Jamie’s Journal

I live in a low mountain range and once every few years it gets cold enough to snow. Yesterday was one of those days. The snow flakes started falling from the sky while I was driving home from uni. It was magical and put me in a very good mood. There’s something peaceful about snow falling. Unfortunately, it does make driving difficult. Snow flakes aren’t transparent and the ice builds up on your windscreen despite your windscreen wipers. However, I didn’t have far to go so I could just enjoy it.

A short 15 minutes later the snowflakes stopped. Everything looked pretty and white but there wasn’t nearly enough to build a snowman. Thus, we turned up the central heating and life went on as per usual. However, just before bed mum looked out the window and noticed it was snowing again. Thus, we quickly put on our outside spotlights and watched with awe as snow-flakes as big as 20 cent pieces floated past. Given that funky occurrence, I had no alternative but to postpone my sleeping plans.

The view from the kitchen door.

At this point we called our family friend Jo who appears to be quite snowflake crazed. (We’ve seen her cut out paper snowflakes, use computerised snowflake creators and publish links to snowflake websites…) As mum and I were describing the scene before us I ascertained there was sufficient snow to create a snow man. Thus, I quickly excused myself from the phone, pulled on some heavier clothes and set out to build my midnight snowman. Construction took place at midnight and was finished at 12:30am. Isn’t he cool?

My midnight snowman!

My midnight snowman & I.

He was still standing in a sea of white this morning… However, during the day there was rain and his nose fell off. He’s presently still standing… but there’s no snow left around him.

The view of the house this morning. The roof’s normally brown!

Just a note. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Hope you’re all well!

Friday night started out innocently.  As per usual, CJ, Nicki & I played squash and indulged in souvlaki from our favourite fish ‘n chip shop. However, after that, things got very interesting. For the first time ever, after six years of friendship, the squash gang hit the town together in an alcohol consuming capacity.

Three Angels – Myself, Nicki & CJ

The original plan was to quickly freshen up at Nicki’s and then head straight to the pub. However, as I’m suffering financial limitations I refined our plan to include numerous pre-drinks at Nicki’s. My wish was perfectly accommodated as Nicki’s basement has a bar with a decent sound system. Thus, in no time at all we were enjoying Bailey’s, Bourbon and Vodka whilst bobbing away to the Jane Fonda. Yes, that’s right! There’s a song with chorus lyrics “You know you wanna do the Jane Fonda”. What exactly the Jane Fonda is we can only speculate. Perhaps plastic surgery? Buying a walking frame? Regardless, it’s a good drinking song.

Hitting the pre-drinks…

 
Perhaps too many pre-drinks…

Alright! Yes, there were a few incriminating photos of myself too… However, as it’s my blog I have the editorial privilege of not displaying them. Unfortunately, both CJ and Nicki have copies and I have a bad feeling they’re going to surface at my 21st…

At about 10pm we arrived at the pub and began pondering why there weren’t many people there. A few minutes later we knew exactly why. A large, ugly, intoxicated male leered up on to the DJ’s platform, oafishly grabbed a microphone off a wall rack and began wailing. It was Karaoke night and oh my god, it was bad! Despite consuming heavy amounts of alcohol, I still couldn’t get rid of the involuntary shivers brought about from the auditory crime. Furthermore, the songs that were chosen were all songs that should never have been written in the first place… Thus, you couldn’t even enjoy the backing music! The only relief came in 30 second blocks between karaoke songs where the DJ played something decent. We’re never going to the Hawthorn on a Friday night EVER again! EVER!

Thankfully, the Hawthorn had pool tables and it was through them that CJ introduced us to some of his uni friends… and their friends. Despite the fact that Jamie isn’t really that common a name, there was another Jamie in the group! We played pool together in a team and won! JAMIE POWER! Oh yeah! There was also another guy called Chris who works for a web-hosting company. He was quite surprised when I knew it by name, where it was located, and quizzed him about wages. (I’d considered applying for a job there once…) It turned out he goes to my uni and is doing my course, albeit a year ahead of me. Freaky but cool! You don’t meet many web-hosting enthusiasts off the street!

Ever since watching Miss Congeniality I’ve always wanted to try beer and pizza. It has such a cool ring to it! “Beer and Pizza.” How can you resist? Earlier in the evening, on the way to the pub I’d noted the local pizza place and that it closed at midnight. Thus, at 11:50pm I ran around to everyone and excitedly ranted and raved about ‘beer and pizza’ and soon I had a small procession of people that followed me down to the pizza place at the end of the block. It was the best pizza I’ve ever tasted! As we realised we couldn’t bring beer to the pizza place, and couldn’t bring pizza to the pub, we ate the pizza and then went back to the pub and ordered a jug of beer. (The line we actually used was “a jug of your cheapest beer”. We’re uni students ok? There’s no shame!) It was awesome! Fantasy fulfilled.

Before we knew it we were on the last train and back at Nicki’s place. Unfortunately, we were all feeling a little dance-deprived as the music quality at the pub had not permitted dance as an option. Thus, we enjoyed a few post-drinks while bobbing to the clubbing songs on the early morning radio.

Chris (web-hosting dude) and the gang.

Finally we unwound by watching “Bring It On Again”, the poorly made sequel to the much worshipped “Bring It On”. It had potential but just never made it. There were no fun cheers and the lack of boisterous music made the routines positively boring. I’m not sure whether it was the movie or the hour… but one of them served to put us to sleep and the next thing I knew, it was 1pm on Saturday. Very good times. Thanks guys!