A couple of things that have gone on in the last few days...

Maintaining with Jurassic 5
Last night we saw J5 at Bristol Academy, the last night of their European Tour. They were great and the sound was set up really well (you could make out their lyrics clearly). Chali 2na has to be one of the greatest rappers out there. Nu-Mark completely rocked, but I was disappointed Cut Chemist didn't show.

Risk
I played Risk on Sunday night with Zoe, Viv, Rob, Chris and Ian, which was a lot of fun and became very heated at times. Fortunately no one was injured.

Dead Man's Shoes
Is a horrible film with a great soundtrack (on Warp Records). It's a British movie in which one man takes revenge on behalf of his brother. I made the mistake of watching it when in a mildly melancholic mood and seriously regretted it by the end.

Last night was Zoë's surprise 21st Birthday party, which I think we have did a pretty good job of concealing over the past few months. We were at Journeys on Upper Clifton Street for eating, drinking, toasting, mingling, all to the backdrop of some great breaks and beats (thanks Dan and Ian). It was great chilling out with friends new and old.

Afterwards a group of us ended up at Moloko in the Cafe Quarter for some Funk ("I believe in miracles baby..."), Breakbeat, Foosball, and Flaming Sambucas. I hooked up with some old friends from (primary!) school and early clubbing days, which was real nice. We danced like there was no tomorrow and hypothesised over why girls spend so much time in the toilet (are they actually having some female-only secret party?)

One of the conversations of the evening revolved around how Dan and I first got to know each other. First there was the family connection (I have a vague recollection of Dan and I scaring his cousin with glow in the dark teeth), but that doesn't explain our present day friendship. I think it boils down to some event where I started chatting to him ("you probably don't remember me but ...[insert said glow in the dark teeth story]...") Somehow we ended up DJing together at houseparties (including the infamous one at Angel's place which, as Dan recalled last night "was like something out of a movie").

Happy Birthday Zoë!

From yesterday's Bread for the Journey:
Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we love most cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs to another country or dies...the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.
Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.
for more click here

It's getting late. Last night Chris beat me at Chess twice. He sent me this picture of Zoë and I to commiserate. Tonight we were out for a family meal to celebrate Zoë's 21st Birthday and my parents' 25th Wedding Anniversary.

My favourite band of the day is !!!, whose name was chosen "because it reflects the excitement shared by the band members, mixed with an intense desire to shake things up" and is allegedly pronounced 'Chk Chk Chk,' or with "any three repeated sounds". Their music is fun, funky, punky and great to shake that bootie to.

I love Skype - being able to keep in touch with people around the world for free (to other broadband users) or minimal charge (to phones).

Liquorice Spotlight
So the discussion on liquorice continues thanks to Tom's last-week-at-work news reading. Who'd have thought that such a seemingly innocent and delicious snack could cause:
- Premature birth
- Chronic fatigue
- Headaches
- "Swelling"
- Muscle failure
- High Blood Pressure
- Loss of sex drive in men?
And it's all apparently thanks to glycyrrhizic acid.
This story - of the woman who OD'd on Pontefract Cake and was treated at Pontefract General Infirmary (the world centre for liquorice related illness?) was definately the most bizarre.

Will I withdraw my claims of salty liquorice being a superior snack? No chance.

Is it really possible to save the world through the medium of turntable like this guy does? (via biz)

I drove to Llanelli yesterday to visit my Grandpa. It was really nice to have the time to chat with him alone and to pick his brains on questions of calling, leadership, growing up and love. One of the things I'm always struck by is the kind of unwavering love he has for my Grandma, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

Theology or not?
For a while I've been pondering whether I should take some time to study theology in a formal setting as the kick start to a life of study. Some would say that by "going away to an ivory tower" and filling your head with knowledge doesn't really prepare you for pastoral work. On the other hand I would love to gain a deeper understanding of scriptures that would equip me to better teach.

Then there's the question of where - in the UK or US?

Do you love your iBook this much?

For snack food I really don't think you can beat salty liquorice and lingonberry juice.

Goodbye Ida, the Trusty Justy, and using Sofia's cosmetics...
Yesterday was an interesting old day. I drove Emelie (in Mark's Trusty Justy) to Stansted for her flight back to Sweden. It was a long trip that started like a roadtrip and ended with a goodbye (I hate goodbyes). When I arrived back in Bristol Mark fed me curry, we chatted, ate salty licquorice and exchanged cosmetics (more accurately he gave me some things Sofia had left behind (due to luggage restrictions) asking "would your sister use these?" to which I responded "I don't know, but I will!") So thank you Sofia, that facewash and hair stuff was just what I needed!

Today I moved my stuff out of the Pink House and drove back to Cardiff.

Some people tell me my blog's interesting. I say "no." But I did drink root beer yesterday.

There are some things I should have posted a while ago, like the fact that Sarcasmo.co.uk exists, and that Banksy has been on a Middle Eastern adventure.

Tuesday was pretty painful on the aural faculties as our listening in the shop consisted of Justin Timberlake's 'Justified' twice, Alisha Keys three times, and some equally as bad extracts from the Forest Gump soundtrack a couple of times over. Needless to say this mental torture wasn't self inflicted.

I'm in Bristol again following a brief but pleasant jaunt to Cardiff and am here until Tuesday...

While I'm here, does anyone have any tips on how to embed pesky fonts that won't embed in pdfs?

Peace out.

The M-Store
I'm in Cardiff working a couple of shifts at the M-Store before returning to Bristol Wednesday night or Thursday morning. It's been real good hooking up with some Cardiff peeps.

Check this out!
Ben's put up some nice pics of peeps in Bristol.

I'm still alive, though have been out of wireless connection for a few days. My email address is changing, so if you haven't received an email from me updating you on my 'new' address please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

On Saturday we had planned to head to Bristol Academy to hear (and dance to) some Drum'n'Bass, but instead found ourselves on Severn Beach. Sunday was Kubb on the Downs which got rained off (and were thus 'forced' to retire to the pub). Last night Mark and I went ice skating with some new friends.

The future may be blurry, but I'm sure it'll be exciting.