Falling leaves are carried across his vision to land upon the soft grass. Like a waterfall of autumn colours, they float to the ground, touching that flowing green with patches of brown. Guiding his steed over to a fir, he reaches out with a hesitant hand to pluck a white ribbon from its low-hanging branch. The ribbon is like velvet to his touch as he runs a finger over its length. He lifts the fabric to his face and breathes in her vanilla scent, a smile touching his features and giving a tragic light to his eyes. Letting it fall to the ground, he moves on to continue his search.

She stops and casts a searching gaze about her. Turning around, the hem of her shimmering white gown brushes the fallen leaves beneath her. She closes her eyes and breaths in the crisp autumn air. Her mind whirls with thoughts of longing and a wave of sorrow overwhelms her, threatening to bring forth tears to her eyes. One single drop appears and tracks a path down her cheek. Troubled grey-blue eyes open once more to watch the leaves fall about her before she turns and moves on.

She pauses in a clearing, a small stream flowing by, sounding the air with the gentle trickling of running water. Raising a delicate palm, she tucks her dark curls behind her hair, too slow to catch an escaped ribbon, which untwines from a curl and whips into the slight breeze, carrying itself away. With a wary glance around her, she continues on her path.

He pauses, plucking yet another ribbon from a tree branch. He can almost smell her, that vanilla aroma, exuding from her like sweet temptation. He can almost see her again, those innocent blue-grey eyes locking with his own; as she habitually lifts that delicate hand to tuck back her dark curls. Tucking this ribbon into his cloak, he urges his charge further onwards.

She stops again, her breath quickening now in wretched grief, knowing she cannot go on. Collapsing against a tree, she tucks herself amongst its roots, crumbling in on herself; her head in her hands and the emotions scrambling in her mind. Sorrow, loss, longing; all faith lost with the wind. Absorbed by her thoughts, the clink of a harness never reaches her ears as she curls herself even tighter within those roots. She never notices the black figure dismount or approach her, pausing just short of her reach. He crouches in front of her, watching her with his unwavering gaze. Reaching out, he tucks a curl behind her ear and slowly withdraws his hand, his eyes never leaving her face. She hesitates before looking up, her hands falling away from her head to the ground. Her slight form remains motionless, tucked up in that gap, enclosed in something solid and safe, something that cannot be taken away so easily.

It is as though nothing moves. No sound is heard. Dappled light dances upon the ground and a breeze stirs the falling leaves into a twisted dance of erratic turns. His face provides no clue as to his emotions but her eyes shine like a beacon with hers. He rises and turns around, forced steps leading him back to his charge. Pausing to stroke the horses’ neck, he hangs his head and sighs before mounting. With a last glance at that unmoving white figure, he urges his steed back the way he had come.

In one single, fluid moment, she stands, a sudden gust of wind flinging her curls about her face and whipping her gown out behind her like a glistening white train. Stepping forward, she extends an arm and with a fearful cry, calls out for his halt. She rushes forward along his trail, losing more white ribbons to a thieving gust of wind.

He pauses with her call, turning his horse around and dismounting as she rushes into his arms. Stepping back with her force, he holds her slight form, the release of emotions lighting his eyes with new hope. She clings to him, his mingled aroma of spices filling her being and giving her faith. She reminds herself that love conquers all, pushing away the reminder of their forbidden connection. Just holding each other gives light to new dreams. He pulls back, lifting her into the saddle and seating himself behind her, as he urges his steed in the direction of the edge of the woods.

Pausing at the edge of the woods, she looks to the sky, the clouds racing across that fading blue background now touched with golden rays. He feels her sigh before dismounting and reaching for her waist. Picking her gently from the horse and resting her upon the ground in front of him, he leaves his hands at her waist as she locks hers firmly together in front.

Leaning forward, he kisses her forehead softly. She looks up, that former glow of hope now dimmed in her eyes with their foreboding departure. She kisses her first two fingers and lets them rest upon his lips for a single moment before turning and walking towards the open field towards the towers.

Reaching into his cloak, he retrieves the white ribbon. Staring at it for a moment, he returns it into the dark folds. Placing a guard against his emotions, he mounts the stallion and leaves, even his dark cloak fading into the shadows of the encroaching dusk.

She hurries across the field, tears of loss streaming from her eyes, placing a mask of distress over her features. Turning back once, all she can see are the lonely scatterings of leaves, whisking about the air and falling upon the place where he should have stood.

He would appear when she needed him, no matter where, no matter when. She knew he was hers, just as surely she was his; but their love was unforgivable. It was precious and untouchable but just as it was real, it was forbidden. They knew that they would remain together somehow, someday.


There's nothing quite like nostalgia

New York Photos

Well, I'll update tomorrow with my trip to New York, but I got some photos up on my deviantart account, and I thought I'd share them now.

Brooklyn Bridge 1

Brooklyn Bridge 2

These are kinda cheesy cliche photos, but I like em. So shush.


Central Park

I wanted to take more photos of this, but my camera battery died.


Skyline 1

Taken on the ferry on the way back from Staten Island, hence the slight blur... moving boat and zoom lens = mess.

Skyline 2

From the top of the Empire State Building. Again, the slight blur is caused by the long exposure needed to get anything to actually come out on the camera... keeping a camera steady is much harder than it looks :P

Yesterday was fun. Went sightseeing all over the place, including taking the ferry to Staten Island past the Statue of Liberty, where I almost died of

Yesterday was fun. Went sightseeing all over the place, including taking the ferry to Staten Island past the Statue of Liberty, where I almost died of cold, before going to Times Square (*so* cool at night) and Broadway to see Phantom of the Opera. Great stuffs.

Almost died of cold coming out of the theatre (25F!!! That's, like, -4C!!!), so we went and ate at the NYC Hard Rock Cafe. Perfect end to a great day.

I'll do a more detailed write up when I get back from NYC. I'm coming down with s cold, or something... my throat is permanently sore, which kinda sucks. And I'm sure the lack of sleep doesn't help.


Oh, and does anyone else who's seen Phantom of the Opera think that the Phantom is more of a pretentious idiot rather than a character to feel sorry for? I sure do :P

More of New York

Yesterday was fun. Went sightseeing all over the place, including taking the ferry to Staten Island past the Statue of Liberty, where I almost died of cold, before going to Times Square (*so* cool at night) and Broadway to see Phantom of the Opera. Great stuffs.

Almost died of cold coming out of the theatre (25F!!! That's, like, -4C!!!), so we went and ate at the NYC Hard Rock Cafe. Perfect end to a great day.

I'll do a more detailed write up when I get back from NYC. I'm coming down with s cold, or something... my throat is permanently sore, which kinda sucks. And I'm sure the lack of sleep doesn't help.


Oh, and does anyone else who's seen Phantom of the Opera think that the Phantom is more of a pretentious idiot rather than a character to feel sorry for? I sure do :P

Hehe

1 Palm T|X + 1 New York City = Wardriving!!!

'Cept it's more like warwalking-and-freezing-to-death

Damn, but it's cold!

New York, New York

Note to Self: Going into EB Games 4 hours before you fly to New York is not a good idea, as it will result in you buying Fifa Football and Starwars Battlegrounds 2 for your PSP and waste a lot of time playing the fantastically good XBox 360 Call of Duty 2 Demo. Ooops.

In other news, I *really* wish I was able to say what I want to say, do what I want to do, without needing half a crate of Corona to loosen my inhibitions, if permanently worrying what other people think and feel is an inhibition.



I hear it's snowed in New York.

Okay then, Portland

Well, after missing my flight on friday evening (traffic on the 880N was sooooooooo slow because of an accident), I managed to get a seat on the next flight out at no extra charge. It was only 3 hours too, so after a quick txt to Nix and Stella apologising, I sat down and played my PSP 'til the batteries ran out, then read my book.

Flight was ok (slept for most of it), and my checked in bag thankfully did *not* get lost, as I had a sneaking suspicion it might do. Caught the train with Nix and Stella back to the middle of the city, and after dropping my bags in their room, we wandered around Portland for a while in search of Pizza. Highly amusing too; we managed to cover the same piece of street about 5 times, and after we *did* find a Dominos, it was boarded up. So we got in a car and went to a pizza place called Old Chicagos (open 'til 2am!). Where they sold Theakston's Old Peculiar. I almost cried, I was so happy. Food was pretty good, too. After food, it was back in the car, back to Downtown Portland, and back to the Room of Doom (it wasn't a particularly Doomy Roomy, but Room of Doom has such a good ring. Nix, Stella, I hearby officially dub your room the Room of Doom).

Saturday morning, Nix, Dagan and Dagan's girlfriend and I wandered around a Farmer's Market that was close by... soooo awesome. It reminded me of the Farmers Markets we have back in Romsey. So great. Also realised that I had given my credit card to Brianne the previous night and hadn't gotten it back. Ooops. After that, Nix and I went for a walk around the Downtown area, which was awesome. There were really strange fountain thingies called Bubblers, I think Nix called them. Could be wrong. Walked along by the river too, and there were some *fantastic* photo ops along the river. And the mountain in the distance was sooooo awesome. I may have also spun a story about poisonous ducks with red heads that chase people.

After that, I went to the AIESEC Oregon EB/GPM meetings, which took most of the afternoon, but which were interesting to sit in on. After that, a few of us went off to a Thai restuarant for food (after walking everywhere else first :P), and I got some excellent sushi. I'd never had sushi before coming here to the US, but I'm loving it :9
After that, went to Powell's Book City (the most amazing place *ever*), where I was *supposed* to meet some wotmaniacs, but due to my phone playing up, didn't. Ah well, next time.

Headed back to the Room of Doom via safeways to pick up pizza, and then headed over to Brian's house for a party around 7pm, minus a Nix. The party was awesome, with muchos drink, and re-meeting people from ROKS, and meeting new people, and generally having a good time. Brian got oh *so* drunk, which was highly amusing. I seem to remember ducttaping his mouth too, but I think that was earlier on. Stella got really rather drunk too. Got back to the Room of Doom about 2am, chatted for a while, and then failed to sleep for a few hours... Nix got back around 4am, and I think I drifted off shortly after that.

Sunday dawned nice and bright, and I woke up absurdly early, so read some more of my book until the girls woke up. Then we headed into Portland to the Saturday Market (yes, on a Sunday) where Stella and I found a place that sold donner kebabs. Proper donner kebabs. That completely made my weekend. I then also continued to spend money buying funky things including a pendant, a new ring, an awesome photo of an oregon coast sunset on a funky frame, some peppermint & tealeaf soap (smells *amazing*) and some scented candles (also amazing). There was also a spoonman.com stall, which fellow wotmaniacs will find as funny as I did.

After that, we met up with Marcus, Stella's... friend, for lack of a better word, and went for some vegan food. 'Cept the vgan-food place was shut, so went to get some pizza. 'Cept the pizza place was shut so we went to get some coffee. 'Cept I got a hot chocolate, because I don't like coffee. Then we went to a burrito place for a while, and just kinda chilled, which was cool.

Back to the Room of Doom then, and a quick stop at a Pot Luck lunch that was being held in the corridor (*delicious* food) before heading back down and out to go back to the airport. After a brief panic that I'd lost my passport *again* (I'd actually put it in the back pocket of my jeans not 30 seconds earlier), I got through and onto the plane with plenty of time to spare.

Except that it turns out that the flightcrew who were supposed to be flying our plane were lost, and that they were flying a new crew up form San Fransisco to fly us back down to Oakland. A 3 hour wait. After chatting with the person on the desk, I got a $6 food voucher and a ticket giving me a free taxi ride back to hotel when I landed. Managed to get back to Oakland around 0030 in the end (San Fransisco and Oakland from the air at night, with the whole Bay Area lit up, is possibly one of the most incredible things. It was just so pretty, with all the millions of tiny lights spread out like sparkling jewels on black velvet), and after zipping through the baggage check, was out and back in my hotel by 0100, where I promptly collapsed into bed.

In summary, Portland was amazing. I really love the city (which reminds me of Cardiff so, so much), and I really want to go back and spend more time there with people. It's strange how somethings just seem.. right, even if you can't express it. I wish I had a way with words.

The End.


And now I'm off to New York for 5 days tonight on a Red Eye flight. I leave San Jose at 2200, and arrive in New York at 0630... except that's 0630 New York time, and about 0330 my time. I'm going to need some extra sleep somewhere, methinks.

My life in text, words like a heartbeat, floating through space

Let's start with last weekend.

I took Anna out for some sushi on Sunday, and although we ordered rather too much, it was absolutely delicious. I really must try and find Asahi in shops over here; the only place that sells it afaik is the actual restaurants, which is horribly expensive. Such good beer though.
After the sushi (and listening to Christmas carols for an hour.. already!), I gave in, and went with Anna back to Circuit City and bought a Palm T|X. A very good decision, as it's already proved it's worth in helping me organise my increasingly hectic schedule. Still $300 amidst all by current travel expenditure is a lot of money. So I decided to spend another $50 on a Logitech 2.1 speaker system. Again, good decision... I hadn't realised quite how degraded my 5 year old Tiny speakers had gotten. So, happy happy.

Anna and I just chilled for most of the afternoon, then Anh, Patricia, Hakan, Marija and Helena came over and we watched a movie. Was great just to hang out with people, watch a movie, chat. I've got some great friends here, and I just know I'm gonna really hate moving back to the UK, even though I miss by Canterbury friends.

The entire week at work was incredibly busy... started work on a prototype component for a major project, and not only did I understand completely what I was doing, I was able to make a contribution to the design, and got told by my boss that I had done a good job. So I felt very good about that. Just a shame that things changed today, and most of the work I did has to be redone differently. I guess that's work for you, though.

Went out to San Fransisco with Patricia on Thursday evening for a meal at a Jazz Cafe with a bunch of the San Fransisco AIESECers, most of which I hadn't seen since ROKS, so that was pretty awesome. I was driving, and it only took us *2 hours* to get there. The 880N was crawling, and then we got lost in San Fransisco. After some funky driving, and circling the restaurant looking for parking (San Fransisco is full of *really* sharp streets, and some idiot thought it'd be a good idea to have a stop sign at the top of one. Cue some great wheel spins. Great fun though. And the views of SF are amazing), we finally got in. Delicious food, and great to meet people again.

Came back early though, and met up with Anna around 11pmish to go watch the 12:10 showing of Harry Potter. Such an amazing film. I won't spoil it for anyone, but I thought it was the best so far. Great humour, yet serious in all the right places. Didn't like Cho, and thought Dumbledore was acted all wrong, but apart from that, utterly amazingly excellent. Very true to the book, too. I thought Voldemort especially was played superbly.

Woke up on Friday morning feeling *very* ill, so drank a whole load of orange juice, and went into work. Tried to get on with work, but just felt even sicker after a while, so I came home, finished off 2 liters of OJ, and slept for most of the rest of the day. Felt sooo much better when I woke up.

Then it was time to jet off to Portland for the weekend. But I'll leave that for another journal entry. I had an utterly awesome time though, and I love Portland so, so much. It reminds me muchly of Cardiff. And I got on so well with everyone there (well, I *think* I did...), and just kinda.. fitted in... felt really meh having to leave. I really felt at home there.

Ah well. *le sigh*

Mega Update #49573

I seem to have gotten back into my old habit of updating once a week with a mammoth entry. Ooops.
So, the last few days.

Wednesday was the GPM, so drove down to San Jose with Gary (he drove.. and stalled about 5 times, and managed to drive *over* a central reservation), and got into these new Peer Group thingies. Good stuff, had a good chat. Also realised I've 28476230874 things to do.

Thursday was very hectic. Worked solid all day, then got a taxi down to the Avis car rental place in Fremont as soon as work finished. After the $20 taxi ride though, it turned out that Avis didn't have any cars left for rental. Bummer. So I legged it a mile and a half through Fremont to the closest rental place (Hertz), and ended up paying $100 for a car for 1 day. Horribly expensive (seeing as I could get a car for the whole week for just $175 from Avis), but a really nice car. So smoooooth. T'was a Hyundai, I forget the model.
Anyway, got back to the hotel with just enough time to have a quick shower and change into slightly smarter clothes before heading down to San Jose with Gary (me driving this time) to a hotel where a number of old aiesec alumini were, all now in businesses, for a social/networking thingy. It was for the benefit of the aiesec members (ie not me), but it was still pretty cool meeting everyone.
That kinda tailed off around 9pmish, so Helena, Gary, Marissa, Stephan and I decided to go out to a place called The Britannia Arms, a "British" bar. I was designated driver for Gary, Helena and Stephan, and drove first to Helena's so she could pick up some stuff, then to Marissa's, so I could follow her to the bar.
After queueing for a while, we got in, and it was a pretty good night; There was a good live band, and I met a bunch of Marissa's friends. Good stuffs. Didn't leave there until 2am though, and after dropping Stephan off at his house (via the iHouse), headed back up to the hotel for 3amish, where Gary managed to throw up over the rental. Good stuff.

After 4 hours sleep, had another full day at work, before taking the rental back to Hertz, and going back to Avis to get the cheaper car (they actually had one for me this time). It's not as nice (a Chevrolet Cobalt), but still pretty cool. The plan after that was to go home, shower, pick people up at the BART station at 6.30, go to a fundraising dinner 'til 8.45ish, then go into The City for some drinks.
I didn't get to the BART station until 7 in the end though, due to traffic, but picked up Shady and his fiance, and then it was off to Citrus House for the fundraising dinner (raising money for the earthquake victims in Pakistan). Didn't get there until 8ish, and the food, whilst excellent was also delayed, meaning I didn't have all that much time there. A real shame :/

Anyway, I was on my way to San Fransisco when, as I was stopped at a light waiting to turn right, some guy comes up behind me, slows the his car down, then hits my back bumper! Not only that, but he then backed up, swung around to my left, and drove off!! Needless to say, I got more than a little annoyed at that, but thankfully there was no damage to the car, I just got delayed as I regained my composure.

Ended up in a bar on Mission and 22nd (I think), and spent the whole evening there with Daga, which was really cool; Hadn't seen her in aaaages, and it was good to catch up with her. Got kicked out of the bar around 2am, whereupon we found a pizza place, ate some (delicious, though it could have been the drink telling me that) pizza, and departed. I managed to make it back to the hotel in under 30 mins (35 miles), and, forgetting to drink water, crashed into bed.

Woke up stupidly early this morning (10am!), and after dozing for a while, decided to get up and go shopping. So I did. And I got 2 new pairs of trousers, and 2 new t-shirts. I managed to stop myself from buying a PDA (Circuit City is a BAD place, full of very tempting items), though I'm saw one I liked, and I'm going to see if I can get it for less than $300 online.

Hmm, I think that's pretty much it. I was supposed to be going back into San Fransisco tonight to go out gaybar-hopping with Saldy and a bunch of others (An experience, I'm sure, given San Francisco's reputation as Gay Capital of America), but I'm probably going to go with the other option of a meal at Patricia's place, a movie, followed by maybe a quiet drink in a bar in San Jose.

Tomorrow, I sleep!


Hmm. I just checked my rental reciept; I drove just over 100 miles on Thursday night, and I know I did about 150 yesterday. That's looooads, considering I only passed my test on Tuesday ^_^

Woohoo

I have a car, I'm about to go shopping, and I'm going out for the 3rd night in a row tonight. Doom is descending upon my bank balance.

I've had an *excellent* few days, I'll update properly when I get back from buying new clothes and maybe a palm pda


DOOM, I tell ye

I rock \m/

The weekend was excellent; BBQ went very well, although I was hoping people from Berkely and/or SF would turn up, which they didn't. Still, many burgers eaten, many corona's drunk, much cool chattage, and one drunk journal entry. Win.

Mooched around on Sunday, after waking up stupidly early to see Marija and Patricia off, doing nothing much. Was horribly tempted to spend lots of money on the GTA PSP game. It looks absolutely awesome, but I've got about 5 games to complete already, as well as 4 books to read. So I played some Max Payne 2, read lots, and got an early night.

Yesterday was a similarly chilled evening, watching Stargate SG1 and reading more. Oh, and buying flights to Portland, Oregon. Woohoo. \o/

And this morning, I passed my driving test on the first attempt with (only) 9 minors (you're allowed 15 before you fail). So, I rock muchly. Now I have to decide whether getting a rental at $150 a week is worth it for a few weeks until I can buy my own car. Buying a car is gonna be fun, especially seeing as I'm spending all my money on travel at the moment :P

I passed my test ^_^

*does a little dance, makes a little love, gets down tonight*

Nationa;l Drunk Writers Night

The train station was dark and damp, just like a dark and damp train station. Inside, the two old hags argued abput the worth of an old muppet. The muppet in question was Elmo, Don't ask me why, I'm just writing this. Elmo was a relative of Cotton Eyed Joe, a long lost muppetter of the wild wild east, throwing candy out to kids in the streeet like the milky bar kid. Do you remember the milky bar kid? I was given those white chocolate bars all the time as a kid, and I hated them,. Dark choclate is so mcuh better.


Anyway, so, Elmo. Yes. He was being held hstoge, and things were grm. He needed a way out of the situation, so he called on him trusty skillz0rs as a muppet, and sanf Fanamana do dooo do do dooo... fanamana doo doo doo do. ANd the guards went mad as the song buried it's way into teit heads. And oooooooooooh, sweet child of mine!


Le corona was dancing on the head of a monk as Emlo exited the scene, hasityl, with a bucket of beer on his back. wooo allliterion. Pie. mmm, pie. Allpe pie, cheryy pie, s'all good t me.

I'm not supooesed to be sing the backspace key on this enntry, so I u=guess I'd beter stop, eh? I doubt this'll be anyehere near 50000 words, wither. Mebbe 200 or so. Who knows, maye I'll stay nup all night and wronte the most ystical novel eva! yeah, with dragions and ladies and wooooyay!

So, once upon a time, there was a dragon. tThe dragon was named John. John had a babeh dragon named... uh... Peter. For his brithday, Johna sked Peter what he wanted. Peter Asked for a BLACK PING PONG BALL, and.... waht? ou don't watn me to continue~? Booo, ou guys suck. I love that joke :(


Mupppets and Dragons, what a wierd combination eh? I reckon a dragon muupet shoul db emade. That would rock. Rawk.


Anywhos. Mebbe I should head to skeep now, right? I have two hawt ladies sleeping in my lving room, and my BBQ went well (though no one from SF or Berkeley turned up, bah!), and I drank muchos coronoa (again_
I had *just( rehydated myself from lst weekend, when BANg, looooads more alchol to dehydrate me.
I think I should mebbe drink less, but I stll have a drawer full of drink in my drifeg. I also need some cola to go ith my 100% prood soluthern comfort.

hmm. this has devated somewhat from the NaDruWriNi thingy, so m'off to bed.
night folks
I lub j00 allz0rz

mebbe some of ou ore than others.

Tonight is also









You have been warned

32 x Burger: Check
32 x Burger Buns: Check
32 x Hot Dogs: Check
32 x Hot Dog Buns: Check
Condiments: Check
Plastic Cups: Check
1 x HUGE Tub of Ice Cream: Check
24 x Corona: Check
3 x Lime: Check
Salad: Check

I can't think of anything else I need for the BBQ this evening...

In other news, I ran 2 miles in 14 minutes (before collapsing in a heap on the floor) this morning, followed by lazing out in the pool. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Almost nothing beats lazing out in the sun by the pool after a nice relaxing swim.

Also, I could be going to Portland in 2 weeks. My plans for saving money seem to be disappearing faster than my Corona did last weekend. All good though.

Life ++

I just ate a cow

I think I'm turning into an American... I just ate a 1lb burger with mushrooms, bacon and cheese, for lunch. Easily. Ooops?

In other news, last night's social went rather well. I had a bunch of people turn up at the hotel, and we just chilled for a few hours, looked at some photos from the weekend, had a laugh. Ended up watching Bill Bailey's Part Troll at the end of the night ('til 1am >.<) with Patricia, Anna, and some of the other interns.. excellent stuff. I really need to show my American friends over here Eddie Izzard ~ Dressed To Kill. I've shown 3 people it already, and they loved it.

I also, for some reason, have an overwhelming urge to sit down and watch The Island again. I don't know why so many people didn't like it, I thought it was an excellent movie, on par with the original Matrix film for the mix of action and philosophical backing (though both are much more subtle in The Island). So it's either sit down and watch that this evening, or go out into San Fran (or The City... I can never decide which name to use ;) ) with the other interns, if they're going, and possibly meet up with some of the people I met last weekend.

Speaking of which... I was leaving to go to ROKS this time last week. This time a week ago tomorrow, and ROKS would have been half way through.
I hate how time flies when you're having fun. Roll on the Winter Conference, then.

Oh, and for all the folks asking me whether I'll be heading back home for Christmas, the answer is no. Sadly not. I've a pretty packed schedule (Santa Cruz on Xmas Eve, Bakersfield Xmas Day, Salt Lake City 26-29th, then Ohio 30th-6th) so I won't be seeing folks from home 'til I get back there for my final year next September. I do expect phonecalls though. No one calls me at the moment, I feel so forgotten :[

o/~ If it hadn't been for Cotton Eyed Joe, I'd been married a long time ago
o/~ where did you come from, where did you go, where di you come from, Cotton Eyed Joe

*spins around on his spinny chair*


I want last weekend back.

I'M GOING TO NEW YORK FOR THANKSGIVING ^_^


*bounce*

Yup, one happy Ben. I also get to see Phantom of the Opera for the first time on Broadway on thanksgiving evening itself. It's costing loads, but I don't care \o/

HAPPY!

So, the question is, who's in NYC who wants to meet me? Or, who wants to come to NYC and meet up with me? :D



In other news, I've had to reschedule my driving test to next Tuesday, as it conflicted with a work meeting. I also gave a presentation and demo of the program/tool I've been coding for the last 2 months, which went well. I was also looking at some new lenses for my Digital SLR camera, and saw some very tempting wideangle lenses, and some more tempting ultrazoom lenses. But I'd need a tripod too then, and the camera goes from something that's fairly easy to carry about to as big and heavy as a small elephant.

Also, I think I tripped over a fox on the way home from work.

It looks like, despite my best intentions, I won't be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I've oodles of inspiration, yet sadly not the time for it.

However,





looks like it might just about be attainable. I'm having a BBQ at the hotel that night to celebrate Bonfire Night (sadly no bonfire (hotel said no) or fireworks (illegal over here)), and there *may* just be some alcohol consumption involved.

And now, to continue reading Tad Williams ~ River of Blue Fire. I hardly have any free time for reading and gameplaying anymore.

One mammoth journal entry coming up

Okies. AIESEC is a global student organisation with loads of people and chapters in over 90 countries. The aim is foster cultural understanding by providing traineeships to members to go abroad for some time, and work in a company there. This not only gives the trainee work experience, but it allows them to experience a different culture in a different country. And they'll be going to an area with an AIESEC chapter, so they'll have friends there already.
AIESEC also provide services to companys like Sun, where the traineeship isn't through AIESEC, but only sponsored by them, in order to obtain the relevant visas. So, whilst not a member of AIESEC, I'm still affiliated with it as a trainee.

This weekend I went to ROKS, which is basically a training/orientation event for members, where members are told how to go about applying for traineeships, how to help out with the local chapter, and how to do sales and servicing (obtaining traineeships from local businesses to be made available to AIESECers the world over). Even though I'm not a member, and none of those applied to me, it was still great to go there and meet a bunch of people not just from here, but from all over the west coast, and I was able to share something of the British culture too, which is what AIESEC is all about; cultural understanding.

I wanted to give something of a background so you guys know what I'm talking about when I mention AIESEC in my posts. Now onto why this weekend rocked ma socks.


I was picked up by Marija (trainee from Australia), Helena (trainee from Brazil) and Patricia (trainee from Dominican Republic) mid afternoon on Friday, and we spent about 5 hours driving up to Lake Tahoe (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Newark,+CA+to+South+Lake+Tahoe,+CA&hl=en though we actually took the I80 through Oakland, not the I205) listening and singing along to cheesy music. Was excellent. I also made a powerpoint presentation in the car about Britain for the Global Village (a sort of collection of stuff about different countries). Stopped off for food just after Sacramento at a Denny's.

Arrived in Tahoe around 9pmish, where upon I registered, dumped my bag in my room, and wandered around meeting new people. Very few people were actually around then (most didn't arrive until 11-12ish), so I grabbed Mads car and went to the local superstore to buy some batteries for him and a 24 crate of Corona for me.

More people were there by the time I got back, and I started drinking... things started around 11.30 with the introductory talks and stuff, and then the Global Village started, where people wandered around, looked at the countries displays, and asked the people from the country questions, etc. Around 1am, and (maybe) a little tipsy, I managed to get everyone (almost 80 people at this point) and I did my presentation. Considering I made it in the car on the way there that afternoon, it went *very* well, and I think I managed to make it fun and interesting. Maybe cos of my comments about how we ruled half the world, and stuff.
Anyway, the party continued through until about 4am, and I met loadsa new people. Was excellent.

Woke up around 7.30 on Saturday, had breakfast (bagels), and started the day by doing Roll Calls. A Roll Call is a way for an LC (local community, chapter, whatever) to introduce itself to the rest of the LC's present. I had to write the San Jose (the LC I'm with) Roll Call, as I was made their mascot. I had re-written Monty Python's Lumberjack Song (I know, shame on me.), and it was excellent. Much goodness.

The rest of Saturday was taken up with informative sessions, training, and learning stuff. I chaired a discussion on how American Foreign Policy affects other countries perception of America, which went well, and I generally contributed how and where I could.

I obtained another 24 crate of Corona too, seeing as I had finished most of the other crate, and a bunch of straws.

At around 10pm, the sessions finished, and ROKS itself was over... and then the party started. Used the straws to torpedo some Coronas, and was, too my horror, beaten my Anh. The shame :[. I went around meeting loads more people, and, uh, getting to know other more. Games were played (The Boat Game (lots of drinking) the 0-0-7-BANG game (lots of hitting each other)), songs were sang (Abraham has 7 sons was the funniest), and dances were danced (Cotton Eyed Joe! I love that song!). The word "bisoun" was discovered, and used with great effect. I also found out that I could get away with anything.

The party kinda slowed down around 4am, and I was in bed by 5 (after the clock change though, so 6am body-clock-time), and was up again by 8am. Had breakfast, tided up, and was leaving the cabin by 10am, even though there was still a general round up thing to be done, and awards given out (I got the award for Most Active Trainee... woohoo!). It was really really sad to leave without saying a proper goodbye to everyone.

However, Marija, Helena, Patricia and I, with Gary (another Sun trainee staying in Newark) following behind us, then went on a loop around Lake Tahoe. It was unbeliveably stunningly beautifully fantastic. The scenery was just simply awesome. It took as 6 hours to do a 2 hour drive, we were stopping so much. And what made it just so much better was chilling out in the car, listening to excellent music, and singing along all together, and just experiencing such wonderful things with friends. I was so, so, so happy.

I have bunches and bunches of photos from both ROKS and the trip around Tahoe, and I'll let them speak for themselves. It was just unbelievable, words don't do it justice.

After that, we started driving back to San Fransisco... was really difficult to stop myself from dozing off in the car, but I played a whole bunch of music, and we all sang along again, and it was good. We stopped for food about 20 miles past Sacramento at iHoP (excellentest food anywhere. mmm, pancakes), where I switched out of the girls' car and in with Gary, and we headed back to Newark.

Arrived back around 9pm, sorted out emails an LJ and stuff, and then crashed into bed.



And that was my weekend. It was simply so unbeliveably excellent. Lake Tahoe was stunningly gorgeous, and travelling around it with friends was sublime. And ROKS was similarly excellent; I've met so many new people, and I really, really hope I keep in contact with some of them.


Also, I was up at 8 this morning, and ended up pushing Colin's car around in an attempt to start it after he had drained the battery by leaving the keys in the ignition overnight. Just the start to the morning I needed :P