Bodrum. Part 4

Halikarna's .. and.. The Match..

So by this point we had already enjoyed two wild nights out, but Halikarna's would beat that by a mile. On the day of Halikarna's, I can't remember doing too much - we were all too tired from the night before so it was a lazy day before getting ready for a big night. I went across to Chris and Steve's room at one point and they were eating this lush ice cream, so Ryan and I scuttled off to a Supermarket (like the only one within a couple of miles) to get some ourselves, and we returned to their room and ate ice cream together. That was fun..

We planned to go for a meal before the night out, but a few people weren't hungry so only a select few of us went for the meal. It was really good - they gave us a table on the actual seafront so we were only a few metres away from the sea (I was hoping the tide wouldn't come in). It was here that we got our first taste of 'Turkish Cider' and it was crazy. As the picture above shows, it was basically alcohol with actual bits of apples in it. Apple-bobbing anyone? It tasted alright, mostly like apple juice to be honest. The food was good and a dog was sitting by my chair all night, apparently it was because he could sense I was the "Alpha Male" of the group. There was also a cat which I wasn't really fond of. Oh yeah, the dog was blind in one eye.



It was just after we finished eating that we saw the other guys walking along to Halikarna's so we stopped them on their path and all made our way up together. When we got in it wasn't very busy, but the club was amazing - it was an outdoor one and was massive. We had an awesome deal going on too - refills on this alcohol and energy drink duo. Steve set targets for everyone to beat.. needless to say.. I don't think many of us could remember these by the end of the night. There's not much else I can say about the experience until a lot later on in the night. We were stood by the stage because some dancers had been prancing about on stage, then they stopped the music and a guy came out with a microphone. From what I remember, he asked for some ladies to come up on stage, and no-one did. He then saw Emma (I think?) and the spotlight went on her and he asked her to get on stage! She refused, then some other girls went up. Then, within a couple of minutes, we all found ourselves going up there. As we stood on the stage dancing like a group of baboons, water started jetting up from the floor.



We got absolutely soaked, and I remembered that my camera was in my pocket. My immediate, drunken reaction was to go "Oh well, it'll be fine". How wrong I was. I did manage to get this picture though, of Emma's stalker, AKA Ryan 2.0. There's loads of photos of me talking to him.. yet I don't remember having a conversation with him at all.


It was after we got down off the stage that I realised my camera had stopped working, so I gave it to someone. A few minutes later, I forgot who I gave it to so thought I'd lost it. Pretty sure I told everyone I had lost my camera and no-one seemed to know where it was. Still drunk, I went up to a random security guard who was pretty helpful and we had a look around the stage, then he asked the guy at the bar who told me to come back tomorrow (Paul made the good point that they'd probably charge me the extorinate entrance fee again, 40l!) but it was then that Emma came up and said "I've got it!".

Here is a selection of photo's that best show the Halikarna's experience:









It was a cracking night out, and one I will always remember (ironically, not that literally because I don't remember a lot of it!) The next day would be one for recovering... just in time for... THE MATCH.


It was a big event - England V Turkey.


The lads had been disillusioned with the England team's performance in South Africa, so this was the perfect opportunity to bounce back and show the world that England are still a credible footballing nation. However, facing the battling Turkish would not be easy - after failing to qualify for the World Cup themselves, they also had a lot to prove. Pre-match comments were focused around the fitness of the English team, as there were worries that the players were well-off match fitness. This, in addition to high temperatures, was predicted to be the downfall of the English. They were also advised to be wary of Mehmet, the speedy trickster and star player of Turkish side. Now to the event..


It was getting quite serious as we waitied around at 'Curly's Bar' for Mehmet to come out and explain what was happening. The girls were having something to eat, but for us, we couldn't focus on the food. Serious faces were all that greeted me, there was no time for food at this point. We had to concentrate on the job. Finally, Mehmet came out wearing his football attire and looking quite professional. He took our money (quite suspiciously didn't seem to use it to pay for anything, but he did give us free water) then led us along the streets to the pitch. It was a long walk, and we could hear the fans in the distance. The girls did not join us, so we were expecting to be greeted by quite a hostile atmosphere, completely dominant by Turkish fans. We got into the pitch and had a kick around before Mehmet informed us that we had too many players, and one of us would have to join them.


Jake volunteered.


And so the game began, at 00.00. Temperature was 30 degrees. It was sweltering. They kicked off and straight away Mehmet was incredibly quick on the ball, skipping past a couple of our players before someone got the foot in. He would have to be watched. The first minute or so was quite slow, and then, our first break. Chris got hold of the ball, played it along the floor to myself (who was acting as a long striker at first). I took a touch, went past a defender and then slotted my shot in the opposite corner, past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.


1-0 to England!


A few minutes later, it got better. The ball had been launched long towards me (as it was a few times because of my height advantage) but I didn't get it. However, the defender's knock down was knocked on again and fell delightfully to Chris, who unleashed a spectacular volley at goal. I ducked just in time and turned to see the ball fly past the goalkeeper.


2-0 to England! and what a goal!!


From this point onward, Mehmet was getting frustrated. He was their best player by a mile and was the creator of every chance and move the team made. And it paid off, as they started to put goals past us. I'm pretty sure that they took a strong lead against us at this point, 6-2 or so. However, for one of these I was pretty sure they had pressed the 'score' button twice...


It got to about 9 goals for them but then one of us made the point that they had put an extra goal than they had actually scored. It was here that we started to struggle with the conditions. It was absolutely baking, playing at plus 30 degrees - something that none of us were used to, whereas it was their element. Water supplies were running low as well, and the team started getting frustrated with one another. We had many decent chances on goal, but the Turkish Goalkeeper was time and time again on form. One massive chance to score fell to Rob, after I had put the ball into the box for him, he fired over. It didn't look like it would be our day.


It was at this point that stand-in goalkeeper, Ryan, provided the unlikely inspiration for the team. Ryan, who I think it's fair to say, isn't a footballer (by his own admission) put in a fantastic performance for his stint in goal, pulling off a number of unexpected and important saves. It was this display that pushed us on and we managed to pull a few goals back. With about 3 minutes left, we had 3 goals to score. It seemed lost, but we didn't give up. And, typically football being football, we managed to squeeze a few more back. With less than a minute left of time, we had to score a goal. Looking at the clock, I thought time had passed, before the ball fell to (I'm so sorry but I can't remember who brought us level) our player, and we scored! We had levelled it with about 10 seconds left.

The game was meant to have finished here, but Mehmet was angry, and wanted to get a winner out of it. So it went to next goal wins. Knackered, sweaty, and battered, we battled on. Within a few minutes of 'Golden Goal', the ball fell to Steve, who had already notched himself a few goals, and he pushed through one defender before placing a shot to the side of the keeper. It beat the keeper, but heartbreaklingly, it rebounded off the post before falling to Ian...


WHO UNLEASHED THE WINNER INTO THE BACK OF THE NET! The crowd went wild with disgust at seeing the Turkish lose on their own ground as we celebrated like crazy. We had overcome everything that had been put in our way, heat, possible cheating, lack of fitness - and we'd put it all aside to give fans of England something to cheer. If only there were some English fans there.


It was a result to remember, as we trudged back to the hotel, reflecting on an incredible night. I think it's fair to say that, for the guys, this was possibly the best night of the holiday :-)

Bodrum. Part 3.

Bodrum. Part 3.

"Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na - Baby Give It Up, Give It Up, Baby Give It Up!"

So our first full day had been a good introduction to Bodrum. We’d learned roughly where things were and such, and had our first meal and look around etc. On our next day, we had the boat trip to look forward to – something we had booked the day beforehand. One of the stand-out points to make about this trip was that it only cost 10Lira. That’s approximately £4.. sterling. Just typing that now doesn’t sound right, perhaps it was 20lira. But still, it was dead cheap, and I therefore felt there was some hidden catch about the trip.

One great thing about the trip was that all 12 of us went along. Woop. We had to meet at the tourist shop/area where we had booked it, and it was quite an early meet-up (well for me, and probably Sean, Chris, Steve, Paul, Ian etc). If I remember correctly, myself and some of the other guys were late leaving and were the last ones to reach the meeting point. Close shave! From here, a guy told us to follow him to the boat. We went down many side streets and alleyways and I wondered whether this was actually the trip, or that he’d just take us down a dead-end then mug us all. It was absolutely swelteringly hot – a few of us stopped off on the walking-bus to get water, but I didn’t (mistakably). We eventually made it to the dock, and were instructed to go on one boat, but then another, and then finally told which one we had to go on. As we walked on, there was a man holding a bin-liner and everyone ahead of us had taken off their flip-flops and put them inside it. We all did the same, even though I made the point that he hadn’t actually asked for them. For all we knew, he could’ve been taking the trash off the boat, and we’d all given him a nice array of footwear. Either that or this was the hidden catch behind the 10/20lira cost!

We sat there waiting to set off from the dock and we were all reluctant to talk or move too much because doing so would use up any energy left that the sun had already drained. I remember Sean repeatedly saying how much he was sweating. I think we all were! In the end, the boat got going and for a while most of us stayed on the bottom part with the roof over our heads, mainly because it was ridiculously hot. After a while, we all found our way to the top and it was awesome – they had quite a few cushion-type-long-pillow-things which we all lay on and took in our surroundings. I’m not sure at what point it came on, but there was also mega music speakers at the back of the boat (where we had positioned ourselves) which pumped out some tunes that we’d never heard and were clearly national favourites – but it was ridiculously loud and every so often it would POP and go off and then come back on making everyone jump. Especially whoever was closest to it at the time – many a time this would’ve been Paul reading his book. He was not happy!

Our first stop-off on the trip was.. well I can’t remember, but it had a hot-springs part to it you had to pay for. We were also allowed off to go for a quick swim in the sea which was cool, although there’s not much more to say for it. Steve brought the ball along and we bashed that around for a bit before everyone got back on the boat. The next stop was fantastic... because it was in the middle of nowhere. The boat stopped and I think someone told us we’d be here for a little while. It was in the middle of the sea, and after a little while we noticed people on other boats jumping off into the sea. I can’t remember who was first to take the plunge, but it started off the trend. I imagine it was Steve, or maybe Rob. The boat was, guess-timately, 15 feet high? But at the time, and being as I’m afraid of heights, it seemed bloody high. After a lot of peer pressure, I decided to go for it. It felt like I was falling for about 5 minutes, then after hitting the water it felt like I was under for another 5. But it was an incredible rush and I did it a couple more times before the boat moved on. All of us bar Chris (girl!) Saz (girl) and Tellie (girl) did it. Saz and Paul got some brilliant pictures of us leaping off, including this beauty from Paul, of Rob flying off the boat and into the water.

We went along to a few other nice spots on the boat trip, including one area where the sea was so clear you could basically see to the bottom. At this point, we were all fed as well, and the food was tip-top for the admission price. After eating we headed back to the top of the boat and by now the banging tunes had been pumping out for a while. I’m pretty sure ‘We Speak No Americano’, ‘Stereo Love’ and ‘Alors on Danse’ were all played. Everytime I hear ‘Stereo Love’ now it reminds me of the boat.

Before the end of the trip was upon us, we managed to get a go on a banana boat. Paul, Sean, Tellie and Ian missed out.. but at least they missed out on almost becoming blind, which I think it’s fair to say happened to a few of us. It was great fun, it’s just that the water sprayed into your face so fast that you didn’t have a chance to close your eyes at some points – it meant that a lot of the time I couldn’t see where we were going. We fell off a few times which was actually quite funny. One of these falls ended up in me falling on top of Saz. Another one ended up in Chris floating away into the distance like a puppy. Paul got some wicked snaps of us all on the boat.

It had been a lovely boat trip that had lasted the whole day basically (what a bargain!) and we ended it by posing for many photographs like typical Brits on tour. OI OI.

As part of the boat trip deal, we could also go for Turkish baths, but myself and others decided against it, as we just wanted to have a shower and chill out for a bit. It sounded good, and there was a particularly funny story Steve told, about Ryan wondering whether he should go naked or not? I probably remember it wrong. The rest of us had showers and such, then decided to go for a drink somewhere along the front. On our travels we walked past ‘Kule Rock City’ – a rock bar! It was at this point that I put forward the idea of going there later.

Once everyone got back, we went for a meal at Curly’s bar – a bar we had walked past many times already, but apparently he said that if we all went we’d get some free drinks (in the end it was wine for the girls). One of the bar staff, Ahmet, came over to us when we were eating and chatted away for ages, and as the topic got onto football, he challenged us to a game. He said there was a pitch not far away from the bar, and that they usually play at midnight, so he and his mates would give us a game in two nights time (he suggested the following night, but we were planning to go to Halikarnas). It sounded awesome, and would give us a chance to put away some of the demons that were still following us after England’s awful performance in the World Cup just a week or so before. After the meal we went back to the hotel for people to get ready/drink some more. This is where myself and Chris were lucky enough to witness Sean’s dance routine to the camp classic ‘Baby Give It Up’. It was immense.






Once lots of drinks had been sank and dances been performed, we went onto the Rock Bar where much fun was had – it was incredibly expensive but the music was spot on. From as soon as we heard ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC, we knew we’d found the right place. We took up our own little corner and rocked about for ages, jumping on tables and such, before deciding to go on to somewhere else.

Many of us were drunk by this point, most notably Sean who had gone around and given everyone a lick on the cheek, and a select few a ‘groin-grab’, including Jake and myself (at least). We drunkenly walked on for a while before finding a place where we had some sheesha. HOWEVER, before we sat down for it, a few of us needed the toilet, and this is where a moment of hilarity occurred.

I can’t really remember who else was there (sorry, bit of a hazy memory) other than Sean, Chris and myself (maybe Ian?) but we were allowed into a hotel for a wizz. After I had finished, I came out of the cubicle to wash my hands and Sean (very drunk) walked past me into the cubicle. As I was washing my hands, I heard him shouting something from the toilet and turned round, and he had a massive painting dangling over the side of the door. We all burst out with laughter, and he was saying, in a high-pitched voice “take it! take it!” so I tried to, then he screamed “Nooooooo!” and grabbed it back. We all started chanting and as me and Chris left, a guy from the hotel came towards us and told us to be quiet. It was so funny.

Not much else happened, other than an incident with the sheesha (apparently I almost started a fire which is a load of rubbish) where I knocked it and a tiny few bits flew out, one hitting my leg and it burnt a little, and another bit falling on the chairs but it didn’t do much damage. We all decided to rush off at this point though because “it was on fire!”. Bullshit.

I thought that that was it for this night, but after just looking at Emma’s pictures on Facebook, I see there was one more ‘incident’ left in the night. And a very controversial one it became. It involved Ryan sleeping, and people pulling ‘pranks’ on him whilst he was doing so, because he is a such a deep sleeper. Now, SOMEONE shaved his leg, I’m pretty sure it was Jake because there’s a picture of the shaver in his hand. But yours truly was blamed for it, even though there is no proof. Quite a telling picture of this moment (and the whole holiday) is one of Emma’s face near Ryan’s bare-naked bum. For those of you who want to see it, I’m not putting it on here. But, if you’re desperate for it, it’s here.

Next – Halikarna’s and the match!

Bodrum. Part 2.

"Is that cheese? It smells like cheese? Is it cheese?" - Me, during our first proper meal.

So, although my previous post was ‘Bodrum Part 1’, we hadn’t even arrived by its conclusion. Alas, here we are at Part 2 and I’ll go straight from when we touched down. Or at least I would if I could remember anything noteworthy from landing in Bodrum to walking to the coach that took us to our hotel. We arrived very late in the night/early morning. I think it was 1am or so?

One thing to note was that our bus driver had a massive nose.

The coach trip was interesting – we had some Thomas Cook lady harping on about bug spray, temperatures, and the fact we weren’t allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet (I anticipated problems for Jake and Ryan’s room). I wasn’t listening that intently really, I was more just chuckling at the driver, whose seat was bouncing up and down in a very comic fashion.

There were a few other people on the coach but only couples – we were the only big group there. The bus driver stopped off at another hotel before they took us to ours. The hotel we had to stop at prior to ours looked incredible – it had a tennis court, a gym, a couple of swimming pools if I’m not mistaken, and it looked generally expensive and new. The ‘Red Lion Hotel’ would be different to say the least...

After we left the modern, lovely hotel, we reached our home for the week. The bus driver stopped abruptly, and I think we all thought the same thing. “This is us?!”. He had stopped in a pretty narrow sidestreet, and looking around, we saw a neon sign, that read ‘Red Lion’. It looked pretty crap, but to be fair we couldn’t actually see the hotel from the road. As we walked off the bus I’m pretty sure we all avoided the ‘voluntary tip’ in the pot the driver had left. It didn’t matter though as he was outside lugging our suitcases onto the pavement. So we had made it. Now, onto the hotel!

We dragged our suitcases along a little bit until we saw a man in a shed-like outside building, watching some TV. His English wasn’t great which caused a few problems – though we were in Turkey and we hadn’t bothered to learn any Turkish properly! We hadn’t even got into our rooms and somehow we had all paid up loads – the majority of us being about 50lire lighter after providing room deposit and air conditioning. Already, I wasn’t sure about this place. We walked through the pool-area after receiving our keys, and to be fair, it looked awesome – the pool maybe being a bit smaller than the one in Fuengirola, but a better shape for our ‘Ball Game’.

Me and Sean were sharing a room, Steve and Chris opposite, Saz and Emma along a bit with Paul and Ian just across from them, then with Rob, Tellie, Ryan and Jake all downstairs. Me and Sean got in our room and eventually figured out how to use the lights. The room was quite small (smaller than Fuengirola, so that’s Fuen 2, Bodrum 0) but looked alright. Sean then noticed that, behind our curtains, there was a bloody walkway where other people could just look into our room – if we opened the window we’d be on other residents doorsteps! Then, being typical blokes, we looked in all the drawers to see what was on offer. There was literally nothing, bar about three glasses and a rusty little knife that looked more like a murder weapon than a piece of cutlery.

I wasn’t greatly impressed with the hotel – in my opinion it made the Veramar Apartments look like the Ritz (original simile there..). I was pretty tired and going to bed felt like a good idea, especially as it was about 2 or something, although when others suggested that we go for a wander around the area I thought “hey, it’s probably nicer than here”. As we made our way out for a nose-about, we bumped into ‘Kermit’ – a fat Turkish fella. He was very friendly and forward and made good friends with a few of us, and suggested specific places to go and whatever. He also said he’d give us free entrance to the ‘Red Lion’ club. OOOOOOOO, exclusivity!

As we were getting ready to go for a stroll, one room was trying to overcome a problem. Chris and Steve hadn’t got the knack of the, inconsistent, key-room-card-thing. Steve ended up locking Chris and himself out of their room. He told the guy what had happened and the guy grabbed a ladder. We stood and watched the man tentatively look up at the room with the ladder propped up for about 5 minutes before Steve told us to go ahead and he’d catch up. Whilst all this was going on, a girl (she was British) was bent double over a wall, being sick over the other side. Lush.

We then left the hotel and walked down the sidestreet, which we were told went towards the sea. It was a pretty rough looking street, although by the end of the holiday we’d feel at home walking up and down it. Although at first, I think we thought we’d get attacked or knocked over by a bike. A few things happened on the walk down this street. 1) More or less every shop/restaurant/person we went past, they shouted stuff out to us, trying to get us to come and buy or eat something. We turned them all down, or just ignored them (coz we’re British innit). 2) There was suddenly a screech and a wail which made me jump out of my skin – turned round and I saw two cats having a scrap. 3) You could tell we were tourists because everytime a bike came past us we were like “woah! He almost hit me, he shouldn’t be driving in the street” (we were actually walking in the road).

We finally made it to the ‘seafront’ and all the bars, restaurants and some clubs opened up onto a view of the sea. Nightlife seemed to be one thing that they weren’t letting down on – it was bustling. And in the distance.. was the place we’d researched and knew we’d end up going to.. Halikarnas. Even though it was hundreds of yards away, it looked amazing, and it sounded immense too – we could hear the music even from that far away! We strolled along the front and (as we’d grow into) approached by sales people and restaurant owners with every step we made. Eventually Steve and Sean caught up, and we all made our way up to Halikarnas, not planning to go in, but just to see what it was like. We were joined by a stray dog that probably had multiple diseases yet most of us encouraged its company. We lived up to typical stupid British tourists though – we went the wrong way and found ourselves right by Halikarnas but seemingly at the wrong end, as there was no entrance. However, just walking past and listening to the music pumping out from the venue just made you want to move your feet to the awesome beat... or just me? We’d find ourselves there soon, and mental-ness would ensue in such a way that it deserves a whole post in dedication.

Before we made our way back to the hotel, we decided it’d be a good idea to get some water. The result of this was that we all emerged from a tiny corner shop with massive bottles of water – this being in the middle of a Friday night out for the locals, most of them in a party mood, having lots of alcohol etc. Imagine what they thought when they saw our pale crew walking down the street with bottles of water. Clearly, it wasn’t a “back to our hotel for the after party!” situation!
This pretty much summed up our arrival in Bodrum, and at this point I was thinking “It better get better”. Don’t worry, it did. It was pretty late but I’m sure Sean entertained me with some funny stories/character voices/quotes/anecdotes before we finally fell asleep. Breakfast was meant to be from 8.30 to 10.30 every morning – Sean and I agreed we’d just see what time we woke up the first morning, as we were pretty tired. Little did we know (although I kind of expected it) that we’d never have the breakfast.

The next day, as predicted above, Sean and I had a right-good lie in. I can’t remember when we actually got up, but it was well after the end of breakfast. I can’t really remember what we did during the day, but through my intuition (otherwise known as looking at pictures on Facebook) I know that Ian, Saz, Emma, Sean and I went on a walk around – this time going a different way from the previous night! On our trip we found a restaurant for that evening (quite a fancy looking one and the prices weren’t too extortionate), as well as booking ourselves a boat trip for the next day which sounded incredible (this will follow in the next post).

We had a nice ice-cream at one place we went but there wasn’t much more craziness going down. We went back to the hotel and finally got some pool time in – and started our epic ‘ball-game’. Not before having our first shots of the holiday though, as weird as it felt being the middle of the day and all. This could’ve been an excuse for our performance in the pool with the ball - You could tell we hadn’t played it properly for about a year as we were nowhere near our old form. The record still stands at 97 from Fuengirola, and I think the furthest we got this time round was in the 50s. Appalling, although I think it could be unanimously agreed that it was due to certain people acting like they were swatting a massive bee rather than hitting a ball. To add to this, Kermit was bombing into the pool every five minutes or so and lifting people up on his shoulders – it was like the football equivalent of a streaker, only with bigger boobs (don’t worry, even if he could get on this from my Facebook beforehand, I’ve deleted him anyway).

After knocking about in the pool for a while, we got out, played a bit of pool and then went off down the much-used street, searching for somewhere to watch the Germany V Argentina game. We found a place called ‘Bobbys’ and ended up making good friends with the guys working there – especially a young fella who talked about football to us for a while. Germany ended up winning convincingly, luckily for me (I wanted them to win for betting purposes). After the game we went back to the hotel for a bit before going out for our meal. The food was good, although this was my first ENCOUNTER WITH CHEESE.

ENCOUNTER WITH CHEESE NUMBER 1: I ordered chicken, it didn’t say anything about cheese, but I’m pretty sure that the yellow dollop of the side was cheese. To be safe, I let others try it, though they seemed undecided on whether it was cheese or not.

After our meal we went back to the hotel and began the drinking. We played ring of fire, and many “God Save the Queen”’s were sung! After a significant amount of alcohol was drunk, we left our, now more homely, hotel, following Kermit’s steps towards the ‘Red Lion’ club, situated back on the seafront. As we approached the club it was absolutely empty, though pretty busy outside. Not a great sign of a ‘thriving’ club. We went in and Kermit got us all some free shots (free entry seemed to be for everyone anyway).

After the shots were drunk, the boogying began, and in some style! Kermit made us all ‘strut our stuff’ one-by-one in the middle of the circle – it was pretty funny, and we were clearly pulling some wicked shapes because the dance floor suddenly became busy. This is where my recalling becomes a bit hazy, as it will in a few instances during my Bodrum posts, as drinking continued even at the club. The only two other things I really remember of note were: A) A man asked Emma if she wanted a drink, and when she said yes, he came back with one and demanded 10lire off her; B) I told Ryan to get us a shot of something, and he said “Baileys?” and I said “OK” but ended up getting glasses of Baileys – I think it set me back about 25lire!!!! And it was disgusting.


We decided enough was enough after a while and slumbered home.

When we got back Steve and myself were hungry, so went to the poolside bar and the guy was kind enough to make us a sandwich. I don’t remember why or how this happened, but Ryan was just in his parachute pants out by the pool and I took a photo. I’m pretty sure it was at this point that I decided to call it a night and head back to the room for some sleep. It was a good first night out, but it would certainly get better...

Bodrum. Part 1.

I've decided that, for my posts on Bodrum, it's probably best to split them up a bit as I have quite a bit to say. This first one covers our time before we even got there...

“I Love Bodrum, Let’s Live Here” – Emma Millard

I think she had it spot on when she said this on only the first full day in Turkey. It was a brilliant holiday, with lots of unforgettable moments and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and it shall never be forgotten.. and it won’t be because I’m going to recall it all as best as I can in this post right now.
So, starting from the beginning...

Well, I guess it’s best to start from the very beginning. Organisation, to be fair, isn’t our strongest quality. Yes, I can take a lot of credit for setting up the holiday, but when it came to the actual travelling to the airport, we were already in uncomfortable territory. For some reason, although all twelve of us were getting the same flight from the same airport, we ended up all getting to Gatwick in different ways/times. Rob, Steve and Tellie managed to get a lift (fair enough on them) to the airport, whilst the rest of us went for a train from Chippenham, changing at Reading to a line that went straight into Gatwick airport. However, even the nine of us managed to split up. Sarah-Jane, Emma, Jake and Ian took a train an hour earlier than us. At the time, Paul, Sean and myself (at this point Ryan and Chris were getting a lift to the airport) thought this was unnecessary as we had ages to get to the station. Ryan and Chris eventually decided to get a train and chose for the same one as us. Ahh I remember the time now as well, 12.20 to Reading. When we got to the station excitement was rushing through us. We walked through the automatic doors, looked up at the train times and... SHIT!!! There was a terrifying, highlighted blue bar through ‘our’ train, noting that it was “cancelled”.

Paul, being the sensible one, didn’t seem moved at all, but I was already panicking. I went across to the train dude and told him the situation, but he said we could use our tickets on the next one. I calmed down. We still had about 5 hours left. We would be fine. Although I knew Sarah-Jane would have something to say!

See, we hadn’t even left Chippenham and there was already drama. And that’s not it! As we waited (about an hour!) for our train to finally take us away from Chippenham, we sat inside the ‘greenhouse’ waiting room. We were being quite yobbo-y and messing around and such, when Paul started talking to me. I can’t remember what the subject was, but I was getting into it quite seriously when Sean, Ryan and Chris started going “Alex!” and shouting at me. I thought they were just being mental, like “waaaaaay Alex!” so I was like “hang on..” but then they pointed behind me... and oops! I had, somehow, knocked over a whole cup of coffee or tea and it was pouring out all over the floor. Yobs on tour... and we hadn’t even left Chippenham!

There would still be more drama before we even reached the airport. Once we got to Reading, we had a little wait for the Gatwick transfer, but we still wanted to rush to the platform to check what time it was coming in (obviously, because we had taken a later train, we wanted to make sure there weren’t going to be any difficulties). As we started walking along the platform in a bit of a rush, there was a loud ‘clanging’ and we all turned round to see Ryan holding a piece of metal, and his suitcase slumped on the floor. It may not sound funny, but it was hilarious, and I needed to capture the moment.

The rest of the train journey went by without much to mention, I got a texts and a phone call from the other groups who had all already got there and told me to “hurry up!”. There was no rush so I don’t know what her problem was. She (Saz) then rang me a bit later on saying they had gone through check-in and they had left the rest of the tickets (our tickets) behind one of the counters. This seemed a bit weird.

When we got to the airport we were sent to a different number counter than the one Saz had said to go to, and I explained what she had told me. The woman at the counter stated that “They don’t usually hold back tickets”. Great, I thought. We weren’t even going to get on the plane thanks to people wanting to rush through to the shops. She seemed quite persistent but eventually went across and got our tickets off an old man. We went through and saw the other guys, and after a minute of explaining why we were late, we were all sorted! I remember me and Ryan playing on guitar hero for about a minute in the little arcade area, and that Sean, Chris and Steve were watching a bit of the Netherlands V Brazil game in one of the pubs, but it wasn’t long before we had to board our flight.

Once we finally got through the last stage of waiting, we were in the big waiting room (I can’t remember the official name) and something wasn’t right. We were supposed to have been called up to board but no-one had said anything. Then, a voice spoke out on the speakers, explaining that a “part” of the plane was faulty, and that they had to send off for a new one. About twenty minutes later the same woman said that the “part” was on its way, but the driver was stuck in traffic. A few of us immediately thought of a typical builder, probably named Dave, driving down in his van with a rusty “part” for the plane. It helped time move along to be honest. After about an hour of delay, we finally boarded the plane, happily saying goodbye to cold England.

Seating wise, it went like this:

Rob Tellie Jake....
Emma Saz Me .... RyanChrisSteve

I hope you understand this as it’s VITALLY IMPORTANT. Not really, it’s not important at all. The only things to really mention about the flight were that:

A) I found it terrifying taking off.
B) I watched the whole one-and-a-half-hour last episode of ‘LOST’ on my iPod.
C) I didn’t realise at the time, but during the flight, Emma and Saz were actually getting sloshed.

My next post will focus on our arrival in Bodrum, our first venture around the area, and our first night out! Stay tuned.

"You hope, and you dream, but you never believe something is going to happen to you.. not like it does in the movies.."

This post will focus on a massive part of my life - Films. Yes, everyone loves a good film. You can quote them and people will be like "Hey, isn't that from (Star Wars)" or re-create a scene in a parodical sense, e.g. like people used to do in Secondary School if someone was running, they would shout the infamous "Run Forrest, Ruuuuuuun!". I found it funny and at that point I hadn't even watched Forrest Gump. Anyway.. as a Film student and Blockbuster employee, it is my DUTY to watch films, and I wouldn't be able to function without doing so. Obviously, during term-time when there's lots of work to be done, and not as much time to use my ten free rentals (sue me), my chances of watching films is slightly effected - ALAS, what freedom was to come during this summer with (basically) 4 months off University!

This post summarises the films (that I remember) I have watched over this summer. Some of these I have seen before, but it is on this time round that I decided to, well, not review them, but give them my rating and a few lines of comments about them. As my blog concentrates on the amazing summer I've had, I'll also try and involve some context to when/how/who with/where the film was watched in conjuction with the overall theme of summer! Gosh.. I feel as if I'm writing a bloody assignment.. isn't this meant to feel fun..? I mean, "Conjunction"? I never use that in conversation...

Anyway..

A Long Time Ago.. In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Shutter Island - 10/10

I can't go through this post without mentioning one of my favourite films of all time, that being 'Shutter Island' directed by Martin Scorsese and starring my (new!) favourite actor, Leonardo Di Caprio. I watched the film originally in March or so when it came out (well I actually saw it twice at the cinema) but I've watched it a few more times during the summer as it was released - meaning I've watched it about 5 times now! That may make me sound obsessed (I partly am to be honest), but I thought it was an excellent film. Before we first saw the film, the trailer was repeatedly played at the cinema, meaning that others and myself had an idea of what the 'twist' would be. Obviously, after watching the film on the second/third etc running, you know what the twist is, but it definitely didn't affect my enjoyment of the film - if anything it made it better! So it annoys me when I've heard people say "I don't want to watch it, it's obvious what happens from the trailer" - In that case, does that mean you wouldn't watch 'Titanic'? Fools. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. Leo Di Caprio is very convincing and his performance in 'Shutter Island' persuaded me to watch more of his films, as you'll see there's many in my 20 of the summer!

Inception - 10/10

Yeah, this is an obvious choice. You couldn't go through this summer without hearing of 'Inception' (and if you have, then well done). It was the most talked about film of the summer - bar possibly Toy Story 3 - and for good reason. I won't go much into the story, as it really is a film you have to see to appreciate just how good it really is. All I will say is that Christopher Nolan has a fantastic imagination and the idea of being able to enter into dreams of other people and influence them.. just awesome basically. Again, Leonardo Di Caprio, bravo. Now I just want a spinning top. Also, a sign of a good film is that you want to see it again - I've watched 'Inception' 3 times so far. The only other film I've seen 3 times at the cinema was Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith. I'm cool...

Oh yeah, interesting note - the 3rd time I watched it, at the end the crowd all went "oooooo" which hadn't happened in either of the other times. It made me laugh. Getting stranded in Bath afterwards didn't make me laugh though - Sorry Emma! But thankfully Chris Hutchinson was on board to save us :-)

The Beach - 9/10

Ok, you're probably getting bored of my love for Leonardo Di Caprio now, as that's 3/3 films I've mentioned with him as the star. The reason why it's in this list is because I hadn't seen the film before this summer. I had heard it was decent, but I was pleasantly surprised with it. Towards the end it seemed to lose it's way a bit in my opinion, but I loved the first hour and a half or so. I think it was more to do with the location and the story of finding a 'secret' island that made the film so appealing to me - and the beach they shot it on looks incredible. So good infact that I really want to visit the place, apparently it's in Thailand. One note as well - I really liked the soundtrack, even if it was a bit odd at some points and didn't quite fit into what was happening on screen. We watched this film at Chateau Hutchinson, not long after getting back from holiday in Bodrum.

Cemetery Junction - 8/10

I'm a massive Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant fan, so I was always looking forward to seeing this film, especially when I heard that Stephen Merchant was co-directing it (as I thought Ricky Gervais films - Ghost Town and Invention of Lying - weren't that funny). I saw the film at the cinema in April or so, but again, when it came out I decided to watch it again and found it better and funnier than before. Well-acted too!

"You're not a crafty butcher are ye'?"

"What does that mean?"
"You like you meat delivered round the back."

Toy Story 3 - 8/10

Toy Story is something that most of us have grown up with, but as it's been so long since Toy Story 2, it was weird to hear they were releasing a third. I wondered whether I would like it, as obviously I'd grown up a lot since the second one (I'd like to think), therefore would I be interested in watching a kids film? Well, in fairness, they are films for children, but they are also directed in part to adults, and I felt this way about the third one. I enjoyed it, and there were a couple of pretty funny jokes/moments that made me LOL. It did have a very sad last scene or so, although just as I was feeling the sadness, Ryan (who was sat next to me) whispered something inappropriate and rude which kind of ruined the moment. Although looking back, it was sort of funny...

Date Night - 6/10

Yeah, this film looked shit. Look at the front cover, or the plot for example, and it sounds absolutely pants. However, the cast is what attracted me to the film: Steve Carell and Tina Fey, not to mention cameo's from James Franco (Spiderman!) Mila Kunis (Family Guy!) Mark Ruffalo (SHUTTER ISLAND!!!!!) and more! I find Steve Carell hilarious in 'The Office US' so thought I'd give it a go. It was alright, it's a pretty silly film but if you switch your brain off it's quite enjoyable. There was one particular bit that hade me laughing loads as it was very 'Michael-Scott-esque'. He attempts to hide from the police and puts on a funny voice (What am I like 5 or something?!) and says "Hey.. I'll be down in a minute, I'm just having sex" to which Mark Wahlberg's character replies "What the hell was that? Fat Alpert or something?" and he replies "I-I.. have no idea I'm sorry".

You had to be there... or at least watch it - please.

Fight Club - 6/10

Yeah I'm sorry. I imagine my 'rating' for this one will annoy a few people, but I really didn't think it was that good. I guessed the twist quite early on but that isn't why I didn't particularly enjoy it. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just wasn't really that interested in the story. It might've been because we (Paul, Chris and myself) were watching it at like 1am or so and I was getting a little tired, and it's a ridiculously long film! Saying all that though, I've kept it with a relatively adequate score because I thought Brad Pitt (as usual) was brilliant. He kept me interested... (in a not gay way).

The Prestige - 7/10

Again, I'll probably annoy a few people with this score. This is a film that people kept going on about and telling me to watch (namely Paul and Zurain). It was alright, I think to get a fair opinion I need to watch it again. Not much else I can really say on it to be honest. I guess that a film starring David Bowie and Scarlett Johansson is always going to keep me glued to the screen. Chris and myself watched it, and for the first few minutes we were talking, then realised the film has been on a while and we had no idea what was going on. It really is a film you need to concentrate on.. shame Scarlett isn't in it 'til a bit later on..

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 4/10

Might be being harsh, but I didn't much like this film. We watched it round my house on one of our 'film days', after I'd read some good reviews of it and Ian had recommended the book. I think one of the main reasons why I didn't enjoy it was the two rape scenes. Yes, it'd be weird to enjoy a rape scene, but these were hard to watch - and I've seen 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. The story was alright but I didn't think it was anything different to the usual plotlines you get in the standard 'killer on the loose oh wait it was him all the time ahhh'. Apparently they're remaking an 'English' version of it starring Daniel Craig. There's another reason not to watch it right there!

In Bruges - 9/10

Colin Farrell is, I think it's fair to say, unliked by most people. However, I thought he was excellent in 'In Bruges', which was a brilliant film. I had seen it before and thought I'd introduce Chris to it. I had forgotten how funny it actually was - "One gay beer for my gay friend, one normal beer for me because I am normal." Another reason for which I give 'In Bruges' such a high rating is for the performance of Ralph Fiennes, who, in my opinion, was brilliant as 'Harry'. In the films I have seen him in, he is fantastically versatile, and he plays the 'Londoner-Thug-Boss' role spot on. He is a possible contender for Leo's crown of being my favourite actor!

[Rec]2 - 10/10

If you're a horror-film fan, you've got to watch the [Rec] films. They're awesome, and the second is just as nail-bitingly suspenseful as the first - though this time there's more to it with army men, priests, demon possession and a freaky, fast little zombie fella. A lot of people complain about handheld camera's and moan about it being annoying - I think it adds a sense of realism. And I bloody love it. Scary as hell, you've got to watch it. And it isn't very long - 80 minutes or so? The ending was, although sick, a bit unexpected and sets itself up cleverly for another..

Snatch - 9/10

It's taken me ages, and a lot of convincing from Chris and others, to watch this film. I didn't really see myself as a fan of 'gangster' films, and there wasn't much about 'Snatch' that made me want to watch it, but I'm so glad I did. Firstly, I've got to mention Brad Pitt's performance once again, because I thought he was incredible, playing a 'pikey' - "Do you like degs?". His Irish accent was perfect, and illustrated his acting ability. Vinnie Jones was impressive in his role as 'Bullet Tooth Tony' with a few corking lines - Avi: "Should I call you Bullet? Tooth?" Bullet Tooth Tony: "You can call me Susan if it makes you happy."
However, I've got to say that the trio of Tyrone, Vinny and Sol that had me laughing the most. I had expected 'Snatch' to be a grimy, violent drama - I had no idea that I'd be laughing so much. Yeah, it was a bit grimy, pretty violent, but it was all good!

Best bit:
[Tyrone just backed into Franky Four Fingers' van]
Tyrone: I didn't see it there.
Vinny: It's a four ton truck, Tyrone. Its not as if it's a bag of fucking peanuts, is it?
Tyrone: It was a funny angle.
[All three turn and look back at the truck]
Vinny: It's behind you Tyrone. Whenever you reverse, things come from behind you.

HAHA!

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World - 7.5/10

Yes, I just pulled out the ".5" into the scoring, sue me. It's because I couldn't decide (obviously) whether it deserved to be in the 8's for being great, or the 7's for being good. Right from the beginning, with the introduction of the 'Universal' signature being transformed into Nintendo-style graphics and sound, I was hooked and humoured. The film was wacky and fun, and pretty different too. There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and the fight scenes were great - even if the novelty did begin to wear out a bit after a while. The soundtrack was really good - I found myself wanting to own the album. One little problem for me though - Michael Cera. Erggh. Something about the guy just annoys me, I think it's his whiny little voice. He played his part well though! Whilst on the subject, the character of Ramona is played by the girl who was in Die Hard 4, Final Destination 3 and The Ring 2! Random eh?!

Youth in Revolt - 3/10

This film has the award of being the worst film I've seen this summer. It was crap. Empire let me down, they gave it four stars and called it "A mixture of Superbad and Fight Club". I hadn't seen 'Fight Club' at this point, so my expectations were high. Michael Cera (sigh) was the main character in 'Youth in Revolt', so that's already one reason why I might not like it. The film was funny, for about 3 minutes, and they were the first 3 minutes so I actually thought it was going to be good. But nah, not really. I wouldn't recommend it! Ray Liotta makes an appearance though!

[Rec] - 9/10

One of the best horror films I've ever seen, and would I be going too far to say it's the best I've ever seen? At the moment, I can't think of one to compare to it in terms of suspense, fear and creepyness. I had already seen the film before, but we decided to watch it one night round Chris Hutchinson's house as a group - it was Chris, Ryan, Rob, Tellie, Emma and myself. The fear in the room was intense! I think I would say that the final scene (or at least the first time I saw it) is the scariest scene of a film I have ever seen - and I've watched 'The Hottie and the Nottie'!!! Awesome film, however, one problem that it causes to some people is that it is subtitled. Yes, it's in Spanish, but bear this in mind. When I think back onto '[Rec]' and on specific scenes, I don't think of it being in Spanish. I usually forget to mention that it is infact a Spanish film. Now that's a good sign of a film isn't it? Or at least that it doesn't cause any problems. After all, it's not directly dialogue based. More 'OH MY GOD IT'S A ZOMBIE!'. Or should I say "Oh Dios mío es un zombie!"

DIABLO!

Snow White: A Tale of Terror - 5/10

Ha! Chris, Rob, Steve and myself were round Rob & Steve's house earlier on in the summer, in the view to watch a film. They have loads of films at their house and ones me and Chris have never seen. This usually causes a problem though, as the four of us can't decide on one. It took us about 45 minutes choose one, and I got my way in the end. I couldn't not watch it, the idea of having an updated, more horror-like version of Snow White sounded amazing! It was alright, quite funny at parts, and was interesting seing Sigourney Weaver in the role of the evil Witch/Queen. One negative though - the seven dwarfs WERE NOT DWARFS. ONE was a dwarf, the rest were just odd looking men. Oh and Snow White fell in love with one. But yeah, they were just seven men, and I think one tried to rape Snow White. Maybe that was grumpy? Or maybe a new one, aptly named 'Rapey'?

Chloe - 5/10

This was one I got from Blockbuster after seeing many customers rent it out. Ian Chilcott had seen it and said it was rubbish - I should've taken his word for it. But at the same time, he didn't go into it much, and it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I mean, it's not every day you see Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried 'lezzing it up'.. is it? I was surprised, especially for a 15. The plot was what made me watch it, it didn't hint towards any sort of love-triangle. There were a few good twists however, so all-in-all, it wasn't too bad actually. Just a bit weird :-/

Pulp Fiction - 9/10

Back to Paul's garage for this one! It was another late night after the pub, and Paul suggested watching a film round his house. Chris and myself went round, and again, it took us ages to decide on a film to watch. We chose a selection of three then tossed a coin to decide (how on earth did that work? Three-sided coin?!). We ended up getting 'Donnie Darko'. Paul put the DVD, it started, then Chris and I decided we didn't want to watch it. Paul went and got another selection of DVDs and 'Pulp Fiction' was one. I suggested we watch it, as Chris hadn't seen it. It's a brilliant film, I've watched it a few times and I think my opinion of it has grown with every viewing. One thing I would say though - After Bruce Willis (Butch) leaves and that 'story' is over, I lost interest in the film for a bit. It's the 'Mr Wolf' scene that I feel really slows the film down. Although, I do like the line he uses : "That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten."

Kick-Ass - 7/10

Overhyped. Yeah, I thought it was really cool, but I think some people went a bit overboard about it and that's probably why I didn't enjoy it as much as others. One of my friends said it was "the new Pulp Fiction". To be honest, I can't see any similarities but there you go! I did find it fun, although by the end I was a bit disinterested - although it was interesting to see that Tamer Hassan was in it very quickly (I recognized him from a few Danny Dyer films. Sorry.). The little girl saying CUNextTuesday was pretty funny, I thought she was a great little actor. It was a bit of a shame that Nicholas Cage's character had to die though, I think that's what ruined the film a bit for me. And that's me ruining the film for you if you haven't watched it yet... sorry.

Adventureland - Sleep/10.

This film was... I do not know. We began watching it when it Devon. It was Chris, Ian, Ryan, Joe, Sarah-Jane, Emma and myself watching one night, although we only got twenty minutes in on the first go. For the twenty minutes I did see, I didn't particularly enjoy. I think it's because I was expecting it to be a silly, LOL-worthy comedy and indeed it was not. It seemed to be more of a Rom-Com, and because of my stance on the film with twenty minutes gone, I suggested we do something else. We had drinks, we had a board game... it felt like a better idea than watching the rest of the film. And I'd like to think the right decision was made, Articulate was quality. The next day, whilst I was catching up on some much needed sleep, the others - bar Emma - finished watching 'Adventureland'. Most of them seemed to think it was actually pretty good, but apparently Sarah-Jane said it was very predictable. Then again, what isn't to her?!

And that's it for now. I watched more films than that but I'm pretty sure you're bored of reading all that. However, before I finish this post, I must give the LOST finale a mention, as well as Twin Peaks.

LOST FINALE

It was a sad day. The last time I would ever watch a new episode of Lost. It's the only TV series I have watched religiously over the years, and the fact that it's now over is very sad. There was a lot of uproar over the ending to the show - a Facebook group was made displaying disgust at it. To be fair, when I was first watching the end, I was thinking "What the hell!?" - but that's in annoyance, not my usual "What the hell?!" to the amazing twists etc in Lost. However, after talking to Paul he explained why it was actually a good ending, and I've watched it a couple more times now and think it's most good. Most good. I look forward to watching THE WHOLE SERIES THROUGH sometime soon :-D

Twin Peaks

Ok, for everyone who has seen this series, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to actually find out about it and watch it. For anyone who hasn't, I highly recommend it. Although it might only just squeeze into being part of my 'Summer', I have recently started watching it, and already I know that it is a series I will forever enjoy. It's mysterious, funny, weird, scary and clever. Backward-talking dwarfs, llamas, the log lady, cherry pie, Audrey, killer Bob, secret diaries and plank-smack-into-head-action are just part of what makes the series so enthralling and odd. Check it out, Diane.

"Where Do We Go Now, Sweet Child?" - Travelling Pt. 1

This summer I have been on an incredible journey. Whether it’s been by trains, planes, automobiles, boats, coaches or Ryan’s back (albeit that ‘journey’ being a matter of yards), a lot of miles have been clocked up, and it’s all been brilliant. Bar the 14-hour travel period from Bodrum to Chippenham... more on that later.

Well, I guess my first bit of ‘travelling’ this year would’ve been London in early June, to see Rage Against the Machine at Finsbury park for their free gig. We spent a weekend in London, with the event on the Sunday afternoon, meaning we had a lot of time to be typical tourists and go round doing all the famous stuff. At least that’s what I insisted upon. This meant that we visited places like ‘Ripleys Believe It Or Not’ museum, The London Dungeons and Madame Tussauds. It was mental and fun, although in the London Dungeons I got picked on and had to go up in front of everyone and be ‘judged’. Everyone laughed and at the same time, booed at me. Even Kat. I’ll mention the Rage gig in another blog, but it was awesome. And free.

After the London trip, Ryan drove Chris, Steve and myself to Derby for the Download Festival.. YAAAAAAAH ROCK ‘N’ ROLL! The trip was possibly the maddest part of the day, as we started drinking at 8.30am – I can certainly say it’s the earliest I have ever had alcohol, and surprisingly, it didn’t make me feel sick! Again, I’ll refer to the actual festival in another blog that concentrates on music of the summer!

A trip to Bournemouth was the last bit of national travelling on the agenda before the big trip of the summer. This consisted of Ryan driving Jake, Sukhraj and myself, whilst Chris took onboard Ian, Paul and Steve. It was an average day weather-wise, but we made the most of it, some of the guys making even more of the day by actually going swimming in the sea – I opted out this time. One moment of the day that sticks out is queuing at a little seafront cafe to get a sandwich, then Ryan pointing out some Jam doughnuts. He, and Sukhraj, ended up buying them.
Bit of useless info there!

The next big trip was to Bodrum.. but I think I’ll have to leave a whole post for that.

So. After Bodrum.

After we returned from Bodrum, there was not much planned for a little while. It was tough getting back to life in England without having the freedom that we did in Bodrum, but at least this time (unlike with Fuengirola the previous summer) we had events to look forward to. The next big trip was Sonisphere. Another music event I will cover in another post.

As far as travelling goes, I’m pretty bored of typing this now, and there wasn’t a lot more travelling, other than our lovely little weekend away in Devon – organized by the generous Chris.

It was a brilliant mini-break, full of donkeys, drunkenness, and “King Dinghy”. Once again, it was sad to return to Chippenham. What made it more upsetting was the fact that we won’t be able to return to the place we had stayed, as we were informed that it had been sold. The possibility of returning has gone, but the memories of sharing showers, watching the Ricky Gervais Show, sleeping on the really comfortable floor, playing articulate, getting lost in a maze, drinking lots, and the Bruce Willis album will remain forever.

I thank you!

Welcome!

Hello all!

Well, I had been pondering on writing a blog for a while as I haven't done any writing for a long, long time, and I thought 'Hey, why not blog about all the things I've done this summer?'. So here we are!

It's been an incredible summer of activity and fun for myself, one that I'll remember fondly for the foreseeable future. It's also been incredibly long, spanning from the very beginning of June to.. well it's not even over yet!

Through my blog I'll be recounting events, things, stuff that made this summer so good, and if you're reading this then they all probably involved you.

This summer has been fantastic thanks to:

Travelling - Trips to London, Bodrum, Devon, Bristol etc
Music - Events and new bands I've gotten into
Films - Seen LOADS of films over the summer, including some new favourites
Football - Although barely playing any football, footy chat has been ever-present during this summer - mainly due to the World Cup in South Africa.
Friends - How soppy? But very true, it wouldn't've been the same without them.

I'll take a section for each blog and write loads and loads and you'll love reading it and be like "Oh Alex, write more please, we want to hear more".

So yeah, keep an eye out if you're interested in hearing my take on the summer's events.

And if you're not interested... then look at this lovely picture of Ryan and be gone!