Stammtisch, Stats and Studying

This might be a change to the new format of slightly shorter blog entries, but you'll just have to bear with me on this one.

Stammtisch was last Wednesday, and I wasn't planning to go to it originally. However, since the Honeydrum rehearsals are on hold at the moment while Phen and Alic Ja get used to having a baby, I had a free evening. Originally, I was going to spend that evening sleeping, but after a bit of persuasion, I went off to the 'Tisch...and it was a really good night. It been one of very few opportunities for me to get to socialise with the year since I'm always busy on Wednesdays (when they usually run Stammtisch), and I do believe I socialised. I had some cracking conversation with a number of people, and I got to show my "impressive" dance moves off in HiFi later on in the evening.

I think they're good dance moves, I'm sticking to that story. I mean, who doesn't love a bit of Cat in the Box (which was taught to me by Crawley, so thank you). If you can, there's photos of the evening on Facebook and if you can't see them, but you really want to, I created a Photobucket account so my sister could have a laugh at them. You can probably find the link if you have a little search.

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After my former flatmate Vicky decided she wanted to start a blog, I pointed her in the direction of this site (you're welcome Blogger) and we had a bit of a chat about it. I'd completely failed to realise that I could actually see the hits on my page, and even the countries in which people are reading this.

I've had almost 700 views on the blog since I started it last September. I don't think that's too shabby, and I'm quite happy with that. So to everyone who reads my blog past, present or future, thank you. As you'd expect, the vast majority of my hits are from within the UK, but there are some slightly stranger locations. I've had over 100 views from the USA (though I'm not sure who these are from...please, make yourself known to me!) and hits in Germany (which I'm quite amused, though I doubt they're linked to my course in any way), the Netherlands, Hungary and even as far as Vietnam and South Korea. I have no idea who stumbled onto my blog in that country, but someone did.

This nugget of information brought a smile to my face, it's good to know that my writing is appreciated (or at least read) by people.

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And so, the exams are almost upon us. This time next week, we'l be into exams and I'll have already crossed my first exam off the list. That's IMG, and I can't wait for that to be over. I really don't like that module...and I think that reflects my module choices for next year, where I've tried to avoid history based modules and fill my mind with as much culture as possible.

Revision is proving to be rather uninteresting though. Saying that, I'm off to the library tomorrow to borrow the film and then I'll probably either try and keep hold of it until the exam, or I'll just take it out straight away again. I'm only really worried for IMG since that's the exam that I reckon will be the most problematic for me, especially since it's in German and it'll require a bloody good knowledge of the events. I think I've got that after we did a fair bit on the GDR through A-Level...but I don't know how strong it is in German. We shall see...

After the exams are over though, things are looking pretty good. The end of the month will be strong with a couple of shows back home, the summer gig season will be commencing hopefully with plenty to keep me occupied and I've got some other things lined up to keep myself busy and prevent madness from kicking in.

As a closing note, it's great to read that Africa Oyé has been kept as a free festival after the organisers were given more funding to prevent them from having to charge entry into the event. Fabulous news, as it's one of my favourite events in the year. Whether I'm playing or not, I'll look forward to going down there and checking it out once again.

Assuming this has come from the council, it'd be great if they can find other funding to prevent other events from not going ahead. The Lord Mayor's Parade is apparently cancelled this year, and I've heard things about other events and festivals possibly not happening due to budget restrictions as well. Fingers crossed!!