The world according to Andy

21 years and counting...

2007-04-04T15:24:00.000+01:00

Bliiiiiiimey, I haven't blogged for aaaaaages. I was provoked into blogging because on Monday, it was my 21^st birthday. It got me thinking about my past 21 years and what the future has in store. I had two birthday celebrations (OK, three if you count the meal I'm going to today). My first was with my friends in Southampton, going out to the pub for a drink (or several) on Saturday night. As I looked around, I realised that a lot of my best friends that I'd made over my last two and a half years in Southampton (including my gorgeous girlfriend) were all sitting around one table. I also realised that I'd actually only made friends with them over the last one and a half years. Look, there they all are, aren't they lovely.

I really feel that, perhaps by coincidence, as I've approached by 21^st birthday, my life has entered a different stage. I'm the happiest I've ever been really. I have a small but loving immediate family, a group of friends who are wonderfully supportive and fun to be around (all in their different ways), a girlfriend who I think the world of, despite the fact that we haven't been going out that long yet and even my degree is going OK. What more could I really want?? Having had a few ups and downs in my life, things are finally where I want them to be and I hope that they'll continue like that for a while to come yet.

I suppose that leads me onto thinking about the future. At the end of the next academic year, me and some of my friends will be graduating from university and entering the real world. I have a vague plan of what I want to do but I think it's very much subject to change and at the moment that actually doesn't bother me at all. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking, what's happened to the moody, cynical Andy that we knew and loved. Weeeeeeeeell, he's still there, I can still be moody and cynical at times but my outlook on life is a lot brighter these days and I think I'm a lot more balanced out than I used to be. So I'm quite happy to raise a glass and toast my first 21 years and look forward to the future.

I got some lovely presents this year as well. I got lots of little presents from Jess which all meant something, especially my stuffed dog whom I have named Rowdy. Jess also came down for the weekend just for my birthday which was actually one of the best presents I could have been given. She also brought me chocolate fudge (what more could I ask for??). A set of oil pastels from Alex will help me complete the artwork I'm currently working on and perhaps encourage me to do more in the future. Mel also got me lots of little things including an album that I can put all the lovely pictures of my 21st in. My family got me lots of things saying about my 21st birthday, alcohol and chocolates (some of which you can see above) which was nice. So a big thank you to everyone who gave/sent me gifts, cards, texts and facebook messages. You really made my special day that bit more special :-)

Proof Reading

2006-10-22T00:08:00.000+01:00

This quote was a headline on the BBC news website recently "A high-level Chinese envoy has returned from North Korea expressing optimism about the mounting nuclear crisis." Well I'm glad they're optimistic about this crisis, makes us all feel a lot safer I think. The BBC should really proof read comments that are going to be read by millions of people across the world (apart from those in China perhaps)

If there's a mistake in this post, I'm going to look foolish aren't I...

Not available in the shops...

2006-08-27T02:08:00.000+01:00

That's right folks, new Chemistry Andy now comes complete with glasses for that slightly more academic look. Still at the great price of just £999,999,999,999.99 payable in monthly installments for the rest of your life.

Please note: Contains moving parts. Unsuitable for Children and Adults of a nervous disposition. Batteries sold seperately.

Unavailable in Siberia.....Unavailable Anywhere.

PS Things currently annoying me include these car insurance adverts that promise a "No-Claims discount for life even if you make a claim" and the Frosties advert. Thankfully someone else was annoyed with the Frosties advert too and made
this. They talk about Frosties being on a plate just because it rhymes with great. I don't know anyone who eats Frosties from a plate, the milk would go everywhere surely.

Tea set

2006-08-16T23:48:00.000+01:00

Behold, shown below is the new tea set that I got on the way back from my holiday. I think it's great. Notice how the tea pot fits on top of the cup, pure tea-making genius really. Anyone who knows me will know how excited I am about the ability to make more tea. A teapot, cup, sugar basin, milk jug and thing to put your tea bags on (complete with spots!) all for the reasonable price of £6.48 brand new. Needless to say, I was very impressed :-)

2006-08-10T23:31:00.000+01:00

Ok, this one wasn't taken on holiday. This was taken today out of the window in my house. You can't beat the sun shining through the clouds like that.

2006-08-10T23:27:00.000+01:00

Funny how these clouds seem to have sunk to the bottom of the sky. I like that blue/grey colour in them though.

2006-08-10T23:22:00.000+01:00

I like that odd shade of orange in this one that just seems to be in one line of the clouds.

Holiday Clouds

2006-08-10T23:15:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd blog some of the cloud pictures I took on holiday. I took this one on the first day, I liked the black on white cloud effect.

On Ilkley Moor Baht'at

2006-08-07T18:49:00.000+01:00

I've just come back from a week's holiday in a nice cottage near Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. The cottage looked like this...

I spent a lot of my week relaxing in the hot tub and that looked like this...
We did do some other stuff besides that. I did take some cloud pictures that I'll stick up at some point. I do like Yorkshire, I don't really know why, just makes me feel good when I'm there. It's certainly got some great views...
I had a really great time and forgot about everything for a week. I think everyone needs that once in a while. I did spot one funny story in the news while I was away; well I thought it was funny. It was about the guard dog that destroyed Elvis's teddy bear. You can go and read the full story here. Basically, a guard dog at Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset went on a teddy-destroying rampage. The quote from the General Manager there was priceless "About 100 bears were caught up in this frenzied attack, some were merely little chews, whereas some of them had some quite devastating injuries." I wonder if that guy has ever considered a career in war reporting, I reckon he'd be rather good. I couldn't help but laugh.

PS "On Ilkley Moor Baht 'at" is a Yorkshire song meaning "On Ilkley Moor without a hat", you can go and find out all about it here. :-)

"Adverts"

2006-07-22T19:08:00.000+01:00

Oh yes ladies and gents, adverts. Sad though it is, we have more adverts on commercial TV than ever before and yet, so few of them seem to actually advertise anything. A recent 'advert' has been getting me annoyed. The advert in question is for a well known computer manufacturer and talks about a box of a certain size and then pose a series of questions about the box then it turns out this box is the size of a tennis court, they pose a final question and put up the name of the company. They managed to get through the entire 'advert' without any reference to what they actually sell. I can't help but sit there and think "TELL THEM YOU SELL COMPUTERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE". As far as I can see, all they've gone and done in that advert is told you how big a tennis court is. Of course, this can be valuable information, especially if you're into pub quizzes. You could in fact have thought about the box, how the box resembles you and thought about the questions they posed and realised what's truly going wrong in your life. Realised that what you need to make your life complete is a tennis court or maybe even a computer.

However, you're probably likely to go to the computer manufacturers that seem to have managed to avoid banging on about boxes and told you about the computers they sell. They've picked up on this novel idea of telling people what they sell in their adverts and even tell them how much it costs sometimes. In my opinion, the best advert at the moment involves a man called "Barry Scott" and a product called "Cillit Bang". They use what I believe is best advertising approach, here is the product, this is what it does, go and buy it (optional catchphrase at the end). So, if any of you do have the misfortune to end up in advertising, here's a little tip from me......tell people what you actually sell :-).

Clouds (pt2)

2006-07-16T21:44:00.000+01:00

Yes folks, it's another cloud picture but I really like the patterns in this one.

PS My parents have just got a new kettle that illuminates blue inside when you switch it on. You have no idea what simple things can amuse someone as bored as me.

Open Day.....at a card shop?!?

2006-07-13T20:07:00.000+01:00

Whilst flicking through the local paper today, I came across an advert for an open day........at a card shop in town. Now as I understand it, an open day is when a place opens its doors to the public for a day and unless I'm very much mistaken, card shops tend to be open to the public, well, most of the time by the very nature of being a shop. So an open day at a card shop would just be an ordinary day. Maybe, I thought, it could be opening for the first time but no, this shop has been open for quite a while and yet this Saturday is holding an 'Open Day'. I'm tempted to phone the paper as ask how much it would cost to have "Open Day (like every other working day of the year)" put on the advert. These stupid people are just playing into my cynical hands.

Oh yes, also still being very bored, I watched a programme on Discovery about a company in Yorkshire that makes escalators. Showing you how they make the hand rail and stairs move at the same time (bet you'd never thought about that). It turns out they make a lot of it by hand. Yer dont need any of those fancy robots ter make t'escalators in Yorkshire. I'll let you get back to your more interesting lives now :-).

Arrested BY POLICE

2006-07-12T19:03:00.000+01:00

I said I'd use this blog to get things off my chest that annoyed me and this did. Whilst watching the BBC news today I saw a headline flash across the bottom of the screen "Breaking News: Labour's Lord Levy arrested by police." I thought fancy that, someone being arrested by the police of all people. I mean there was me thinking it was the AA who were arresting people these days. Talking of things that are road based, I also spotted the story about the parking rules being relaxed a little. All well and good I thought until I noticed that traffic wardens are to be rebranded "Civil Enforcement Officers" or CEO's. Many of them are already think they are much more important than they are really are and now they can confidently tell people that they are actually a CEO. I'm sure this will do their egos no end of good. Mini rant over :-).

2006-07-12T00:24:00.000+01:00

This one was taken later on in the same sunset as the one before. It was just before it got properly dark.

2006-07-12T00:21:00.000+01:00

This shot is from sunset last night and is one of my favourites :-).

2006-07-12T00:15:00.000+01:00

This one was taken from a room in my house at sunset a few nights ago.

2006-07-12T00:13:00.000+01:00

A sunnier day on the Yorkshire Moors.

2006-07-12T00:10:00.000+01:00

It looks like it's about to rain in this picture taken on the Yorkshire Moors.

Clouds

2006-07-11T23:46:00.000+01:00

As some of you will be aware, I'm currently rather bored. All this being bored has allowed me to do a lot of "blue sky" thinking. Upon looking up, I noticed something in the way of this blue sky, yes ladies and gents I mean of course, clouds. So I took some pictures of the clouds and then realised that I'd been here before, yes, I had a moment of Deja Vu if you like (I like how I've linked these posts together). I realised that I'd taken pictures of clouds before, a few times actually. So, I thought I'd share with you some of these cloud pictures just to see what you think. This first one (below) was taken in Feburary last year over the River Mersey (That's in Liverpool for those who's geography goes no further north than Watford :-) )

Deja vu

2006-06-28T21:41:00.000+01:00

Sitting in the Chaplaincy office the other day, I experienced that thing that no doubt most of you have experienced, the phenomenon of deja vu. It just happened to be when the the Anglican Chaplain put on something that was just left lying around and said "It's like a disposable shirt." Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking, days in Chaplaincy when all the undergrads have gone home can be long and strange.

So I went and did some digging about "deja vu" described as the impression of having seen or experienced something before. It's a very common phenomenon but no one seems to know exactly why it happens. There have been several theories from simple wish fulfillment to a mismatch in the brain mistaking the past for the present to relating to an experience from a past life.

I find that these experiences often stick better in my mind than others, due to the fact that it's really weird. Don't know about you but I also often find that I can almost predict what's going to happen next in these sorts of situations. Any theories of your own? Discuss :-)

Team Andy (and others)

2006-06-19T20:41:00.000+01:00

After a prod from Rachel, presumably because she's bored, I decided it was time to blog. Today, I have been sent on a "Team Development Course" as part of the School of Chemistry's plan to "degeekify the chemist" as they put it.

This course, lasting two days, is designed to better help us communicate and plan. This obviously involves getting us to do some "interesting" tasks. The first of these involved getting a big container of water over a force field fence (otherwise known as 2 poles with a bit of string). We could only stand on these bits of wood otherwise we fell into the toxic waste (otherwise known as the grass).

The second task was far more interesting, it involved blindfolding us, giving us some rope, then asking us to form a square with the rope with us spaced equally around the sides. Given that we had nine people, it did prove a challenge especially as we couldn't see. You have no idea how difficult it is to known which is "this end" and which is "that end" of a rope you can't see. We also couldn't see each other of course but did have to find each other which led to some people being felt in quite inappropriate places...

The third task involved collecting bits of Lego from various points where they had been hidden in a field and then bring them back to the centre. We then had to make words out of the Lego. For my part, this involved lots of running. When asked for my contribution to the discussion after this one, I pointed out that there is a town made out of biscuits.

I'm sure tomorrow will be just as much fun.

In the Beginning...

2006-06-14T00:52:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Republic of Andy, population: Me otherwise known as The world according to Andy but I think you are going to refer to it as Andy's Blog and so it begins....