Ja, Das Hokey Kokey

I'm back online! It's been a while since my last blog, due to the fact that it has been difficult to get to a 'net connection. I'll try to summarise what has happened as concisely as possible to save you all pages and pages of boredom.

After my last blog I went to my parent's to spend Christmas there. Christmas itself was good and went fairly smoothly, although I'd have preferred to spend it with Liz than with my parents. After Christmas things became a little strained as my Grandma started being a bit arsey, and as I got more and more sick of being stuck at home. Met up with Dale, and went for a beer with Rick where I consumed far more alcohol than I had planned to (nothing new there, though).

Well, Christmas was easy... Now onto New Year:

I left for Leicester on the 30th. Before I left I drank a lot of water to recover from the minor hangover I had given myself by drinking far too much with Rick. Got to Leicester and found Ricey's flat without any trouble. If anybody had been in the car with me they'd have thought I knew where I was going, but really it was all just intelligent guess-work. I was desperate for the toilet when I got there, but Ricey's phone was switched off and I didn't know what his flat number was. In the end I legged it to the train station and used their loos, then waited for Liz's train to arrive.

Ricey was late as usual. We were supposed to leave at 11 but left some time around 1 or 2 if I remember correctly. Ah well. After a four-and-a-half-hour journey we reached Beddgelert in the dark, and then we were told that the cottage was a 20 minute walk up the side of a mountain. Luckily I had brought a 5 million candle power torch with me, which I had received as a present for Christmas. It helped us get up the hill. I hefted my holdall which was stuffed with clothes (nobody had told us the cottage was halfway up a mountain) and my rucksack and my torch up the slippery, waterlogged path to the top. Then we climbed down the hill again to get the first 20 litre polypin of real ale.

I carried the beer most of the way up the hill, and eventually Ricey and I swapped what we were carrying. The plan had been to carry it half-way, then swap, but I misjudged where "half-way" was. Ricey carried it the last little stretch to the cottage where he was hailed a hero for carrying so much beer. Cunt. Drank WAY too much beer that night, and awoke the next morning feeling a tad weak and washed-out. Then we got to see the scenery outside the cottage, which had been invisible during the night. What a fantastic view. As soon as the pictures are online I will link to them.

New Year's Eve I drank far less (my Kidneys were killing me) and we watched Bill Bailey - Part Troll, which I had provided for the entertainment. Everyone loved it. The BBC News theme tune remix was particularly popular, but Das Hokey Kokey was definitely the winner. In fact, after we had celebrated the new year for the third time (Ricey's time keeping skills strike again) I found Ricey stood outside with his laptop, playing Das Hokey Kokey and dancing. Oh how I laughed. Then he was joined by someone else. And someone else. Then someone else. In the end we were all outside dancing to Das Hokey Kokey and various other Bill Bailey choons. The pictures of this are quite hilarious.

At some point during that evening, my memory fails to provide an order to the events, Gremmie decided to wade into the stream. I might point out that it was rather cold at the time, but that didn't seem to deter her. After we had gone back inside and warmed up, Catalyst decided to join the fun. 3 times. The pictures, sadly, failed to capture the hilarity.

We all had a great time. We all ate too much (damn you Catalyst!) and drank too much (damn you Ricey!). The only downside was that I spent my entire time there sneezing, scratching, rubbing my eyes and coughing. Seems I was rather allergic to something in the cottage, although I never did work out what. Liz and I are considering hiring the cottage at some point and having a holiday there. If we do I will be taking a supply of anti-histamines with me.

We left late on the 2nd. When we got back to Leicester Liz had no hope of catching a train, so both Liz and I returned to my parents house. I spent half the night fixing my Mum's computer which she had managed to balls up royally, and then we left for Newbury early the next morning.

And now here I am. I have mountains of work to get done this month, and I mean mountains. I've got at least 3 assignments to hand in during January, a huge website to build and set up some time between the 15th of January to the 15th of February, my major project to work on, and revision for my exams.

Fuck.