Norman Ralph

It is not often that St Patrick’s Day and Easter are in the same week! What’s going on here??!!

The end of the term is approaching, Easter break starts today and I have to say it can’t come quick enough. The last week has been a chore and I have developed an apathy for life that just isn’t healthy. The chance to recharge and catch up on reading, essays etc is well overdue!

The week started with Rocky Horror on Monday which went atrociously, A-Soc on Tuesday wasn’t much better – although it was a chance to see all four of the atheist characters (Dawkins, Dennet, Hitchins and Harris) sat round a table, Wednesday was School Disco (post to follow) and yesterday was a recovery day with One Life virtually being a non-event. Today has also been a write off, although I have managed to tidy quite a bit.

I hate this limbo period where my drive has gone, but it is not yet officially holiday!

Dammit, Janet. I hate Rocky Horror.

Until recently I have always categorised Rocky Horror Picture Show as a kitsch film for kitsch people. I have never really had strong feelings for it either way – I could take it or leave it.

Last night we ran a Rocky Horror Night complete with props and audience participation in order to try and raise funds for Rationalist Week. However, we only sold 1/4 of the tickets we had, so ended up losing over £200 on the night! There were some small successes, a) we actually managed to pull the night off logistically and b) the people that turned up had a good time, especially at the after party at Fab Cafe (a chain of bars owned by Rocky creator Richard O’Brien).

The night post Rocky Horror was generally amusing, Chris got drunk, Sarann got chatted up by some weird stranger and Liz flashed everyone! The hardcore Rocky fans who came down to Fab were nice enough and we ended up having a decent night. The only real downside is that a large part of me wishes the night hadn’t happened in the first place.

The original plan was for us to hold two fundraisers this week, Rocky Horror was supposed to pay for the two events and School Disco was to earn the profits for Rationalist Week. Now, School Disco needs to sell out to make just enough money for us pay off the events costs and run a bare bones Rationalist Week!

Well I’m ill. Really ill.

I am full of some sort of sickness virus and have been in bed (and the room next door) for the last couple of days. I hate being ill, I’m not very good at it – I don’t sleep enough, drink enough and I forget that eating makes me vomit…

On a slightly brighter note I have managed to watch a season of Voyager and am now on the second season of How I Met Your Mother. The worst thing about being ill at the moment is that there is nobody around to share in my misery. B, as always, is at Chris’s and the rest of my housemates all have deadlines this week and next week which means they are at uni 24/7. Liz is back on Saturday in readiness for Rocky Horror and School Disco (tickets still available for those that are interested).

Yes, it’s that time of year again – A-Soc started planning this year’s Rationalist Week in Earnest yesterday, getting a provisional timetable together and starting to look at the budget. The event is likely to cost in the region of £1500, of which the Union’s grant will cover maybe £200-300, which means we will have to raise the rest ourselves. Yesterday’s cake sale was a good start but we need a lot more money.

A-Soc is looking into running a Rocky Horror Picture Show Night and a couple of club nights to break the back of the fundraising. We are also looking for sponsors, both private and corporate who might be interested in getting involved. So if anybody has any ideas or would like to contribute let me know!

It is a great event, check out the posts about it from last April.

Well, my first exam of this year starts in a little under seven hours and I am still awake. Don’t get me wrong, I am as prepared as I ever have been for an exam. I actually am convinced that I will get a very high mark regardless of the question that come up even bearing in mind I have not taken an essay based exam paper since my GCSEs in 2001! I am just suffering from pre-exam nerves, or possibly over stimulation from the fact that I have been feeding my brain philosophy and logic for a week solid now…. Who knows?

On a slightly different note, A-Soc had a screening of The Da Vinci Code which was a welcome break from the seemingly endless reading, writing and watching CSI! There was a modest turnout, we managed three, which is not too surprising as it is the first week of exam week and the first real week back to work for most of our adult members. Even though, I was hoping for more – watching a video is not exactly taxing and even at nearly two and half hours long, it doesn’t fill up too much of an evening. We did a new face turning up so not a total watse of time. It’s not a bad film either in all honesty. it doesn’t get the reviews it deserves and most people I know slate it due to the variation from the book. To be totally frank though, the film is good. It is well acted, benefits from the screenplay differences and is a genuinely enthralling conspiracy thriller. Slate it if you dare. Plus Dan Brown is a twit, a profit mongering, semi-talented, sell-out of an author; for whom I have infinite respect. I wish I could churn out that kind of material with little effort or quality and make the kind of money he does!

I got eXistenZ from my brother for Christmas. it is a sci-fi thriller set in the near future starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law. It is bizarre. I still am confused afetr watching it and reading about it and talking about it. Totally and utterly confuzzled.

I will recommend it to people purely on the basis that I need people’s opinions about it – so I can form my own!

I was having a really rubbsih day yesterday. Liz and I had had a minor fight, the WoW marathon had taken its toll and my poor diet over the past few days had really made me feel unwell. Coupled with some festive blues, I was having a depression day.

The cure came form the most unliekly of sources, the Wizard of Oz. Michelle and Sarann managed to perusade me to watch the DVD and be sociable. I did. It worked.

The film just has an innocence and naivety that you just don’t come across these days. That type of film just doesn’t exist on modern day life. Even kid’s films are laced with adult humour and context, there is just no innocence left. Dorothey et al showed that glorious trait – the pursuit of fun and happiness devoid of any negativity. No payoff, no compromise. Just plain old, traditional fun.

Due to the fact that I can’t walk more than five steps without suffering intolerable pain or falling over due to my massive lack of skill in using crutches I haven’t been out much the last few days. Instead I have stayed in and generally done bugger all. Apart from a really productive day on Wednesday where I managed to nail lots of coursework and sort out my life pretty well I just have not acheived very much. However, I have just finished two really lovely days with Liz and have two days left before she heads back to Lincoln to start her new, full time job.

She arrived Wednesday night after work in the middle of our banging Hallowe’en party consisting of Michelle, George, Chris W, Chris O and Cara. We didn’t hang around for too long but grabbed some pizza and went to watch a film we had been intrigued by – a 1970s film called Island of Death. I am not sure what to make of it really, it is bizarre. I recommend that people watch it.

Thursday was a werid old day. We were in bed til the afternoon (something I haven’t done for a long long time) and then went shopping! This involved many firsts – namely it was the first time I have been able to get ina car and drive since injuring my ankle, the first time I have stepped into a Primark store since I discovered its record and policy on chiild labour and labour rights, the first time Liz has gone shopping and only bought what she needed and the first time I have enjoyed something as mundane as shopping in a very long while. It was really quite something to spend some normal, quality time with Liz for a change.

Except for a slight interruption in proceedings due to a minor emergency with a friend, Friday went swimmingly too. Everybody was out all day so Liz and I enjoyed a really domesticated, quiet Friday night in. Food, tea and Jonathan Ross – nothing is better! Friday night television is actually getting pretty decent again. From 9pm you have “Have I Got News For You” followed by “The Armstrong and Miller Show” – a sketch show that is surprisingly original and funny, one to look out for – and then “QI”. I have to grudgingly agree with Chris Worfolk’s observations that it is starting to lose some of its originality to be replaced by gimmicks etc.

After watching the horrendous Jimmy Carr present a quiz show celebrating the 25 year history of Channel 4 we headed to bed.

Domestic Bliss!

Well, what a week!

This week has been one of the most eventful, stressful, tiring and generally worrying week in a long, long time. Having returned from Farmyard Party on Sunday, I took Monday to recover. Well that was the plan anyway. Izzy wanted feeding, so I headed round to make some dinner – a lovely chilli and soy stir fry creation – and then decided we would venture to the pub for a swift drink. Mondays in Leeds offers a massive variety of drinking choices to the student. There is Bondi’s £10 ‘all you can drink” night of cheese and tunes; the Fruit Cupboard on Call Lane offers 80p entry and 80p a drink to their ’80s, ’90s and now evening; then there is the Library, which offers its ‘Quids In’ night – all drinks from £1. Izzy and I decided on the latter, mainly due to its locale, the group texts were sent and replies received. Sarann offered us pre-drinks at Graham’s so off we trotted.

Now, I have never been to Graham’s house before but having spent quite a bit of time with the lad recently I was quite intrigued as to what I would find. I wasn’t disappointed! I got there to discover endless supplies of Jack Frost’s white cider (3 litre bottles at 7.5%), a Nintendo Wii, a widescreen television, loud drum ‘n’ bass and to top it all I had arrived mid way through ‘pants and cape day’ – a day that was celebrated by the residents of the house sitting around in pants and capes! We stayed for a swift cider then headed down to thre Library.

To our horror and disgust we found that the Library only does its pound a pint night during term time! So after a relatively expensive drink we headed back to Graham’s, where we wiled the night away with a few beers, pizza and Nintendo Wii. About 2am we decided we were all partied out so tried to leave. It turned out that all the sets of keys to Graham’s house were not actually in the house and the doors were locked. Which meant we were locked in! We sat and waited for the keys to arrive back home, but by 3am we were getting a little impatient. By 3.15 we had decided to break out by clambering through a ground floor window. Which was a mission! It was made all the more difficult by the fact that Michelle was fairly drunk. I say fairly drunk, she was wasted!

Tuesday was a fairly quiet night, spent some time on the telephone to Liz, watched Meet Joe Black and did some chores.

Wednesday saw me finish tidying my room in readiness for Liz’s arrival from Lincoln when I got a call from Bryony. Chris had had to be rushed into hospital and would I give her a lift to LGI as her car park ticket had run out? I spent the rest of the early afternoon sat with Chris in the assessment ward at the Leeds General Infirmary, he has suspected appendicitis and lookd very ill with a fever and severe abdominal pain. Well I knew it was severe because Chris winced…twice! The doctors didn’t realise that this was a sign that he was in agony. I fetched Chris’s mum from the train station and then picked Liz up. Michelle offered dinner as it was her last chance before she moved out of halls. After a delicious meal of homecooked lasagne and bread and butter cuisine I went to pick B up from the hospital.

I was awake most of the night as I was quite concerned about Chris – I had learned the results of his blood work and was dismayed to find that not only was the appendicitis confirmed but they suspected that it had burst several days earlier!! B text me at 2.10am to let me know that Chris had come out of surgery and that the prognosis was good.

Thursday was a hard hard day. I spent the morning helping Michelle pack and move stuff from her halls. Took longer than I expected, but B came round to help (more to take her mind of Chris I suspect). I got home at lunchtime to feed Liz and spend some time with her before running off again to take Matt to see cars. However, I sat down on the end of my bed and next I knew it was gone 5pm! I was not feeling well at all, stressed out, headache and general apathy!

I ended up at the pub in the evening, but wasn’t really feeling it at all. I don’t think I was that good company, but everyone seemed to have a fairly chilled evening.

Today is another busy day. Went to see my GP at 9.40 this morning, got referred to the hospital – which is nice…. Si has just been round to drop some stuff off prior to him taking up residence in Michelle’s room over the summer. Just waiting for the girls to finish tidying so I can move his stuff downstairs. I also have to unpack my car of Michelle’s stuff, move it downstairs and then go back to move her out to Sarann’s. I hate this time of year! I truly do.

Having arrived back from Sunrise on Monday, I had a day or so to recover before going to meet Liz in Lincoln and then us driving across to Kirkham to visit my mother, the first time that Liz and her will meet. This is quite a scary prospect as I have not introduced my mum to any of my girlfriends since Becky (not that I have had any serious ones, but I introduced Becky to my mum over eight years ago) so I was a bit apprehensive and Liz was actually scared.

Liz was supposed to be working until 9pm on Wednesday, so I had planned to head over about 7ish to avoid the worse of the traffic and take my time, before heading the 200 miles home. In the end Liz managed to wangle her shifts around so that she finished at 4 instead. This meant I could drive over during the afternoon grab some food with liz’s grandparents then amble back to Kirkham, getting in for 9ish rather than after midnight!

On arrival in Kirkham I introduced my mum to Liz and we sat down and had a cup of tea. Liz was really shy and didn’t really speak much which was totally understandable. Mum was really nice to Liz too, not really going OTT, which was one of my worst fears. We ended up crashing fairly early as I had driven 300 miles, Liz had been at work since 7am and my mum had had a long day too. Mum had put us in separate rooms, Liz in mine and me in my borther’s room. When I had been arranging the weekend with my mum we had never really discussed sleeping arrangements – just a difficult subject to broach really – but I wasn’t going to push the issue anyway. For as long as I can remember my mother has had a fairly static policy on the subject and I decided that this wasn’t the time to circumvent it.

Thursday was a really nice day, didn’t really do that much – got up, had lunch, went to pub to watch the cricket then headed out to dinner with my mum. We ended up at an “eat as much as you like” Chinese restaurant in Preston, which I really like as they do unlimited Peking duck and BBQ spare ribs to die for! Liz was a bit overwhelmed with the experience I think, she isn’t a great eater at the best of times, especially when she is a little nervous or self-conscious.

On our return from the restaurant we sat down and watched a film, Jack and Sarah, which is a really nice couple film. Unfortunately I had developed a really bad headache so had to go to bed fairly early again. Liz was amazing and looked after me and basically made me feel better. She is good like that.

Friday was a busy day. We headed over to St. Anne’s to visit Lindsey who has recently given birth to a little girl. I am not usually a baby person but when I was sat there with Lucinda Faith in my arms I could actually see myself with a family one day. That was a mild reaction compared to Liz’s. I think she actually considered getting pregnant there and then!

We left Lindsey’s after an hour or so and headed to Freeport in Fleetwood as I needed some bits and bats and I wanted to drive the length of the Fylde Coast from St. Anne’s to Fleetwood to show Liz Blackpool and my old haunts. I am not sure she was overly excited about the whole thing, but at least she has an idea of my past now.

I cooked dinner on Friday and then my mum sat Liz down and spent the evening (over four hours) showing her photographs of me, David and a few other things – ranging from baby photos to holiday snaps to school shots. I think even my mum got bored by the end!

Liz and I headed back to Leeds on Saturday morning as it was Kirkham Club Day so had to move my car before 9am. We drove back along the A59 as we were not in a rush, we had nothing to do until kieran’s BBQ at 3pm.

I think it was an amazingly successful few days. I think my mum and Liz get on quite well and I really hope they approve of each other. It was nice actually spending time with Liz in a domestic setting too. As much as I love my house in Leeds it isn’t very homely, or private!