Beginner's luck?

Just came back from GALA casino and i'm very happy...why? I won ofcourse, how much? £25, that's like 5h work and i'm quite happy about it. I played only the Blackjack tables, only place i feel i have some control over what the fuck is going on. Though much of it is luck, there's more skill involved in BJ than say roulette.

Sandra's brother, Thomas, is up in Leicester for a few days visiting his sis and he's staying at the house with everyone else it would seem :D Have arvin staying here, as well as sandra. This is probably the only time i have had any guests of my own since i moved in.

Been reconsidering a career in Psychology. Went to the careers advice office the other day and had a look at some folders and stuff on prospective...things one can do after graduating and nothing really appealed to me to be honest. Have been thinking of doing either a postgraduate in something or just another degree once finished. Architecture has always fascinated me, the designing and construction of buildings has always boggled my mind, and i think i would be good at it. It would however mean that i will have to study for another 3, probably 5-6 years and thus the problem of financing arises. The swedish student loans company only grants loans for 5 years. Seeing as I've already used up 4 of those 5 by the time I graduate means i only have one more year to spare. That and the fact that tuiton fees will be tripled when the time comes for me to start my second degree, who will pay i wonder. If i can get the support of my parents then I'm sorted but perhaps a very nice (:D) sibling will be so nice to his younger brother as to support him financially, i can only hope.
All this providing i even get into Architecture. But i do think i would like it, i think it will give me a chance to express my creative and artistic side as opposed to my weaker analytical one(?), can only hope. If i decide to do that i will have to start building a portfolio, what that is supposed to contain i'm not sure yet. But i have emailed some people and hopefully soon i will get some answers.

Until then,

People are back

Yesterday was quite an eventful night. It was Amar's 21st birthday and we (me, ben, firas, amar, becky, jess and some other people) went out on a pubcrawl that ended in Lloyd's. On the way i hooked up with this girl and ended up coming back to mine and spending the night. Not my brightest moment but been a long time so i think i needed it. But it really made me think about the whole thing and realised how much better it would be if the first thought in the morning wasn't figuring out how to get rid of her as quickly and sublty as possible. Maybe if you actually enjoyed the girls company that wouldn't occur to you. Don't know, just random thoughts this late at night (!).

Today my brother came back from his 7-week trek through south america. He's got a proper nice sun tan, though it does look more like accumalted dirt than sun burn, healthy looking in any case. His girlfriend Sandra also returned from France today, bringing her 18yr old brother Thomas with her. Seems like a decent guy and will probably be good fun to hang out with.

Still haven't finished things that i had promised myself to finish before the end of the weekend. And now there is alot more to do and less time to do it in. I have about 2 weeks til the exams start and loads to do. First things first though, get the stupid practical report done.

More on psychology, been thinking about doing a MSc in something for a while now. Searched the internet yesterday for an interesting postgraduate course to do and came up with a MSc in Cross-cultural Studies. This is something that (this early in my psychology career) intrigues me and sparks my interest enough to actually read stuff on my own about. The 1-yr postgrad course is at Brunel Uni in the vicinity of London. Still don't know if that good or not, had applied to go there for my whole degree course but didn't get accepted at first. But i don't really take that to heart, as i didn't really get in Leicester either but through an internal transfer i was able to get in. So it's either staying here another year and doing a Msc or going to Japan and working for a year or so and just cotching and enjoying myself! See what happens, if i can even get by second year, at this rate it looks like even that will be a challenge.

anyhow, time to hit the sack...can't keep my eyes open for much longer and i've got a lecture 10.30 tomorrow (from next week i'll have no lectures and have loads of time to study for the exams, yippie. Adios amigos!!!

Back in the U.K

Arrived just yesterday after a long (but surpisingly comfortable) 12h flight + 2-3h train journey, was nackered once i got back and just unpacked a few necessities and then hit the sack. Need to get back to my old routines, still have about 2 weeks left worth of gym time which ive already paid for and might aswell take advantage of. Aswell as another 9 days to write my practical. When i got back i was told some good news regarding our internet, it has (finally) been restored to its former glory and also been bumped up free of charge to 3mb. Sooo Fast ;)

I think i still might be on Japan time so i should take advantage of it and get as much done as possible before i collapse again, though i suspect the jetlag won't bother me for more than what has already passed. Got a few hours sleep on the plane (which was quite bumpy due to the fact that i was at the absolute back, two rows from the end), i did have two seats for myself though which was nice.

Need to get off my ass now and get something done! The feeling of action paralysis is coming back and i dont want to end up doing nothing all day. So until next time, adios amigos!

Ja-pain!

Maaaa...havent updated in ages. Mainly because im in Japan at the moment and am really busy enjoying myself. Im sitting in an all-night internet cafe and waiting for morning so i can take the bullet train to tokyo! Im hungry, sleepy and not doing anything about either. If i sleep i reckon i wont notice the hunger so i will do just that.

As you also may have noticed i have changed the look of the blog. I get sick of the same thing very fast! Anyhows, not looking forward to going back to england, AT ALL...have loads of work to do and revising for exams isnt something i want to do right now. Not after spending a whole month in this great and fun country! Definately coming back after my degree and just chilling out for a while!

I also dislike my phone, mainly because i have seen how much better japanese phones are and really want one of them. And the closest thing to a japanese mobile u can find in europe is the "new" sony ericsson with a 1.3 megapix camera! they all have it here...some even with 2.0 mp.

sleepy ...

Am off *to the promise land

Long time no blog, thought i'd to a quick one today just to get started again. Haven't been doing much lately aside from going to the gym everyday, working on my last piece of coursework and working at Subway earning money. Right now im waiting for sandra to come over and make me some crepes :9

thinking of changing the template back to the old one i used to have. Sitting here wasting time, bought Jack Johnson's new album the other day and its very good, as usual! :D Been listening to the old albums and they truly are relaxing.

What else, ...

not much for the time being, might be going down to St:Albans tomorrow instead of Saturday, watch some Babylon 5 and just have a merry ol time with mates, in waiting for sunday ;)

the internet

It's out again so i'm using some poor guy/girl's from across the street, just temporarily ofcourse :D I hate when this happens, the internet goes out and has to be reset from the source, i.e. the cable modem which is in dan's room. Don't want to wake the poor guy up so we have to wait until he's up and then the internet can come on again, tiresome eh.
So the medics' electives have started, they just had the biggest exams of their 4th year and now they're all scattering across the world for some well-earned vacation, 7 WEEK vacation. My brother is going off to Mexico and south america with Ronnie, Nori's off to Australia and japan, andy and tamir are going around the world. If i wasn't going to Japan soon i would be extremely jealous :D
Also found out about this site that do really funny smiley faces, quite complex ones aswell. They're well funny :D i hope they show up on blogger, since they use a different character set (japanese). I'll give it a try,

ヘ（＿ ＿ヘ）☆＼（＾∀＾*）なんでやねん！

寝る　（￣¬￣）ＺＺＺｚｚｚ・・・

♪♪(((*＾＾）八（＾＾ )))♪♪

no name

what's new...Counting the days till im sitting on that plane bound for Japan, only 18 days left and counting. Been having to think about money matters and how much i have to move around with. Will have to scrape the barrel for my days remaining here so i can live lavishly there but not too lavishly. Also found out today that i'm eligible for a Mastercard, don't know how much the credit is yet but i will be contacted and find out soon i believe. I don't think i will fall for the creditcard trap considering my attitude towards money and the complications surrounding it. Im not the person to spend money i don't have.

not much

Haven't been up to much lately, mostly failing my exams and thinking about stuff. Like, 'should study more', and i've actually made a promise to myself (and they are very few and far between, trust me...i dont usually commit myself to my own promises [regarding myself]). I will read atleast one article a day, starting today. Other news? In about 4 weeks i will be departing to Japan :D I'm excitement personified! i did some 'soul-searching' the other day (on the topic of "excitement") and i realised that i'm not easily excited, takes alot to get me REALLY hyped up. Even for this japan trip im not jumping up and down, runnin in circles etc, its kind of a mellow, laid-back excitement...

Have alot of food now thanks to my parents :D And i also have my favourite drink!! dhogh (don't know how u spell it), but its a carbonated yoghurt drink and its lovely, its imported to sweden from Iran (the make is "Irandad", which literally means "Iran gave"). Most western don't like it, understandably. It does smell like its gone off, but it tastes like heaven!

me out

Reading again

thank god im back to reading. I love reading, i had just forgotten how fun it can be if you have a really good book. The one i'm reading now is about the famous London diarist Samuel Pepys (pronounced Peeps) and his life. Well, its like a biography of him mostly, taking you through his diary and retelling some stuff from his diary but mostly it tells the story of the times in which it was written. What was going on in London and England at the time. And that's what interests me. Increases my admiration of London even more. Every time i go to London i feel so small walking around there, it has so much history and its all over the place. You can just imagine the bombs falling over london or how the royalists tried to take over the parliament over and over and the riots of the people every other day. The turbulent times seem always present in the texture of the city. If i was from london i would be very patriotic towards it. Much as i am towards Gothenburg, another town filled with alot of interesting history and old places.

I read a passage in the book yesterday night that quite shocked me, it showed the english's meddling attitude even back in the 1660's. Cromwell (leader of england at the time) had sent a fleet captained by Edward Montagu to aid the Swedes against the Danes (who were back by the Dutch, a long time enemy of the British) to ensure Baltic trade routes with England. It probably doesnt make sense to anyone else but it does to me and it is fascinating. I guess it's always been about protecting your own interests.

news have come through

First order of business, I did not receive the scholarship i was so convinced of getting. I wasn't very hopeful in the beginning but after the interview i felt i had the money in my hand already. They must've thought that either 1) the project was too much for a second year student 2) i was just funding my trip to japan. The second reason being quite true, but that's beside the point :P I'm not too torn up about it. I just realised i have to write pretty quickly because in exactly 6 minutes the internet goes down (don't ask, NTL) and i won't be able to post.

As i have mentioned before, my Superdrive needs fixing. Went to the Apple Store Genius Bar and they confirmed it. It will cost me about £230 to get it fixed and a 2-week separation from my beloved. Instead something might happen that will render this particular PB unusable, either due to theft or just pure folly and a new one will hopefully be put in its place. That's all in about 2 months time, in that time i hope Apple will bring out the long-awaited Mac Os X 10.4 Tiger.

Anyway, only two minutes left so i will wrap this up and say my goodnites!

Latest book shop

Went to Waterstone's yesterday to check the price of Lonely Planet's Guide to Japan (to compare with Amazon) and it was £5 more expensive but i bought it anyway...and three more books, on that '3 for 2' deal they always have going. I walked out of WS £35 poorer and about 2000+ words richer. I love buying books, as i do reading them but the fact that my stack of "unread" books is getting higher i deduce that i must like buying them more than i do reading them. Cursed WS!! Needed the Japan Guide though, mostly for planning the trip in April, but it's also fun to just read it through, about the history and such.

Going down to London on friday to pay a little visit to my friend Firas who has recently been blessed with a new PowerMac G5 with a 20" Cinema Display, the apple virus is spreading fast (all my housemates use iTunes as their main music player, they'll come around to the mac soon). Going to down to his place to help him familiarise himself with the mac and all the new features...though that doesn't really need any help, it'll all come to him in time. I'm still discovering things myself and i've had my PowerBook for a year and a bit now (purchased November '03).

Woke up not long ago and i have to eat something before i start my long long day of coding two MASSIVE questionnaires for yet another practical. I can't wait till third year when we don't have practicals, they're death.

x¶ Soon firas, i will be there! :D do not despair in this moment of truth ;)

japanese blog

Found this really cool place that does japanese blogs with alot cooler skins (well, different atleast) than blogger. It's got a spooky cemetery feel to it which i love. Very "nightmare before christmas"-ish indeed.

http://blog.drecom.jp/hemil/

Been ill for the past couple of days and the damn germs are hanging on for dear life it seems. Refuse to let me go, grrr...i hate being ill. Worked my first shift in a long time at Subway yesterday night, the new graveyard shifts on weekends, i got home at about half four. Dead beat, couldn't move a muscle this morning. That and a sore throat, and coughing ofcourse is not something you want a few days before a deadline.

Speaking of deadlines, i have one which i should be working on this very moment so i'll say my goodbyes here and now. Before i go, i have an interview for a travel scholarship to go to Japan to conduct a study on marriage attitudes. Interesting to me :D will provide me with £400. Which will go towards my ticket. Happy Times, hope i get it.

Off

Review of my trip to Japan '04

Got iWork the other day after witnessing the amazing powers of their latest word-processor "Pages". I saw it on the MacWorld Keynote presentation and i was hooked right away. Once i got it i started fiddling with it right away and i must say it is ALL THAT. I wish i had my own printer so i could print the stuff i create.

Anywho, i started fiddling with it, as i mentioned before, and slowly it turned into a review of my first solo trip to japan in the summer of 2004. Started adding pictures, a "Table of Contents" and halfway through this i started thinking about the actual trip and i realised i had better use the entries in my travel diary in the review, mostly because i don't remember much of the detail from my trip. Will have to read through the diary myself soon.

I recommend anyone travelling to keep a diary. They're so fun to read when you're back and especially after a couple of months when you've forgotten stuff. It's like reading someone else's journal. So now my journal is in a crappy RTF format, so hopefully soon it will be in a very stylish Pages format, are u excited?? Cuz i sure am.

One thing after the other

Just less than a week after i receive my new battery (for my PowerBook) my SuperDrive decides to malfunction. For what reason? I don't know...but what i do know is that it's going to cost me half a fortune to get it fixed. Now the big question is, how long can you go with a CD/DVD drive, i will attempt to answer that question. Not very long. Though longer than one would expect. It broke down today, after i wrote a CD....after which it decided it was going to spit out all CDs and DVDs i fed it. What a grumpy little prick! Just when things were starting to look brighter for me.

Will have to contact Subway for some regular shifts soon. My money pouch is getting too light and my expenses are creeping up on me, as well as my desires for saucy apple gadgets :P

I-P-O-D S-H-U-F-F-L-E

but i have decided to wait buying that till i'm in Japan because they're like £20 cheaper.

I have also looked mobiles in Japan. For starters...they are way better than ours. And i want one, unfortunately they use a different network, one we really should be using. Japan and South Korea share (use the same type, whichever i dont know) this type of network and nowhere else as far as i know. Which isn't very far really. A handy solution for temporary visitors like me (not really long-term but more than a few weeks) is the Rent-a-Phone service they have there. u pay around Y11,000 for one month for the phone and Y110 per minute for talk time, which is not that unreasonable. That's why i have to start working at subway again. The freedom your own mobile gives u in a foreign country is great. I can give out my number to girls i meet, which i couldn't really do before. Giving my friend's mobile number to a stranger isn't such a good friend thing to do, in my opinion. But what the heck, this way you have a, cool might i add, mobile for a month and it's probably gonna come in handy travelling around with my mum, for making reservations beforehand etc.

wow, 25 day gap

Haven't blogged in ages. One note on apologising to blogs. This is supposed to be more or less a journal/diary kind of thing. And though i know a few people who definately read it, me coming on here and apologising for not blogging would kinda be like a person apologising to his diary for not making an entry. Am i making sense? I'm hungover. I say this because i read/saw a comic in my Social Psychology book, in the part about Self-Esteem. Depicts this guy writing in his journal [kinda sad-looking], "Dear diary, sorry to bother you again...". Just cracked me up first time i saw it. But i suppose i do owe an apology, haven't blogged in quite a while and, i really should've.

Now, went to a house party last night which ended in the SU. Me, ben & myles finished a bottle of tequila and god knows how much vodka we drank. We got smashed anyways. After we left the house party, and my memories are quite hazy from then on. I can't remember what we did with myles, like where he went...i think he left after a while. OR im being incredibly stupid and totally blanking myles out of the picture here, but i'm quite sure me and ben went back on our own.
On the way back i cursed my luck with women, or should i say my skill women with women which for you who don't know me pretty much equals zero. Although that doesn't mean i havent had any, just that i'm usually not the instigator. Want to change that, anyway...ive talked about niches and my playing field before so i'm not gonna drag that whole discussion up again. Going to try and restart the blogging. Now i'm going apartment hunting! adios!

El Camino de Santiago

Been planning alot of things for this summer. One of the first things that was brought to my attention was to walk the famous pilgrimage from the south of France to the west coast of Spain, also known as "El Camino de Santiago", literally...the road/way of Santiago". It's a roughly 800km walk (or ride, some people use bikes or go on horseback), which takes about a month. My brother asked me to go with him and i agreed. What a challenge eh? A brazilian friend of ours walked half the route some time back and said that it was the best thing he ever did in his life, even though he would never do it again. So I really hope to do it, i know its going to be one hell of a tough walk and I'm not expecting it to be easy. But it would benefit me i think, physically and mentally (mostly physically though :P). Just a quick post! :D

?

For some reason i feel the need to write in this blog more often. Maybe it's because i have alot of free time and i don't know what to do with it :/ My bro's girlfriend arrived today, we went to a restaurant with the whole family. After which we went to visit a friend and her newborn baby. Very cute, so tiny, exactly 2 weeks and 5 days old. Don't think i've ever "met" such a young baby in my life, which must sounds very odd. At around 21 we went to see a friend's band play at this place called "pustervik", the band is quite good actually. Original if nothing else. Saw a old classmate but we left before i had the chance to say hey, hope to see her again. Probably won't happen considering last time i saw her was in summer. Well well, life goes on.

Came home and here i am, starting to feel guilty about eating so much :D About time eh...hehe. Will have to start going to the gym as soon as i get back.

Feel my japanese listening comprehension is improving. Been listening alot to radioshows lately and watching movies and i can almost follow the conversation bar the occasional vocab i dont know, in films the subtitles help but on the radioshows i have to either look the words up or just ignore them. This will all be put to the test in March,

I'm gonna bomb on my exams! shite...stupid motivational dysfunction!!!

Striking a balance

I'm trying to strike a fine balance between writing enough posts and not too many. Trying to preserve my "dark horse" status, as it was once called ;) Naah, frankly am not doing as much things i should be doing as i am doing. Hum, been keeping up with my asian films, watched atleast one every night. I also watched an extremely funny film yesterday called "Napoleon Dynamite" TWICE". First time on my own and the second time with my brother just like half an hour afterwards.

Time is 04:51 and i should be getting some sleep, seeing as i "have to be up not later than half 4 tomorrow"?! Lazy as i may be, i don't think i've ever slept until after 4pm, as far as i can remember anyway.

Night, night

Last week in Gothenburg

i took this picture last monday. It's sunday now and it looks nothing like this here. Instead we can revel in the frosty things that fall from the sky known also as rain (not hail mind you, just frickin freezing rain). It was more fun than it looked, threw my first proper snowball in years last sunday. Which was also the day i said goodbye to my friend leaving for japan.

I'm back in business baby...

Went out today, most unexpectedly...Came home from a xmas visit at my uncle's place and change into pj's, sit down and chat and do my routine of checking things on the computer. Friend of my brother calls up and says he's having a party. So me and Arvin take the car, me being the designated driver for the evening since he was last time. So no drinking for me tonight, how fun can it get really im thinking to myself. We finally show up at the guy's place and we meet up with alot of friends i haven't seen in quite awhile. Good to see them again actually. Also met a girl we've been friends with for like the past years. This perfect stereotype of a swedish girl, blond, tall (185cm), pretty as hell and start chatting away. Me just being me, and not a chance in the world i can get with this girl (really!). We move on to the club, nice chic place (BarSidan for those who know it). And the mood gets going, music drinks...I have a beer to get going. Chat with another girl that came with us, she seems nice. She in dublin at the moment working in a bar and over for the hols to visit home just like everyone else. Somehow i start talking to this girl again (the blonde) and me being me as always just start to goof about and stuff, no chance i can get her by trying to be "cool" and fail miserably. So i don't expect anything and put the Emil on her! And lo and behold, it bloody WORKS!!! How surprised am i, i make her laugh all nite and she's throwing hints at me all night *wink* *wink*- style. So she gonna be my date for the dinner party we're having new years eve at a friends place. Score! ;)

The emil has bounced back, in less time than expected. I think it's got to with that i've discovered my niche and am not trying to do what's not my thing anymore. I'm shit at picking up girls at clubs, so i dont. And i'm perfectly happy, though i realise i get looks in clubs and going up to them would probably be a fruitful endevour. Well, well...its 04:04 here and i should go to bed soon!

just so u guys know, I'M BACK! (if u ever noticed i was gone, was gone for only two months)

ps. I realised sth about my history of relationships and that they have never actually exceeded the two-week mark. True, technically i went out with maría for 2 months nearly, but in effect i only saw/was with her no more than two-weeks in total. How freaky is that?? trying not to think about it too much. Also, i texted a girl i had met in summer, not expecting a reply at all because of the nature of how i didnt hear from her. But i did get a reply, amazingly...not expecting much though. And with this new thing going on i dont have to pay it much mind. ds