Hooray! It's...

Closing Down Sale

2007-03-18T22:48:00.001Z

Hello faithful Blogger readers! My blog has now moved over to WordPress, simply because I fancied a change of scenery and WordPress are quite flexible in what they offer (so they're not perfect but still, there are some neat features there). Thanks for reading my blog on Blogger up until now. Blogger's lovely and enjoyed using it very much!

I'm going to leave this blog in place for anyone who may stumble across it but all my old archived posts have been moved to WordPress too, so update your bookmarks, RSS feeds or whatever and take a trip over to:

www.thefoxspot.net

Phodeography

2007-03-08T21:24:00.001Z

A quick update with a couple of new photos and my latest vlog. Opinions below please! The photos are ones I photoshopped to give them better lighting and more studio-like quality and, personally, I think they worked quite well. Click on them for bigness and to lead you to my Flickr profile, if you want to look at the originals.

This blog gets more narcissistic each day.

This one looks much more creepy than the source image.

I'm hoping to make some more but I don't know if I'll post them, as it just feels like I'm showing off a little, which is never a good thing. As you'll see below, part two of my Fox Spot vlog is available! Part one hasn't been shown on here as it was a pilot - and not a very successful one at that. It was too long and the audio levels were crap.

This vlog includes my competition entry to Gisthename's music video competition. Check the links bar to the right for more details!

Click To Play

Photos, Videos, Radio... Multimedia Fox

2007-03-06T15:08:00.000Z

This week has been quite a busy one for me. I received the camera which I bought from Amazon last week and, as you will have noticed from the previous post, I have been making blogs and video replies etc. on YouTube. It's quite a satisfying experience, as once you upload something you've been working hard on, people reply and respond to it, which is nice to know you've had some kind of effect on someone. It has been suggested that I'm addicted to YouTube now, although I don't think that's true - I just visit once a day for about an hour and then the rest of the time on the site will be reading replies and comments. The amount of videos I did last week was mainly just down to the responses I did, which help people to get aware of new videos I make (if they like the response then they subscribe and see more of the videos I do). The responses are quick and easy to make with 'quick capture', where you plug in the webcam, click 'quick capture' and the video is instantly recorded and uploaded directly to the site. If you want to have a look at my videos, click here.

In other news, I was told on Sunday evening that I had to hand in an assignment, a listening diary and accompanying report, worth 20% of my Radio Production marks by Tuesday (today). This really pissed me off, as it's labelled as assignment #4 on the module guide and last Friday's lesson was cancelled, so I knew nothing about this whatsoever, until I was informed by Candice, who's also on the same course. If it weren't for her, I'd be oblivious - I can't blame the lecturer for being off because I "should have looked in the module guide," which is an online booklet we can view to find out what's involved in the course. Although, I tend not to read all of the guides for all of my subjects in search of assessments to hand in and I kind of trusted the lecturer when she said: "don't worry about that, I'll tell you more about it when the time comes."

One of my photos on display in Switzerland

Still, I rushed to get enough done, staying up a little later last night to listen to RTÉ, Deutsche Welle, BFBS and other such radio stations in order to glean whatever extra content for my listening diary I could find. I managed to get it done and used the last three hours (I've only just now finished it off and handed it in) to write up the accompanying report. Unfortunately, there's fuck all in the module guide about what the report needs to contain, nor was I told anything from the lecturer... so I just wrote up a generic thing about audiences, format and bit facts on 2 programmes from each week of the listening diary.

Seconds before the deadline I was told by one of my fellow students that I had missed a week off the listening diary by accident. Shit. Well there was no way I could change that. I had still listened to a load of other things and wrote up a good report considering the circumstances, so I won't fail, I just need to hope that they forget about that missed week or I'll need to do extra in my other assessments for this subject, though nothing too drastic.

One of the photos which was displayed in the gallery (see below)!

The Berlin trip for Easter has been booked. I'd have liked to be able to stay for 2 weeks but apparently that isn't possible due to 'work' and 'other people' coming to stay (I'm sceptical, simply because I know how much Peter likes to procrastinate when it comes to work) though I think the 9 days I squeezed out of them will be quite nice. Though, thanks to the £153 flight and the £48 rent, I'm £700 into overdraft until April. Don't worry folks, this is quite normal for a student, the same thing happened to me last semester. It's not good but there's no need worrying about it, I just need to conserve a little ahead of my next monies. I'm hoping to make a couple of vlogs and blogs with photos whilst I'm there, so watch this space for more on that! I booked with KLM and, sorry to rant again, but paying with them was terrible. Upon entering my address for payment by card, where I lived was apparently "too many characters in length" but when I tried to enter it in a shorter way it was "an invalid address" and that my "transaction has been cancelled". I decided to leave my chances of going to fate by giving them the money by bank transfer and finally it was accepted today.

The pictures you've been seeing thoroughout this blog are shots of my photographs on display at the Musée de l'Elysée, Switzerland. I feel quite proud to have had my photos on display in a gallery, yay! Okay, so I'm not a world-famous photographer but it still feels quite nice! As always, click the photos if you want to see bigger versions.

My First Vlog

2007-03-03T17:10:00.001Z

Well, there you have it. My first video blog. I know it wasn't up to much but I'm hoping that after I get the hang of what format to encode it in and when I get my hands on some good, easy-to-use editing software, then it should be looking better.

I don't even need to do a vlog, seeing as typing is much quicker and easier than filming, encoding, editing, transferring, uploading and so on. I was just bored and it seemed like a fun and interesting thing to do at the time!

Square Peg, Round Hole

2007-02-26T19:38:00.001Z

I don't know how I came to the decision to have that as this post's title but maybe I'll think of a reason as I'm going along. I've recently posted a couple of times mentioning how I'd like to find a new guy, for someone to get along with and cuddle up with etc. to break the monotony of life.

Now, I've found someone but I haven't. I was browsing a completely non-gay website the other week and I came across someone called Mark. We got chatting and I found out he's bisexual and is really quite friendly. So we've been chatting for hours on end on MSN. He's been having a few problems coming to terms exactly with his bisexuality, so I chatted to him about that for a bit and he's starting to come out of his shell in that respect at least.

He's got the looks, he's got the personality and the ease-of-conversation is exactly what I want in a guy. Except... he lives in fucking Wrexham of all places. Wales. I went there once and I've nothing against the place, it's just a bit out of my way, if you get me. You may think as I met him a few weeks ago, it's a bit soon to be considering how far away he is (I always do this) but it's just something I can't help really. Just when I'm in bed at night with my thinking time all to myself, I can't help wondering how far this new friendship would go, had the distance been eliminated.

The train's only £44 return, which is a snip compared to a lot of other prices for even shorter journeys, yet there's the problem with the fact that he'd never be able to travel here and I'd only be able to see him for a day if I were to visit him, due to parent restrictions.

Maybe it's a bit much and all a bit soon, too. Still, I can't help wondering. I like him more than he likes me and... haven't we heard this one before? With Robert, perhaps, going way back? Fancying people only ends up in disaster. [Grumpy]

Back to the drawing board!

Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart

2007-02-24T12:13:00.001Z

Yes, I can officially announce the location for my 2nd year studies! I've previously mentioned that I'll be studying in Stuttgart, though without mentioning any specifics on what the university is called. I can now confirm I'll be studying at the Hochschule der Medien. I may have mentioned the place once before but this is the first time I've been able to confirm much. Up until now I've had no idea what the place looks like or the extent of their facilities and so on.

Pictures of the HdM, taken from the German Wikipedia article, here.

I've yet to even finish my application, as the module list (modules are the individual lessons which make up a full study programme) they sent me has done nothing to describe what any of the lessons will include. For example, one subject is called 'Sound Design' and there's no further clarification as to what it involves - designing sounds for what exactly? There's also not a whiff of television or radio, rather just film and documentary production, which I kind of already did last year.

However, looking at their promotional film it seems to be, in some ways, much better than Sunderland University. They have proper cameras like they use for major films and the student productions (of which that film is one, it seems) look overall much more sophisticated. I took a look at their TV channel, though and it doesn't seem to be much more advanced but at least they have one. Whether I'll get to use it or not is another matter.

I do think it's strange though, that I picked up German as a language by accident and I kind of just came across media as a subject quite by chance. Strange that, coincidentally, the university near me (Sunderland) offered a full media programme. Strange also, that I wanted to study in Germany and that one of only two media-related places that Sunderland offers in their exchange programme... is a media university in Germany. It's kind of like a path is being laid out in front of me and all I need to do is walk down it. I'm not talking about any spiritual mumbo-jumbo, rather that it's a strange series of coincidences, where everything matches up.

Finally, Peter's got back to me and said everything's fine for me visiting in Easter. We just need to discuss some finer points on Skype (such as when I'll be arriving and what it'll cost exactly... the usual) and then I'll book the flight. From Newcastle - Amsterdam - Berlin (there are hardly any direct flights from the UK, apart from London and Belfast) it'll cost me £153. Seems alright for four flights. The other options, including travelling down to Manchester by train, then flying to London, then to Berlin, may have been a little cheaper but weren't much cop when you add £20 and leave from Newcastle with much less fuss.

There's so much coming up, I can't wait!

Mature Like Cheddar.

2007-02-21T23:44:00.001Z

I've just sent Peter an email asking if I could possibly join him and Philip in Berlin next month, as Easter would be so boring without something to do. For some reason, this has led me to think a bit more about how I've changed since I started university. In short, I think I've matured a lot.

Of course, I'm still the same person as I was when I started, except I've became less desperate (sexually and otherwise) and sometimes I look back at things I did as soon as a few months ago and think "just shut the fuck up". I really have got myself into some embarrassing situations at times out of sheer stupidity and lack of foresight. I wasn't a dumbass, I just never stopped to think 'do I really want to be doing this?' I don't mean my crazy adventures pedlo'ing in a lake during a storm, I mean more conversations I've had with people of an evening. If you've ever talked to me ever, you probably know what I'm on about.

Now, I'm much more organised in my lifestyle with plenty of new friends and much better grades from organising my studying. The problem is, how do you get old friends to kind of wipe the slate clean of those stupid moments from the past? I suppose I just need to prove it to them by not being a dickface.

More mature? Yes. The answer is yes.

Incidentally, seeing as you asked, I've got my results back from uni today. Here's the full list:

For your entertainment and revelry, there are my semester one results. Now I just need to get to grips with semester two. Media & Cultural Studies is alright but Popular TV Genres is just so patronising, it doesn't teach you anything new, just a load of common sense really (Did you know Doctor Who targets family audiences and that sitcoms often have a storyline which begins and ends in the same episode? So did I).

Now, I'm taking a well-deserved 4 days off. Thursday is my day off, I'm skipping Radio Production as they're talking about editing (been there done that) and then there's the weekend. Have a good one, folks.

P.S. If you want to see how Peter and Philip are on their gap year journey around communism, check out the link in the bar to the right.

Fiscal Responsibility

2007-02-19T22:42:00.001Z

The past week has been terrible for money. I've been spending money over my 'weekly allowance', although I promised myself to be limited to £30 a week. The problem is not that I'm a shopaholic or whatever, but rather Sunderland has really nothing at all to do apart from drink or go to the cinema and so I tend to spend my money on buying books, DVDs or downloads - though I've been doing worse; I bought DVDs, books etc. AND went to the cinema AND went out drinking (which I rarely do) in Newcastle on a Saturday!

A very bad decision, I'm sure you'll agree, seeing as I probably ended up spending £50 on that one Saturday alone, then a further £30 on DVDs, £25 on a coursebook (which looks more like a cookery book, see below), £10 for seeing Hot Fuzz + snacks... then there was the regular £30 which I normally get out for my food et cetera, making this a FUCKING EXPENSIVE WEEK. I really have to emphasise that. The worst bit is, it's all my own fault and I haven't really got anything much to show for it. With the money I spent over the past week I could have bought a return flight for the summer and given me much more to do then or maybe saved it towards paying off my debt which I've accumulated in the form of my overdraft.

The coursebook, which looks a lot like a cook book. It's quite thin for the price... £24.99!!

Although, I do feel like it's just one of those life lessons to be learnt - in the grand scheme of things it's not ruined my very existence, I just need to never do it again. What I really need is something which doesn't cost much but is interesting and will keep me entertained for a very long time. I don't fancy joining any of the uni's clubs because they're mostly just sports clubs, which doesn't interest me at all.

On a side note, I embarrassed myself today whilst standing in the queue for Hot Fuzz, there was an Irish girl standing near me, which must have got me thinking about the Irish accent. Then, a few minutes later, Paul (who I was seeing the film with) started talking about thirds of whatever, which made me break into my stereotypical "terti-tree-and-a-turd" Irish accent. Moments later, I remembered who I was standing near to and the embarrassment set in - I was loudly taking the piss out of her accent, without making the connection until right after I did it (stupidly).

I've also been considering the not-too-distant future, as I've no idea what I'm going to do in the summer. The plans were that I was going to stay with Marcel over the summer, though they've changed now and I've no idea what to do. I don't have enough money to rent out my own place. It's either stay in Sunderland whilst paying for a place in student flats or go to my gran's for the summer. There's nothing wrong with that in principal except that I'm bored already with uni, how bored am I going to be without anything to do for around 2 months? I can't plan anything too elaborate as I don't have enough money!

I shall have a ponder about that one.

P.S. I have some of my results in for my subjects: 1st (79%) for History of British Broadcasting and 2:1 (66%) for Academic Research Skills. I'm still waiting for the rest.

New Logo!

2007-02-11T17:53:00.001Z

Chris Hildrey, who you might know already as the designer of The Fox Spot logo, has been on to me again recently with the newest logo! This one's film-related:

What do you think? It's not 100% finished, this is just a preview of what will be the final version in a few weeks time. Personally, I think it's quite cute! Opinions, please, to the usual needless opinions area. You may have also noticed a slight change to the title bar at the top of the page, this is thanks to Paul Mayell, who messed around with it in some editing program or other. It might not work in some older (or less common) browsers, so if you don't see the normal logo on a brown background, then it's your fault, not mine.

There should be some more adjustments soon, but nothing major.

Also, the wonderful Charlotte Foster has bought me and her tickets to see Just Jack in Newcastle next month. I can't wait! She did kind of pressgang me into going "do you want to come? Too late, I bought the tickets anyway," but it's a pressgang of love. I think she wants my body.

And finally, in the last of my series of celebrity photos, here's one of me with Derek Acorah. Note the lack of style on my part AGAIN. How come people always look crap when they get photos with celebrities? Or is that just me?

Anyways, time to go. That's your lot for today. Happy Sunday, everyone!

MyCrowCosim

2007-02-08T18:08:00.001Z

I've been MySpacing today, which is annoying. I hate having to prune and edit my personal details to try and 'sell myself' to people who browse the site. Okay, there're no rules stating that I need to do anything of the sort but I'm hoping it will help my chances in making new friends or finding the right guy for me.

So I uploaded some new photos of me with my sunglasses and hat!

This is my fame photo, me looking happy and sunglass'd, kind of reminding me of Ricky Gervais' new tour poster. The hair is a little messy, as I kind of put some gel in it, it didn't really work but I left it anyway; spending ages on my hair just gets frustrating.

That is what I look like when I go dogging, including with the tongue hanging out my mouth. I'm a voyeurist, what can I say? You see, if someone saw me with this get-up they wouldn't recognise my famously recognisable face.

I know it looks a little strange, me wearing that hat. I kind of look like a cross between an American dad taking his son to the 'ball game' and an army PT instructor. Note the Fuzz poster.

Welcome to my room. In this photo I look a bit like a tourist. A love tourist! No wait, that means something else doesn't it? Either way, you love me and you know it.

A nice arty photo to finish off. It's the same one as I posted the other day, except the colours have been digitally enhanced in 8.1 surround sound. It looks much better now, in my opinion.

Well, that's the run of photos today. They've been uploaded to my MySpace, go ahead and add me if you haven't already! I won't bite... nless u arsk me 2 ROFFLé!!!

Oh yeah, and here's me with a celebrity. Mark Gatiss from the League of Gentlemen, when I had crappy long hair.

Excitement/Surprise!

2007-02-07T22:40:00.001Z

Again, it's been one of those weeks so far. Really unnatural. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration but, still.

I stood in line at a signing to meet Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright from the new film Hot Fuzz for a couple of hours yesterday, which was nice. However, the big story behind this was a young boy who was standing in line near me. There was a TensaBarrier in front of us and we were just standing around and then, suddenly, a loud crash and a thud. There were a couple of people in front of me so I couldn't see directly what had happened but there were some DVDs all over the floor and the barrier's pole was lying there too.

After a quick peek over the shoulder of the guy in front of me, I saw the kid lying face first down on the floor. It turns out, he collapsed for some unknown reason and fell forwards through the flexible barrier belt thing, bringing the barrier crashing through a nearby shelf onto a floor and the boy slamming his head straight off the floor too. One of the seemingly hundreds of security staff (all dressed like bouncers) went over to pick him up - he was unconscious and bleeding out of his nose. I feel really sorry for him! He was just queuing nicely like everyone else, probably excited to meet some film stars and then suddenly he faints, creates a scene and ends up having to be carried round to the staff room for some first aid (and a check over by some paramedics). He didn't get to meet them in the end, poor guy.

No, I didn't take photos of that.

There are a couple of other photos for your enjoyment though. Me and Charlotte went out on a Tuesday night, which is incidentally also a gay night - it was not fun at all. A lot of sitting around and watching OTT feminoids prancing about with their annoying hairdos (and hairdon'ts ROFFLE!!)... you get the picture.

It started to snow though, which was nice. As I said in Flickr, "It looked better being there than it does on camera but seeing the snow fall whilst being tucked up inside was quite a nice feeling!"

I also spent the whole of today being hyper for some reason; a strange combination of awkward sleeping patterns and excess sugar. I bought a new hat. I bought some sunglasses. Either way, the peoples I was with from uni seemed to enjoy my company, despite me trying my hardest to be as annoying as possible. They simply counteracted it by spending ages browsing around clothes, which is one of the most tedius practices known to man.

I think I'll spend the next two posts gloating about celebs I've met. What? Four posts in a row? Ubetchablakazz.

Man/Bag

2007-02-03T20:23:00.001Z

It has been an interesting past couple of days here at the Café del Boredom, as I'm now dubbing my flat. I went to see The Queen in the cinema the other day simply because I had nothing else to do, it's been nominated for lots of Oscars and I like the hot cheese nachos they serve in the Empire Cinema.

Normally when I've been to see a film I'd give a review on it but not this time, as it can be summed up on one sentence: It's alright but nothing special, with no real dynamic to the characters and a lot of the scenes just feeling a little unrealistic or lacklustre, I wouldn't even nominate Stephen Frears (director) for a hot poker in the face, let alone an Oscar, it being so dull and all. Okay, so I squeezed a little too much into that sentence but it sums the film up nicely, don't you think? Or maybe something shorter would be better: A kick in the balls is more fun.

The onslaught of boredom thereafter led to me talking to Paul on MSN and we decided to make a film of our own. We had 3 hours to kill, a stills camera with a video function and a MacMini with Final Cut Pro on it. We just met up without having an idea, filmed him running and then it just went from there. The music is a little simple but we made it in GarageBand (eJay for the Mac) in about 10 mins. We called it Man/Bag and here is the end result:

It's not amazing but pretty good for 3 hours' work just to kill time, don't you think?

I tried dying my hair today, as a bit of an experiment. Despite what everyone else thinks, there isn't anything genetically deformed about ginger hair and I certainly don't have a problem with it but I'm kind of used to it now, so I fancied a change. But then, I didn't want anything permanent in case it looked really crap. So I tried a cheap wash in/wash out type stuff and it did not work at all - absolutely no change to my hair whatsoever. It's permanent or nothing, which means I'd have to go to a salon to make sure I get the right colour and then keep going back to stop my roots coming in... the whole thing reeks of gayness and I'm not having any of it!

Oh and I papped Ben Nicholas (Scott 'Stingray' Timmins from Neighbours) this weekend. He doesn't look happy, does he? Next time I'll feel him up after the photo's been taken!

Moseying Around

2007-01-31T18:00:00.001Z

This week has been fairly uneventful, as is often the case with the start of a semester, it would seem. Getting up early to arrive at a lecture on time, just to be given a five minute introductory lecture' is quite annoying, as we could have just had a lie in and received all the details by email. Oh well.

I've been shopping today and bought some new clothes, so maybe I'll take a photo or two soon, as I've been neglecting my photography recently. Speaking of my camera, I thought of using it to make a post on YouTube but:

A) I've got nothing to say that would stand out or interest other people particularly,

B) Avid Free won't work on my laptop, which means I have to get out my hot metal block (my old PC) to be able to edit clips together, as Windows Movie Maker doesn't want to start on the laptop either.

I recently met a new guy on the internet, which started off quite good as he looks like someone I fancied and he's fairly interesting from what his blog and videos have to show about him. However, he seems barely interested in knowing anything about me or thinking up conversation, so chatting to him on Skype is more like hard work. So, the search for a nice, friendly, amiable guy continues...

If you're a nice, friendly amiable guy, drop me an email: fox@thefoxspot.net!

In other news, I've deleted my account at FaceParty, which I've had since 2003. The fact is, I've barely had any messages (about 20 tops) in all the years I've had the profile there, so I've just decided I would delete it. It doesn't help me find anyone new and i don't want to forget about it and having the info haunting Google for the rest of my life. I considered deleting my MySpace too, though I suppose it's good for keeping track of friends as they move on to bigger and better things, so it stays for the moment.

Just Jack - Overtones (review)

2007-01-30T20:35:00.001Z

The highly-anticipated (by me at least) album by Just Jack has finally been released! Overtones is his second album, since his debut in 2002 with the badly-performing 'The Outer Marker', the single from which reached the heady heights of #164 in the UK charts. Released on 29th January, this latest venture improves vastly on his first attempt, now firmly placed in the discopop hip-hop genre, with the single Starz In Their Eyes reaching #2!

I first heard of Just Jack, Jack Allsopp by his full name, on MySpace last year on a video promo for a song from Overtones. The impressive video and song was certainly a sign of things to come, with his label, Mercury, certainly splashing out on their newly-signed talent.

The album is a joy to listen to, from the bouncy kick beat and clever verse of Writer's Block (which weirdly reminds me of Robert Post's Got None, though I've no idea why, maybe something to do with being both on Mercury?) through the well-deserved hit single and beyond. What really made it for me though, was the song Glory Days, which is so like the German band Fanta 4 it's unbelieveable - rapping over sunny trumpet hits, guitars, with the bouncy kick beat back for an encore.

The album isn't full of these bouncy songs, though, as an attempt at more 'thoughtful' and laid-back rhyming is made; think The Streets but with rhyming, pop rap, not speech. This really doesn't stand out from the crowd though, bringing nothing new or surprising to the table, in a large contrast to the other work on Overtones.

In short, the album is a dichotomy of feelings - summery and sad. However, this album is worth your cold, hard cash just on the summery alone!

The Last King of Scotland (review)

2007-01-26T17:38:00.001Z

A few days ago I went to see The Last King of Scotland, a British film which has been recently released at the cinema.

The story follows a fictitious newly-graduated doctor, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), who doesn't want to get stuck with his average family being an average GP and so, sets off to Uganda to make a difference and have an adventure. A chance encounter with the president of the country, Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), leads to Nicholas being hired as the president's personal physician. Nicholas becomes an aide of Amin and is showered with gifts and the leader's trademark charm, though after a while, Nick soon sees the evil side of the dictator and must escape the country against the wishes of the president.

To start off with, the acting is fantastic. It seems that the personalities are well-researched by the actors and the accents are spot on.

Gillian Anderson (as Sarah Merrit) does a fantastic English accent, Kerry Washington (Kay Amin) does generic African perfectly and of course, Forest Whitaker really steals the show as Idi Amin. None of these American acting professionals have any trace of USA in them as they play their roles to perfection. Of course, in many films good acting is often ruined by a bad script but the dialogue here is natural and unnoticeable, leaving the actors to get on with their jobs.

Despite Whitaker's outstanding performance, James McAvoy is thankfully not overshadowed and holds his own perfectly, helping to carry the story. Nicholas Garrigan, McAvoy's character, is our eyes and ears throughout the story; it would be a shame to have him upstaged by Forest Whitaker but a combination of the direction (Whitaker does not hog screen time) and acting make these characters mutual in their impact. Nicholas Garrigan isn't the typical hero though, he's cocky and throughout the film is corrupted by power and influence but towards the end, starts to get a grip on reality and shows himself to be brave, acting against Amin.

The plot unfolds clearly and politics is often left aside to let the emotional story play out, though the film doesn't assume a knowledge of Ugandan presidential leaders of the 1970s, making it easy to pick up. Kevin MacDonald would initially seem like an odd choice to direct a dramatic thriller, having previously been known for his documentaries such as Touching the Void, but the tense scenes are tense and the emotional scenes are emotional... it works well.

Unfortunately, the tradgedy of Amin's genocide on his own people is underplayed, preferring instead to focus on how scary the president is by personality. There are gruesome scenes of torture and even human experimentation but still the crimes he commited somehow seem a little too distant, possibly focusing on him as a person rather than his actions.

In case you didn't get it, Forest Whitaker is amazing as Idi Amin, managing to play a charming and evil character so convincingly, you'll love him and hate him all at once.

Job Hunt

2007-01-26T14:01:00.001Z

Over the past week, I've been job hunting again!

I've been to several different agencies, which has been less than fun, as it involves writing my details down several times, over and over. Annoyingly, in the agencies Brook Street and Reed, I found myself writing the details just to find out afterwards that "oh, I thought you were signing up for full-time work," or "you don't have any experience? Then we probably can't find anything for you." Rather annoying.

The problem is, I want admin/office work as this is likely going to be what will get me ahead whilst finding a job in media. If I get bar work, then I'm just going to be stressed out and quit after a few weeks - plus the work experience isn't going to help me in the future, unless I'm going to be working behind a bar for the rest of my life - no!

I'm not looking for money, just experience which could be very important after leaving university.

I got called by Reed saying there was a job doing admin and I can start on Monday! So I went to uni to photocopy my passport then went to Reed and filled in all my details there, in dupicate and triplicate etc. Until she said "ok, you start at 9am on Monday..." but I can't, I'm at university then, I said. "oh, I thought you wanted a full time position."

The hunt continues. I looked in the JobCentre and they just had a whole load of 'experience essential' and 'must have own car'. I did manage to call one place and they asked me to send my CV but I've had no information back from them as of yet. I hate jobs - they're so full of stress and neglect!

Finally, I'd like to draw your attention to the links list on the right of this page. I know someone called Martin from Germany and he's interested in photography too, the difference being that he has a much better camera and is much more experienced than I am. He's got some really interesting photos and I'm learning quite a lot from his blog, so if you like my photos you're going to love his.

Check out his blog here.

Hoizontal Bungee

2007-01-26T02:32:00.001Z

A quick post with a link. Now this looks scary - horizontal bungee jumping! Any voluenteers?

http://www.motionabbey.net/2007/01/bungee_gone_horizontal.html

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

2007-01-23T23:19:00.000Z

Welcome to the Blog, which can now be found at TheFoxSpot.net! Hooray! It's an easier to remember address for one and I just like the idea of paying for something I don't really need now and then. I don't get thousands of visitors, but it's convenient just to tell people to go to 'the fox spot dot net' rather than 'the dash fox dash spot dot blogspot dot com'.

This also means that you can get in touch with me by a new thing I read about recently called 'e' mail. Pop off some words to: fox@thefoxspot.net

The mystery of the secret room develops. I was talking to another of my flatmates and he said the Cypriot lost his keys to his room and because he knew the other girl, he stayed in her room for a bit as he couldn't afford the replacement key. Now this is still suspicious, where does he get his change of clothes from? How come it sounds like he exits one room (his old room) and enters another (the 'new' room)? How did he get the key, when he was apparently here in the UK and she was in Cyprus over the past few days? How come he can't even afford the measly £14 that it costs to get the key? If his money was locked in the room he just needs to borrow the money, get the key and pay the person back. I'm thinking about this too much as usual.

The mystery cannot continue though, as she moved in today - I have no idea where he's going to stay. I haven't met her yet but I'm hoping she's nice and friendly, unlike the gang of people from Cyprus who always shout in the corridor and can never go into their own rooms to talk and intimidate others.

Meeting with Charlotte today as I did was very lovely. I haven't seen her in a while and it took a few minutes for us to settle into talking to each other properly again but it was nice to do a quick catch-up. We went to the cinema to see The Last King of Scotland, which was a fantastic film! I'll make sure to get onto a review of that ASAP.

I also met a bunch of Americans, two Germans and a Finnish guy at an international student meet-up thang. I went along because I'm hoping to study in Germany next year and so I was invited. Unfortunately, the drinks weren't free but there were £1-off tokens!

Some of the international students, looking happy.

Unfortunately, most of the photos came out looking really bad, due to the flash. Still, if the people involved want to see their photos, they can go to my Flickr pages or email me (fox@thefoxspot.net) to get them from me. I met lots of nice people that night, so I hope to be in touch with all of them, providing they regularly read my blog :P We're meeting up again tomorrow at Manor Quay, the university club, so I'll get to know all of them even better.

Now, you may notice the YouTube clip below and it's something I've been raving about to several people for days now. He's a beatboxer called Beardyman. Now, don't be put off by the fact that he's a beatboxer because normally it's not my thang either but this guy is amazing. He starts of with a pretend lecture about climate change and then suddenly goes into a mashup of all the best retro songs, doing the lyrics AND the music. Don't believe me? Take a look at the first 2 minutes and you'll be hooked.

So, that's you lot updated. I hope you enjoy the new easier to access blog and, if you feel like dropping me a line, the new email address too! I'm going to be posting more frequently about media and what's going on in my life as well, so keep it here for all your entertainment blog needs. Enterlog. Entertainog. Blogtertainment... or something.

Racism Sells

2007-01-20T23:39:00.001Z

I think this whole UK Celebrity Big Brother 'racism row' is getting out of hand. It seems to be one of the world's most discussed topics and yet, there's no evidence of any racism whatsoever.

And I mean the world. Here's just a random sample of countries:

In case you've been living under a rock (or live in the sea, where they don't have newspapers, apparently), you won't know what all this is about. Jade 'Famous-For-Being-Famous' Goody, a previous contestant of Big Brother who returned for the celebrity edition earlier this month, has been accused of racially abusing one of India's biggest actresses (and fellow housemate) Shilpa Shetty.

Most people cite the example of Jade calling the actress "Shilpa Poppadom" but does this really constitute racism? If I called a French person (of any colour) "Jean Baguette" would that stir up a racism row? I think not.

Apart from that, Jade has not done anything to constitute racism. They have had some very heated arguments in the house and Jade was certainly searching for insults but there never was even once a comment based on colour or race. Nationality, maybe, but who doesn't make fun of nationalities now and then?

Yet, even Shilpa herself stating that it wasn't a racist outburst and the pair sitting side-by-side in the diary room and showing how they had made up since the argument, the newspapers kept milking the story, a.k.a. 'fact wanking'.

The reason for all this fact wanking on the behalf of the newspapers, is simply that scandal sells newspapers. Then, other newspapers realise that and jump on the bandwagon with the same story, hence the international spread of the news. The sample of reports I gave above are only a drop in the relative ocean of comment and splurge all about this non-event.

Yeah, so I'm constituting to the problem of commenting on a problem which isn't a problem, but I am making up for that by claiming this whole blog is just a demonstration of my ironic wit.

Don't worry, it'll all be over soon. It already is for Jade, poor girl. As for Shilpa, despite seeming to think herself higher than the other housemates, she's never brought any of this on herself either.

The media are to blame! Goddamnit I HATE NEWSPAPERS!

UPDATE: Recently, the News of the World did an interview with Jade. It is quite painful to watch, as you realise more and more as she speaks that it really wasn't racist and it is actually just media hype! See how her life has been ruined? Click here to watch her vieeo interview and apology.

The Sun are also giving away a free Shilpa Shetty DVD... amazing that the pride of the BNP is doing such a thing. I'm all for promoting Shilpa but leave Jade alone!

I would like to reiterate - I HATE NEWSPAPERS!!

Insane Mumblings

2007-01-19T15:38:00.000Z

Before I get into today's blog, I'd like to introduce you to a French guy I discovered on YouTube. Unless you speak French, you're not going to understand him but somehow, he's very entertaining to watch!

Anyway, I've finally finished my work for Video Production, which marks the end of semester one! Hooray! I got up at about 10, had a cup of tea and started typing away like a madman, trying to get it all completed. I got to uni about 30 mins later and discovered I also needed to fit in some quotes and a bibliography... so I spent about another half-an-hour trying to find a certain book. I looked it up in the catalogue, couldn't find it, asked the librarian and she couldn't find it. It turned out the book was registered under the wrong catalogue number.

I shoehorned a few dodgy, irrelevant quotes into my evaluation and handed it in. It's finished!

Moving on. There's a mystery in the halls where I'm staying. There's a guy from Cyprus who invited a friend of his to come and live with us, as she was having problems in her flat whilst studying at uni and we have some spare rooms. Annoyingly, he didn't ask any of us if we're fine with her living with us (as we're already sick of having him living here - he has no idea about switching lights off overnight or clearing up after himself). The mystery is though, she hasn't moved in yet... but we've seen him move in and out of the empty room at the end of the corridor. What does he do in there? It's not his bedroom, his is the next one along. Yet he goes in there; I've seen the light on a few times. There's no talking or anything but yet he goes in there seemingly several times a day. Weird.

Any theories on a postcard to this address.

P.S. Why is it half an hour? Surely we only write 'an' before a word with a vowel? A cake, an elephant. A box, an oxo cube. A hotel, an hour?! Welcome to the crazy English language.

P.P.S. Oh, wait, I just realised... the 'h' is a silent sound but the vowel sound of 'o' remains. I'll just stop typing now...

The Adventures of the International Playboy

2007-01-18T23:35:00.000Z

Well, it's high time I wrote a post. I've been away for a little while and since I've got back there's a been a flood of work to finish off and a torrent of people asking me what I did over the holiday period.

I say holiday period, not because in these days you can't say 'Christmas', as then you're leaving out every other religious celebration at that time of year, rather, I mean the literal time off university that I had.

Either way, I did a lot. After having Christmas at my Gran's house and seeing all the family, old and new, the revelation came that, not only is my mum having another baby but she's getting married! What a surprise (that she's getting married, not that she's pregnant again). No matter how many times she pops a youngling out, she must somehow never get sick of them. I'm happy that she's getting married though and hopefully this new kid will grow up in a proper family, unlike the rest of my siblings! Mark, the guy she's marrying, seems like a very nice person and my Gran approves, though I've no idea to what extent her opinion is a yardstick for such things.

Me, aboard the plane in my cream suit that my gran bought me for Christmas

After Christmas, I went to see Marcel in Germany. There were the usual bust-ups, plus I met his friends but didn't get along well with them. I put this down to the fact that I didn't understand 100% what they were saying and Marcel seemed adamant that in Germany, no-one introduces each other when they first me. They didn't really talk to me, nor did I talk to them, so I think it was a mutual thing - their fault and mine.

I did enjoy being with Marcel though. We travelled to a few new places by train and I took lots of photos which, as usual, you can find here or click any of the photos you see in this blog to be taken to my Flickr site.

Marcel near the Cologne Arena thing

It's strange how close I'm getting to Marcel now. We fight and argue but I love him. I really do. Yet, not in a sexual way, I just think about him a lot and I think he looks very beautiful too! There's still a lot he still doesn't understand or accept about me - such as that I like to write (almost) everything in my blog. It's a way of expressing myself in a kind of therapeutic way and also, I get to look back on it in years' time and read about what my life was like.

In Germany, you operate ticket machines telepathically.

Then, I had to say goodbye to my dear Marcel once again, as the next day I was to fly to Will.

I flew through Amsterdam airport on the way back. I find this airport inexplicable. They have police on segways (though that photo is from German police) and they look very silly on them; they also have 18-year-old police officers with machine guns...! Apart from that, upon transfer through Amsterdam, my flights were very close together but I got to the gate in time, whereupon I was told my baggage wasn't on the plane.

"Do you want to fly with your baggage and get the next flight, as your bags won't be on this one?" I said yes.

So, I waited for about 4 hours in Amsterdam. I got to the next flight but it was full and they had to wait for someone to drop out before they let me on. Panic set in - if I missed this flight and had to stay in Amsterdam overnight, I'd miss my easyJet flight to Will tomorrow! However, lucky me, one guy dropped out. I flew for an hour and arrived in Newcastle to find... no baggage of the carousel. I went to the baggage counter to find my luggage did travel on the flight I was meant to get - so all that waiting and panic could have been avoided had I just got the flight I was meant to! Very frustrating.

Onwards to meet Will at Bristol airport. It seems I have an affinity for disaster, as my easyJet flight was the last one to touchdown at Bristol airport, as they declared it unsafe that night after I landed.

So, I met him and I really enjoyed my time there! Everything in Wales is in Welsh and English, which makes everything look much different. I had no idea Wales looked so different to England (well, apart from the language, it all looks the same but never mind that). His friends were especially friendly and we spent a couple of nights out getting to know them, which I enjoyed a lot.

After a lot of playing Hitman on Will's XBox and chatting about this and that, we drove up to Chillingham Castle in Northumberland. It was an evil drive. Sitting for an almost constant 6 hours over about 400 miles. However, the car proved useful when we got there - we needed to get food from the nearest town, which was about 8 miles away through narrow curvy paths.

Chillingham Castle, look forboding but beautiful

I felt quite ill when I was there, suffering from some kind of mile flu. It wasn't life-threatening or anything but I still complained all the time as I usually do when I'm ill. We spent two nights in the Castle and both were very enjoyable - I was quite creeped out by the apartment, which was as large and spacious as it was cold. In fact, on the first night, the window blew open in a sudden flurry of wind, blowing the curtain about, making the shutter of another window rattle and sending whilstling through the house. That was quite scary and typical 'haunted house'. I loved it!

A spooky mist. Boo!

The next night we had a ghost tour with a man called 'Bob'. He claimed to be the castle's stonemason and medium, but Will put this last part down to be his clothes size, as he didn't seem very airy-fairy in the Derek Acorah sense. Still, the ghost tour was very informative and dark. Unfortunately, we didn't see or hear anything on the ghost tour, but I did get some interesting photos.

I'm not an avid ghost hunter, it's just great to be creeped out now and then!

The next day, I had to say goodbye to Will, so we travelled back to Sunderland. Almost as soon as I put my stuff down, I headed off to uni - I had my Academic Research Skills portfolio to hand in. I found out literally an hour before the deadline that we had to do an essay for it too... oh dear. I hadn't done the essay. Apparently not many people knew they had to do an essay for the portfolio.

The 'Where Have You Been?' film crew, after the premiere!

Since handing that in, I've had to finish a film, hand in an essay for TV Studio and watched my film in the uni cinema (which was great fun and we were very proud of the praise we got - and our production was on the big screen in front of all those people). In the last week I've been revising like crazy for the History of British Broadcasting exam which was earlier today. I think I did well and I've almost certainly passed it, which is good news for my application to study in Stuttgart next year! All I need to do is pass all my subjects this year to get in.

Tomorrow is my last day of work for a couple of weeks before I start my new subjects (Digital Video Effects, Introduction to Media Theory and Radio Production). The last essay tomorrow is another thing for Video Production - it's been a tiring course and I'll be glad to get it over with!

So, that's been the holiday season! It's weird to think that just over two weeks ago, I was in a flat in Germany, celebrating the beginning of 2007. It seems so long ago! Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Let's hope there isn't as large a gap until the next post, otherwise there'll be lots to read then, too!

Advent-ageous (get it?)

2006-12-14T21:03:00.000Z

In the good ol' clichéd way, the season is upon us once again, for the 2006th time (don't people get sick of Christmas/whatever holiday season?) and I will be spending it at my gran's house.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've spoken to Marcel a lot on the phone, detailing our plans for new year celebrations. But he's also been a bit... strange, of late. He warned me not to contact ANY of his friends on Funky (a website I help translate and, in turn, get to practice some German and meet new people). He's been telling me how I shouldn't contact any of his friends because "I just don't want you to," "I just wouldn't like it," and "two of the Tims are jealous of you and so I don't want you contacting them!"

German beer! Tis' golden for sure.

Two Tims?! I knew that there were two people called Tim who go to the same gay group as Marcel, and for some strange reason, Marcel contacted me asking that I ignore anyone who emails me with trash talk. Apparently they're jealous that Marcel came to the UK and stayed here, although I'm not 'down that road' with him, someone is apparently jealous. However, I was quite suspicious that Marcel was overreacting.

However, there are now two. I find this hard to believe that two people with exactly the same name have some strange vendetta against me and yet Marcel wants me to meet with these very same people when I visit him in December! But that's not the end of it. Marcel's going to be picking me up from the airport accompanied by, you guessed it...

...a third Tim! Oh but this one just happens to be uncontactable and isn't jealous.

Still, I'm not allowed to contact any of Marcel's friends and I'm wondering what he's got to be so worried about. I'm not going to bitch about him and I'd never just insult them. I'm suspicious but maybe Marci's just paranoid. He seems to enjoy arguing about it all - he threatened to pull my application for a summer job in Germany which he's been helping me with and also cancel my visit. What's got him so pissed off about me wanting to chat to his friends before I meet them?

Sunderland's trio of tower blocks. What a scummy city this is!

Aside from that, filming for 'Where Have You Been' is going very well. I'm not sure of how the quality will be when it's finished but I've got my metaphorical thesaurus on standby, opened at 'bad'. It just seems that, although we've tried quite hard, it hasn't been anywhere near as organised as it should have been during the shoots. Also, Jon (who's on camera and editing) seems to think that when we're trying to do something he can interrupt and say "well, no, that's stupid, let's do it like this" and when we let him voice his opinions "Hey! you're directors, give me some direction!" That pisses me off. Does he want to make his own decisions or let us direct? I think he blames everyone in sight when he does something wrong but won't accept anyone else's ideas either. Oh dear.

Last week, I saw Casino Royale again - even better a second time round, partially because the tickets were only £2 each for me and Paul. He seems to be my film buddy now, as we've seen about 4 films together in almost as many weeks. Unfortunately there aren't many good films on at the moment: Deck the Halls, Eragon and... Grounded FFS! I hate all these cheap American 'family' comedies, like Grounded, where 'kidz kauz krazy kaos' and the kids in the films always outwit the bad guys and are cleverer than the adults in the end. Shut up. Go away, you're just a bad nightmare.

Me and Stumpy from Byker Grove. No, seriously.

Tenacious D was crap, just two people being slobs and smoking bongs. One of Black Jack's worst films. Jackass Number Two is fantastic but not at all intelligent - just like the TV show except bigger and longer. I found it hilarious but it's not without the cringy moments; at one point a guy drinks horse semen.

Horse toilet? Horoilet!

So, I'm leaving on Sunday to go to Granpam's and then on the 27th off to Germany. I arrive back on 3rd January and leave to Wales on 4th Jan to meet Will. On 7th & 8th of Jan we'll be staying in Chillingham Castle! It's guaranteed I'll have lots of photos when I get back in the new year!

As for Christmas itself, I'm not expecting anything, so I'm just looking forward to the NEW Challenge Anneka on Boxing Day! Hurrah!

For those who miss the old 80s show, here's the title sequence. The music's still funky today! I am SO right.

There's Still Time, Table

2006-11-27T10:25:00.000Z

I'll explain the name for this post later. But for now...

It's time for the second blog of the month! Hooray! It seems I've bee blogging much less recently which could be a mix of not really being arsed to do it and also maybe not having much to report. However, I'm currently in uni on a 2 hour wait for a seminar to start (a lecture was cancelled so I've missed that and there's an hour in between the lecture and seminar normally). Not only that but I actually have something to report.

Marcel came to visit last week, which was fantastic! It was great showing him around Sunderland, Newcastle and Tynemouth as I did, although he seemed less fascinated in the country I was showing him and more interested in me but that's not such a problem.

The problem is, I found it quite difficult living in such close quarters with someone (a room meant for one; my room at The Forge) for a week. I'm used to living on my own and being completely independent and then suddenly, last week, I had to not only stay with someone overnight but I had to make sure they were entertained and fed all day too. So, in a sentence, I enjoyed having Marcel over for a week although I found it difficult having to take care of him. He keeps telling me that he could have looked after himself and that I could have gone to uni as normal - I ended up missing a few lessons to be with him and take him back to the airport - though I think he would have just been bored.

We visited some nice places. We went on the Shields Ferry, though I tried to trick him by telling him to bring his passport to 'sail to Norway'. I almost had him convinced as we stepped on the ferry, until he worked out that we were actually just going to the other side of the river. When we were there, we had a nice walk to the beach and spent a short time in a coffee shop (where I had a nice vanilla latte... which, although it was tasty, didn't actually taste of vanilla).

Marcel and I also visited Purple Bar in Sunderland, where he was very surprised with the service and quality of the cocktails there - the bartender didn't charge us for one of our drinks as he didn't have enough of one of the ingredients and gave us a free cocktail to try out. Great service! I love it there when it's not so busy. We also met up with Charlotte and a German internet friend of hers who is in England as an au pair. It was alright, we went through a few bars and chatted - Marcel enjoyed it but he kept complaining about the Barcardi going to his head a bit quick... he's not too used to alcohol, even though he has a fresh bottle of Bacardi stocked in his bedroom cupboard every time I'm there.

Eventually, though, Marcel had to leave. On the way to the airport on the Metro we reminisced on all the good times and when we eventually arrived, he was shaking slightly, possibly a mixture of feeling sad to leave and being a little nervous of the flight ahead. He looked really unhappy to leave which got me down too - I really like him and I'd say he's certainly one of my best friends but he obviously had to go sometime. I'm sure he started to cry a little bit as I walked away from him and went down the escalator, after saying bye. It was all quite sad really...

But. I'm going to stay with him for New Year so hooray for that! In exactly one month's time (December 27th) I'll be flying out to Germany to see him.

People keep asking me though - why not have a relationship with him? Well the short and easy answer is that he wants sexual things and I... don't. I'm not saying I'm never in the mood for some 'action' but I don't feel very sexual towards Marcel. I just think he's sweet and lovely and cuddly and everything else. I've found it very difficult trying to explain to him how I would have sex with some people but not him, even though I like him an awful lot. I think he took it as a 'I like to have sex with lots of people, just not him' even though I've only done it twice since August and that was with the same person (and we're still friends). I'm not sexual, Marcel!

As for Will, it seems when he called up Chillingham Castle for information on booking a night for us both, as I've always wanted to stay there we thought it would be a good idea, they said we can have 2 nights for the price of 1! I don't know what favours he offered the lady on the other end of the phone or what he threatened her with but that'll be nice. Most free things are nice, not least two nights in a countryside castle with beautiful countryside.

After, in the corner

2006-11-08T18:37:00.001Z

After, in the corner,
originally uploaded by foxdougan.

Hello everyone!

Today I've been tidying my room. It was a complete mess earlier, but as you can see by the photo, it's much better now. I don't know how I managed it but my top tip is to put loud music on and concentrate on the music as you do it!

Before:

This week has been very busy for me and my camera, as you might have been able to tell by the last post. Since it cost me £200, I've felt compelled to use it as much as possible (don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying it too)! My camera hasn't let me down.

I took about 200 pictures of Sunderland over the weekend - some of Wearmouth Bridge, Roker beach and park - for video production. That's a lot of photos. I cut down the list to a few to review in class, which will then get cut down to a couple for the production file. It's nice to have loads of photos of the area though, as it's something to look back on when I move away.

Because of my recent photo frenzy, I've been uploading to Flickr like crazy. Flickr has served me well getting my photos online and I've joined a couple of groups and commented on a couple of photos, so I'm happy about that. Some of the photos are a real insight to people's lives and locations.

Big Sunderland Lighthouse photo:

I'll keep experimenting with new shots and techniques and uploading them to Flickr and this blog, too.

I feel much better now. You know what they say: "Tidy room, tidy mind!" Or something to that effect.

-Fox

TV Studio - Photos!

2006-11-07T00:24:00.000Z

As expected, the recording of the TV show went very well! There were a few problems to start with - about 5 people didn't turn up, the autocue kept mysteriously going off and the timings in the rehearsal were a bit wrong but in the final recording it all went quite to plan.

It's a shame that I never got to see what my presenting skills were like before, as then I could have improved them for the actual recording. I'm not too downhearted though, as I'm at uni to learn and from watching it back this time I certainly learnt about what I look like on screen! It was lots of fun though.

Here's a few pictures from the recording and a couple from last Sunday's radio show, as taken on my new camera!

For more of my photos, be sure to check out my new Flickr profile:
http://flickr.com/photos/foxdougan/

Remember to tell me what you think of the photos!

Lights, Action! ...oh and CAMERA!

2006-11-04T20:46:00.000Z

Hello again!

The S2 presenting from last week went well but it was just a rehearsal... so I think with a slight tweak here and there, it will be even better for the actual recording. which takes place on Monday. Everyone loved my script and they were all asking me what to do and if I could do things for them etc. and I loved it. I like the fact that people can rely on me to do a good job, as well as that I was constantly busy and thinking on my toes, which I enjoy!

I hope that the next one goes well, so fingers crossed for that. However, in the week that Marcel arrives (about 3 weeks from now) I'll be trying my hand at directing the very same show, which will be even more difficult. However, I relish a challenge.

In other news, I bought a digital camera today. It may have been wrong of me to just splash out (again) on a piece of technology but the way I see it is, I have money and I'm not going to need to buy any more technology along the lines of MP3 player, camera etc. for a while past the next three years, so it's more of an investment than just an impulse buy. Well, that's how I justify it to myself, anyway.

I bought it at Charles Eagle and Son, in Sunderland. The staff were very friendly and didn't apply any sales pressure, nor were they condescending or such, so I was pleased with that. The best part of the whole experience was that, the camera I bought, a Panasonic Lumix FX01 and a 1GB memory card cost in total around £124 less than if I were to buy both in Argos. Now that's a worthwhile saving!

I chose that particular camera because it's pocket-sized (anything else would have been annoying to carry around, as I found when I was in Germany - debating whether it was worth bringing the camera out and sacrificing comfort all day), it has an anti-blur system (what's the point of buying a camera if all the pics are blurry?) and it was under £200. Bonuses are that it has 30fps video recording, a macro photo mode and it only takes 1 second from pressing 'on' to it being photo-ready. Oh and I got a sleek black version! :D I'm very pleased with it.

In video production, part of my media production course, we've formulated a basic script and an exact plan of how the story would be in terms of scene ordering etc. and we've got lots done for our production file which needs to be handed in about 90% complete next week (not 100% as there are certain things which need filling in during production, which would then go into the file later on). As part of the requirements, we need to scout out our possible locations and our group agreed in our last meeting that I should photograph the beach, bridge and park that we had in mind for out filming locations. A good chance to use my new camera, then! So I've been out for about an hour taking some photos of the bridge at night and the surrounding area. Some of the photos I took are below, plus a recent pic of me!

My favourite so far, the macro picture!

A photo of me brandishing my new camera.

Wearmouth Bridge, for my video production research

Would make a moody film scene, non?

So there's an update for the past week.

Oh yes and I was bored the other day, so I went to see Borat at the cinema. Very funny, I recommmend it! It goes beyond his normal interviews and there are some genuinely shocking moments too, which makes you think: 'which bits are real and which are fake?' I am a bit concerned about some of the ethics behind it, though.

Now, I just need to send Robert his camera back...

"Hello and Welcome to S2!"

2006-10-30T09:48:00.000Z

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while but I've been lazy. I really should update more often as there's a lot to tell!

However, for today I'm just adding a little post to patch it up a little.

In the Introduction to the TV Studio lesson today, I'm going to be presenting! Hooray! It's not what I'm aiming for as a job, but it'll certainly be fun. I've written the script for me and for the newsreader and during the course of the programme I need to introduce the news, weather and interview the guest. It should be interesting and fun too!

Unfortunately, we're in studio 2. This means that we haven't got all the equipment a proper TV studio would have (we don't even have a captions machine, to display pictures or text on screen) plus it's a chroma-key studio, so we have to work on a green screen background. This means we have a colour in the background, making it look like we're floating in space. I suppose it's all practical though, as why try and make something look professional before we can even work cameras, direct etc.

This is just a rehersal but I'll still enjoy it. When the final version is recorded, I'll make sure I link it to the blog - that'll be an experience, seeing me fluff up and/or smoothly become the best presenter on Earth. We'll have to wait and see...

Off to a Good Start!

2006-10-12T15:49:00.000+01:00

There's actually not much to report this time, just to say that I'm settling in fine. I'm posting a few pictures of my new abode so you can have a look at the place I write about so often!

This week I've been feeling ill with the so-called 'Fresher's Flu', which in my case wasn't actually a flu at all. I have an infection which started off in my throat but then worked its way into my sinuses... now my head hurts like hell if I don't take ibuprofen. I don't know how long it will last but the last time I had anything to do with my sinuses, when they were all blocked up, it was about 3 weeks before it all cleared.

The pain was really very bad, so I went to the doctors and they put me in for an 'emergency' appointment. Some emergency! I still had to wait for about 30 minutes as my head was pounding like a cannon ball in a washing machine. Crap analogy, but you get what I mean!

You may have noticed, I have a new logo! That's the image of the Fox, but unfortunately I'm not good with image sizing and Photoshop, so if someone can help me smooth out the flaws in my transfer from image-to-logo, then get in touch! I'm loving it and there are more on the way, lovingly crafted by Chris Hildrey so I'll be sure to get his website address on here sometime soon, but not yet as it's not currently up-and-running.

Elsewhere, the development of our video in Introduction Video Production is going well. We've got a great idea, which has something to do with a person who seems to be talking to someone throughout a sequence, but it's then revealed there wasn't actually anyone there and he's just been talking to himself the whole time. It sounds a little silly written here, but it's actually a good idea but I'm not going into detail here, partially because it's a little complex to get the imagery and the focus of the film across and also because I can't be arsed.

I also took some video equipment out with me to film some shots for practice, but people kept staring at me out of their cars, probably noticing the gigantic fluffy boom mic. As there was a lot of cumbersome equipments, I didn't get very much done. Dragging a whole film kit around in the dark (that was the only time I could do it) is very awkward and physically difficult to manage.

In other news, Will's postcard arrived today! He's actually already back from Iceland, but he was kind enough to send me a postcard, though it arrived after his depature. The writing isn't personally tailored to me, but it's nice enough that he sent me one... it even includes a little white fox on the image side of it. I really admire his style of writing; witty and descriptive. It's a shame that he lives in Wales though, or at least, it's a shame I can't see him more often (or at all). I'm not talking 'I want to be his lover', rather he's just an interesting person. He's promised to visit sometime, though I'm rather dubious, as such plans are always difficult to keep. I've never actually met him before, which is strange, but we get along fairly well at times. However, I think he's generally a social person, so it doesn't make me feel exactly special! The postcard was nice anyway, so it's now blutac'd onto my wall.

I did a little spontaneous splashing out too, which was a little bad of me. I bought a Creative Zen MicroPhoto for £150 from Argos. I just sat around one day, decided I really wanted to spend some money because I was bored and alone, looked in the Argos and decided I wanted that one! I would have gone for a cheaper MP3 player but:

Sony's offering only works with Sony Connect for DRM MP3s, which is crappy. Connect isn't very good.
iPods doesn't allow subscription downloading. That means I have to pay for every track I want on my MP3 player, rather than paying a monthly fee for as many tracks as I like. I'm due to get a free Shuffle from Lloyds TSB, but I worked out that I'll save a lot of money if I just buy a subscription-compatible model.
Other MP3 players look crap and/or are actually crap.

So there.

Here are a few more photos to satisfy your need:

It's not luxury, but it works for what I need! I'm applying next year to go to the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart though, maybe I'll get a better place there! More about that as it happens.

The Beginning of the Rest of My Life!

2006-09-19T15:57:00.000+01:00

Yes, I really think this is the beginning of the rest of my life!

I've finally moved into the university halls of residence and I'm starting to enjoy uni life already. I've moved into a place called 'The Forge' which, despite being in the middle of a delinquent-infested scum spot, is quite nice (and is a sealed-off community in itself, separate from the scum in the area).

My flatmates all seem to be very friendly and I'm starting to relax in after the initial strangeness.

I had a party on Saturday night/Sunday morning and suddenly went from a party with all my friends, to waking up the next day to moving into uni and being alone in my room. It felt strange, after my gran left when everything was moved in, because it dawned on my that I am now a student and must make friends, study, live etc. independently. Yeah, I lived on my own when I was in Durham, but Dad still paid for bills and gave me £20 every week for food but here I am completely independent. It's not scary, rather a feeling of freedom, but it all hit me as my gran drove away and I was left in this strange place that I'd never seen before.

Since then, I've met a few people who I went to college with, someone who I met at an open day and someone I went to primary school with, so it's a mixed bag of blasts from the past. I've not really got to know anyone new as of yet apart from my flatmates, but I think this'll change, having only been here for barely three days now.

I've chosen which modules I'll be doing this year! They're split up into two, some subjects I'll just be doing this semester and the rest next semester (none in both semesters) and I can't wait to get started on them:

Media and Cultural Studies
Radio: Production and Broadcasting
Academic Research Skills
Video Production (learning how to make a documentary or short film)
History of Broadcasting
Popular TV Genres
Introduction to the TV Studio (with two TV studios, to make a news programme)
Introduction to Digital Video Effects (using green screens and computer effects like in major films!)

So things are going well... except that I don't have my passport or any other ID, so I'm not officially registered with the uni yet and I need to sort out the house at Dad's before he comes back this weekend. Only then can I feel really settled in here.

In other news, I've still been talking to Martin and enjoying the conversations as usual. It's rare that you find someone you can really talk to constantly and genuinely enjoy the conversation but even more unfortunate for me is that most of the guys I can talk to in that way live in Germany. I've talked to Martin about meeting him sometime but he seems reluctant to do so, preferring (in my opinion) just to have someone be friendly to him without the hassle of a meet-up. He denies this but I'm not so sure due to his lack of enthusiasm. Whilst I'm sure he isn't a liar, I do think he does what he can to be polite.

As for Marcel, he's given birth to some degus! Ok, not given birth to exactly, more bought, but they're still quite cute from the pictures I've seen of them. Marcel will be starting a new job soon at a high-class (so he tells me) hospital, so, good luck Marcel!

Photos will be posted soon, when I get the camera cable from Durham. You will get your camera back soon, Robert! Just as soon as I have enough money to get it to you...

The Final Countdown!

2006-09-15T09:51:00.000+01:00

There's now only three days (including today) until I officially start university.

I'm quite excited, however my accommodation still isn't sorted, dispite having gone to the uni and filled out the form there and then. I need to wait for them to send me an email saying they've found me a place (hopefully not with about 5 Japanese students who hardly speak English) and then I'll need to send them £200.

It's stupid that they expect students, who are renowned for their lack of cash, to pay them £200 BEFORE they get their student loan. I'm having to borrow a further £200 from my gran, which I am not happy about. I hate borrowing money from people!Let's hope the problem is sorted soon but at least she lives in the local area, so if I don't have a place by Monday I can just stay at hers.

Recently, I've been moderating a German website for boys who want to find love (or a quick fuck, in some cases). In doing that I have to moderate images and make sure that they're not pornographic or such and I came across the profile for someone on there called Martin. He seemed friendly, so I sent him a message.

A couple of days later (yesterday) we got talking on MSN and eventually, Skype. He's a very friendly guy, with a very good knack for photography and his best work can be found on his blog (sometimes the link doesn't work, but give it a few refreshes and it might work then). He has Borderline Personality Disorder, so for those who aren't an expert in everything like I am... it means that he is prone to depression and seeing things only in extremes (black or white, very happy or very sad... no middle ground) but all of this seems perfectly fine to me. He was very friendly and conversational, with a good grasp of English, and that's what counts. I will ask him if I can display a picture of him on here because it seems like he could be a good friend.

However, if I remember a loooooong time back to Marcel the First. This is not Marcel I met recently in Germany, but another one. We got along very well online and then suddenly he stopped talking to me. He seemed to hate me all of a sudden and didn't want to meet anymore or anything. I hope I get along well with Martin in the future too, unlike with Marcel I.

Sometimes maybe I'm a little too open on this blog, but it's like therapy, though to you reading this it may seem I have little in the way of serious problems. That's true, but I still have to let some things out now and then!

I think I might publish my photo art gallery on here sometime. Photos that I've taken. I've been inspired by Martin's blog!

There was a storm here too, nothing majorly scary but I was bored so I took some pics anyway:

It's a storm! Hooray!

Raining in Durham?! How rare!

An Update

2006-09-09T15:21:00.000+01:00

I just thought that, whilst nothing exciting is happening in the week-and-two-days before uni starts, I should give you a quick update.

I'm sure you'll all want to know how Marcel is after he was entered into hospital with kidney stones. Well, the stones were removed from his body but he unfortunately died.

An Obituary and Congratulations to Marcel

There were complications and due to these he died on the operating table... before being revived with one shock to the chest. This is most likely due to the fact that he's asthmatic and so prone to heart problems (as well as the obvious lung problems), so with a tiny bit too much anesthetic, it can cause the heart to stop beating due to his already weaker than normal heart being narcotised. However, he has fully recovered from dying and kidney stones. Lovely!

Knowing that he died for a few minutes would probably make me nervous if it ever came to needing an operation, though I don't have asthma or any other known problems.

University is not long away now and I've had the place officially confirmed by a letter from UCAS. Now I just need to wait for my welcome pack from Sunderland Uni and I need to travel to Sunderland to fill out two forms: one to apply for residence in the halls and another to deffer payment of the £200 reservation fee until I actually have money. It's a bit silly that they don't charge the money after you get your student loan, as they can't expect everyone to just have £200! I'll see how it goes though... as with everything, it normally works out ok in the end!

Media Production

2006-09-04T15:37:00.000+01:00

The results are in and I have that coveted 'C' in Maths! I can't believe it, to be honest. Is it real?! That means not only have I fulfilled all my conditions to get into uni, but I never have to complete another fucking maths course/exam again in my life (I hope)! Hooray!

I can't wait to get started there, it's going to be so exciting going to university. I'm yet to receive my starter pack because I only just found out that I need to tell the university about my GCSE grade, not UCAS, so I've sent the letter off right now. It is cutting it close a bit, but I definitely have the place, I just need to get organised with what I need for registration.

Until then I have little to do. I'm going to be meeting Adrian, who I've been messaging on MySpace recently, which should be interesting. His pictures don't count for much as they vary in terms of how he looks and how much you can see. Either way it'll be something to do, filling up what seems to be the endless void of the next two weeks until uni registration. He should be interesting anyway, as his conversations have been rather... alternative. I don't think he's really an axe-wielding murderer, but he takes the joke a little beyond the limit sometimes. I'm not offended, just concerned about the amount of genuinely interesting conversation. We'll see how it goes. Let's just hope we don't have a touch of irony with that 'axe-wielding' thing.

Annoyingly, my fat lesbian aunt is coming to stay round here tonight. She's got building work going on at her house, so for the next two nights she's sleeping here. She says, "don't worry, I won't get in your way. I'll just be in and upstairs then straight to bed. In the morning, it'll just be a bowl of breakfast and I will be out." I doubt it, as she tends to go on and on about some 'spectrum' meeting or something she did, or giving me advice on various things like how to study... as if I would want to end up like her! I want to be successful, in an apartment in Cologne or somewhere similarly as vibrant, with a job that's fun and friendly people around me. I know that it's not as simple as leaping into such a job, but I'll work hard to get there, I know that for sure.

I'm getting a little anxious waiting for uni to be sorted out but there's nothing more I can do. I have my place, which is what I wanted!

Here's to the next 3 years!

Goooooooodbye!

2006-08-31T12:28:00.000+01:00

It’s my last day here in Germany! At 6:30 this evening we’ll be driving to Düsseldorf Airport for my flight leaving at 9pm. After arriving in England at 9:30, there’ll be a taxi to Leeds train station and a train getting me back in Durham by 12:30 tonight.

PhotoArt made from inside a bottle (by me)

I’ve had a great time here during my six weeks of madness. I’ve seen a lot of Germany without actually having travelled far. I’ve experienced much of Cologne (the underworld of Cologne, that is) and enjoyed the time with my friend Marcel, where possible, in Recklinghausen. It was never a smooth ride but that all adds to the experience, doesn’t it?

A picture of a cardboard sheep... in a bank

1.Beer and sausages may be the stereotype, but it’s true, they do all drink
beer and eat sausages.

2.A lot of Germans are perverted. Although not all of them are, there must be a market for perversions seeing the amount of sex clubs and shops selling spanking paddles and various things to mount your sex date on to.

3.Parts of the country are so boring, you just feel constantly tired

4.Parts of the country are so exciting, you feel constantly tired

5.I feel tired

I hope this helps if you're planning a journey to Germany. I’d recommend Cologne, but not after 9pm unless you’re a raving homosexual or an alcoholic.

A car sales place called A HAG

I’ve decided to add intermittent photos of things you haven’t seen before, so I hope you enjoy them. A big thanks goes to Robert, as without him lending me his camera, I wouldn't have been able to take any photos at all.

A cover for greetings card which comes with the DVD of the film 'Titanic'. The cover shows quotes from The Onion, including 'World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg' and 'Crew Kindly Asks 3rd Class Passengers to Drown'. I think it assumes Germans can't read English and they must have bought it for cheap

Thanks to Marcel's family for allowing me to stay at their place for three weeks, and my guides in Cologne, who showed me the best and worst of the city. Thanks also goes to my gran, who gave me an extra boost of money when I needed it! However, next stop is Albion, where you can probably find my next post.

Bye-bye Germany!

Jet2 flight leaving Dusseldorf Airport

Taken from my flight to Germany. Artist's impression of what the return journey will look like

The Week in Whole

2006-08-27T15:52:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a week since I last wrote here, sorry for the lack of updates folks (or fowx) but that's been put down to a clash of nothing much happening at once and Marcel's internet not working for a surprising three days. Having no internet was the most annoying thing as I couldn't check my UCAS application (which STILL has no change, I'm getting worried), my e-mails nor anything else.

Just before the internet went down, I did manage to become a support admin for a website called FunkyBoys, a German profile website. It's quite interesting as I get to see everyone's pics and delete the shitty ones. I also have to translate the crappy English of the .com website into proper English, as the people who translated it from the original German website don't speak English like natives. It's a job with no real rewards but it's something to do in the quiet moments.

So what did I do over the past week? Here's the week in words and pictures:

Marcel thankfully got out of hospital, so one of the first things we decided to do is what every ex-patient must do. We rented out a pedal boat in the pouring rain. We drove to Haltern am See, which is a town by a large lake and despite the dull and wet weather, the boat rental place was open, so we paid our money and got on board.

HMS Underwhelmer

I wasn't even wearing a coat during this particular adventure, so I was cold and wet to the skin for the half an hour that we paddled around in this boat, taking pictures of ducks, water and other 'exciting' things. It was an experience at least (that's what people say when something was crap but they want to put a good face on things)!

An oddly nice pic from the pedal boat

Afterwards we went to a cheap-but-lovely place called Lakeside Inn, which tries to be all American. It was very good though, big portions and very well cooked!

The next day we decided to meet up with Marcel's friend, Mandy. Due to the lack of much to do round here, we did all the above again, except with accompaniment this time.

Mandy and Marcel pedal off into the sunset (or lack of thereof)

Uneventfully, we travelled round and did feck all. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Eat, eat, eat. Well isn't that lovely? As you can tell I'm a bit miffed at the lack of different things to do here. It was nice to go pedal-boating and eating in the restaurant and it was so nice of Marcel to pay for it all but it's just a shame that there's nothing more in the area. He's very nice to me though and it helps to be bored with someone who's friendly.

During my time here we also managed to go to the cinema twice, to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Superman Returns. Listening to Adam & Joe's podcast in the car made me realise something. They said if you rub out the 'U' in 'Superman' it looks like Sperm Man. So, I've just DIY'd a demonstration for you, with a little editing in paint:

It was in German but I understood it all and I thought it was crap. The first hour is good but the rest is predictable and a little laughable in all the wrong ways. Pirates of the Caribbean was a little ridiculous too, as they use the same devices every time they can't think of something else to put: "er, we can't think of anything essential to the plot here so let's add some more scary bad guys and a big octopus/squid" or something along those lines.

Yesterday was a let down too. We went to a 'corn maze' at a nearby farm, which seemed to promise fun for all the family. It was shit and because of it's shitness, we were quite let down as we'd planned to see it for the past three weeks (but he had to go and get hospitalised, didn't he?). Take in all the glory of me talking to a scarecrow and amaze at a field of corn with some passages in it.

There's a maze in there somewhere...

Talking to the locals

So that's about it for my adventure over the past week. Nothing special happened but I suppose it's better than sitting at home and doing nothing back in England. However, my time in Germany is slowly creeping to a close and the flight back to the UK leaves on Thursday. I kind of want to go back and don't want to go back all in one. I'm trying not to think about it much though, even though it's relatively close.

I'll write a final post from Germany sometime later in the week if I can.

Until then, stay safe and don't die!

Exam Results

2006-08-19T23:03:00.000+01:00

Hello.

I'm currently trying out the new Internet Explorer beta version and I have to say it's quite good. People have been saying that it's nothing special but I'm rather liking the minimalistic style, where 'less is more' seems to have been applied. Controversially, I'm now using it as my default browser as opposed to Firefox. Oh goodness, what has the world come to?? Now we just have to wait for Firefox 2 but I downloaded what was apparently a beta version from their official website and it's really no different apart from a vaguely-changed search box. By the final version I'm sure it'll have perked up though.

Marcel came to stay for the day as he was well enough to leave hospital. He was in a pissy mood at the beginning of the day, complaining to me about having left something on and not switching it off (which is a fire hazard, apparently) and not cleaning up a mess he had made. I spent half an hour cleaning his room, where I've been sleeping for the past week, but he didn't notice that, rather a couple of things which didn't actually matter or were left by him in the first place.

After one of my many 'sit down and shut the fuck up' talks which seem to make him think beyond himself, he returned to normal behaviour and was very sweet and kind for the rest of the day. I think he's genuinely great when he's in his normal mood but anything else and I just can't be bothered to put up with it.

I got my exam results back today. The following is the subject, overall grade and then the individual grades for each exam or piece of coursework:

=Media= C
Issues - C
Coursework - D
Critical - C

=German= C
L/R/W - B
R/W - A
S/R - A
L/R/W2 - D
Coursework - D

=English= C
Unit 4 - C
Coursework - A
Unit 6 - C

So, Cs all round then. I don't know whether I'm good in German or not (first LRW pape I get B, second I get D... doesn't that show I have good days and bad days rather than if I'm good in German?), good in coursework or not (German D, Media D, English A) or even good at being consistant as the grades flay awkwardly from side to side like a ninja with a hernia. I get an A, then I get a D. Fucking great. Why can't I just be GOOD or BAD at something?! As for media, well I know everything there is to know about media and that's that. Just I'm shit at exams.

Still no idea on my entry to uni, so I think I need to wait for my Maths GCSE result next week and then I'll know. The prospects aren't looking good though...

-Fox

2006-08-18T18:53:00.000+01:00

Oh, is that it? I've signed up to the new Blogger Beta and I've noticed nothing really different. A couple of slight changes here and there but nothing that changes the way I blog forever, like I was kind of expecting. Oh well! I've changed styles and added a little but nothing shockingly different. Feel free to add your comments!

Back to the action, nothing's really been happening this week. Marcel's still in hospital and I've been visiting periodically to see how he's getting on. Today he was a little pissy because he was told he can't go home yet, contrary to what he was told earlier. To avoid argument and because I was quite frankly getting pissed off with his attitude, I left early today. His friend was visiting him anyway, so it wasn't so much of an abandonment.

Apparently A-Level results were out yesterday but I've yet to receive mine. I'm feeling quite out of the loop with those type of things at the moment! I currently don't know whether I can go to university or not yet, so I've been constantly rechecking the UCAS website for information but nothing's came up yet. I'm really excited about starting my place at uni and I'm not worried about my A-Level results, it's that fucking GCSE Maths which I don't even need. However, I think they'll overlook that little problem and might just let me do the course if I promise to be good or sit the maths exam (and probably a class) for a 4th time. I still don't know if I passed it but I'm sure I'll find out when the GCSE results are out next week.

How come I can do well in A-Levels, enough to qualify me for university, and yet can't pass a simple GCSE? It's annoying me somewhat.

So, I'm just twiddling my thumbs here with nothing to do, awaiting my last week (next week) which could hold the record as being the most lacklustre and uneventful yet. Bring on the party, whoo hoo.

2006-08-14T10:43:00.000+01:00

It seems there may be an air of bad luck in Marl today.

Yesterday, I was struck down with some sort of colon-stomach flu and was out of action for most of the day, which proved to be rather annoying. Marcel stayed by my side, taking care of me whenever I needed anything from hugs to drugs. Drugs, that is, such as magastron, not crystal meth. So, the Sunday which was ever so full of plans and things to do was ruined.

I did manage to drag myself out of bed in the morning to see a building be demolished though. Thousands of people from the surrounding area including TV, radio and newspapers were out to catch a glimpse of the so-called ‘Goliath’ block of flats come crashing to the ground. The siren went off but there was no countdown. There was a big explosion (half the crowd jumped from the shock) and I held the camera up to press ‘record’. Didn’t work. And again. Didn’t work. Finally, it worked… but only to catch the last 1 second of it and I’d missed the whole thing with my own eyes AND on the camera, trying to get the fucking thing to work. I was angry because I had dragged myself out of bed at 8am whilst feeling ill to see something I’d never seen before, standing in the best spot to see it. I was right there and yet I missed it. Typical!

You can see it here though, in all its glory:

So that’s two counts of bad luck. I was ill and I missed the demolition of the Goliath.

As the day wore on, drinking black tea and generally feeling like crap, Marcel started to feel bad too. He had back pain and so took a dose of extra strong paracetamol as the pain was so bad. A few hours later, the pain was back and he took the decision to go to the hospital. I had an ache in my back too, having some sort of flu and all, but he was adamant that this was different and so we drove to the hospital just around the corner.

What puzzled me is that he had to pay €10 at the reception desk. He simply said he wanted to see a doctor and he was charged for it. I understand that healthcare isn’t free in Germany (and pretty much every country in the world except the UK) but then surely his medical insurance would cover the cost of a check-up. He also would need to pay €14 every day he’s in the hospital. Again, why doesn’t the insurance pay for this? It makes me feel lucky to live in a place with completely free medical treatment.

After about an hour of waiting, he came back from the doctor and told me he needed to stay for another 3 days at least. Why? He’s got two kidney stones, which were causing the pain on his back. After helping him out until he was sorted with everything, I found out he’s going to be spending most of his time in a bed with two old men on beds either side, which must be so dull for him. Also, the procedure sounds quite painful: some sort of cable through the penis up to the kidney to break down, or retrieve, the stones.

As for me, well I’m living with Marcel’s parents for a week. It’s quite awkward because I prefer to stay away from my own family so hanging around with someone else’s is worse – I’d rather just stay locked up in the room upstairs and only go down to get food. That would just be mean though because they’re being so nice to me and trying their best to take care of me so I will be nice to them too!
Let’s hope Marcel feels better again soon and that the bad luck here gets a little better.

2006-08-12T12:48:00.000+01:00

Ok, I’ve been here for a short time now and it’s rather interesting. I’m sleeping in the attic, in which to enter I have to climb a precarious ladder but that’s part of the adventure. The actual area is, as expected, devoid of anything interesting.

I think I’m going to start changing names as I’ve received complaints from one or two people that publishing their names here may lead to problems in the future, so from now on pseudonyms or only first names will be used for most of the people who are mentioned in this blog, whether it’s good or bad things I have to say about them.

So far I’ve been staying in Marl, a town in the Recklinghausen district with Marcel and his family and things are not that boring. Marcel and I have argued a few times, once ending up in me accidentally smashing his head of a wall, but I think that made him understand what irritates me, though it was genuinely an accident and I didn’t mean to cause any physical pain! At least he now knows not to take the piss out of me again.

I’m getting free driving lessons from him, which is great. I’ve just been driving through car parks and trying not to stall up until now but it’s generally going ok – yes I do stall at times but nothing drastic, the same as any other learner. Considering, I think I’m making good progress. In three days, I’ve learnt driving, changing gear, emergency braking, parking and reverse parking, as well as learning that Marcel thinks ‘faster’ means ‘slow down’ (literally, he got the words mixed up and told me to go faster as we were coming to the end of the road). I’m quite enjoying that, though it is frustrating sometimes – I let the clutch out, put on a bit of accelerator and it doesn’t move. Let out the clutch a bit more and it stalls! If I put it down too much I’ll go flying into a wall… what am I meant to do?!

Amongst other things, including getting lost searching for a ‘corn maze’ which wasn’t even open (sorry guys, things aren’t as exciting as in Aachen and Cologne, but I’ll try and change that by having a cycling accident or adopting a monkey or something), I’ve been talking to new people on the internet, in desperation to find new people to meet and have fun. Strangely enough, the friendliest of these is someone from back in Durham, though he spends most of his time away from there it would seem, called Ade. Could this be short for something? I’m yet to find out but nevertheless he’s a friendly guy who’s already offered to “pay for you to go to Oslo, if you stick around,” which is nice – though does it remind you of someone? Paying for things after we’ve just met… maybe Scaryguy is back on my tail. Seriously though, this guy seems friendly so let’s hope he is. I get the feeling he’s got many internet friends though and talks to them similarly, which isn’t a problem, I just think they’ll be some sort of fight to see who’s going to Oslo. Maybe I should show him Cologne; it has a rather seedy and interesting underworld.

During my time here I’ve also visited a fun fair. I’m sure most of you have been to such things and notice that they’re movie characters often on the side of the rides, like the Terminator on an ‘action’ ride or Freddie Kruger on the side of a ghost train. Well here’s one I wouldn’t have expected:

I’m off now to sleep in my little attic world, in my Germany World Cup 2006 bed cover. Sleep feels good…. Sleeeeeeeeep.

Goodbye Aachen!

2006-08-08T15:34:00.000+01:00

Bye bye!

Today I am leaving Aachen. Well I suppose I have technically already left because I am on the train now, writing this on my laptop during the 2hr 22min journey to Recklinghausen, act II of my big German adventure.

I woke up at 9am and packed everything up, wrote a letter thanking the Daniels (neither of them were there last night due to other engagements, so I had to write rather than say ‘thank you’ in person) and set off to the train station. That’s all well and good. I’ve left behind the city, not knowing if I will see it or the Daniels again. After 6 weeks of virtual hell with them, would I want to return?

I think I will see the Daniels again sometime in the future but rather than have such a long visit as this time, we will probably just meet somewhere and go to a bar one day. 6 weeks with them was awkward, with their right-wing views and occasional disagreements. I do appreciate them having put up with me for the time and Tobi especially for housing me for 3 weeks, though you simply can’t expect to get along with everyone all the time!

So, now I’m off to the primordial soup of North Rhein Westphalia, Recklinghausen. Why is it so bad? Things will be difficult because I am going to be stuck with one, clingy and obsessive gay guy who will constantly want to wank and cuddle and kiss and do things together every day. He’s friendly but unfortunately clingy too. I don’t know any other people in the area who I can resort to in times of need and in the city itself there’s nothing beyond the ‘same old’ to do: cinema, bars, shops… nothing to interest me (like gay sex clubs, perhaps?). I will manage somehow but it will be a tough few weeks, however I shall endeavour to make friends on the internet and promptly meet them in the town. I’m desperate so I’ll take anyone. Start applying now, folks.

Don’t worry, avid reader, I will be sure to trigger off some interesting situations that you can read about, as well as providing more fun for me. I’ll have to explore the area and the people in it and maybe we can come up with something special for you together, ok?

In the meantime, have a nice day and say a little prayer for me, I might just need it where I’m going. Adult ticket to Hell please, one way. (ok, so it’s not that bad, I just thought that would be an interesting way to end the blog)

2006-08-05T22:29:00.000+01:00

The past few days have been rather awkward but again, I’m kind of saying ‘yes’ to everything to really explore the underbelly of this country, or the county that I’m staying in. These last 3 days (or so, they’ve kind of merged into one) have been the worst yet and hopefully worse enough to entertain people with my tales of woe.

A few days ago I had to meet Patrick at 9am, as you read on my earlier blog. Well, I managed to get there but there was no Patrick at that time as I arrived by train in Cologne at about 9:45 due to me getting lost walking through the city of Aachen, where I’m staying. So I was worried – was he late? Had he turned up and then left? Had he forgotten to meet altogether? I read the map of the U-Bahn system to try and figure out where he lived, so I could meet him at his house.

I looked through the map and thought of when I last went to his house: it was nowhere near anywhere I’d been before (so that section was ticked off) and it was only a few stations away (so the nearby urban stations were ticked off, as they had no housing), so that led me to one station and I considered setting off. Or maybe I could call him? I didn’t have his number with me but he could have emailed it to me. That, or he messaged it to me.

Eventually I decided to check my email for his number and he’d already sent me a new one. Luckily, he gave me exact directions to his house as well as explaining he’d already shown up. So, thanks to that bit of luck, I went to his house, where I stayed for a short time. I had lots of fun.

I then needed to be in Düsseldorf train station to meet someone for 2pm. I spent 3 hours travelling there. I think you’ll find it all explained in this email, which I sent to him:

He was ugly too, so I was almost please that the sheep-frightener didn’t come near me. I might have got his ‘why the fuck don’t you shave it?!’-moustache disease. It was a light and annoyingly ugly fur under his nose. This guy was a real glass-licking moron. I’m very pleased that I managed to fit so many hyphenated adverbs.

I crawled back, still extremely tired from not getting to sleep the night before and entered the Aachen student flat a few hours later and did fuck all.

The next day I went to a laundrette. End.

The day after I had to meet someone in Dusseldorf once again, so I went there and there was much rejoicing. Why? Because he actually turned up with his friend, though I was disappointed by him – just look at the picture below and you’ll see why. He was just dull and boring, plus I'd already had a bad day having ran out of money completely, so looking at him didn't help!

We decided to go along the riverbanks but we jumped over the barrier and took a walk along the mooring ledge instead, which is where that picture was taken. After that, all he kept mentioning were pwitty things in the sky, so every few minutes he pointed out the helicopters which were covering the German cycling race which was going on. If not that then he kept going on about the fucking TV tower or the glass office building.

As you can tell from the photo, it was nice but he couldn’t talk about anything else it seemed. Afterwards he just stopped talking me together, as him and his bitch started making childish squeaking noises in replacement for anything requiring someone not to be clinically dead. Corpses, I find, are often by far better conversationalists. That was a joke.

Back in Cologne, I saw the filming of a local TV show called 'Lokalzeit', which was very nice. The studio is in a shopping centre and anyone there can see it going out live to the region. It's quite interesting to watch.

I left at that point because I was meeting Tobi in Cologne at 8pm for ‘Freakshow Night’ as he called it or, as I prefer, ‘Human Zoo’. It was billed as our all-nighter, literally as Germany doesn’t have stupid drinking time limits (24-hours everywhere) so there was no plan of sleep or comfort just drink, freaks and bars.

We visited a place for one-Euro beer to get loaded up for the first freak show. [Beer count: 3] The first was a gay sex club called Chains, which was fairly empty but seemed promising from first entering, with adverts for ‘dress code’ nights, involving no clothes at all or complete leather. Fortunately for us, this was just a normal night, if there is such a thing in such a place, so we sat down and had a beer. [Beer count: 4] There was a minimum drinking amount on every day, so I had to have another!

Upon exploring downstairs I found a place almost exactly similar to the last place we went to, full of similar devices for punishment and pleasure alike. It had the same camouflage netting and pummel horse but no-one was using them that I could see. There was an upstairs area which was rather similar.

We then went to a normal bar called Clip, which had a karaoke night hosted by a drag queen. The air got rather smoky and stuffy after a while but the atmosphere amongst the people there was great! [Beer count: 7] We met an old schoolmate of Tobi’s called… well, to be honest I can’t remember his name but that doesn’t matter. He was quite friendly and so we agreed that he could join our band of merry men on a journey to the next location – The Midnight Sun.

On entry you have to ‘buzz in’ and someone opens the door. The building has no windows to see in and the guy who takes your money and bags sits behind a metal cage. I had the camera in the bag so I couldn’t take any pictures and I didn’t fancy taking a camera out of my bag in front of him so in the bag it stayed.

This place was much larger. The first room you enter is a nice bar like any other. Well, apart from there were two people getting it on in the corner but we just ignored them. We ordered a few drinks [Beer count: 9] and explored the deepest, darkest recesses of the building… and they were dark. We went downstairs and squeezed out way between the black wooden dividers to find a shower, lots of places to mount oneself and dispensers marked ‘lube’ on the walls. We went there with a whisper but we still got the guy on duty following us down and telling us to shut up. I think he knew we weren’t there for sex. After the Schoolmate when to explore elsewhere, Tobi went to look for him to which I was left alone with some old, sagging man staring me down so I found Tobi and got the fuck out of that dungeon. We sat upstairs; some drunkard started talking to Tobi whilst Schoolmate got me a cola-beer, which was rather nice. [Beer count: 10] Schoolmate had to leave and I was left with my drunken guide and his latest interest. Tobi was being hit on by a 40-year-old, who I think followed us from Clip, and he did nothing to stop it. I just sat there extremely bored staring into the bar whilst he talked and got his leg felt.

Eventually, we stumbled back to Clip so that I could possibly try and talk to someone new rather than just sit and do nothing. Clip was now just filled with old drunken and feminine guys rounding off their drunken howling of karaoke. Tobi kissed a few old and ugly guys and I just sat, shocked and how he could do such a thing.

This was all rather dull for a while, then the club wound down and everyone left but Tobi stayed to sweep up (he was still rather drunk; I, however, was rather astute considering everything I’d taken in until that point). Then this guy came over and talked to me, he was about 38 and looked a mess with his two silver earrings and tatty hat, talking to me in the Cologne dialect and lowering his voice at the most important words, due to which I didn’t understand a lot of what he was saying. He was rather scary, putting his arm around me and asking why I was taking photos of another drunkard in the bar (Tobi, that is – this guy didn’t know we were there with each other), then wondering why I wasn’t talking to him normally. It was because he was speaking some stupid fucking verb diahorrea of a dialect!

It seems a shame in retrospect that I don’t have any photos of the next 6 hours or so, as they proved to be a rather strange 6 hours. Me and Tobi went to another bar along the road after Clip had closed, where we saw almost everyone who had finished in Clip mingling once again with each other. I told Tobi ‘you buy me a water or coke or something’ to which he instantly said to the barman ‘zwei Bier’ completely out of habit. [Beer count: 10] Then Scaryman came in.

The saga began…

He ushered us out after having a short dialogue with Tobi but I think maybe they were rounding off a conversation from Clip but then led us out of the bar, just me, Tobi and him. I explained to him a few things about where I was from and stuff, not really knowing where he was taking us and being very wary of this guy. He took us to a taxi rank and we got inside one of the cars and headed off towards ‘Flora’. This was not the butter; this was a district of Cologne where another bar was awaiting our arrival.

As I got out of the taxi the pin in my watch strap fell out and as I tried to explain to Scaryguy that my watch was broken and that I wanted to find the pin he just ignored me, slapped me on the back and said ‘aww kaput, ja?’ What a cunt. He saw that I thought this, slapped me on the back and told me, in German: “if you’ve come all the way over here you have to get used to hearing and speaking the local accent”. I was hating him with every turn but I kind of admired his confidence.

We went into a small bar, with a Polish or Russian barmaid and a couple of down-and-outers. I should mention at this point that Scaryman had a little pug dog with him, which I assumed was his ‘little baby’, so I have to confess I secretly daydreamed of kicking the dog off a motorway bridge and watch this motherfucker break down into tears. Yes, I harbour such thoughts but only for people like him.

But what had he done wrong? He paid for a taxi, took us to a new bar and paid for 3 rounds of coke for me, two beers for my friend (possibly that and more was experienced once again by Tobi in the toilet, moments later) and for about 2 hours tried to explain some dice and cup game to us. However, the whole time I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t understand why this old guy was treating us to a good time at his expense. I’m sure there are some people out there who revel in making new friends and would do a lot for new acquaintances but I’m not used to it.

I sat on a barstool and had the dog placed on my lap after a while, so I was stuck there watching Tobi almost fall asleep or drunkenly collapse at the bar during the process of this very dull game of dice and cup. I was twitching nervously every time Scaryguy turned to look at me, fearing that he would talk to me. [Photo: Me in the toilets of the pub, which were scarily like something from a prison camp]

At about 7am I was quite hungry and asked where the nearest place to eat was, in a plan I was hoping would give me a break from the guy for a bit. He then told me we could get something to eat and (yup, German again) “don’t worry, you can sleep at mine, ok?” Shit. What was he planning?! I tried to explain to him that I don’t need to sleep because it’s not night time anymore and I had to get to Düsseldorf to meet a friend at 12 but he seemed to ignore me, so we went to a butcher across the street for some breakfast, which we took with us.

He led the drunken Tobi and me to his house. I wanted to leave as I felt this was taking things a little too far but didn’t really have a reason to do so. He hadn’t actually done anything wrong as of yet, so I put my fears down to simple paranoia. I entered the house. It was quite spacious and roomy but rather reminded me of an abode Hannibal Lecter would be fond of: statuettes and renaissance artwork adorning the walls, a rug and old style furniture. Scaryguy took us to the kitchen and told us to make ourselves at home and rather than telling us where plates or cutlery were, for our breakfast, he urged us to explore and find out ourselves.

Sitting on his sofa a few minutes later, he treated us to loud music whilst he went into the kitchen; my mind wondering if he would then leap in with a big cleaving knife and hack bits of me off into a kidney dish. Luckily, he didn’t but ate his breakfast, played the guitar and then, it kicked off.

Scaryguy - “Ok, well, what do you want to do now?”
Fox - “Er, I don’t know really.”
Sc - “Do you want to watch T.V.? Lie down and sleep for a bit maybe?”
Fo - “No thanks. I’m fine as I am.”
Sc - “Well what do you want to do?”
Fo - “Nothing, I’m fine. I have to go soon anyway.”

Tells me why I have loads of time and should take a nap on his sofa.

Sc - “I can’t entertain you all day, I have to go to work you know!”
Fo - “I never asked you to entertain me in the first place. I’m fine, really!”
Sc - “Ok, look, just watch T.V., we’ll go take a lie down in the other room.”
Fo - “I don’t want to!”

I didn’t really want to stay in his flat much longer, let alone make myself vulnerable by falling asleep in his front room. I explained that I needed to go soon.

Sc - “Look, what’s the matter? Come with me, c’mon, this way.”

He started ushering me down a corridor of his house.

Fo - “What are you doing? I don’t want to! I want to go now! You haven’t done anything wrong exactly but I need to go. I didn’t come here for anything, so I don’t know why I’m still here.”

He stamps his foot on the ground loudly, looking like his temper was running short.

Sc - “Well what do you expect me to do?!!”
Fo - “No, that’s it, I’m going!”

I literally ran for the door but he got there first and just as I got my foot out, he slammed it, my foot keeping the door open by a small amount. I pulled the door as hard as I could and leapt down the stairs, making for the main door of the flats.

I walked quickly down the street, looking to find the nearest refuge underground in the train stations, which would also help me get far away from there. I was scared. Honestly, I felt that he was a dangerous person but I had to reconsider – what actually had he done wrong? I think it was a bit strange for him to buy me all those things and then ask me to sleep in his flat, getting into a hissy fit when I wanted to leave. This guy was madder than a bag of hammers.

Here's a picture of something burnt in Cologne, which I walked past:

I felt ill but I needed to get to Düsseldorf. To cut an already long story short, I spent 4 hours getting to and waiting in the main station of Düsseldorf but Kevin, the guy who I was supposed to be meeting, didn’t turn up. A short trip to an internet café later and I found he sent me an email giving me a piss-poor excuse in grammar which resembled the typing of a monkey with Parkinson’s. I was angry. I travelled and then waited all that time for nothing.

I then made my way back, still ran down from over 24 hours without sleep and the prospect of another 9 hours awake. I arrived about 2 hours (one train and one bus) later in Aachen at 4pm to find Tobi wasn’t there and so the flat was inaccessible for me as there was only one key. I had to wait 6 hours for him to return, sitting on the stairs, falling asleep against the wall. It’s so hard being me!

Ok, so 2,865 words later, you’re up-to-date. Thanks for reading, I bet it’s done your head in as much as it did mine.

- Fox

P.S. I found a secret passage whilst I was alone in the flat. You may be wondering: ‘the flat was inaccessible so how could he be sitting on the stairs inside?’ answer – I climbed in through a window, but that was to the communal area and not Tobi’s room which remained locked. So with my cat-like burglar skills, I managed to find secret passages and unlocked doors, leading to numerous other buildings in the area! Check out the video for a guided tour.

2006-08-03T19:26:00.000+01:00

[NewsFlash!] +++ Two bombs found on German trains! +++ A quick update for readers of the blog. Normal service will resume soon. +++ [NewsFlash]

Two bombs have been found on German Regional Express trains between Koblenz and Dortmund... the very same Regional Express route that I've been travelling on! The bombs each contained 11 litres of propane and 5 litres of petrol, which could easily have wiped out a few carriages and have killed lots of people but they failed to go off. The suitcases were discovered to contain bombs after they ended up at a lost luggage depot.

The bombs were found one on Monday and the other on Tuesday, causing the Koblenz central station to be evacuated.

I'm just glad they didn't go off, otherwise... maybe you wouldn't get to read my lovely blogs anymore!

[NewsFlash +++ More information on this story at DW-World: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2116649,00.html +++ Message ends +++ [NewsFlash]

2006-07-30T21:28:00.000+01:00

Today was a busy day and it isn’t over.

The two Daniels and I went to the ‘Cologne Lights’, a fireworks display put on in celebration of nothing for free from the city of Cologne. After arriving in the city at 6 or 7pm, we proceeded to buy a 5 litre barrel of beer, which we intended to share amongst us three and enjoy the night without suffering at the hands of high beer prices from the stalls set up on the banks of the river Rhein, where the attention was focused for the display. Almost every stall was beer, sausages, beer, sausages… ad nauseum.

After being promised a start earlier in the night, the fireworks eventually got underway at 11:30pm, so after a long wait. It was a genuinely fantastic display but it only lasted half an hour, which made me consider if it would have been better just to arrive a little later and battle through the crowds for a view. That wouldn’t have been too unreasonable, as we were watching the fireworks from behind a row of trees anyway. Tisk, life is always so depressing for me, isn’t it?

A great display but too short. Worth the money for the city though, as 1,000,000 people turned out to see them! Pretty good going for half an hour’s worth of bright lights in the sky. I think everyone around me was probably looking at me in disgust as I danced the Timewarp when the song came on during the fireworks. Either that or they were leering at me in envy – it seems Germans are oblivious to that dance.

It was quite interesting afterwards, as me and Daniel Tobi went to a gay sex club. I shall explain: he told me of these bars in Cologne where people just go in and fuck. Astounded as I am by most things, I had to investigate but not out of want to join in, simply curious as to the whole sordid practice. Pictures are provided as you can see (yes that is a dungeon) but there’s something else which I couldn’t document and can only really describe.

Walking round one corner, Tobi and I could both hear the groans and grunts coming from the camouflage-draped sex den on the first floor. A closer inspection, though not too close thank goodness, it was plain to see that in the murk, two guys were bumming the life out of each other. One naked, one with just his trousers down. It was too difficult to tell the age of them but my guess is probably 30 plus, so like I said I certainly didn’t go there for my own pleasures, rather to laugh at the whole base sadness of it all. I really do a lot of stupid stuff just for the sheer experience of it!

After leaving there, we proceeded to the train station but as the Cologne Lights were on and this was the last train, it was really packed with people not only on the train but also trying to get on the train. We really crammed our way on [rather like this Japanese gentleman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uIqsXLVtY&search=japanese%20subway] but to top it off, there was an incident metres away from where me and Tobi were standing and the police had to get involved, pushing their way through the crowds on and off the train and apprehending a man en route. After offloading some passengers to get another train in order to lighten the load of the current one, we managed to get a seating place and a German who had been out celebrating on what looked like his friends stag do started talking to us. He was rather drunk and so I took to entertaining the other passengers (yes, they did actually all laugh at my jokes, believe it or not) by mocking him, his face and his English. He loved it though, as he had some attention beyond drunkenly feeling up his friend in a platonic way. I took a video clip of him, which I will try and get online when I can. [UPDATE: The video didn't record anything more than .5 secs of a clip, so it's not worth uploading]

I talked to another man too. He seemed quite friendly but was rather reluctant to speak. I would have liked to have got to know him more but as is the way with most situations, he left the train without us talking further. He was laughing along with the small crowd but I doubt he was interested in maintaining contact! I’m such a stalker.

Arriving back at Aachen Central Station, me and Tobi proceeded to walk the 3 or so miles back to his student flat. After arriving, having a much needed drink of EisKaffee, which is my new obsession I must add, I got into bed setting the alarm on my phone for 11am: ready to get up, get the bus and trains to Düsseldorf to meet a new person to add to my gradually growing collection. However, I then remembered upon sitting in bed that I had emailed Patrick (the guy I met a few days before, see blog entry below) asking him if we should meet early on Sunday, as we sort of arranged to meet today but didn’t make and finalised plans. I sat in bed and reminded myself that he must have replied and that I must check the emails… finding that he agreed and wants to meet at 9am at Cologne station.

Ok, so it’s 6 o’-something a.m. and I’ve yet to sleep but in an hour I need to be heading back towards Cologne and in the process making the stressful journey here pointless. I came back to possibly sleep, maybe relax and most certainly have something refreshing to drink but I unfortunately only managed one of those.

Life can be interesting at times.

Now I am going to get ready to leave, meet Patrick at 9am – I hope he fucking pays for breakfast – then meet some guy from some website at some train station in some ex-Nazi country or other… at 4pm.

Just a side note – I read recently on a weekly comment sheet (The Friday Thing, it’s very good), that everyone in Britain has statistically, now that’s the important bit, statistically, killed 0.000015 people. You murderers! It led me to think: Statistics are a way of lying by telling the truth. I made that quote up, seriously. I do think that someone has probably said something very similar before though.

2006-07-25T18:38:00.000+01:00

Well, it’s been an interesting few days. The weather is still quite warm, although the sun hasn’t been shining as much recently, which is quite nice.

I met with someone called Patrick from Cologne, due to the fact that part of my mission here is to meet new people. He was quite friendly and we walked around for a lot of the day and discovered a really nice church in the middle of the city. We walked a park and discussed all sorts of things and he seems quite intelligent – having learnt French, English and Latin. He wants to become a teacher. He certainly was quite friendly. In the end, we went back to his apartment which was a small, very basic but even slightly charming none bedroom flat and we talked further, but by this time he was quite tired and the conversation descended into just trying to make each other laugh.

We cuddled up for a bit and stuff he had to go because of plans he had made with a friend to watch a DVD. I don’t know why we did more than cuddling up. He’s not really my type; though he is intelligent there seems to be something missing. Yet, it happened. I am very honest on this blog! I kind of feel quite bad – why do I always have to look for people who are gay and single here? I know I don’t want sex dates at all; I’d hate to be treated as a piece of meat. I think I need loving, that’s the problem. If I had a boyfriend I’d be fine but because I don’t, I want to cuddle and kiss someone to feel wanted and loved. That means that, until I find someone who I can really be close to often. Basically, I need loving in some way or other and although Rob offers that in one sense, I am very far away from him now and I did feel quite hurt the last time I was with him. I’m young and still working out what I need!

The next day, yesterday, the Daniels and I went to Bonn, which was very scenic. I’ve included a couple of the many pictures I have taken with Robert’s camera. Unfortunately, the batteries on the camera ran out just as we got to the Reichstag, which was very nice so I wanted to take pictures of it. We also passed the offices of Deutsche Welle, a broadcaster with the same style as BBC World (so, boring German news in lots of languages) but maybe I’ll be working there some day!

We also visited a hospital in Aachen because it looks like a scary chemical factory on the inside and a 80s futuristic space station on the inside.

Today we have nothing planned it would seem, after waking up at 13:00 nothing’s happened. I bought some ‘EisKaffee’ from Kaufland and it’s very nice so I’ll be gulping that down!

-Fox

2006-07-19T19:02:00.000+01:00

Sleepless in Aachen

I'm now in Germany! Hooray, here at last. I'm typing for the second time on the German ergonomic keyboard, both factors of which make it difficult to type. However, I shall try and soldier on regardless.

Today was a very hot day, with temperatures touching on 40 degrees at times. The heat I don't mind, I just hate sweating. Things get all sticky and nasty... urgh! Overall, it was an interesting day as I walked to the Netherlands (we're on the border in Aachen) and tried a horsemeat sausage for the first time, which was surprisingly tasty! A strange thing about the border is that it cuts through a town, so just walking down the same street everything suddenly turns Dutch - shop windows advertise in Dutch rather than German and people walk around speaking the language... with no visible line it all just happens down a short stretch of the same street!

Whilst the two Daniels were rather grumpy and temperamental in the UK, they're very normal, happy and talkative here. It's a massive and indescribable change but true nevertheless. Still, I'm trying to meet new people and find new friends here but, unfortunately, most people on the websites I browse just want sex rather than meeting to be friends. I suppose it's just a case of mass messaging people until someone suitable comes up!

2006-07-07T14:14:00.000+01:00

I’m currently sitting in a train station typing this. I’m writing a Word document and will load it up later onto my blog, which you’re reading now! Yay!
The Daniels are looking around Leeds at the moment whilst I wait here, as I didn’t want to pay £5.50 per bag to leave my luggage at the train station, especially when I have a book, music and a laptop to keep me entertained for 2 hours, while I wait for their return. I’m quite worried about my laptop getting stolen but I’ve always avoided paranoia as it often leads to other problems; so long as I’m reasonably careful, nothing will go wrong.

We’ve just spent a fantastic weekend at Robert’s apartment, where he managed to be a fantastic host during the whole time. After picking us up with his convertible car, meeting my dad and stuffing all our bags into his boot like some sort of Tetris puzzle, he promptly drove us down to Halifax (or really, the Grey Zone between Halifax and Huddersfield). It was a great drive: the sun was shining, the wind in my hair and talking with the guy who means a lot to me. Upon our arrival at his very modern apartment, he was as magnanimous as I’d hoped. He made sure that we didn’t have to reach for our wallets whilst in Halifax and Huddersfield city centres (both visits involving a stop-off at Caffé Nero for frappe lattes) and took us to Tesco to make sure we had all the food that we’d ever want or need. Over the course of the stay, he took us on a drive though the Yorkshire countryside, showed us his workplace and a bit of Halifax centre… I’m amazed at how he can be so successful in life and yet also be blessed with fantastic social skills. Maybe they go hand-in-hand, if you have money then you can do your best to make sure other people don’t have to spend theirs, though the skills does reach past financial and leads also to a conversational skill (which he, again, has).

Unfortunately, it was a weekend fraught with bad moments, as well as good. I think I described it in my event logbook (a.k.a. a diary, but that sounds rather Bridget Jones, so I thought I’d give it an ironically kitsch name) as ‘like a murder mystery novel: bad happenings on a nice setting.’ First of all, I forgot the software for my mini camera, the earphones I bought for my MP3 player don’t work and I haven’t the contacts list that I intended to bring, so I know who to contact during my time here to arrange a meeting, though it’s possible to do that last bit by memory. Then came the worst bit of all. Robert said, to paraphrase, that there’s no chance of us having a relationship and that he doesn’t like me at all in the way that I like him.

That unquotable quote seems to be rather mean and that is not, of course, what he intended. I’d rather know than he lie but it was terrible news to bear and I cried. I cry at nothing emotional and it wasn’t as if he’d completely abandoned me. He reassured that I mean a lot to him and that we will certainly be very good friends, however despite this it was still awful news to hear. I really thought he was the one for me and he would have been if he only felt the same way towards me as I do towards him. Now, I’ve liked many people and not achieved anything with those many but Robert is really someone fantastically special and he is the first person who I’ve ever thought was faultless in his approach to me. Some will shrug and put it down to a young naïve first love, though I certainly don’t feel I can put it down to that. He is certainly special but it seems I won’t get what I’ve striven so hard for during my life: a person who genuinely likes me as I like them, who I can always rely on and be sure of to be there. Robert is some, though not all, of those things. So long as we stay friends, he will continue to be a source of inspiration and admiration for me!

So, I’m looking ahead to a 6-week stint in Germany. Note: I’m looking ahead not looking forward, as I have little money and little planned – that might make better reading for those reading my blog but not a good experience for me. I wouldn’t say that I’m pessimistic, rather realistic, however I will further strive to get something organised and will travel around and make an experience out of it!

-Fox

2006-07-03T17:45:00.001+01:00

I'll See You in Court

I've just got back from Durham with 'the Guys'. It was a nice day and quite different; I notice that I seem to be seeing more of Durham because I have a reason to explore it a bit more now. One such example as today.

We went to the court in Durham to watch a court case. After a light search on the way in, we just went to see the next case, which happened to be a man accused of attempted rape. We thought we'd just end up seeing a parking fine dispute or something just as dull but what a surprise!

This was just the introductory hearing so nothing happened, just the selection of the jury and such things but it was still quite interesting as I've never been in a cort before. As the charges were so serious, we're intregued to see the evidence so we're going to see the continuation of the case tomorrow morning - I hope it gets even more interesting!

We also had a BBQ yesterday with Jess. Though she turned up late and it wasn't spectacularly well organised, it went very well and all the food was tasty! We had a bit to drink with our sausages, burgers and turkey slices... it all ended up being fantastic! I hope we can have another BBQ at some point, as it was cheap and easy to do.

I'm going now - there's some food in the oven and I don't have much more to type.

Pictures should be on the way soon.

2006-07-03T17:45:00.000+01:00

2006-06-30T21:44:00.000+01:00

They have Arrived.

Well today was a different day. We've managed to do a lot today - starting waking up and going to Tesco and then going to Durham for lunch in Varsity.

On our way back we went into a pub near me to watch half of the Germany vs. Arrrrrrrggggg!entina and had a drink but the first have of the game was boring so we just went back to my house. I don't like football as it is. As I sat on my sofa I was quite scared as twice Tobi decided to shout in celebration at the television, which set me on edge somewhat. He can shout quite aggressively!

After being bored for a bit we decided to go for a walk, so we went to the woods. My feet hurt, so I really should get some better shoes or something. I don't have any money though - after buying our £20 worth of food I only have £8 left, so I'm hoping I can get my £90 in EMA and £100 bonus saved up before I go to Germany... without that I'd be a bit stuck!

Now we're sitting in front of the TV. I think they're going to be bored for the next two-and-a-bit weeks, as so far most of it has consitituted sitting in front of the TV. They don't like Big Brother, so... there's not much to watch. I suppose there's never anything better to do on an evening!

Anyway, let's hope to have a fantastic time yet to come! There's lots planned.

2006-06-29T20:35:00.000+01:00

Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

What a depressing title to start with but quite relevant, I think. Rob read my post and we had a short conversation about the whole 'relationship' thing. The conversation basically went like this:

It really frustrates me. I am happy to be his friend at the moment and I do genuinely think that now would be too soon to start anything, obviously. I was just thinking about it idealistically and about where things would go in the future.

But that's not what frustrates me.

What he said to me means a number of things. One, that I was just a bit of rebound action, meaning that he'll be back with his ex sometime over the summer. Two, that we're great friends but that I'm not his type for a relationship. Three, he'll just generally find someone else. These points frustrate me because he is, and no lying or hyperbole here, the best person I have met who I can imagine spending a long-term relationship with. If any of them become reality, I'd feel used!

Fuck it. I'm being unreasonable but since when was I not? After only one weekend and one meeting, I'm already thinking about long-term relationships. I don't mind the waiting, I just would hate the idea of my life suddenly being plunged back into a lonely cesspool because someone gets in with him whilst I'm away. That would mean the only person who I have ever thought of as genuinely the best person I could ever imagine being with is taken away from me with no visible chance of return.

I think I like him too much. I'm not being obsessive, as I don't hound him or smother him with texts and emails - in my opinion we keep reasonable regular contact, with no pressure for either of us having to be online at a certain time or even a certain day. That's good, I like that. However, in my mind I can't help thinking that, now I've found the silver lining, I'm about to enter the cloud. Oh dear.

I'm going to stop being a whingey boy! I just wanted to get those main points across but this is my only post on the matter.

Oh and I'm still waiting for the Original Daniel Experience to arrive: 3 Hours, 39 Minutes - I can't wait!!

2006-06-29T09:59:00.000+01:00

The Original Daniel Experience

It's not long now until the Original Daniel Experience rolls into town. That is, Daniel M. and Daniel T. are coming to visit me for the next two-and-a-bit weeks, after flying from Düsseldorf to Leeds, taking the taxi from the airport to the train station and then getting the train from Leeds to Durham.

The phrase 'Original Daniel Experience' was coined by Mr. M. himself and I think it's a fitting name for any time that the Daniels and I get together.

Daniel M. was born a boy 16 years ago. He works on a small newspaper in Germany and often comes out with the strangest things (though is quite a dichotomy, as he always appears quiet and serious when talking to him online). He loves the idea of Britain having a queen and likes to mention it to me quite often - he can't seem to let go that I'm British, so this trip should facinate him. He's also (almost) addicted to coffee, so I've been calling him Coffee Addict in emails (Kaffeesüchtiger in German, or just Kaffee for short)! It's unlikely that we'll continue this nickname anywhere outside of written correspondance.

Kaffee feels very proud whenever he learns a new English word and repeats it often. For example, when we were staying in Daniel T's flat, Kaffee just layed there for a while and suddenly said "hanky panky." Maybe it was the lack of coffee.

Daniel T. (I might refer to him as 'Tobi' at some points for various reasons) is 27 years old and has been friends with Kaffee for a while now. They met online and, rather than just having sex or anything, they simply became friends and allegedly haven't had any sexual moments together... ever! Tobi use to live in England when he was younger and is quite atuned to English language, history and politics. He seems to use words that even I, master of the English language, would think of - but that obviously means he's just too verbose!

I got along with them both very well during my visit to Cologne, where we all had lots of adventures. Rather like the Famous 5, except 3 and visiting a bar called Bastard. Write that in your book, Blyton!

So they arrive at 00:29, technically tomorrow. I've a few things planned for them - showing them 'round Durham, going to Granpam's for a proper British lunch and meeting with Grace from the German class to practice some German and see South Shields, amongst other things. Robert and I have also made plans for him to visit (that is, if we can't all go to Huddersfield, which I can't see happening as we'd have probably ran out of money by that time and would his flat hold 4 people?) so it'd be great for everyone to meet the person I've been going on about so much. I envisage it as being a drive through the countryside with the top down: Robert, the Daniels and I speaking German, whilst Peter vaguely tries to listen in on what we're saying... well, he always shows off about his Hungarian so it's about time I showed off my German!!

I hope it's all going to be lovely. Until then, I need to get my hair cut, tidy the house and prepare for their arrival. This is going to be interesting.

The Offical Fox Summertime starts today and lasts until August 31st, whence (ha! I used whence) I shall be returning from my German trip. Let's hope it all goes to plan and I don't lose/run out of money, get mugged, murdered, raped (am I just flattering myself?) and left to starve.

Let's hope not.

2006-06-26T09:53:00.000+01:00

Spontaneity. It often pays off.

It would seem that I was rather silly to just expect Saturday to be terrible in one way or other... it was, in fact, all great! I enjoyed it immensely. So here's the basic lowdown:

His name's Robert and he's 25. He's originally from Austria but moved here to go to university and ended up staying... and then working as a lecturer in a university (though I can't remember his exactly what he teaches, it didn't often come up in conversation). The 7 year age gap is quite something but upon meeting him it wasn't a worry.

Now the detailed lowdown:

It was a normal Saturday morning and I was abnormally nervous. Usually, I don't get nervous before much but then I was. I don't know exactly why. Though he looked sligtly different to his picture, I recognised him pacing around as I stood waiting. I saw the clothes he said he would be wearing out of the corner of my eye but rather than going up to him, I decided to wait. This was probably because I prefer if they instigate the conversation; I never know what to say to someone apart from 'hi, er, so how was the journey?' though it ended up being like that anyway.

He came up to me and said hello. My immediate reaction was a mix of 'oh, that's what he looks like' and 'shouldn't I say something in German?'. After the stumbling into conversation, we seemed to get along very well - 10 minutes and we were completely relaxed talking to each other. And the conversation didn't stop. I find often, when talking to anyone, that I occasionally need to think hard for something to say beyond the obvious small-talk. I manage it every time but forced conversation is by no means comfortable. With Robert, however, there was not even a thought of that!

I showed him around a bit of Durham, taking in the woods and the Cathedral. I mentioned the Cathedral Tower and he seemed enthused to climb up it. I was tentative at first but as soon as he mentioned he would pay, I had no reason to refuse (and rarely do, if things are free!). So we climbed the tower.

I received a call from Marcel once we arrived at the top of the tower. I talked in German to him as I seem to do automatically nowadays. He seemed unhappy that I was with a friend and was therefore not able to check emails he sent me. Marcel is getting a bit jealous of the fact that I know other people though I keep stating to him - we're not in a relationship and even if we were, I can still talk to whoever I want! He is starting to irritate me somewhat.

Rob complimented me on my German, though I denied my German is "really very good." I genuinely think my German is good for my age and the years I have been learning it but as German goes, it isn't fantastic. I don't expect it to be either, as I haven't lived in Germany as of yet. We decended the tower (having light conversation with people in passing as we went down - it's interesting how people communicate when they're in a tight space amongst each other) and went for coffee as we arranged.

After coffee and getting to know each other more, I decided it was safe to go for a drive with him! At this point I felt a bit ridiculous for the worried I had in the run-up to the meeting because he's such a nice, friendly person and we got along so well. Upon meeting him there was no basis for him being anything other than a gentleman. So we went for a drive through the countryside, getting slightly lost but enjoying the conversation of our favourite sitcoms.

Then things started to develop a little. We went to my local Tesco and picked up a bottle of wine and a £9.99 bottle of Barcardi Berry, which he insisted on buying as I liked a sample that the nice Tesco-lady gave me. I suggested it was too expensive but he decided it was worth buying despite that. He's so kind! We then retreated to my house for music, wine and yet more conversation.

He edged a bit closer and I mentioned it, to which he backed off with an apology. I said it was fine to cuddle up if he wanted to and it did feel right to do that at the time. Yes, we'd only known each other for about 6 hours but what a 6 hours it had been! Getting on fantastically well warrants a cuddle I think and alcohol merely served to speed up the process. Things developed and we went up stairs for more cuddles... et cetera. It is worth mentioning something which came as rather a surprise - he looks much younger naked. Ahem.

I was then surprised again at his mention of going for dinner. At which he'd once again pay. I often thought that being an academic warrents this type of spending, though I felt slightly concerned at the rate of it anyway. After we found the better resturants were closed, we went to the 'Ristorante de Medici' in Durham. It was cramped and loud, plus the food was nothing special but I was fantastically glad to be there because I was being wined and dined. Though there was no more wine during the meal, I must say. That bottle from earlier was the only alcoholic influence during the whole time. Something which amused me, was when we were sitting in the waiting room. After walking in speaking English, we suddenly discussed the menu in German, I imagine much to the suprise and confusion of the couple waiting with us (though I have no idea if they were confused but it made me pleased thinking that they could be).

We were both decided that he should stay the night, not for any sexual gain. We were simply really enjoying each other's company immensely and that's the honest truth. Had the whole visit just been about sex, I'd probably have disliked it but there was such a feeling of everything else been important - the conversation and the driving around, shopping etc. was all fantastic. Dull things became interesting and interesting things became fantastic during the time he was here.

The next morning, after showering, he decided he wanted a somewhat middle-class breakfast, something which I cannot provide in my little council house of horrors. Of course he paid: croissants, mini baugettes, a pre-prepared pack of fruit, strawberry and melon tea (PG just doesn't cut it), hot chicken and smoothies. Needless to say, we only had the chicken, smoothies, fruit tea and one-and-a-half baguettes but it was nice to know he'd inadvertantly done some of my weekend shopping! Now I don't have to pay for any more croissants, hahahaaa!

After a bit more conversation, came argueably the best moment of the weekend. I felt tired, so we went upstairs and... cuddled. We just layed on the bed and had a nap, hugging each other closely and sleeping. He had to go at 4, so it may seem a shame to some people that we spent the last half an hour doing nothing, but we just slept and it felt so good to be so close and so relaxed. I rarely sleep unless I can move around but I did feel very relaxed with him. I did actually fall asleep!

When we awoke it was about two minutes to four and he had to go. We hugged and kissed our last and promised to see each other again soon.

I stood at the window upstairs and watched him drive away, thinking about how sudden our meeting was. And how suddenly he had to leave again.

I just hope it doesn't end there and that we can meet again under the same circumstances. I hope Robert does not find a boyfriend, as for once I seem to have met someone perfect. Yes it was only one weekend but it's amazing how, with the right person, one weekend can seem like a much longer time and yet still be great. I told myself that I wouldn't have another boyfriend because I couldn't handle having so many other people around me when I go to Germany or uni, those which may be gay I could end up doing something with in my loneliness. However, if I had someone like Rob for a boyfriend, that wouldn't happen - I wouldn't need to! I'd be constantly satisfied that, if I have any feelings for someone else, I can just compare them to Rob and be happy that I already have what I need and more besides. It's too early to speak of relationships ('love' and 'relationship' should never be mentioned to one another during the first couple of weeks, no matter how well you get along!) of course but if things head the way they are now, I'd feel it would be exactly the right situation for one. Where he lives is under 2 hours by train. Though, I doubt that's a thing which is on his mind but my wild, young naïve mindset means it's something I often think about. At what point, if any, will he think about it, I have no idea. Let's see how it goes then.

What a weekend it has been. I have still more to look forward to - 5 days until my German friends arrive and after that I jet off to Germany. Then Tim Meyerink (off of the Netherlands) is planning to visit me on my return! Then there's uni. So much to do, so little time.

I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to see him again.

- Fox

This entry has been censored on the request of the aformentioned to protect the credentials of the person named in the entry.

2006-06-24T07:58:00.000+01:00

Last night ended a bit 'differently'. I met an Austrian guy online who messaged me out of the blue in a site called GayRomeo. This site sounds really shit but there's loads of guys from Germany on there, so I registered to try and find some more people to hang out with (read: not casual sex) when I was there on one of my many expeditions.

So I checked my messages recently and Robert had contacted me. We got talking on the GR messenging service and got on quite well it would seem. Then we got talking on MSN, where I was telling him about the woes of me feeling lonely and bored here, as I live on my own.

After a couple of hours the conversation turned to meeting up. Now this is normally something I jump at the chance to do... usually I'm too enthusiastic too early on. Nevertheless, here's the chance for me to meet someone new and have adventures(!) like I always like to do. We've arranged that he'd drive up here, meet me in Durham for a bit then we'd drive to Northumberland, maybe to a few old castles and just basically take in the scenery with the focus on getting to know each other.

So what's the problem?

Well, there is no problem exactly. He's a friendly person so far but then, I've only seen one picture of him, which was his MSN avatar. He's much older than me (I think he's possibly 24) and we talked online for about 3 hours. I haven't even heard him speak. Now this is all starting to sound a little worrying, but this is roughly what I wanted - new people & adventures. So now that I'm presented with the choice, I can't exactly turn the chance down, can I?

He's going to meet me this morning at 09:30 in Durham, after he's driven up from somewhere near Huddersfield. Though most people would be thinking "wow, he must be desperate," well, I am. I don't know anyone in the local area and whilst this doesn't solve that problem, it well make me feel happier this weekend if I can talk to someone and do fun stuff. The rate of abductions, murders, rapes etc. in the UK is a tiny proportion to what there used to be and the paranoia within the public is probably down to media scaremongering.

I agree, not everyone can be safe but then, I havn't been presented with any information to make me think that he'd be anything but nice, so I don't have much evidence to go on! Meeting is the best way to find out if someone's 'normal' or not, as long as it takes place in a public area, then it's sensible. We can't all live our lives being paranoid of other people. Yes some people are bad but there's nothing to support that Robert is.

I hope simply to have a fun day out with a new friend. If I die, then you win the arguement, ok? I'll let you have the stash of coppers under my bed.

- Fox

2006-06-23T23:18:00.000+01:00

Trains are a good way to get around within the country you're in. It's common knowledge though that the pricing of trains is ridiculous and this is something I feel compelled to share.

My experience of train journies in the past has been a pretty normal one. I've thought the prices were a bit steep but "that's just the way things are." Now, though, I feel mightily pissed off at the train companies. The stupid pricing had gone too far and here's why:

Two of my friends from Germany are coming to visit me for two weeks, after which I'll be flying with them back to Germany and meeting up with some other people I know there. As the rail services don't send tickets abroad (why?) I bought and posted the tickets to them - £20 return each from Leeds to Durham (they are landing at Leeds Bradford Airport), which is fantastically reasonable.

But, and this is a very big but, for the same route, at the same times, they want to charge me £51.30. This is because I'm returning two months after I leave, so I'm not valid for a return ticket - but where is the pricing sense in this? Does the price of diesel go up if I leave the country for over a month? Does the route between Leeds and Durham suddenly cost more to run if I'm away for a bit?!

It doesn't end here though. If I book two return tickets, it costs £40! Meaning, if I book four journies (one to Leeds with the guys, one returning which I won't use & one on the way back, and another which I won't use) it is cheaper than just buying two! If I buy 4 and use only 2 it is cheaper... where is the sense in that?!

The railways in the UK are inefficient and overpriced with too many complicated and pointless ticket types. Will this ever change?

- Fox

2006-06-23T20:33:00.000+01:00

Yes the world of the blogger is an elusive one, that is, if you're an elderly grandmother who either:

Hasn't heard of the internet
Think's it's a big encyclopaedia
Calls it the 'interweb'

Well, all I can say is that I'm used to blogging of some sort or another for a while now, but I find it's rare that I actually have anything to blog. I often write in a kind of diary whilst I'm on my way to home on the bus, but surely it's a different thing completely. The point behind a blog is that you're addressing an audience, otherwise why publish it on the net instead of just saving a Word document to your hard drive? A diary, however, is meant for the individual, with noteable excpetions including Samuel Pepys and other people who documented for historical record.

So this leaves me to ponder. Why am I writing this if it has no audience? There is currently only one person who knows of this page's very existance and that is myself.

Maybe I should just stick to writing my diary.

- Fox