Durham Opens
That was awesome, I haven't had so much fun at an IV ever. Left work at 1540 on Friday, having convinced my boss that me going to a debating competition was actually of benefit as it would improve contacts et al, and drove down to Durham, meeting with everyone at 2000. Miranda and Kizzy were there, along with a large chunk of the Scottish IV contingent, and far too many scholkids. We all then went to the Durham Union to see their showpiece debate, mainly as Alex Deane and Andy Hume were speaking. Yet Durham showed that they could fuck a debate up as well as we can in LPH, their 1st prop speaker had a lovely eulogy to their departing president, and so no actual debate occured, although Alex Deane was hilarious. Then proceded to get stupidly drunk on Absinthe, and ended up aslep under a snooker table.
The next day dawned with a headache and hangover of epic proportions. However, armed with two bacon rolls, three cups of coffee, and a bottle of wine, Kizzy and myself went into battle with the great, the good, and RGS Grammer. It went much better than we could have hoped. After some nerves in the first two rounds (where we came up against Mark and Rose, as well as Tom Hamilton and Joe Devanny who won the whole competition) we eventually finished up at 17th out of 36, a brillinat effort as Kizzy hadn't spoken for over a year, and I was shit-faced (I started drinking again at one, and kept going to four in the morning). It would be mean to mention that due to the vagaries of the draw we actually finished above John and Miranda, but the fact they got thirty speaker points more puts that in perspective. Especial praise for John who was 12th on tab, between Derek Lande and Neil Harvey-Smith, exalted company. But I am very happy, I came 22nd and by necessity had to speak in the difficult positions on the table (and my first opps are stil shite, although it was nice to get beaten by the winners, it adds an element of class).
Miranda had to leave early :-(, which made us sad, and then the final was tres boring, it was something to do with financing the training of imans (wank), but afterwards the Durham guys were true to their word, and provided a veritable lake of lager, beer, and inevitably yakka. Nothing more will be said, except that 'I have never', is the most fundamentally evil game around, and I have enough blackmail material to write a book.
Anyway, the rigours of a weekend of drinking, a six hour drive back, and the necessity of work tomorrow mean I must go, I hope the hangover will go soon.
The next day dawned with a headache and hangover of epic proportions. However, armed with two bacon rolls, three cups of coffee, and a bottle of wine, Kizzy and myself went into battle with the great, the good, and RGS Grammer. It went much better than we could have hoped. After some nerves in the first two rounds (where we came up against Mark and Rose, as well as Tom Hamilton and Joe Devanny who won the whole competition) we eventually finished up at 17th out of 36, a brillinat effort as Kizzy hadn't spoken for over a year, and I was shit-faced (I started drinking again at one, and kept going to four in the morning). It would be mean to mention that due to the vagaries of the draw we actually finished above John and Miranda, but the fact they got thirty speaker points more puts that in perspective. Especial praise for John who was 12th on tab, between Derek Lande and Neil Harvey-Smith, exalted company. But I am very happy, I came 22nd and by necessity had to speak in the difficult positions on the table (and my first opps are stil shite, although it was nice to get beaten by the winners, it adds an element of class).
Miranda had to leave early :-(, which made us sad, and then the final was tres boring, it was something to do with financing the training of imans (wank), but afterwards the Durham guys were true to their word, and provided a veritable lake of lager, beer, and inevitably yakka. Nothing more will be said, except that 'I have never', is the most fundamentally evil game around, and I have enough blackmail material to write a book.
Anyway, the rigours of a weekend of drinking, a six hour drive back, and the necessity of work tomorrow mean I must go, I hope the hangover will go soon.