Hooray! I'm Home!... *sigh*

This morning me and Darroch headed off to Rosslyn Chapel. This cued endless cynical statements about Christianity, the Knight's Templar and the Priory of Sion. One thought I had was to attain free entry to the Chapel, with my long hair I would just need a blob of red paint on each palm and on my left side. If it didn't work on the first attempt, I could laugh "Oh Thomas, you joker!" and walk in. A flawless plan.

After this we had lunch in a nearby pub before heading off to the train station. On the train we were sitting with a couple of really cool guys who were travelling up North from their University in Leeds in order to cycle from John O'Groats to Lands End. Certainly not my idea of fun but good luck to them.

Upon arriving home, I was distraught to discover that Inverness and Drumnadrochit are truly as bad as I recalled. One thing that really confused me is how I walked along Princes Street this morning, where there was literally over a thousand people in the same place, and not a single one bumped into me. On Inverness high street; wider than the princes street pavement; there was no more than ten, and we were being bumped into repeatedly. Is there something about Inverness that depletes a human's IQ to the point that they're incapable of negotiating their surroundings? Amongst many other more obvious things, this was one factor that made me very displeased to be back. This afternoon I heard about the Israelis attacking that ship carrying aid to the Gaza strip as there was a protest organised in town. Luckiy it was due just after our train was due in. I met Angus and we headed for Town House where it was set to happen.

There was literally 8 old people standing there looking pretty bored with flags.

Some may argue that it is free speech and democracy in action, but this so-called protest was in my opinon pretty damned useless and pointless. Suffice to say we didn't join in, as though we agree with their message, the actual event was nothing short of embarrasing.

I'm definitely not a robot.

This morning was a relax, sitting in Jamie and Tim's flat, where Linnhe and Guy also joined us. They are both people I haven't seen in years so it was great to catch up and apparently Guy is becoming pretty well known in his field of Linguistics which is very cool.

This afternoon me and Darroch headed off to Teya's flat, another person I haven't spoken to for ages. All her flatmates were there and it was a great little while; it is a strange occurrence when there's so many people in a room but I think they are all sound.

This evening was the main reason for us being in Edinburgh: Marina and the Diamonds. It was in the Assembly Halls, an incredible building. The support act was Spark, a girl singing atrocious music badly. Marina was actually better than I was expecting; the highlight for me was I am not a robot, which she did perfectly. I was also allowed to take my Digital SLR in, not having to fall back on my old camera, so I got some pretty decent photos. I'm far too tired to type any more, so I was going to supplement it with a photo, but blogspot is being a poof and won't upload one. Speaking of poof, the gig was full of them. Not in a homophobic sense, if a boy likes the boys I have no problem with it, but when the boy is a complete annoying faggot, squealing and making the surrounding females look butch, it really annoys me. There was a few of these in attendance of the show, but it didn't detract from the awesomeness.

Oh, it appears blogspot has changed it's mind about the photo, but I'll keep the above comment about it not working because it allowed a nice segway to the next topic.

PUT THE TROOPS IN PRUSSIA!

This morning I woke in the youth hostel, which I forgot to mention was a converted church. The night had been fraught by the neighbouring bed being occupied by a couple who spent a majority of their night having sex; it's quite unnerving to be sleeping literally inches away from a shagging couple who you've never met, all the time in a church. We were quite glad to be leaving the place, and we made our way to Darroch's brother; James' flat. I haven't spoken to him properly for years but he is ridiculously sound, along with his flatmate Tim. James works for Historic Scotland so we got free entry to Edinburgh Castle, somewhere I've never been as it is usually so extortionately expensive. It is an impressive castle to go around, with some amazing architecture. The crown jewels display was somewhat underwhelming as the main attraction of the crown actually looks tacky; I much prefer the old gold crowns as opposed to the modern fluffy, jewel encrusted, shiny, toy-like crowns. After this we proceeded to go around Edinburgh, where I bought MEAD and a new, good quality ukulele.

Dinner was a takeaway pizza from a place listed as Britain's Best Pizzeria: it was incredible. Lastly, we played Risk which me and Darroch had never played. Unsurprisingly Darroch and My team were defeated but it was a great game.

Another excellent day, and tomorrow is a dead cert at being a continuation as we are seeing Marina and the Diamonds. HUZZAH.

Weetabix!?!?!?

Today I got up ridiculously early in order to go to Edinburgh. I have been here now for about half a day and I do not want to go home on Monday. The train journey was not banterific, but not unpleasant either, but as soon as we got to Edinburgh I was hit by a wave of awesomeness. Me and Darroch made our way to Red Dog Music, a music shop unsurprisingly. It was incredible: a massive shop with instruments EVERYWHERE. I went in to look at their Ukuleles as I am considering buying a new one, but I was soon drawn to their piano section, where I played a £4,500 digital piano. If I had that money in my account I would have very likely bought it as it was amazing. After this we headed to our Youth Hostel, which is a bit of a dive, but will suffice for a night's sleep. We left to go and watch Prince of Persia at the cinema, which was awful. It has fantastic fight scenes, but the direction, script, tone and pacing are all horrific. 3/10. The film raises from a 2 purely because of Gemma Arterton's presence. After this we went to a burger bar which, being a vegetarian was okay; my bean burger was nice, but theres no escaping the fact it was nothing but a bean burger. Lastly we headed to a pub called the Jekyll and Hyde. Words cannot describe how much I love this pub; it is entirely themed like a gothic mansion, there is metal playing across the establishment and they serve cocktails based on the seven deadly sins. Tonight I sampled Lust, Wrath, Sloth and Pride. All but Pride were lovely. We sat there for a good two hours and I was a little distraught at leaving because the barmaid was incredibly pretty and seemed to be talking to me a lot. Suffice to say that I plan on going there a couple more times this weekend to sample the remaining deadly sins *wink wink, nudge nudge*.

Oh, to explain the title, we have noticed that Edinburgh smells a lot like Weetabix.

Bleh.

Today was a pretty dull day: I spent my time at work feeling very tired and bitter. The customers I dealt with were mostly friendly, and the couple of wingey ones I just stood there pretending to listen to their nonchalant whittering, slowly slipping away into my own dream world. I floated around the shop for most of the day in this euphoric yet contemptful manner for most of the day, until it turned 6 o clock and I left. My foot was killing me all day so I have previously called for a taxi. That was twenty minutes late, so I felt lucky to have gotten to the bus station in time for the 6:30 bus. I turned up and the bus was there, but all the passengers were still in the shelter. Turned out the driver (the same bearded fool that I have previously mentioned) has decided that he wanted a break, so had gone to the chippy. He sat there munching his dinner and smoking his cigarettes, a fact that I was so gutted I missed out on at the time: had I realised what was happening at the time I would have informed him that smoking in a bus shelter is a criminal offence. Finally, he granted us entry to the bus, departing the station twenty five minutes late. Sounds petty, but I get really wound up when things are late.

I spent the evening preparing for the weekend in Edinburgh with Darroch, and discovering how great Enya is. I knew her for contributing to the soundtracks for Gladiator and Lord of the Rings, but actually listening to her music on it's own it's beautiful.

Uneventful day, and I am ridiculously excited about the weekend ahead, combined with being ecstatic about being away from work for four days.

The creeping darkness.

Today work was not a particularly bad day: it was not very busy but there was a few things needing done so I kept busy most of the day. Come the end of my shift I discovered that the new rota system has definitely cut me to twenty hours a week, which meant I left in a horrific mood. To worsen it, I got to the bus station to find my bus was being driven by the same guy with a massive beard that I had the altercation with a few weeks ago. He chose to be a complete ignorant arse to a young mother instead of myself. She had loads of big bags around her, clearly wanting to put them in the luggage hold. The driver had to make a big deal of it, stomping out of the bus, yelling "Are you getting on this bus or not?". A girl I know who lives in Drum also was waiting for the bus and she's apparently had dealings with him in the past as she was nervous getting on. I was too, as I could not be bothered with an argument. Luckily he was no more than offish to me, not going out of his way to make my journey unpleasant.

This evening I went out to Drew and Robert's house; a main reason being Robert is home from Uni. We headed off to a supposed camping party at "the rock" (Queen Mary's Rock). We met Darroch, Alan, Joe, Kirsty and Kirsty, later joined by Shaun. It was far better than sitting at home stewing in my self-pity and anger about work, and it turned out to be a fairly good time. We left the campers to it and I went to Drew and Roberts house where a half-hours Kitchen Banter ensued before I cycled home, discovering it to be far more efficient than walking.

So, it started a decent day, the last events of work would have ruined it all, but my friends were the perfect solution to this, turning it back into a decent evening. It's gone 1am now and I'm leaving for work at quarter to nine, so it's probably time to sleep a little.

I'm Spartacus!

Today work once again outdid itself, being the most boring day yet. By just before six o clock, we were standing there with not a single customer in the store. It had been very quiet all day, but this was a new low. It never picked up either, with no more than a single customer in at a time until closing at 8. I'm also pretty dismayed with work just now because a new rota system has been introduced which automatically writes out a timetable rather than the manager sitting there scratching his head to figure out the sudoku puzzle every week. I love the idea, but a test run for the current week churned out a 20 hour week for me: the bare minimum of my contract, where I usually end up working 35 hours a week. Also me and a couple of other people who started around the same time as myself discovered that the promised pay rise after 6 months of employment was completely inaccurate, and that any chance of a pay rise won't be until the reviews due around November. At this point, it is up to the manager to send down some names and figures and see what Head Office think about us being paid more. All in all I am gutted about this, and unless I can sort something out for my hours, I shall be investigating alternative employment in the coming weeks.

This massive downer means that I am looking forward to my weekend in Edinburgh even more, as it will be a fantastic escape from the crap that's happening.

Tonight I saw Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I don't have a clue what to think of it so far: the visuals are pretty impressive, how they've gone all out in making it look like a real-life cartoon; I especially liked the scene where the spartan-esque guys are leaving their village in the sunlight, with the green scenery all tinted to look like a painting, and golden leaves falling all around. The plot is fairly basic thus far; nothing new, but nothing too annoyingly cliched. The script is the source of a massive amount of unintentional comedy, with foul language being rife in their vocabulary: "Where the fuck are the Romans?" a soldier cries mid-battle; and a commander hears of enemy troops getting past them, to which he dethrones them as "slippery cunts"; my particular favourite was the general's description of the enemy land as "the land of piss and shit". On this basis, surely it's not a great place to conquer? The script is not helped by the assortment of accents displayed in the cast; some characters even manage to change accent halfway through a scene which can be disorientating and annoying. However, the true importance lies in the fights, which are pretty damn good; blood and limbs everywhere, 300 style speed changes, and ridiculous leaping and such. All considered, it's a trashy comedy of a drama series, but a lot of fun. It goes noway near filling the void left by Lost's departure, but entertains nonetheless.

A pretty dire day has been had; I'm not in too much of a bad mood after Spartacus, so at least it's not ending on bad terms.

"The end of an era" and all that nonsense.

Summation of the day: Work was very quiet. It was boring.

AND NOW THE IMPORTANT PART. LOST FINALE. It goes without saying that there's massive spoilers here if you've not seen it yet.

Angus came over tonight to watch it, and it proved a fantastic ending to six years of religious following of it. I absolutely loved the whole episode. I was entertained by the OTT scenes of Jack vs Flocke on the clifftop, filmed just like an anime stand-off, and the plane taking off amidst the ground crumbling beneath it. I was gripped by the twists carefully revealed, especially the fact that the "side flashes" weren't at all that; they were flashes to the aftermath, where they are in some sort of perfect afterlife. The ending may disappoint some fans to start with, but if you think about it, there is not other logical way to have ended it without reverting to atrocious "it was all a dream" techniques, having some sort of horrific, depressing ending, or worse still, a big cliffhanger. It wasn't until half an hour after it finished that me and Angus both admitted that we were both very close to crying at the final scenes in the church, and the beautiful finishing and closing given by Jacks eyes closing, in parrallel to the very beginning of the pilot. There are those who are now saying "OMG I knew it was purgatory at the beginning", but they are wrong. I'm ridiculously tired, so I'll copy my summation from facebook:

If you consider it to be purgatory you are either a) grossly misinformed (i.e. by the nonchalant arse-minded saps at Radio1) b) Incompetent at deciphering anything more complex than the mystery of postman pat's missing mailbag or c) Haven't watched most episodes, and just want to have an opinon.

I feel that this is a fairly concise demographic of those who may have such an understanding of the finale. Also, I don't see it as being religious; it's a fictional program which has featured massive polar bears, smoke monsters, electromagnetic holes in the ground and people who refuse to age for 2000 years. The thought of the characters meeting in a near-perfect afterlife is not contrived by any means.

All in all, it was a fantastic ending to a fantastic show.

Up we'll go, in white light; I don't think so.

Today turned out to be preicsely as uneventful as I had expected it to be. Work was completely dead again, not a surprise given that Sundays are not really a big day of late, and the awesome weather means no one wants to be trudging around shops. On a brief tangent, I say "awesome weather" but incidentally I hate it like this: I like the sun and warmth but in Scotland you only have that for one day maximum before it becomes all sticky and humid. It makes me constantly feel like my face is going to explode. My brief stint in Sweden with school was the sort of hot I like; really really warm but breezy and light.

Moving on however. I purchased a new lens for my camera which will allow me to take photos from less than five feet away; my current lens is 40-150mm so is effectively stuck on partial zoom. The new one is 14-42mm; much better for portraits and such. Also it has a larger aperture so it should be better for gig photos that I'll be doing in the very near future.

This evening I nearly collapsed laughing at Ross Noble wrestling Jonathan Ross on Firday Night with...; he's hilarious. On the same show I was disgusted to hear a chap by the name of Tinie Tempah (sic) mutilating the rap section of Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz. It's pretty shocking when it gets to the point that talent is so hard to find that even rappers are unable to keep basic time. Also he apparently kept stopping to consider the next line of his verse; another downside to a rap performance. The lyrics were vacuous self-appreciation, charting his and Gorillaz greatness in a completely ineloquent, drivelling manner, whereas the original rap in the album version is interesting, makes sense and had a degree of thought put into the words. FAIL.

I have also rediscovered Keane's awesomeness, getting hold of sheet music for Bedshaped which I shall hopefully learn in the next week or so.

ROFLYSST.

This morning I went down to the castle to get my perfectly timed bus that was introduced the other day. Fifteen minutes after it was due, I contacted Stagecoach, which was obviously a stupid idea as being the weekend they were closed. I then phoned the timetable info helpline as a desperate attempt to see where the bus had gotten to. They categorically informed me there was no bus until two hours later. I implored they reconsider, as I had the timetable in my hand, stating a Saturday bus due fifteen minutes previously. The reply was that the new timetable doesn't come in yet; that it is in effect tomorrow. I would have backed down, somewhat embarrassed and humiliated, where it not for two pieces of evidence:
1) The timetable reads "Effective from May 17th". This being May 22, simple numeracy skills reveal that the allotted switchover date has in fact passed.
2) The new timetable introduced a 6:30pm bus in the weekdays, which wasn't present on the old timetable. I used this bus to get home the other day, so if the timetable is not yet in effect, the bus I rode home the other day did not exist?
By making use of this logic, it was clear to me that I was right, at least in theory, as it didn't change the fact that my bus was nowhere to be seen. The woman's general response was "there's nothing I can do, the timetable here doesn't show this bus, there's one in two hours." Luckily I was able to get a lift from Dad, otherwise I would have finally gotten to work at about 1:30pm.

Work was another ridiculously quiet day, but I was only working 12-6 so it did pass pretty quickly. Literally nothing exciting happened during this time.

This evening I went to see Bill Bailey at the Craigmonie Centre (a.k.a. my old high school's theatre). It was fantastic; the show lasted a lot longer than he was booked for, mainly because he was destroyed by the oddness of Drum and it's inhabitants; by the end of the show he was going completely mad. In general the show was his usual mix of genuinely brilliant comedy, bizarre mind-trips, and music that is both hilarious and very talented. It was really surreal to see someone so famous perform in Drumnadrochit, but seeing him in such an intimate venue was brilliant: he spoke to me and Danny at separate points in the show, and James Redmond volunteered to assist him at one point. Incidentally, this proved to be a very awkward moment, naturally.

Today was a day that swung the preferred way: bad to good. And now I'm shattered.

I'm going to destroy the island

Another day off, and I did become a little bit less of a winge today. Started off by going to the psychiatrist again, which was much better than the last meetings I've had: we've now got a plan for how things can be sorted out. It'll take a while but there's no quick fix.

This afternoon I watched Donnie Darko for the umpteenth time. It remains my favourite film, and with each repeat viewing it gets more confusing. It was pretty cool that I also found all my English notes for the personal study I did on the film, along with the final essay I wrote.

This evening I watched Lost, which was the penultimate episode. The announcement of the simltaneous broadcast means that in three days from now it will all be over. This is exciting because the finale is set to be incredible, lasting two and a half hours, but it will also be pretty emotional in a horifically geeky way. Six years I've been religiously following it and it'll be gone... it was even scarier when I put it into perspective realising that my brother was one year old when it started and now he's sitting watching it with me every week.

It's a pretty short post, but I am ridiculously tired, on account of not sleeping for a few nights. I haven't had any caffiene today so hopefully I'll pass out on impact with my pillow.

Hopefully.

Ain't this the life.

Today has been a very frustrating day, as I have been in an annoying mood where I'm completely fed up with things that usually I'm a little bit displeased about, but have no idea how to change. This made me pretty miserable for most of the day, though I don't make everyone else's life hell for it; I don't get moody with my family or anything; I concede to being a little bitch but I'm not selfish.

I distracted myself from my self-pity for the afternoon by watching the Oingo Boingo live show I downloaded last night. I was at first amazed to see the file was just shy of three hours long. I was even more amazed when it turned out that that was the length of the gig. It is truly an incredible show, and shows how diverse and talented the band are. It's their last ever show, recorded Halloween 1995, and they went out with one hell of a bang. Opening with the epic eight minute "Insanity", playing and singing note-perfectly, before immediately switching to a high energy punk version of "Little Girls", leaping around the stage, getting the whole crowd crazy. The show goes on like this, and it's the some of the most entertaining three hours committed to video. Whereas many bands, after 23 years, struggle to perform two songs on Later With Jools Holland, Oingo Boingo are fantastic right through the whole three hour set. It's filmed really well also, showing not only the energy happening on stage, but plenty of cameras focus on the crowd, with countless crowd surfers, screaming lunatics, and towards the end a cameraman is apparently taking part in a circle pit. You can see how much they enjoyed playing music, and when the show eventually ends, you can see it is emotional for them all. It's definitely one of those shows that I wish I could have been able to attend; like a lot of people wish they'd been around for Woodstock, I wish I had been born early enough (and preferably in America) so I could have been there.

This evening we celebrated my Dad's birthday by driving to town for a chinese takeaway and rushing it home before it got cold. It was lovely. We then watched Machine Girl, an ultra violent Japanese Comedy that I believe I reviewed earlier. Dad thoroughly enjoyed it just as I do.

Last thing tonight was hearing news that the Lost finale is going to be broadcast in unison with America, making it at 5am Monday morning. This makes me ecstatic that I've had Sky+ installed as I can record it, then me and Angus can have a "Lost Party" as it were. Horrifically sad, but whatever, Lost is the best TV show ever in my opinion, and the final episode is going to be an immense event.

The little fairy.

Today went off to a triumphant start as I got on the bus to be informed that the ticket machine wasn't working, so was travelling for free. This two pound saving put me in a fantastic mood, made even better by listening to the Rocky IV Training Montage music on repeat on my walk to work. Doing so means I am forced to walk faster and not stop for anything.

My joy was short lived however, as I upon my arrival to work I discovered that we had not inexplicably closed and I would be working from 10am until 6pm in the sauna of despair as I like to call it in these warm days due to the non-functioning air conditioning. The shop was actually quieter than yesterday: I thought this impossible but I was proven wrong, and the introduction of a "simpler, quicker" new system for processing a particular complex transaction turned out to be an abysmal failure. Another major annoyance for the day is discovering that one of my colleagues took the initiative to sell an item on my staff account as they had been unable to fulfill certain targets that we are given in the sale. This has contributed to my weekly targets being godawful and said colleague having praise and admiration being smeared all over him for fantastic results. I appreciate that being a salesman can be dog-eat-dog at times but specifically shitting on your colleagues is a step too low in my eyes.

I found myself amused for a while by switching every television to the same channel; a task that is far more involving and time consuming than it sounds. The onlooking staff from head office (who were doing a check on the store to ensure everything was correct) threatened to change all the channels when I was away, which I then requested they actually did, as it would give me something to do for the afternoon. Whilst said in jest it turned out that it would have been a welcome distraction as for long periods I was walking around the store to find there was not a single customer. This boredom lead to some insanity in the staff apparently as when new tickets were being put out, Paula overheard that I had put out the last few bundles, interjecting "Oh, so you're the little fairy who's been putting them out when we weren't looking".

This evening I found a download for Oingo Boingo's Farewell Concert. I would LOVE to buy the DVD and be all legit, but I am yet to find a website that is selling the out-of-print DVD for less than $100 + import fees as it is American. I will NOT pay that no matter how much I love them.

CENTENARY.

This is my 100th post. HUZZAH.

Apart from that monumental occasion, today was pretty average. Work was completely dead, perhaps to make ammends for yesterday's rush. No doubt it was due to the amazing weather outside, which actually made my day worse as not only did I want to be outside as opposed to stuck in a shop all day, the shop has really poor air conditioning, so it becomes airless, stuffy and hot on such a day. The end of the day saw a particular customer come in to buy a Vaccuum Cleaner. As they were paying they asked whether it was built up in the box. I informed them there is a tiny bit of assembly required but it's straight forward and there's instructions. At first they were horrified to hear of such a revalation as this, then asked me to build it for them. My reply was truthful in that the company isn't insured for salesmen to assemble stuff like that. It sounds petty but they had been moaning previously and it wasn't a 90-year-old woman; they were both perfectly capable of putting it together so there was no point in me breaking company policy to appease their laziness. They informed me I was talking rubbish, but I couldn't really care less and knew I was telling the truth, so they backed down on that, reverting to generic moaning about how awful the company is: "I've always gone into shops and had things put together for me; not like the other companies; absolute rubbish; the other places don't charge you for delivery; you get things delivered for free everywhere else-" I interrupted her at this point; "We do free delivery". She pounced upon this claim with arrogance that I have not seen in a while, retorting in a tone that made it perfectly clear she was completely right and I was a pitiful, sub-human, lying, cheating piece of dirt; "Oh really; what can you deliver for free, then?", as she stared at me, clearly challenging me. I replied with an honest air of apathy, but a growing twinge of defiance "Washing machines, dishwashers, cookers, dryers, fridges, freezers, televisions", whilst pointing at every corner of the shop to ensure I had covered the entire range of stock. Unfased, she beckoned me to a small standee upon a dishwasher. Here she had clearly gotten the better of me; "Look: 59 pounds to deliver a Dishwasher? Outrageous." On closer inspection the sign read:
Dishwasher Valet: Get your existing dishwasher professionally cleaned and fine-tuned for optimum performance
"No madam, that is to get your dishwasher cleaed." A small pause of consideration (consideration that would have been better put to use ten minuted previously) and she unspokenly conceded sipmly by saying "Oh." and walking out the door.

Other than this, little else of importance happened today. All in all it's been a horrifically boring day that dragged on forever.

Can I play with madness?

This morning saw the Sky Engineer come and install Sky in my room, thus making my TV fully functioning. We've never had Sky+ so I'm still ridiculously excited about being able to record everything; as I type this, Resident Evil and Top Gun are being recorded.

Work was oddly busy today. There's no logical reason for it, but there was a lot of people in the store for most of the day, and a lot of money went through the tills; today alone I did half of my week's sales target. This meant it was quite enjoyable but the usual annoyances were ever present. Anyone who reads these may remember that a week or so ago a man stole a small television. Today he returned and I immediately recognised him. Rather than steal anything else, he bought a massive TV, in the process supplying us with his name and address. Potentially false details but he doesn't seem intelligent enough, and we got his number plate to be doubly sure. Excitement.

All of today I have had the Rocky IV Training Montage music stuck in my head. It is incredible music by the same composer as the score to Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 one). I love the general 80's synth sound of it, and the main theme is so uplifting. I've never actually seen any of the Rocky films, but here's the music.

I declare him to be an outLAAWW!

This morning I had a mad panic to get everywhere as tidy as possible as I've got Sky being installed in my room tomorrow: it'll be nice to actually have telly on the TV I bought two months ago. After that I went to work where I spent literally the whole day scraping sticky muck off of the camera display; it was from twenty years worth of sticky tape being used to hang posters and such up, so it included a lot of that old fibrous tape that is a pest to get off. My manager pointed out that since he has worked in the store it's never been cleaned and it was already in a bit of a state then. Suffice to say that it was tedious and frustrating but when it was done it is a major improvement. To clear up I was joyful about using a Dyson. However I was dismayed to find that even the three hundred and fifty-odd pound beast of a machine was unable to pick up all the bits of paper from the ground and shelves. I had always thought they were some sort of pinnacle of vaccuuming technology and to find out otherwise is a crushing blow. As a child I took the "Santa" discussion pretty well, but finding out THIS is going to be hard to get over.

This evening I picked up my guitar that I haven't actually played yet this year. Due to this my fingers are now burning with currently forming blisters as the callous has apparently disappeared.

The last thing I did tonight was definitely the thing I am most proud of today: I found a soundclip online of the Robin Hood quote that's the title of this post, and set it as the text tone to my phone. That is best read as a testament to how boring the day has been.

We have a winner.

Today was the usual Saturday routine: I wasn't starting work until 12 but had to be in town at 9:30 due to buses. Unlike last week though, I spent my time in charity shops as opposed to HMV, so my spending was far more modest thankfully.

Work was moderately busy today. It was actually a pretty good day; I had a good laugh with everyone and nothing really put a downer on the day.

This evening quite a few of us went to see Robin Hood. I was looking forward to it because the trailer makes it seem a lot like Gladiator; one of my favourite films. It turned out to be very little like Gladiator in that it doesn't take itself 100% seriously with very clear comedy that manages to stay far away from making a farce of the dramatic elements of the movie, or feel at all forced. It is essentially an "origin movie" for Robin, giving a potential backstory for the character. It is done very well, as some elements are completely obvious, for example him getting with Maid Marian, so they play on it; they know that we know it'll happen but it's matter of when and how, and they tease you until it finally does happen. For a story that everyone knows the outcome to, they have still managed to create a gripping plot with sub-elements introduced to keep you guessing a bit more.
The cast are all excellent. Russel Crowe doesn't have long hair as many have pointed out, but in this depiction of Robin Hood, he plays it perfectly. There's been controversy about his accent lately, but I think that most of the time he's convincing. There is one scene near the beginning where a twinge of Irish creeps in, but other than that he's got a fine accent as far as I'm aware. King John's actor gives possibly my favourite performance of the movie, making it clear that he is totally incompetent and dim-witted creating many comedic moments, yet still managing to show that he is still the King, thus very powerful and to be feared. It's a very tight balance that the actor and Ridley Scott have controlled perfectly. One thing that Ridley Scott delivers once again similar to Gladiator is fantastic battle and fight scenes that manage to maintain a large-scale power and excitement whilst simultaneously portraying the horror the individual characters are suffering, AND keeping the plot moving along. I was very disappointed for the first third of the film that the music wasn't by Hanz Zimmer. His music has such a powerful edge to it that it suits Scott's style of movie perfectly. However, I did eventually get used to the different style, and as soon as I did this I noticed how apt it is to the film with the use of many traditional English Folk instruments and a general tonality of Folk music. The aptness isn't so clear in the first third as the film is set in France for this time, but once it reaches the English villages and courts it matches perfectly. It would have been so easy to revert to his favourite composer and it would have worked, but the brave decision to try something different turned out totally the right thing to do. I can't really fault anything with it, but due to it lacking the raw power of Gladiator I can't give it a full 10/10. It is definitely a very strong 9/10 however, because it doesn't try to have this power. It's entirely down to my preference that I take that mark off, so rest assured that it is a fantastic movie that I don't see fading into obscurity in a few months as so many recent releases undoubtedly will.

It's certainly been a decent day, topped off with finally getting round to purchasing train tickets for me and Darroch to get to Edinburgh for Marina and the Diamonds in two weeks.

Uurgh.

Today I spent the day in a near-comatose state after lying awake for most of last night. I made my way to work where everything was pretty much as usual; for more information see yesterday's post. I did discuss photography possibilities with Matt. It looks like I'll be photographer for his festival in Edinurgh next month; Highland Fire Fest II, and will be going to a few gigs with his band Fortrius as their photographer. This will be awesome.

Less awesome was the looming of the world cup, raising the English-bashing even amongst some people I would have classed as pretty sound individuals. I don't attribute it to the whole of Scotland but there seems to be something in particular about the rural areas that a certain number of people feel compelled to despise the English. I reminded someone today at work of my heritage; a point that was met with a response somewhere between disgust and mockery. All through school I had this problem whenever the world cup came around, but I thought that once I got into the real world I would be around more mature people with far more insight into the world around them. How stupid of me. Even when I try to pry into their hatred, discovering if there is anything personal to them which makes them hate the English. The answer always boils down to one of the two following:
1) "Because they're bastards"
2) "Culloden"
The first isn't really an answer; it just creates a circular conversation. The second is very interesting as though England had a part in the battle, the true event was more Scots vs. Scots Traitors. This protest is 99% of the time met with a paradoxical smug laughter that suggests they are better than me whilst confirming their own ignorance.

In related news I saw in the paper today that a man forced his 37 week pregnant partner to drive 500 miles to ensure his child was born in Scotland, thus averting the horror of it being, by a minor technicality, English. Anyone who is less than horrified by this story has issues as far as I'm concerned. For the mere sake of petty low-level schoolyard racism, you force your heavily pregnant partner to drive by herself for hours? I implore anyone to back this logic up.

Though an angry post, I have had a semi-decent day and shall be seeing Robin Hood after work tomorrow which I am very much looking forward to.

What would Brian Boitano do?

Today has left me with quite a quandry. I realised at work that I'm totally sick and tired of things going wrong at the place. I've gotten to the point that I am pretty confident with most aspects of my job and am able to assist 90% of customers. However, in reaching this point I have realised just how thinly stretched everything is: I have to rely on so much coming together and this rarely happens smoothly, meaning that I am left looking like a fool with no idea what I'm doing. It's definitely no fault of the manager; he does an awesome job; it's mostly down to there not being enough staff for separate tasks. And we don't have them because the budget won't allow for it. Everyone is doing various jobs in addition to their own, meaning everything gets done, but either hurriedly or late, and certain spur-of-the-moment tasks are unavoidably postponed. From this I feel like I should be looking for another job, but I do genuinely like the job for the challenges it poses and I am interested in the things I work with. Also, as I've mentioned before, the people I work with are awesome. I worry that if I do find another job, I'll be stuck either with monotonous, boring tasks, or with people that I don't get along with. For the time being I really think it's best that I stay where I am.

I got home today to find my Provisional Licence has arrived. I think that once I get driving I will be much happier with my job as well, because I can't stand relying on buses and having to wrangle times constantly. Obviously whatever job I have this is going to be the case. I am going to start lessons ASAP.

Lastly, this evening I watched Avatar with my family. I am pleased (even relieved) that it stand up under all the following conditions; at home instead of at the cinema, on a repeat viewing, and in 2D. I still loved it and the 150 minutes flew past once again. My main thought from the film is that the very final scene is one of the best endings of a movie; not for the plot ending, just the way it is filmed along with the massive crescendo in the music and the way it perfectly sums up how the movie "ends" in a matter of half a second. Cue the screen filled with the Avatar logo and you've got a major pay off to an incredible film.

Tomorrow is work again; I might be less bitter about being there after talking myself into staying at the beginning of this post. I guess I can't complain too much; I AM getting paid and everything, and without that I have no chance of getting driving.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Today was completely uninteresting. I spent the day tidying my room, the only part of which worth noting is that I discovered a piano book of Baroque music that I bought a few months ago, and have started learning Pachelbel's Canon in D out of it.

No really, that's all that happened. I didn't watch any movies, any TV, or listen to any new music (aside the Baroque music from the book).

It was productive, but nothing to write about. Tomorrow will feature me going to work forcing me to leave the house and experience the real world, so perhaps there'll be more insight in tomorrow's post.

I are viking. I destroy David Cameron.

My days off usually consist of very little that makes any difference but I feel that today was well spent. My Granny came over late morning to look into our family tree (as they don't have the internet and I am the one who is best at negotiating the internets). We spent the morning and most of the afternoon trawling through records online, eventually reaching back to a Henry Dougall, born in 1776, and his parents; Laurence Dougall and Margaret Low; who will have been born even before the battle of Culloden. That is pretty damn good work in my opinion. A much less distant relative, born in the 1890's and who died in the 1960's had her death certificate unviewable to the public; my Granny knows only that she died in an asylum near Glasgow called Hawkshead, and she was never told any more. We have ordered an official copy of the certificate so that should prove... interesting. I really got into the detective side of pouring through the information, finding out about my relatives. It makes me want to try it on my father's side as well in the near future, so I can create a full family tree spanning back as much as two hundred and fifty years. The title relates to the fact that my surname is of Scandinavian descent, though I severely doubt that I will be able to trace back far enough to find out if I truly am a Norseman all by myself.

This evening I watched Heston's 80's Feast which was, as always, entertaining and stunning. It also made me more sure of the feeling that I really should have been a teenager in the 1980's rather than the disastrous "noughties". It's more than a thought along the lines of "that looks cool"; I genuinely feel like I belong there and despise the noughties for how music, movies and generally everything has panned out; it goes as far as a little bit of my soul crumbling away every time I type or utter the word "Noughties". Like some sort of Horcrux is being created.

Final point of the day was discovering that David Cameron is truly the Prime Minister. A lot of people seem to have the viewpoint that this somehow benefits England only, giving Scotland a raw deal. What they fail to realise is that the rich toffs are the ones who will benefit, including all the Highland Estate owners with thousands and thousands of pounds tucked away. All the lowly peasants like myself and those complaining will probably end up being taxed more and given less, whether they live in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. This is one more time that the England-bashing has reached a point that is below farcical; it is completely devoid of any intelligence or insight that my decrying it is giving it more discussion than is deserved.

A decent day topped off with an irritating end, but I won't allow it to spoil my good mood as I was pretty apathetic about the outcome of the election as I don't like the policies of any of the main three parties.

Drivel, Stupidity, Gaucherie, insanity. All in a day at DSGi.

Today work was just as it has been for the last few days; very quiet with nothing needing done and annoyances making serving the occasional customers difficult. The day was made all the more bearable by the fun we had; a challenge in which someone was offered a tenner if they could throw an HDMI Cable so that it hooked over the struts in the ceiling (he failed); winding up Matt at lunchtime as usual; listening to pagan folk metal on the shop sound system; winding up Ian; and an incredible story that Allan told me which I shall recount because I was in fits of laughter for a few minutes after hearing it.

When he was 12, politicians were visiting his school, including who was at the time the Chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown. Unsurprisingly the staff of the school were all in full panic mode, ensuring all the children were model pupils in preparation for the VIPs. The motivation speech / battle plan outlined to them was simple yet concise; "Get a book, read it, talk about it if they ask". It just so happens by some beautiful moment of fate that young Allan was one of the few children Gordon Brown approached; "What are you reading there, son?"

"Nu'hin, I was just told to pick a book." came the straight reply, over the book that was being held upside down in further protest.

I love this story, and posted it here mainly so that I would be reminded of it whenever I look back at these for whatever reason.

On the bus home, I met Jamie, Goth Tom and Andrew. We spent the journey which always feels like an eternity playing cards. It was without doubt the most banterific journey I have had outside of school trips.

My main thought for today was brought about by listening to the Phenomena soundtrack; it is a moderately obscure cult horror from the 80's. Italian-made, but in English, it is directed by the cult master Dario Argento. The film is one of the strangest I have seen, with a heavy metal soundtrack featuring Iron Maiden and such, and a score written entirely by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, the cult progressive rock band. The film would raise questions from most viewers, such as why a number of scenes are like a music video, why there is a very important sub-plot featuring a monkey, why this happens, why that happens. I realised that it all happens and is all shot like it is because Dario Argento wanted it to be so. It rekindled my interest in movies, not that I lost interest, but it certaintly made me more passionate about making them. I think it's a shame that so many films have lost all artistic aspect about them; instead of a director being the main brain of the movie, making artistic decision to achieve the film (s)he wants, inspiring the crew to be passionate about his movie, so many modern movies use the director as just another crew member; the person who co-ordinates the shoots and keeps everything running; more of a manager than an artistic leader. While I appreciate that studios are necessary for so many of the movies I love, they can often be too over-bearing with demographics and target markets that the movies, while perhaps featuring a business-like wide appeal, are lifeless and dull, offering no lasting impact after leaving the cinema. Although this sounds like a downbeat, cynical revelation, I don't see it as such; I think that realising this is necessary to give me the kick to try and be myself with films; rather than trying to make the next big hit I should focus on making the films I want to make.

All in all it has been an enjoyable day, if very frustrating at times. I am finishing it in epic style, listening to Rhapsody of Fire's amazing new album over a glass of mead, looking forward to two days off work.

Dance, magic dance.

The majority of today was largely uneventful so I'll try and keep this blog short. Work was very annoying as there's a lot of problems that are not my fault yet serve to make me look an idiot to customers. The problem is that the only people capable of fixing said problems have a lot to do on a daily basis and keep having more things thrown at them; things which aren't really their responsibility. It annoys me that things are going wrong, making my job much harder, and it annoys me further that people are being moaned at for it when they are being prevented from fixing the problems. This was the main theme of the day. Luckily my customers were all very agreeable so they could see me and my colleagues were doing our best to sort things out for them.

This evening I went down to the Benleva as it is Darroch's birthday. It shocks and repulses me to know that the person I've been friends with since my first day of school has turned 20. Walking down I was listening to my iPod, which decided to shuffle to Magic Dance by David Bowie from Labyrinth. For some reason unknown to me this urged me to jog from my house to Drum. I was pretty chuffed with myself once I got over the minor heart failure and collapsed lungs. The evening went pretty well; I played poker with Alan and Darroch, which I won in a landslide victory of sheer dumb luck on an all-in. I got a lift home from Jonathan so all went well this evening.

A mixed day overall, and very little is planned for tomorrow beyond work.

Lionel Ritchie; get out of my house!

Today I didn't start work until 12, but had to get the bus in for 10. As previously outlined, the buses are atrocious. Having sent my provisional application off the other day I should be receiving it in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll be driving within a couple of months meaning all the frustration of relying on buses will be behind me. Hopefully.

With time to kill I unsurprisingly ended up spending money I don't want to spend on things I don't need. The upside to this though is that I get more points on my PureHMV card and I did buy a driving test trainer for the DS.

Work was far less quiet than yesterday but still pretty dull for most of the day. Nothing untoward happened; customers were on the whole fine, nothing particularly stressful happened, it just took a while to pass due to the lack of things to do.

This evening I went to the cinema with Danny and Caroline. We saw Hot Tub Time Machine; I appreciate how little respect that sentence earns but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite enjoyable. It is funny, with a plot that isn't too obvious, actors who have good chemistry playing characters who are likeable but gain little development as the film progresses. I don't go to a film about a Hot Tub that transports a group of middle aged friends back to the 80's expecting ground-breaking plotlines or deep characterisation, so I can't complain. I got what I hoped for in an overall good, fun, escapist film with the addition of a decent 80's soundtrack. A somewhat apathetic 6/10 because there's nothing that blew me away but nothing that detracted from the movie.

I haven't heard anything new about the election saga, save for the Sun referring to Gordon Brown as a "squatter", prompting me to burst into a fit of laughter in Co-Op; whether you like him or not, he's still the prime minister until a new one is elected, so for the time being he stay in number 10. Get over it.

James' Inimitable Wit.

I awoke this morning to the fantastic news that the Tories' nonchalant whittering with empty promises and pretty words had partially worked. As the day progressed it has become more likely that him and Clegg will form a hung parliament. This, if it happens, basically means that the many people I know who voted Lib Dem will have their vote manipulated in David Cameron's favour. I appreciate that it is a cynical viewpoint, but for an already atrocious voting system, this is really rubbing sulphuric acid in the wound. My personal favourite outcome would be a Labour/Lib Dem coalition with a referendum to overhaul the voting system, and a re-vote arranged for in 6 months or so under the new system if it was passed. The voting system I envisage would be One vote for the local MP, and a separate vote for the country's PM. The person in each category with the highest number of votes wins. No mucking about with seats and coalitions; a decision made by the nation as a whole. I did Modern Studies in Fifth Year, but I can't remember what this voting system is called. If anyone can let me know it would be awesome.

I left the house to head off to my first proper psychologist session. It started slightly annoying as last time I was there I filled in a few questionnaires, and from my answers I was given scores on a number of different aspects of mental health. 1.2 is depression for a male, and 2.5 is sever depression; I scored 2.4, which I was a little bit gutted about: I'd have liked a high score. Another score I did quite well on was the suicide probability (seriously); 5 is really high risk, I got a 4. I'm not saying all this for a reaction, I find it quite funny that I've been given a label on a level of depression and they openly discussed the probability of me killing myself. Once this was cleared away though, the session was a step in the direction I'm wanting to go: I really hope we can eventually get to the root of the anxiety attacks and the problems they create.

Work today was literally the quietest day I have ever witnessed. I had next to nothing needing done, meaning I spent the day strolling around with intent of serving customers. The flaw in this plan was the fact that at any given time throughout the day, you could count the customers on one hand. For a considerable amount of time, the staff were the only humans present.

The bus home featured a guest appearance from James Redmond. It was during the extraction of craic that Dr Who was mentioned, where I informed him of my meeting Karen Gillan at work (whenever I hear Dr Who being mentioned, I will forcefully share this anecdote as now that she's properly famous I love it). To this, he broke out his comedic side, suggesting that she was looking for a Sonic Screwdriver or a Tardis. He went on to inquire as to whether Currys sells such equipment.

Tomorrow is another day at work followed by the weekly cinema trip. It's indecided what we'll see: looks like a decision between Hot Tub Time Machine and Nightmare on Elm Street... not the strongest of line-ups from what I've heard, but oh well.

Democracy? LOL J/K.

Today was voting day, as most humans in the country will be well aware of. I merrily skipped to my first opportunity to vote, where I voted Green as I decided a couple of days ago. It got me thinking though that my vote will literally count for nothing, as there is no chance of Inverness voting Green, and it is on seats that the general parliament is decided. I hate this system with a passion, as it means a party doesn't need to generate appeal and please the worries of a nation, it needs to strategically target certain seats with tricks and games. I assume that it will be either Gordon Brown or David Cameron in power in the next couple of hours; either way it is a horrible outcome.

Work today would have been largely uneventful, with very few customers for the whole day. Excitement was had but not in a good way, as it came from a junkie sprinting off with a small TV. This lead to the next hour or so being taken up with giving police statements and such. The high point of the day was the appearance of an incredibly pretty girl with a faulty laptop. I dealt with the problem and created a moderate level of banter with her but due to being an insufferable little bitch I didn't ask her number. Later on in the day I became really annoyed with myself for this but I have taken the age-old advice to "man up" and move on.

I got home to the Alternative Election Night on C4 which was very good but I have now given up as I'm shattered, have to get up relatively early tomorrow, and got really annoyed at a semi-serious debate lead by David Mitchell in which a woman wouldn't stop winging about "blacks and minorities", suggesting that they're still treated as inferior in every aspect of everyday life. I'm not even going to go into that, but suffice to say that she really riled me up, and the brief shot of the ginger guy looking like "oh god here she goes again" did cheer me up a bit, along with the second's awkward silence broken by someone pretending she never spoke which followed each of her rants.

It's been a decent if somewhat unimportant day. The biggest event beyond the token action of voting for the first time would be this morning's decision that this Summer must be taken advantage of fully; I plan on doing as much as I possibly can to get out, see things and have a good time.

Glee - lee + ay = GAY.

The title is indicative of my current mental state: I have lost rational thought temporarily in some sort of emotional train wreck that occurs every few months or so. This has put me in an odd mood consisting of soul-destroying depression and hysteria combined, with the occasional pinch of terror and panic for a few seconds. Oh what fun.

The day started as normally as can be expected and my state of mind prompted me to spend the morning and afternoon trying to find a way of getting to Alton Towers next month to use the free tickets I got from the Sun offer that was running a while ago. In doing so I found out that it is a blooming expensive attraction: for two people to spend a weekend there, staying for two nights in the hotel, it would cost £500. For five days and five nights in Disneyworld Florida it would cost the same two people £750. I know which one is the better deal, but I don't have even £500 lying spare just now and I would have to fly to Orlando which would pose further problems with a fresh plume of ash currently billowing over Scotland.

In the news I heard more about the troubles in Greece; what mentality does it take for a group of people to think that causing thousands of pounds of damage, killing people in the process, is going to somehow rectify the fact that your country has taken an economic nosedive? It's horrible that they're being forced to pay more tax and earn less, but the riots aren't exactly going to solve anything.

This evening I watched Disturbia. I had been meaning to watch it for ages, having heard good things, and I was not disappointed. It is one of the rare modern films that kept me guessing through to the end. The plot is very original, with a great young cast making it all very believable. Spot on direction means that it is clear that the plot will go one way or the other, but as soon as one side seems likely one of the numerous plot twists comes along and throws a spanner in the works. It is excellently paced, with a very slow build featuring so many moments of false tension that towards the end you start severely doubting what you're seeing. It's difficult to fully outline the skill in the movie fully without giving major spoilers, something I never like to do in reviews, so anyone who hasn't seen it; I very much recommend it. 9/10.

Voting time tomorrow: I shall be voting Green. When I tell people this I get responses ranging from Josh's "Fuck off Cameron", to Calvin's bemusement, questioning whether I am doing this as a joke or protest, to Darroch's agreement. I am voting Green because they are the party that I believe in most. I am aware that there is roughly 5% chance of them gaining the Inverness seat meaning I am throwing my vote away if you choose to look at it cynically, but I feel it is better than voting for one of the three main contenders when I don't like any of them. Had I not discovered that the Greens had some good plans my ballot tomorrow would have featured a crudely drawn penis so I have taken a democratic step up.

After voting, it's back to work. With the world cup approaching, the men in suits up at the top are expecting TV sales to go through the roof, so perhaps it will have begun by now. If so, it'll be great as TVs are an item I find very easy to sell on the grounds that I know quite a bit about them; it's rare that a question truly stumps me in that section, unlike the kitchen appliances which I often have to shamefully blag my way through.

I apologise for the length and irrelevance of much of this blog, but on the bright side I do feel it lives up the the name of the site: Inane Ramblings. Due to this I can get away with any listless whitterings.

Until tomorrow. Goodnight.

It's just a jump to the left.

Today I was not at work and was tasked with looking after our puppy and my grandparents' dog for the day. This meant I had the house to myself so spent the day watching films. I started off with Alone in the Dark, the Uwe Boll movie that I have heard so many bad things about. It started off as a very silly movie; it has the general tone and style of a standard family archaeology/adventure movie, but with violence and horror that gains it an 18 certificate, negating the family audience it seems to play to. Nonetheless I am one of the few with the right frame of mind to enjoy its camp b-movie-esque silliness, with pseudo-science that isn't even well-written enough to use long words to throw the average viewer off the scent: most of the script is so clearly bollocks that an eleven year old wouold go "umm, what?" at many scenes. By the halfway point it had introduced some really annoying elements in a film-noir voiceover occasionally popping in uninvitedly, an unexplained on-off love interest and a generic nemesis with characterisation and intrigue of a level usually reserved only for Disney straight-to-dvd villains. It then tried to become enthralling and more serious, which in practice made it become tedious so I gave up and switched it off in favor of Repo! the Genetic Opera.

This is a film I've seen loads of times already but because I was alone in the house I could blast out the surround sound enhancing the awesome soundtrack. It's not to everyone's taste but I absolutely love everything about the film from the cyber-punk visuals to the explicit gore and dark humor. Also I challenge anyone to nay-say the scene in which Paris Hilton's face falls off. 9/10.

Lastly I watched Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ashamedly I had never seen it until today. I am somewhat glad of this though, as if I had seen it younger a lot (if not all) of the oddness of it would have been lost on me. I was hooked for every minute of it, laughing out loud every couple of minutes. The music is great, all the cast are excellent and the story is so bizzare that it is still so original 35 years on. A lot of it I have no idea how they got away with back in the 70's, but I'm glad they did because it makes for a hilarious movie. My main thought of the movie is that Tim Curry is a hero. 9/10.

This evening we switched on Mythbusters over dinner simply as something to have on, but mine and my entire families minds were blown by one experiment they did where they discovered that elephants are in fact scared of mice. This wasn't some prank or technicality, the elephants were clearly perturbed by the presence of a mouse. The experiment consisted of elephant dung hollowed out to conceal a mouse laid on the ground. When an elephant came by they pulled a cord which gently moved the dung, allowing the mouse to escape. They tried it without the mouse to see if the dung's movement was startling it but it couldn't care less. When a mouse appeared however, it stopped in it's tracks, retreated a few steps then gave it a wide berth as it went by. The same happened a couple of times. I might be dwelling on this a bit too much but I am still amazed by seeing it happen.

One last thing, I want to thank Caroline for reminding me that it is national star wars day (may the fourth be with you etc, etc). Had I forgotten I would have been gutted with myself.

WOAHOAH! Cheese & Pickle.

This morning was a disgrace. I woke up so tired that standing at the top of my hill leaving for the bus I considered the plausibility of just falling asleep on the spot, allowing my comatose body to roll down to the bottom. I chose to walk instead, but this was unnecessary as being a bank holiday Monday there was no early bus. Regardless of the phonecall the other day whereby I was informed that the Bank Holiday service was a regular service, it wasn't. Thankfully my Dad wasn't starting work until a bit later so he drove me, preventing me from being nearly two hours late otherwise.
Work was moderately busy as the day went on; there was a lot of people milling around the store, but not a great deal of buying occurred. The day passed pretty quickly, so I can't complain.

This evening I got back into the piano. It's my favourite instrument because it is so versatile; it can be played al by itself to create almost any sound, be it soft and emotional or powerful and strong. I spent most of the evening watching and listening to various tracks; Katzenjammer's interpretation of In the Hall of the Mountain King is one of the best of these. Also I found a site that hosts a large selection of sheet music by Joe Hisaishi; my favourite pianist. As his name suggests he is Japanese, and amongst his own solo and orchestral work he is the composer for many of Studio Ghibli's films such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. I found the sheets for one of his best solo songs in my opinion; Resphoina.

I love how it is so relaxing but also unusual in the timing and sounds, especially the sudden, almost harsh chords that are on the verge of breaking the tranquillity but somehow merge in well. I'd love to see a video of Joe Hisaishi playing this as he is amazing to watch playing the piano live. Well, I have the sheets on my computer, all I need is the dedication to put aside the time to learn it. Tomorrow is the first of two days off so perhaps I'll make a start during that time.

Vroooom!

Today I wasn't working until 12, so it gave me a much welcomed opportunity to have a lie-in. Of course, I woke up at seven and regardless of how tired I was, didn't get back to sleep. Another sleep-based failure.

Once at work, I had a mixed day; it was a strange, annoying sort of day where it would suddenly jump from being busy to being completely dead. This means that you never know what you should be doing as you get into the routine of scouting for anyone needing help by which time the place has become deserted. This lets you relax a bit, finding something to do by which time it has become busy again and customers start getting frustrated at you not helping them. This pattern continued for most of the day. I did remember my iPod today but someone kept switching it off meaning, arguably worse than terrible music, there was prolonged periods of NO music.

I was picked up from work by my Dad, as there are hardly any buses on a Sunday and we headed off to Dingwall to get a car. The winter pretty much destroyed our current car with the constant battle to get up our hill, so a new one was called for. We got a Ford Mondeo Ghia with a V6 engine. It sounds like a ludicrous choice as a petrol guzzler, but it has been LPG converted so for the price of a gallon of petrol will attain around 60 miles. After all the legal stuff with the seller had been done we drove it home and it is incredible. Anyone who nay-says LPG is wrong: this car runs amazingly.

Early start at work tomorrow. Being a bank holiday there's a good chance it may be rather busy. If so, it will be enjoyable.

Aye no bad like yersel

Work went ridiculously slowly today. A large portion of this is because I forgot my ipod (selfishly as Rachel informed me) meaning that the musical accompaniment of the day was a 6 track CD on a constant loop featuring some horrendously boring music. It seems yesterday was a blip as all the customers I dealt with today were very nice which made the day much more bearable.

After work I went to see Iron Man 2 with various humans. At the time I enjoyed the movie and I have no real complaint with it but looking back I am somewhat apathetic about it. It misses something from the original; something I can't put my finger on but makes it lack the lasting appeal. My only thought could be that the pacing is a bit off, becoming quite slow in the second third. Having said that it is a good film with a good character arc for Tony Stark: whereas a lot of superhero movies see this as an underlying device, it is the arc that drives this movie, a factor that I was impressed by as it would have been easier for the director to just do a simple exciting sequel. As with the original the effects are incredible. The best part is the cast: Robert Downey Jr is awesome as always, with Mickey Rourke playing the Russian villain very well; he gives a more realistic spin on the comic book villain, not overplaying it. Samuel L Jackson is in it, further setting up the Avengers movie Marvel are planning which if and when it comes together should be very exciting. All this positivity makes it seem unfair to give it a mediocre rating but the first point of something being missing from it did mean I left without the buzz you usually get from a great film. On analysing it, it is a good film but for a superhero movie I did expect it to be a bit more gripping. 7/10

Somewhat short post tonight: lack of sleep the past week or so has meant that once I get round to writing these I am practically falling asleep on the keyboard meaning what is here takes twice as long to type as I keep making foolish mistakes.

Plummy the womaniser.

The first half of the day went pretty badly; I was woken up by my alarm far earlier than should be legal for someone who hardly sleeps. My reward for getting up was a splitting headache that took much of the day to rid. Work was pretty awful until about midday; it seemed that everyone wanted to complain and shout at us: one woman wanted a cooker to fit in a particular space for which she had measurements. I informed her (correctly) that the standard size of a cooker is 5mm wider than the space she had written down. This was apparently my doing and lead to a torrent of shouting and interrogation as to why it was too big, why I couldn't sell a smaller one, etc etc. Come the afternoon though, customers became incredibly pleasant; it might even be said that they were "good banter". In addition to this the new currys playlist on my ipod is awesome.

This evening I attended another rave, as it was billed, in Drumnadrochit. It was atrocious for some reason; the last one was decent but I was not at all into this one. The theme was superheroes, so I was dressed as the Joker, showing off some of my new card tricks which were met with amazement from the largely drunk audiences. Save for this entertainment I didn't enjoy it at all. Luckily I eventually bumped into people with similar feelings and spent the evening with them mostly sitting in Drum swing park. All in all it wasn't an evening of thrills but the people I was with are great so it eventually turned out to be a good night. I didn't even have to walk home, getting a lift with Stephen.

Tomorrow should be another decent night as I'm seeing Iron Man 2; I love the first so it should be good.