Well as most people I am sure will know, I am now at University and after only 4 days I am back on the internet and writing blogs, its just like I never left really. So far I have had some ups, some downs and some quite bizzare things happening.

I got to Uni at about 3ish on Sunday 1st October and I didnt really do much, I unpacked met a few people but decided not to go out first night, which yes I know is a bad idea but I ws tired and had a massive headache and thus couldnt be bothered to go out. Luckily my flat mates all appear to be friendly and so I got to know them properly on day 2.

The main characters on my floor are Jason, a very talkative lad who gets along with everyone and is a good laugh, Ben the guy who I assumed on first sight was a big emo because of his hair and shoes with skeletons on but it turns out his favourite band are the levellers (for those who dont know they were a brit-pop band who were around in the late 90s) he proudly states that he has seen them 21 times. There is Nicole who is quite an attractive young lady who i think might be a year older than me but she is quit posh sounding. Then there is Mike who is a normal lad who for some strange reason is doing maths. Others include Qandeel, Shaun and Sem. I cant remember the names of the others but there is 16 of us in total. There are a couple of other people from other floors who are quite cool aswell but I can't be arsed to name them.

So onto my first night out, originally it was radio 1 DJ Sarah Cox on the bill but she cancelled which at first was dissapointing but then when we found out the replacement act I was pleased. It was the Venga Boys, the campest act of the 90s and they were awesome. They played the classics, venga bus, going to ibiza and boom boom boom. But not sex on the beach which leads me to think they didnt actually sing it. The rest of the night was a DJ playing all sorts from cheese to indie to (unfortunately) R&B and then the fire alarm went off at quater to 3 and so we went back to the flat where we chatted until 4ish. (I forgot to mention before the fire alarm going of on the 1st night at 2:30am leading me to standing on the tower forecourts in my pyjamas and bare feet.)

Night 2 saw what I thought would be a quieter night, we went upstairs to flat 11 where we started a drinking game which involved taking a card from a pack and each card had a different meaning of which most involved someone having to take a drink. So naturally I got quite sozzled playing that and this drunkeness led to my personal highlight of the evening, me singing to a girl from Leeds. She had a yorkshire accent so i of course tried to mimic it but she wasnt impressed so I sang in my finest Arctic monkeys voice which she did admit was good but on the couple of occasions ive seen her since she has remembered to bring it up. We stayed on the floor till about 5 listening to Americans talking about America then went to bed.

night 3 saw a similar night although before any drinking commencedwe played a game known as ultimate spoons which involved a card game which had a rummy-esqe feel and basically the 1st person to get 4 of a kind would know to start running and find a spoon which had been hidden somewhere in the tower. There was one less spoon then people playing and although that is a poor explanation it is a great game. The drinking games started in my flat and then we moved down to flat 4 where we heard the party was at. At first it was a bit boring but it evolved into quite a good time and included a girl singing along with a guy playing the guitar. It was really good, the girl had an amazing voice and later told us that she had actually recorded a couple of tracks professionally. That party ended quite early (by this it must have been 2:30ish), so our flat all wen looking for another party all over the campus and we found nothing and so went back to good old flat 11 where we were the night before and chatted until 4ish.

Tonight im going to see a band called hell is for heroes and so I shall leave you their, Tarrah

It all started a few days ago when an impromptue meeting with Margaret McDonnagh (Sister of my MP Godmother and Baroness in her own right) led to me and my mum filling out a couple forms so that we could go to the Labour Party conference for the Prime Ministers speach. And it was as simple as that despite the fact you are meant to apply months in advance for the priviledge but as I have said before it is not what you know but who you know.

So on Tuesday morning I had to awake at the rediculous time of 6:30 in order to get a train up to Manchester from Euston. A nice shiny virgin train, very nice it was but still took bloody two and a half hours but there we go. What was worse was that half way through the journey we get a phone call telling us that there were complications with our passes, so at Manchester station we had to go and get some photos done. On the plus side we did see Jamie from Corronation Street on the train. after getting off the train we taxied off to a building where we were to collect our passes.. lots of waiting around ensued until that beautiful image you can see before you, clearly a rush job as my head is clearly falling out of the bottom and the only information on it is my name whereas everyone else got where they were from aswell but then I am not really that fussed about that, I was allowed to get in.

When in the G-Mex center we were ushered into a little office area where we found Margaret who then led us off with the VIPs.. not only were we late entrants, we were made VIPs, brilliant. This meant that we got to sit down the front. Unfortunately though despite being down the front it was away from the TV cameras so unfortunately no publicity for me. The Speach went very well as I am sure most of you will have seen from the news papers, leaving the whole of the conference asking the question is it really a good idea to get rid of him but it looks like it is too late for that. Then we waited around in some lobby for a while and had a drink and then we were taken up to a suite in the Midland hotel (very posh I am told) for a photo-shoot which we were to find out would contain Tony Blair. It was a bit strange seeing people I know well just talking to the PM. After the photos we scooted off to a room where we scavenged the cakes that were left by Tony and his 'Cronies'.

And so too the part of the day that I wasn't really expecting, the virtual 'pub crawl' of an evening, going from one reception to another eating nibbles and drinking free alcohol all night, brilliant. Who said politics is boring. It started off with the Irish Embassy where of course they served Guiness which despite me not liking I had a glass of. We then moved onto the CWU party where we saw all that is good about the Labour party, a chubby northern man made a speach about how a family who was on the dole in the 80s how now sent their children to University because of Labour and then he went on to state that 'we can't let those posh boys get back into power' the icing on the cake though was their nibbles. They served lager and pork pies.. i mean can you get more brilliant than that. Unfortunately though we did get to see the otherside of the new Labour party at the News International reception where Champagne was served amongst posh people from the press including half of the news presenters who have ever existed and for some reason mick hucknall. I felt quite uncomfortable there and when they brought out the next days pressings of the Sun and the Times you know that they weren't good socialist people in that room. There were a few other receptions that we went to which I cant remember and I managed to squeeze in the watching of the last 20 minutes or so of the football before we went to bed at about 1:30. On the way home we were regretting that we hadn't been able to stay for the speaches of Bill Clinton or Bob Geldoff but luckily we saw the latter at the train station so I was happy. We took the train home and here we are now.

END

Not only the name of a fantastic daytime channel 4 show but it also is a good word to represent me nearing the end of my time here, before i move on to pastures new in the shape of University. It seems to have all come round very quickly.. I can remember my 1st day of 6th form like it was yesterday and yet here i am on the eve of my university life.

Last weekend saw a number of people including Dave and Matt, leave for university and so as we do with most Occasions we went to the pub to celebrate. and celebrate we did. I Got to the pub quite late at around nineish to see that a few people were already there and from what happened next I assume they had been there a while because Harvey managed to drop his pint on the floor and smash his glass into itty bitty pieces, thats the 2nd time hes done that on a night out with us.. poor show. The night went on the drinks... trickled rather than flowed because the bar queue was so bloody long. Then by the end of the night no one was really drunk, Tate was the most but then hey whats new and we all said our goodbyes to Dave and Matt. Matt actually walked back to my house where we watched some footy highlights for a bit before he walked off home at 2:30ish despite my generous offer for him to crash the night. (for close followers of the blog I also got the £10 owed to me by Phoebe that night which was nice)

It hit me soon after that night that my life was indeed changing - don't grown that I am getting all emotional, you dont have to read this - it wasnt that I was just living away for 3 years but also that after those 3 years I would have to be in work and so I started thinking this is really an end of an era. That thought stayed for a while and then I realised SHIT its the end of an era and i havn't got a clue what I'm doing and Im not gonna make any friends at uni and im gonna fail all my exams and my life will be hell from now until the day I die. Luckily these thoughts soon passed aswell largely through the help of miss Laura's kind words, she having lived through the 1st year of university managed to calm me down a bit and now I find myself quite looking forward to the prospect of going.

So what do you do when you realise its all going to be ok?? you go out to the pub again of course, a week later, this night wasn't as successful with very few people turning up but ah well saw Leander for the 1st time in a while with his, dare i say it, stylish new hair do... what he paid for it to look like that need not be mentioned (lots). But the night wasnt all bad oh no, in parts it was quite interesting, especially the bar maid who when serving me said hey Anthony despite me not having the faintest idea who she was, she did look vaguely familiar to me but no matter how hard i try and can not put a name or a reason for knowing with that face. Also as the night progressed I saw some others that i probably wont see again before uni starts. The night did end rather early though as I was home by about eleven and speant the rest of the night talking on msn, which was nice.

I am looking forward to this going to uni malarky, its all very exciting with my accomodation being finalised and my loan going through and my shiny shiny new laptop coming through the post. But it is not all fun and games, there are still a lot of things that need doing such as major shopping trips and of course sorting out my bloody bank account which those fine people at Lloyds TSB managed to muck up for me. Nevertheless, with only a week to go before uni starts I am looking forward rather than back.

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