Good Dog

Went for a nice stroll with Rebecca and introduced her to the park that is a 5 minute walk away from uni but only a handful of people really know it exists. It's a great open space for picnics and wide games but it's only really used by dog walkers. We sat on a bench for a little bit and a small dog came up to us and dropped his throwing ball at our feet. It felt a bit 'gobby' and moist when I picked it up but I was damned when I threw it and he caught it midair after a bounce - very impressive dog. Together we also finished up the first season of The Walking Dead game which packs a real emotional punch right at the end, three years on and it hasn't aged a bit. 

Homebrew Take Two

It's lovely being back in Winton. Walking up and down the high street feels like home now and popping into the familiar favourite shops is always pleasant. Its actually gotten to the point where I recognise the staff in both Lidl and Wilko, I dare say I'm starting to know Winton just as much as I know Newbury now.

Begun round two of the homemade beer. I tried making a batch about a year ago now and frankly, I still haven't got the awful taste of crap beer out of my mouth. This time I'm hoping the homebrew turns out much better, I shelled out a bit of extra cash for brewing sugar and invested the help of my Dad, a seasoned home-made beer expert to ensure this batch comes out on top form. Only time will tell, by September 19th we should know for sure. 

Had a bit of a crisis at first though during the cleaning stage, I personally like to do a deep clean on all my equipment (as is recommended, but I take it to an extra level.) Spent a good old while using a chemical cleaner on the big buckets to scrub out all the bacteria, go to rinse it all out under the garden tap and two big spiders go and fall into the barrel. I felt totally unmotivated to make a arachnid themed lager so they had to go. Nothing but normal beer for me and my to-be housemates.

Rebecca's Moving Day

Bright and early wake-up call for me to roll into Rebecca's car and travel down to her new student house. The majority of today was spent unpacking her things and re-arranging her furniture, the house felt a bit like a hospital when we first came in but its already shaping up to be a pretty nice home. To celebrate her moving in I showed her Terminator 2, I know that doesn't sound terribly romantic on paper but she is a bit of a sci-fi gal so we enjoyed this film a bucket load. I hadn't seen its for quite a few years now and I was stunned with just how impressive and well thought out everything was. James Cameron was on top form here and it shows that he really knows what lies at the heart of all the best action films: characters to make the audience care about action sequences.

Budweiser is a bit Crap

I celebrated my last working day at the warehouse with a 3pm beer. The first two seconds of my initial swig of booze was absolutely heavenly, I had a tremendous thirst from walking home in the sun, it was a Friday afternoon so I didn't have a care in the world and the cool bubbles tickled and soothed my throat in an glorious manner. Then I realised I was drinking Budweiser and the whole beer became a bit naff. I settled on Bud because it was the only beer we had in the house, it was leftovers from a BBQ we had a few weeks ago, someone clearly dumped a load of this beer onto us and now we are reluctantly getting through it. It's just a crap beer by most accounts, but at least it was free.

Packing up my bags once more to visit my girlfriend and help her move into her new student house. We are quite excited to see what it looks like with her stuff in place and by the sounds of it Rebecca and her housemates will try and make a real home there. Early start for me tomorrow though as they are coming to pick me up at around 8am so we will see how that goes.

Youth for Europe 2015

Like many of the participants in this years Youth for Europe programe, I had never been to Hungary. 2015's event was a great opportunity to experience another part of the world I hadn't visited before and an even better place to make new memories and friends from across Europe.

Upon arrival at the collage at Kiskunfelegyhaza, our dorms and home-base, we introduced ourselves informally through a selection of team building exercises. We were quickly mixed into geams for a competition that would last the entire week. Groups consisted of one member of each nationality and we were each given a theme/stereotype to base our team name and flag which we had to design ourselves. My group was given '80's Athletics' so we adorned our flag with all the sweatbands and rollerskates we could cram onto one piece of fabric and proudly displayed our team 'The Footloose Ballerinos' during the opening ceremony. Throughout the week we earned more team points by taking a variety of selfies with the locals and other quirky photos to make the judges laugh. Everyone became fast friends thanks to these fun and simple tasks and they really encouraged teams to work together for a mystery prize at the end.

Proudly displaying our team flag

One of the most impressive and remarkable things about our group was that everyone was always up for exploring and trying something new. Each and every one of use were united by a love of discovering a new culture and learning about eachother. Even when we were just relaxing back at base conversations about different countries, foods and traditions were commonplace – everyone had a story to tell and it was effortless making new friends.

Making a fool of yourself was commonplace in the team building exercises.

Our first official day in the town began with a short tour and sightseeing quiz where we got learn more about Kiskunfelegyhaza (including how to pronounce it's name). The town itself was gorgeous in the sunshine. Later on we had the chance to go up the clock-tower to get a better view of the surrounding area, you could see the ornate roof of the town hall proudly glistening and the quiet bustle of the marketplace. Passing through the main square we were treated to a piece of chimney cake, a spiraling piece of vanilla confectionery that would couldn't get enough of during our stay.

A multitude of festivals rounded out the rest of our time there, starting off with the motorcycle and sidecar festival which was choc full of hairy bike enthusiasts (humbling to know they are a worldwide phenomena) and a great selection of craft beers begging to be sampled. The following day we celebrated Ancestor Day at another festival where the Hungarians displayed their heritage and traditions. Mostly it was a horse and archery show where everyone dressed like they were huns, several men also casually went around with leathery whips and relished any chance they could get to show off their skill by loudly cracking it whenever possible. This was also the hottest day by far of the trip, even our Hungarian helpers were sweating bullets and commenting on how unbearable the heat was. Any break from the heat was welcome and our prayers were answered when we found an agricultural sprinkler in the corner of the show. Everyone got soaked and couldn't stop laughing while we played a group game around it; funny how one hose could bring so much joy to a group of young adults.

Me posing with a group in traditional combat clothing during the Ancestor festival

Since I have no photos of any horses from the festival, enjoy the Polish, French and Spanish trying their best to make one.

 The wine festival was the kind of thing that you would just never see in England. It was just full of people getting mildly drunk together without causing a ruckus of any kind, it was all very chill and the perfect spot to socialise with the others as the sun went down. I even tried my hand at a local folk dance with a group of strangers, anyone could probably tell that I was an Englishman from a mile away as at first I didn't fit in, but I got the motions down-pat towards the end and the lady next to me gave me a big thumbs up when we finished.

Of course, it wouldn't be a bonafide Youth for Europe trip without a journey to the capital and everyone was itching to get to Budapest. We arrived by coach to explore the parliament building which was layered with real gold, every room was a spectacle and we were even lucky enough to see the changing of the guard for the royal crown display. The weather unfortunately took a turn for the drizzly side once we left but that didn't stop us from seeing Buda Castle and St. Stephen's Basilica, both of them are now ticked off my sight-seeing bucket list.

The whole gang in Budapest

Our final night together was spent at a nearby club which was reserved just for us so we could dance and sing into the wee hours of the morning. It was a beautifully bitter-sweet way to end the last day of the programe, everyone partied as hard as they could to try and forget that we would be saying our goodbyes in only a few hours time. At one point in the evening, when everyone was beginning to simultaneously tired and wistful Alphaville's Forever Young started playing and the Italian boy stood next to me drunkenly shuffled closer and said 'This song is about my philosophy'

For whatever reason, that moments stuck out for me. I too wish I could remain forever young, if only to experience even more brilliant trips that Youth for Europe put on every year. As we said our final farewells everyone hugged and said 'See you in Poland next year.' I'm already counting the days.

Theo Salad

Made my infamous salad for Louis and my parents tonight and it went down quite well. I skimped on some rather obvious steps like salad tossing and trimming down the larger lettuce leaves but it generally tasted quite good. Really perked me up after another long day of work, I keep telling myself that I only have two more days to go and then I'll be traveling back down to Bournemouth to see Rebecca and help her move into her new house. That thought is really pushing me to the end of the week.

Chapter three of the prolonged tale of woe that is my graphics card begun just as sadly as all the other parts. The replacement piece arrived quite late this evening and I couldn't wait to try it out, but after installing it into my PC it acted no differently to the one I sent back. I've come to the conclusion that I may need to tweak some parts of my computer and I will possibly have to upgrade my BIOS which is quite a dangerous process apparently so I'll wait until I find someone who can help me through the process.

Kindle Owner

Work inexplicably flew by today. I was possibly doing the most mundane day's work I'd done as I basically stood in a corner and didn't move outside of a square meter for a good three hours. But as I said, that time zipped away. Certainly hope this trend continues throughout the week.

I can call myself the proud owner of a second hand kindle now. Mum got a newfangled 'paperwhite' version so I inherited her old one, I haven't got too much on there at the moment but I am already excited by the prospect of being able to read much more thanks to it being such a compact unit.

My Hungary write-up is nearing the final stages now, I just need a good way to open it and to layer on a smattering of photographs. I'll post it here once it's all good and ready.