My Jam-Packed July

If you’re reading this, then you’re the very privileged reader of my first ever travel blog post. Well, so it’s probably not technically a travel post, as it will have little reviewing of places or anything boring stuff like that, but instead what I mean by it is that I’m writing it on my previously mentioned jam-packed summer. Oh and I’m also writing it whilst hurtling at some not fast enough speed back to Macclesfield on a train. Which is my excuse why today no T⁷R will be seen, as I have no access to internet and therefore my whole recipe base has been taken away from me; however, if you actually care about T⁷R, you will be pleased to know that I will attempt (and attempt really hard) to write it tomorrow instead (and I don’t care that it’ll be Friday it’ll still be called T⁷R.)

So I presume the right place to start will be to explain why the heck I’m on a train, and why the heck is said train taking me back to Macc (no offense Macc, I would just prefer to be going elsewhere). Well the fact is that I’ve already started my jam-packed July (don’t you just love it when the title of something is included in the thing itself), and the place I’m currently travelling away from at a speed which frankly should be greater is Hampshire. (Also well observed people might notice that it is in fact June atm, but my July is so jam-packed it has overfilled into June and August)

Now I think it would be right to justify my comments about the train’s speed, which I will actually do properly this time (most usually for me, no waffle here, an actual solid reason). In the process of getting down to Hampshire (it was no coincidence that I ended up there) I took the train down to London Euston, then the sub across to Waterloo (well it in fact a mix of sub and frantic running after Waterloo sub was closed). That train took a measly hour and a half to make it to London, the train I’m now on is taking over 3 hours to make it back to Macc. Although having complained about the time taken, it has in fact ended up producing this (no doubt excellent) post.

Right so what else do I need to explain? How about why on earth was I in Hampshire in the first place? Well that one’s easy to explain, I came down to visit my friend Emma (who is the same Emma whom told me to write T⁷R, and now has subsequently caused the slight failure of it one week in). I’m going to go back on my original promise now, and just say quickly that Hampshire is in fact quite a nice place, end of review.

So that means one holiday down, several more to come with leaver’s ball and results day thrown into the mix too. Hopefully this was a sign of things to come, great-ish weather (well great for England) and great company with bundles of laughs; surely that is what summer is all about. 

However of course all these holidays do have their downsides, and no the travelling isn’t one (I’m the kind of person that believes that the journey is part of the holiday, even if it’s spent listening to music whilst day-dreaming about absolutely nothing). The major downside I foresee is the packing, for you packing fans might I add that I don’t hate packing (well maybe a little); it’s merely the situation and the timing of the packing.

Let’s put it into perspective, this train will arrive in Macc gone 11 pm, and I’m so tired (well tired now the “so” is retrospective as I know that I will have to sort this post out once back) and so I will be trying to get a good night’s sleep. Then tomorrow evening I will be at leaver’s ball, all dressed up in tux et al, then the next morning I will be driving at a great speed (I’ll add legal to that) all the way back south to Neath. So that leaves Friday afternoon for all packing and various and frankly a lot of chores.

Not too bad then, you might think but next Friday I’m having to leave my friends and Neath to get back to Macc, ready for a cruise (which is setting off from Southampton, so yet again I will be travelling to the south). Lucky me hey, well yes I’m not complaining about it, I really like the fact that my summer is so packed. But it does mean that tomorrow I will also have to pack for that as well, and since I don’t own enough clothes to last all 3 holidays (well t-shirts are fine) I will have to be washing and frantically drying clothes in order that I don’t end up getting a full body tan.

Sorry about complaining about that, it’s frankly a small price to pay for what will hopefully be the most bestest summer yet. Especially when I will able to make use of all my newly acquired blazers, having already done so (although it really hampered my mad dash across London). But wait, that’s not all, after all that I’ve got soul survivor to come (which luckily is not in the south, there’s a limit to the amount of yo-yoing between Macc and the south I can cope with), then Y-Not Festival (which is fantastically under an hour away). Then after the small matter of results day, I will finally be able to relax in Macc, before getting ready for uni and the dragging of Emma up north, in order to finally prove to her that north is best.

I think that’s enough of me talking frankly, and I might potentially get a kip (but most likely some useless time-wasting day dreaming). If you haven’t yet realised, this post is serving as my excuse of the very probably potential lack of posting in the coming weeks. So I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a great summer and hopefully I will be writing in a few weeks about the great time I’ve had, and if not then at least it’ll be an entertaining tale of woe.  

My Greek Summer

Now i would like to say that the title of this post comes from my recent discover of a  frankly excellent Greek flatbread recipe, opening up a whole new food stream for me to try over summer, also just a nice snack for those long summer days. However that is not the reason for the title at all. It seems that in my attempts to pack my summer with awesomeness, i might have sort of run out of money. Thrusting me back into super frugal mode after a few months of lavish (well definitely lavish for me, so actually probably not that lavish really) spending, having found myself with a few extra pounds in my pocket.

I'm sure though that all my money hasn't gone into sorting out summer, it can't have, can it? I just have this niggling feeling that somewhere large amounts of money have slipped through; i sort of wished i had some sort of accounts or something to help me get rid of the feeling, by letting me look back and go "well that's where it all went", although it wouldn't help the lack of cash thinking about it. Right now all i can do is attempt to think back and remember what I've spent in the last few months and for me that's a very difficult task. I mean what did i spend last week, i just don't know. A prime example of this was last month when i bought some clothes and then for the next few days sat wondering where £30 had disappeared to, even when wearing said clothes i couldn't remember.

So that's part of the spending mystery sorted, and i deem it was a necessary expense as part of uni prep. I mean i can't go to uni with only one nerdy t shirt, i need at least 6 and coincidentally i now own 6! Then there's trousers which aren't jeans, because weirdly i didn't own a pair before, all i had were loads of pairs of jeans. Lastly but definitely not least on the clothes front is my blazers, of which the number i own has doubled now thanks to a sale. Then there were blue suede shoes, shorts and some sunglasses as well, so really i reckon i can put a large amount down to clothes.

However i think i know where the smaller change has gone, and when i say smaller change i mean lots of small change so it probably adds up to a sizable sum actually. That has most likely gone to the worldwide establishment which is McDonald's. And no i don't have meals from McDonald's regularly, although in the past few months I've had about 3 meals from there, the real problem is the late night trips for McFlurrys. These trips have become a little tradition with my friends and honestly i think that buying a McFlurry nearly every week was a worthwhile expense as there's been some good McFlurry moments... that sounds like it could become some sort of mini-series or something... hmmmm maybe.

Then on top of that i have already booked 4 holidays this summer, and that has come to quite a summation and frankly if i cared to total the cost of them i'm not sure i would be comfortable with the amount spent, especially since that's just the core cost, there's still the actually spending on the holidays to come, and i don't mean gifts and such i mean food and petrol, so not exactly avoidable costs. As always i try to find the positive, and what i can say is that this summer is going to be pretty fun, apart from the boring bits between going away... maybe i need more holidays... no can't afford them, damn.

So i think that probably accounts for my lost money actually. Not that thinking about what I've spent money on in the past will help me in the future where i will be scraping the barrel at some points, i guess i can always just forgo on food, that's much less important than blazers. The old frugal Sean will have to return i guess for summer, and i do like frugal Sean, but cutting back on McFlurrys and nerdy shirts could be a real difficulty. On the positive side though, i am going to uni soon and the frugal prep work might put me in good stead for then, i suppose.

Actually the title is probably a bit wrong in the end. Although my finances are not looking great, at least i have no debt, well apart from to parents... and friends, ok not that much debt. Also i know i can cut back on spending without fear of strikes or protests, unless i turn on myself... maybe there could be tension actually then, i don't trust that Sean character... sorry got a bit sidetracked, what i was saying was unlike the Greek crisis i can see a clear route out. Even if i have to cut back and scrimp my way through summer, at least it'll be an enjoyable and sunny few months of my life... actually maybe scrap the sunny part.

Mmmmm flatbread: 

http://jamieshomecookingskills.com/recipe.php?title=easy-flatbreads

The Great Shortnundrum

Spring has well and truly sprung, bringing with it the start of the summer weather. Yes i know that it is still a long time until summer actually starts, but let's be honest the weather at the moment is a great way to warm up for summer, which by the looks of things should hopefully be a scorcher. However this of course leads to one of the greatest problems of spring: when is it the right time to relegate the jeans to the back of the wardrobe and  bring forth the shorts (and in case you're wondering where all the other trousers go in my wardrobe, don't bother, all i have are jeans and shorts, because what else could possibly be needed)? 

Now this might not seem such a great problem to a lot of people, surely you wear shorts when it's warm and if it gets cold you switch back to jeans. And you know what that is a perfectly sensible and rational idea, however, i'm not rational or sensible and so i stick to the belief that once you've donned your first pair of shorts of the year, then that's that, there's no going back until the end of summer (but probably autumn, since the hot weather keeps encroaching delightfully into the late year). Surprisingly, if my memory serves me correct and not just making stuff up, i'm not the only one who shares this thought, so maybe i'm not so crazy after all (well at least not in this particular case.)

And this decision keeps getting harder each year, with spring getting warmer meaning the conundrum has to be dealt with earlier and earlier each year, and then of course in autumn (as mentioned) a similar effect is happening, meaning the decision of when to ditch the shorts also cause a major problem. The reason for all this warmness is of course the constantly picked on and despised climate change. 

Picked on and despised (i hear you say... well i imagine you say)? Yes i did mean that, and yes there are plenty of bad effects of climate change, namely rising sea levels and thus disappearance of low lying land. And extreme weather phenomenomnoms (not a typo, it just sounds better like this) that wreak havoc, but like everything you have to look at both sides and being optimistic at least climate change is getting rid of spring and autumn and replacing them with a longer and better summer.

Overall i admit that perhaps the negatives outweigh the positives, but we might as well make the most of it, even if it's just to annoy the pessimists by acknowledging their view that there's little we can do about it (although that's an entirely different debate) but then enjoying the positives of this pessimistic view, and then even if there is nothing we can do (again there probably is somethings, but i'll leave that debate till another day), we aren't left feeling completely sorry for ourselves, although the water up to the knees might dampen  the optimism (see what i did there? "dampen"... sorry awful pun.)

So despite that bit of a ramble, here is the problem i've been dealing with (and indeed deal with every year), should i commit early and possibly endure some very cold legs when the beautiful weather goes away, or late and endure the sweltering jean legs, quite possibly one of the worst feelings one can experience. So as ever i've decided to take the plunge and dive in early this year, now in case someone sees me not wearing shorts i might add that you can wear trousers late evening if travelling out a.k.a. going down t' pub. Hopefully though the weather should keep up allowing many short days ahead (although they would be long days in terms of sunlight.)

So long live this wonderful weather and let's hope for a super summer (well i know one of you doesn't share this wish, after admitting their hate for the sunny weather, you know who you are), and as for the great shortnundrum, it is over again for another year, and i'll keep my side of the bargain, weather it's up to you now, don't let me down...

Lights... Camera... Action...

Ever had one of those brilliant idea moments? You know the one where you sat around chatting with friends, and suddenly a utterly awesome idea to pops right into your head, whether it be starting a band, going on a road trip across America or, as it was today, making a film. Now before anyone doubts this idea, i should say i have made a film before (albeit for an economics homework and it being only 5 mins long), and definitely, unlike all the other great ideas I've had before this one, i will actually do this one. Well hopefully anyway.

But there are good reasons for my optimism (and when i say good reasons i probably mean just reasons, because they're probably not that good.) Firstly, what could be simpler than making a film, i mean all it is is coming up with a good story, filming some stuff on said story, then editing said stuff into a half decent piece of media. Simple right. Well unfortunately, from prior experience, the editing is not very simple and take a while to do, luckily it looks like most of my summer is unbooked with any kind of activities, meaning a lot of spare boring time, so what better than trying to extract quality from what will probably be not very good clips.

So problem solved right, well not quite. After coming up with the brilliant idea, we found the brick wall that was the story. I mean we could do something simple like horror, or murder-mystery, but that's all been done before, and if we're going to do this we might as well be overambitious and try to think of a totally new original idea for a story. And of course the story has to keep in mind our tight budget (namely nothing), meaning any effects are out the window unless it can be done in editing, but i like to keep to the motto, Keep It Simple Stupid, so no effects can be really used. So if anyone out there has a great plot for us to use, feel free to comment and i will make sure all credit for it may go to you.

Another great reason for such an endeavour, is the fact that as a group we are going away for a week in a rented house and so we will have a location and actors readily available. Well maybe actors is a bit incorrect in this context, however there will have people there, who will be willing to take part (and if they're not, i'm sure edible bribes can be used.)

So that's all the those details sorted, and i can honestly see this happening, maybe out of sheer boredom but nevertheless it can, and should, be done. Especially so it can make up for all the other failed ideas that never really got any further than the planning stage (i.e. as soon as actually work had to be done, they fell apart), and maybe buoyed with the success of seeing an idea through to the very end, i might one day return to those great ideas, or maybe new even better ideas. So hopefully in about 7 months time i will be able to show you all what will no doubt be a masterpiece of average homemade cinema. But first i should probably get some sort of video camera, because apparently you need one in order to shoot a film, who ever knew?