20th June - The Waiting Game

The worst thing about waiting is knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do to change the situation. It's not htat I'm some sort of control ferak or anything like that, but I just hate the feeling of having no influence on decisions which have a huge impact on me and my life.

After 6 phone calls to Virgin Ailrines to try and find out if it is possible to change the flight date on Jewel's ticket, they have finally had enough and told me that they will call me 'as soon as ew hear anything'. I won't hold my breath.

After the 4-6 week waiting oeriod for an IELTS test enquiry on results and a phone call, we have been told that 'they should be with you one week later,' so we are waiting to ehar about that.

The 4 week asesment period for the university applications is about up and as yet we've heard nothing, so we're waiting for that.

Beginning to see a pattern?

Although I'm not the person in question on any of these things, they all have a pretty big effect on me. No improvment on the IELTS score or no offers from the universities means it's going to be ten times harder to get a visa renewal, which in turn could mean a return to China sooner rather than later.

And no luck on the flight ticket means my bank balance will take another significant plunge towards zero.

And all I can do is wait...

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13th June - Cracking Weekender

What a cracking weekend. Scorching heat, a tent in a field surrounded by goats, BBQs and al-fresco cooking for breakfast, lunch and dineer, one small tent, football on the radio, a couple of cold beers and, most importantly, my girlfriend with me. It don't get much better than that.

Admitedlly, leaving home at 6.45am on Saturda was not the ideal way to start, but it meant Jewel got to her exam on time. And while she sturggled her way through that, I had the equally testing task of remembering how to get to the campsite from memory (never been there before and left the damn map at home!) and then doing battle with the tent. I won. Eventually.

And then I turned on and tuned into 1089mw TalkSport radio and listened to the incredibly long build up to Englands first gam in the world cup 2006. At 2pm GMT it kicked off. At 2.01pm GMT Jewel called to say her exam was over and I had to go and get her. Forunately the radio in the car still works so I could still get the commentary and despite a detour vis the supermarket on teh way bvack )you need supplies for BBQ if you're camping!) I managed to enjoy the game.

Before kick off I had been feeling all nostalgic about how much fun I had during the last wrodl cup at a certain pub in Fulhma with a certain crowd of people. I sent an SMS to one of them and said somethign like 'We should be at that pub - England never lose when we watch them there'. He SMSed back and said 'I am jsut abou tto sit down in the stadium at the game'. I guess he wasn't reminicising quite like I was.

Bastard.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was just perfect. We did all the outdoor stuff, forgot about exams, study, the need to find a decent job and all the rest of those niggly incoveniences that get in the way of life. We had a damn good time.

On Monday morning we packed up the tent, filled up the car and headed off to the town centre to enjoy a bit of traditional, typical English seaside resort life. Ice cream on the pier, fish n' chips by the beach, capped off by free parking. How quaint.

We drove slowly home, through country lanes and along the cliffs. We got home, unpacked and went to sleep just as it started to rain very, very hard. Perfect timing.

Sometimes you just coudn't get your timing any better.

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June 8th - 1 Day And Counting

It all starts tomorrow at 2pm GMT. Ladies, say a last goodbye to your boyfriends/husbands for about a month (and make sure o ask for a lot of spending money to keep you going during that time) and guys get ready with the remote control and the cold beer. Germany 2006 is about to start and my dear country is about to lose what little sanity it has for the duration of England's participation in the World Cup.

Despite my life of leisure at the moment, my world cup viewing is going to get off to a pretty slow start. I'll get to see about 20 minutes of the opening game tomorrow night and then miss the next one as my family and I are off to an open air evening concert, picnics and all, which goes on till about 10pm. After that it'll be straight home to bed as Jewel and I will have to be up bright and breezy on Saturday to make our way down to Eastbourne.

With visa renewal time just around the corner and deadlines to be met, Jewel has had to sign up for another IELTS exam a bit earlier than we had wanted and availability has meant that she has got to do it on Saturday in Eastbourne. It's a 9am start (and at least an hour and a half drive) so we need to be off early. It's due to finish 'sometime in the afternoon' which could be a problem as England open their world cup campaign at 2pm. This could mean Jewel being left to fend for herself on the mean streets of Eastbourne whilst I cram in to one of the local pubs.

We've decided to make a bit of a weekend of it and so are going to renew our acquaintance with the world of camping! Tents at the ready and sleeping bags in the back of the car, we're off to sleep in a field for 2 nights. Could be interesting....

So a bit of an early start to the weekend, but with glorious sun forecast, it looks like it's going to be a bit of a relaxing escape to the sea.

Then on Monday I can get down to the really important task of footie watching.

Bliss

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June 4th - And If You Thought This Was Bad...

Not writing much these days am I? Well, there are a couple of good reasons for it.

Actually there aren't.

But by way of excuses, I'll give you a taster of what I've been doing over the last couple of days.

There is a bit of land at the back of our house. Basically it's grassland, fields, woods and general coutrysidey things. Right at the back of our house, beyond our fence, is a small patch of land which my Grandad took to planting a few fruit trees (plums, apples) on many moons ago. They've natured bicely over the years and that small patch of land they are on has been adopted as part of the not-so sprawling Hampton estate.

Last week I put up a hammock between a couple of said trees. Today, after managing ot finally crowbar Jewel out of the hammock, I got a chance ot sit in the shade, with a cold beer and listen to the cricket commentary on the radio. Bliss. Even if cricket is not your cup of tea, you've got to admit that lying in a hammock in the shade on a hot day with a cold beer is a pretty damn good way to spend the afternoon.

And that came after having a picnic lunch of fresh, home made food on a blanket in a field of flowers and tall grass under an oak tree. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I think you'll agree.

So not much by way of productive 'Blogging' but an awful lot of the good things in life.

And, as the title said, if you though this was bad (i.e. not much blogging) the World Cup kicks off on Friday, with 3 live games a day for at least the next 3 weeks, I think I'm going ot be pretty busy.

Tough life. Tough, tough life.

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June 2nd - Nothing To Write, So Read This

Well, I have got a couple of things I want to write about, but as the last few weeks have been miserable (weather wise) and today is all blue skies and sun, I don't want to waste my time in front of this computer. So I'm not writing.

As a much better alternative to reading my ramblings, I heartily recommend you read this - The Porktornado - as it is about as funny and well written as you're likely to get on this inter-web thingy. Well, I think so at least.

So go forth and read.

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