Holloways and of course I went mental, stepping on various people's feet and getting some weird looks but I didn't care, it is essential when hearing that song.

The first band came on at 11:30, they were from New Zealand, I can't remember their name and for that matter I wouln;t want to. They were boring, end of. There is actually nothing else of note to say about them. After they finished there was a 15 minute break, including songs from the Libertines and one of my most recently listened to artists, Ida Maria before Bombay Bicycle Club took to the stage. I have liked the band for a few years now, since I first saw them on road to V after the Holloways. Back then they were 16 year old school kids who had just finished their GCSE's, now at 18 they are allowed to play in venues such as KOKO and play it they did. The performance was lively and saw them playing all the songs that they have released so far in their fledgling career. Their stage presence was good if not a little anxious but then they are only just starting playing to bigger venues, I do like the lead singers dancing though as he plays the guitar, reminds me of myself. This doesn't mean he's a good dancer but not afraid to just move exactly how he likes without caring. The set finished at about 1 o'clock and me and Leander stayed dancing away to the indie anthems until about 2 before we left for home.

As usual I got lost first but then remembered where the nigthbus leaves from. The bus journey took maybe an hour in total and so we were back at my house by about half 3 and then we went to sleep before being woken up at stupid o'clock in the morning by my dad going to work. Leander then left and I went back to sleep.

END

I currently have no internet, so this is going to be the first blog I have ever written before I’ve actually been able to put it up. The plus side to this that if I make any silly spelling errors the lovely word checker will tell me, the bad sides are obviously that I can not put it up immediately and the horrible little spell checker that doesn’t accept words like blog.

Anyway I am currently in Durham as the title would suggest well not quite Durham but a nearby town called Stockton where my girlfriend’s university is situated. I’m not sure how glad she will be that I am telling the whole world this but I went up with her this week to keep her company while she is doing her re-sits. Yes, it may seem a bit of a bad idea as she is meant to be heavily revising but I can imagine if I was up here by myself I would get very lonely and thus most likely fall into some kind of depression. It is not that Stockton is a bad town; on the contrary, some parts of it are quite exciting. Just there is not all that much in close proximity of the room we are in.

So onto the actual activities that I shall be talking about. The lady needing to revise meant that I needed to make myself scarce and being the helpful lad I am I thought I would do some shopping for us for the week. Obviously this did not go entirely to plan or it wouldn’t be worth writing about. Kali told me the directions to the local Morrisons supermarket but I hazily forgot them and so went for a bit of a wonder. I looked around me for inspiration and saw a Morrisons sign and naturally made my way towards it. Apart from getting stuck briefly in a David Lloyd fitness centre I made good progress towards the sign. I did get a little confused at the location, it seemed a little secluded and that’s when I saw it, the Morrisons sign that I had been making my way towards, unfortunately not the supermarket but the regional head-quarters. A good hour and a half after I had initially left I got back to the room with as little food as I had started with. We then had a nice Chinese take away to celebrate.

That was the Thursday, on the Friday we went to the cinema to catch the latest Mummy film, for anyone who hasn’t seen it I am just about to ruin it by saying it is exactly the same as the other ones but in China . Saturday I went into town which apparently, as I read on the signpost, has the widest high street in the UK . Stockton has everything you would expect in a town, a variety of shops and a good selection of pubs. It also has a market on a Wednesday and a Saturday which is ridiculously cheap and has the coolest named building ever ‘The Shambles Shopping Centre’. But it was Sunday that boasted the next really exciting events.

We woke up late on Sunday, too late for our planned visit into town and so we spent another day of me mindlessly playing computer games and her doing her best to do anything except revision and this is the way it stayed until approximately 8 o’clock-ish when we decided to take a little stroll as we were tired of being cooped up in the room all day. We made our way over the bridge into Stockton , taking a few pictures as we went, for memories and then made our way onto the deserted high street. Well not quite deserted, there was only one man that we could see and of course he came up to us. A slight fear came upon me as it always does when a beggar comes to you but soon enough he turned out to be the greatest beggar of all time. He introduced himself to us as Paul and he made up a lovely little story of how once a few years back I had seen him in a café and leant him some money for a cup of tea, he then told us how he was still homeless but getting out of a bad patch. As if this wasn’t enough he kept telling me that I was gorgeous and that my hair was beautiful, anyone who knows me in the slightest will know that this kind of compliment will get you just about anywhere with me, and it would have got into my wallet had I been carrying more than 17 pence on me at the time. He did on several occasions feel the need to point out that he wasn’t ‘a queer’ whilst telling me I was gorgeous which was nice to know as we hugged and said farewell.  I did feel bad that I had no money to give him after such a magnificent effort from him. A tip for you if you ever find yourself begging on the street, don’t just sit there and ask for money, be like Paul and do a whole speech, it really worked on me.

I bet you are thinking wow! That is a pretty exciting story but no it does not end there on that very same night after we had said goodbye to Paul we walked a little further up the street and decided to have a photo next to these weird dog statues when an elderly lady asked if she was in the way. At first I had thought she was angry but she wasn’t and soon enough we found ourselves in our second conversation with a stranger of the night. Her name was Joyce and she was a little old fashioned which some may construe as racist especially in the company of my Asian girlfriend but it was clear that she meant nothing by it, she had just clearly grown up in a lot less politically correct time. Her racism was not the only thing about her though; she had an amazing grasp of language. She asked Kali where she was from and when she heard Sri Lanka she immediately said ‘nundri’ which means thank you. She then listed how many languages she could say thank you in. From Urdu, to Polish, to French, to German, it was truly inspiring her stories of how a man called her a pig in Urdu and she replied who are you calling a pig in his own native language. Language though was not her only talent she then got out her little pack of cards and wrote our names in an old English font which I shall now keep as a souvenir for ever. The conversation with Joyce went of for what seemed like half an hour but we soon said goodbye and then started on our way back to the room and I found myself in an extremely jubilant mood following the evening’s proceedings (well that the absurd amount of sugar I had consumed that day). We got back to the room by about 11 and went to bed.

And here we are on Monday we are going to go into town today again because Kali wants to get some stress relief in the form of shopping which I am a bit apprehensive about. I have never been shopping with her properly yet and I am sure I will end up spending hours waiting around clothes shops waiting for her to try on clothes but you never know it may just be fun. Tomorrow is her next exam and then we shall be headed back home soon after on another six and a half hour coach ride…

This is the end of my Durham blog, and just because I am writing it in word I will give you a word count so here it is… One Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty Nine words, wow!

See you soon, END