And on the 16th day…

November 20th, 2005
00:45
Get home from Actress and Bishop to empty flat. Put on washing including combats and jumper which are suffering from 14 gigs worth of sweat and smoke.
01:15
Andy and Alex come home. Chat for a bit.
01:45
Put out washing to dry
05:00
Finish writing and post up GDFAF #14. Feel a bit of a headache coming on plus a sense of adrenalin drop now it’s all over.
06:00
Photos uploaded to Flickr and I’m feeling knackered. Go to bed.
06:30
Can’t sleep. Realise headache is because I got up a couple of hours before the gig and had a couple of pints to celebrate. In other words I am having that kind of mini-hangover people get in the afternoon after a mid-morning drink.
07:00
Get up. Have sandwich and take some paracetamol. Decide to stay up and potter around before having a snooze later on.
08:30
Andy gets up. Chat.
10:00
Empty veg scrapings and teabags in compost heap. Discover my DIY compost heap has fallen over. Disconcerted but not too worried as have ordered a proper compost bin. Notice new fence has been put up which explains it all. Pick up spilled compost by hand which isn’t a problem as it’s all frozen.
11:00
Have “supper” - pesto and pasta. Realise I’ve pretty much run out of food after the fortnight.
12:30
Feeling a little tired. Check with flatmate that he’s not planning on using the living room and crash out on the sofa, the idea being it’ll be easier to get up from than my bed. Set alarm on mobile for 15:30.
13:00
Kept awake by the Saturday afternoon performance of the Bournville Carillon playing Greensleeves.
13:30
Just as starting to doze off, woken by mobile ringing, which I’ve left on other side of room to force me to get up. Sister calling to check I’m coming to Banbury this evening to see her play in the Banbury Symphony Orchestra. “Did I wake you?” Mum will have my ticket for tonight’s performance. Tell her I’m getting in about seven.
14:00
Alex phones for Andy. Go get Andy.
15:30
Alarm goes off. Reset for 16:00
16:00
Alarm goes off. Don’t reset. Also don’t actually get off sofa.
17:00
Andy wakes up me. Realise I have one hour until my train to Banbury leaves from central Birmingham.
17:20
Showered and changed, but having had no tea or food, I’m on my bike. Buy ticket from Bournville station to avoid queues but cycle on into town.
17:45
Cycling up Hurst St I realise I’ve missed the train from Moor St but can get the one from New St.
17:53
Virgin train pulls into to New St. Platform. Conductor assistant bloke thing points me to the far end of the train to put my bike.
17:54
Door for compartment for bikes is locked. Put bike in “vestibule”.
17:55
Am informed by lady (in a very nice red motorcycle jacket as it happens) that I can’t leave bike there. Will have to take it to other end of train.
17:56
Am shouted at for cycling on platform. Fair enough realy.
17:57
Bike is on train. I’m on train. Sit down.
18:03
Train leaves.
18:20
Decide this day is fucking insane and therefore good blog fodder. Start thinking of a post with time stamps and short pithy descriptions of what’s happened.
18:40
Fall asleep for a few minutes.
19:05
Arrive in Banbury. Carry bike out of station (lot of stairs) and cycle to church.
19:07
Look for cafe to get tea and food but being a small town everything is shut except the pubs.
19:10
Banbury has a major shortage of iron railings around the Horse Fair area.
19:20
Find the sole cycle parking bars in the area and lock up. Roll fag.
19.25
Meet mum outside church. Ask people at desk if they have any tea. No, but there will be refreshments during the interval. Any tea? No, but there will be soft drinks. Coke? No, orange juice.
19:30
Concert starts. Very nice. Nearly fall asleep during first piece but manage to stay awake.
20:30
Interval. Orange juice kinda does the job. Stay awake during second half thanks to some loud Tchaikovsky. Getting very hungry.
21:15
Concert ends. Back to sister’s house for tea and pizza.
22:00
Am asked if seeing my sister playing violin has made me want to break out the trombone for the first time in over a decade. Confess I’m thinking about it, but mainly to see what it sounds like when amped through Andy’s guitar effects pedals.
22:40
Feeling much better after tea and pizza, leave sister’s to catch last train. Am offered a lift by friends of hers who have a big car but decline as it’ll be quicker for me to cycle.
22:44
Arrive at station. That was quick. Wait for train. Start getting cold.
23:04
Train to Birmingham pulls in. No cycle compartment and no big luggage areas to put bike. Rest bike against door and check each station to make sure it isn’t on the platform side. Train isn’t heated. Get colder.
00:14
Arrive at Birmingham Moor St. It’s very very cold indeed. Start cycling but don’t warm up. In fact my legs get colder, which is very strange.
00:45
Get home having cycled through a substantial amount of frost. Lock up. Make tea. Have sandwich. Warm up. Check computer.
01:30
Go to bed.
05:30
Wake up after only four hours sleep. Hmm…
06:30
Decide to get up and see how the day progresses. At least I’m back on relatively normal time now.
08:00
Have massive fry-up breakfast using the remains of my food.
08.45
Start dealing with the massive backlog of email from the fortnight.
09:30
Start writing this post. Have to check in seven year old HTML book for how to do definition lists.
09:57
Finish writing this post. Decide this sort of post probably shouldn’t become a regular feature.

4 Comments on “And on the 16th day…”

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  1. 1 brendadada
    Nov 20th, 2005 at 10:20 am

    hahaha !

    this does indeed work as an occasional post. you forget how funny you are, although I am sure you do it on purpose. thanks !

  2. 2 Anonymous
    Nov 20th, 2005 at 1:51 pm

    I liked it.

  3. 3 Gordon
    Nov 23rd, 2005 at 12:14 pm

    That was good, got kinda tense in the middle (wasn’t sure if you were going to make the train!).

    Definition lists… blimey, I’d have to look them up too!

  4. 4 Pete Ashton
    Nov 23rd, 2005 at 12:17 pm

    Pretty easy, it’s just a case of dl dt dd /dd /dt dt dd /dd /dt dt dd /dd /dt /dl. Piece of piss.

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