KEYTAR...

Well, its finally here. For the sake of showing you what it can do, I present this post to you in the form of a vlog.

Me and Sophie

Its hard to believe that since i started this blog, I have still had the same girlfriend. It is also hard to believe that that girlfriend is not just any girl, it so happens she is the only girl for me.
We are in our 4th year together and she still makes me happy everyday that I see or hear from her.

This summer has been great because I got to see her whenever we were free, and we spent a lot of time together. However, as you know, I am still here- and as of a few days ago Sophie is now a student at Leicester university. You may think this will make things hard for me, but not really. Here lies the difference between shallow love for the sake of love, and in my opinion, real love.
To me, it makes no difference how far away she is. She's my girl, and she kicks some serious ass! I'm so proud of her for everything she has come through and is going to accomplish for sure, but she doesn't have to do a thing or say a word to earn my love.

My love for her is always there, and even though I can't explain why very simply, I know it is, and so I am pleased. Heres to an awesome future xxxxx

The Band and our Capers

Before I begin, just to clarify- by capers I mean adventures and past events, not a flavour giving inedible seasoning material. If I was posting about the latter, I can almost guarantee it would be very boring (or would it? ...cue inappropriate sample of X-files theme)

I have not been posting for a while, and I wish I had because the band has been up to so much stuff since i stopped. Lets just say we have come a considerable distance from Battery Powered. (whoever those guys were).

I left blogging just after we had recorded our first album. Since then, we have become more locally popular and we really have a feel for the sound we want to make. There has also been some developments with regards to becoming famous... When we played at doddstock, we were somewhat 'noticed' by a soundman who was there to run the rig for a band called Jonny: Black. They were very good. The man, "Dave Matthews" said he was an associate of the management company that were in charge of jonny: black, and he was keen to see us play in front of a non local audience. So we packed some things and set off on the road- to braunton, near barnstaple. This was the furthest away from Torbay we had ever been!

We left for North Devon, looking awesome and totally not lame as usual.

When we got there and had unpacked and stuff, we played a lovely set to the locals of Braunton at their flagship pub, "the agricultural inn". However, the locals know it as the Aggi. What follows it a short dialogue between Wade and some locals when we were finding our way there:

Wade: Excuse me, do you know where the Agricultural Inn is?

Some local old people: (IN REALLY POSH VOICES) haw haw haw! The agricultural inn? Oh, no, thats far too posh for us! We call it the Aggi!

So there we are, and we then became proper friends with some really cool people, namely "Kansas Matthews"... Well, you see Kansas is an interesting man... his name is Kansas, after where he was conceived. He is the bass player in Jonny: Black.

So there he is. While we were in his car on the way to his house to pick up some cymbals, we discovered he is actually the son of our prospective manager, Dave. It also surfaced that before his dad was helping him in Jonny:Black, he was previously in a band called MENDELA... Kansas then proceeded in pulling off a fantastic impression of cartman from south park with regards to "...but dad..." hehe.

After we played, Dave expressed an interest in our band, and said he wanted to come down and watch us again on home turf to discuss things further... this is awesome. It looks like Ricky and the Pigeons have taken our first steps to actually getting somewhere useful in terms of being a successful band.

Stay tuned, as that very meeting is happening on the 9th of October...

Ridiculous Chocolate Coin

Today, Sophie's mum gave us both a chocolate coin as a treat. It is a ridiculous size! I challenge anyone to find a bigger chocolate coin. Now, I am going to eat it.

For those of you interested, it is a 'heritage chocolate medallion' manufactured by the national trust. Thats right, so the same people that stop homeowners of old buildings from getting double glazing windows are now responsible for me eating some chocolate. Win.

What happened with University and stuff

Just to get this out there, yes, I have left Bath University for good. I will not be going back nor living in Bath this year.

It is a massive shame for me, because of all the good people and things i had to leave behind. For quite a while I already knew that doing Chemistry was not what I wanted to do. You may be wondering, well why did you do it then? Well there is a combination of reasons.

• It would have been an impressive degree to get, that would set me up for almost any job I wanted
• Bath was a very nice place
• I was interested in science

So there are my reasons. When I got there, I realised I was being asked far more of me than I could give. I have never had a knack for maths, and having done 1 year of a chemistry degree I can honestly say it is just maths and physics in disguise. I quickly realised that most people on my course had an A at maths A level, whereas I used my A in fine art to 'sneak' onto the course through a loophole of some description. So great, I could paint very well and talk to you for hours about MC  Escher but could I integrate complex numbers? well, no.

So I was struggling. I hear you all saying, ok that makes sense but why did you not leave earlier?

I had some of the greatest friends I have back in Bath, and I could not bear to leave them. I had joined the juggling club and learned so much and met some amazingly talented people. The area was great for my running and there was a pub that sold my favourite beer on tap. It literally could not have worked out any better for me. ... However, I was not there because of those things. I was there, at the end of the day, to do a degree. And so, when it all collapsed in on itself it dawned on me that I had to sort out my priorities and leave.

It wasn't easy, there was a number of things I had to sort out.

• Leaving itself- there was paperwork
• Student finance
• I already was stuck in a contract for a house

Once these things were done, I was free. Despite all the money I lost, I would do it all again, no regrets. Here are a few quick notes for some very special people.

• To Oliver Jefferies: Oli, we shared some fantastic times together and I could have not asked for more. We shared so much in common and the fact you live 2 floors below me changed nothing- you felt like a close neighbour. One of the nicest people I have ever met, who is morally sound and would never do anything to anyone. As my fellow chemistry student, lets just say we shared the same pain! A fellow Pokemon nerd, we spent so many hours of procrastination on that game and other games and general hanging around. I'll be sure to visit, take care man. All the best
• To Phil Murphy: Well phil, my at first quiet neighbour... what a card you turned out to be. We were very close friends with very similar senses of humour. We also shared some fantastic times I would do all over again. Apart from that time when we were woken by the sound of Andy f***ing someones brains out... For all the irish dialect I picked up, your harry impresonations, all the hilrious conversations with renfred, not forgetting hundreds of wee bevy breaks. I will so come back to see what the craic is, maybe go to a club and be awkward together with our thumbs up based dance moves.
• James Rooney: You weren't even in our house! Well you basically were. For more pokemon antics, that time when you helped me with the maths stuff, and oh god the steinway piano... thanks so much, see you around.
• The rest of my housemates (even Haaziq): You guys were awesome. What can I say, read down the blog for all our antics throughout the year, especially with me and tom. All the best everyone.
• Gravity Vomit, the juggling club: What would I have done without you all! Never met so many jugglers who taught me so much. So sorry for leaving the committee, we would have rocked the juggling world with our awesomeness. Keep on juggling and being the best society for miles, and good luck Scott, you'll be great.

All in all, I had the time of my life. But you all know why I left now. I am taking a year out to make some money back, and apply for new places. I intend to study primary school training, specialising in art. I will be either at Bath spa or Reading, so I will only be a walk or a train away.

take care everyone

Essential updates on my life story

I have been away for a while now. Its unfortunate, because a lot of things have happened that i should have ideally blogged about. So prepare for a few short blogs outlining the whimsical and entertaining adventures of me and my friends:

They should go as follows:

1. What happened with University and stuff
2. The band and our capers
3. Me and Sophie
4. The Pokemon Club

Stay tuned

Back for the year... Lets do my very first test beard

This has been my first post for aaages! I promise I'll get back to posting about random events and musings as soon as possible.

This may seem a weird post to jump back into the blogging world, but nonetheless we soldier on to a standard no-shave competition between ricky and the pigeons. Ricky wants to see what I have, so here is a  picture of my "full beard look", 8 days of no shaving in.

So yeah, you can actually kind of see it! Just for you Ricky, although its better in real life.