Miss me?

I'M BACK!

Many things have led to me not updating - simple indifference and lethargy towards updating it, and the fact that basically absolutely nothing has happened in the past 8 days. Apart from these few things.

Friday - Met up with Adrien in town, as he was doing his Grade 8 Rockschool exam on guitar. By the time I arrived, he was about halfway through his exam, and unfortunately I heard the part that he admitted after the exam went the worst first, and so therefore I panicked and thought that he was doing terrible due to nerves or something. Then I heard "Blitzkrieg" and everything was alright with the Adrien once more. It was probably the best version of it I'd heard from him. After his exam, we went for a celebratory pint in The Empire. I haven't really been in The Empire much, but their pint and general alcohol selection was really good - but because I was more thirsty, I decided to go for Kopparberg Pear as it was more refreshing and was exactly what I needed...rather than a slightly dehydrating pint of beer.

After this, we met up with Adriens guitar student who was also doing an exam that day. We listened to him perform, and he did pretty well. After the exam was over, Adrien's step-dad came and took Adrien's amp and guitars. Because Adrien "likes to do things properly" as he said, he decided to bring his own amp, rather than using the amps they provided there, which meant carrying it up 2 flights of stairs. If I ever do Rockschool grades, there's no way in hell I'm carrying my kit up 2 flights of stairs. Then we decided to get food.

First, we went to Lavery's to see their food options. We thought it was a bit expensive so we decided to go to nearby Bishops instead. It was really good, especially the gravy chip. After this, we went back into Lavery's, and got a pint there. I got this new drink called Harp Cold. It was really good, very cold indeed and tasted a little like Beck's Vier actually. It will be the pint of choice in Lavery's for me from now on. We went outside to the smoking area as we normally do and started talking to this interesting woman from Belfast who was middle aged but still acted a bit like a 20 year old...not in a bad way though. And we also talked to 2 (very attractive) girls from Indiana. They were complaining about their hostel and how much it sucked, and the Belfast woman offered to put them up for a few nights in her spare room! Was kinda spooky, but she was being nice I guess.

After Lavery's, we trekked down to Katy Dalys. We both got Strongbow, but I put blackcurrant in mine as always. As we were drinking, we noticed they were putting up drink promo posters for the evening. Intrigued, I went up to look at what the offers were. The only one that caught my attention was the vodka offer, £1.50 for a shot. Me and Adrien finished our drinks, he went for a smoke, then the vodka began! After one double vodka and coke I was feeling rather tipsy. After our few drinks we went to the off license and got more drink, and went back to Adriens house.

We ate food first, then did some drinking in his brothers room, where he proceeded to play games and then downloaded Borat in 5 minutes, which completely took me by shock, as it takes me almost a day to download a whole movie. During the movie, I was getting more and more tired, and passed in and out of sleep. So, I decided to call it a night around 2:30am.

Saturday - Woke up at Adriens, but still felt really tired. We practiced for a while, which went well. We got some food, then after a while and a lot of worrying and stress, went into town again. I needed to lift Euros out for Adrien as he was going to Monaghan without Euros. Then I walked to the bus station and got the bus just in time. I was meant to go to Ruaidhri's birthday that evening, but when I got back, all I could do was just lie in bed, I was so tired...so I decided to just stay in bed that evening and take it easy. I needed it.

Sunday - Had another band practice at 9PM, which went really well. I also can feel my drumming getting a lot better already. We did some recordings, and also talked about gigs we're wanting to play. The cool thing is they're aiming high, to places such as The Limelight, which is really good for me because I really don't want to play places like The Frontpage again after having played The Nerve Centre and Laverys. Playing The Limelight would be another ambition written off my list, I've always liked the stage there and it'll just feel weird playing to people, rather than watching a band or being there for their club nights.

Monday - Went out for Leah's birthday, at Lavery's, where else! It was a pretty fun night, although I had to leave early, much to peoples annoyance. If I had the money to afford a taxi home, I would stay out, but unfortunately I don't. I discovered there also that they do vodka and white for £2.40. Before I got on the bus, the driver warned me of a riot happening in East Belfast. I was on the phone to Colette at this point, and she got really worried, but I really wasn't worried at all. I knew that we wouldn't be directly passing through it, and would probably only see them. And that was the case. It was funny, but still stupid. I came home, had a sore head, and went to bed after an hour or 2 online.

And since then, I've done nothing. Today, I'm going to the dentist and possibly getting my hair cut a bit for graduation purposes. Friday, I sign on the dole again, were I have more than 6 jobs applyed for or looked at, so hopefully they'll be impressed, and hopefully they'll let me change my sign on date or at least time in 2 weeks time as it conflicts with Colette leaving Belfast, and I obviously want to say goodbye to her properly, as I won't see her then for 5 months. Oh, and I almost forgot about my birthday celebrations! On Saturday, I'll be doing a big hardcore pub crawl around Belfast, scouting out my favourite bars. Only 1 or 2 people so far have faced up to the challenge of going with me the whole route. Beginning at Duke of York at 2pm, ending at Lavery's until closing time.

Iain