Angry Canadians, Wine, English Football, American Football and Family

So anyhow today is Thursday September 27th and the last time I updated the blog I only got up until a week ago Thursday the 20th of September 2007. I guarantee the start of this post will be very interesting, but the end of it not so much because I spent the last three days saving up for a little trip this weekend. One thing I forgot to mention about that Thursday is that their was a server error at my work and I managed to troubleshoot it and get the printer to be seen on the database without a technician being called in, so they liked me for that.

Anyhow before I start on about Friday morning let me go into a little detail about the October trip my flatmates and I will be going on. We have been talking about going to Italy for our week break and over all of this time we have been procrastinating on actually booking our flight and doing everything necessary for the trip.

So anyhow Thursday everyone decided that Friday morning we’d go and book our flight and then I’d go into my internship a bit late, so I called on Thursday night and it was all cool or whatever…

Anyhow reading yesterdays blog entry you know we went to the Verve or whatever, and I mean… Let’s face it… I got kicked out. We drank a lot…

No one got up in the morning but me. So I went into work hung over and had an okay time. This time though, I was doing more of the same, working with the database and whatever.
So anyhow, as I should have mentioned in the last post everyone from work was going out to eat because someone was leaving so we got let out at 4:30 instead of 5. We all then proceeded to walk to an Italian restaurant about a mile away from the Green Party HQ and about 10 of us went to dinner.

This place was amazing. Its name started with a Z, I think Zizzi or something and it had really authentic Italian food to the point where the menu was in Italian, though descriptions were in English as well. So I ordered something I couldn’t describe, it had like ham wrapped around something else and had peas on the side. I don’t know what the fuck it was and it was alright. My meal was about £10 (£ = pound) or so. Anyhow, things got interesting before I even ate my meal as they ordered wine for the table…

I was never one to like wine and this is the start of a real love-hate relationship as I have drank wine (forcing it down) at weddings and even at dinner here, but never drank more than a glass or two. In fact at dinner earlier in the week we had red wine and I didn’t finish my glass handing it off to someone else… I never liked wine…

Until now… So I downed a glass of wine, and another, and another… It was free so I intended to get drunk before I go out with my friends wherever they are… Anyhow after a couple glasses of wine I found that everyone was going to a local pub so I went their with my Green Party peeps.

This place was like a 200 year old building and felt like the bat cave inside, at some points you had to duck to walk through to different areas where you could drink. It was quite an interesting place and had prob. 100 people outside at tables drinking.

We soon found our place outside at a table and the 10 or so Green Party peeps sat around and I got a few drinks bought for me by people who were trying to convince me that tradional English Ale and Larger is better than American beer. I drank a few of those and then bought myself a Stella.

So anyhow myself, Adam and this one older guy who escapes me now were talking about some of the differences between England and America, particularly how professional sports teams can actually up and move city in America but in England it is very rare. We also talked about football(Soccer) as my school gave me tickets to the QPR v. Watford match up and all week they were explaining it to me and whatnot, but I’ll go over that more on the post about Saturday. And also how cities like Pittsburgh help finance the stadiums, a very foreign idea in European leagues apparently. Also we talked about general “green” politics, as I am working for the Green Party…
Strangely enough while I was talking strictly about European and Green politics an older gentlemen, likely sixty who had a big beer gut and pissed(drunk) out of his mind stumbled over and pointed at me and said “We don’t like your kind around here boy!”
To which some of the gents around me all just looked around as if to say “What” but than the man continued and told me his story about how he’s from Canada and how he understands but he has lived in the UK for ten years and has duel citizenship. He said that Americans are hated by the English because of what our government has done and that if I don’t be careful at a pub like the one I may get beat up.

Now, you wouldn’t believe this if I told you but my voice really carries so I guess he heard me talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins or something. But anyhow so he told me stories about him going around the States, how he’s been to Pittsburgh and New Orleans and then when he got to New Orleans he was like “We don’t like that… What you did” accusing me personally of flooding New Orleans and not doing anything about it I guess to which I replied “Well, the state should have done a better job evacuating the people” and then watched the smiles of everyone around me as I stood up for myself with this drunken bum. He told me to be careful and went on his way.

So me and my Green Party peeps laughed at how drunk he was and they told me not to worry about it that I’m not going to be beaten up for being American and that the guy was just drunk. So I drank more and we talked about religion and politics and general party functions. Turns out my own manager Adam is a Mormon which was interesting because he wasn’t actually drinking. We talked about Mitt Romney and some of the stuff Mormons have gone through in American and world history and even talked about Catholism and things but not in a pushing way (as a lot of Greens are Atheists).

I passed around a copy of my speech how to Americanize the English and Wales Green Party so Sian Berry could read about how I called her Hillary as she was in the press room while the speech was made and as I started to get a bit drunk I’m pretty sure that I started to hit on some of the girls I work with, but oh well.. So anyhow, all was going well enough when my favorite person in the world the drunken Canadian came over again. He might have been as interesting as that blue haired guy…

So he tells me to be careful and I thank him. And then he sits down and starts talking again… He starts talking about his friends in New Orleans and how they know the blues and how they taught him the blues and how he has dedicated his life to playing the blues…

He goes “Can you play the blues?” to which I reply “no” to which he goes “I can!” and takes out a harmonica and starts playing the blues a little bit. Not great, but not bad.

He tosses the harmonica at me and says “Play” to which I decline and then he insists and insists so I toot the harmonica real quick and to no ones surprise I don’t play a fucking note right.

So he then tells me “You are an American… Play the blues”

When I try again and cant he starts yelling at me that all Americans can play the blues. Talk about stereotypes.

So anyhow his lady comes over and says their going, what a relief. He tells her to start the car and keeps talking to us. The Brits around me are upset he’s in their “personal” space (I will talk about the British Reserve one of these days). He talks about how he has a wife in Noreighway and this is his neighbor and that it doesn’t matter because his wife doesn’t know. Needless to say this guy is fucked up.

So he leaves and I sit and talk with my Green Party Peeps for some more. So its about 11pm and the pub closes and this girl Kayte and I hit on her (I was a champion this night, though this was one of my more sober nights.)

So her and I walk and talk about politics… And I place myself as a moderate and she warns me about becoming too conservative because people become more conservative with age and I warn her about being too liberal and tell her she should use her best judgment in each individual situation and choose her particular political belief on the issue and not on some arch, out of wack ideology made up by some politician looking to gain points at the polling places. OWNED.

Anyhow the conservation was good and what not but when I get to the tube station its closed, and I’m an hour tube ride from home… With night buses that is at least two hours, give me a break… I’m fucked…

So Kayde directs me to the right Bus and I meet a group of five girls heading somewhat in the right direction (they were looking for Piccadilly Circus which I could get home from) so I followed them bus to bus and made small conversation and then the 6 of us got a taxi which eliminated a lot of the fair, but they had decided not to go to Piccadilly so I got off at a stop close by but had no idea of where to go.

Luckily outside of a KFC (I didn’t have anything) I found a bus stop with some people heading to Earls court. The one dude was Scottish and the girl Australian and they were a couple. The Scottish guy was piss drunk but I followed them and made small talk.

We got to a close stop and split a cab, where this Scottish dude was swearing and mother f-ing the cab driver because he didn’t take credit(I had no cash on me at this point)… The cab driver almost kicked us out because of the irate Scottish dude but luckily he was nice enough to stop by an ATM and allow me to get out money. Once we were out of the cab I split ways with them glad never to see that Scottish dude again because he was just a plain dick, I honestly felt bad for the cab driver who was by far the best and nicest cab driver I’ve had here, period.

So anyhow I finally get home and go to bed…

I wake up on Saturday after sleeping in, top up my cell phone and then try calling my Aunt Shelia who at this point I have yet to meet about meeting her tonight… No answer. Anyhow, so I find out that the guys from Flat 2 are going to the Queen Park Ranger(QPR from this point on) versus Watford Soccer(Football from this point on) game and decide to go with them.

Anyhow, my roommates spring on me the fact that they never booked the Italy trip but they decided we are going to Spain next weekend so I need to hurry up and book my ticket and hostel before I go to the game. I barely did it in time due to a blooper in pricing and having to talk to customer service to get money back on my debit card, they informed me that it would appear on my card in 3-7 days but sometimes it may take 3 weeks… I was pissed but no time to be concerned had to go to the QPR game.

Anyone who has ever said Soccer is for pussies has never seen English football. This was their ‘B’ league and QPR is the worst team in the league and this was unlike anything I have seen before. From the crazy fans to the crazyiness of the game it was amazing.
Let me set the stage… The people from my work informed me that QPR is a ‘recovering’ team for all intents and purposes, having a bad year. They are like 0-6. Watford hasn’t really lost any games this season and just fell down from the premier league… So it should be a blowout!

Anyhow, so we get off the tube and me and the guys from Flat 2 are running behind… You can hear the stadium singing… SINGING… Think of Irish drinking songs and then their you go. The stadium, which felt like a cross between a high school football stadium and Europe… It only held 14,000 ¾ of which were QPR fans and one ¼ of the stadium was reserved for traveling Watford fans.

The fans sang against each other… No chanting… Singing… And everyone knew the words except me… It was insane… So many drunk people… When Watford scored the QPR fans were giving them the double finger (as opposed to the middle finger).

It was insane and now onto the actual game…

It was suspenseful… The saves were amazing and the speed of the game was amazing. You have not seen football until you’ve seen it live… Its phenomenal. Its amazing. The head butts, the slide dives, the over all strategic play of the game. That mixed with six head butts in a row and the crowd breaking out in song was an experience that I’ll never forget…

I’d dare say the adreline level is as much and I hate to admit if not more than a Steelers Regular Season game though the level of drunkenness is about 10x more at the Steelers games I have been at(side note, I still prefer Steelers and Penguins games over this but God Damn this is the ‘B’ league wait til I get to a Manchester United or Chelsa game).

The only bad part about this entire game was I forgot my camera and didn’t get to take any memorable picks…

Speaking or memorable, Saturday Night was memorable as it was the first time I got real drunk off of wine.

Take into calculation everything that I have done so far… And consider than anytime I go out that a beer is more expensive (except when Tex is working) than in America, the Metro Newspaper recently wrote an article about how London is now the most expensive city in the world to eat out in, and the dollar is worth ½ what a pound is, the American economy is the weakest its been in 30 years and the United Kingdom economy is the strongest its ever been… I’ve gone to the bank and more… I’m financially spent… And its been like 2 weeks or so!!! (By this point I also booked a trip to Spain and am in the process of finding booking to Italy which ended up being a flight for 79penece(35 cents) + 25 pounds (50 dollars) tax… That’s right, my one way trip from UK to Italy was only 79 pence before tax, God I love Ryan Air… Like I said transportation is cheaper here, and water!)

So Saturday, considering finances and we need to chill down on spending myself and the flatmates decide we need to stay in and not spend a lot of money so they talk about getting wine and ask me what kind of beer I want (knowing I don’t like wine) so I pitch in and tell them to get me a bottle of white wine…

So the 6 of us drink and two girls come down for a little bit. Some uker is played, a card game that I don’t understand and we just drink and converse and everyone starts to get a little drunk. My debit card is over its limit for ATM withdrawls for the day due to my plane ticket, so even though I have 300 USD in it I don’t have the allowance to pay for my wine until tomorrow so George spotted me.

Me, Mark, George, Brandon, Marshall and Jason all drank a lot, a real lot… Each killed our bottle and I walked to Sainsbury’s to get a second bottle… My card wasn’t declined (I think I was 20 pounds away from my limit, so it was cool)… I came back, buzzed, maybe even drunk from the first bottle…

I drink the bottle and am obnoxious about it… I was dared not to drink for 20 seconds and did… I was really wasted and then walked to Sainsbury’s again for a third bottle of wine… Sainsbury’s is closed… I walk to the big Sainsbury’s… It is closed (they close at midnight on Saturdays) so I walk even further to another supermarket and get a third bottle of wine…

BLACK OUT.
The last thing I remember is apologizing and being told to go to bed…

The next morning I wake up earlier than everyone else and try to figure out what happened… I find some videos on my camera once I put the memory card in the computer and theirs a video of me trying to get Brandon to tell me that I’m fucked up and when he will not I call him names for about five minutes and then try to get him to cook me a delicious breakfast if I drink the rest of my wine…

Now I’m not one who blacks out to this point very often. Freshman year, yea it happened… Sophomore year their were those occasional times when I don’t recall exactly the order things happened or black out a little bit but not the entire night… Even here, in this blog if I used the term black out it was the kind of black out where someone goes “Oh remember when you did this?” and then you go “Oh yea! I did do that.”

So I thought really hard… Nothing.

Could not come up with anything, all I remember is being put to bed and apologizing, cannot recall anything before that. Well sure enough I found out what happened, and father don’t get too mad as this was the most drunk I have been since the night I accused you of being a Power Ranger off of the vodaka (and it was the cheapest drunk of the entire trip) I just didn’t realize that wine was that powerful because 14% doesn’t seem like its bad…

Well so I killed my third bottle and I passed out on the couch… One of my roomies, Mark woke me up and said “John how was the burger?” referring to a hamburger I made earlier to which I just got up and then leaned forward and threw up everywhere all over HIS shoes… That’s why I was sent to bed.

Apparently Jason went “I hate seeing people throw up” when they were deciding how to clean the massive amount of throw up to which Mark went “I hate seeing people throw up on my SHOES”

No one was too mad, as “We’ve all been their” but that was the first time in recent memory I was that bad… (Save for my 21st birthday)… I had the worst hangover but I felt bad so I went to Sainsbury’s and bought a mop and floor cleaner which I had a hell of a time finding because I kept asking for Pine sol and no one knew what it was. But I got some floor cleaner and mopped up real good and everything was okay.

Sunday after cleaning and a shower I rocked out the white t and jeans which was a change from dressing nicer and I actually was really impressed with how well I pulled it off. I looked good. Anyhow I went to High Street Kensington and went shopping, bought some headphones for my mp3 player and some shades. I also looked around at some clothes shops and “scouted” some long sleeve shirts and a possible winter coat should it get colder. Damn are prices expensive, but High Street Kensington is a shoppers wet dream. It is just an experience and I cannot wait to do some shopping their at some point.

Anyhow so I wondered into a park and kind of had this revelation that London is sweet and how happy I am. That I can walk around and just find a park this nice and that life is so unstressful that I do not have a worry in the world. As some of you know I had a breakdown from stress first semester last year from getting my 3.9 and working and than almost had another one being president of the lacrosse club, quartermaster of Acacia, on the student senate, fighting the new alcohol parties and getting a 3.925(yes it went up!).

Anyhow so I walk around this park watch the kids play football(soccer) and what not and look at all the people taking picnics and whatnot. So I walk into to this entrance for Kensington Gardens right outside of Kensington palace the home of the late Princess Diana, Princess of Wales(as in the place not the animal).

The gardens and statues were amazing. I snapped some photos. The palace outside was okay, it just looked like a large old building not like some of the castles I’ve seen already and that I am sure to see in Scotland when I go or when I go tour more of London.
So I continue to rock out the shades, white t-shirt and blue jeans… Go on the tube and go back to my flat, grab my terrible towel and head down to the Sports Café. Before I go I talk to the flatmates and all but George (Whose at the Globe Theator, I need to get their and see some authentic Shakespeare) are going to meet me down their (I didn’t want to miss kickoff, though I did).

Anyhow, the terrible towel hanging off my belt buckle, white t-shirt and shades at six pm… I was rocking it out!!! Anyhow when I get to Picadelly Circus I see this dude with a “7” jersey and run up to him figuring with him rocking out the Pittsburgh jersey he’s from the ‘burgh” or at least the states…
”Hey buddy”-me”How are you there ‘ol chap” in an extremely English accent

This guy followed the Steelers since he was young and is from London. He is currently dating a girl from Pittsburgh and in Nov. they are going to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers. How bad ass is that?

His girlfriend and I talked in Pittsburghese and lost everyone of their friends, classic. Though neither of us did good Pittsburghese. So I watched the first quarter of the Steelers game and then all the flatmates came and we got a booth and ordered food.

I keep saying I’m going to hold off on talking about English culture and its differences but the one thing I need to say here is that the English are bad on customer service. They got the entire money thing but the wait for drinks, food, paycheck and then for them to process it was so long that if I was in an American resturante in Pittsburgh I would have walked out. I have never had such bad service as when we ordered food at the Sports Café, ontop of that it didn’t taste good and was overly expensive.

Anyhow, we all sat their and thanks to 20 tvs around us we were all able to watch the game we were interested in. I only had one beer while their… and dinner… Anyhow after the Steelers beat the 49ers everyone was getting ready to leave but I said I was going to stay back, I had some unfinished business.

I still have not received an e-mail back from that bartender who I drunk e-mailed and she was working. So I go to the loo (English for restroom) and go to the bar she was working at, shes gone… Great…
So I grab a beer, talk to some chicks from South America about their developing countries citing what I remember about the culture of Columbia from various classes, mostly Dr. H’s Comparative Developing Systems.

So I find the bartender, talk to her… Get the number after a bit of flirting, got invited to her bday party again (though I’ll be in Spain) so I smoothed everything over, I think. (Though a sidenote its been 4 or 5 days and I haven’t talked to her, sent one text… Don’t want to be too pushy… I’m going to wait until I’m back from Spain).

So anyhow, I go home and then write in my blog a bit and then goto bed…

Monday I wake up and have my first politics class. The professor gives everyone who missed the notes and was really really good. He reminded me of a mix between Dr. Wrabley and Dr. Heinisch in teaching styles. I’d say he’s in their league, he knows what he’s talking about and knows how to convey it to the students. For me to put him in the league with professors I respect that much, it’s a real complement to him and his teaching style. For the class Western European Politics, it’s a case study of several different countries and then a look at how they work together. We did the United Kingdom on this class and I honestly think it stuck so well I could explain how the United Kingdom government works as good as the United States government after one class… Well not really, but it was one of the most informative three hour classes I have ever had, ever… Save for some of Dr. H’s in National Policy Making… I think I enjoyed it so much because it was challenging and something I had little to no background in.

Monday after class I went to my internship and stuffed envelopes to make up for me missing Friday for a few hours and then Monday night I more or less stayed in and worked on this blog. I think I explored a little bit… And we went shopping… I know I stayed up late working on this blog and almost slept in on my Tuesday morning class of History.
History was the same old, still interesting but didn’t seem as much so after the poly sci class yesterday. Tuesday after class at 1230 I went to the tube station and found a scale and found I weigh a little less than 17 stone (translation I’m 235lbs) that’s 3lbs more than when I came here, even though I have been getting complements that it looks like I lost weight… My legs are sore everyday from the amount of walking and I no longer get winded when going up a bunch of flights of steps and have been eating healthier, way too much beer I guess. Eitherway I feel healthier.
Anyhow Tuesday was by far the specialist day of the entire trip. It’s the day that I came to do what I was destined to do when I came to London, meet my family from over here. You see my Grandmother is from the United Kingdom and met my Grandfather, an American Solider, in World War II in one of those love stories meant for Hollywood and fairytales that never happen in real life… But luckily for me it did.

You know for all my life I knew my, now deceased, grandmother had relatives over here, that I have blood relatives over here, but I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d ever meet them so I never thought of it that much. Never knew what to think. But because of the tales my grandmother use to tell me and the stories in recent years my grandfather has told I’ve always wanted to come to London and meet the family and experience this unknown part of my past.

Today, this day… I got that chance. At 6 o’clock I took the tube from Earl’s Court to Vicoria and then bought a train ticket to meet them. After forty minutes on the train I got off and kept an eye out for them. I knew it would be my Dad’s cousin Shelia, her daughter (who is all grown up) Sharon and Sharon’s kids and that we would be meeting Shelia’s other son Steve and his family[editors note I believe it was Steve I’m bad with names it could have been Kevin, once I find out for sure I’ll edit it to the correct name… Shhh don’t tell him!).

Anyhow, so I get into the train station and take a look around and before I make the mobile call to Sharon I point out who I think they are… I watch as they try to pick me out, having only seen black and white photos of Shelia when she was a baby and only had 3 or so phone conversations it turns out I picked them out right. Shelia has blonde hair and glasses, Sharon looks sort of like Shelia… I guess I’m not good at the descriptors… And there are two kids of about 13 and 10, one red haired boy and one a girl… So anyhow, I make the call and sure enough I’m right. I meet them, talk a little bit and follow them to a car outside. And we proceed to drive to Steve’s (Who looks a lot like my Dad) house where I meet him, his wife and two kids both about the same age as Shelia’s.

So we go to an Italian Restaurant and I meet them all and we have some great conversation. Its strange because even though I’ve been 3,000 miles apart from them my entire life I felt like I’ve known them all my life. We order some nice food and I give them some gifts I brought from my grandfather… They read a love letter he wrote to my grandmother in World War II and some pictures dating back to when Shelia was an infant. On top of that I gave them a terrible towel.

We talked about everything from general United States to sports. Steve knows someone who has season tickets to one of the major “football” teams.

We talked some politics and I mentioned the new EU constitution and they were up in arms about how the politicians originally told them that the EU was about trade and economic growth and now they are going to lose their British identity to “One Europe” and the politicians write it off as “some cleanup work” when it substantially changes their political lives. They talked about World War II and how the sacrifices all sides did to prevent this to have it be written off without even asking the voters. Steve put it in a shocking way “We’d rather be a star on your flag than be a part of this[The new EU Constitution].”

It was amazing meeting these people. We just meshed. It was honestly one of the greatest dinners I have ever been to. The conversation was great. I just enjoyed meeting these long lost relatives. This was also the first time I felt homesick because I just wished my brother and father and grandfather were here with me at the dinner table because I wish they could have just experienced this.

Any how with me being here for so long I am going to have plenty of chances to meet them. Shelia payed the tab for everyone this time but I said my father would kick my ass if I didn’t pay for her so she said I could pay next time her and I do something and we are planning on going to a musical when she comes in to see me.

I can’t explain how great this was. This was one of those “oh yea’ moments and honestly one of the greatest moments of my life. Meeting up with these people who existed all this team and had this connection to you like this and I just am in a loss for words. I just hope Freddy and my Dad get to meet them… They are great people and they, as my uncle Frank told me before I left, really are family. Its hard to comphrend the chemistry but I felt like I was at a family reunion and knew them for years. It was great… Awesome… Amazing…

One funny thing… I told them American’s judge the English off of stereotypes from Austin Powers and they replied “It’s okay because we judge you off of Homer Simpson!” On behalf of all Americans: I’m flattered.

Anyhow, Wednesday I woke up and went to work and was shown how to do some more stuff in my internship in terms of putting members into the computer, this time people who paid by credit card, had to make a few phone calls and did basic party functions. Wednesday night was just a dinner in, and me working on this blog and doing some reading. I started buying the Daily Sun for the tube rides and they did an assault on the new EU Constitution, and its pretty convincing. The newspaper is planning protests and everything. Though they are def. a biased, conservative paper I haven’t found many British that are for the EU constitution, the really conservative and really liberal are against the new EU Constitution. The middle call it a “treaty” which in all likelihood it is. But its interesting that the French are the ones I thought would be against something like this, a loss of identity, but there is a national call for a referendum to allow the voters to decide if they should expand the EU’s power over Westminster(Parliament) or not and I plan on going to the protests and checking it out sometime next week.

Anyhow, work is exciting because Gordon Brown the Labour Prime Minster may be calling an election. You see unlike in America they don’t have regularly scheduled elections for Parliament, but they are required to have them at least every five years. So the PM requests the Queen to dissolve the Parliament in which point there are elections.
Because the ruling party Labour is so many points ahead of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats theirs a chance of the Labour PM to ask for a snap election to take advantage of gaining a larger majority and getting a guarantee of being in power for five more years. Its exciting for the Green Party because they have no elected MPs and there is a good chance they can win in one of the districts and they will help them break the “wasted” vote idea and be a boon for the party. It will also make my internship more stressful but very interesting.
So the political scheme of things is very interesting (and I know everyone is snoring right now). I really enjoy work though. And the hour commute each way isn’t getting to me yet, as long as I have a newspaper to read on the way home.

Wednesday Night I didn’t do much, stayed in again… Attempting to save money for my trip to Spain. No drinking… I think I um… It was like yesterday and I can’t recall… Oh yea, that’s right. So firstly I talked to Caitlin Coast about going on a tour of Scotland with her (and spoiler because I don’t feel like writing forever tonight) I talked to my Dad today and he said its cool if I go money wise so I’m going to Scotland next week to tour it with Caitlin Coast whose studying their… Awesome.

Anyhow, Jon Adams talked to me about a week ago and I joined a fantasy hockey league and the live draft was this day. So I get home from my internship and want to do research and of course my internet doesn’t work. Can’t get on, get stressed… Use Jason’s computer…

I look at who to draft, make up a prelist and then talk to Candice who gives me some clutch advice… So during the live draft I basically have Jon Adams, Mark Hammond and Joe Alioto make fun of me during the entire thing, I felt just like I was in Pittsburgh!!!

Anyhow here’s how my draft picks went:

LONDON WANKERS (A Wanker is someone who masturbates in Queens English, I just love to word, its so fun to call someone a bloody wanker lol)

1.
(1)
Sidney Crosby
C
2.
(20)
Jason Spezza
C
3.
(21)
Scott Niedermayer
D
4.
(40)
Marc-Andre Fleury
G
5.
(41)
Jason Blake
LW
6.
(60)
Dion Phaneuf
D
7.
(61)
Milan Michalek
RW
8.
(80)
Ray Whitney
LW
9.
(81)
Brian Campbell
D
10.
(100)
Martin Havlat
RW
11.
(101)
Ed Jovanovski
D
12.
(120)
Paul Mara
D
13.
(121)
Martin Biron
G
14.
(140)
Jamie Langenbrunner
RW
15.
(141)
Jonathan Toews
C
16.
(160)
Sean Avery
LW


Anyhow with Crosby everyone in the chatroom told me he was out for the season because of an injury (that actually exists and isn’t bad) to mess with me, which wasn’t a bad idea. Than someone was like “Hartman, Whitney is dead” making fun of me and my draft picks more… Both false… However someone noticed my third draft pick was Scott Niedermayer which was clutch, a great defender and… HE RETIRED… Or is considering it and not playing the first part of the season if he does come back… So I really screwed up big time… However, with me getting first pick and getting Sidney Crosby and having Jason Spezza to boot, I’m looking good… But, I could have used my pick of Scott Niedermayer on Brodur or Malkin or another good player earlier on. Oh well.

But between the internet issues (that I’m still having on and off today) and researching the draft and doing the actual draft and working on my blog that night was shot… So another cheap night in… Sorry I know this week has not been the most exciting but after the wine night I’m not in the biggest mood to drink and meeting my family can’t be described how great it was in this blog form.

Anyhow so that leaves today. I go to work and do what is a run of the mill day. I get a little stressed about the Lacrosse club because someone sends me information about how the President, Duffy, cannot be president anymore and I thought for about an hour period that it was going down hill… And that all my hard work last semester would be for not… However I soon find out that that is not the case as Brian Bradford is the President and they are on top of everything. It is a great relief.

After work I pick up another Daily Sun and read more about the EU, the possibility of an election and Madeline the abducted girl that Europeans are fascinated with, its sad. As well as what is going on with the Monks… so sad.

Anyhow, I talk to Caitlin Coast more about me coming to Scotland, talk to my Dad and get the okay, as mentioned earlier and then I book the trip for next week. A 12 hour bus ride their and a 12 hour bus ride back… With the ability to cancel the bus ride before 72 hours before the trip so I can change it for a plane ride on Monday should I choose to do so with no cancellation charge(since I am leaving tomorrow for a three day weekend in Spain).

Anyhow I have spent most of tonight fighting with our uncooperative internet, booking my trip to Scotland(I’m only arriving 1 ½ hours before the tour starts so I may rebook it with a flight their bus back but for now I’m good enough until Monday when I can better examine things with no early cancellation charge on my bus ticket), and writing for this blog. Its 11:53pm, I’ve had one glass of Soko and have sat here working on this blog all night. I have been working on it for hours so I can be updated before I leave and I know likely no one will read this but I want to be able to look back ten years from now, twenty years from now, thirty years from now and remember every moment. So this is turning into a novel of sorts. But oh well…

I’ll leave you with this, right now my flatmates are sitting around tossing a rugby ball around, playing uker and singing and its about damn time I join in… And oh yea, this weekend I’ll be on Spain on the beach so… be jealous! I’ll update Monday or Tuesday. Adios!