February 2006

17/02/05 - Friday 17th February 2006

The scene is a beautiful February morning, the sun gleaming across the baby-blue sky, the birds whistling in the trees and one solitary man battles the elements with the help of his kite. Yes... this was the picture I woke up to on Wednesday morning. The wind was blasting through the trees and he'd decided to fly a kite, which was the size of a sky-divers parachute... I only wish I had my camcorder to film him! Needless to say he was being scraped across the muddy field last time I saw him as he tried to keep his kite from blowing away!

Anyway... onto the news of the week. After last weeks blog entry, whereby I mentioned that I had now got a job, I commenced my first shift on Tuesday. It was an absolute hoot! I worked on a nice small bar, with relatively sober and nice people (in comparison to the rest of the union's students(!)) It was seemingly busy up until around 11pm and then it pretty much died off for a nice ending to my first shift. This lovely picture of a nice peaceful job however, was dashed yesterday evening (through into the very wee-hours of this morning - namely 4am) by what started off as a nice quiet shift, but soon descended into a chaotic fight for the bar! All students, mostly from the international and more financially unchallenged backgrounds were scrambling for the bar in pursuit of what was to be a £50 order of spirits/liqueurs/bottles/beer/purple (snakebite - whatever you want to call it) then only to come back and queue for the next round just 10 minutes later. Seriously it was the most crazy thing I've seen since working at Saints (where fans scramble for the latest season tickets - queuing from before I even wake up on the day that they are released!). Bar work is a funny business; very different to a sober customer service position, whereby those you are trying to serve a) you understand and b) you can ask them for money and they actually give you the right (or near-enough) amount. Bar work, is completely the opposite, drunken slurs of "puuuuuurrpleee" or "J-J-J-D-D and coca-coke-coca-coke", "make it a quad...-quad...-4-shots-in-one-glass" and then they proceed by giving you all their money and asking you to sort it out for them... I could've taken anything and they wouldn't notice! There's also the "financious-hopelessus", who think it's ok to give you £50 and say "make as many apple sourz as you can with this plz"! Crazy bunch... crazy bunch! Nonetheless, it was a very amusing ride!

On the side of university work, I have a stack of sheets piled high with work that needs completing before the end of term, essays, assignments, oral reports etc etc etc, and none of them sound pleasing to do! Hopefully my mind will somehow complete them without me having to think about them(!)

Not been skiing for a while, must see when the next session is that doesn't clash with my ski-buddy's timetable!

Lastly onto TV, because as many of you are aware, it's a big part of student life. This week Lost and Desperate Housewives come into the mix. This weeks episode of Lost, without retelling stories and spoiling those who are not up to the USA's abc pace, was simply amazingly done; it was the biggest "tease-episode" ever though, but nonetheless was still very much better than the standard they have been pumping out lately! Those endless none-exciting back-stories are beginning to be fillers for the show, as they know they have 3 or 4 more seasons to complete! As ever however, the biggest US comedy-drama Desperate Housewives is not "filling-in" as it moves the stories of its Wysteria Lane residents along at a lovely pace, combining comedy, drama, intrigue, suspicion, poignant scenes that all make one perfect drama show. All I can say is its coming along nicely and those who are watching the earlier episodes now showing on Channel 4 - you're in for a treat! (Did I mention I've been on the set of Wysteria Lane, which is really on the back-lot of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, US of A!)

Not much other news this week, have been very pre-occupied with work, hangovers, work and TV, so basically everything has been covered...

Until Next Time... "Be Safe! Be Happy!"

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10/02/06 - Friday 10th February 2006

Fellow blog readers rejoice... I have finally, after months of searching, interviews, group assessments, found a little part-time job! The freedom and self-confidence that comes out of any job, I find to be fascinating... I thought I'd post about this, due to the fascinating "interview" process for it. Firstly it was a "group" assessment (consisting of around 20-30 people). They gave us basic introduction, checked our availability, then actually took us to the place of work - namely the Student Union Bar. This was a very interesting and surprising tactic, in that it was such a teaser for where you "could" be working and the use of tills and "mock" serving session was simply hilariously good fun... Then on for a 50 minute discussion about hygiene and safety in the workplace; which I'm sure you think would be the most boring thing ever, but a discussion with a group of girls about hygiene turned out to be the funniest thing! I'll keep you posted on "work" developments as soon as I get them...

The scene... a devastated small town in the middle of Florida, where the human race is slowly being taken over by an invasive species, feared to have "appeared" in lights during a recent hurricane. No, this, if you haven't already guess, is not real-life but a gripping new show, that started on Channel 4, during the loss of Lost last month. Needless to say, having caught up to the abc USA episodes, I particularly impressed. Not only has it got the necessary "intriguing" sci-fi feel, but also has much deeper characters than I previously thought. I'd urge you to take a look, a lovely sci-fi show for a Sunday evening. I won't reveal any details as I wouldn't want to spoil the surprises to be had, but just watch yourself next time you step into that water...

Scaramouche will you do the fandango? Yes... as everybody knows, it's the genius that is/was Queen and their music lives on in the spectacular musical adaptation of their work by way of "We Will Rock You". I have to say a quick trip down to London this Wednesday was a lovely break from the Warwick bubble. A quick trip too, usually a trip to London means at least a 5 hour car journey! So 2 hours after leaving Warwick I was there, in the "heart" of the UK. The excitement building, I bought a programme and glow-stick and sat down just 8 rows from the front of the "what-was-to-be" the most spectacular stage in London. The following will be a review and my personal reactions to this sublime show... so if you're not interested you can stop reading and wait for the next exciting instalment of my blog... stay tuned...

The show opens with the spectacularly aw-inspiring Innuendo, complete with "swirly" wind, guitar riffs, drum rolls, superb spinning mirror-ball lighting, literally making the theatre sparkle with the music of Queen. The haunting "ooh-ooh" of Freddie echoing throughout the audience is simply a fantastic opening and immediately you find yourself singing along (much to the dislike of fellow audience members...). The first line "do I see a little silhouette of a spy", sets up the tone of the performance, comedy, mixed with superb "pantomime" audience interaction, coupled with the surprisingly well-integrated storyline... "No need to think, no need to feel, when only cyberspace is real" - to the tune of Radio Ga Ga. The harmonising is as true to Queen as possible, live harmonies of the Queen vocals is simply mind-boggling! (See bohemian rhapsody at the close of the show). As the musical progresses we meet "Killer Queen" - head of the Globalsoft corporation who has effectively banned "human-created-music", along with Galileo Figaro and Scaramouche, who are all part of the excitement and fun that personifies Queen's music.

The music, itself is simply stunning, but then again, we all knew that; the way the story ties them together is perhaps the spectacular part. Then again the set simply blew my mind! 8 humongous video walls that projected the 2300s and added the essential futuristic look as well as visiting the "rubble" that is Wembley and the revolving platform that the Killer Queen stands proudly on before belting out "A Kind Of Magic" as she turns to literally hover above the audience in the stalls.

All in all the show is simply fab! The best musical I have seen, perhaps, but then again I am biased, knowing all the words is kind of unnatural for a west-end musical, but then this is simply not a West-End musical. It's much more than that... It's, hopefully, a never-ending tribute to the sublime foursome that were Queen, as well as honouring the great musicians of our time... Go and see it!

Until Next Time... "Be Safe! Be Happy!"

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07/02/06 - Tuesday 7th February 2006

Well, it has to be said that 2006 is going superbly quickly. Only at the beginning of January did my dad say (and I quote) "January will seem the longest month" referring to the fact that I started university life so early on in the year. To be honest, by the time I'd got back into the routine of university life, it was already three-quarters the way through January and here I am sat in the second quarter of February! So a new month brings new surprises, new challenges, new hopes and new fears...

So without further hesitation, the happenings in between the last entry...

Firstly it should be noted that the 2nd to last weekend... i.e. the weekend of 28th-29th January were primitively boring and therefore a posse of five, I included, indeed took part in silly "social" games whereby we dismantled some of 2nd floor kitchen's benches and used them as slides to "ride" down stairs with at 1am, completely in a sober nature you understand (as I explained earlier we were very bored and without the cliché twister game to be played we had to improvise...

I have also taken part in yet more WarwickTv Live madness, this time as part of the Big Decision 2006 - namely the Warwick Student Union elections. This was again the 7 camera affair, with 3 fully equipped studios, both with lighting and sound rigs that would make the eyes boggle if shown to humans. It has to be said that with great co-ordination and artistic skill, the night went with a bang, broadcasting live both via the internet and across the student union; tying in some new shows with live quiz shows that certainly were hilarious to have taken part in! The live quiz show is based on a "survey says..." format, whereby our researchers ask 100 students a question and the 2 contestants must guess-timate what percentage of students gave "such and such" an answer. Doing such a show live, however, presents its problems... Firstly the "score-keeper", Georgie, must remember to actually keep scores, whereas the pre-recorded version of the show he doesn't have to, as he can simply be told the scores and this edited in afterwards... Live however, the presents a problem and in order to relay the scores to the "scores-on-the-doors-George", I had to use obscure hand gestures "off-camera" in order for him to then go and say the wrong scores anyway... Live TV for you! Superb fun, nevertheless... Check out our version of "Have I Got News For You!" at www.warwicktv.co.uk.

The next big event of the week was indeed the skiing that was briefly reported in my last entry. Indeed it was the usually merry affair, apart from the negligence of "Xscape" to actually produce snow in time for our arrival. The surface was so icy in fact that many experienced skiers refused to ski, saying that no-one would be able to ski on such a ridiculous surface. Needless to say however, that after the prospect of a partial refund we utilised the slope amazingly, myself learning a few small jumps as my speed and indeed "hopefully" skill improves...

The lack of a substantial TV section in the last entry worried me and therefore the final section to this entry is the mention of the new series of 24. Yes, Season 5 of the award-winning series 24 has begun and is turning out to be an excellent series. As it is about to start on SkyOne, I will not post details of plot lines seen so far in the Fox USA broadcasts, but I can guarantee that in the first fifteen minutes of watching you will once again be sucked into another day of Jack Bauer's life... Having never watched a season on a weekly basis before, however, I am finding it hard to cope with only one hour of Bauer's day per week... usually I watch a whole season over a couple of days... Hopefully I can resist the temptation of spoilers and persevere with the season as it airs on Fox.

And with that I will leave you, as I sit down with a nicely brewed cup of tea, naturally not forgetting the 2/5 proportion of milk to complement the already sublime taste...

Until Next Time... "Be Safe! Be Happy!"

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