(no subject)
i'm back from aber. back from wales and where the wild things lurk and back to the countdown til saturday when my birthday party is and I turn 29+1.
we got into aber in time on sunday and I found the hotel like I'd never been away, i'd last stayed a few nights there back in 2004 when I came to see a friend for her birthday.
the room this time was smaller, and had saloon doors leading to the ensuite bathroom.
Saloon doors????
ok, weird and small but a roof and a bed and I'm very easy to please when it comes to my hotel accommodation.
I walked up to the constitution Hill, kicked the bar and walked back just in time to see some guy collapse while listening to music at the bandstand and have some seagull shit on my new Steelers jacket.
well i'm told it's lucky.
The jacket proved to be a blessing as it was HUGE enough to wrap around me (even though i can't do the zip up cos it's a guys jacket and the zip's on the wrong side!) and just waterproof enough to keep the traditional sporadic aber rains off.
I met Emma and Leo for food at 6pm in Varsity which served nice food, even they can't fuck up chicken although the fries were soggy (ug!).
and the nicest chocolate cake of the trip.
then onto the pub quiz at the Scholars. as we walked in the Landlord's team make some pissy jibe that immediately has me wanted to glass the lot of them. they're friends of the landlord apparently and they win virtually every week.
calling ourselves "Oy Vey and the Flaming Driedels" (there's a reason behind this besides the obvious) we didn't do that bad, coming third with 37 out of 60. Bartender Brigade came first with 40 so it was close. I'm annoyed that I forgot which US State was named 'The Dairy State' (Wisconsin) but other than that we didn't do that badly as a crew.
The following day i walked around Aber. A lot. And have pulled every muscle I have in my lower body. I must have walked about 5 miles around the town. The Art Centre, Penbryn, PJM, down into town, up to the clock tower, across to the Pier, everywhere.
I found my room in PJM, the one I stayed in back in 2001-02.
It seems so small now. Did I really kip in there for 10 months?
It was on the ground floor and it was so cold in the winter semester, I gaffa taped the window shut in an attempt to keep the heat in.
It was actually pretty chilly in aberystwyth all weekend if the sun went in. I haven't forgot my fear of the Welsh cold. Brrrrrr....
But, driedels.
Not a lot of people know this but every summer about this time almost 100 hasidic families (Ultra-orthodox Jews)descend on aber for about 2 weeks or so.
They rent out PJM student village at considerable cost and bring everything they need for the time they're 'hanging with aber goys'.
They turn the PJM conference centre into a temporary synagogue and all the organic shops in town start selling kosher dry goods and the art centre cafe starts selling soya milk to put in coffee.
All the signs were here so I'm guessing the Hasids will be landing within the next 7 days or so. Sabbath providing.
And I had the good(bad?) fortune of sharing a hotel with 2 Orthodox Jews who were clearly a vanguard scout-party and who gave me evils every time i came down to breakfast.
I'm guessing the tattooing and small clothing showing flesh didn't go down very well. but hey, least my head was covered.
just not my belly.
Anyway I taxied over to Em's on Monday night and we had home-made lasagne and ice cream and watched a film called 'Blindness' where people go blind for no obvious reason and how we as a species deal with this infectious case of people going blind.
simples, we quarantine them in filthy conditions and watch them eat each other.
all except Julianne Moore who can see (for some unexplained reason) and acts as the moral compass as the rest of the population crumbles.
it's supposed to be all metaphorical and stuff but we decided the film couldn't make up it's mind as to be a post-apocalyptic drama or an emotional tale of a man and his wife in severe distress.
In the end things revert to how they are, minus a couple of hundred people who died in the interim.
we should have watched the film of homicidal children, called (oddly enough) The Children. Oh well.
All in all I bought a nice clutch bag at Posh Pollys, about $7 of incense, a lovely dark amber ring and tried to eat my bodyweight in cake.
I was also tempted to get a tattoo but some girl was having a 'tramp stamp' and it would have taken too long, Gordo had no nice designs there anyway.
but i have to return to aber soon. and who knows if the operating theatre is advertising I might get the chance to work in Wales and not just visit there.
we got into aber in time on sunday and I found the hotel like I'd never been away, i'd last stayed a few nights there back in 2004 when I came to see a friend for her birthday.
the room this time was smaller, and had saloon doors leading to the ensuite bathroom.
Saloon doors????
ok, weird and small but a roof and a bed and I'm very easy to please when it comes to my hotel accommodation.
I walked up to the constitution Hill, kicked the bar and walked back just in time to see some guy collapse while listening to music at the bandstand and have some seagull shit on my new Steelers jacket.
well i'm told it's lucky.
The jacket proved to be a blessing as it was HUGE enough to wrap around me (even though i can't do the zip up cos it's a guys jacket and the zip's on the wrong side!) and just waterproof enough to keep the traditional sporadic aber rains off.
I met Emma and Leo for food at 6pm in Varsity which served nice food, even they can't fuck up chicken although the fries were soggy (ug!).
and the nicest chocolate cake of the trip.
then onto the pub quiz at the Scholars. as we walked in the Landlord's team make some pissy jibe that immediately has me wanted to glass the lot of them. they're friends of the landlord apparently and they win virtually every week.
calling ourselves "Oy Vey and the Flaming Driedels" (there's a reason behind this besides the obvious) we didn't do that bad, coming third with 37 out of 60. Bartender Brigade came first with 40 so it was close. I'm annoyed that I forgot which US State was named 'The Dairy State' (Wisconsin) but other than that we didn't do that badly as a crew.
The following day i walked around Aber. A lot. And have pulled every muscle I have in my lower body. I must have walked about 5 miles around the town. The Art Centre, Penbryn, PJM, down into town, up to the clock tower, across to the Pier, everywhere.
I found my room in PJM, the one I stayed in back in 2001-02.
It seems so small now. Did I really kip in there for 10 months?
It was on the ground floor and it was so cold in the winter semester, I gaffa taped the window shut in an attempt to keep the heat in.
It was actually pretty chilly in aberystwyth all weekend if the sun went in. I haven't forgot my fear of the Welsh cold. Brrrrrr....
But, driedels.
Not a lot of people know this but every summer about this time almost 100 hasidic families (Ultra-orthodox Jews)descend on aber for about 2 weeks or so.
They rent out PJM student village at considerable cost and bring everything they need for the time they're 'hanging with aber goys'.
They turn the PJM conference centre into a temporary synagogue and all the organic shops in town start selling kosher dry goods and the art centre cafe starts selling soya milk to put in coffee.
All the signs were here so I'm guessing the Hasids will be landing within the next 7 days or so. Sabbath providing.
And I had the good(bad?) fortune of sharing a hotel with 2 Orthodox Jews who were clearly a vanguard scout-party and who gave me evils every time i came down to breakfast.
I'm guessing the tattooing and small clothing showing flesh didn't go down very well. but hey, least my head was covered.
just not my belly.
Anyway I taxied over to Em's on Monday night and we had home-made lasagne and ice cream and watched a film called 'Blindness' where people go blind for no obvious reason and how we as a species deal with this infectious case of people going blind.
simples, we quarantine them in filthy conditions and watch them eat each other.
all except Julianne Moore who can see (for some unexplained reason) and acts as the moral compass as the rest of the population crumbles.
it's supposed to be all metaphorical and stuff but we decided the film couldn't make up it's mind as to be a post-apocalyptic drama or an emotional tale of a man and his wife in severe distress.
In the end things revert to how they are, minus a couple of hundred people who died in the interim.
we should have watched the film of homicidal children, called (oddly enough) The Children. Oh well.
All in all I bought a nice clutch bag at Posh Pollys, about $7 of incense, a lovely dark amber ring and tried to eat my bodyweight in cake.
I was also tempted to get a tattoo but some girl was having a 'tramp stamp' and it would have taken too long, Gordo had no nice designs there anyway.
but i have to return to aber soon. and who knows if the operating theatre is advertising I might get the chance to work in Wales and not just visit there.