9 out of 10 examiners prefer Alex Guite over other leading brands

As you might expect given that this is June, all sorts of crazy stuff has been 'going down' recently (note to perverts: this is not innuendo).
One event I really didn't give much attention to is the one year anniversary of my blog, which occurred back on the 11th of June. I'll be honest: I really didn't think I would still be doing this blog thing a year later. I only started it as a way to take my mind off the fact that I had a single insect bite which had swelled up to cover the entire length of my forearm. Turns out, it was infected. It seems that the experience also infected me with the blogging bug.
This opens the door to a whole range of cool new features, such as the "What was I doing one year ago?" feature. Turns out that this time last year I was in Cardiff watching Muppet videos and sleeping in hammocks. There's a strange symmetry to all of this because Rosie gave me an Executive hammock for my Birthday yesterday (note to Editors: my Birthday is next week, but I've been celebrating it since last Thursday; note to Rosie: thanks for the hammock!). I'm going to try it out in Battersea Park soon.
Other cool stuff which occurred recently included the Summer Ball, which easily won the award of being the Best Summer Ball ever.
I changed my travel plans so I could get back to the Union Colours awards ceremony in order to drink more free pseudo-champagne than I could shake a glass at. TBR's Martin Archer got half colours, I believe for "services to playing out all the latest urban tunes".
Finally of course, there was the end of term Carnival and the announcement of degree classes. Well done to everybody on your results!

Iran vs. USA

Pretty much like everyone else, I'm really getting into the Official FIFA World Cup. Given that I'm not into the whole 'football' thing, my approach is to quip endlessly about waiting for an Iran vs. USA match if anyone tries to talk to me about any of the 'big matches' which are coming up. One aspect of the World Cup which delights me the most is all the cash-in football anthems. I've currently got Infernal's from London to Berlin stuck in my head. You should also check out Neil and Christine Hamilton's world cup tune. It is really, really, really good. I can't stress this last point enough.

eating my keyboard

Recently I've been working really hard on takin' it easy after the exams. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it as well.

Last week I popped up to Oxford to help Becky celebrate the end of her exams. I assited in the only way I know: by drinking a number of cocktails which were on fire.

On my return to London I entertained and hosted Ev and Hutch (of going to school with me fame) and Jat for the weekend. Notable events included Hutch loosing a bet to Jat which resulted in him wearing a stylish hat for the entire weekend as forefeit (read on for more interesting anecdotes connected with the hat).


I've also spent some time in Cardiff, during which time I was chiefly concerned with the production of smoothies and the drinking thereof. I also achieved a life ambition: to get stuck in a motorway traffic jam so bad that I could get out of my car and sit on the central reservation. In addition to exchanging frustrated grimaces with my fellow drivers, I spent most of the hour and a half I was stuck there wondering whether it would be a social faux-part to piss on the embankment (conclusion: yes it would have been even though I desperatley needed to go; I passed the time by phoning people such as Gav to explain the nature of my predicament).

Back in the days of web 1.0 I ran thefinephotosite where I exhibited all of my photography pictures. It turns out that shortly before my A-levels finished I promised to update the site and I even went so far as to pledge that if I didn't, "I would eat my keyboard". You can probably guess just how confident I was that I would update the site. But my young optimism was misplaced: I haven't touched the site for four years. Hutch was having none of this and challenged me to follow through on my promise on a confectionary keyboard which he himself undertook to create. The only snag: should I fail to eat the keyboard in under twenty minutes I would have to wear Hutch's hat to Cardiff Union's end of term event, 'Drink the Bar Dry' (I must say, I was impressed by the Union's commitment to encouraging responsible drinking). I was well up for the challenge, and after we set out some basic ground rules (such as the 'no peanut rule') I was feeling pretty confident. Eight packets of Munchies, two sponge cakes, a Twix and one Flake later Hutch and his crack team of cake artisans had crafted a genuine keyboard.


The moment I realised that this could well be a Sisyphean task was when Ev mentioned that they had used fondant icing. Fondant icing! Forsoothe! Is it possible to find a sweeter, stogier or more sickly icing? The answer is that it is as impossible as finding more words which begin with 's' to continue alliterating about fondant icing. Nonetheless I refused to shrink from the challenge. I gave it my best shot but when I started shivering from the ridiculous sugar consumption at the three quarters mark I knew it was time to give in.

Exams, degree, smoking in the Union: all finished

I suffered the unedifying experience of being woken up by David Cameron's record choices on Desert Island Discs this morning. I guess I should have been prepared for this as his appearance has been mercilessly plugged all week under the banner of 'news' on the BBC. Who would have guessed that Dave is in to trendy music like Radiohead?
In real news this week I finished my degree on Tuesday, which we celebrated with a champagne fight on the Queen's Lawn. It's important to note that I'm using the term champagne in the loosest possible sense, but for £3.50 per bottle it tasted surprisingly good. In fact it tasted strikingly similar to the sweet taste of finished exams.
Yesterday's Physics Leavers Party was pretty entertaining. I think Jake got involved in a scuffle concerning the Copenhagen versus the Many-Worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics. I headed over to the Union afterwards to celebrate with Dan and others the first day of a smoking ban in the Union. Although I know this isn't conclusive evidence after one night, it was still quite crowded in there. So even though the bars weren't clogged with second hand smoke (which a recent campus survey revealed to be offputting), the Union's atmosphere is still smokin' hot.
For reasons I can't adequately explain, I then went to a "sexual fantasies" fancy dress themed party. Naturally, I went dressed as myself.