Poker Face

I just played poker with the boys. I was doing really badly for the first half but then, as the underdog, came back and fleeced everybody. Here are my chips.

That right there is a pile of victory.

I went to town today, got a haircut and bought Final Fantasy XIII and a Manchester United home shirt. It felt good to be back in my city. In the words of Elbow, "Coming home I feel like I designed these buildings I walk by". 

In other news, I have fallen in love with another song. It is so simple yet so sincere. It brings feelings of nostalgia, both happy and sad, and I think I want to have it played at my funeral. The thing is, I don't think people at my funeral will want to sit through the 9 minute length of the song. Well here it is anyway.

Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger


I am off to Italy on Tuesday. I am brimming with excitement!


Sam

Don't go to Slough

I'm back in Cardiff, barely. Too tired to function after a night out last night and a long mother's day filled with a meal at a lovely restaurant, watching football with Dad and my brother (quality man bonding time; something I've missed) and driving back here.

On the drive back, all was going swimmingly however the sat-nav had no signal for the majority of the journey. However I had managed to get my way to Newport, left to my own devices without problems.
This is where it started to go wrong.
A vast army of cones appeared on the horizon and my car along with plenty of others was forced to exit the motorway where I came across a roundabout. I followed the big 'CARDIFF' on the signs and got in the right lane for the roundabout, however when my exit came more cones were there, blocking my path; smugly smirking in their orange regimented rows.
'Fuck,' I thought as I carried on around the roundabout, being forced to exit at the next exit; only noticing that it was signposted 'THE MIDLANDS'.
After a couple minutes of loud swearing and yelling, I slammed my pedal to the floor and kept my eyes towards the left side of the endless dual carriageway of uncertainty, waiting. Waiting for some kind of sign indicating civilisation.
A few turns and country lanes later, I was at a place called Slough, some back end of nowhere little place in the Welsh countryside, whose defining features were a smattering of modest houses.
I then proceeded to have it out with the sat-nav until it complied with my orders. Voila! I had signal!

Needless to say, I got home, albeit an hour and a half later than I would have liked.

If there's one thing you take from this post, let it be this: don't go to Slough. Ever.

O, Plymouth, I greet thee with open arms

I'm back in Plymouth for this Mother's day weekend. I received so many 'awww Mummy's boy' comments this week when I have told friends this.

I was asked by Angelo, one of my Italian teachers, in Italian this morning if I studied French. When I replied 'no', he seemed surprised and said how I speak Italian with a French accent. Best iron that crease out immediately.
I've got the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. It's lovely.

Bit of a change in post themes today. I was on the train and randomly was struck by a wave of inspiration so thought I'd draft a blog post on my iPod blogger app. The result of that inspiration can be seen in my previous post. I wouldn't go so far as to call it poetry by any means. The structure is too irregular. I labelled it as a 'scribbling' which leads me to believe I have chosen quite an apt name for this blog.

When I was in a band, I used to write a lot of our songs and I would be hit by these waves of inspiration akin to that which I experiences today. It happens a lot less often now, and seeing as I have no band to vent my creativity into I thought I would seize the opportunity before the moment was gone and so I put it on here. Let me know what you think it's about, if you liked it or if you didn't.

These wheels

Two wheels like gentle fingers;
reading the palm of the land;
passing over every groove in the city’s fingerprint.
Like a needle on a vinyl pavement singing out the terrain’s forgotten tale;
the city’s symphony played out by my plastic orchestra of two
as I, the grand conductor, keep rhythm with my footsteps onward.

Every crack in my path cries out then instantly decays,
ephemeral yet everlasting, on these two perfect circles;
infinite.

A video I made

As tonight is a Saturday night and I was stuck in, I decided to make this little video using xtranormal, a website that allows you to make movies with dialogue using its built in text-to-movie editor. It shows a man named Jonathan chatting to a woman named Elena in some nondescript city.
I had quite a bit of fun making this so expect more.
In no way do the views expressed here reflect my own.


What do you think?

Foals are back

Here it is. Their new song, 'Spanish Sahara'. I was shocked when I first heard this. Compared to their hectic  minimalist, bouncy pop from the debut album Antidotes, this new sound seems like a totally different band. The new sound reveals quite the voice in frontman Yannis Philippakis; a voice that must have been laying dormant beneath his yelps heard in the first album.
So without further ado, I present to you, Spanish Sierra by Foals; taken from their upcoming album Total Life Forever, set to be released on the 10th of May.

Ti amo, Italia Pt. II

The flight has been sorted to Italy. We're leaving from Gatwick instead but will get there nonetheless.

There's a relief.

Ti amo, Italia

Today Giuseppe, the professor who has organised our Italian trip, called a meeting for anyone going on the trip. Now I was expecting us to just go over what we would be doing, flight times etc. to get us even more excited for the trip.

I think it's fair to say I was wrong.

The meeting was opened with the news that our flight to Italy had been cancelled. Not good bearing in mind we have all paid Giuseppe £600 each. He then went on to say that he is trying to get the airline to put us on another flight and if not we may have to end up paying extra for a new flight.

The meeting then moved on to more light hearted things such as where we will be going (if we get there!).

So the places we shall be visiting are:

Roma - Capital of Italy and a major tourist hotspot. Needs no introduction.

Livorno - A place we will be staying in during our visits to Pisa, Firenze and Lucca.

 

Lucca- Beautiful little walled city.

 

Pisa - Famous for that leaning tower.

Firenze - Florence. A beautiful city in Tuscany.

Venezia - Venice. Possibly the most romantic city in the world.

Treviso - A small town we're going to visit on the last day.

If this flight cannot be resolved and I end up not going to Italy, I will be distraught.

Jailbreak

Right, here is where I plug my friend Lucy. She also studies at Cardiff University and is going on an insane travel with two people from Bristol Uni, called Jailbreak. It's all for charity and looks like it will be awesome. They basically have to get as far from Bristol as they can in 36 hours. If you're feeling generous, give a little to help them get as far as possible. Without further ado, so you can know what it's about, I'll quote their words:

We are Emily and Bruce AND LUCY!, and next weekend we will be undertaking 'Jailbreak'- a wild mission to raise money on behalf of the Quartet Community Foundation, which handles funds for various local Bristol charities. Contrary to our student instincts, we will rise early on the morning of Saturday 6th March, and, leaving our better judgement - and most crucially our wallets - behind, we will brave the elements and tempers of weekend drivers, to walk, run, swim (?) hitch-hike and charm our way as far away from Bristol as we can in only 36 hours.

To find out more and donate, click here.

Thanks guys!