Week 7+8: Course Change and Actual University Work

So once again this is a combination of this week’s post and last week’s belated entry. Apologies. But, at the end of the day, you couldn’t give a shit and neither could I!

So, contrary to whatever my last post may have said, my old course was rubbish! It was too dull and non-Englishy for me, so I have swapped course to English Language for a new challenge – so far I am enjoying actually having a routine which involves lectures and classes! I actually feel like I am doing a degree now.

So recently I have been getting bored of going to the same two clubs whenever I go out. There are a number of possibilities for future nights out. 42’s, South and Tiger Tiger are yet to be experienced. Went to the Deaf Institute the other night, good place but Saturday probably isn’t the best day for it – bloody pricey drinks and 60’s music ain’t ma cup of tea, but a weekday for Deaf Institute is a must-go.

So recently I’ve gone completely insane. Last week I couldn’t stop playing F1 2006 and listening to Coldplay and U2, this week I now can’t stop playing PES 2008 and listening to a bizarre array of music which will make up my tracks for this blog:

1. Scatman – Scatman John
2. If You’re Not The One – Daniel Bedingfield
3. Shake Your Coconuts – Junior Senior (as per usual)
4. Wearing My Rolex – Wiley
5. They’re Taking The Hobbits To Isengard (10 hour version)
6. Mad World – Gary Jules

If this wasn’t weird enough, today I decided to watch the football league show, and as soon as the highlights for my beloved Crystal Palace came on, I fell asleep. I’ve been falling asleep at random all week and all last week and it’s down to a combination of late nights at weekends and the fact that my body can’t cope with pre-9 o’clock.

In other news, it was my birthday last Friday (the 7^th) which was good, went out for a buffet meal with my bitch, Cath… I mean girlfriend. She got me some clothes, the peep show box set (FUCK YEAH) and 2 books – The Damned United and Alone In Berlin – which I can’t wait to start reading. My flatmates threw a mini-shindig and made me some nice brownies too. Got to see a few of my mates from Cheshire too which was good. Went home at the weekend (9^th) to see the (grand)parents, always good seeing the rents and get lots of free food and a nice roast dinner – missed roasts!

Well I’ll probably wrap this up here, it’s 11 and I need to skype the missus and defecate.

Inabit lads/lasses

Coombes

Week 5 + 6: The Whitworth Posse Massiv’

This week I shall be analysing my personal freshers and the beginnings of lectures in a SPECIAL DOUBLE BLOG BECAUSE I CBA’ED LAST WEEK. There have been many positive points to extract from these weeks, as well as a few lessons in alcohol consumption and self-preservation.

So I have already spoken of the beach party and my visit to the newly refurbished HMV Ritz. Monday night was relatively uneventful. I had a couple of pints at The Grovel before heading up to 5th Avenue to have a look round there, only to realise that I couldn’t be bothered to stand around in the queue and instead went home for some pre-job induction sleep.

My introduction to my first job couldn’t have been more terrifying and exhausting. I’ve been assigned to a rather busy, upper-class area of the stadium, so I have got to be at my best and perform whenever I am on the job. I have learnt how to set and clear tables; polish everything; how to serve, greet and send off customers; and how to open and serve wine and champagne – in my area, I have to serve champagne on arrival, so it’s a skill I have to acquire very quickly. I’ll practice at home.

Tuesday was a good night – went out to 5th Avenue with Cath, my flat and a few others. My first experience of a proper indie club was splendid as I danced the night away and had a brilliant night out. Wednesday was a lot quieter – same group of people, went to a comedy night at The Grovel which was absolutely hilarious and Sam and I shared duties initiating applause… well, whenever he wasn’t there I did it, so I was the vice-applause guy. Thursday was the epicness of the Whitworth Park pub crawl – plus of course the lovely Cath. Brilliant night up until the point where drinks were drunk a little too much and violence ensued… all over my face. I got punched, unprovoked of course, but that’s what happens when you drink too much, you lose control. A lump on my head is the enigma of a freshers warscar. Friday was a little bit different. Went to The Grovel for drinks, then went to Joshua Brookes bar for another drink. 5th Avenue went rather badly due to over-staggering and as a result we couldn’t get in. As a result we got another drink at another bar before heading back to the flat for a glass of wine and some intolerably greasy food and a chat.

Saturday and Sunday proved to be much more chilled out affairs as a much needed break from obscene alcohol consumption was needed for my liver. This recent week has seen me attend copious amounts of lectures, but it feels good to be settled into a good routine now and doing a minute amount of work! In my first lecture, I learnt how to save a file from the internet, so you can see just how challenging a degree from the world’s 30th best university is!

I would also like to say that my flatmates and others who I have met so far are all a bunch of legends. So happy that you aren’t dicks!

I have also joined a number of societies. I have signed up to do fuse.fm, the Manchester Student Radio and am currently on the lookout for co-hosts. I am also in the debating society and have been attending campus football try-outs, but I am yet to break into a team, just got to keep up the hard work in training and I’ll get my chance I guess! Bagged a couple of goals along the way too, just need to find my best position and my best form. I fully intend to sign up to the film society and the gaming society very soon as well!

For those of you who haven’t seen, here is my song of the fortnight: a mash up of Come On by The Notorious B.I.G. and the Thomas The Tank Engine theme song. Fucking club anthem mate.

Fare-thee-well!

Coombes

Week 4: Home

Well, here I am. Unpacked and have been in Manchester for two days now. This is notoriously weird.

Moving here has been a very challenging experience. Mum leaving in floods of tears wasn’t the world’s easiest thing to deal with. Saying goodbye to my brother Andy was almost the exact opposite. After they had gone, I unpacked everything and set up the internet, because no one was around. After two hours of Youtube-based monotony I finally encountered some room-mates. As of yesterday, all of them are here. It’s gonna take a little time to settle in properly but as soon as my routine gets going I should be alright.

So far I have visited the on-site pub and the HMV Ritz for my nights out – both were very good fun! The pub night out was supposedly a beach party, except for the fact that it appeared to lack a few minor details. First, there was a distinct lack of sand and sea – in other words, the beach itself was none existent. Then there was the fact that it was in the middle of Manchester and it was bucketing it down outside – in a way, traditional of a British beach but it didn’t help that we all got evacuated into the rain after some overly-zealous smoke machine usage. Some may call me cynical – others would call me logical. Either way, it was a bloody good romp. The night at the HMV Ritz with the missus was a whole different affair – people who know me know that I am not the most prolific clubber but I appeared to enjoy myself! The beatboxer who played there was awe-inspiring at times. Evening slightly marred by a fight that broke out right next to us but that soon dispersed!

So tomorrow I have my job induction day at my new place of work – Old Trafford. I have never had a job before so I don’t wuite know what to expect but I hope I do waiting well. Going to be a long long day though, waking up very early and arriving back in the afternoon.

I’ve just come back from shopping and collecting my student card and it’s unbelievable how badly students get harrassed by leaflets. What was supposed to be a quick trip out turned into a nightmare as leaflet upon leaflet was shoved into my face, reems and reems of paper and card hurtling into my hands… no exaggeration. Thankfully, someone shoved a dominos bag into my hand, which turned out to be a handy freebie for storing all this crap.

So tonight I should be going to a local free BBQ before chilling out a little and turning in for some half-decent sleep.

Considering I’m probably going to be booking tickets for Ash, The Horrors and Foals within the next week or so, here’s some of their music for listening to and such:

Shining Light – Ash

Scarlet Fields – The Horrors

After Glow – Foals

Adios!

Coombes

BREAKING NEWS:

Kris Coombes signs for Manchester United for undisclosed fee on a three-year deal. Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that. I got the job!

Week 3: Boring Doring Snoring Boring Blah Blah Blah *insert generic blazeh blog post title here*

So here I am wasting away my incredibly pointless time typing a belated blog post that will undoubtedly bend the very fabric of your pitiful minds… or not.

So this week has been a relatively productive one, I finally got a job interview and it’s tomorrow! This means that my success ratio for applications is on about 1:2,144,532,389, which I think, by modern standards, is very impressive! It’s at Manchester United, so I expect to be judged, but work is work and I really need this job.

I have also been doing a lot of packing, hopefully I will find space for my lava lamp in there but the signs are fairly ominous as it stands. There’s still so much to do and so much to get all within the space of about 3 days. Holy crap. I’m doomed. I move into my flat on the 17th. Yes, I am absolutely terrified.

First impressions are not something that I’m ground-breakingly good at, which is quite unfortunate considering how I really need to make at least an average one as soon as I move in. Hopefully the people in my flat are terrific people, I’m sure they will be. I also need to make a good first impression on my interviewer tomorrow. So all in all, no pressure!

I also need to make some important life decisions soon – what to do on freshers week. I don’t particularly want to spend the entire week listening to shit chart music, only a couple of days for that methinks! I don’t know, part of me wants to go out and socialise massively, the other part wants me to just chill out, get to know the people around me and don’t over do it. Less importantly, I need to decide on my course modules, but that’ll come later, it’s no biggie…

Song for this week will be plucked straight from the glorious glorious 90′s… for those of you who know me, no, it is not Blur. It’s Placebo – Nancy Boy…

SIANARA

Coombes

Week 2: Core Meltdown

So this last week has been a rather apathetic one. I think me and my friends have finally realised that they all just want to go to uni now! Considering the high levels of apathy, I need to think of something to talk about…

SIMCITY – I have been playing it a lot recently, to the point where the population of my city reached 18,000 people and everything was running rather smoothly. This was the case until my financial advisor said I had no money left anyway. The reason for this? My stupid ignorant citizens wanted me to build an £82,000 (A LOT IN SIM LAND) university which sapped my budget dry. I raised all taxes to 20% and cut everything and now my city is in complete turmoil and everyone is dying. I feel bad. I fell as if I could have done better, I could have saved them but I just couldn’t do it… sorry, it’s been an emotional time.

UNIVERSITY – Not many developments on this one but now have salt and pepper mills which is nice and comforting, don’t think I could live without them. However, it has dawned on me just how badly I need and how hard it is to get a job. Greggs rejected me today based on a ten question scenario based quiz, now I feel embarrased and sad. I have applied to work at the Reebok Stadium as well, but that is 17 miles away from where I live, so that might be difficult to attend. Argh. The advisors at uni are going to get a severe badgering.

RETRO – If anyone reading this can find a copy of Hogs of War for less than a fiver, please buy it for me. Please. I will literally do anything for it. OK, maybe not that, but yeh, I REALLY want this game. To fill the void I have been playing Ratchet and Clank which is just fucking weird (albeit brilliant) and Crash Team Racing, but there’s no one around me to play it with me, single player is boring. So yeh, that’s my plea done for the week.

MUSIC – It has come to terms with me just how much I love trip-hop recently. So basically, Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Figured I’d share some of that with you this week!

FOOTBALL – I cannot believe that the one time England actually put in a half-decent performance, I don’t watch the game. Gary Cahill looks like a future England Captain to me, a real player. In other news, Crystal Palace didn’t play due to the international break, so I get to enjoy another week of the dizzying heights of 6th in the Championship. That’s so high considering how we’re favourites to go down. It’s so high that I’ve got altitude sickness. Hopefully this magnificence will continue with a victory over Leeds this coming weekend. Bloody scum.

So yeh, generally a dull, apathy-crammed post there, but when something exciting happens in my life and on the off chance that you actually give two shits then it’ll likely be posted here.

Sianara!

Coombes

Week 1: Wiping the slate clean

I have decided to re-ignite my old blog for uni! I feel the urge to document my life at uni and stuff while I’m there so yeah, this will likely be a weekly thing or something!

Well I guess introductions would be a good place to start. My name is Kris and I come from a humble parish in East Cheshire called Haslington. Around 5′ 11″, 11 and a bit stone, ginger mop of curly locks, been in a grand old relationship for 10 months and still going strong. I like fruit polos, fried rice dishes, a variety of terrible musicians and bands (unless you like what I like, in which case I have an outstanding music taste), lava lamps, Peep Show, writing incessantly emotional heartfelt poems, Crystal Palace Football Club, sleeping and strumming my often out-of-tune cheap guitar.

I am preparing myself for the next big step in my life, which is going to the University of Manchester to study Language, Literacy and Communication. This requires me to move away from home and live in a flat full of potentially insane folk who I’ve never met and am terrified of meeting. At least I am discovering new room mates by the day, and despite having never seen the inside of my accommodation, I already love it. From what I have heard, our local bar has Sky Sports, a Wii and Karaoke! But best of all, allegedly, the house I am in contains three banks, a McColls and a Greggs! Literally a few staircases away from pastry heaven! So there’s a lot to look forward to there.

Currently I am angle-grinding my way through the expansive list of crap I have to do before I come to uni. I have just created my IT account for example, and I now have a ridiculous new username and password to attempt to remember. I have also been buying some stuff to take to university with me – and this is where I discovered the unerring brilliance of local car boot sales. Brand new stuff for pocket change! So far I have picked up loads, with the highlights being 4 razor-sharp pizza cutters for 50p, an entire crockery set for £2 and a George Foreman grill for £3, ALL BRAND NEW.

In light of me having no money for the next three years at least, I have been acquiring and stockpiling methods of cheap entertainment – mainly in the form of retro PS2 and PC games. If you can find games for less than a fiver that are more fun than that shite that is Call Of Duty – which is over £40 – why the hell would you bother with a major console? Makes no sense to me. Currently, I am searching for games like Worms, Rayman, Crash Bandicoot and Sims for bargain prices!

Suppose I have little else to say really, here’s a song for you all! I usually affix songs to the ends of my posts, because that’s how I roll. This is Shake Your Coconuts by Junior Senior. It’s not an accurate representation of my taste in music by any means, but it is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.

Inabit!

Coombes