Prog Jazz

Instead of going to play water polo tonight, i ended up in Bangor tech, recording random jazz music for Barr, a guy in last year's U6, who's doing music technology there. Basically myself, Dos, and the one and only Scott Flannigan just had to jam whilst it got digitally stereologically recorded or something. So we jammed, except eventually it turned into an ultra-modern jam, where we basically just played atonal-whatever-the-hell-we-wanted stuff. Pushing the boundaries to the max, if you like. Scott Flannigan, who is 24 and only just passed his driving test, got uber experimental by putting paper between the keys and the strings, slamming the piano lid, and playing glisses on the piano strings (: An interesting recording may come my way soon.

In other developments, I have now not played Halo for well over a month! The European Youth Parliament guys didn't want me, so i will not be gracing Strasbourg next March. Oh yea, i got an offer from Glasgow, so at least i can try to go to uni somewhere. Also, my A levels end on the 14th June, so i'm thinking a trip to Europa Park is calling (if possible)......everyone welcome!

Uni tours

Now that i've got over all the application crap (filling in some parts of the UCAS form is quite annoying when you're crap at making decisions like myself), it is time to look at the unis i've applied for. So the ferry was booked for last Friday night, for a little trip to the land of the Scots. Unfortunately it was the P&O slow ferry from Larne, mainly cause the Stena slow ferry is even slower! But still, i wasted ample money in the games room for the 2 odd hours it took. After that we just motored up Scotland for a few hours. The motorway we were on runs straight through the centre of Glasgow, which looks fully immense at night time! 2 hours and 110 odd miles later we got some kip in a Holiday Inn express near Kilmarnock, £50 for 3 people for a decent room & breakfast. Good stuff indeed.

I've just realised that i haven't said that we were actually going to Edinburgh. For the uni open day. That kicked off at half 9, in the good old George Square lecture theatre which The Cat Empire had graced a few months earlier. There i just got told stuff about accomodation and admission and whatnot. After that i headed to a Geography talk (yes, cause i'm still thinking of doing it), followed by a Maths talk, which was quite entertaining as the guy couldn't work the threatre lights and kept opening and shutting the curtains instead. I also went to a Philosophy talk, where i also learnt that i could take modules in Meteorology at Edinburgh. After that it was really just general talks. Sport at Edinburgh was one, and surprisingly the room wasn't very full at all. However, there were 4 water polo players (including myself) in the room, all 4 from Belfast and 2 of whom i know really well! Edinburgh has stacks of sports anyways. Quite tempting is to retakeup badminton, and then take up some crazy stuff, like snowsports or ice hockey. Another talk told us about the clubs, and the speaker was pretty good humoured, as he dismissed the Ultimate Frisbee club as a load of crap, and Skydiving as pure instanity.
We then went and got a tour of the University sports complex, offering student membership for £74 a year. The complex is hidden away in a normal looking building, but it is class, they have all these new weights rooms/sports halls/cardio suits, all the modern stuff. After that we headed round to the Pollock Halls, which are right beside Arthur's Seat. The newest halls are brilliant, and it'd be kickass to get one of them. The not so new ones are still class too, and there was a good student vibe about the place, including lots of people wearing crazy hats.
After that we headed into the centre (about 10-15mins walk), and had seafood. That's about it, i liked the place alright.

Went up towards St Andrew's a bit, and stayed in another Holiday Inn. One think that did strike me about this trip was how damn nice Scottish people are. In total i think we met 6 really dead on people, who just went out of their way to do stuff for us without a problem. Anyways, Sunday was St Andrews. Place was deserted at first, but we went to the Chapel to see Jamie sing. Jamie, i hope you don't mind if i say a bit about the various traditions etc at your uni! All the singers were wearing their red gowns, which are awesome. There are various ways in which each year of student can wear them. And apparently until about 3 years ago, if 3 or more people were walking down the street in their gowns, they were classed as a delegation and could stop traffic! The tradition pier walk follows the service, followed by a sherry reception! I saw Jamie's nice & large student room, and his halls, which are good stuff. One thing i wasn't qutie sure about St Andrew's was the amount of stuff in the actual town, but in truth it has every mainstream ship bar an HMV, along with loads of bars, specialist shops, and some sort of jazz club. Elsewhere i saw the Student's Union, and sports stuff. On the subject of Jamie, he's settling in well, and already playing some hardcore Korfball.

So that was my weekend, as usual probably missed loads of stuff out, but anyways, if anybody has any inquiries about Edinbrugh i could try to answer them. St Andrew's questions can go to Jamie obviously. I'll throw a few pics in here anyways. Cya!