Chronicles of a Hangover - Do You Know What Really Grinds My Gears....

So the second installment of Chronicles of a Hangover is a double edged sword. Its not only the story of the hangover (or luckily today lack thereof) but of generally what grinds my gears.

As hangover days have gone, this one has been pretty much pants. The odd good point but mostly piles of shit. Good points consist of saying goodbye "properly" and Steve day. The first doesn't need much explanation while the second I think does. Steve day is a newly formed tradition, its a day filled with fun, "witty" remarks and trying to distract a Steve from doing what he wanted to do. Today he wanted to leave, so we postponed his journey by two whole hours with a feast ice cream and dastardly fat lineman in the way tactics (Good boy Ben). Bad parts of today: saying goodbye to Lucy for 3 weeks, saying goodbye to Steve for 2, lots of lectures, and being really tired all day. The worst bit about it all is I didn't have a hangover and that got my hopes up for the day.

So yeah, What Really Grinds My Gears? Well mostly everything on this earth, from things that annoy my friends, to things that annoy me. What grinds my gears so much that I have to write a blog? Just a mistake,  the repercussions of which will be large. Better judgement and experience were dropped and that riled me up a touch. Being an organiser is a thankless task, people think your an asshole for bossing them around but at least shit gets done and the greater good is achieved. Anyway, enough about it, I look forward to the outcome, it doesn't look too peachy. Sitting in my pants wallowing in self pity I may be now, but I'll be laughing before long, especially when I have no reason to be nice any more.

Onwards to tomorrow, gym, potentially the first time I ruin a nice long walk in the sun this year, touch rugby and catching up with some old acquaintances over a few cold beers.

Peace out

Grumpiest Guy In Aber

Busy Weekend = Lazy Blogging

Firstly, apologies to anyone who does read my blog, as the title suggests a busy weekend has led to me having little time to write. Now that I have time, here is my summary of the weekend, highs, lows, film reviews and a recipe.

So my weekend started on Friday, and we had a team bonding film session planned.  Seven of us met up (team bonding???) to watch The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon. The commodore "uno-plex" is the oldest cinema I have ever been to. The prices are cheap, the popcorn is great, they open a tuck shop after the film previews, there's a bar underneath and it has decor that you will rarely see elsewhere.If you've never been, your missing out. The film was good, not life changing, but worth going to the cinema. I won't try to explain it but I recommend you take some time to watch it, and remember Don't Trust People in Hats!

Saturday brought a game day against Bangor for varsity. We won... barely but I wasn't happy. It felt like we'd lost, for those that don't know we put 160 points on them in two games last year, without conceding. This year we've struggled against them as a) they've vastly improved b) we've taken them too lightly. The attitude wasn't right but when we needed it, we came up in the clutch and won. Some brilliant flashes in amongst an otherwise awful performance. To make it worse, I very nearly re-did my shoulder and had a poor game. Not the way we wanted to end the season, but then again the season's not gone as we wanted it. Next year is going to be hard.

Above is the end of year photo. Its a good squad, and I've had an awesome year. Our 3-5 record doesn't really do us justice. A year of missed opportunities and squandered chances. My personal play has improved, but I'm still not on the level I want to be. Thanks lads for being part of this past year, its a shame some of my closest friends have to leave.

Away from Tarannau but sticking with football, I want to speak a little bit about the upcoming draft. Hopefully the players will get what they want, the league and owners will stop being assholes and we can get a full NFL season next year. For the ravens, I'd like to see us keep with history and draft well. Addressing issues at corner, linebacker and d-line(very deep class) whilst also picking up a young weapon to add new power to the offense. I really like a lot of prospects in this years QB class too, the Ravens picking up a young backup to Flacco would also be great. Blaine Gabbert is my favourite QB, they guy is just flat out cool. He did well at Mizzou and seems to be able to transition from a spread QB to an under centre pro style QB. Although the Ravens would be stupid to draft him, I'm gonna enjoy following his progress in the league. If there were QB's the ravens could get, I'd like to see Wolfpack leader Colin Kaepernick or TCU's Andy Dalton. Both solid and underrated college qb's that have massive sleeper potential.

So theres my summary of a busy weekend, including a pointless (but fun for me) insight to the draft. Stay tuned for Chronicles of a Hangover to be brought to you tomorrow or Friday. And remember that awesome hangover cookie I had? Well here's the recipe for the mouthwatering chocolate chip sensations...

Incredible Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

175g unsifted plain flour

112.5g butter

87.5g caster sugar

87.5g soft brown sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

175g plain/milk chocolate (although I think plain is better)

How to make them…

Mix the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl.

Mix the butter (you’ll need to make it soft), sugar and vanilla extract in another bowl.

Beat the egg.

Mix the egg into the butter mixture and gradually beat the flour mix into it too.

Add the chocolate (cut/broken up into chunks).

It’ll then be like a big bit of dough.

Roll into a sausage shape about 5cm in diameter (I usually do this in cling film as it makes it easier to roll out and it’s less messy).

Stick it in the fridge until you want to eat it.

Then preheat the oven to 190°c.

Cut the sausage into a disc about 2cm thick, put on a baking tray and I usually squash it just a little bit. Make sure if you do a couple they’re well spaced apart because they flatten and spread as you cook them.

Leave them in the oven for about 10 minutes (or a bit longer if needed until the outside is starting to get firm and the middle isn’t too squishy)

ENJOY!!!

Chronicles of a Hangover - Many Times Before but The First Written Down

In the words of Frank Sinatra - " I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day"

 

So everyone has been there, a great/good/average/poor night out where you've had plenty to drink and woken up the following day feeling worse for wear. Or as christened by my good friend Steven Pettiford and I after our first proper drunken escapade "I'm a bit tender on me feet this mornin". Whatever your poison, hangover days are a cruel mix of hell and fun and that's why I am going to chronicle mine from now on. As my close friends know, there's no night out like a Tarannau night out as they provide stories of hilarity mixed with sheer stupidity and drunken mishaps. My nights out since being in university have always included at least one other team mate, and no matter how good the night out is, the hangover days are usually better.

Hangover days as mentioned above are mixed between hell and fun. Hell being the disgusting feeling inside, the dehydration, the headaches, the greasy feeling on your skin, the need for greasy food and the evil that is Thursday lectures . Fun being company, greasy and fatty food, awful films, discussions of previous nights antics and most of all story time. Story time is the highlight of my hangover day, that time when your housemates and mates congregate in your living room and talk all about the funniest bits from the previous night, with the different angles on each funny situation. No matter how bad a hangover feels, whether your head feels like a roofers nail bag or your pride is battered due to your actions, it can always always be saved by good company and funny stories.

Anyways my hangover day today was fairly decent. It included: a cuddle, story time with Steve and his Shawn Michael's persona from the night before, a Morgans meat roll, a walk up the hill in sunshine to a lecture (grrrr), free pizza vouchers, a homemade hangover cookie from a cool classmate (recipe will follow in a week) a chat with last years hangover day friends who weren't out, several hours of assassins creed 2, a subway and here i am now sat writing my blog. Pretty eventful eh? Yeah it was fun, not the best but good. A classic mix of hell with some good stories. Its a shame more story time could not have been obtained but low social numbers as well as others having bad hangover days due to work restricted hangover day fun. Hopefully the next installment of Chronicles of a Hangover will be more eventful and will have less introductory rabble to it. Such is life when starting something new, always need introductions. Maybe this is an initiation?

On a final note, here are some things that helped me get through today.

• Firstly a work of brilliance from our friends at NFL Films: http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d81ee93b4/2010-Season-in-Six-Minutes big ups to Mr Philly Dayus for that one.  
• Secondly my good friend Pettiford's dissertation blog, get an eyeful of this and if you find anything of use shoot him or me a message. You can find the land of macho research at ballsbeersboobs.tumblr.com

Take it easy readers... catch ya'll soon

Welcome to the World of Blogging - Where My Initiations At?

So this is the first post of my soon to be fairly (when i have time and can think about what I'm writing) regular blog. I enjoy writing, but apart from educational work, I've never had my writing critiqued in any way. I have never really had time to write down my opinions on life, or any useful/interesting things I have come across or come up with. So here is my blog, life from my perspective. My previously nerdy now too many hits to the head (and body) life. This blog will not only contain the weekly happenings in my life, but also useful recipes, good book recommendations, worthy quotes and anything else anyone who is willing to listen to me rabble on will find of use.

Right, enough introduction. Over the past few years, I have started many new things. Mostly though, these have been of the sporting variety. With any new sports team joined there are always initiations. Be it a drinking challenge or to do something stupid. Mine have been awful and fun at the same time but overall they all have one thing in common. The fact that if you make it through (and they're never that bad if you pick the right team) you feel part of the team and like you belong. Some of my initiations have ranged from the pretty bog standard - drinking ridiculous amount of drinks before attempting to stumble up something far or somewhere very long (case in point Tarannau Time 2009) to the unusual - having a lap dance in an Edinburgh strip joint on a stag do, paid for me by a previous authoritative figure who is now a friend.

All this aside, as its my first ever blog, I was just wondering - Where are my blog initiations? Will they be as bad as physical initiations? When do I feel like I belong? Only time will tell I suppose, but in the meantime I'm going to keep posting my views.

Stay tuned and take it easy readers...