25th June 2007 - Flooding and traveling

Today has been the wettest that I have known in the UK. I got up at about 9AM greeted by the sound of terrential rain on my bedroom window...which didn't let up until 9PM that evening and had already been going strong since yesterday morning. I didn't venture from the house very much however at about midday I had to walk round to Rodillian to hand in some forms about getting payed for the summer school. I wore my water proof parker style coat which got soaked along with the jeans that i was wearing. I got home and got changed ready to go over to Garforth, not yet knowing the extend of the impact that the heavy rain was having on my local area.

John picked me up at 2PM with the intention of getting to Garforth for 2:25 having stopped to pick up food at Greggs in Rothwell. This would would ordinarily be more than enought time however today the weather was against us. We set off in the heavy rain, I was wearing my only water proof coat that i had other than my sodden parker, which was my high vis coat. John decided to take me on a tour of some of the large puddles that were collecting but little did we know these were meagre tasters to the puddle which we would encounter later.

We stopped at the bottom of Stye Bank Lane and have a look at the area next to the beck in Rothwell (Springhead) Park which were all under several inches of water, the paths of the gardens being turned into reasonably fast flowing streams, the beck had well and truley burst it's banks and was on it's way to some close by houses. We set off to get to the community college coming accross a few fords accross the roads which were usually under a foot deep however then we came to a police diverstion nearing the roundabout at the bottom of Garforth we followed the country lane the police were sending us and a whole line of other traffic and then came out on to a road covered in just under a foot of water, with alot of this water extedning into the gardens of houses and round the buildings themselves, some must have recieved flood damage. We then followed the road but came to another police block on a road leading to the earlier mentioned round about, a large puddle could be seen behind the police car. We ended up taking the decision to take the M1 and then get to the M1 junctino at the top of Garforth. The M1 was alright other than alot of mist thrown up by the vehciles.

We got off the motorway at the junction and came accross a long line of traffic trying to get from the roundabout into Garforth down a road that was obviously flooded with what appeared to be a police car partcially blocking the road. We decided to try and find a way round the blockage using our combined knowledge of the area however didn't succed and ended up joining the que which we had earlier seen. We stuck it out in the que and once in sight could see the emergency response vehicle which I had assumed to be a police car was actually a ambulance response unit. A paramedic was there controlling the traffic allowing a single line of traffic down the middle of the road at once, at the shallowest point. He grabbed onto the wing mirror of a truck and stood on one of the steps up into the cab to get over the lake and then did the same to get back, was quick amazing actually. That puddle was about 3ft deep and was taking some of the cars that crossed it as prisoners with a few cars lined up at the side of the road victims of the water.

We got through that road the drove reasonably unabated into Garforth. On one corner near to the police station there was a very large puddle which was about 2ft deep on average. We couldn't avoid splashing some of the pedestrians, one girl from the college we saw again later back in the building soaked to the bone, we didn't do it I can assure you.

We arrived at Garforth to discover the playground where the open air concert is going to be held in about two weeks time under three feet of water, not a good sign as this is the second time in two weeks that it has flooded. We got though the still terrential rain and into the building where we bumped into Stu. He told us that we couldn't do the rigging that we wanted to as the building was flooded and that nothing electrical other than the lights in the seemingly uneffected areas could be used. We discovered that the music centre had been flooded and some equipment damaged. Luckily teachers and students had started to save equipment as soon as the flooding started. Most of the GCAS gear was safe barring a few stands and the Mackie SRM350's.

Unable to do anything else we went for a walk around the building to see what the damage was to the music centre, to see how deep the water in the playground was and to see how the astro turf pitches were holding up - as they would be a prime alternative for the concert. John and I got very very wet although my high vis waterproof held up very well...my jeans and hair were wet. We decided to see what the situation was like with regards to getting home and to our suprise the half of the round about we required was now open. Half of it was under 3ft of water. A fire engine drove into the puddle however it was deeper than they must have expected as the water level on the truck soon got reasonably high.

We drove home the normal way but turned off when we came up to some traffic and decided to try and get round it by going over castleford way however on doing so we went down a street which after a few miles turned into the worst flooding we had seen all day. The water was about 3ft deep but covered a large area and had fouled many houses. Once thought this we came to a road where a left turn would have taken us back to the M1 round about with the traffic problems we had experience earlier so turned right (there was a straigh ahead but we didn't know where it went and it was barricaded and closed off anyway. After about half a mile we came accross Police road blocks across both the main street and a side street due to flooding. In the distance the flooding could be seen judging by the size of it compaired to the Fire Engine that was next to it it was about 100m long and I don't know how deep! We pulled a U-turn and drove back the way we came and just had to join the traffic and wait. The traffic was being caused by an puddle we had crossed earlier, only now it was slightly larger, still much smaller than the big puddles we had forded during the day. Once through that we got to Johns house without much more going on.

We spent a short time at Johns house then set off to get me home. We went the normal route that took us out of ROthwell near the fire station and then to the Halfway House. We got to the turn off for Carlton about 300m further on from the Fire Station and saw that the road was impassible. The water, which had just been a large puddle earlier, was now a full flood. The water was abuot 3foot deep judging by the level on the lamp post. We dare not enter which not knowing the extend of the flooding. We turned back and decided to go home via the Jawbones but experienced heavy traffic. We decided to go down to the roundabout near the park go across to the sports centre then home past the M62 roundabout however the roundabout at the park was very very busy we decided to try our look at Royds lane, turned around and went down there. There was a road closed sign but it was for a very small puddle in comparison with what we had seen earlier so just drove on and got to the main road where we turned left, went straight across the roundabout then worked our way to my house where I swiftly retreated to my room after a day, seemingly, on the road.

All in all it too about 1.5hours to do a 15min journey (Rothwell to Garforth) and then about double/triple the time it should for the other two. Was insane. I practically finished up the day watching footage of people being airlifted by the RAF to safety from roof tops in an area of Sheffield that had been badly effected. It has been a bit of a crazy day all in all. Currently there are people held up in office blocks and factories all over parts of sheffield awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter as well as about 100 people stranded in Meadowhall as everywhere around the building, including the ground floor, is flooded.

I found it amazing how vunerable the road network in my local area was to flooding. While today was a very odd occurance it is supposedly going to be happening more often thanks to global warming. We can't let it have that effect every time this kind of rainfall happens. At the moment I'm thinking abuot the people in Sheffield but am also concerned about the concert at the Garforth Arts Festival....would be the end of the festival if we had to cancel it.

24th June 2006 - Motorway and Designing

Today I decided to have my first proper journey on the motorway to my Nanans. It was pretty uneventful although I was slightly tense. I need to relax and generally chillout like I do when I drive normally but that will happen with more practice and more time.

After I got home I had tea then met with John to design some programs for two events in the Festival that I'm working at for the next two weeks. While working on it I was thinking more and more that I was getting a bit of a rough deal and was being taken advantage of a little bit. I'm working on a total of 9 events in the next two weeks and taking my kit and using up favours borrowing kit for it. I know that I will enjoy working on the events and that it will be good experience for me but at the end of the day this would make a normal engineer hundreds of pounds per event! That I dont' mind that much but then to find my self being used to design programs for free was a bit of a blow in all honesty...my two ways of making money and I'm doing it for free, I can't help but feel that I might be being taken for a ride slightly, but I will still do it willingly as after all...I'm just like that.

20th June 2007 - Chilling and Driving

Today I woke up at 12noon and went straight from bed to the computer and started chatting to people on msn, one person who I am becoming quite fond of inparticular. I had a shave and grabbed a shower then had breakfast/lunch. I hate getting up at this kind of time, I like to get up about 9AM, it just makes the day feel longer. Anyway I basically dossed around infront of the TV all day. I have a feeling that with the various events at Rodillian and the Garforth Arts Festival I am going to need the rest!

At about 6/7PM Mum and decided to have a drive out, using the motorway on the way there, to M&S and ASDA at Pudsey. Was alright although I think I need to go out in Mums car and just practice parking - I find that is the only bit of driving that I don't like! That and I need to practice more on the motorway just so I get used to driving them. I don't want to be some of those people that don't like driving them given how much easier they make travel around the country!

I bought Hot Fuzz on DVD at Asda while I was out and watched that with a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and some flapjack. I am going to be driving when I go to the pub tomorrow so I won't be able to drink. I have the car all day tomorrow but need to drop mum off at work first thing so I really need to be getting to bed now. I would have gone earlier other than I wanted to stay up and post a message on the UKSLC forum that the T-shirt orders are now over they have gone on far too long with another guy leading the ordering so I just had to do it and get it finished with! Anyway Night Night.

19th June 2007 - A spot of work

Again today was quite slow. With the aid of three different allarm clocks I managed to get out of bet at about 9:30AM, which was a good job as a few minutes after I had gotten up Matt Salden rang me to see if I could lend him some kit. I said yes and arranged a time for him to come round as I was due to go into work to do a few bits and bobs.

I went into work where I briefly spoke to Pete about the equipment we are specifying for the studio in the new building. Looks like we have a good set up there is it is all OK'd. I spent a couple of hours at work, oh I forgot to mention I walked round with a lighting desk in tow after I kept for getting to put it in my Dads car to take round after I had brought it home to repair, anyway got home for about 12:30. Matt popped in and picked up the kit and then I just chilled for the rest of the day, writing a "Beginners guide to aerodynamics" for the summer school, playing C&C Generals and larking about on MSN and Facebook.

Went to bed a tad late at about 1:30AM however, yet again, I didn't get to bed until gone 3:30AM.

18th June 2007 - Nothing to report

Well, today was very very slow. I spent most of the day writing tutorials for the F1 Summer School, which is just the most entertaining job ever, with some brief interludes of playing C&C Generals and watching TV. Went to bed at about 1AM but due to the president set over the last couple of weeks I didn't get to sleep while gone 3:30AM.

Hopfully there should be more to report tomorrow.

17th June 2007 - War and gig

Well today was another uneventful day. I played on Command and Conquer Generals all day practically then had tea and watched the final of "Britains got Tallent" which reminds me I don't know who won that now, not that bothered really.

John rang me at about 9:30 about a los feos gig at HiFi he picked me up and we went in was good...lots of nice girls, foreigners, drunk people and Leeds College of Music types. Anyway home for 11:30 so wasn't a bad night.

Hopfully will do more tomorrow!.

16th June 2007 - Nothing really.

Well today has been quite uneventful really. I got up too late, about 11:30AM, and then just played on Generals and worked on some tutorials for the F1 Summer School that I am teaching at until about 5:30. I then when to White rose with John then to Johns to watch the F1 qualifying - Hammilton on Pole again! - and play Command and Conquer 3...what a cool game!

I then went home and stayed up far too late kicking ass on Command and Conquer Generals. Hannah also showed me her new webcam - which was fun :).

15th June 2007 - Uni results, a pink card and more rain!

Yet again it has been raining, that a bore! It slowed down about 11:30AM so I rushed into leeds to go get my results from university, where I comfortably passed all modules except one, although I knew that I had failed that from the exam. I have done what I needed to do in order to continue onto next year which is a weight off my mind.

I came back through Leeds picking a few things that I needed up at shops on the route to the bus station then headed for Rodillian where I was going to do a couple of hours work. I got to Rodillian about 2PM where I found the car park nearly empty and the school diserted. I later found out that the kids had been sent home at about 10:30 due to many of the rooms in the school being flooded and unusable. I decided to go home myself and got back at about 3:00PM. I arrived home and was handed a letter from the DVLA, my lovely pink driving license was enclosed..brilliant!

Later on, at about 6:30PM, we went to visit my Nanan, who's birthday it is today, we set off in a heavy down pour which didn't let up until we returned home at about 9:00PM. Most of the time the Motorway wasn't too bad with standing water however the heavy rain and spray made visibility quite poor. Once off the motorway in Sheffield however there standing water and huge puddles became a problem, especially on the way home after an hour and a half more rain at one point the water was easily deep enough to come up to the top of the wheel hubs if you went thought the deepest part.

Anyway, home for 9:00, then just chilled watching either television or content on tv-links. And even thought I wanted to be earlier to bed I still got to sleep about 3:30AM. I'm going to go to bed much earlier tonight, more like 11/12 so that I get my sleeping patterns in order for when I am working on events and things that are coming up as well as for the summer school and general work at Rodillian.

14th June 2007 - Rain, rain go away.

Well as you may have guessed from the title of this blog it has rained solidly all day from when I woke up to now. That generally put a dampener on the day. I decided not to go into Leeds, the rain put me off but I also wanted to finally get my room into some sort of order, it was just doing my head in. I am planning on going to Leeds tomorrow morning.

Anyway i woke up and sorted myself out with some breakfast afterwhich I started to sort out my room but got distracted by this old movie that is on every one and again that I always seem to be distracted by while attempting to sort out my room - the forbidden planet - So that took up aa fair ammount of time. Dad normally comes home on Thursdays and cleans the house, I don't understand why he goes so far with it and then leaves clean but slightly tatty rugs on the floor, anyway Mum left a note saying that Amy and I should do it. Amy did the dusting and i did the vacuuming. However, Amy got up quite late and I didn't realise that she had finished dusting...to be honest if someone asked me from my point of view she might have well not done it! (Although I know she has). Anyway, that coupled with watching the film and sorting out my own room meant that I had only just started vacuuming as Dad got in...I wanted to do it before he came home but the last two hours had flown by.

After that I was at a bit of a loose end. I was intending to go to the British with some, or at least one particular, friend/s however that didn't happen. Last week on this outing somthing happend with someone and then a text conversation happened the day after that made me confused. I was hoping that this evening would be my oppotunity to find out what was happening and to talk to the person in question about things. Unfortunetly she didn't want to go as she was tierd, and to be honest from the very brief conversation that we had on the telephone I could tell. Shame, not only would it mean that we could of had that conversation, I also enjoy her company very very much.

In place of the evening at the British I ended up, yet again, watching Stargate SG1 over the net, I have now reached the end of the first series and watched the first episode of the second. I'm enjoying it, finally seeing where regular characters came from originally. I got the bug after watching the film which I bought some time ago on DVD but never sat down and watched. I have to say the actor that plays O'neill in the TV show, Richard Dean Anderson, is much better than the actor who played him in the film.

I spoke to Hannah briefly tonight, she is having a bit of a stressful time at the moment with a few things. I'm not going to say why, other than one of the reasons is her exams, as that would be a blatant betrail of her confidence. I like talking to Hannah, she talks freely about things that most other girls won't. I have only met one girl as open as her in this respect. I also like the way that I feel like I help her with her problems, well that or atleast try and put thing in perspective. I hope that she does well in her exams and that the other things that are worrying her work them selves out. She is a really nice girl, I also hope a nice guy comes along for her.

Well, it's much later than I wanted to go to bed. I was expecting the episode of stargate to end at about 12:40 but I think it must have been a feature length episode or somthing.

13th June 2007 - Work, Work, Work

Well the plan today was to be at work from 8:00AM until around about 5:45PM. However, I woke up ever so lightly late and ended up getting to work for 11:45AM. Work was fairly uneventful in general. I work on some of the mess in the ICT room, had a chat with Pete about the equipment for the recording studio in the new build and then rounded off the day with a meeting with some guys from Rothwell Church of England Primary School about some audio equipment they wanted to borrow for a school play.

I got home, after walking in the rain, at bout 5:45PM. I was so hungry, as I am now, as I had not had anything to eat all day, excluding a packet of cadburys milk buttons! I got home and had a large bowl full of pasta from yesterdays tea, it was so nice although the huge am mount made it hard to eat towards the bottom of the bowl!

The rest of the day was uneventful. I watched a bit of TV on sky and over the Internet and chatted with friends online. The only event of the evening was when tension between Jim and Gareth at the UKSLC led to Gareth being expelled from the community as a member of the editorial/administrative team. Gareth and Jim have had thier differences for some time now. I have elected not to become involved. Although I know Gareth much better than Jim I have decided that it is best to remain neutral. While I consider Gareth to be a friend I can see that he has a uncanny ability to get on the wrong side of people or rub them up the wrong way without realising it. This is a dispute that I don't want to get in the middle of in all honestly. I can see both sides of the argument however am going to try and talk to Jim to get him to forward e-mails which go to Gareths UKSLC account to go to an account with a service like hotmail that Gareth should have or will have to set up instead of deleting that e-mail address outright. We will see how that unfolds in the coming days, I have no doubt about that.

Anyway, I have a feeling that despite my resolution to get to bed at a reasonable hour, which will have to be the case soon to gather the strength and energy I require in order to survive the work that I will be doing during the Garforth Arts Festival period.

In other news, so to speak, the results of my university examinations and lab modules are now available. I am probably going to travel into Leeds tomorrow to purchase a few items, including some for Fathers-day and work so might head on up to the department and retrieve my results. Some of my course mates who live away from Leeds have requested that I find out how they did too as well as collect their lab books where possible. Should be an interesting day.

12th July 2007 - Bordem.

Today has been very uneventful. I basically stayed at home all day wrote some content for one of my websites....www.mcaproaudio.co.uk... and then just watched television all day, got very boring towards the end.

Not much to say about today really. Was bored, thinking about her again but just generally tired and don't know what to do with myself. argh!

Supplementary - This is somthing that I remembered about the today tomorrow...or should I say that on the 13th I remebered a converstation that I had with a friend which I wanted to include in this and reflect on. A friend of mine, who I have known for about six years now but havn't spoken to in person or at depth for about three years, was talking to me on MSN today. I'm not going to name names as that would be very unfair but basically she is a girl who has alot of very very short relationships and is by her nature a very sexual girl, bordering on being a nymphomaniac. Today we were talking about our respective love lives and she said that she was basically sick of being treated as a "sex toy" and that she just wanted to have a proper relationship for once. She also said she wants to meet up with a lad an not end up in bed with him. Now I can't realy identify with this, it is practically the opposite of my love/sex life, but I did feel sorry for her. She is a really nice person but because guys just want to screw and she want to she will, but then guys get the wrong idea.

I would love for her to meet a guy that wasn't just interested in her horny nature but also wanted to spend time with her out of bed, in other words be her boyfriend. I only wish that I liked her like that then I could do that and plus....erm..nevermind ;-).

Anyway, in answer to her wish to meet up with a guy and not end up in bed with him, I said that we should meet up with a drink. As much as I think she is nice etc. the chances of us ending up in bed are small. I don't try to get girls in bed like that and we are old friends, those feelings arn't there for me. Anyway, apparently it won't happen because I'm nice while the guys that she ends up sleeping with are always dickheads. To be honest I think it says somthing about someones nature that will seduce a girl into having sex with him for no reason other than because he can or just wants sex. I don't know, there is some message either here or in my head that I can't get down but either way I wanted to add this.

11th June 2007 - On the road again

Well today was intollerably slow to start with, I got up put in an order for some stuff to add to my pro audio kit and then did nothing practically all day. The sunshine was wonderful though it was really quite warm! After Mum came home and went on her walk we decided to introduce me to the motorway....it was interesting to say the least, although no where near as scary or complicated as I had thought it might be.

The big thing with the motor way is you have to know what is going on behind you as well as in front of you...your using your mirrors all the time looking a head to see what you might have to pull out into the next lane to over take and then looking for suitable gaps to do it in, no doubt it will become more second nature to me as I progress and do more driving on the motorway. I think I might be driving all the way to my nanans on sunday which will be interesting.

10th June 2007 - Fun In Leeds

I have been looking at improving my cabling for my audio kit - mainly instating one of my 4U racks as a pure EQ rack and the other as a rack will general outboard, another couple of EQ's and a couple of compressors/limiters - and having them all precabled with custom cables ready to go when I get to a gig. So I started the day soldering making cables for the racks.

The day slowed down a bit but then I went into Leeds to get a few connectors that I was missing, via a few other places, with John Fowles. It was a nice little trip, anyway after that I came home and continued the soldering and then went out to the pub, The Gardeners again but this time with Sarah joining the gang from last night. The Gardeners last orders was our cue to walk Sarah home, must have been about a four mile round trip through Middleton, which is always a lovely part of the world to walk through.

Jonny was pretty drunk, almost paraletic, which of course was loads of fun. Anyway got home at abot 1:30AM then had a bite to eat and went to bed...all night thinking about the same girl...no prizes for guessing who.

9th June 2007 - Rehearsal Meeting and Pub

Today started with me driving over to Garforth to have a chat with Dave and John about technical things for the Arts Festival including picking up the technical specification for the Ian McMillan Orchestra gig which is happening during the Festival.

The technical specification was simply confusing. Anyway I think I have managed to make sense of thier specification and it looks interesting. There are a few instruments that I have never heard of, plus I have got to get some more equipment in able to do the event, but then again that isn't a problem.

Anyway I drove home after the rehearsal, and chilled out for the afternoon. The evening came and I went to the Gardeners with Rory, Jonny and Mickey for a few pints. The gardeners has become better than it was but there are so many better pubs, they are just all a mile or two away, which is less than ideal. Even though it is also a bit of a dive I prefer The British Oak in Rothwell, but I think that might be down to the fun that I have there with the quiz and my mates that I meet there. Anyway the night was a good laugh got home around 1AM after walking Rory home with Jonny.

Today has been quite chilled...and a good job too as it has been really really warm! I think that summer is actually here!

8th June 2007 - Meeting and BBQ

Anothe day in the life of a student on holiday, nearly. The day started with going into work to have a couple of meetings and then progressed onto a meeting with Dave Evans and John Fowles about what technical provision was needed for the Garforth Arts Festival Events...which was nice other than the part where I nearly removed Dave's arm when he was getting out of the car and I pulled forward...ophies....anyway went back to Johns and had a BBQ unfortunetly only John, Jonny Laycock and I could attend but it was a good laugh. It was a damn good fire too - thanks to the ten firelighters, bottle of lighter fluid and blow torch!

Anyway Jonny and I walked home, via the British to try and meet a friend and had the compulsary walk home chat about girls.

You see at the moment I have a bit of a problem. There is this amazing girl, who is single, that I have liked for about three years now. She kissed me recently and then gave me slightly mixed signals after an evening progressivley obvious signals ammounting to the kiss. I don't know what to think...I suppose this is something where only time will tell!

7th June 2007 - Coffee and Pub

Well much like all the days so far this week today has been quite slow, I imerged at about 11 had a shower and pickup where I felt off with the soldiering which I stopped doing at 3Am last night. After a little while I went into Leeds to meet up with Claire Widdowson - from GJRB - to help her with her physics revision for tomorrow. It was nice to meet a member of the band out of gigs and rehersals, I havn't done it much other than with John of course.

I don't know how much help I was as I was a bit rusty with alot of the content and it was a different sylabus and exam board but she was very greatful!

Once I got home I went to the dentists, to discover that the appointment had been cancelled. Shortly after that I discovered that because I am not poor I am not entitled to free dental check ups...great, I pay more taxes and get less service! Something isn't quite right there.

Anyway I drove back from the dentists stopping to pick up fish and chips on the way home. Then I had my second ever gaunt out in the car, to Rothwell where I was meeting up with the normal pub lot - first in the church and then driving round to the British. There were only Kim, Ash, Adam and I there as most are still at university. I walked kim round home during the interval of the quiz...which was nice...and the came back to promptly do as badly in the second half as we had the first. We lost the quiz, for the 8th time out of 9 attempts, and walked out of the pub with two bottle of cheap wine from that and a previous attempt which they were holding behind the bar.

I then went for a short drive with Ash and Adam and then dropped them off home. This was the first night driving I had done since I passed, it wasn't bad at all. The strangest thing about driving with no one sitting next to you, other than the lack of conversation, is the way that it makes the car feel wider strange really.

Anyway I'm posting quite early today as I intend to go to bed before too long. I enjoyed tonight, both due to the company and driving but also for a reason which I won't go into online. Something has happened which has make me start thinking in an all too familiar way about something or someone which when I have thought it on previous occasions has sadly never gotten anywhere further. Criptic but it makes sense to me.

6th June 2007 - Back to work

Well I was in Rodillian today for the first sizable amount of time for a couple of weeks, I had some time off due to exams at uni. It was the same old story, broken kit, kids that should be shot not taught, a school that's falling down around you and generally no budget - don't get me started on the budget. Anyway there are plans to get the Music Department back up to scratch, mainly by repairing all the kit and generally having a clear out.

I started with the office where I threw out a huge amount of rubbish that Matt had been keeping for no reason at all. The office is going to become a piano teaching room so the back of C5 is the next target as that is where all the stuff that was in the office will be kept.

Other than work I went and met up with Becky from the Backstage Society. At a previous event I left my hoodie and she kept hold of it for me so we decided to meet up and have a drink, or three. I actually really enjoyed chatting to her, something about her is just, erm, really pleasant and friendly. Even though she took the Mick out of me for my pronunciation of sofa! tut.

5th June 2007 - Driving Test Day

Well the day has come and gone, and to my sheer delight I am now a fully qualified driver! I passed my driving test with only four minors, where you can pass with up to 14. I couldn't believe it when he said that I had passed! I'm now allowed out on the roads alone! What a weird feeling when I drove alone for the first time you feel so isolated, there is no one to talk to and nothing to do except drive!

In the afternoon I picked John Fowles up and we just had a short run to Argos and Sainsburys in Wakefield, and all went fine! It's such a good feeling when the examiner says those words! It's amazing! Anyway I will no doubt be talking about driving soon! It's going to change my life so much!

4th June 2007 - Driving test eve

Well, just incase you havn't guessed, I have my driving test, my second driving test that is, tomorrow morning. I have to say I'm very nervous about it, I can't fully comprehend how passing that test tomorrow will change my life! I very nearly passes last time but just made some silly mistakes which I have since, hopfully, practiced enough to ensure that I don't do them again.

I have driven with my mum twice over the last two days and once with Phil and all three times either Phil or my Mum have been very positive and I have felt very good about the drive, including the manouvers, which I am not as confident about when compaired to my general driving, however, after all, I only have to complete two manouvers.

Excluding driving the only other event today was when I recieved confirmation of the F1 in School's Summer School this year and also have agreed with SB what I will be paid, well generally anyway, I have to say I'm very very pleased with it, although I'm not going to announce what the ammount was...that would just be silly!

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

3rd June 2007 - Mountain Biking

Well this is the first free day I have had since I finished uni for the summer on wednesday. I woke up at about midday, I needed the extra sleep to make up for the late nights of the past few days, to a phone call from John (Fowles).

John and I regually go out on our bikes on rides of about 15-20miles. We try to do it twice a week and are part of our plan of getting fit using rock climbing, gym work and biking...we have so far only managed the biking part. Anyway he picked me up with my bike as he needed some stuff foe his bike from Stiff, a specialist bike shop in Headingley. He wanted some SPD's which basically are shoes that clip to the pedals....sounds dangerous and silly if you ask me...and acutally turned out to be silly and, erm, interesting. I have a feeling that these little devices will make for some spectacular accidents in the future, however today on our biking to, around and back from Temple Newsam, clocking up about 15miles, the only incident occured when we went up a big hill, he stood up, the locking mechanism disengaged and due to the fact that the SPD pedals are about 1/3 of the size of a normal pedal he slipped and fell off. I think they are really designed for racing/road bikes so arn't ideal for the offroad stuff we end up doing...I personally prefer my saftey boots and normal pedals!

Well the day was rounded off with a drive with my mum, only two days until my test, and all went very very well! I felt so comforatble behind the wheel of a car and everything was done safely and in a controlled manner, my mum was also happy with how I drove so I should pass this time and get on the road!

2nd June 2007 - The get out and the getting home!

Well, after another late night and another days work we were woken up at 10:15 - even though Gareth said that he would wake us up at 10:30 and had a cup of coffee before getting off round to the Church. We got there and got the van loaded in under 20 minutes then preceeded to have a look at the Churches own installed PA system.

Gareth wanted Robs advice about this and that...it wasn't the best sounding thing in the world by a long shot but I suppose it probably did the job. Alot of the kit was a bit cobbled together and in need of a bit of sorting out to get it right...such as the amp which was at the back of the hall and had the loudest fan I have ever heard on an amp! It could be heard humming away at the front of the church about 20m away...was interesting. Anyway after that and a spot of lunch we left Aylesbury with our destination junction 41 on the M1 - aka home for me.

The journey home was passed with Music from War of the Worlds, Muse, ELO and Bob Dylan and rather random conversations which I couldn't possiably remember all of! Stopping off for fuel for both us and the van on the way. We got to my house at about 6PMish and Rob and I had a drink with my family. Who all dissapeared during Doctor Who. My parents left the house and went our for the night while my sister went somewhere else while eating our tea - Chinese - while having a very very very random chat which was complete and utter bullshit...while I was oggling over Lindsey Lohan in Mean Girls, a very pretty young lady she is in that movie . Rob left about 10PM to go back down the M1 about 40 miles. I watched another movie then wrote all of the last few days entries here! And now I am going to consider going to bed, as I have had very late nights for the past two days and when I did get to bed it was on the floor in Gareths Dining room which, while is alright, is nothing on my bed!

So over all I have traveled 500miles in the past three days, spent nearly 8hours in the can and done two gigs with some awesome people....overall it's been great! Although I am a bit dissapointed about missing Sophie and Amy's 18ths where I would have got to see some of the GJRB members, almost all of which are younger than me, drunk...which could have been interesting!

1st June -2007 - YCBOB gig

As I suspected last night getting up at 8:30AM was a bit rough however we survived and with caffine pumped into us we soon where firing on all cylinders. We got to the venue, Gareths local church, the name of which is "The Church of the Good Sheapherd" or somthing similar if. Now, from the name I'm sure your thinking what I thought when he told me it. Not really a name that you would expect to see on the flyer for a rock gig...however supprisingly the hall which the gig was in was a decent venue.

We unloaded the van, which was literally 2.5T of gear including two stacks of W8, EQ and FOH racks, A&H GL2800 desk, 8 monitor wedges (F12's and Behringer wedges), Amprack, Monitor Amp rack, trunks of cable (LX, NL8, NL4, XLR, etc etc), mic's, mic stands etc.

After a 15min get in we had very little to do other than set up the FOH mix position as we had to wait for the LX guys to turn up with truss, lanterns, dimmers and cable to rig the LX. Rob set up the FOH and soon the LX guys showed up. The LX rig consisted of two 8m spans of truss, one hung from the roof girders with slings at the font of the stage with the second length on two windups at the back of the stage with the lamps totalling 12 PAR64's, 10 PAR56's, 4x Martin MX-1's and 4x LED PARs. Once all of the rigging for the LX was finished the W8 rig and cabling started to get laid in with mic leads going in once the bands arrived and got thier drum kit and amps on stage.

The gig started at 7PM and consisted of three acts. The first two were not the best that I have seen in the world if I'm being honest but still, they give it a good shot. The third was an accoustic act which made a nice difference from the first two very "noisy" bands which I enjoyed. The final band were "The Bench". They were very good. I enjoyed thier set alot! During the evening Rob was the main engineer and mixed alot of the gig including all of the headliners, while I engineered for some of the previous acts with another guy that lived in Aylesbury who was a really nice guy - unfortunetly my memory is rubbish and I can't remeber his name! Anyway, the gig went well although the crowd turn out wasn't good really, but I think that is down to what was apparently poor advertising. The Bench and the Accoustic act look really good...and to say the LX rig was under powered and the LX-op was a complete noob the lighting looked alright too.

Once the gig was over the derig started, which took an hour. The LX guys returned and got thier kit out, forgetting thier Strand 200 desk, and the Audio was just placed ready to go the next morning as we couldn't be bothered to load the van. Alot of people helped out including Frank and Paul from the church as well as the other engineer and a guy that did alot of work on the stage - again I really need to learn some technique or somthing about remembering peoples name - I really hate that I forget and just think that it appears quite rude!

Anyway we grabbed some food on the way back, ate at Gareths, dropped off the LX-op and then went back to his where we consumed a few beverages of the alcoholic variety. Gareth got off to bed at about 1:30AM and Rob and myself continued to chat about things until about 4AM at which point we decided it might be an idea to go and get some kip!!

Over all the gig was good. There were some nice people working on it - a really good team effort. The sound was good - specially for the last band - the lighting was good the only shame was the turn out for it! The venue had an apparent capacity of 200, although I believe that you could get more in there for a standing event, but when I counted the room only had about 45 people excluding crew and the artists in the room! Shame really!

Still all really good fun! Oh and I liked the way that in an after show meeting of the crew, bands and other adults and some audience, that Gareth bigged up Rob and I...and mentioned about the 4AM arrival - made us sound even more pro than the stacks and stacks of kit!