Best of Times, Worst of Times

It's been a week with highs and lows. One of the lows has been so low I've taken a while to get back into blogging. Rather than blog it you can read about it at the top of this page here and I'm sure they'll put something more appropriate than I could write.

The term is coming to an end, which means no more students for over a month and a week long furlogh back home around Easter-time. It also means my favourite Leicester Uni cafe-bar will no longer be able to provide me with excellent caramel milkshakes and an excuse to get out of the office. Needless to say the fiasco-factor in the office has been at an all-time high. I've also managed to go from January-April without catching some sort of man-flu off my good students. Or so I thought until this morning...

Other than that and the plans for the move before next term, things are progressing. There might be a ceilidh in the offing this weekend and the Nationals are coming up next weekend. For both of you who don't know what the Nationals are, it is a weekend of roleplaying hi-jinx and hopefully meeting up with some old friends for a pint and reminiscing about Greeks, crossbows, woks and rolling some random dice. Expect some sort of blog on that, and possibly some photos. And some drunken behaviour.

Moving Again...

Yes, proving once and for all I cannot seem to settle down in Leicester I've put down a deposit to move out of my digs and into a nice flat on London Road (the main road with the station for those of you in the know) in Stoneygate (the posher end nearer the lecturers). It'll now be nice and convenient for y'all to visit...

I won't be moving in until April, roughly after I finally pop back up to Dundee for a week or so over Easter.

I've mostly been in the pub...

St. Patrick's Day came and went, and it was certainly a lot better than last year when I had barely unpacked from my arrival in Leicester. I even managed to get one of those goofy hats. Not the one pictured in the post below, that was actually taken prior to the event.

I have added more hosteleries to take visitors from oop north to when they come down to visit, and deduced that the Last Plantaginet is still the best pub in Leicester. Not only does it close at 1am on a Friday now (!) it also has a taxi rank right out in front of it, sells bottles of blonde Leffe for £1.65 and doesn't play loud booming music that drowns out stimulating(?) conversation. This shangrila does come at a terrible price however as I was somewhat worse for wear on Saturday morning. I put this down to one of 4 hypotheses:-

1. I am getting old.
2. I haven't been -really, really- drunk in quite some time.
3. Guinness and I have been estranged for too long.
4. All of the above.

Sadly there was little respite to be had as I had a birthday party to attend on Saturday evening. Swearing off the demon drink I finally started getting ready about 5pm, noting a slight tiredness and slugishness as I went for yet another Chinese buffet (same sort of food, slightly pricier, no ice cream to play the dessert game with) and Henry's Champagne Bar, where I was introduced to Mr. Henry himself and did not succumb to the urge to drink Champagne.

As both Thursday and Sunday were spent in the pub after fencing a worrying trend is beginning to emerge in how I spend my evenings. Rumours of my descent into alcoholism are wholly unfounded.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Try not to get too drunk.

Mr Flibble Says...

... don't get hungover on Stones.

Mr Flibble hid in my gaming bag thanks to Al and inadvertantly attended a poker game on Tuesday and became an instant hit with some of my amigos. He's a good bluffer. Mr Flibble will be making other social calls within Leicester this week I suspect.

It's Official

I'm Dr. Stu. The diploma came in internal mail to Leicester Uni today. Don't know how, don't know why - I intend to graduate in July.

Now Mr. Stu is gone. He has been replaced by something stronger, more alive. He feels like he could........ like he could..........

I'll get my coat.

Lately I Have Been Busy...

I've been busy not updating my blog lately as it seems I rarely get a moment's peace at work, and at home I can't really seem to be bothered. Both of these excuses are really lame but I've also been busy and have:-

- added numerous Leicester hosteleries to the list.
- discovered another pub that rivals the Last Plantaginet for my favourite pub in Leicester.
- played Star Wars the (D6) RPG on the eve of my birthday.
- went to see Lucky Severn as part of my birthday romp. It's good, and you should see it too.
- wound up my WFRP campaign for a temporary? hiatus.
- got invited to student keggers with inevitable dodgy booze and grub.
- argued with University students who scored 85% but aren't happy with losing 15% of the total marks.
- stabbed a lot of (different) students with fencing foils. But that's ok because they give you points for that (the fencing league, not the University sadly).
- gone to student pub quizs and used my amazing Doctoral intellectual powers, knowledge of the Transformers the Movie Soundtrack and the other people on the team who can actually answer the questions to steal/win booze from the prize table. As I'm not paid enough to buy my own booze this is my action for solidarity and fidelity (see below). I just hope my students don't recognise me...
- not gone on strike with the AUT as I'm not sure I can. The only person in the office in the union (guess who) didn't want to strike as he didn't like the way the vote went, complained about the lack of people on the picket line all day and today has complained endlessly about how the strike seems to have bizarrely disrupted teaching.
- drunk Funky Monkey shots.
- drunk more Funky Monkey shots.
- drunk blue Funky Monkey shots.
- nearly drank Lambrini, but fortunately my cool factor prevented me, and instead I ate (someone else's) birthday cake.

A Six Foot Hobbit-esque Post

It's 2:30am and I'm nissed as a pewt. Well, not really, but I am enjoying a pint of water as a precaution against bath tub dismemberment tomorrow. Ask Steve and Egor if you don't know what that means.

Birthday happened, and a lot of other interesting stuff but that's enough of that for now. I will post a more detailed account when I am sober and have the time, peace, quiet and motivation - I just wanted to do a Six Foot style posting. It's an homage, not a rip-off. :)

More later, and in more detail honest.

This blog is 1 year old! Yay!

I Knew This...

You scored as Idealist. Idealism centers around the belief that we are moving towards something greater. An odd mix of evolutionist and spiritualist, you see the divine within ourselves, waiting to emerge over time. Many religious traditions express how the divine spirit lost its identity, thus creating our world of turmoil, but in time it will find itself and all things will again become one. Cultural Creative 75% Idealist 75% Existentialist 63% Romanticist 56% Postmodernist 44% Modernist 44% Materialist 31% Fundamentalist 31% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com