100% Beef, Guaranteed!!

Departure imminent

2006-07-13T08:13:00.000+01:00

Well, as I roll up to my last 24 hours in Portugal, I feel slightly down about the prospect of going home.

In retrospect, I would say that my year abroad has been far from what I had predicted. I am a new man after it, but I don't know if it's for the better or the worse. I now know my weaknesses, and what I can't live without.

I've been bored senseless in Frost-Trol, giggled with Carmen when I was in the Admin office of Frost-Trol, been lonely in Lisbon, felt like a tit on my nights out (all 4 of them), seen how my friends and family react to me not being there... the list is endless. I've been through severe bouts of depression, which I've kept from both family and friends. It's been worse than I've let on folks... but it's finally coming to an end.

If I were to have the chance of doing this again, I would have studied in Porto University, and done the 1st semester, not the 2nd. I would have worked still in Spain, but who knows where I would have ended up... it might have been Frost-Trol, then again it might have been Barcelona or even somwhere else.

I had fun with the Geordies when they come to visit me, I had a brilliant time with Carmen and Nacho in Gijón, and appreciated it so much when mum and dad or Mark came visiting me.

This has taught me that your future is uncertain. You can plan and predict all you want, but in the end, it's always different to what you expect. And what of my future? Well, I don't know. I think the next few months will be very hard with the lack of money and moving into a new flat. I think I'm gonna be so pleased to see my mates (even if they are less ecstatic!); for me it's a big thing, perhaps not for them, and they'll have to get used to me being mental about them for a few weeks! :-D

I would say my language has definately inproved, and I've grown more confident in both languages. I still don't think the Spanish is as good as it should be, and my Portuguese is good, but not up to my desired standard. I have done my best, and that's all I can do.

One thing I think will piss me off big style is when I get back to University in September. I don't think I will be able to cope with all the people gushing about how much of a fantastic time they had (subliminally saying, my RA is better than yours so fuck you) and ow they just couldn't imagine leaving their host city and they can't wait to get back. Well, in my experience, those people have been living with a bunch of English people getting pissed every day. As my very good friend Crystal put it, "if you haven't spent any time hating the country you're in, you've not had the full RA experience" (or something along those lines!

What of the blogs? Well, I might keep them up, who knows? I will have people to talk to, so bloggin will be a less essential part of my life. I shall have to make sure I e-mail people like Carmen and Nacho lol!

It's been a mental 10½ months, with many ups and downs. It's something I shall take away as being an important part of me. My experience of Ra has been one of failure, but one partly of my own doing, party due to circumstances out of my control.

This is me, over and out, going to go and meet Mark at the airport.

Ben xxx

Japanese tutorial video.

2006-07-11T05:20:00.000+01:00

This is well funny and had me tittering away! Only in Japan, the land of the mad! lol

The final curtain

2006-07-10T23:54:00.000+01:00

The end of the RA is coming, and it's coming up quite quickly! lol Only a few more days to go now.

Sort of got over my rant from the other day. I think I'm just pissed off 'cos I feel like I'm being left out of the loop on things, it's hard to explain, but I know what I mean to me, in myself, so it's all around goodness.

Shaz, the angel, text me today saying there were some part-time shifts available at RBS where she works. She said she'd pass my details on tomorrow. She's a total star! I know it's RBS callcentre, and Shaz is saying how it gets on her tats sometimes, but hey it's money and a job, so who cares?

In my times of boredom, I've been researching the family history. It's been spectacularly hard to find some information, like my great-granddad Doyle's history is being a pain. As is my grandad Ernest's, so i've ordered some certificates online, which were only a few quid each! I'm making it into something proper and I think I'm going to give it to my dad for Christmas, 'cos he loves family history and things like that, and I can use the certificates for decoration. Mark can help me with that! lol

If you're interested, here's as far as I've got:

I'm gonna watch a DVD, tra!

Ben xxx

Pissed off, fed up, wanna go home, got fuck all money...

2006-07-07T21:55:00.000+01:00

The title says it all concisely.

I'm sick of having nothing to do. I'm not going to go out walking all on my own, 'cos I'm sick of being on my own and walking about.

I'm not sleeping properly, I'm getting an acute case of insomnia. I'm sick of having nothing interesting to say, and I'm pissed off that I've got no money.

When I get home, I'll have no money, fuck all to do, no job, I have to move house, the stress of getting home, and the fact that this summer, due to pennilessness, I'll be having no summer holiday, no drinking, no fun and no good times.

When will life stop taking a huge shit on me, and bestow me with good fortune? There's no point staying here longer than I have to, but equally I'm not too thrilled at having sod all to do all summer. Plus I'll have bills and rent to pay, all on £0 a week in earnings. Fooking fantastic.

I can't even look for a temp job 'cos they'll have all been taken up over summer by other students. For fuck's sake...

7½ days and counting!

2006-07-06T10:54:00.000+01:00

Yay, very excited now. Mark has joined the 21st century and got a MySpace! Bless him!

Not dome much really. Been looking up the family history, which is quite interesting really!! Turns out my ancestry is very concentrated in Lancashire! In fact, with the surname Wallwork, my Nana Nora's maiden name, it turns out we're from nobility! Wallwork was created when two rich people got married and created a new surname, or sommat. Not looked into it 100% yet!

I need to pay the rent later! Bugger! Although she's cut it in half to €120 for me 'cos I'm only here half a month! Bless Dona Ana!

Ben xxx

Apparently...

2006-07-03T00:34:00.000+01:00

You Are

A Robo Pumpkin Face

You would make a good pumpkin cyborg.

What's Your Pumpkin Face?

Well, it tickled me! lol

BTW, anyone that can work out who Æþelstān is wins a special prize from Portugal! Yay!

Ben xxx

(Being random, having eaten the two oreos...)

A Tobbogan Slide into Home-10 days and counting

2006-07-03T00:07:00.000+01:00

You Are 62% Indie

You're a very indie person, and admit it, you look down a little on people who strive to be normal.
You'll indulge in a little mainstream pop culture every now and then. But for you, anything not indie is a guilty pleasure!

How Indie Are You?

Had a good day today! Went to Castelo de São Gorge in Lisbon with Natalie, which was nice. We ambled through the streets of Alfama, and then to Praça do Comércio and then we went to catch the train. We talked about Rui's boyfriend and me leaving Lisbon! T'was a good day out.

Cooked a HUGE trout when I got home, bit there wasn't enough space in the frying pan, as that's the only way of cooking I have. Anyway got it cooked (mostly - there was still a sushi-esque section near the top of the fish, but I cut that off) but could only eat half of it. The faff of the bones is annoying enough, but yeah, I'll finish it tomorrow.

11 days and counting! I'm well excited. Sad at the same time, but I know it'll be ace back home seeing everyone and catching up on the year! Mark's excited too, and I'll have a new home to get used to too. I think I'll miss Denning Place, as it's a nice flat, but one seeing Liz Lane's Luxury Living webpage, I'm compelled (by Jesus Christ Tonight on a Bike) to move away from them. I wish the landlord the best of luck in shifting flats with them - he'll bloody need it! lol

Eating Oreos, so must dash.

Excited Squeals,

Benjy xxx

Æþelstān

2006-07-02T12:27:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,

Well, the Portuguese have been pissing me off with their constant chanting and driving around screaming chants out of cars and beeping their horns! God, it's only football! I agree, it was a tense match, but at the be all and end all of it, the Portuguese couldn't even score a goal against us when we were down to 10 men and we played an extra half an hour, not to mention you won it on penalties. So why they're so proud I don't know... not that much skill involved in taking a penalty is there? Mind you we always lose on penalties - I said this to the housemates before the match.

Anyway, football comment over and done with. Had a few boring days really. I did my last exam on Wednesday, so now it's just a matter of waiting to go home forever. Mark looked at a new flat with furniture in it. It looks like it's got a smaller living room, but the bedrooms are bigger, so perhaps it's better. I dunno...

People have got their results from back home, and I'm pleased to say that they all did well! Well done guys!

12 days to go!! I can't wait!

Tra!

Cynders

2006-06-27T18:24:00.000+01:00

Hi peeps,

17 days to go! I'm so excited!! It's gonna be proper bo'!

Everything seems to be going smoothish back home with the proposed move. Hopefully it'll be all sorted without problems. Dad is going to be my guarantor, as I've not been working in the past year! I hate not having a job!

Well, to be honest, it's been a productive day. I need to start my Residence Abroad report for my Portuguese stay, which I think I'll start on Thursday and spend plenty of time on it. I've got an exam tomorrow in Technical Translation. I think it'll be ok, the Economic Translation was the worst. Literary and Journalistic was easyish, barr the odd word and construction. But hey, it doesn't count towards anything so I'm not faffed. I need to see Plastic Face tomorrow about getting a transcript of marks sent to my home address. Bah! That'll be a barrell of laughs no doubt.

Had a big clean today. My room is all spick and span, and I've had a mega wash day and cleared all my clothes. I've just got the bed clothes to finish off. The duvet is in the dryer as we speak, here's hoping it doesn't spontaneously combust! lol

Well, I suppose I'd better be scooting off!

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxx

PS I downloaded a load of mint songs last night, and some music videos! I got Absolutely Fabulous by the Pet Shop Boys! I love it! And I got camp 80's tune It Feel Like I'm in Love by Kelly Marie! It's rockin' I tell thee that for nowt!

Disco Fever

2006-06-23T22:01:00.000+01:00

Hey all,

It's been a gorge day here today. I didn't get to sleep until late though.

Well, Mark rang the other day to tell me that our landlord has decided to change over to a different estate agents. We're currently with Griffin Estates, and he wants to change to Luxury Living. The only dealings we've ever had with Luxury Living was with this fat bitch called Liz Lane who was totally rude and obnoxious with me when I bollocked her for constantly pressing the buzzer for our flat to be let into the block so she could show some clients around. She did it about 10 times in two weeks, and one week kept waking Matt up who was doing nights, so I told her to stop it.

Anyway, needless to say we don't want to stay with Luxury Living and are in the process of looking at a new flat under Griffin Estates. There're some flats about 5 mins walk up the road closer to the M60 which has three vacancies in it, so Mark went to see that today, and took some pictures for me. It looks nice, but I'm just concerned at the seemingly lack of space in the front room. Anyone who has seen our front room will know that we have a big shelving unit that takes up a lot of wall space, so we have to make sure that fits in. We will probably move to the flat on the 1st floor too, so it'll be a bit safer. Mark says that Matt's bedroom looks bigger too, so Matteus Rosé will have some extra space, which I hope will be ok for him.

It's such a faff having to move. We don't *have* to move, but I don't know anything about Luxury Living, and for all I know they are a load of charlatans. Indeed, given the last encounter with their ugsome representative, that woyuld seem to be the case: what estate agents doesn't have the front door key for the block of flats they're selling for?!

Ugsome - I've been trying to use that word for ages! It describes Liz Lane prefectly...

Anyway, that's all that gone on really. Janet Lloyd has told be that I can't do the Advanced Translation Module next year. So I think I'll try my hand at Spanish Interpreting, but if it's too hard and I won't do well on it, I'm going to do the dissertation. I've asked her the details for the dissertation, so hopefully that's all sorted. I can still do Portuguese Extended Translation, and I get the theory from Spanish Advanced Translation, so it's not all bad. I blame the limpets that are in my class who can't be arsed doing anything! Sorry, but it's true! Half the time they wouldn't have a clue what was going on if I didn't tell them! They are really nice guys, just totally lazy!!! lol

Well, I'm off to listen to more disco hits on my CD!

I was listening to a tape before too, from about 1997; I found it in my hi-fi at the top where the tape player is. I was thinking ow amazing it is in the 21st Century. If we like a song, we can dowload it at the touch of a button (well I can't with crappo internet connection, but you get my meaning) and 'bam' it's there on your music player. Beforehand, like on the 1997 tape, you had to record it off the radio with all the crappy DJ bits tagged at the start and finish! It was much more hard work to get songs for free, but strangely more rewarding. Waiting for ages to record the song you want (I remember listening to "The Rewind" on Key 103 for about 3 months waiting for Blondie - Heart of Glass) and then something mental would happen like the tape would run out! D'oh! Anyway, I still do that, but I use Mini Discs, as you can now flick through to your fave song rather than fastforwarding through the tape!

Anyway, on that random not (boom boom), I'm off to groove on down!

Ben xxxx

Poppets, Peter Kay and 23 days to go!

2006-06-21T16:08:00.000+01:00

Hey Blanchettes!

Come back from my weekend home, which was fantastic! We had much food at Tai Wu, which was muito delicioso! Was brilliant to see Mark's friends, and Lins and Geordie Jo, Joe and Joanne all came too, which was fantastic!

Spent the time relaxing and going to places with Mark, but we got stuck in Sheffield, not a place to be stuck in! Ended up eating a Burger King on the platform sat next to a drunk who laughed manically every time I took a bite!

Set up a cleaning rota with Matt and Mark for when I'm back. Basically it'll make the cleaning of the flat much easier and fairer. It'll be good for us all when I'm back too, as the rent'll be £165 a month, thus splitting the rent 3 ways, so it'll be cheaper for us all! Joy! It'l be nice being back.

Journey home was bizarre. Eulália, who teaches me Portuguese at Salford Uni was on my flight from Liverpool to o Porto. when we were queueing, we chatted about stuff. Turns out she's pregnant, and will only be teaching in the 2nd semester. It was nice to see her, but odd at the same time! lol

Bought some mint poppets at the airport (which I love!!) and a Peter Kay tape of the Top of the Tower, and it's making me piss my sides!

Just dossing about today, I'm going to do something productive tomorrow I think. Next and last exam is on the 28th June. Looking forward to coming back in 23 days! I think I will miss Portugal, but it'll be nice to be back. I'll deffo be coming back to visit though!

Can't wait for my results back from the exams. I don't think I'll have done too badly, but not like 100% either. Doubt that ISLA will be organised enough to give me my results, but I have to ask for them for ERASMUS. A total bugger. I'll have to peck their heads over it, I'll go see Plastic Face on the 28th June. Not too confident about it though, but we'll see.

Well, I'll be off,

Love and hugs!

Ben xxxx

What is that rainbow sheen on ham?

2006-06-14T14:45:00.000+01:00

I'm being studenty and eating random foods. I'm having a packet of ham for my dinner! Yum! Bit salty though!

Essay = Completed
Literary and Journalistic Translation Exam = Completed

And I think I've done well in both of them!! We had a manic thunder and lightning storm last night, so loud it rattled all the windows! Was pretty cool though!

On way back from uni it was having a Amazon Rainforest-esque downpour, so I had to run to the metro stop (literally 2 mins away) and by the time I got there I looked like I'd been through a shower with my clothes on! Ah well, came home ok, had a shower, washed up from last night, and put some washing.

Tomorrow = Home via Porto! Yay!!! And I'm already checked in! Bless RyanAir!!

*squiqqly hugs*

Ben xxx

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

2006-06-14T05:33:00.000+01:00

Bloody Welsh place name. I thinking of putting it in Tourism essay just for a laugh to eat up some pages. I'm nearly done, but I just can't be arsed!!

Bloody Tourism!

2006-06-13T22:31:00.000+01:00

First and foremost, 25 pages my ass! This is not going to happen! Bugger! I'm doing ok with the devil essay though. I'm now writing some bollocks about golf courses in the Algarve. What a bag of crap. Halfway done though. I need to hand it to Mike tomorrow so he can hand it in on Friday for me in the lesson. It's a pain in the arse 'cos I'm home too, and I don't want to have to faff with this, but I suppose I have to!

Best get on wi'it!

Ben xxxx

Hammering, Mozzie Bites and some arse-crack of a piece of work! Schmickles!

2006-06-12T19:07:00.000+01:00

Hey Blanchettes,

Hope all is well in the funky worlds in which you live. Doyle has sunburn today. I went to the Beach at Torre yesterday, and the bastard sun was so strong, I have now got a burnt red face, and slightly less burnt upper body. My arms are a weird browney-red colour too. My lips have burnt too, are very sore and a bit swollen. Damn the sun!

Anyhew, was rudely awoken at 8am by the lunatic woman upstairs. She's got builders in to reconstruct her kitchen after she set fire to it with olive oil. So since 8am they've been using a hammer and chilsel thingy to take ll the tiles off the wall. BLOODY NOISY BASTARDS!!!

Went to exam for Economic Translation. Portuguese to English was a breeze. English to Portuguese looked a mess, and the word order etc., was all wrong. Ah well... not like it counts to anything! lol I've got a devil essay on Tourism in Portugal to do, hopefully I'll get it done by tomorrow. Not that it matters as it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow and on Thursday, so I'll have no option to hand it in before I get back for Mark's birthday. I've asked Mike to ask her if I can hand the work in via e-mail. I wouldn't usually, but needs must! lol Anyway it's a total pain in the arse. I'm just writing any old bollocks and hoping it'll see me through. I'm doing package holidays at the moment. I'm gonna move onto hunting or some other godforsaken thing next...

Computer keeps turning itself off. Did it thins time just as I had finished a paragraph of text about resort hotels. BUGGER! So re-wrote it but with less effort, so it's now a bit crapper, so I copied a photo of a hotel off the internet and bobbed it in. She'll never know! lol

Have been bitten by more mozzies. I now have a bite the size of a digestive biscuit on my arm, which has a 20p-sized raised lump in the middle of it with pink and red speckles on it. Looks like I've been shooting up or sommat! Well it is only to pass the time... :-P

Anyway, should be off really,

Love yas and leave yas!

Ben xxx

PS Jacs got back to me and said it's dead for shifts in July and August, but she'd look at fitting me in for a couple of Saturdays! Brillo pads! x

Lancashire vs. Yorkshire

2006-06-06T15:55:00.000+01:00

Mate mate Rob (from Yorkshire) sent me this!

God said to Peter in heaven "Come look at my finest creation, I've called it Yorkshire, it is a place of unspeakable beauty, and the people are the most intelligent and beautiful around"
>
>Peter then asked "Lord, I thought that you created everything balanced, so for everything good there is something bad"
>
>"Ahh" Said God, "Let me tell you about a place called Lancashire.....)

Mark's gone home + jobs!

2006-06-06T14:36:00.000+01:00

Schmickles all.

Mark's gone home, but we had a lovely hug at the airport, which is keeping me feeling happy! Had a nice time with Eastwood this week, and it's been great having some company!

Like I said previously, I've sorted out coming home, and so, the brick wall hits. I have to come back to a changed Manchester. Friends have moved onto different things and different people. I've missed out on a years-worth of gossiping, drinking and dancing, or just general conversation!

I'm in quite a lot of debt after this placement. I've spent my birthday/Christmas money and the money dad gave me in Castellón presents for myself, which is good, as I usually end up spending it on something daft. I have now got about £1,500 on my credit card though. I balance-transferred £750 over to my Egg card, so that's interest free for a while. I didn't need to use my RBS card I got before coming here though, so that's good. Added to my £1,500 overdraft, I'm £3,000 in debt (this is obv. not including my student loan though).

All this means that I'm going to have to work my ass off when i get back to Manchester. I hope I can get back to The Lowry. It's good money, I know the job, and I was comfortable there. I know plenty of people there, which is a bonus too. We'll see. Jacs hasn't said anything yet, which might just mean she'll add me onto the rota. It also might mean that I've been consigned to the dustbin! I tried Virgin Trains too, to see if I could work on one of the onboard train teams, or at the ticket office at Manchester Piccadilly, but apparently, they only employ people full time. So that's that pissed on before it even started.

I tell you, I can't wait to get back to working. I'm sick of not doing anything. I've spent a whole year basically doing fuck all, and it's driven me insane! They say year abroad changes people. I would certainly say that that was true, but I don't know if the change is for the better, or for the worse. My confidence has been knocked sideways, I'm not as happy as I used to be, and I've become a lonely reclusive person as a result. Which is not good. Well, I suppose I can't have everything. I might feel better when I get back, I might not. We'll see. I think everything will have changed quite a bit, so it might take me a while to assimilate it all.

Well, I'm gonna go and get a drink of water! I'm off my lovelies!

Ben xxx

Mark visits and COMING HOME!!!

2006-06-04T20:35:00.000+01:00

Olá a todos!

How are we all at the moment? Good I hope. Well, as the title says, Mark is currently visiting at the moment. He's keeping me sane and e're going out doing nice things like walking on the beach, sitting having an ice cream on the promenade, visiting monuments etc. It's *so* nice doing things like that with him! It's much better when there's two fo you!

We went to Rock in Rio which is a music festival in Parque Bela Vista near the Airport. It was good. Although, I really wanted to see 2 Many DJs, but it turns out that they were on at 2:15 in the morning, and the last metro back to the train station was at 2:35, so I didn't get to see them!! I was well annoyed! We only got to see Kasabian, Da Weasel (some shite rap/rock band from the other side of the river) and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. It was nice to do something different for the evening, and s Mark said, people watching can be fun! It was very dusty though, and on returning home, I looked like I'd been down a mine!

Also, I've sorted out my journey home FOREVER! I'm coming home on 14th July for Geordie Jo's engagement party on the 15th. I was originally going to come back to Lisbon for a couple of weeks, but I've decided against it and cancelled my flights for 1st August, got a partial refund and rebooked Mark's flights so he can come and help me pack/move. So all in all it's ended up being about £70 to change it all over - but what's the point of a credit card if you can't use it?!

So yes, I'll be home forever on 14th July - make a note in thyne diary!

I'm looking forward to being back. Lovely as Lisbon is, the truth is, I'm missing everything about home, so I might as well cut the stay short by two weeks! lol

I sent an e-mail to Jacquie back at ye olde Lowry to see if I can have my job back. I'm slighty doubting that I'll be given anything - we'll see though, I might be wrong! I'm going to apply to some other jobs too, just to keep my options open!

Well, I'll be off then!

Ben xxx

It's all hot and sticky...

2006-05-28T21:48:00.000+01:00

Yes, Lisbon is in the middle of a heatwave that will last till about September! BAH! It's been 32ºC today, which is a tad too hot for me... it's also very humid, so there's no air. I'll get used to it!

Mark will be here on Tuesday, which will be good! Yay!

Went out with Rui and Pedro last night. First we went to the theatre where Rui works to be all Bohemian and watch a singer from Cabo Verde, and she was quite good! Zé, Rui's boyfriend, met us there, as that's where he works too. I think it was very Lowry-esque as a high percentage of the staff seemed to be gayers! Yay! lol

Afterwards we went to Barrio Alto and stood drinking in the street with about 2,000 other people. A fight broke out between two people who had obviously been drinking too much. There were other people from the theatre there too. We ended up in a place called Frágil, which is apparently the first gay bar in Lisbon. That was ok too, if a bit teeny! Along with us four was a man called Nuno, who works Front of House and Box Office at the theatre and another bloke, but I can't remember his name. Ended up in Trumps until 7am, and then we went home. Fun was had by all!

So yeah, not a bad time. Big hello to Jonathan, who's birthday night out it was last night. He went to see Hed Kandi, which I wish I were there to have seen, but was unable to! Grr! :-( Nevermind!

Well, I'm off!

Ben xxx

Eurovision 2006!

2006-05-27T06:28:00.000+01:00

3rd time lucky! computer keeps overheating and turning itself off damn it! It's pissing me off!

Well, as I was saying, I've yet to comment on this year's Eurovision in Athens! I watched last Sunday after I'd recorded it 'cos I was at Sam's/Rob's birthday bashes.

I think our entry Teenage Life by Daz Sampson was a good one this year. I don't think there's been many rap-esque songs going into Eurovision, and the whole classroom things was something totally different from our usual "person singing on a stage prancing about/looking into the camer" that we normally pump out. Terry Wogan said that France has been doing the same thing for year after year, but really, so have we. You ain't gonna win it with a normal catchy song/ballard unless you're part of one of the voting blocks. Incidentally, I looked this up, seeing as all the information is now at our fingertips! Macedonia, in the last 3 competitions, noly usually recieves points from th surrounding countries, such as Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc. They very rarely get a point from anyone non-Balkan, and when they do, it's usually no higher than a 3.

Therefore, I think that we did quite well this year. Ten countries voted for us, and eventhough they were low marks, ones and twos are better than nothing, and like I said, 10 countries voted for us, so we did well. I hope we do something good next year too. I'm so gladd one of the boyband/girlband/popstars rejects didn't get a see in.

Honestly, in this country we have some great music, and I think something britpop/indie/rock would do really well. There are some great artists out there, and they shouldn't be afraid of going to Eurovision. I can't see how we make some of the best music in Europe, and yet, we get lower marks than bloody Macedonia. I know this from my travels. No matter where you are, they will be listening to UK music. In Portugal, there's hardly any Portuguese artists. Spain is marginally better, but always sends some Andalucían pap like that Bloody Mary shite or Brujería crap they've sent recently.

To be honest, I'm totally glad that Finland won it with Lordi. It's something different, a sort of protest against the hyper pop/Balkan sheep's stomach instrument tat that's being purveyed at the mo.

Let's hope we get an even better song next year, with some good lyrics, a good tune, and we miight just make it into the top ten... still behind Macedonia no doubt!

Friday Night!

2006-05-27T00:14:00.000+01:00

God, if this were home, I would be dancing ye olde baps off at some drinking/clubbing establishment in the village! I can't wait until I'm back there! I'm itching to go out and get lashed and dance the night away, to end it all with a Samiad's Kebab of Doom (+ Hummous)!

I'm a bit bored at the moment, and I'm sort of just existing without purpose! I've got next-to-nothing to do, so I'm just passing time each day. I should really go to the beach or something like that, but it gets a bit boring when you're on your own all the time. Everyone else is busy. :-(

Ah well, Mark comes to visit in 3 days' time, so I'm gonna look forward to that!

Ben xxx

My Film Rating

2006-05-24T04:12:00.000+01:00

Did a film rating test as I was bored...

My life has been rated:

See what your rating is!
Created by Bart King

My life is porn! Argh!!!!

Salford Uni is crap (sometimes)

2006-05-23T20:30:00.000+01:00

Back in Portugal after Rob's birthday! It was AMAZING and it was totally ace to see Geordie Jo, Joanne, Joe, Phil, Rob, and everyone else that I can't remember from drunkeness!! We went to 5th Ave and had a jolly good dance, eventhough a big asian woman kept giving me wild eyes... I went and hid around the post. Geordie got a bit emotional on saying goodbye at the end of the night. I told that she'd be fine and not to get upset and that I'll be back soon enough. She says she really misses me (as I do her), I just hope that everything goes alright! Rob had a comedy Italian haircut, where the barber had accidentally cut out a big bald spot behind his left ear... we had a good old chuckle at that!

Went to see "DaVinci Code" on Friday with Mark, Matt, Lorna, Martin and Martin's friends. I enjoyed it, but Lorna was feeling iffy and went early on. Nevertheless it was fantastic to see her and give her a big squeeze-hug! I think I might have said something that upset Lorna slightly, but it's my fault for assuming something was one way when it wasn't! My bad! Nevermind... PLUS, on Anthony Cotton Watch, he was there too, I tell you, he stalks Mark!! Eveywhere we go, Anthony Cotton is there too!

It was lovely seeing Mark and I saw Jenny and her boyfriend Ciaran on the bus, which was nice too. She has fab hair my sister at the moment! And Ciaran's chopped his slightly, which I suspect Jenny had a hand in, but that's not for me to comment on.

I got an e-mail from Janet Lloyd, the Head of Portuguese at Salford Uni:

Dear Ben

I'm writing regarding your module choices for Level 3, as you are
the only student to have chosen Portuguese Advanced Translation.
Unfortunately this means that we will not be able to run the
module. I notice that you have also chosen Spanish Advanced
Translation and this means that you will get the theoretical input,
and I would be more than happy to give you the materials for the
Portuguese translation, if you are interested. We could meet now
and then and go over them, but this would be an informal
arrangement.

All of this does mean that you will be 10 credits short; I seem to
remember that you wanted to avoid interpreting (though you may
have changed your mind after RA in Spain). The other option open
to you is to write a short dissertation.

Have a think about it and let me know. And remember, if you have
any questions, I'm here to help.

Best wishes

Janet

Director of Undergraduate Studies
School of Languages
University of Salford
Salford, Greater Manchester M5 4WT
UK

BAH! So yeah, that pissed me off a lot (it's not Janet's fault though!). On speaking to Janet, she accepted my idea for getting around it by me doing the advanced translations at home, and then we can have a half-hour meeting each week to go through the problems of the translation. She said that she had had a similar idea when writing this e-mail, and she'd definately speak to the Board of Directors about it. So there is still hope. I understand the reasons for doing it, but if both me and Janet are willing to do the classes in our agreed format, I really can't see what problem the uni has with it. Cocklesuckers!

Well, on a final note, look at this picture:

How cute is that?! A tortoise the same size as a raspberry! Awwww!

Well, on that crazyness, I'm off...

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxx

Ai, que dia quente!

2006-05-17T22:39:00.000+01:00

Yes, today has been a total scorcher! 27-ish! Fook!

Well, I didn't sleep at all last night. Tried, but gave up around 4am. Now I think my body's back into some sort of cycle. I set off to uni, but forgot my wallet which contained my pass for the train and Metro! Gaa! Fortunately, the conductor on the train wasn't arsed, and I had enough change to buy areturn on the metro and for the journey back to Oeiras.

This meant thought that I couldn't have my brekkie inthe canteen at uni, nor have some coffees. The Internet was also down, so I couldn't even go on that between Wendy's lesson and Ana's lesson. BAH! Anyway, I did a whoop-ass translation from Portuguese to English about the ozone layer, and methyl bromide and fook knows what else. I did well though, and only got two little things wrong out of a whole side of A4! Yay!

English to Portuguese is a different matter, but no-one seems like they are arsed by it. I am a little, but it's bloody hard! Hopefully I'll get a little bit better, however, Wendy said to me today that the translation classes end at the end of May, so it's a total shambles. I don't know if I'm meant to be doing the exams or what. I'm going to ask about all this when I get back.

Flying home tomorrow! Looking forward to it, but I think I'll miss Lisbon! How weird is that?! Anyhew, got my bag packed, and I fly at 10:40am tomorrow, so I'll need to be up earlyish to get my flight ok. then I have to trudge up from Gatwick. Hmph...

Well, I'm off now,

Lots of love and hugs to you all, and I'll deffo see some of you this weekend!

Ben xxxx

"Me Minge!!"

2006-05-16T18:53:00.000+01:00

Olá, ye bastards ye...

Hope all is well in your respective countries! I feel like crap today. I am well pissed off.... last night I tried to get to sleep at about 1am, after relaxing by reading my book.

Could I go to sleep? Could I bugger! I was lay there, sweating my baps off until about 5:30am, and then I just dropped off! I donºt even remeber falling to sleep. Well, nevertheless, I awoke at 3pm (again) which made me both angry and a little depressed.

I went and had a nice long shower, a shave (not had one in about two weeks, so I had a full-on beard going on, Richard Branson-esque!) and a good old scrub of the face with an exfoliate! Felt refreshed and glowing!

Went to Tourism in Portugal, but it's fooking boiling and my baps were melting! lol

Anyway, got to tourism and we were in the new lecture theatre, and the new restaurant is open. Had our first hour of classes, which went well (seeing as I was writing on plain paper - gaaaa! No lines!) and I learnt muito! During the break, a guy called Lourenço said that he and Anokas were arranging a trip to Sintra, with ISLA paying all of the entry fees to the museums and everything! I'd love to go, but as I'm going back for Rob's birthday, I'll have to miss it! BUGGER! Well annoyed, but hey, nothing I can do about it!

After the break, the class were all going mental about something. Apparently, the teacher (María Teresa - she's lovely) was a bit pissed that people aren't coming to the Friday class as 5pm. I agree it's a fooking daft time to have it, but if you have the class, you have to go to it! Anyway, she once again drew attention to me by saying to the class "Look, our colleage who doesn't have our nationality must be thinking that we are all incapable of listening, and that you act in this childish manner all the time". I was like, "err, I'm not saying anything, don't bring me into it!!". I could see what she was getting at.

Besides, afterwards, I went to the front of the class, and asked her if the Friday classes were still taking place, which she said that they were, but if people turn up, there'll be a class obviously. I explained that I wouldn't be able to come this week, but I usually do (which I do barr last week). Then I asked her if I had to do the Pousadas coursework assignment, and she said I didn't need to do it, and not to worry about it. JOY! Furthermore, I then asked her if she knew when the exams for Tourism would be, and she said that she didn't know, but that the exam was difficult, and that it would be all in Portuguese. She said that she'd speak to the ERASMUS director, and work out if I had to do the exams. She said probably not, and that she'd find some other way of evaluating me. She asked where Miek was too, so (with the help of another student) we explained what had happened with the festival and the car running over him.

She was a bit concerened, but said that she hoped all would be well. So, I think it's been a most successful day. Now I have to go home, do some translations and go to classes tomorrow (which I missed last week). I am going to try and go to sleep early again. If it won't work for me, and I can't drop off, I'm going to stay awake all night, in an attempt to get my body sorted. This not sleeping thing is driving me crazy.

It doesn't help that the house is bloody noisy, and those bloody sprinklers come out every two hours as from midnight. I'm well pissed off with those. HOW OFTEN DOES THE GRASS NEED WATERING DURING THE NIGHT?!

Anyway, I'm going to skootch off!

Besinhos os meus filos!

Ben xxx

Birthdays

2006-05-15T23:53:00.000+01:00

This time of year is always rammed with birthdays. TONS of people's
birthdays in May and June! Got an e-mail off Jonathan, which made me
chuckle, and I'm just sat relaxing to on Oceano Pacífico on RFM. It's
slightly like Coma FM in Manchester (aka Smooth FM).

Just bumming around at the moment... body clock's a bit fooked since
that night out, and I'm finding it hard to drop off. I get to sleep
about 4am (which is bad) and wake up at about 12 noon (also v.bad). So,
after this, I'll probably try and get off to sleep again. I'm gonna make
te bed up nice and comfy!

I'm mucho looking forward to this extended weekend at home, if only for
seeing everyone! Especially Mark, who I'm missing a lot at the moment.
He says he's missing me too, so it'll be nice to cuddle up to one
another in bed! Perhaps that's why I'm finding it hard to fall asleep?

LGBT's website is going ok too. Not too bad at the moment. I'm trying to
be artistic, but it's not being too successful!! Matt S, Mark and Rory
are all giving good input, so that's helping.

Anyway, I'm going to skidaddle off to bed.

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxx

totallycrud.com

2006-05-12T15:51:00.000+01:00

Yes, I'm fiddling with things for the website. I might as well make myself useful! I can't be arsed going to tourism and TTCE today, to I'm lolling around here, listening to Pulp, drinking apple juice and doing websiteness. I might go for a walk later, down along the beach! Ah bliss!

Just had an e-mail from Heather, she's bored bless her! She's having fun in Irún and has gone and got herself a boyfriend!

I was awoken rudely in the night by that bastard sprinkler, just outside my bedroom window. It soulds like the fire brigade is spraying water all over my window or something! Bastard thing!

I tidied the bedroom last night, which was therapeutic, spoke to Mark for a bit, which was nice too. I'm looking forward to going home for Rob's birthday, which will be next week. I'm coming home Thursday, as I have that day off anyway, and to get the cheap flight to London on Friday, I'd have to miss tourism and TTCE, so, in for a penny, in for a pound... might as well come home Thursday. Then I can spend time with Eastwood! Yay!

Anyway, I'm going to go and fry that sea bass that I bought the other day! Mmmmmm! Or possibly the mackrel, I'm not decided yet!

Ben xxx

Money

2006-05-10T17:31:00.000+01:00

Hello all!

Not blogged in a few days, so I thought I'd do one now! I went out on Friday night with some people from our Tourism class, and we had a really good night! It was a big outdoor studenty event, and it involved drinking beer mixed with white sangría (don't ask me how that works!) eating random food, dancing to music in a Bruce Forsyth style, then two stints on the bumper cars! Well good!

Felt ropey the next day though, so I didn't go on Saturday night. Ajay had come down from O Porto, but apparently something crazy happened where Mike and one of Ajay's mates ended up in hospital. I've asked round at uni, and the story seems hazy. To be honest I'm not getting involved.

I got an e-newsletter from NUS about the AUT's action across the country with their refusal to set/mark exam papers. Where this is not such a problem for the people in the 1st/2nd years, the final year students will be moumentously fooked around. Is moumentously a word? Who knows, but what I do know is that the AUT and the Universities need to sort it all out, or else there's going to be some mad crisis, lots of unhappy and depressed students and friction between lecturers and students. to be honest it's a good thing I'm not at home at the moment, or else I'd probably be leading the language department on some sort of crazy crusade!

It's not that I don't agree with the AUT's stance: lectutures should be adequately paid. However, 90% of the money coming from the new top-up fees will be used to pay for the staff's pay increase. Does this mean that the money coming in from top-up fees will no longer solve all of the universities' woes, as the idea was sold to parliament? I think that there will be an increase in top-up fees. And when that happens, the AUT will be hypocritical if they support us in any action to stop top-up fees, as they have been the main beneficiaries.

If all this is still going on when I get back, and the mentalism is not being fixed, I may refuse to pay my tuition fees, and try and organise some sort of protest against the University. I believe that we could rightly argue that the universities are not keeping up their side of the bargain. We pay tuition fees to be tutored and we expect this to include exams, as well as final graduation. Should the university not provide this, though the fault of either the AUT strike or the Universities' lack of an adequate pay structure, I think we could rightly withold our fees.

That's my thoughts on the matter. Feel free to comment.

Apart from all this, I'm now learning how to use Dreamweaver, so I can re-do the LGBT's website. It's now on www.salfordlgbt.co.uk. Click on it if you want, it's got a random message on it!

Well, I'm off, lots of love and hugs!

Ben xxx

Empanada de Frango

2006-05-02T20:40:00.000+01:00

I had one of these before from the canteen. Yummy! It is like a piece of puff pastry, with a garlicky chicken mixture on top, with the corners brought in. T'was tasty!

The leccy went off in our house at 9am today. It turns out it's the whole building. Natalie tried to get through to the Electric Company, but no-one answered! Bloody Electric Board! As far as I could see, no-one else in the building seems fussed, apart from the fact it's 21ºC today and all our food is defreezing. PAH! Plus, I've had to do a translation to present tomorrow, so instead of working by candlelight, I've done it in ISLA (eventhough the PCs are shite) and I'm listening to XFm Manchester whilst doing it/blogging.

I reckon I've done quite a good translation, but I reckon Ms. Frankenberg-Garcia will rip it to shreds. Typical! I've had to make one part fo it sound quite chatty, and the only chatty things I know are Northern, which she'll hate. For exmaple, one part says "pra sua governo", the "pra" being short for "para a". So, I've shortened it in English too, from "for your information" to "f'your information". She'll spout some bollocks about Americans not understanding it, but when has an American ever changed their spellings in books to UK spellings ("colour" and "color" is a good example, as is "pavements" vs. "sidewalk"). Rant over!

Anyway, I suppose I'm going to have to get back to my candle-lit abode and rock back and forth inthe darkness. I may be wrong, the leccy might be fixed, but I'm not holding my breath: this is Portugal!!

Besinhos,

Ben xxx

Flies of Doom and Sand in my bed

2006-05-01T18:05:00.000+01:00

FOOK ME IT'S ROASTING! 25ºC is the Doyle temperature limit, and anything above makes me ill. Not good, especially when Rui told me it averages 31ºC during summer. Nice!

Well, I went out on Saturday night to Bar 106 which was a teeny place. You had to ring a doorbell to get into it (what's that all about) and then I ended up sitting in the bar talking to some random Swedish guy, who was gtting pissed off because someone was trying to talk to him in Portuguese, and I ended up being interpreter for about 3 mins. Then a Scouse bloke (who wasn't that Scouse) came over and chatted to me for a bit. He was telling me that he'd gone to Salford University. He asked me where I went to, and I told him Salford so we had sommat in common to talk about. We went from Bar 106 to Trumps (yes, that's it's name) which is by far better than Finalmente.

The travesty (drag) show was much better, a Brazillian-Czech melée dance routine, complete with the Czech boys doing backflips. The Brazillian drag queen moved well too, and mimed well-enough to the song, which was Madonna - New York. They only did two numbers, and went off, and the nght proceeded with much good music, both random house stuff I'd not heard, and dancey versions of pop tunes, all climaxing at 7am with Madonna - Ray of Light.

Realised what time it was at this point, and emerged from Trumps into the sun rising above Lisbon's castle to the East, which was totally gorgeous! Scouse guy had pulled around 2 and gone by about 3:30 so I danced the night away on my billy todd, but it was so rammed, it didn't matter.

Came home and fell over Rui's bike. Collapsed into bad at 8am. Hardcore, that's what I'm talking about! lol

Found sand in my bed from my time at the beach, so it's been uncomfortable, and there's loads of fruit flies lingering about, and generally flying around in circles in the front room. God, what a boring life that must be!

Well, I'm off my pretties!

Ben xxxx

Awwww GOD! Dramatic Huff

2006-04-28T14:39:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

Well, there sems to be a cross-European crazyness session going on at the minute between friends and I, for one, am feeling a little bit reluctant to wade into it all. I'm loyal and will stand by all my friends, but without me knowing the full ins-and-outs of the tale, I can't really honestly say that I know enough to comment on a partivular situation. I'm not 100% sure what's gone on properly, as I don't know all of the people involved, but it seems bad (sort of).

Anyway, I love you all! Honestly!

My sunburn isn't as sore as it was yesterday, and it's an even hotter day today (although all I've done is stay in!). I think I sometimes don't take full advantage of what's on offer here in Lisboa. Like I said, we might go to Lux tomorrow, but I might go for a couple of drinks tonight in some gay places, just to see what they are like. If I never go I'm not going to know what they will be like. It'll be a bit weird going alone. I tried to see if Pedro wanted to come out but I think he's going back to Porto for the week end to see about some guy that he's been talking to on the Internet.

On a lighter note... I ate the whole of my chocolate egg last night and a bag of presunto flavoured crisps. Nice! Random lighter note, but there we are!

Ben xxx

Aero Mint

2006-04-27T19:22:00.000+01:00

Mmmm, mum bought me a peppermint Aero easter egg, and I ate the bar last night, sooooo good!

Went to the beach at Caravelos today, and I'm a little bit tanned, especially in the face department! Was an ok day, nice to be out of the flat!

Feeling slowly less homesick, but I'm sure I'll be fine in the end. I've realised that I do like my home comforts, and could probably not do the whole 'travelling staying in dorm rooms' thing, as I like my personal space. I'd travel, but either camp, or stay in hotels. I don't care what people say about that, but that's my way of travelling!

I also realised that it's companionship that I miss most, either in the form of established friends or Mark. I honestly think that if I were here with say Mark or my sister, I'd be fine. I find it hard to talk to strangers, and don't usually talk to people unless they talk to me first, I think it's a whole self confidence thing! Anyway, I'm not gonna get hung up on it, and I'm just going to do things my way, and live my life as I want to, without thinking that I have to live up to other people's standards.

I have people in the flat that I can talk to when they're in, and I have Mike to talk to at uni. I think I should just go out a few times and whatever, dance, have a couple of drinks, even if it's on my own. We're planning to go to Lux this weekend, so that should be fun to see, especially now that I have money! Plus ERASMUS are giving me a further £495, so it's all good.

What's not good is that I have to fill in my forms for next year's loan etc.! PAH!

Ben xxx

Back in Lisbon - Send me home!

2006-04-26T11:11:00.000+01:00

Back here in Lisboa.

Want to go home.

Had fantastic Easter and month of Eastwood-time.

Back to depressive loneliness.

About 23ºC today, so tanning plan for weekend.

Talked to Rui about my loneliness, felt a little bit better.

Might try the gym plan again.

Miss Family, Eastwood, Lorna, Jonathan, Shaz, Matt, Martin and everyone mucho mucho mucho.

I'll blog properly when I can be arsed!

Ben x

The Music of your Life

2006-03-30T18:29:00.000+01:00

Schmickles Everyone!

Well, in a better mood today after last nights depressiveness! I've arranged to go out with my sister on Sunday for a Chinese buffet, as well visit mum and dad, and we're going for a curry on Monday evening! Yum!

Well, I decided to wash my bedclothes, as they were getting to the skanky stage, so they're currently drying in the dryer. Went to McDonald's for a naughty dinner, as I'd not had anything to eat, and I dropped my last cheese triange under the fridge, where it is now out of reach...

After McD, I walked to Santo Amaro beach (which is across the road form McD) and then I walked along the coast for about 2km to Caravelos and sat on the beach, sunning myself, relaxing and watching all the cute surfers in the sea! Ahhh, bliss!

Praia de Caravelos

So yeah, I sat there relaxing for a while, then it went cold, so I walked past the NATO facility and came home. A good day. I really don't know why I stress! I'm so silly!!

Anyway, I'm off! This time tomorrow I'll be airborne, speeding towards Manchester!

Ben xxx

Grim

2006-03-30T01:14:00.000+01:00

Was looking through my last post, and I realise that I shouldn't have really slagged off Pedro or Natalie. They are both really nice, and me and Pedro spend some of the evening leafing through Attitude and bitching/swooning over the men in the mag, and me and Natalie spoke for a while about stuff before I went to my room. Pedro also showed me a bloke on a website that's sort of "pinged" him as being cute, and the bloke's cute(ish) too. I said he's probably an axe-murdering psycopath or something.

I'm sick of not having a good time (probably as much as you lot are sick of reading about it, but hey, it's my blog!) not going out and meeting loads of people. I think I'm a friendly guy, but I have no self-confidence whatsoever, not even when speaking English. I always think someone is going to just go "HAH!" in my face if I start to talk to them. Plus, I'm not the most exciting person in the world, so I'd have little to talk about. Ohhhh it's a pickle of a conundrum...

I just wish I could just "make" friends with people. Everyone else who is on their placement abroad seems to be able to do it, but not me, noooo, I can't do that. I seem to make friends in environments such as work, or living with people, as I'm doing now. Thing is, if people here aren't going out and and doing things much, it'll be a bit of a bummer. It's a pain really, as as from Friday, I'll be in the UK for the wedding, then Mark's back here with me, then I'm back over in UK at Easter, and then I'm back in Portugal for the last week in April. All this means that I'll be unable to forge any friendships with anyone or anything like that.

I find it hard to make friends, and being in a foreign land doesn't help. I really don't know how to go about doing it, and I usually make friends with people who talk to tme first, like Carmen did. I just don't have the confidence to talk to people, no matter how nice they seem. I always feel inferior and, basically, stupid. I don't know where to go to meet people, what to do, or anything like that. I'm so grim! God, I'm so sorry everyone, but I have to say it here, it's a good outlet, and blogspot doesn't chatback and try and make me feel better about myself.

Eventhough I want to go back home for some reasons, some other reasons mean that I don't want to come back home. Sometimes, I feel like such a failure with it all. I mean, everyone else makes mates easily, have a laugh, do things, go out places, etc. and I just don't! Grrrr. It's a rollercoaster ride of emotions tonight folks.

I definately think that it hasn't helped that Rui and Pedro were ill for two weeks, so I've not got to know them as well as I would have liked, but I think that they will be happy to come out with me, but like Rui said, he doesn't go out much, as he saves his money so he can go out big style, and Pedro is tee-total, which could be a bad combination with my drunkeness (if we ever get that far) :-/

Well, I've felt sorry enough for myself for long enough now, so I best be off really. Bet I can't sleep tonight. FOR GOD'S SAKE! This is well stressing me out and upsetting me now....

Ben

Total Bitterness, Driving on the Right and Excitement

2006-03-29T17:38:00.000+01:00

Hey Blanchettes!

Well, been to the cinema today and yesterday. Yesterday, I went with Natalie to see that Portuguese film, which was beautifully shot, but I didn't understand most of what was said, which was a bit naff, but there we are, what can you do? Then me and Mike went to see The Pink Panther movie, which was also good and funny, but randomly didn't have an actual panther in it, just a pink diamond called the pink panther. Ah, t'was all in good fun!

Me and Mike took a car for a test drive. Toyota are doing an expo in the plaza at uni, so we took it for a spin, literally, round the block. It was ok, and it killed 15 mins. I was a bit weird driving on the right, and kept using my left hand to find the non-existent gear stick to my left. Ah well! lol

Now for the bitterness part. I'm starting to get really, really anoyed by people speaking English to me. We were talking to a girl called Ana-Filipa who is in our classes. She has excellent English, but with an American accent, with all the American inflections and random words. HOWEVER, as nice as it was to talk to someone, I said that we were having problems as no-one speaks Portuguese with us, and she said "it's because we have no English people here, so we want to practice on you", which I pointed out (in an un-arsey way!) that we are here to speak Portuguese.

She said that they only get chance to speak it in lessons, which is understandable why they want to practice, but we only speak Portuguese in lessons too, and NEWSFLASH, there's hardly any Portuguese in Manchester to practice on. In fact, from 2001's census, I believe there's 30, in the whole of Greater Manchester.

It was nice talking to her, but I did get riled when she said that. I felt like saying, "look, love, if you want to speak English with English people, you need to do an Erasmus placement in the UK, because if I wanted to speak Englis all the time, there'd be no point in uprooting my entire life to sit here and be the "entertainment" for 6 months; I'd rather sit at home and do everything normally!"

It's not just her, it's everyone. Pedro only speaks to me in English, Natalie speak in English half the time, and if you mis-hear something that a shop employee says, they imediately start sprouting English. Like the other day, I asked someone in a butty shop was a filling was, and she said Frango, but it sounded like fennu, so I asked her to reapeat it (the shop was noisy) so she shouted "CHICKEN" at the top of her voice, as if I was thick. Err, no love, I do understand that Frango = Chicken, you just need to talk properly, rather than speaking like the elephant man on acid.

GOD IT'S PISSING ME OFF SO MUCH!!!! And I can feel myself loosing my rag with someone soon...

This is the problem with being English. After studying a language, I have identified 5 certain things:

Many people speak a bastardised version of English, which resembles little the English we speak in the UK.
When you speak to people in any foreign language, and you give the slightest hint of doubt, they automatically think you're having some sort of breakdown and speak English to you.
People think you're a tourist.
"There's no point in studying a language as everyone speaks English anyway", which I vowed was never true. Not everyone does nspeak English, but there's a shit-load of people that do. So why bother?
Even if you do speak English to people, they can't fooking understand your accent!

I think this is endemic of English people though. English people don't want to learn languages because the average Joe on the street doesn't have to! Anyone in England could come here, not speaking a word of Portuguese for 6 months and still live quite easily and comfortably. Even those of us that do put hard grind, lots of money, and lots of effort into studying a language don't ever get the chance to use it properly, as some foreigners think either "they can't cope: speak English" or "ohhh good! Someone to practice my English on!". Well I've had enough, and it's time to get tough on those people that think I'm a thickie!

There, rant over! Excitement @ coming home at weekend! Weekend JOY! *glee*

Ben xxx

Boyfriends, Friends, and Parma Violets

2006-03-28T00:19:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone,

Hope it's all well are your end! Well, today went well! After my success at Economic Translation this morning, a girl from my TTCE class called Ana came and sat and talked to me and Mike for a little bit before class, and I sat and chatted to her for the duration of the class. I was nice to talk to someone, and it made me feel happy!

I got home at 8, as expected, and had a lovely cheddar cheese omelette! I found out that Continente Hypermarket near uni sells cheddar cheese, so I thought I'd treat myself! I think Natalie is worried about me, as she said to me "you can't spend another day in this house!" so we're going to the cinema at 2 pm tomorrow. I'm getting my hair cut in the morning, and I'm going to enquire at the gym to see how much it is and if I can do a pay-as-you-go or if I have to pay per month. Hope it's not much, it'd be nice to go there in my spare time and become a BEEF-CAKE! (yeah in my dreams - BLANCHE!)

Nice and hot today, and if it continues, I'm going to go sunbathing again! Tanned glee!

Further to Jonathan's e-mail, I spoke to Shaz on MSN messenger, and happened to check my e-mail and there was an e-mail from Shaz too! So that made me all warm and fuzzy inside (not to mention it made me chuckle!) I got one from Geordie Jo today too, and I'm really looking forward to seeing her over Easter. In fact I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends at some point in April! More than once if I have my way!

Parma Violets for Shaz & co.!

I'm planning to go out a fair few times over Easter, so if you can afford it, let's sort something out?! E-mail me! You know it! lol

Spoke to Mark for an hour, which was nice, and I'm looking forward to seeing him when I go back! He's so sweet! I'm looking forward to Momma and Poppa Doyle, as well as my little sis! I honestly can't wait for Friday. As the song says #I just can wait, for the weekend to begin!#

Ben xxxx

"Iiiiiiiiiiin ONE!"

2006-03-27T14:35:00.000+01:00

I missed this morning's first lecture, which I was slightly pissed off at. I was in bed, at 9:15 and I thought, "I'll get up at half past" and next time I woke up, it was 10:20, too late for my 11 o'clock lesson, so I set off for the second lesson.

I had to write my translation on the whiteboard again, as no-one else had done the translation, but it wasn't too bad and the teacher said that it was a good translation and she was impressed! Gold Star for me! lol My handwriting is atrocious though, and the Portuguese aren't used to English letter formations (they write some letters slightly differently) so they sometimes moan throughout, but I just ignore it.

So anyway, just dossing here now. Waiting for my TTCE class later on, so I'm going for some dinner in a bit. I'm looking forward to going home and having a sleep and listen to some music, but I won't be home until 8pm. Bugger!

Ben xxx

Love is the Music!

2006-03-27T01:09:00.000+01:00

I LOVE HED KANDI 50!!!!

My GOD! I've not listened to this CD for ages!!! Since Castellón! It's soooooo fantastic! Hed Kandi 50 if anyone's wondering! Currently listening to Love is the Music by FR & Jenny B, and it's mint! Putting me in such a good mood!

I've been quite productive today! I have transferred over all of my MP3 DVDs over to my new 160GB hard drive so I have most of my music collection at my fingertips! I started to transfer all of my CDs over to it too, so I'll have a monster music collection!

I also sent a megamail to Jonathan and he sent one back, which kept me entertained for a few minutes. We're making a Plan of Action for Saturday in between the wedding ceremony and the party in the evening. I'm so excited it's untrue. I'll be going home for the first time in 4 months!!! *screams with excitement*

Not only that, I'll be seeing loads of friends and it'll be gorge seeing Lins and Si finally tie to knot! Plus I can catch up with Nicola Red as well as loads of other people! I'm looking forward to Easter too, as I'll be able to go out with Martin, Lorna and loads of other people that I miss loads too! DRINKING AND PARTYING PEOPLE! That's what I'm talking about (hey hey)!

Gaaa! Why won't time speed up? Well, we lost an hour today as the hour's gone forward here. Not sure if it has back home yet...

Well, I've also done three translations, one about a nuclear reactor, uranium rods and god knows what else. But I did the trannie with ease, and I think I'm actually getting better! I'm even happier now! Makes a change for a Sunday!

I'm gonna listen to more Hed Kandi and then it's beddy byes!

Love and hugs (I mean it!)

Ben xxx

It's just a shimmy and a shake

2006-03-26T16:28:00.000+01:00

Boa Tarde!

How're we all? A big hello to Martin, who has just discovered the wonder of my blog. Well, I wouldn't call it a wonder, but you know what I mean!!

Well, my Erasmus grant has come through, just in the nick of time, as my overdraft was getting hazardously close to its limit! So now I've got £973 to spend! And we apparently get some more in April, but it's not usually a lot apparently, so I should imagine about another £100 to £200, which is nice!

Still not had my Leonardo final installment yet, but when I e-mailled the woman there, she says she didn't get it (I sent it by e-mail) so I sent it yesterday (again!). I don't think I'll ever get that money. If I do though, that'll be another £300, so it'll be good times abound! lol

I managed to sleep yesterday, but woke up late at 3pm, so I felt like I'd wasted a day. So, I decided to go and get my outfit for Lindsay and Simon's wedding on the 1st April. I started off thinking "gay t-shirt, new jeans, new shoes", but I have ended up with "indie rock 'n' roll gay sheek".

So now, I've got a pair of light brown cords/jeans from Next from when I was in London in February, a pale canary yellow t-shirt with "double pleasure" on the front from Zara man, a dark green felt-like material blazer from H&M and I've just washed my black and white Converse All Stars in the washing machine, and they look super.

With my new haircut I'm getting Tuesday, I should look proper bo. Dark green is my cor-do-mês as the Portuguese would say!

I'm looking forward to it, and it'll be great seeing everyone as I won't have seen them since December, or in some cases, since August! Wow, it'll be 7 months!

*Excited Squeal*

Ben xxx

Currently listening to: The Killers - Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
Mood: Excited!!

Insomnia

2006-03-24T07:57:00.000Z

*Stifled Yawn*

Mornin' all... couldn't sleep last night, I just kept tossing and turning. Ended up watching Question Time on BBC's Website, which was good.

I think I can't sleep due to me not doing much. I'm the same over Summer when there's nothing to do - Mark'll tell you.

So yeah, I can't really go to sleep now as I'd never wake up before 3pm to get to ISLA in time for TTCE or Tourism. I might try setting a big dock-off alarm clock.

Random Norwegian comment on the last page: I have NO idea what it says!!!! lol

*sighs* what am I going to do with myself to keep me occupied until 3pm?

Well, I'm off, just a minipost...

Ben xxx

"10 going in Barbara!"

2006-03-23T18:22:00.000Z

God! I'm craving English food really badly now. If I have to have more pasta, I think I'm going to throw up. It's nice, it's just that it's all that I'm eating really at the moment, so I'm getting a bit sick of it! Especially Pasta Twirls!

Well, I've only got a week and then I'll be jetting off home for a few days for Lindsay and Si's wedding, which I'm totally looking forward to. I'm not been home for 4 months. Well, I went to London at the start of February, but it's not Manchester, so it's not really home!

I'm making a list of foods that I want to eat when I go home, either for the wedding, or at Easter for two weeks:

Balti Afghani (from The Far Pavilion)
Fish, Chips and Curry Sauce
Sausage Roll
Gregg's Cheese and Onion/Meat and Potato Pasty
Cheddar Cheese
Cumberland Sausage
Black Pudding
Full English Breakfast
Kebab of DOOOOOOM!
Shepherd's Pie
Roast Duck and Veg with Duck Gravy
Fish Pie
Roasted Onions
Chilli con Carne
Pizza Hut buffet
Gregg's Raspberry Jam Doughnut
Chicken Tikka Masala
Scampi
Steak and Chips with Green Peppercorn Sauce and Garlic Mushrooms
Lancashire Hot Pot
Steak and Kidney Pudding, Chips and Gravy
Bacon Butty
Bangers and Mash
Lamb Chops and Veg
Prawn Cocktail

Probably numerous more, but I can't think of them all now. On that note, I'm off to Pingo Doce to get some food. Frig knows what I'm going to have...

Ben xxxx

By Jove!

2006-03-22T20:15:00.000Z

Been at home playing on The Sims 2 for about 3 hours! It was ok, and I got two of the men to have an illicit gay affair! Mwah-ha-ha!

I also heard a knock at the door, and who was it? Jenhova's Witnesses... They started to talk to me in Portuguese, which I understood, but I stopped tham, and said I didn't speak very much Portuguese and I couldn't understand. So they asked what nationality I was. Whenever anyone asks me this, who I really don't want to talk to, I always say Norwegian, and that I only speak Norwegian. There are three reasons for this:

1. No-one speaks Norwegian except the Norwegans

2. No-one can be 100% certain what Norwegians look like, so I can usually get away with it!

3. If you say English, most people can still speak to you, thus you never get rid of them. If people have problems communicating, most will give up immediately...

At this point, one of the witnesses delved into a bag, and said "we'll help you understand our message" in Portuguese. They had a little book which seemed to have every European Language in it!! They flicked through it, found Norwegian, and then I had to stand there, pretend to read some bible passage and understand completely what the book said.

"Damn", I thought, "They've thought of everything!! There's no escape!!", so I thought I'd politely say that I wasn't interested, but I thanked them for their visit and I bade them good night. Came back into the front room to find Rui laughing at me! How rude! lol

So now I dread the day when some Norwegian-sepaking Jehova's witness turns up on the doorstep, not to mention all the Norwegian literature I'll get through!

I'm my effort to get rid of them by being unoffensive, I think I made it worse for myself! Nooooooooo!

Ben xxxx

Bloody Government!

2006-03-22T10:29:00.000Z

Hey Blanchettes,

Hope you're all well! I've been sorting out stuff with Salford, and everything seems to be going well. I have had to apply for another Student council tax exemption certificate, as Salford City Council are being cocks and want more proof. Usually they just carry it over, but some trogledite in Swinton Civic Centre is moaning about it, so me, Matt and Mark are having to send in our certificates again, which is a pain in the arse, especially when I'm here in Lisbon. Nevermind, I think it's sorted out: Bridget Samuel's sorted it for me with the student office in Uni House.

On this topic though, I was saying to Mark when this was brought up a while back that I'm surprised that our so-called "socialist" government hasn't decided that students should pay council tax (not that we own the house or earn enough money to live), and lo and behold, look what I found today on BBC's website (click here).

So, it seems that the last thing that students have as some sort of benefit will be taken off us. For those of you who don't know, we have to pay tuition fees of up to £1,300, as well as everything else for general living, and now it seems that we will have to pay council tax soon enough, so that'll be another couple of hundred or so per person. What people seem to forget is that we HAVE NO MONEY! God, people think we're loaded or sommat.

And the nob-head tory MP who's mixing it all up, saying that cash-strapped OAPs are paying for students is a blatant way of getting a gourp of people who generally hate students anyway to motivate against us, when what should be happening is students help OAPs fight for OAPs to be exempt from council tax!

Plus said nob-head MP says that there is a shortfall of £1 million. Well perhaps if all the "blame claims" were tackled and people stopped suing the council for tripping on a frigging flagstones, councils wouldn't be in as much debt as they are at the moment.

Grr! Political rant over!

Ben xxx

Listening to: Pet Shop Boys - Pop Art Disc 1
Feeling: Riled

The Invasion of the Teacher Snatchers

2006-03-21T22:07:00.000Z

Went to uni for Tourism in Portugal, but the teacher was off. BAH! So, I stayed in the IT Lab and messed around on t'interweb.

You may have noticed that I had a little weather thing underneath my ShinyStats; I removed it due to it only actually showing the weather, the symbols being a perpetual raincloud and rainbow, which is wrong.

I come home in 10 days for Lindsay's wedding, which will be fun! I'm so looking forward to it. Had soup for my tea today, which was yummy! I made up a packet soup yesterday, and it's done for two days, which is a bonus as I have next to £0 in my account!

A woman fell asleep on the train infornt of me yesterday, and I was so mesmerised by her head lolling about like a bladder on a stick that I totally missed my station, and had to get off at the next one, which, as it was an express, was actually 5 stops away in São Pedro. But I just bobbed on the next train out of there, so it wasn't so bad!

Well, I've got to go and do a translation for tomorrow!

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxxx

Currently Listening to: The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It
Feeling: OK

Curry and the Origins of Pigeons

2006-03-20T11:41:00.000Z

Well, I came into uni today, and it turns out that the teacher for the classes hasn't turned up, so I'm slightly peeved, as now I have nothing else to do. I am going to go and see for the next lesson, to see if she has turned up, but all the class has gone home, so I'll probably be on my billy todd. So I've come to the craputers to do a blog!

Woke up ok this morning, after watching Ab Fab last night. It's such a funny comedy! It's mad coming out of our Metro station to get to uni, as there is a constant smell of curry. Perhaps there's a curry plant somewhere in the bushes, as it's always in the same point. Meh, anyway, it packs my head a little, as I'm driven to hunger by the smell!

I got quite bored yesterday, so bord in fact that I decided to look at wikiepdia, and randomly, at the article on pigeons!

Apparently, their original name was a Rock Dove, and they live on cliffs on the coast. Some still do, but most live in the towns and cities now. Apparently, this is because the buildings are similar to the cliffs, so they love living there! Now they're a pest, but I thought it was weird to see where they came from. Apparently, their new name is the Feral Pigeon. It had a piccy of some of the chicks, and they're ugly buggers, so it's a good thing we never see them.

Ugly Baby Pigeons

Anyway, thet's me being random for the day. If the teacher isn't there when I go back in a bit, I might go to the Centro Comercial Colombo, but this runs the risk of spending money, thet I really shouldn't do.

Nevermind! AH WELL!

Ben xxxxxxxxxxx

Listening to: Priscilla, The Queen of The Desert Soundtrack
Mood: Miffed (and just a little bit camp!)

Sheep of Doom

2006-03-19T14:15:00.000Z

I've not said that in a while!

Well,m I woke up late (again) - about 1pm. I went to sleep late though, but in an effort to get my body clock right, I attempted to wake up a bit earlier. Didn't though.

I watched Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-rabbit, which was really good, really funny, and reminded me of home! It'd've been great to have watched it on the big screen, but the only chance I had was in Spain, and somehow, W&G is just not funny without the northern accent!!

Randomly browsed the internet last night to try and find some recipies for soups etc. and I stumbled across a website called www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk, which has all the home faves on it. Although, Nathalie told me that the oven doesn't work, which is a bit of a let down, so now I can't make oven dishes. God damn ovens.... how I long for the days of when I have a normal oven that works!!!

Feeling shitty at the prospect of next week. Although it's alright here, I have much less stuff to do, so my week consists of the following:

Monday: Plenty of Lessons
Tuesday: Day off - nothing to do
Wednesday: Plenty of Lessons
Thursday: One lesson at end of the day
Friday: Two lessons at the very end of the day (5pm-7pm)

So, I'm really gonna have to find some sort of hobby which is free, yet time consuming. Playing computer games and doing my homework takes up some good time, but it still a bit clautsrophobic being in the same room all the time.

I found a flight to New York from London for only £275 the other day, which I thought was quite cheap, and would be a good thing to do for my Birthday/Run-up to Christmas. We'll see how money goes and such like. I'd like to just go "yeah book it" to Mark, but I don't know what my financial situation will be. Hopefully it'll be ok! We'll definately see!

Meh.....

I've not got much else to say really. I'm looking forward to a phone call from my mum, which should be at about 5pm. It'll be great catching up on all the family gossip. I think I last talked to her when I got here, but it wasn't that long a conversation.

Grrr. Maria, which is a MASSIVE dog upstairs is barking very loudly at the moment... I wish she'd shut up!

It's raining a lot today, but I need to go to the supermarket in a bit. BAH!

Mark did his half marathon today (I think it was a half) in Liverpool, and record a time of 2hrs 15 mins! Well done Meast!

Well, I'm off - all my blogs are massive, but you know how I like to talk!

Ben xxx

Finally

2006-03-18T20:09:00.000Z

Finally I went out last night, in honour of St. Paddy! Mike and I went to an Irish bar near Cais do Sodré train station, which was a nice place. There were some annoying Americans, but you get that everywhere! lol

We then went on up to Barrio Alto and went to a Spanish bar that seemed to play a lot of reggaeton Spanish music, which all sounds a bit samey to me. It not reggae, it's just odd. Anyway, we had vodka and lemon (it was just lemon juice, and it was gorgeous!).

Then we went to Finalmente which is a gay disco further up in Chiado. It was ok, bu it would have been better if there had been better music. It was all a bit techno, and there was no songs that I knew. I thought it'd be a bit like Cruz. Well, it sort of was inside, but it was teeny! As Mike put it, it was someone's front room with a stage! There was a drag queen show, with the usual dragging people up onto the stage. Luckily we were at the back. We were talking to a bloke called Andy who lives in Lisbon teaching English.

Stumbled home at 4:30 am, got a taxi home (only €15, so not bad!) bu the taxi driver was talking about George Bush etc. All well and good, but at that timein the morning, I couldn't cope with a political debate in Portuguese!

So I woke up this afternoon at 3pm, so my sleep cycle will be messed up! D'oh!

In other news, Pedro is also ill, so my illness is imminent, althought I would have thought that I would have had it by now. Rui seems to be getting better, and his mum is still looking after him, but I think she'll be going home tomorrow.

Well, I'm off for some 7up.

Boa noite,

Ben xxxx

Top o' the mornin' to ya

2006-03-17T14:08:00.000Z

I didn't even relise it was St. Paddy's day today until Carmen left that comment. Oh, and the google logo was also a big giveaway:
I think it's a nice logo. As a Doyle, I am obviously of Irish decent, so I have more reason than most to celebrate this day. Don't know what I'm going to do though, as Lisbon seems oblivious! I could suggest that we go to an Irish pub... hmm we'll see, as Rui is still ill.

One thing though, how come we never have a big celebration when it's St. George's Day? Me thinks that needs to change!

Ben xxx

I cannae sleep captain...

2006-03-17T05:51:00.000Z

Seeing as I slept in so much this morning, I have been unable to drift off to sleep. Grr! I hate it when this happens!

Well, it's Friday; no doubt nothing if interest will happen!

Spend the evening in the front room being sociable, and being given chocolate by Rui's mum! This included her cries of indignation when I'd washed all the pots up in the kitchen, and she cornered me between the cooker and the prep table and forced a quarter of a choccie bar in my mouth!

Watched Mississippi Burns, which is about the racial segregation in Mississippi, and specifically, and incident on the 21st June when three people were killed. It was an excellent film, however had some disturbing scenes in it. It made me feel quite ill at some points, as it's based on a true story. I couldn't believe that someone would do that to another human being. It's a good film, and I think you should watch it if you have the chance.

Well, I'm off! I might try and doze off again. In for lessons at 5pm, finish at 7pm. What idiot designed THAT timetable?!

See you soon,

Ben xxxx

Another normal Thursday

2006-03-16T19:41:00.000Z

Well, Janet Lloyd got back to me from Salford Univeristy today, and it turns out that she has been off ill since November, so it's understandable why she's not responded. Today was her first day back, she told me, but it all seems to be sorted out with us now. I think I'll still have a problem with my ERASMUS grant, which will probably result in me not getting it, which will be pants.

Went to History today to see what the beef was with that, and it turned out to be a total shambles, as well as being boring as sin. I was sat around a group of about 6 lads that were messing about and acting like they were in year 7 of high school. I'm not shy of a bit of messing about myself, but throwing yourself about and drawing star's on your upper arm with a biro is not really university behaviour is it? So I asked Janet if I could change it to Methodology and Techniques of Communication as part of the 1st year tourism classes, and she's said it's fine, so if I fill in the Change to Learning Agreement form, I'll be sorted! Well good!

I'm sat on the bed at the mo, and the touchpad on my laptop keeps putting random word all over this blog, so if anything seems odd, that's why! Listening to Snowpatrol - Run which is a nice song, but a tad depressive. Hmmm perhaps not the best.... ah there we go, Robbie Williams - Tripping: much better!

I phoned home before and spoke to Jenny, which was nice as I hadn't spoken to hear in person since Christmas. It's weird, I realise that me and Jenny have similar tastes, and get on really well with each other, bar the odd spat, but that's what big brothers and little sisters do! lol

Rui is still quite ill. I told him it was bird flu and we'll all be walking around the front room clucking tomorrow! His mum came down from Braga (about 300 miles) to look after him, which is really sweet. His mum is really nice, and looks like she's in her early 40's like my mum. However, as people who know me well will know, I'm very suceptible to throat infections and such like, and I've got headaches, a slight temperature and a slight scratchy feeling at the back of my throat. I hope all will be ok!!! I haven't got my European Health Insurance Card with me, as momma Doyle lost it over Christmas, and the Department of Health says that I've got to ring up to apply for a new one, but it's an 0845 number, so it might not let me. I'm going to try tomorrow, 'cos if I get ill, I'll need medical attention, as Rui had to go for some antibiotics it was that bad. He had a temperature of 40 degree the other day!

I'm watching Futurama at the moment, which is class! I want the other series too, but I can't really afford the outlay (what with ERASMUS grant and all!) so if anyone out there wants to send me them as a gift, I'll be very happy to recieve them!

I also tried to find the minutes from the NUS LGBT conference that I attended in Edinburgh in 2005, but I could only find a piece of drivel written about the things that I spoke up against, skillfully twisted by Socialis Worker's website. See it here Drivel of Socialist Worker.

Basically, I stood up to say that extreme political agendas have no part in the NUS, but Faz Velmi took this as me being racist. Also the comment about the BNP policy not being acted upon was given as a speech against Faz's amendment, so nerr. Bloody Socialist Workers. I think they can be just as opressive as any other extremeist party, be it left- or right-wing.

There, political rant over and done with! lol No, but seriously, the SW are a bunch of knobs sometimes, especially that Faz Velmi. Did you know she called me a racist? ME?! A RASCIST?!?! Then she had the gall to call me a FASCIST?! A fascist gay... now there's an irony for you! lol

So yep, I booked some flight the other night. HSBC will be rubbing it's hands together, as I'm sure I contributed more than my fair share of it's multi-billion pound profit. I'm cming home for Easter, via Madrid... the same day as Mark, but we're flying home seperately, as Mark couldn't afford to buy another flight, and Jet2 were charging €109 (one-way, before taxes) to fly from Faro to Manchester, so I got a flight with Iberia for £170 from Lisbon (return, with taxes etc.) so apart from the 5 hour wait in Madrid Barajas Airport, it's a good thing. It'll be cool coming home and seeing everyone and what not. I'm definately going out a fair few times, so be warned people!

On that note, I'm going getting some tea. I think I'll have a Tuna Tortilla. Yum!

Ben xxxxx

Has Salford University been Obliterated?

2006-03-15T13:40:00.001Z

Well, as usual there has been no reply from Salford Uni about the e-mails that I sent the other day. Bloody typical! Why is nothing simple? I have to jump through hoops for everything. I've e-mailled again, in a friendly and chatty tone, but asking nicely for a response; if I don't get one, I'll start to get arsey. Tell you something for free though, you can bet your bottom dollar that if they contacted me, and I didn't respond within about 24 hours, they'd be going absoloutely mental at me. Hmph! Double standards all the time!

Anyway, I had a successful class. I managed to translate ad hoc and even corrected the crazy teacher's English. As she's Dutch-Brazillian, her English is good, but some things she says are totally wrong and words don't collate well with each other. Some of the people in the class were chatting to me again, which is nice, and they asked me to make sure that I question certain things that sound weird in English, so that it will benefit them. As she uses Brazillian Portuguese, her accent is a bit odd, but I can understand her. Apparently, some of the grammatical things that she writes are total madness too, with Brazillian spellings and accents (like "If we were rich" in European Portuguese is "Se fossemos ricos", but in Brazillian Portuguese, it has a random ^ accent on the o, being "Se fôssemos ricos" - the class argued this one for about ¼ of an hour...)

Anyway, I thought I did quite well, and the first class of the day. 9am for Technical Translation into English went well, and Wendy, the teacher is really nice and friendly, and gave me her mobile number, saying that if anything went wrong, and I needed some help, I could contact her.

We're going on a class trip to a language exhibition on Friday, so that should kick out o moribundo da minha vida! Yay!

Ben xxx

PS I'm putting some photos on later too, but I have to go to the post office to send something to Salford Uni, and to buy a pan that doesn't cement the chicken breast to the bottom of the pan, and thus require about 2 hours to scrub it off with a wire scourer! Tchao!

Boredom and getting trapped in the shower...

2006-03-15T10:42:00.000Z

Hello blogettes,

Well, yesterday was a very boring day. I had fook all to do, and as a result I was bored, and all mopey. For God's sake, when will I get over it? I'm sick of feeling crappy!

Well, I did do something yesterday - I cleaned the communal areas in the flat. It wasn't too bad, but I spent ages on the bathroom, as it was a bit skanky. Nathalie had really dark hair, and it seemed to be everywhere. I stood in the bath to clean the sliding doors on the side (so wather from the shower doesn't go everywhere) and managed to pull the door off it's runner and get trapped inside for about 5 mins.

It just wouldn't move! I ended up thinking that I'd have to wait thereuntil someone got home! But I managed to jiggle it a little bit, enough so I could open it without any problems!

Speaking of problems, there has been ANOTHER atypical University of Salford cck up. Apparently, I was meant to have a learning agreement, and bring it to ISLA with me, but I don't actually rememer being given one. I remember filling it in with my Portuguese tutor, but as far as having a copy, I didn't get one. I was confused about this, and asked about the learnign agreement, and was told that I didn't need to worry, as it was all sorted and ISLA were expecting me. Hmph! Well, this isn't the case, and I've now had to jump through hoops to get the thing sorted, including sending an e-mail to Pauline Hardman, who's the erasmus co-ordinator at UoS. Frankly. I'm tired of it, and I just want it sorting. This means that I'll get my erasmus grant on the 24th March, all being well. It's £930, so it should last a while, but I'm not sure if it'll be long enough! We'll see, it's not like I haven't got any emergency money or anything!

Well, I'm off, I've got a lesson with some crazy German-Brazillian lady for Portuguese>English translation. Random!

Ben xxxx

By the Power of Greyskull....

2006-03-13T21:26:00.000Z

.... I.... HAVE.... THE POW-ER!!!!!!! Random He-man moment there, inspired by Lady Shaznay's blog!

Currently feeling upbeat. Not too bad really! Mark was here this weekend, which is always a winner! We went to Sintra to see all the castles and palaces, which included a Lord of The Rings-esque pathway up to a palace that looked like it was out of the I can show you the world sequence from Disney's Aladdin. We went to the Oceanarium yesterday and got swooped on by birds, saw an otter (and it's pocket), some Button Moon-esque jellyfish and alsort fo other stuff. It was really good.

Plus, it's HOT HOT HOT! 22ºC today! FOOK! I was sweating my baps off! I took Mark to the airport, said a goodbye without the daft embarrassment of last time. I gave him a nice big hug and a big kiss... bless us! Holy Jesus of the Bedroom Wall, bless me again!

Total pezz with the lessons at ISLA though. I thought I'd try Info Tech out to see if I would be able to change it for something like History, but unfortunately it's all dead basic, and it's about Excel. It was like "yes, this is called a cell. It is made up of lines and columns" and how to make a formula up. Hmmm, I didn't get a B in AS-Level ICT by sitting on my fanny all day working out 10% of €1,800,000 with a spreadsheet. Yet, some people in the class still couldn't find how to copy and paste a formula so it worked. It's too basic for me, so I'm not doing that class. I know some people have to learn it, but there's no point in me spending an hour soign something I know inside out. I'll give History a whirl on Wednesday or sommat and see what the beef is with that. I suppose I can't avoid it really!

Tomorrow I have to clean the flat. Rui is ill and has a 39.5ºC temperature, so I'll clean around him... he looks all folorn and ill! Bless! I hope he gets better soon! I've not seen Pedro much this weekend, but I think his mum came down from O Porto to watch A Canção de Lisboa which is a musical, apparently.

Currently listening to the Queer as Folk 2 soundtrack albumy thing... who the HELL are Abbacadabra?! Meh, it's all good.

Well, blogettes, there's nothing much else to report on. I'm going home on the 31st March to attend Lindsay's wedding on the 1st April, so hopefully, I'll see some of my mates there, like Nicola, Jonathan, Jo, etc. I'm probably coming home for easter too, from the 10th to 25th April, so if anyone fancies a night out, let me know! Definately pelo village! So I'm sort of looking forward to that, but I hope I won't get too bored. I might have a week's holiday in other parts of Portugal, and then have a week at home. We'll see. I got a bit bored over Christmas!

Anyway, Schmickles,

I'm off to bed!

Ben xxx

Ants and Missing Classes

2006-03-09T18:26:00.000Z

Woke up today and found six ants happily walking along on my window ledge inside my bedroom. Hmmm, I wasn't too happy about that. I now fear an invasion of ants, and I'm not too happy about it! If I wake up to an entire swarm, I'll cry!

Went to ISLA today to have my Portuguese History class, which (one again) no-one turned up too. We went to the administration office to see what the beef was, and it turns out that the 2nd year tourism class (of which Portuguese History is a part of) are off on a field trip this week. This would also explain why no-one turned up to the I.T. classes on Monday. So, we'll give those a whirl next week.

Our Erasmus Co-ordinator (aka Patsy's sister, Jacs)...

...(actualy that piccy is a VERY good likeness!) was out today and couldn't sign our Certificate of Attendance forms, so I'll have to wait until Monday until I can send it off, which will delay my grant. Grr!

I have to re-do my Leonardo Final Report too, as apparently, they've lost the one I did whilst in Frost-Trol, and I'll need to do another one to receive my £565. Gaaa! KILL ME NOW! The woman there is called Audrey, and she's really organised, but I think she's been off work for ages, as the whole Leonardo Admin went to pot. She's back now and sent me an e-mail asking about my form, and profusely apologising, saying that there'd been so many temps through the office, they didn't know where anything had gone. I'll see if I can find a copy of it somewhere.... I knew I should have made a photocopy. Whether I did or not is a different matter.

I've been reading Crystal's blog, which makes me think that all is going really well for her in Vicenza, and it looks like she's having a ball and eating lots of pasta and pizza etc!

I've been reading Lorna's too, and I think she's really down at the moment, and I feel crappo that I can't go and see her and try and make her feel better, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I can't worry, only try and be encouraging from afar.

Carmen is being as loyal as ever! Hello dear! I promise I'll visit Gijón soon-ish (or you and Nacho can visit Manchester at some point!).

Well, I'm gonna go. I really should have some tea, and seeing as I only had four oreo biscuits for tea last night, as well as going on a 20 minute run with Rui, I feel a tad dizzy and that I should eat something wholesome for once. I need to get some pans and shite, but I'll get them from Continente tommorow when I go to meet Mark at Centro Colombo.

Well, hugs and stuff,

Ben xxxxx

Eu não sei...

2006-03-08T18:28:00.000Z

Schmickles. That word describes the past couple of days! So do the words Embarrassing, Confusing, Boredom....

We went to our first Turism in Portugal class, and the teacher introduced us to the whole class, who proceeded to whoop and clap like maniacs! They treated us like stars! Extranho! Anyway, they spent the whole two hours periodically looking at us (we were at the back of the class) and grinning inanely! Bless them! Anyway, it was nice at the end, as a lad called João and a girl called Marbelha (or sommat) introduced themselves to us and said if we were stuck with anything, we could ask them for help, which I thought was really friendly.

We had our Translation and Back-translation classes for Technical and Literary texts today too. The first woman was a brummie called Wendy, who I swear was seperated at birth from one of the linguistics teachers at uni (Diane Blakemore for those of you in the know). Then we had a German woman who did Portuguese to English literary translation. She proceeded to tell me that some of the words I used in my English were wrong. This comes from a woman who wrote "I find myself grabbed by the arm, let's dance, tapped on the shoulder by an old boy". Hmmm... how about no Blanche...

Anyways, we went to 2nd year Portuguese language and literature, understood nothing, and was insulted by the teacher who said "this class isn't for you" with a subliminal "GET OUT" added on. So, sod it, I'm not doing that. I'm going to go to Tourism instead and get stared at!

Big OLÁ to Jonathan for his little message. Megamail winging its way when I have something to report!

Currently listening to Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas is You ("Now that's gay, as Pedro put it)

Tra!

Ben xxxx

PS. funny video; made me and Pedro laugh! Click on this: Video

Boo Hiss Salford Uni!

2006-03-06T18:52:00.000Z

And boo hiss again!

I arrived today at ISLA for my first lessons there, which were ok(ish)!

My time table was a bit fooked up, and it turns out that ISLA have none of the forms that Salford have supposedly sent them. Both ISLA and Salford seem to have their heads up a certain nether region, possibly each others, I wouldn't know about that!

Well, I also found out that Mike from Salford is here with me too, so at least I have someone to experience the madness with me. Luckily he had a copy of the Education Learning Agreement that we filled in with Janet Lloyd. I never had a copy of this, which is a bit dumb, as ISLA need to sign it so I can get my Erasmus grant, which is only £1,000, but hey, it pays to live! Plus, Leonardo owe me about £560, so that'll help too. Hmmm, that'll probably arrive sometime in 2020... lol.

Anyhew, I've got a hashed up version of a timetable which means that I have to do most of my classes on a Monday and Wednesday, which I can live with. What I can't live with is that I have a "Portuguese Tourism" class at 5pm on a Friday night. By the time I'm home it'll be 7pm! Damn them! I was going to change that to I.T., but when we went to the class today, the room was locked and no-one knew anything about it! D'oh! So it seems I'll have to do the tourism classes, which involves days out at weekend. Personally, I can't be arsed with these, but nevermind. I'll see what goes down.

Patsy's sister was being bizarre today, she was helpful as ever though (yeah right). I had to do "Translation and Back-translation: Economics", "Translation and Back-translation: Technical" and I was supposed to go the "Portuguese History and Culture", but we were going to change this for another lesson, that also didn't happen. Hmmmm, can anyone else see a pattern?!

TYPICAL BLOODY SALFORD! SALFORD + ISLA = ONE GRUMPY AND CONFUSED DOYLE

On the other hand, I've sort of got it sorted, and the first week at a new timetable is always a bit of a pain in the arse, so it'll settle down soon!

Must go, I've got a Financial Times article about stocks and bonds to translate into Portuguese (God save me!)...

Ben xxx

Newsflash!

2006-03-06T00:56:00.000Z

Spent the day down on the front with Pedro, talking politics and whatnot. All in English, but at the moment, I'd rather make a friend, then worry about Portuguese after! Anyway, Rui came home from Braga today, and it turns out he is a gay too!! *Glee* So... they want totake me out and around Lisbon as I didn't go out when I was in Castellón. This is going to be a fun 5 months!! lol

To think I was worried about moving here! I definately made the right choice!!!

Night all, sweet dreams,

Ben xxxx

Mmmmm.... biscuits!

2006-03-05T16:11:00.000Z

I LURVE the biscuits!

Firstly, I'd like to say a big "ta!" and a big hug to Carmen for her kind words! I know it's bad sometimes, and I think I'm over the worse of it. You know what it's like Carmen, and like you say, I'll be fine soon! I believe in you! Ohhh, Kylie sang that didn't she?! Mmmm... *considers putting Kylie on later*

Well, I was going to go to Sintra today, but it's a bit cloudy, and it might rain. I was in the Rossio area of the City Centre yesterday when the heavens opened, so I used the Metro to get to Cais do Sodre and I went home! Watched a bizarre Bring It On style US film which centred on marching bands in Atlanta. Hmmm random. BTW all the film here are in English with subtitles. According to Nathalie, the Portuguese are cheapoes and won't pay for actors to do the voice-overs like in many other EU countries. Anyway, after that I watched Os Simpson as they are called here. It's the DVDs I bought he other day. I'll watch a bit more later. I like dossing about on Sundays and watching DVDs. I've finished Golden Girls series 3 (BLAAAANCHE!) which made me titter, and then I just browsed the internet.

I found some good recipies for cheesecake. I haven't had that for years, and I might like it. Hmmm, after my Pastéis de Belém incident, I can try anything! But I have nothing that I can cook them with! D'oh!

Well, Pedro has just woken up (I thought he was out!) and asked me if I wanna go and get a snack. Well, I've just eaten, but it'll be nice to go for some air and a coffee!

I've found a good radio station too, Capital FM, which has a good mix of everything, so I think it shall be my preferred station!

Well, off I go,

See you soon blogettes!

Ben xxxx

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

2006-03-04T18:16:00.000Z

Olá!

Hope you're all well! Well, I went to Belém today to have a look around there, and it was ok. Had a mooch around the port bit and went past a museum. There is also a local cake called "Pastel de Belém" which are sold from the Pastéis de Belém shop. They're a rich custard tart, served warm with cinnamon and icing sugar on, and the pastry is a crispy, slightly puff pastry-esque. I don't like custard, but I thought I'd give it a whirl, as I've not tried custard tarts since about the age of 6, which was a Greggs' Custard Tart from Swinton Precint. They were ok, and I didn't heave. In fact they were quite tasty, they wouldn't necessarily be my favourite cake, but still they aren't the worst thing ever.

All the news in Portugal is going mad of the Bird Flu epidmic, but I was thinking today, perhaps it's a good thing. Yeah, it's really contagious, and people can get really ill from it, but look at it this way: We'll get rid of all the scabby pigeons that are plagueing our city centres! I saw one today with no feet, only stumps! Death to the scabby pigeons!

Ben x

FNAC is the devil incarnate

2006-03-03T21:14:00.000Z

Hello Everyone Again!

Well, like I said, I went to FNAC to have a browse. And I spent about €114 on stuff. One was a wireless connector for my laptop, which works well, but with the dodgy connection, it goes a bit batty. the other two items were The Simpsons series 6 and Coldplay X and Y, just because people have said that it's good, and it's not as rocky or as poppy as some of my other stuff, so it's nice to have on in the background.

I went to see Dr. Rosario Braga da Cruz, who dodn't look like anything that I imagined she would. If any of you are Ab Fab aficionados out there, well, she looks like Patsy's sister Jacs. EXACTLY the same! She's got the mad hair and mad make up and zebra print scarf to go with it. She was a mix of her and Anna, the Salford Counsellor. She said to me (and I'm not joking!):

Benjamin, what you must do is make sure that you go to the Portuguese Language classes. It is important that you go. Yes, I think so. Definately.

Then she answered the phone, which she scrawped up the side of her cheek and went Tou. Cristina... sim... sim... sim... ta... podes? Obrigadissima Which translates as Hello. Cristina... yep... yep... yep... yes it is... can you? Thank you very much.

Which I found it hard not to laugh at, as it was very Anna-esque. All she needed to do to complete the combo is to smoke about 40 a day (she probably does anyway) and lean out of the window, fag-in-mouth. Plus she asked me about a million questions, including whether or not I wanted to help her son with his English, as he's learning it, but has no-one to speak to. Hmmmm, I didn't say no, but I didn't say yes. I explained I'd had a few probs trying to teach English at Frost-Trol, and I'm not very good as a teacher. She said it didn't matter, and told me to think about it and that she's going to speak to her son about it. So there, bizarre...

My Portuguese is getting slowly better. I'm going to revise my verb endings tonight. Well, possibly. I might do it tomorrow...

I have a rudimentary timetable planned. I don't remember anything of what I chose, and it seems I choose with Dr. Rosario. I've got all the hours for the translation classes, but I want to try out Portuguese Gastronomy, Ethnology and some IT things if I can. Basically the more classes I go to, the better it will be for me, but I think I have to do about 40-60 credits for this semester, but I can't remember what each class is worth. Any doubts, and I'll speak to Bridget. I might actually be the last UoS student to go to ISLA, as apparently, they are discontinuing their Translation Classes because the main Lisbon University is offering a course, although it more academic and not as hands-on as the ISLA course, but as the ISLA course is €200 pcm rather than €100 pcm, everyone is going to the University of Lisbon, which is a shame, as apparently, ISLA has a long tradition of doing Translation.

Anyway, enough waffle for the mind of the mad-one!

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxxxxxxxxx

My Gaydar never fails me

2006-03-03T13:18:00.000Z

Boa tarde os meus amigos!

Well, a few well-constructed questions and a convo with Nathalie and my gaydar "woop-woop" was proved to be correct. Pedro is a fellow gay, and is a nice lad. We spent ages talking last night, and we have similar interests, he likes Star Trek Voyager (but doesn't have a place in his heart for Captain "On Screen" Janeway like I do). Not only that but Nathalie likes Ab Fab, so it's laughs all around.

Still feeling a tad crappy, but I'm going out in a minute to see the sights and browse around FNAC, which is a big HMV-come-Dixons (but better) and probably spend money that I haven't got.

Pedro said that he and Rui (the other housemate) will take me around the sights of Lisbon and to some of the good places to go out for a night.

Oh, Holy Jesus of the Bedroom Wall in Castellón... you have smiled down on me with this flat!!!

This is Holy Jesus of the Bedroom Wall in Castellón:
Check out the crappy wallpaper!

So anyway, that's all from me for now! Feeling "just a liddle bit betta" and am raring to go!

Bye Blogettes!

Ben xxx

Lx

2006-03-02T19:35:00.000Z

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all doing well! I've ben here for a few days now, and the whole crazy depression thing has set in (again). I was hoping that it wouldn't, but it has. I suppose it's the moving around thing and the change of scenery that has done it. Plus I'm frustrated because my Portuguese isn't as good as my Spanish, and I'm finding it hard to communicate. I'm sure I'll get on fine though, I just need to practice and revise a bit more.

Yesterday I was walking around Lisbon, which passed some time. I think I'm just a bit bored at the mo and when I start to go to uni, I'll be ok, as I'll have some work to do, as well as something which passes the day.

I walked to one of the gay discos the other day, and it's at the top of the biggest hill you've seen in you life! As is much of Lisbon really! Luckily there's a bus, so I'll use that if I can't manage to walk up the hill! lol Or a taxi might be good!

The internet here is all intermittent, and I don't think it's the cable, I think that it's the actual box, because the lights keep going off on it. Damn thing.

I put up all the photos and things on my wall last night which makes the room seem a bit more "mine", as well as the lamp and the rug that I bought, to make it a bti more homely.

I met one of the other housemates the other day, Pedro, who is a lovely lad. My gaydar went a bit "woop-woop" when I met him, as he's a tad camp, but then I might just be wrong on that front. I'm still to meet Rui, as he doesn't come back from his home in the north until Sunday.

Anyway, like I said, I've been feeling a bit crappy today, which has been a murky grey day so I've not really done anything. I went into the centre of Oeiras with Nathalie and talked a bit. She said that I was a bit quiet and that I don't talk much. I suppose it's true, but it's only because I've been here for 4 days! It takes time for me to come out of my shell. After the walk, I went to Pingo Doce, the local supermercado and got some milk, and then I came back and Nathalie said she was going to go for a run, and I don't know why I did it, but I just started to sob and cry like an idiot. How grim. Well, hopefully it's out of my system now and I can start to be a bit more positive. When I start uni, I'm sure all will work out well. I might go out next week to a gay bar or sommat and go and get wrecked go for a dance in Finalmente if I can make it up the hill, then go home and experience a hangover of doom! lol

Well, that's me for now.

Send me messages and love, it's most appreciated!

Ben xxxxxxxxx

Blaaaaaaanche!

2006-02-28T14:12:00.000Z

Helloooooo dears!

Well, here I am in Lisbon... well Oeiras actually, but it's all the same! I've sent most of you an e-mail with everything and a text with my new number. If you want my Portuguese number, just e-mail me!

My flat is in a very residential area, so it's nice and quiet. Downside is that the flat is quite cool at the moment, which I'm sure I'll be grateful for in summer, but at the moment, it's a tad chilly, eventhough it's 20ºC outside!

I found the beaches:

And my flat looks like something out of the Golden Girls Set!

Which I think is nice! Lisbon is a great city, with lots of nice squares and monuments, plus the whole place is easy to explore on foot, or you can go on the Metro if you're feeling lazy! I found a nice shopping centre close to my Uni called "O Centro Comercial Colombo", which is very Trafford Centre-esque, and caters for lots of tastes, and has a huge discount Carrefour-like shop in it where you can buy most things. It has a massive foodcourt, and basically, it's really good!

All the monuments and everything look nice and it's very "Old Europe". I'm glad I'm close to the beach too, so I can sunbathe, relax and have a read. Or if I'm feeling energetic, I can go for a run along the front, which has a nice smooth path to run along, which is a rarity in Lisbon, as all the paths are cobbled with white marble.

It's easy to get to and from uni, as there is a frequent train service, which connects to the Metro, and I think it'll take at the very most, an hour to complete the journey.

Well, that's all for now blogettes. I'll blog soon when I have more news!

Ben xxxx

And so... the end is near... and I face... the fi-nal curtain...

2006-02-24T07:45:00.000Z

Oh how I have waited for this day! 5½ months to be exact!!! At 6pm tonight,
I will be released into the wild and will be free to do as I wish, without
the manacles of Frost-Trol!

It's then off to Lisbon! Incidentally, I rang my new landlady in Oeiras
yesterday and I didn't understand a word of what she was saying to me.
Well, I got the gist! A good start I see! lol

We're all going to Rokelín to eat at dinnertime. I wish I'd come into this
office sooner, as everyone's been so nice to me!! Dot should have a great
time! I feel kind of funny about leaving it all. I'll definately keep in
contact with people if they want to, even if it's just a couple of e-mail
once in a while!

Well, 9¼ hours to go!!!

Ben xxxxx

Telefónica are Shite

2006-02-17T08:21:00.000Z

Well yesterday was crap. Now Telefónica have cut ff the Internet a week early, so I'm now disconnected from the outer world! I suppose it's only a week though!

Yesterday, Ulí had me doing a letter of intrest for a supermarket called Pyaterochka in Russia, which totally burnt my head out. Nieves didn't tell me she wasn't going home for dinner, so I had to go to the bar over the road and have a hard-as-steel baguette.

Going to Alicante tomorrow morning, which will definately be fun with Joanne and Geordie Jo! Going to get wrecked!!! lol

I'm on the home run now, only a week to go, and even then it's only Tuesday to Friday! Ahhhhh, what a sweet relief it will be to leave Castellón behind forever!!! FOR-EVER!!! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Ben

Report for University

2006-02-16T08:50:00.000Z

This report that I have to do for University about Frost-Trol has become
the bain of my life. I've finished the main part, but now I'm having to do
finish one appendix, which is a book report about 1984. I really do love
this book, but it's so hard to grasp sometimes. No only are the political
contents within the book dificult to fathom, but the kanguage used can
frequently be obscure. Also given that some of the political theories of
the Inner Party (Partido del Interior) in the book, and the Newspeak
(Neolengua) used to describe them (e.g. Doublethink [Doblepensar]), it has
got a tad confusing. I have to keep re-reading sections to understand it
fully. I'm getting there, but the excerpts from Goldstein's book have
really confused me, and after three attempts of reading them, I've
submitted to reading those sections in English, as they are integral parts
to the story, as they explain how the World came to be as it is in
Winston's time, and an explanation of the whole Big Brother stratagem.

Well, I'm off for now! See you all soon Blanchettes!

Ben xxx

PS I mis-calculated the other day. It's actually 8 days to go today... too
much hope you see!

Three Things I Hate About Spanish Buses...

2006-02-15T23:08:00.000Z

1) A group of 6 friends takes up space for 12 people and make a lot of noise
2) People stink of garlic and gas you out
3) There's about 1 every third Wednesday with a full moon

Well, blogettes, I'm feeling in a good mood about going to Lisbon, but also feel crap that HARDLY ANYONE LEAVES ME A MESSAGE!!!! Hmph *scowls*.

E-mailed Mike from when we went to Eccles College, but not head owt back off him yet. He's meant to be going to study in New York, I'll keep all interested parties updated when I get some info!

Work was crap today. Bo-ring, and I had to try and teach Wizadora how to speak English from a book that's got far too many mistakes in it!!! Plus he can't say the 'g' at the end of words like pig, dog, dig. He says "peekh, dokh, dikh", and sheet was pronounced "shit" and no matter how many times I tried to drum it into him, it didn't work. C'est la vie!

Took the Chav test Rob Holmes sent me, and I was 39% chav. Carmen was only 18% chav. I though 39% was quite good for someone from Salford, but I've been mocked by all! *scowls again*

Geordie Jo and Joanne will be here at weekend. I bought my tix from the train station. I used my Euro <26 style="font-style: italic;">Comboios Portugueses any day!

Looking forward to flat in Oeiras. Dunno what it'll be like, but if it's crap, at least I don't know and can't worry about it!

Well, that's all for the moment.

Leave comments and make me smile (believe me I need it!).

Bye all,

Ben xxx

More Religious Iconography

2006-02-15T08:22:00.000Z

Not only do I have a Jesus picture above my bed, but I also have a small
statue of St. Pancreas on my desk. He's holding a book and pointing at
something! Apparently, if you put some parsley about his person, it can
bring luck in the lottery!!! D'oh! Now they tell me...

Bored! But only 8½ days to go! Yay!

Ben x

Stupidisco

2006-02-11T23:18:00.000Z

*Cham-PAGNE for everyone!!*

How are we all at the moment? Happy, sad, stressed? Well, I'm in the usual ambivalence at the moment. This place is right pezz sometimes!! Today I just did the usual of bumming about and watching Lost with Heather. We'll do that tomorrow too!!

For my Saturday music I'm listening to "Ministry of Sound, The Annual 2005", which explains the title for this blog, and also provides me with a slight Saturday Night Feeling. I've decided I'm going to have to get over this "going out alone" thing... I'm going to have to do it in Lisbon, unless I find some other mental who wants to go out for a dance! Been looking at the clubs etc. there, and there's one there called Trumps, Finalmente, Frágil, and a smattering of bars and what not! So yes.... I might brave Clams disco next Friday... I'll see if Heather wants to come along, but I doubt she will, unfortunately! I'll see what she says! I'm going to meet Geordie Jo and Joanne in Alicante next weekend as they're coming over for a visit! It's a shame I'm not closer to them! BAH! Damn Salford Uni changing the placement at the last minute!

Anyway, WELL excited still about Lisbon! It better not be a let down! I'm sure I'll have a good time, and to meetother gays, I shall go to the LGBT Centre there where they have events, a café, a bar and whatnot! I might meet some people to go out with! Then again, it might be totally random, but we'll see!

How many days to go?!

Well, that's a happy thought! I'll need to pack pretty soon! Joy!

Spent €150 the other day on British Airways flights from Lisbon to London so I can go to Geordie Jo's engagement party! I forgot to say! Yes! Jo and Joe are getting married!!!!! I'm soooooooooooooo excited about that too! It's untold! So yes, to me, it's €150+ well spent!

Love and kisses and all that shite!

Your mate, Ben xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vaqueros

2006-02-10T08:29:00.000Z

I was told yesterday that I didn't have to wear shirts, trousers and shoes
to work, and that it was ok to come to work in jeans, t-shirt and trainers.
Thanks for telling me after 5 months! PAH! So today, I'm in casual wear and
I'm loving it! So comfy!

Ben xxx

Mª Carmen, you crazy mo-fo

2006-02-08T21:54:00.000Z

Mª Carmen, our landlady came round for the rent this evening, eventhough in January we agreed that we'd use the deposit we paid in August to cover February's rent. She agreed this too, but now we have to pay the €510 rent and then sort out the return of deposit and bills etc. on the 24th Feb, the day before we go when it'll all be mental anyway! Grr!

Anyway, had e-mails/blog comments from Lorna and Crystal, which was nice, as I've not heard from them in a while! Especially Crystal, who made me giggle with her "on the beach in Valencia sipping margheritas all day" comment!!!

Had an e-mail from Jonathan, which was nice too, and I've been having e-mail conversations with Clare from uni, so all in all it's being very sociable at the moment! Not sure what to do at weekend. Wanted to go somewhere, but it's all too expensive now! Bummer!!!

That explains it then!

2006-02-08T16:36:00.000Z

No wonder they have ended up with some mad people here! they let a computer
program choose the best candidate!! They get them to filin a form, and
Carmen has to put it into a webiste that generates a report!!!

They aren't interviewing any Spaniards though! We had a Bulgarian, Turk,
and a Russian, who couldn't speak a word of Spanish! How can they employ
someone who won't understand what they are saying to them! I know I'm a
foreigner, but at least I understand a lot of what's said to me!

lol

Ben xxx

Back in Work

2006-02-08T07:51:00.000Z

After yesterday's shenanegans, I'm back in1 However, in my absence, someone
has upgraded my e-mail program to Lotus Notes 6. BUGGER!

"EH! I'm not fat! I'm just big boned!"

2006-02-07T22:03:00.001Z

I've made a new piccy of myself. This is how bored I've been today. Go on my profile to see it!

Never thought I'd say it but: "Bring on Frost-Trol!!" KILL ME NOW!

Grafics Joy!

2006-02-07T18:24:00.000Z

Soooooo bad.....

2006-02-07T15:38:00.000Z

Well, I overslept for the first time today. I wonke up when the doorbell went for Nieves to give me a lift into work. That's really bad!! I made up some crap lie about having a dicky tummy from some fish I ate in a restaurant last night. Hmph!

I don't like doing that! I must make more of an effort to get up! I think it's because Heather's Brother and his mate are here, so I'm trying to be quieter in the mornings, so as not to wake them, but I didn't wake up meself. VERY BAD!

So tomorrow, I'll be in the Frost-Trol bosom... Lisbon T-17!!!

Ben x

Pearly Kings and Queens

2006-02-06T10:26:00.000Z

Buenas a todos,

Hope you all had a fandabbiedoozie weekend. I had a great weekend in London! Everything went smoothly! Well, I missed the target Stansted Express by 2 minutes, so I had to wait for the next one, and panicked that I may miss the check in! All was well though, as Stansted Airport is not like Manchester Airport; the train station is directly below the departures terminal, so it was a case of in a lift, pop out in check in. It took all of 5 minutes!

So what of RyanAir? They weren't too bad. I would use them again, but only in the case of no other airline going to where I wanted to go (like some random place in Poland!). The plane took off ½ an hour late on both occasions, but managed to catch up/land ontime; however, I believe this to be because RyanAir pops an extra ½ an hour onto the real flying time incase of any delays. Stansted was easy to use, and to and from London was very easy on the Stansted Express, eventhough at £25 (I paid £16.50 Young Person's discount) it was a bit costly.

So... London! I have to say, I've changed my mind a bit over London. First time I went, I didn't particularly like it that much. It is true that the crowds of tourists can put me off, especially those annoying Americans, but for the most part, I've got quite accustomed to London. We went to all the usual places, looking at Big Ben and all that jazz, as well as going out on Saturday Night. We went to Chinatown in Soho and had a lovely Chinese! The crispy duck was to die for! We tried to get into Tokyo Diner, as I fancied some Japanese, but it seemed rammed, so we opted for Chinese instead. Afterwards, I let Mark choose a bar to go to, and he predictably chose G-A-Y, which was slightly packed, and full of scary Lesbians in one section. On trying to find the cloack room, some cowgirl Pat Butcher said "Sorry dahlin', this is a lesbian-space, you have to be with a woman to come in". I was like, "I'm only trying to find the bloody cloakroom!!". Christ! Anyway, as I knew it would be, G-A-Y is both overrated and overcrowded. Plus, I'm sure if there was a men-only space, the lesbians would be up in arms over equality and what not. While I'm all up for making sure that women are no longer repressed, the lesbian clique (especially the NUS LGBT campaign) are too militant in their attitude towards gay men. I'm in favour of women-only bars (like Vanilla), but all-inclusive venues should be that! Anyway, hope not offended anyone reading this! I digress...

Anyway, we went onto a venue I chose, Trash, which played indie music, with a tad of rock, and I'm sure Nicola Red would have felt happy going there. It was a bit small, but they played some cool choons I've not heard in a disco before (like Pulp, Mis-shapes). Anyway, I really liked it, but sensed Mark was less impressed, as Indie isn't really his thing, so we went to a pub down the road, had another drink and went back to the hotel. All in all, a good night. Glad we didn't go clubbing properly, as I would have been knackered and not got up properly. Well, I didn't wake up properly anyway, so we had a quick visit to Portobello Market, had a mooch and I went back to Liverpool Street to catch the Stansted Express back to the airport.

So, all in all, it was an excellent weekend! We even talked about the future, and that we might end up living in London, and we both decided that it wouldn't be too bad, not the end of the world! Anyway, we'll see!

PLUS! A good friend of mine gave me some very exciting news yesterday!! Not saying anymore!! I'm just very excited!!!!!!

Well, the Troll of Frost beckoneth...

Love, hugs and a million kisses,

Ben x

*Cham-PAGNE for everybody!*

Free Money

2006-02-02T11:36:00.000Z

Vodafone España is quite good actually. If you spends so much in a months, they'll give you some free credit at the start of the floowing month. Today I got €10! Which is quite good really, seeing as I think I only spent about €30 in January. Dunno if Vodafone Portugal will do the same!

I´ve nearly finished my report now. I've done all the text, it's actually a little bit over, but I'm hoping they won't notice those 150 words!!! It's going to be a beast of a report! I don't think I'll have it done by Friday though, but i'm going to try. Just that at the moment, I'm still sleepy and my stomach hurts, badly. I just want to curl up and go to sleep all day! I can get through it! I'm going to bed at 9 though tonight.

So.... yes, I'm nearly done with the report. When it's done, I can just look forward to Lisbon then!

Rob sent me some piccies from when him and his motley gang went to Stalybridge (aka Stalyvegas) for a night on the razz. Apparently, it was chav-o-rama. A hermit living in a cave could have told them that Stalybridge is a rough night out! Bless! Well, I'll put some of the piccies up that he sent me! There's a good one of Rob and Jo!

Going for coffee.... need 30c....

Ben xxx

Quote of the Day

2006-02-02T11:35:00.001Z

"What is it this time?! An Atomic Bomb?!"
El Señor Solsona, CEO, Frost-Trol S.A.

El Señor Solsona is the Chief Exec of Frost-Trol. He looks a bit like Mr.
Burns from The Simpson, and he shouts a lot like him too. We had another
power cut at work today, for about 5 minutes, and he phoned someone (either
in the factory, at the electric company, or at the Town Hall) and he said
the above quote as soon as they answered the phone. Total sarcasm! It
really ticked me the way he said it! I had to go for water....

Bye Blanchettes!

Ben xxx

I just want to sleeeeep

2006-02-02T10:09:00.000Z

I'm so very tired today. For the past three nights, ive not been able to
get to sleep until 3am ish. With me waking at 7:45, I get about half the
sleep I should. I don't know why it is, I just can't switch off! Never
mind... I'll have a Café con Leche and see what goes down!

La Chupaya

2006-02-01T09:53:00.000Z

More at-work blogging!

I'm looking forward to going to London for the weekend! It'll be nice to be
in blighty for a while! Was knackered this morning, but I'm much better
now! Actually awake and functioning well. Nearly.

Just been having a laugh with Gemma etc. Apparently in cuba they say "Chupa
mi papaya" for "suck my cock", which we were all wetting ourselves at. I
suppose you had to be there! We're all very naughty and should be
chastised!! lol Gemma said there could be a festival called the "chupaya",
which set us off further!

At 9:00 am we had some hunky spaniard in. He looked like a surf boy or
something, but he's apparently a teacher! He looked about my age!

Hunk and a laugh all in the same morning - can't be bad!

Ben x

Quote of the day...

2006-02-01T00:12:00.000Z

"There are wonderful bits of coloured paper you can buy to find out where you're going - they're called maps."
Robin Gilmour, Scotland (On a BBC Website Article about RyanAir)

It just made me laugh - sums up people to a tea! Matt know's what I'm talking about! I cannot reiterate this enough - whenever you're going somewhere RESEARCH YOUR ROUTE!!! That way, nothing can (usually) go wrong!

A big grape-tastic "¡HOLA!" to Jonathan for sending me an e-mail which cheered me up today (well, yesterday now...) after a shitty weekend when I felt crap-o-rama. You're proper bo', I tell thee!

Well, ta-ra for now! Sleeeeeeeeeeeep!

Ben xxx

I've calmed down now...

2006-01-30T18:51:00.000Z

Today has been a really really bad day, so I just want to put it behind me! I'm going home this weekend, for an impulsive journey to London. It's only £80 inc. taxes return, so you can't go wrong really. I'm going by RyanAir, I'm not sure what they're like. I've tried all the other budget airlines, so I might as well see how these fare!

Mark's going to meet me there and we're going to have a little weekend together. He was meant to come here, but due to Bolton University doing sommat mental with his timetable, it means that that's the first week of his 2nd semester, so he has to be there really. So I'm visiting him! How nice!

Anyhew, better go and help do tea,

Ben xxx

Mala Leche

2006-01-30T15:07:00.000Z

WHAT A LOAD OF FUCKING BOLLOCKING SHIT!! FUCKING FANNYING ABOUT LIKE A TIT
DURING A POLE DANCE IN THIS FUCKING ARSE-WANK PLACE!!

And that's swearing...

Lisbon T-27

2006-01-28T01:52:00.000Z

Hi gang,

Well, the 5 of you that read this!! Well, Blanchettes, my period here in Spain is nearly over and done with. I'm a bit ambivilous about leaving Casellón. At the end of the day, it has been my home for 5 months, and you sort of get used to a place after a while. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I had been here over summer!!

Well, at least I'm going somewhere nice for Summer! I'll be in sunny old Lisbon! I'm so looking forward to it it's untrue!! I'm excited about going and experiencing a different place and getting used to a different culture. You know, I think I could do almost anything after this. Afterall, I have moved my entire life over to a foreign country, where I know only my flatmate, but you know what? I survived it!! As Heather Small asks in her song Proud, "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" Plenty! I've setteled in at work, greatly improved my Spanish (I have my off-days though!) and managed to survive in what is frankly, a place very different from my customery territory of Manchester. My workmates didn't hang me for being a gay, in fact Gemma was showing me all the places to go out to that I didn't kow about.

So yeah, I'm happy at the end of it all. I feel like I can do anything! It's a mad feeling! I suppose I'm happy at how I've coped and managed with everything. I miss all my mates, I miss Mark and I miss mum, dad and Jenny (however nowty she is!), but I coped ok. Bar a few teary moments in the first few weeks. I remeber one occasion coming in after my mega-slog journey and having had Mª Carmen (landlady) waffling to me for ages about the flat and she'd gone, I just broke down for about half an hour. It's a necessity though, I consider it to be part of the transition, and it does good to get it out of the system!

I've not achieved as much as I hoped I would have done, language-wise, but ye olde Spanish has definately improved, and once I get going, I'm actually quite good, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside! Carmen and Nacho both say I can speak Spanish well, and I trust them, so there!!

So... to the land of the Portuguese! It'll be a weird change at first, not having my flatmate ther with me, but hopefully it'll give me the impetus to get out there and meet people. I also decided that Alamada was too far and crossing a river on a ferry every morning would wear thin after about the 3rd time of doing it! So, now, Maria Rosário Braga da Cruz (yep that's her name!! HOW LONG?!) who is the ERASMUS co-ordinator at ISLA (Instituto Superior de Línguas e Administração) has managed to sort a room out in a flat for me!! How helpful is that?! She's got it with other students/workers in a commuter town on the beach called Oeiras.

Apparently Oeiras is a lovely place to live and pass summer! So, if I'm there until August, it'll be fantastic!! I'm going to try and get a job in Lisbon in a bar or a theatre so I can earn and learn at the same time! The CVs are being sent off this week. 5 years in a Box Office have got to be worth something...

Well, I'm going to sign off now, it's late, but I can't sleep! Must have popped a pro-plus instead of paracetomol before. Oh, just following from my last post, here're what I've got on my desk at work...

Ye olde printing calculator from 1995

Ye Olde Brother Daisywheel Typewriter

Jesús' 1970's Typewriter
(Yes, there's somone called Jesús at work; it's a common name here!)
On Jesús' desk, but I thought I'd put it on to show you how old it all was!

Anyway, yes, so, after that bout of randomness, I'm off!

Até logo os meus amigos! Obrigado pelos vossos comentarios!

Ben xxx

New Year, New Desk

2006-01-18T08:47:00.000Z

¡Hola! (Mel B stylee)

Well, I've only got 5 more weeks in the crazy world of Spain - how quickly
time passes!!! lol I've been moved to another office now, and there's 5
people to talk to, and they're really nice. I sit infront of Carmen and we
all just bitch about the boss all day!! He's like Rickey Gervais in The
Office, totally random, but we all get a laugh out of it!!

So yes, New Year, New Desk (well, I say new...). There's evenmore 80's
retro office furniture! I've now got a typewriter (!) and one of those big
early nineties printing calculators, as well as my PC. Honestly, it's
definately a timewarp! I'm looking forward to going to Lisbon. I think I've
found somewhere to live; I'm just waiting for the guy to send me some
photos of the place, and if all is well, I'll go with him. It's in Almada,
which is on the other side of the river. He says the easiest way into
Lisbon is by ferry!! Me think's I'll end up falling overboard when tipsy!!
Good job I can swim!

So, I'm really looking forward to Lisbon, and I hope it'll be much better
than Castellón. I think it will be. There's many a gay bar there (you know
how we gays are with our bars!) and it looks like a really beautiful city.
My uni's a trek out in Carnide, but it's not going to be the end of the
world! It's on the metro line, and there's one every 3 minutes at rush
hour, so there'll be no Metrolink-esque waiting shenanigans like back home.
I'm looking forward to all the food the cheap spirits (they don't use
measures - they just guess!!), and of course the beach when summer comes
round again! I'm staying there until the middle of August so I can top the
tan up, and make everyone jealous when I come back to ye olde Lowry! lol It
can be like my very own little summer holiday!

I´m looking forward to going around Portugal, and I believe it'll be easier
as I'm in the capital and there's a fair few trains to the other regions.
Mark's helping me move, so that should go fine. We're going on the
trenhotel, so all should be well.

Well, ta-ra for now,

I'll post again sometime soon!

Ben xxx

Actually, what IS the point?

2006-01-09T09:47:00.000Z

***Found this from before Christmas, waiting to be sent t'blog ... how
bitter was I? Happy New Year everyone!!***

Today, as I comb-bound some documents for Ulí, I found myself asking this
very question in regards to learning a foreign language. Last night I was
looking on the BBC News website, when I found a section about people
learning languages, and how students are less likely to take a language to
degree level etc., and this got me wondering.

Most language students like me struggle through the British education
system to do the best we can. I was lucky, I had a brilliant Spanish
teacher in high school, and I feel that had it not been for her, I wouldn't
be studying my degree in Spanish. She was a fiesty lady, who was actually
Spanish. Some people are not so lucky. They have crappy teachers who don't
know how it is best to teach a language. Furthermore, in the vast majority
of English schools, we are taught the oh-so predictable French as a first
foreign language.

I studied French for a year, only so I could get out of PE. I was allowed
to take it as my second foreign language as I was good at Spanish. In
comparison, French is much more difficult than French. I think Spanish is a
much more regular language, and for me, it is easier to read and pronounce.
The system of accents is much more simple: 5 acute accents for stress (á,
é, í, ó, ú); the 'ñ' which is a seperate letter; and ü to signify that the
'u' is pronounced in -güe or -güi when it normally wouldn't be. Whereas
French has a vertiable range of accents, that at 12 I found hard to cope
with.

Gijón... finally!!

2005-12-21T23:24:00.000Z

Well, I'm going to write a bit about when I went to see Carmen and Nacho in Gijón the other week. I had a totally excellent time! I had so much fun!

Firstly, I went on a sleeper train which was a first for me. The cabin had a bed in it, along with a sink and a shower! How cool! Well, the shower was like a tardis and didn't work to well, but for a train it wasn't too bad at all. I managed to sleep quite well. I woke up at some points, especially when the train was going nineteen-to-the-dozen on some tracks, and as it was an old train, it was quite bumpy. Then some nob knocked on all the doors and woke everyone up. People were going mental at him. Quite rightly I think!!

Gijón is a beautiful city and has loads of streets that you can amble around. I was lucky, as I had Carmen and Nacho who showed me around the sights of the city and we had good weather too, so I was lucky in that aspect. We saw all the buildings and we saw an exhibition about Anglo-Asturian seafaring ties, which was interesting. Carmen and Nacho have had some exams, and as my visit was just before, they had to study for half a day so I went and looked around things again, and took some more pictures. We went to a place called Parque Principado and we bought some DVDs and I got some books in Gijón from Casa del Libro. I wish we had a park like Pricipado in Castellón, but I suppose we've got our swanky new Corte Ingés, so that'll have to do.

Gijón's Town Hall

Fibreglass Don Quixote
(there were loads of variations accross the city!)

We also visited Oviedo, which is the capital city of Asturias, eventhough it's smaller than Gijón. It has some good sights too, including a massive arse in the middle of the street! Nacho, Carmen and I laughed quite a bit, it's huge!

Culo en la Calle
(Arse in the Street)

Carmen and Nacho with Woody Allen!

Oviedo's Cathedral

We visited the cathedral and bought some great biscuits from a lovely shop near the cathedral and we looked at all the buildings in Oviedo, which I thought were pretty cool too. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant in Gijón and it was soooooo delicious!! We had a brilliant salad to start off with and a lovely pizza with a tasty base, all this washed down with the best sangría I've ever tasted and an apple chupito (1½ shots of apple liquor - yummy!!). We were giddy after the jug of sangría and chupitos, so we were walking the streets of Gijón cackling and laughing about the lame ERASMUS students that were in Salford when Carmen was there. Carmen also laughed too much and did a massive cough, right at this man walking on the street. It was funny, she didn't realise he was there when she did it, and his face was a picture!!

But yeah, all in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and I've told Carmen this, I'd love to live up there in the North of Spain. I don't like it here in the Catalan/Valencian-speaking region and the geographies of the areas are totally different too. Asturias is very like England, and has some breathtaking mountains that were snow-capped when I went through on the train, not like the desert here in Castellón!! lol :-D Castellón's not so bad. In winter it's awful, but in summer it's actually quite nice. Sandy beaches, blue sea, blue skies and it's hip and happening in Benicàssim, we just got here too late!!

Asturias - A Greener and More Pleasant
Land than England?!

¿Costa del Desierto?

Nah, ain't so bad!
Our coast is called the Costa del Azahar (Coast of the Orange Blossom)
It's actually really nice in summer!!

I can honestly say it was money well spent and it was brilliant catching up with Carmen and meeting Nacho, who is as friendly and chatty as Carmen. There a intelligent couple too, and you can have an intelligent conversation with them, which I like! So anyway, thanks guys!! I know you're reading this!!

I'm gonna sign-off now, I'm getting sleepy!

Ben xxxx

Yes, I know... I'm crap...

2005-12-20T08:06:00.000Z

Sorry for not updating blog recently - I'm a NAUGHTY boy! Well, I would
have done it yesterday, but I caught a nasty cold from Mark over out
weekend in Barcelona, and hence was dying in bed all yesterday. I shall
write one at work in draft and "copy-paste" as 31 Barrfield Road would
say...

Thought I saw Jackie Stallone on Sunday sat outside a café-bar on Las
Ramblas. But I don't think Jackie has a magenta-coloured beehive harido,
nor massive lips. Well, I think she has massive lips, but I think the hair
was a give away... I thought it was Jackie at first, but Mark was like
"Ben, Jackie Stallone wouldn't have a magenta beehive, don't be so daft".
That's me told...

Well, ta-ra for now!

Ben xxxx

Home T-9

2005-12-14T16:50:00.000Z

Just realised, it's only 9 days till I go back to UK for Christmas!!! JOY!

Going to have to try and cadge a lift home now as Nieves is busy!

Bah!

Ben xxx

Dot Matrix Printers: A little piece of 80's history, direct to your office

2005-12-14T08:55:00.000Z

Once again, the bain of my life (Ye Olde Dot Matrix Printer) has stopped
working. It's now decided that it'll load the paper so it starts printing
halfway down the page, in the wrong font, at the wrong size. Sergio spent
ages trying to fix it, but it's too old. We're not used to Dot Marix
printers in the 21st century. Mind you, this one looks pretty new (for a
dot matrix printer), so I suppose there must be some sort of demand for
them, for printing on duplex forms etc.

It's just being a total stroppy bastard with me. It'll start working again
in about 3 hours, for no apparent reason, and print off everything that I
tried to send to it this morning twice, snarl up the paper, rip the snarled
up paper with its printer head, overheat and switch itself off.

You may have noticed that I didn't do my "I'm back from Gijón" blog with
photos last night. This is because Danny rang Heather and they talked for
about an hour, so I couldn't be arsed doing it afterwards. I had a cold
shower, as the hot water ran out, and I had to peg a pair of underpants
onto the telephone cable going up the wall last night so I could have some
clean underwear for the morning, as the room the clothes are in to dry
takes about 3 days to dry stuff, and Heather says the fan heater makes the
clothes smell bad.

There we go,

Back to work!

Ben x

Faded Tan

2005-12-13T16:57:00.000Z

We're onto the James Blunt hour of looped play. Much joy. Well, Ye Olde Dot
Matrix Printer's been pising me off again today. It printed out about 5
orders, but not the rest, and then I had to mix and match them. Fook!!

We¡ve recieved a new calendar from a company in Germany and I can now
actually see the date that Frost-Trol ends! 24tth February joy! Then it's
off to Lisbon! A barrel of laughs that will be! Well, I'm gonna live with
foreigners there, hopefully Portuguese people, and they'll hopefully also
be students and I can go and get wrecked and fall of the Ponte de 28 de
Abril and into the Río Tejo at 3am! Drunken joy!

I can't wait to get home and see all my mates. I've got Heather to talk to,
but it's nice having lots of friends to chat to and I miss that. Although
they'll not believe me that it was 35º here at the start, as my tan has
faded. Grr! I'll soon top it up in Lisbon! Tanning myself on a sunny beach
on the Atlantic Coast with loads of fresh air! Nice!!

Peter e-mailled me back today and told me about all the changes at the old
work (The Lowry). Count yourself lucky I wasn't bloggin that job! lol Nah,
I like it really, and I think I'm good at the bits of the job that matter
(i.e. efficientcy, selling tickets, etc. not all the restuaranty stuff,
eventhough I won the "most-sold in a week" prize once!).

Anyway, Joanne's giving me a lift home so I'm off!!

Ben x

Crazy Cleaners

2005-12-13T07:59:00.000Z

Now they're dangling out of the windows cleaning the outside. It's letting
all the warm air out, and the cold air in! I pray to Jesus Above the Bed
that they don´t fall out onto the motorway below! Daredevil Cleaning
Ladies!!!

Ben x

Watch Out, Polish About!

2005-12-13T07:44:00.000Z

That's furniture polish, not a Polish person from Poland! Crazy cleaners
are here again, doing their speciality "Cleaning rubbish and empty boxes"
routine, rather than the "Take the rubbish to one of the recyling skips
outside" routine... They'll stick the hoover on in a minute, it's a right
noisy little bugger I tell thee!

Ben x

At Work Blogging...

2005-12-13T07:38:00.000Z

...not done it in a while, so I might start up again! Work was crapp-o-rama
yesterday. Was in a VERY nowty mood! Today remains to be seen! I had an
Eddie Monsoon from Ab Fab style paddy and started banging all the crap on
my desk, the new keyboard Sergio gave me took a big hit!

I came back from Gijón on Sunday! Had a brilliant time, but I'm gonna do a
proper blog about that tonight with photos and the works on it!

Ah well, first order form of the day!

Ben x

Back to the Future!!

2005-12-04T19:52:00.000Z

The last post was meant for a few days ago, but I only posted it today, so it's got today's time stamp on it!

We've done loads of stuff this weekend, we bought all the ingredients for a Delia Smith Rich Fruit Cake (which my mum makes as a Christmas Cake) and some Christmassy things for the flat!! We've got some window things in the style of a snowman and a santa. We've got a poinsettia and a mini christmas tree (that we tried to put spray snow on, but it didn't work!)

Look:

We got some Christmas songs too, and they're well cool! We're listening to them now as I write this post! There's some strange versions of songs out there. At the moment it's Silent Night sung by Cristina "I'm deeeeeaaaad Diiiirrrrty" Aguilera.

We also made our Christmas cake today, which turned out ok. I messed up creaming the butter and brown sugar, as it was too hard and then I melted the butter totally and it went all weird. I managed to save it tough, and it's not too bad. We're yet to taste it, but I'm sure it'll be ok. It's a bit burnt round the edges as we couldn't fund any greaseproof paper, and we used tin foil instead! D'oh!

Then we tidied up the flat to male it look proper nice and clean, and now it's nice again. We let it get into a bit of a sty! We walked up to the train station whilst the cake was baking, and we ambled the streets of Castellón, where they're beginning to put up the Christmas lights. We saw some the other night when we went to the cinema, and they looked ok!

Link (a pricey clothes shop) has done up one of the palm trees outside the shop and it looks really cool!

AND... not that I was that bothered, but we randomly bumped into FC Barcelona coming out of Hotel Luz near the Station! Which was random! I tried to get some paparazzi style piccies, but the crowd was jostling, so the photos are really blurred... but I got a blurry piccy of Ronaldinho! The other one is Heather going faux-crazy in the coach Station after the event!

So, yeah, it's been a good weekend. I'm sure this month is going to go really quickly. On Wednesday night I go on the longest train journey I've ever done (16 hours!) to visit Carmen in Gijón. I set off from Castellón at 7pm, and get to Gijón at 11am-ish the next day!

You might wonder why I've called this post "Back to the Future"... well, it's because Castellón is still in the late 80's/early 90's, and going back home will be like going "Back to the Future" like Doc and Marty McFly!! Nah, it's not that bad, but it feels like it is sometimes! Castellón's El Corte Inglés is nearly open (it's like a big Debenham's but better)...

So, anyway, that's all for now!!! Had a really good weekend!! I'm looking forward to my little holiday in Gijón, and whatelse can I say? I can't wait to get home for Christmas!!!

Ben xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Start of December!!

2005-12-02T19:45:00.000Z

I love December, it's my favourite month!! It's a really hectic one for me as it's my Birthday, then Christmas and then New Year! I love it back home as it's so nice and cold and crisp and there's frsot and sometimes snow. Last year it snowed loads on Christmas Eve. I hope it does this year too, but not when we're due to land in Liverpool, that would be very bad news, and I think Heather and Tori would cry! I probably would too! Stood there in Barcelona Airport skryking!

Me and Heather said that we would go and sweep the aiport ourselves. God knws what we'd do if it did happen. Touch wood it won't!

Ben xxx

I well can't be arsed

2005-12-01T09:15:00.000Z

I've said it before and I'll say it again!

WHY OH WHY DID I CHOOSE TO DO A DEGREE IN SPANISH?

I pity the fool who trys to speak Spanish!! Meh, I worked out that I've
only got 13 more days at FT until Christmas! Praise be! I can't wait to get
to get back to the UK for a while! Mmmmm English food!!

I'm looking forward to meeting up with some people when I'm back, missing
all my friends loads, and I'm missing having a good night out! I might try
this Friday to have a night out, you never know I might get talking to some
people!! You never know unless you try eh?!

Need to go and get my hair cut soon too!! As many of you know, when it gets
long it looks like a f**king mess, pardon my French, and I'm having some
serious wingage going on on the sides of my head. It looks like a massive
bodyform pad. #Ooo-o-o-oooo... Bodyform... Bodyform for yooooouuu!" whilst
she running madly around a beach (well, that's the early 90s version!). Why
do manufacturers of panty pads and tampons belittle women by showing those
adverts? It like saying "Hey, yeah, you're on your period but wear out
panty pads and you can go abseiling or handgliding or [insert random
high-thrill sport here]" do these women only do these things when they're
on they're using these panty pads?

God knows where <i>that</i> random thought came from...

Hey just discovered that out coffee vending machine at work uses real
beans!! I saw the man filling it up today and he spilt a few beans on the
floor! And it's only 30¢ (only 20p!) a go. At one point (and at these
prices) I was drinking about 10 cups a day. That's when I w'bored! I was
buzzing around the office like a kingfisher zipping from desk to desk like
a nob, and speaking gibberish Spanish! lol

If I'm honest, I'm just killing time with this blogpost. I've actually got
a nice big stack of orderforms to do and that 68 page translation is still
saying "Tradúceme a español... tienes que hacerme ahora... no escribes su
blog...." I'm obviously going into some sort of parallel universe of doom!

Parallel universe of doom in other languages:

Spanish: ¡Un universo paralelo condenado!
Portuguese: Um universo paralelo condenado!
Catalan/Valencian: Un univers paral·lel condemnat!

Well, I had to guess the Catalan one as I don't speak it, but I think it's
right. I just whack the Spanish through the Catalan spellchecker and it
usually works ok for tiny sentences...

Well, best go do some work!!!

Bye!
¡Adiós!
Adeu!
Adéus!
Ciao!
Sayonara!

Well, you get the picture! No more timewasting!

Ben xxxxxx

Aerial View of Castellón

2005-11-30T22:35:00.000Z

Hola again!

I've found an aerial view of Castellón! This is sort of centred on my apartment block.

Find the biggish park in the centre-right of the screen.
There's a road at the top of the park; follow along it (not turn) to the left.
There's a big road after the first T-Junction. That's Avenida Casalduch
If you cross over that the next cross-junction you get to has a really thin road on it (it's black on this map). This thin black road is my street!
The Aparment block's in the top left hand corner! Mint eh?!

Here's the link to see it if you want!

Castellón Map

Ben xxx

100% Beef, Guaranteed!!

Departure imminent

Japanese tutorial video.

The final curtain

Pissed off, fed up, wanna go home, got fuck all money...

7½ days and counting!

Apparently...

A Tobbogan Slide into Home-10 days and counting

Æþelstān

Cynders

Disco Fever

Poppets, Peter Kay and 23 days to go!

What *is* that rainbow sheen on ham?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Bloody Tourism!

Hammering, Mozzie Bites and some arse-crack of a piece of work! Schmickles!

Lancashire vs. Yorkshire

Mark's gone home + jobs!

Mark visits and COMING HOME!!!

It's all hot and sticky...

Eurovision 2006!

Friday Night!

My Film Rating

Salford Uni is crap (sometimes)

Ai, que dia quente!

"Me Minge!!"

Birthdays

totallycrud.com

Money

Empanada de Frango

Flies of Doom and Sand in my bed

Awwww GOD! *Dramatic Huff*

Aero Mint

Back in Lisbon - Send me home!

The Music of your Life

Grim

Total Bitterness, Driving on the Right and Excitement

Boyfriends, Friends, and Parma Violets

"Iiiiiiiiiiin ONE!"

Love is the Music!

It's just a shimmy and a shake

Insomnia

"10 going in Barbara!"

By Jove!

Bloody Government!

The Invasion of the Teacher Snatchers

Curry and the Origins of Pigeons

Sheep of Doom

Finally

Top o' the mornin' to ya

I cannae sleep captain...

Another normal Thursday

Has Salford University been Obliterated?

Boredom and getting trapped in the shower...

By the Power of Greyskull....

Ants and Missing Classes

Eu não sei...

Boo Hiss Salford Uni!

Newsflash!

Mmmmm.... biscuits!

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

FNAC is the devil incarnate

My Gaydar never fails me

Lx

Blaaaaaaanche!

And so... the end is near... and I face... the fi-nal curtain...

Telefónica are Shite

Report for University

Three Things I Hate About Spanish Buses...

More Religious Iconography

Stupidisco

Vaqueros

Mª Carmen, you crazy mo-fo

That explains it then!

Back in Work

"EH! I'm not fat! I'm just big boned!"

Grafics Joy!

Soooooo bad.....

Pearly Kings and Queens

Free Money

What is that rainbow sheen on ham?

Awwww GOD! Dramatic Huff

Actually, what IS the point?