Party - The Aftermath

Saturday 18th came and I wasn't ready at all. Just about managed to get the house / music / bbq ready in time for the first trickle of people. This turned into a flood about 7 (oh those fashionably late people) and much fun was had by all :-)

The only thing that didn't go quite to plan was the bbq - should have had two, and we needed the extra charcoal which Rich brought (cheers mate!) and the lighter fluid the guys got from the shops part way through (again, nice one guys!).

Apart from that, the party was a great success. I thoroughly enjoyed myself (after I calmed down and relaxed, anyway), and I think everyone else had a cool time too. Graham (Hannah's) got a bit fucked and chundered, but he made it to the toilet - hope you're feeling better now mate!

After most people had left, we were sitting outside until dawn, and we had the genius idea of playing football on the rec. The grass was full of dew; our bellies were full of beer (and alex's pear cider!); and we were sliding about all over the place. We lasted about half an hour before the spinning in our heads and sleeeep needage took over.

Many many thanks to all that came and brought all their booze and food - I've got soooo much left over :D Hope everyone had a kickass time and we'll DEFO do it again this summer.

Oh, and to everyone going Glasto - grrrrrrrrr I'm so jealous but hope it's a wicked festival!

Hottest Girl In The World(TM)

Went to Nexus last night, and saw her again....

The difference this time was that, egged on by Hannah, I actually plucked up the courage to go talk to her.

Her name's Sia, and she's a first year Fashion & Photography student at the Institute, but she doesn't really like the fashion part 'cause it's so fake. She was asking about what I do (doh) and seemed interested (I always add that I'm gonna go back to Uni to do the International Relations course in a year or two).

I invited her and her friends to the party, but they can't make it. She said she'd see me around, but I'm not sure if she's interested or not. Oh well, guess I'll find out at Rhino's or Nexus next time.

Wednesday

Ho hum, went to Rhino's and Orange Rooms on Wednesday. Gen was out celebrating her birthday, which explains the unaccustomed trip to Orange Rooms. It's OK in there, and they do some very nice Rum, but it's a touch pricey. Gen looked absolutely gorgeous, I have to say.

Rhino's was pretty good, and I was having a great time, although Bob left early cos he wasn't having the best of nights (sorry to hear that, man). Then, about 15 mins before the end, someone smacked me in the face (possibly with their elbow) and my nose exploded in a bloody mess. Bastard thing wouldn't stop for ages either - there was so much blood everywhere, I looked a right state by the end.

I saw The Hottest Girl In The World(TM) there again - she looks like Rachael Leigh Cook (the middle one in the picture) in Josie and the Pussycats, and I go all gooey when I see her. BUT, she was snogging some bloke outside afterwards, so I guess nothing's gonna happen with her.

mph crapness

I nicked this from Football365.com...

I guess it illustrates Bob's points about mph being supported by hypocritical fools.

Suits You, Sir

'For those of you who haven't seen it, this week's edition of Private Eye contains an illuminating piece on the wheeling and dealings behind an exclusive interview.

Apparently, Ashley Cole would only agree to hold this week's exclusive with the Observer on the understanding that the paper 'kit him out in a Prada suit'.

'No problems there until he said that he wanted to keep the suit and asked the newspaper to take care of matters. Prada wasn't prepared to play ball so editors were left frantically asking favours from other designers to keep the Arsenal footballer happy. He eventually walked off with a £1,000 suit from Paul Smith.'

Perhaps not realising the significance of the figure, Private Eye notes that 'Ashley Cole earns £50,000 a week.'

Still, there's no quibbling with their final point – in his Observer feature, Cole not only wore the aforementioned Paul Smith suit but a wristband proclaiming 'Make Poverty History.'

Lead on, Ashley.

I fucking hate ExxonMobil. I think they are the fucking antichrist.

Along with Jamster, of course.

Don't follow the Jamster link. I don't even know why I put it there...

Another article here from The Register about White House climate change reports being altered by Oil-Industry lobbyists between approval by scientists and release.

Debt Relief

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by the US's change of stance, in allocating additional funds for use in debt relief. This was an unexpected victory for Blair. Don't get me wrong, the failure to secure the overall goals of 100% debt relief, written off against increases in the value of IMF gold reserves, is bad, but it could have been much worse if the US had not agreed to some extra money.

Now, obviously I'm not putting this solely down to the mph campaign, but did it maybe influence Blair to make his case a little more strongly to Bush? If so, then it is also a small victory for mph.

Of course I am speculating, but it seems feasible that, worried by a potential backlash at home, Blair pushed Bush slightly harder on the issue and was able to gain this concession from Bush.

Prior to the meeting, Bush had insisted that any funding for debt relief had to be taken from future aid, and not be additional help.

Exam and Sin City

Had my only exam of this year yesterday morning, and it went really rather well :D

Reckon I might even get a first for this module, which along with my other good results this semester should see me cement my 2.1 overall.

To celebrate, I went to see Sin City with Tom and his housemates Matt and Emily. Apparently Matt used to play in a band with Michelle! Small world...

Sin City rocks. Go see. Now.
The styling, the relentless action, the violence. It all works fantastically well.

John Nicholson (as ever) Makes Some Good Points

Maybe I over-reacted slightly. I hope so!
Just seems bad that we can go from being so much in the black to being so much in the red.

We're All Going To Die

Oh fuck.
Don't read the link. It's depressing.

Funny Article on ID cards

Click the linkage.

Update on ID Cards

The Register had a great article on ID Cards last week.

I particularly think the last paragraph of the second section is relevant:-

"Now, the Government is clearly proposing to use the public's very real concerns about what it thinks of as 'identity theft' as a major justification for ID cards. The public thinks ID cards will help deal with 'identity theft', so very well, the Government will use that in support of the ID Cards Bill. It's listening after a fashion, we suppose, besides being something of an ID fraud in its own right."

The article goes on to blow the £1.3Billion figure, often trotted out as the value of ID Theft in the UK each year, out of the water. Most of what the £1.3Billion represents would not be affected by ID Cards, with The Register estimating that roughly £35Million of it could be linked to ID Theft which would be combated by ID Cards. The figure is probably somewhere in between, but if the London School of Econimics is right (see a couple of posts below...) then the annual cost is likely to be between £1.2Billion and £1.8Billion.

Rio Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand must be the biggest liability ever. While I admit this latest incident does not appear to be his fault, he does have a habit of getting into these situations.

This time he was punched and possibly headbutted in a club in Sweden, last time he attacked a reporter with a bag of CDs.

He also must be one of the dumbest footballers in the Premiership (and that's saying something), having managed to injure his knee while sitting watching football on TV. Obviously there was the failing to piss in a bottle incident too.

Exaclty how much money does this fool think he deserves?!?