Lumps and bruises will make me a man

Maybe this is turning into a fortnightly blog. Maybe that's just how long it takes for me to realise that I've not updated it and I ought to scribble something else down. I'm not overly sure...but it has been two weeks since the last entry, and I would be willing to place a bet that the next entry will be in two weeks. Then again, maybe not. The next week looks busy so I'll have stuff to write about. As a spoiler, look out for a potentially amusing story about me falling asleep in Preston or Manchester train station and shenanigans occurring.

What's good people? Are we enjoying February? The weather's certainly picked up after a week or two of rather chilly weather and snow. It worked out quite nicely though. It snowed on Saturday and by the time uni rolled around on Monday, most of the roads and pavements were clear and relatively ice-free to allow a trip-free journey to uni. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy the snow as I spent the time working. But I did watch the snow falling out of the window.

I'll start off where I finished last time around. I was writing about how I had the first nets session with a new team coming up, and of course, that's now been and gone (in fact, we've had two sessions)...and they've been really good productive sessions. I know that I'm not a great cricketer, but I think I've got the potential to be a good player and not be a disgrace to any team who has me in their side. First of all, the Yorkshire facilities are marvellous. They really are. Secondly, this team are pretty good. Thirdly (am I just making up words now?), I'm slowly feeling some improvement. After getting some advice from a couple of the players regarding both my bowling and batting, I've got a better idea of where I'm going wrong and should hopefully be able to put these words into action. With a bit of luck and plenty of graft from me, I'll become a better player.

I've taken a fair few knocks though...and they hurt. We had nets on Wednesday. It's now Sunday. My thigh still has a cricket ball shaped mark (including a bit of the seam!) and my right leg has a lovely purple patch on it. That one baffled me. It didn't hurt at the time, but when my leg came up with a nice lump on Wednesday night, something wasn't quite right. Still, I'll be back for more punishment on Wednesday. Bring it on!

The German Theatre is ticking along nicely. We're less than four weeks away from show time...and thinking about it, that's a bit scary. It's time to play the music, light the lights and get things started on the Muppet Show Leeds German Theatre Project. Learning lines is fun...and a bit tricky. I realised that having a memory as terrible as mine is probably counter-productive when it comes to trying to learn a script. It's getting there though, thanks in part to some helpful words of wisdom on Twitter (if you read this, thanks Jeremy!) with techniques.

On Thursday, I went and indulged in some pirate metal at The Well with Hessie when we saw Alestorm. I hadn't ever really heard of Alestorm before my sister showed me one of their songs last year, and I thought they were pretty cool. As you'd expect, it's a different style to the norm as it brings the lovely combination of pirate themes and lovely loud music. In short, it was a cracking gig. The support acts were pretty good too which is always good, and included an Australian band called Claim the Throne who were cracking jokes inbetween songs. I don't think I've ever heard a white guy with such a deep and gravel-like voice before!

Just remember, pirates are better than Vikings. And they're certainly better than ninjas.

We did make a slight mistake in not going dressed as pirates though. Quite a few people had done that and there was definitely a hint of regret that we hadn't fully embraced the pirate theme as much as we could have, but it was still a cracking night. Live music at The Well is always something of a guarantee to be fun entertainment.

The Year Abroad application stuff should take a gigantic leap forward this week. Well, it will. I can't afford it not to. Then afterwards, I get to play the waiting game and hope that the lovely people at Adrivo decide they want to give me a job.

There's something strange with the weather recently. It's still a bit chilly, but the sun is still throwing out some impressive heat. When I've been sat at my desk working over the weekend (which has been quite a large portion of the daytime), the sun has been on my back virtually the entire time. That's one of the things I love most about my room: I get sunlight all day and it's...well, it's bloody good.

Once again, the sound of the PA system from Headingley Carnegie is an audio accompaniment to my working day. Leeds Rhino were playing on Friday to become the best in the world, and they did it. Of course they did. They're Leeds flippin' Rhinos. There's something awesome about hearing 20,000 rugby fans cheering and celebrating on a Friday night right outside your bedroom window. Once we come back from the Easter break, the cricket season will burst into life. I'll be spending as much time there as I can, especially since I'll only have until July to do so!

The clock is ticking. It never stops.