Woah, it has been nearly a year since i bothered to put pen to paper finger to keyboard and i don't know where to start with this year. Do i bother with a recap of which is just drunken highlights, much akin to something on Harry Hills TV Burp or You've Been Framed.

So little has happened, and even less that has been 'blog' worthy. Many drunken nights out, many drug fuelled nights out (Well less than should have been). Lets see, i have forgone my need for tattoos by stretching my ears, I've moved out with some of my friends, i have started work with a company that does Certification Tests with the Xbox one but ultimately I'm in the same place i was last year. Different job, different people, same woes.

Stand out this year, well my friends Roy and Steve got married (Not to each other, they had separate weddings), heart was broken, went camping, fell off my bike again (this time with CCTV footage). Met some amazing people, lost some amazing people (Not through dying, i just don't speak to them much anymore, or i just don't speak to them) i think that's about it? Not an exciting year, i mean there have been days/nights that have been stand out but i don't remember them either through drink/drugs/old age.

It is getting closer to my Advent season so i think i might try and keep up with that for the month but being that i can't really talk about what i do at work means it's going to be less interesting than a Dr Who special hosted by Zoe Ball on BBC Three.

This weekend will probably herald the return of my Tales of Drunkard series of posts and i might continue up the posts of random drunken nights out, but they seem to be less drunken and more well drunken but with people i know rather than the random people of Reading. So I'm not sure if that counts anymore.

I'm guessing that's it. Not that there is anything left to tell you, like i said nothing much has happened this year.
I better get ready for Advent! Shit why did i start writing again now.

Advent: Dec 14th

Yes i have skipped a few days, oops. But fuck all happened in those days. I worked, i slept, i pooped. Rinse and repeat. Nothing out of the ordinary so why feign interest?

Let me take you back to March when my friend Rohan informed me that Phillip Glass was performing Koyannisqatsi live at the Barbican. This is the only time he has ever performed this in the UK. Now i have talked about this film before under the post Life in Balance. Now taking you back i used to watch this film at my mates while pretty stoned and although you don't have to, it kind of helped get into the hypnotic score and visuals that happen on screen.
So this moment that we were embarking on was a full circle that spanned nearly 10 years. Even though i had the day off i still managed to fuck up my timings and ended up getting to London later than planned. I got to Amico Bell, a really good Italian restaurant, a bit too late but met Rohan, Nicola an Elise and was given a glass of wine.
They finished their food while i had another wine and we trotted off to the Barbican. Never been there before but it was a pretty damn nice place. Will have to go back. We got in and found our seats and we were two rows from the stage. Amazing seats and within 5 mins Philip Glass came on stage and the composer shortly after and the lights dimmed. They then proceeded to show the film on the screen behind and the orchestra played the entire score live. I had a smile on my face for at least 20 minutes of the film, which only lasts 85mins, and was one of the happiest moments of this year. It was stunning to see the film i have loved for such a long time with the score played right in front of me. I need to either see more composers or more live classical music because that was something special.
After the film finished there was a standing ovation for a good 15 minutes, quite rightly so. We picked the good day as on the 15th was just a retrospective of his life and works which did sound good but we got the best deal out of those two days.

With the clapping done we milled about for a bit. Elise went home and Rohan, Nicola and Rohans friend Mel, plus myself, walked about till we found a bar. We found a smallish one and had a few beers and chatted for a bit. We then left and went to the Jugged Hare just outside the Barbican as Nicola knew some people who were having a meal, unbeknownst to us they had only just ordered. So we kinda gatecrashed their meal. Which was alright i suppose as we were all chatty and not unwanted (possibly). They did seem quite, Londonish. I mean two of them i got on with and chatted to about a few things from Japanese Whiskey to what we all saw at the Barbican. The other two i probably wouldn't socialise with. They seemed nice but no.
After a drink there we moved on as the last tubes were soon. I said my goodbye and got the tube back to Paddington. Which is where the night got shitty. Friday night, 00:45 and the next train was 1:44am. I mean what the fuck. I know not many people would probably travel back from London to Reading at that time but there are a lot of stations on the way. So 1:44am rolls around and theres tons of people waiting for a train that has 4 carriages and stops at lots of stops. When First Great Western start supplying a service that deserves my money then i will stop jumping train fairs, sitting in First Class when i don't have a ticket and generally hating the entire network.
Got home about 3am, sober and with a headache. But not even that could put a damper on the night. Phillip Glass i salute you.

Advent: Dec 10th

Days off suck sometimes. I mean they are good for resting and shit but nothing gets done. Well i dont do anything.
Saying that i did put my cheque from the tax office into the bank, which looking at my bank balance is needed, and was going to the post office but that was queued up to the door. Why so many people.
That was it. My productive day was as unproductive as *insert witty remark about the current governement*. The rest of the day was playing ipad games, watching crap tv and writing.

I would say stick with me, the Advent posts will get better. But lets face it, it probably wont.

Advent: Dec 9th

Stupid watch designed from the Mayans.... Urggh. Anyways firstly I'm now caught up on all these Advent writings.
Sunday was a dead day. I caught up on ALL of the sleep i needed and got up about 2pm. Made some egg and bacon sandwiches and tea. Lots of tea. It cures all that ails you.
I just sat around, watched crap films, listened to music and caught up on all the advent writings. Wait no i was woken up at 9am because staff didn't turn up to work and i was far too ill to go in. So i spent about 15mins trying to get some staff and in the end they got cover.

Thats about it. My days off are crap lately.

Advent: Dec 8th

Today did not start well. At all. I woke up wondering why it was so bright at 7:45am and looking at my phone realised it was 9:45am. I was meant to be at work at 9. So not off to a great start. My phone had also cut any signal so all the phone calls and texts that i was sent all came through at once. Luckily someone was at the track to open up. No time for a shower so Lynx it was. A hurried and hungover cycle to work, with a stop for a McDonalds breakfast wrap, and i was at work by 10:25. So not overly late.

Luckily i was on reception but there was a ton of cleaning from the conference the day before. This was not a good day and i turned down several attempts at getting me out again and unfortunately missing a meal to go home and eventually pass out at 5pm. Waking at 8 to cook myself a rather awesome dinner if i may say so myself.
I had an odd nights sleep awaking to some strange noises that ended at 4am, they were as if someone was hitting metal with wood, or the other way round, and in intervals of about 10 seconds. Freaked me the fuck out. Though technically this should be on Dec 9ths Advent but at the moment I'm playing catch up.

Advent: Dec 7th

After a few shorts hours of sleep [4] i was up and cycling in the dead of morning to get to work for 6:30am for a conference booked into the track. Safe to say it was a long ass day and we decided to take it in our stride. Eating the bacon and sausage sarnies provided, coffee and sitting in a comfy chair by the heater watching the pissing rain happening outside. 

Long story short, lots of GPs were ran and were very fun for the most part, nice customers. I was, however, thankful to get the fuck outta there and get some sleep. This was of course not going to happen as the same colleagues that were out on Wed also wanted to go out tonight. I was having none of it, my opinion was however changed by the fact the drinks were being paid for by someone else.

It just happened to be my friends first DJ gig at the bar on the bridge in caversham and was a reunion of sorts which was a cheeky bonus. Ben was pretty damn good on the decks and after we ventured back into town. There was a private function at Deja Vu, DJs, Monroe Bar so we just went to Pavs for some cheeky drinks. Which of course were bought by someone else.

I have this rule when it comes to other peoples generosity. You drink whatever they buy you, or whatever they drink. So the first one was Archers and Lemonade and a shot of Tequila on the side. Not a bad start. I did buy some drinks, wine, Patron tequila and beer, I'm not going to spend all of someones money on myself. 

After a game of table football ( i won) and two games of pool ( i also won) we went to Turtle for some more drinks and whatever the night had in store.

Which was more drinks. Some rubbish dancing and more drinks. Bumped into a few people i hadn't seen for awhile which is always good on a night out. By the time we left at 4am it was pretty cold so the three of us left huddled together like Penguins. I don't see why people are so adverse to huddling with others for warmth, because the other people standing outside wouldn't join. Well one man did, he was alright but walked off in search of a taxi.

Another drunken cycle home and remembering that i had work at 9am the next morning wasn't a nice thought to have.

Advent: Dec 6th

All of the alcohol was drunk and all of the hangovers were had today. Cycling to work i had two cheeseburgers and when i got to work we had a KFC burger too. Nothing much else happened other than a Le Mans at work.

On a side not GTA: Vice City is out on the iPad. Might have to get it, loved that game on PS2.

Advent: Dec 5th

Today was a short day at work, 2 hours (I know, why even bother opening) so on the way home i had the idea of grabbing another bottle of rum to drink later on tonight as I'm a little on the poor side already this month. Get home,  then get 'persuaded' to go into town. So at least i don't have to spend too much money as theres a bottle of rum for pre drinking.

A slightly tipsy cycle to town and a few drinks in Pavs with some people from work and then it just got progressively drunker. From Pavs we went to Deja Vu, DJs, Monroes for some table football. Quite a few drunken games of table football later and many a shot later we tumbled into Turtle. The night then just gets hazy but we had a lot of drinks and a lot of laughs. Once again a quite night ends up getting in at 4am. 

My cycle home was a bit iffy. It's one of the only times i have had to get off my bike and walk, if i hadn't that would have been accident numero 2.

Advent: Dec 4th

Wooooooooooooooooo!

Sorry Ric Flair moment there. December 4th was boring at work, no customers so just cleaning and maintenance. On the way home i picked up a bottle of rum and finished off the wine and rum in the night. I did see a rat/mouse in the kitchen, which other members of the family suggest i saw things in my drunken state. Which in 10 odd years of drinking i have never 'seen' things. Not through drink anyway.

Another crappy day at work, another drunken night. I should stop drinking at home!

Advent: Dec 3rd

Work was alright today, had two customers in and just did some cleaning. Glamourous i know. Work was overshadowed by my friends birthday and the impending trip to Cosmo. Which i fucking love that place. So much food and so much choice to have. I stuck mainly to Sushi as i havent had any in ages. After a long meal and good fun i popped into Sahara for a digestif, which ended up with a few drinks and a trip to Sakura for Skint Mondays. Now this is a moan so skip if you like. Sakura used to be good, wholesome fun. Now its shit. Why would you stop people taking drinks on the dance floor, just odd. Very odd. The music upstairs was a bit too dubby for me and the music downstairs was a generic Metal playlist which just didn't appeal to me. Got in, cracked open a bottle of red wine and did some internet research.

Advent: Dec 2nd

Another day, another hangover. Nothing was done this day. I watched Bourne Legacy (5 out of 7) and i saw Premium Rush (2 out of 7). It was pants. Utter wank in fact. The rest of the day is a blur because Alcohol + late nights = unproductive and no memory.

So a shit post but *shrug*

Advent: Dec 1st

It's that time of the year again. It's dark, wet, windy, moody, cold, wet, cold and it's also Advent time. I don't really do advent calenders so this is my advent thing. Every year i try to write every day and every year i fail and get behind or forget. Last year i was 1 day behind at the start and this year i am 7 days behind already.
As like before the pictures are from Google and i search for "December First" and so on and take a picture from the first page.

So Dec 1st came and went. As days usually do. I was recovering from the night before and work was a struggle. Thankfully it came and went quickly and i was off home getting ready to go out and see some friends and go out. Well i thought we were going out, we instead watched TV and had a couple of drinks. We did end up going to a gig at the Turks to see a band that played covers, they were pretty good. Afterwards i went to Mix to see my friend Dave and had a few drinks. They do THE BEST beer called Kozel, its amazing. Then we went to Sahara for a few drinks and that was the first day of December over and done with. Stood around chatting before having a very cold cycle home.

Advent: Dec 24th

So here it is, the Eve of Christmas. I didn't have work today so decided to get some last minute shopping done, which i did. Thankfully as I do hate shopping at Christmas. All done and dusted I went home to wrap them all.
We have this kind of tradition with my friends, every year now for quite a few we have met down the local village pub to catch up or just see each other as we don't all get to see each other in the test for various reasons. I got dressed up, grabbed a walking beer and started walking, got halfway and my friend was waiting for me in a car park, which was wierd but nice because she gave me s lift, very nice indeed. It was quite nice at the pub though some of the people that usually come decided not to this year. We just sat around outside and chatted, got drunk and had a merry old time

Another Christmas even drunk though thankfully not enough to have a hangover.

Advent: Dec 23rd

Had work today and only a couple of people came in. The rest of the time was spent chatting to the Manager and Area Manager, having a mince pie, drinking tea and checking and cleaning up. 

Plus as its about a week ago i don't remember much else.

Advent: Dec 22nd

Woke up about 2pm, as is usual after drinking till the early hours. I had to start my Christmas shopping today as i would be working Friday and probably wouldn't have time on Christmas Eve to do any shopping. So i decided to cycle into town and peruse the wares of Reading. I quickly got bored, not after buying some things for my brother and my dad, so went to see my friend who was working at Sahara. Fast becoming a bad influence on my alcohol intake. I opted for some fruit drinks, non alcoholic as i was a little ropey from the night before but i did have a Suffering Bastard cocktail that was very sharp and dry and woke me up :)

We had planned to all go for a Christmas meal and it was looking like Whetherspoons for a cheap meal and some drinks, so a few friends came to meet me in Sahara and then we walked to Hope Tap. It was stupidly busy however so we went to meet our friends at Back of Beyond, which was also rammed. We walked around the Oracle but every eatery was jam packed or a 45 min wait so we walked around a bit more and opted for Bella Italia on Queen Victoria St.

Thankfully wasn't too busy inside so we managed to get a table no problem. I had pretty much exactly what i ordered from that takeaway the other night. Though this time was lasagna instead of Spaghetti and two glasses of nice red wine. We chatted for a bit after the very nice filling meal and then set off in our respective ways to go home.

A nice festive meal with friends. Not bad for a Thursday

Advent: Dec 21st

Today was a busy day at work, it rained on the way to work and it rained on my way home. Lots of racing, lots of cleaning was done too.

I wish i had written these posts as the day happened because i have no idea what i did throughout the day or when i got home. I do remember buying a bottle of Morgans Spiced rum on the way home and drinking that till about 8am.

Advent: Dec 20th

Was a pretty easy day today, I worked and that was pretty much it really. My friend came for a few goes round the track, we ate pizza and The Red Baron just finished on ITV, which is a great film i might add! We had some kids come to race that were way too small, by a few inches but instead of saying no we got them out and they seemed to have a great time. Always better than sending people away, upset and having paid to race.

Went home, played COD and the day was done.

Advent: Dec 19th

Woke up and the plan was for drinks in town, well impromptu drinks in town. My parents took me to get my Christmas present as i didn't really want anything for Christmas. I generally hold the ideas that if, as an adult with an income, you want something then you can buy it. Yes extravagant purchases, like at Christmas, you generally don't spend on yourself but still, if you want that game/clothes/dvd then buy it with your hard earned cash.

So i asked for nothing, and got something pretty cool. That done and paid for i made my way into town and headed to Sahara for a few cocktails, a few got worse when i set up a tab and as each friend came i bought a cocktail for them. Quite costly though it was, i like spending my money on friends. We all sat around talking to each other and the staff as our friend was working. Paid of the tab, which was £53 and then also bought two tickets for the New Years Eve party they are having there. I try not to plan New Years as it's usually a let down, like most nights out really. So we went with it and now I'm going there. 

We left for Pavs and sat outside drinking and chatting but we left fairly early and even missed out on the usual trip to Turtle. I did have time to completely whoop Lee at table football.

Advent: Dec 18th

I was pretty hungover as i also drank another bottle of wine from the garage on top of the other one and was awoken by my parents asking what i wanted for Christmas as they were going shopping, i said nothing and back to sleep i went :D

The day was pretty much just COD with my friends and watching the end of Misfits Season One. Was a very relaxing day, as per usual :)

Advent: Dec 17th

Today was a semi busy day, the first few hours were spent cleaning and then people came and raced. Like usual really. Wasn't particularly busy or hard but wasn't a run in the park at all. Got home and wanted something nice to eat. Got home and found cold/leftover KFC awaiting a good nuke in the Microwave. Which sounded disgusting, i mean its not the greatest at the best of times but reheated? No thanks. Nothing in the freezer or to make from so to the interwebs for food. Was going to just get a Papa Johns but decided something nicer than pizza was in order. After perusing local takeaways that deliver from Just Eat which are a few, i settled on Pico Bello an Italian down Oxford Rd. So i ordered Calamari Rings, Spicy Chicken wings, Jalapeno Poppers and a Pan fried breaded aubergine with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce baked dish served with spaghetti. What was better was they delivered alcohol too :D So a bottle of wine and Peroni was ordered too and the food was AMAZING. Really nice from a takeaway and shit tons better than reheated KFC.

The night was spent watching Jackass 3.5 which was as good or better than Jackass 3 but i saw that in the cinema and in 3D.