Regarding Alex

So I think this is a fitting time to do my next in the series of homages to friends and today I would like to talk about myself!
"Ha ha", for I have made a joke of the caliber of Mr. Jones... I used to sit next Alex in physics and well two Alex's are a magnet for the jokes of Jones.
So let me clarify at this point i refer to the great Miss. Peterson! A person so high in the estimation that she has earned a definite article just like The Rachael!
I come to Alex as she is today had her tonsils out and will be in recovery, all our best wishes are directed to her!

Let me now, for you, set a scene. The year is 2000: fireworks reigned in the millennium. I migrated from the junior department into the main senior school. The Minster school altered its time tables from one week to two weeks.
Time to meet new friends and among them was Miss Peterson.
What can I say about Alex? She is someone incredibly loyal. She is trusting. She is kind. She is thoughtful and she is always willing to talk through a problem.

At several really wobbly and low moments in my life Alex has been instrumental in saying the right thing, the most helpful thing and generally setting me back on the right track.
Alex is like a mother a sister and a great friend all rolled into one and i hope she wont mind my saying so.

Early in the friendship it was easy to lose contact but i am determined that nothing like this shall happen now. There are to be visits and trips. I am the one who needs to organise our next voyage to London and i shall do this ASAP. In honour of the magnificent mademoiselle I shall do it quickly.

Alex studies marine biology in Scotland and is very respected for her fine choice. She will be fantastic in whatever career she plans to do. I have a very valuable friend in this person and it is not one i shall treat likely. Thanks for everything Alex.

I Hope you all can be as lucky as me with the friends that I have

All the best to you,

Alex

Regarding my life: time to pull in the slack

So here we are at "The blogging hour" ready for a little update. I am currently in the middle of exams at uni and it's keeping my spare hours fairly busy. After exams it is time to pull the life well and truly back into line so here's a list of my new years resolutions that i, for the purpose of exam times and such, will actually be starting in February.

1. University work: - stay on top of it. Simple enough really... review the notes and do the tasks set.... Prioritise this above all else as it is the most important thing going on in the life at this point.
2. Bridge: - After uni work this is concretely the second thing i have to pull into line. I have been far too lax about this hobby for too long. It's time to start reading and looking at hands. Should be fun!
3. Finances: - I can put this after bridge as the above doesnt cost anything. Time to get my money sorted and saved. Lots of things to buy!
4. My book: - After all the above this comes next. I need to commit some work into it and I damn well will get it written very soon. I swear it!
5. Lose weight: - Well look at me! I do seem a bit lose with myself, wouldnt harm to tighten up my appearence and so:
6. Look sharper: - Simply coordinate outfits and such better. I may fail at this but i'll have some fun with it.
7. Music: - Ammend! I am letting my music go to the dogs at this point! I must get tuition with an instrument or two to keep myself in. Write some more as well!
8. Cook: - Cause I can and should!
9. Allow social life to fill massive gaps but not take up time for important things... such as point number 1!
10. Try new stuff: - So as not to appear ninety all the time
    

There may be more but i think 1 - 10 are the most important points to be looking at, at the moment. It's going to be an interesting year and I hope to enjoy it very much. We'll see how it goes though as i could fail all of these!

Support to you all with your resolutions as well! You are in the fine tuning time! Don't break them; adjust them and rework! Lot's of goodies in store in 2009 despite the fact the country will economically collapse - according to some theorists*

Hope you all enjoy the coming year!

All the best to you

Alex

*Alex does not publicly support or deny any current theories on the matter and can not not be held responsible for you selling your kidneys to fund your tickets to more stable places.

Regarding Danny

So at five to four in the morning; I deem once again it is the right time to sit at the screen and begin typing. I have a couple of posts in line to put up here but i think if I don't do this one around now I'll be bugged every day by the gentleman of topic.

So! A little scene setting I think. I am nine. I am training in singing in a cathedral choir and I've been doing so for the last year. This year will be better of course! I am more experienced with the goings on of the system. I am likely to finally join the ranks of the main group of singers within weeks and my pay will rise to pittance (being slightly below before). The new people are joining this year and I will finally rank above people...It's time to meet them.

I regard the following sentence (in hindsight of course) to be one of the most life-altering, disturbing, ominous and slightly dooming things I ever heard. Simply:
'Hello, I'm Danny'

So we studied in the same class for the next two years under the wonderful tutelage of Terry Gill, we learned to sing, went on school trips and alternately took lifts to school from each other every morning. After this we branched into the secondary school and went our separate ways, living reasonably different lives but staying in fair contact every so often. Finally came GCSE German, somewhat regrettable as I didn't really learn much of the subject but infinitely more valuable in catch-up time with this mad man.

So; I can recount the history of this friendship as of this point in great detail! The problem is, though, there is an awful lot of it...

Where do we stand now? Well the fact is I can't stand him. He's my best friend and I can't stand him. He won't remove his coat in theatres and he eats for five but despite it all...

Danny is one of the most supportive, understanding, free-thinking, uninfluenced people you will find. He is able to offer a cup of tea and a chat when you're down, a game of something to take your mind off things, advice to help you cope and mostly informed view points. He is humble; not thinking too much of himself, but immensely talented; musically gifted and so on... Additionally I cannot tell you the amount he has helped me through things, whether family related, friend related, life related and much, much more.

So at the end of it all I am glad for him. I wouldn't change him. He is my bridge partner, my gaming buddy, my best friend and as good as a brother. We may still be bickering in 60 years time... but I look forward to every minute of it!

All the best to you,

Alex

Epiphany and Exams

Well here i sit at half past three in the morning. I gather I am slowly weening myself back to reasonable hours but we shall see...

So! (he says grinning and rubbing his palms together in an effort to begin tonight's musings) lets get a bit of general news out of the way shall we?
The world has shed the last of Christmas from its back. The living room is bare and the warm presents have a slightly stale look about them now. This is not a sign of ingratitude but rather a melancholic look back knowing that one of my favourite times has pulled away. The days are still short and rather dull and exam season is much closer on this side of Christmas. I have decided to try the first of the Christmas chocolate (a present from Willy and Joanne Crook) which is really quite nice! It's the only bit of chocolate i received this year, seeing as family decided against it and I obscurely guessed correctly at the number of selection boxes I'd need for presents. Curses to logic, perhaps.
I must also remark that when I open the little box I can't just have one of the little blighters, I must have three. Once exam season is over I start my new years resolutions and must then cut back in an effort to lose weight; it's the curse of the man who must spoil himself.

So to exams... I have 3 this year, one will be fine but the other two are rather too close together for my liking. I should be able to get through the material but I have a nagging feeling i sacrifice revision time of one for revision time of the other.

Never fear, it is time to organise myself to the letter! Organising study, constructiveness, social and leisure time so I can do all and still feel somewhat accomplished in myself.

Particularly short post here but its what we call a filler. It's not good for much other than to fill space between entries. Just a bit of an update on current events I suppose.

All the best to you,

Alex

Regarding Rachael

So here we are at ten to four in the morning again and it strikes me... I have some rather good people in my life. People who perhaps deserve a little spotlight and "shout out". As this blog is primarily for myself and for looking back on, I have decided to give each important person their due time... I will get round to you all eventually but if you are planning to end our friendship and would like a mention please ask to bump yourself up the queue by asking me...

So! The year is 1999: An age of innocence and hope, not least because the spice girls have gone their separate ways, High School musical is years away and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has just been released. The Internet is still vaguely young, plenty of well known sites are not yet in existence, Msn is crude and horrible sounding and in almost every home connected is the noise of dial-up Internet; ours would need to be connected every 2 hours. On top of this we still had our ancient computer (with no digital camera, no use for music on the box and barely any programs bar the essentials), which had a hard drive size of about 1600MB.

One day, around October time, I asked my mother to fix me up a hotmail address. I use it to this day, with the 10 year-old's suggested email address and the thirty-something year-old's spelling mistake that one can only find endearing. I was let loose on the Internet in the lands of MSN chat... closed down October 14th 2003ish i believe.

This was the moment i decided to let the geekiness take over me. I started online character role playing; a very innocent affair i might add! Specifically we had a go at Harry Potter role plays with HPL's lot... There I met Rachael... Older than me by a year and a half and that's all the difference when you're 11, 12ish. We got on, we grew up and stayed chatty.

Both of us have had moments where we needed the other for support, a wide range of issues have past us by and many other melancholic things have happened that give me an elevated, sober view (see prev. post). The true fact is though, that Rachael is supporting, honest and a true blue saint to me. Not even the fact that she hails from Scotland can mar her image.

This girl has visited me in England, with her first words to me being "I'm all soggy" as rain proceeded to slosh down. The whole time was quite pleasant affair and I'm determined to see her in Edinburgh soon, No doubt in the 2009 that is slowly passing us by...

Now her self betterment ideas truly put me to shame and she only has happiness heading her way. Truly a wonderful Lady and cat-owner (little mention of the Duke). I am privelleged to know her.

I can only assume you are reading this post as you know Rachael or wish to know more about my friends... Then again perhaps you are a stalker, in which case you can email me and I will send contact details for the good woman.

All the best to you,

Alex

Regarding Pretention

Am I pretentious?
On New Years Eve this year, we were to play party games. One was to write the first single everyone had bought on a piece of paper. These would be played and we would guess the purchaser.
This is a problem for me. I have never bought a CD for myself. I have either guiltily downloaded what i wanted. Got it from someone else or was given the CD. I naturally questioned the suggestion and was told to give the first song i downloaded.
Well this is no good, I can't remember that now, its hardly momentous. So I reached for another option... I put my choice as a current favourite piece of music of mine by Verdi.
I am obviously found out and I have no qualms about my obscure choice. This is me, accept me - this being my thought pattern.
I then receive a bit of a smack round the face. Already having a couple of glasses I am perhaps a bit more receptive than I would be but I am told that my choice makes me a snob, pretentious etc.

I would now like to question this:
Does writing "Dies Irae - Verdi", for the humour of others and even to highlight my current tastes, make me a snob?

Well I agree it certainly would if I made the choice to show off, acknowledging a sinister superiority complex and generally to stir things.

Now I don't like ignorance but i flat out hate a refusal to learn. These things, in my opinion merit someone looking down their nose at you. If you don't want to learn you don't have to but you must accept the knowledge of those who can back it up if you can't provide better evidence for your own case!
My point being; I don't mind, for example, if you don't want to learn about physics, but if its an area I may have more knowledge in, do not try and tell me some nonsense is truth without hard evidence to back it up.
Side rant over.

In myself I want people to appreciate music, to see the depth, to understand the background and to see what the composer might have seen in the music, the glorious hidden messages. A lot of people are interested, but am I a snob for liking it? Listening to it regularly?
Similarly with wines. Am I a snob for liking more expensive stuff (paying for quality rather than drinking to look expensive) or am I being realistic in telling you that the more expensive stuff has more depth and I find it nicer?

I love high class society, I love etiquette and manners, I love the history of the dinner table and the correct cutlery and I understand their uses...but I flat out abhor the class system, its a biased way of regulating people into their groups by, frankly, irrelevant information.

I like to be a bit of an eccentric sometimes in my dressing but most of the time I am grubby in casual clothes, rushing after 5 different people on top of myself.

Let me enjoy my quirks without calling me a snob. I love your way of life and the way you enjoy it but I love my life for me.

A thought for you...

A snob is someone who belittles someone for something out of their control, I would say, under the impression that they are the more privileged.
Surely to be accepted is a privilege?
Well then surely those who are willing to throw the titles of snob around feel more normal and are privileged for that, belittling the eccentrics...

It is a difficult point. There are snobs but please, I think you are all wonderful. If I say I think i am better than you at any point it is certain I am having a bit of a tease. Allow me this but rethink your true attitude. These things hurt from a tiny misunderstanding...

All the best to you,

Alex

A Summation of Me.

I'll begin with an anecdote. My cousin has recently started a new challenge for herself: She is to attempt 52 new things this year - an effort to broaden and better one's self and hopefully enjoy the experience, because enjoyment is so precious.
So upon taking interest in this i look at myself and agree a new year is a time for a new start and I, myself, will give a bit of a go. This blog is to chronicle the hopeful highs and doubtless lows that will see me through to the new decade; for reminiscing, for interest and perhaps, I daresay, for organisation. Likewise I beg your pardon if this is my last post, I will try to continue.

So, who am I?

Well you can describe me by my family: I am the 12th of 14 cousins on my mothers side. I am the grandson of a terrifying German and, most generally, I am my parents' son.

This is hardly constructive and anyone who knows me would agree that this view is a very poor one to take. I think perhaps interests, studies and labels are the best tactic.

I study physics at Nottingham University, Nottingham also happens to be my home town but as far as I am concerned this is irrelevant, I am in my 2nd year (2008-2009) and am trying to stay on top of the studies, at least do justice to the fantastic people who preceded me:-

Pigmaei gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident - Sir. Isaac Newton.

this is all fancy waffle of course.

My cousin is a throwback to the 50's: loves the decade for the music, clothes, icons etc. and I daresay she'd venture a decade either way; always good to include a bit of uncertainty.
I, on the other hand, am a long smear from the renaissance up to the present day. I am a music fan, albeit quite amateur in comparison with a few people I know. I'll take anything from your old medieval plainchant to the impressionists and further. I have a slight distaste for Schoenberg, but i wont resent your choice.

I play cards, bridge being my game of choice; I am so far from the top but, perhaps, creeping up the ladder. In this i am lucky to be friends with an ex-international player with contacts all over the shop up to the times bridge author.

I taste wines or at least try to. A friend of mine is slowly teaching me the ins and outs and its all devilishly interesting. I stand by the phrase; there is a wine for everyone, we can find yours! My particular favourite make being Niepoort, more due to the maker than the wine. I have met and stayed with the man in a whirlwind of fine wine, rich port, classy Madeira and reserved sherry.
Coupled with wine is my interest in all food and drink, its such a heaven to explore the end. I am learning to mix cocktails, and how to cook properly. Again this is thanks to being the son, grandson and nephew of three fantastic cooks, as well as the friend of others.
I'd love to tackle sugar art one day and my own father, I've no doubt, will see me through the training.

I am a musician of sorts. I sing with previous experience with Southwell minster choir; I have toured with them to places such as Sweden and France: including Paris and singing in places including Notre Dame as well as countless venues in the country.
I am keeping my voice in check currently, singing with groups such as the Nottingham Bach choir and hope to proceed soon to the heights of grade 8 vocals; a standard I dearly hope to meet.
I also play piano, although on a hiatus from training due to the stresses of university and time basis.
I am an ex violinist who is thinking of taking up the instrument again.
I play the euphonium with Carlton Brass as well as having some conducting experience (again this is a field i would like to try out).
I also have a guitar which I can at least make a pleasant sound on: I will teach myself one day to play well. I am also qualified and have some knowledge of music theory.

I am currently a writer too of a book; The Travelling Diaries of Iradas Mered, one day soon I will finish it, if only for myself. I am a fan of fantasy, classics and many other genres. I am willing to read anything you put in front of me. If only to keep pushing my own boundaries.

I am a writer, animator, artist and voice actor for an "in the works" cartoon series but again, due to time reasons, I am exploring other ways of getting the cartoon viewed.

My friends mean the world to me and so do my family. I can be somewhat cutting in what i say but I promise that if you show me decency I will look out for you as best as I can.

I see a myriad of other small projects and such I am trying at the moment. These are too many to mention but all i am proud of.

So, where am I going?

• I would like to learn a couple of languages
• I would like to learn to dance
• I would like to try more obscure food and most importantly
• I would like to travel the world

This is the best description I can give of myself. Perhaps it's pointless in the long run, my writing this. You are a wonderful person for reading it though and at least a better than average one if you have left before now!

All the best to all of you

Alex