"To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality."

- Seve Ballesteros

Not sure where to start with this week; not because I've done lots of amazing things, I'm just trying to figure out what it is I actually did, saw, heard, thought about etc. that might be worth expressing.

I think the first thing I'll get off the agenda, given that it's staring you right in the face (left) is another one of my TV discoveries of late (along with Bored To Death, which got a mention in the main feed recently). As you may have learnt while reading this blog, I have a tendency to be on a constant hunt for good TV programmes to keep me entertained in between going out, writing and working. The most recent show to be uncovered comes from David Crane (creator of Friends? You might have heard of it...) and Jeffrey Klarik. Combined with the comedy writing of Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, they form the recipe for UK and US sitcom, Episodes, about a British couple who take their hit UK TV show to Hollywood to make an American version, which doesn't quite turn out the way they'd planned it. Mangan and Greig play the leads, with a little help from now-out-of-hiatus star, Matt LeBlanc, playing the lead in the US version of their show (this is all starting to sound a bit confusing if you can't grasp the context of it all). I watched the whole series pretty much back-to-back over two days. It takes two episodes to get into it, but once you've got past the flirting, it very much becomes a thing of infatuation. The writing is brilliant, with the constant clash of Americanisms and, erm, Britainisms (?) making it very funny indeed. If you aren't familiar with it, I highly advise you to become so, and quickly.

Moving on, to this week's events... I spent most of Monday recovering from the Sunday previous (the trip out to Jesmond & town for the lads' birthdays) which was one of the main things that sparked the discoveries of the above and Bored To Death.

The lethargy seemed to be carried on throughout Tuesday too, until the night time when I ended up running errands with Danny, doing last minute birthday shopping for his Dad. This trip ended up taking longer than it should have, which resulted in us missing the Barca/Real second leg, not that it mattered really as the end result was what we were expecting (Barca winning) after the first leg.

The highlight of Wednesday was a trip to the pictures (or the cinema for all non-northerners) to see Cedar Rapids, again with Danny. The film was really funny in some parts, but seemed to lack a constant flow throughout. It was

definitely better than going to see Insidious though, which just looks like every shitty horror film I've ever seen, about a possessed something-or-other, living in a house, trying to kill it's own family, blah, blah, blah.

The main thing I wanted to talk about was how much I enjoyed Friday and Saturday, going out for meals with both sides of my family (for those who aren't aware, my parents are seperated). It was so nice to be able to go out with both sides of the respective families and catch up/spend time with them all. Having not seen many of them for a few months, it was a really nice experience and, as is the case every time I come back from uni, I always feel like I appreciate my family a little bit more each time. Almost makes me a bit sad that it doesn't happen more often, but then I guess the novelty would wear off.

Anyway, let's not get all sentimental... beer, cars, boobies, football. Ok, I think I'm sorted. I am looking forward to going back to Bath though, given that I've been away for, what's nearly been, a month and I can't wait to see all my mates and catch up with them all. Feels like forever since me and the boys were in Spain on football tour, and as for my flatmates and everyone who wasn't on tour, it seems like even longer (if that's physically possible).

Here's to enjoying the vast amount of social groups I'm part of,  getting back to Bath and getting this last month of university finished so that I can have a well deserved break and enjoy it all a whole lot more!

Adios for now, amigos.

NB: Although admittedly I'd never really known much about him until his death (as is sadly the case with many of the world's finest human beings), I'd just like to achknowledge the loss of, and pay my respects to, Seve Ballesteros, who passed away yesterday after losing his battle with cancer at the age of 54.

THD. 

"We don't follow no crowd, they follow us. Don't follow no sound, it follows us."

- Elliot Gleave

In terms of personal progress, my life has pretty much been a complete write off this last four days.

Basically, whenever I haven't been drinking (which has been 75% of the time) then I've been sitting with a nose/face completely blocked up with enough snot to put a house together; a very big house, at that.

Picking up where I left off, I had a good night in with Matty and Danny on Thursday night, with the three of us getting merry and watching 'It's All Gone Pete Tong'. What a film, by the way! I remember seeing it advertised many moons back, but it was one of those ones I never really got round to watching. Pleased I finally did though. The film topped off a class night, great to see the boys again and have the three muskateers reunited; it's a rare thing these days, with me and Matty always being at university.

It was all about the Royal Wedding the day after that, which was of course accompanied by a fitting street party (despite the poor weather). I have to admit, I got right into watching the wedding, even though I'd been nay-saying about the whole thing and claiming I wasn't interested in the whole thing. In the end, I realised it was quite an iconic moment for my generation and I ended up getting all sentimental like a right tart! Great laugh at the street party and it was nice to have a bit of socialise with the neighbours, who would have otherwise remained fairly anonymous still to this day. Spent all day getting bevied up and called it a day around half 11 at night, having started around 2ish; quite a shift to say the least!

Speaking of shifts, I was a bit lacking in brain power turning up for the vote counting on the Saturday morning at 9 o'clock sharp! Two days of drinking had certainly taken their toll. Still managed to soldier through though and made myself a nice £70 for a 7 hour shift of envelope opening and vote counting/sorting. After that, I spent the rest of the day sleeping, feeling pretty ropey with this flu malarky.

Then I guess that brings us to yesterday's antics, which included another day of drinking, this time for one of the lads birthdays. We started at 1 in the afternoon and it was a good 12 our stint all the way until the taxi home at half 1. Another great effort, which included trips to Jesmond, Newcastle and a very refreshing trip to a home-made bar (no, I haven't lost my mind). A very canny bloke, whose name shall remain nameless for the sake of keeping his little treasure anonymous, invited us to his garden to enjoy the pleasures of his very own bar. Pints of Fosters for a £1 is all that I'm saying on the matter. Magic. And, to top it all off, Arsenal beat Manchester United which should hopefully make for an entertaining end to the Premier League title race! A good day for Arsenal fans and neutrals alike.

All in all, it's been a pretty demanding last couple of days, and it's no surprise that I'm still not over this flu or whatever it is. I think a few days of R&R could well be on the cards, but it's been completely worth it and I'd happily do it all again.

Let's hope I'm not overcome by liver-failure or an alcohol-related heart-attack before my next post!

NB: Hats off to the Yanks for nailing Osama. I look forward to the flush of Bin Laden death related jokes in all ranges of popular media formats.

THD.