Friday, June 2, 1989

4 Cans of Whitbreads, 2 Cans of Carlsberg ...

Slept in today until 10.30, when J.P. came by to pick up his Geography Reader, which I intended on using last night, but never did. I spent the bulk of the morning finishing up the first part of "The 37th Heir," which is eight pages long. So the whole story may eventually exceed 20. I hope I can finish it before I leave here.

When I finished, I dropped off two library books and bought a turkey sandwich for lunch. Then I came back to The Grange and hung out in Jane's room for coffee and tea with Cat, Sean, Barry, Bruce and Helen.

Stayed there for a few hours, and then returned to my room and re-designed it a bit, because I felt like it. Looks dead good, I think.

After dinner I talked to Jane a bit more, then borrowed her cassette recorder to do some taping. Following that I went to the off-license for four cans of Whitbread Best Bitter and two cans of Carlsberg lager for the evening.

It turned out to be a great evening. Started in Jane's room, talking, and then went over to Sean's room to watch some movie ("The Honorary Consul") starring Michael Caine, Richard Gere and Bob Hoskins (in the film, not the room.)

After that, everyone in St. Martin's started to break off for bed, so I traversed into St. Hilda's and ended up in one of the Spanish girl's rooms, where a group had collected. I talked to J.P. and others for awhile, including Fiona, one of the Spanish girls from Madrid. I talked to her for awhile about Viv and Madrid, though in hindsight, I'm not sure that I was altogether coherent. Matricia made some ice cold coffee, so I passed.

When this got boring, I went downstairs and found J.P. (who found it boring a bit earlier than I had), who was watching the Woody Allen movie "Bananas" in the common room. The movie ended at 20 past one, at which time BBC2 went off the air.

We, however, were still going strong, even though J.P. kept insisting that he was going to bed. I ended up in Louise's room, with Louise, Kevin, Neil, Irish Johnny and others coming in and out. They were waiting for a pizza that they had ordered, which finally arrived about an hour and a half after they had called in their order.

Irish Johnny had had a bad day, as he had found out at 2.30 this afternoon that he'd been dropped from his architecture course. He should be able to find placement somewhere else, but he was distraught, as he really wanted to stay in Hull with his friends. When I saw him, he was alright, but from what I was told, earlier in the day he was in pretty bad shape. I hope that he'll be alright.

Anyway, at around 3.30 a.m., I wandered back to my room and went to bed. A good evening, this was!

(Pictured is Carl, Irish Johnny and Neil, in St. Hilda's Hall. This photo is courtesy of J.P.)

Tuesday, May 30, 1989

The Return Trip to Hull ...

Today was "Return to Hull" day, so I packed my bags, bid my farewells, and Fiona drove me to Liverpool Lime Street station to catch the 10.52 a.m. train.

No problems on the journey, as I just read pretty much the whole way, changing trains at Leeds. I arrived in Hull at about half two, and then caught the bus back to The Grange halls.

Checked my post (no letters arrived while I was out), then I relaxed in my room. A bit later on, Kofe stopped by and we talked for awhile about Millersville (he was an exchange student there last year), music, America and various other topics.

A bit later on, and after cleaning up my room, I went over to St. Hilda's to visit J.P. We talked about the weekend past, baseball, and our usual fare. He said his last performance of The Mikado went really well.

Dinner in the refectory was poor. But later that evening, there was some good TV. Both an episode of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series and "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4" were on at the same time. "Hitchhiker" won, and it was fun to watch. It's a shame that I'll miss the last 2-3 episodes, as they won't be shown before I head back to America.

Following that we watched "Moonlighting," then "Thirtysomething" was on, but I left the common room to visit Sam, and we ended up talking for the rest of the evening.

Jenny Rourke stopped by and asked me if I'd be interested in going horseback riding with her and some friends tomorrow, and I said I would. That could be fun (I hope)!

Went up to pick up Shannon the Hamster from Cat, and she said that all went well with her over the weekend. Good to hear!

(Pictured is a photo of the Coca-Cola cans that I collected and displayed on a ledge over the one window in my room. Pretty cool, huh?)

Friday, May 26, 1989

Leaving for Liverpool ...

I spent the morning re-taping Liz's Beatles' tapes for her, while I still had Jane's recorder in my possession, and before leaving on my trip to Liverpool. Once I was finished, I gave the recorder back to Jane, dropped off Shannon the Hamster to Cat (it's not often that a hamster is in good hands when you give it to a Cat!), then caught the bus into town to catch the 4.42 train.

And what do you know? Jenny Rourke was on the train! She was heading home for the weekend. So Jenny and I rode together and chatted as far as Leeds, which is where I had to get off the train and reconnect to the Liverpool train. She reminds me so much of Stephanie LaBella from high school (whom I've only seen once since graduation).

Anyway, I waited a half an hour before catching the train, and during the ride I worked some more on my short story, "The Thirty-Seventh Heir." I finally arrived in Liverpool at a little past eight, and shortly afterward, Dr. Morrison arrived and we rode back to Ness, stopping at the Old Quay for dinner.

We didn't do much more than talk this evening, but it was still relaxing good fun. Fiona was at a friend's house that evening and didn't return until late. I finally got to bed at a little past one.

Pictured: For the past several weeks J.P. had been busy rehearsing for his performance in "The Mikado," which was presented this weekend. For some reason, I didn't get a chance to go. I was at the Elvis Costello concert on Wednesday, and in Liverpool on Friday and Saturday... but I don't know why I didn't go to see it on Thursday. J.P. will have to fill in any details about the show itself. Even though I didn't see it, I did manage to swipe one of the posters for my own personal collection.

Thursday, May 25, 1989

Wear Your New Concert T-Shirt Day ...

Today I slept in quite late, recovering from last night's activities. Needless to say, I missed breakfast. I checked for post, but there was none.

I then found myself sitting in Jane's room with Sam, talking about various topics (the concert came up), and eventually I borrowed her stereo to do a little taping. So I was doing a little bit of taping today. I made a Monkee's tape for Gill, a friend of Jane Goodman's (not the Jane whose room I was in... that's Jane Challis-Whish).

The day carried on with little excitement. That evening, Sam and I sat in Cat's room and talked for a bit. She's going to be taking care of my hamster Shannon when I leave for Liverpool to visit with Dr. Morrison tomorrow. After that, it was back to Sam's room for more coffee, and after that, back to my room for even more coffee. I gave him a copy of a tape he requested. Side one is my parody work with Reed and Reitz, and side two my thrash metal stylings with Yokel.

Tomorrow, I leave for Liverpoo'.

Pictured is me trying to be artsy, I guess, showing off my new tour shirt, as well as the tour program (right next to my arm) and the tour poster (far left), which now joins my two other Elvis Costello posters. And yes, that's an ALF poster right above it, surrounded by Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Wednesday, May 24, 1989

Elvis Costello in Newcastle ...

Well, the day has finally arrived! After three months of waiting, I finally got to see Elvis Costello live in concert, and it was well worth the wait!

The day began by waking up for breakfast at 8 a.m., as usual, followed by a shower and general nothingness unil noon. With my pack of essentials, I headed into downtown Hull. It was quite hot outside at first, nearly unbearable. But the temperature gradually became more comfortable as I went along.

I bought a few things while I was in town: Two Peanuts books that I needed and three 45s, including Cliff Richard and The Young Ones doing "Living Doll." I also bought some food, bateries, a train ticket, and lunch at McDonald's once I reached the city centre.

At 2.50 I met Cat in front of the movie theatre, and then went over to Ferensway where shortly thereafter we were on a bus bound for Newcastle. The journey took three hours, and included a short pit stop, but it went rather quickly as we listened to Elvis Costello over the bus stereo most of the way up.

We arrived in Newcastle at about half 6, so Cat, Nile and I had a few minutes to walk about Newcastle before we could go into City Hall. Nile, incidentally, bought a ticket a few minutes before the bus left for the concert. Talk about a last minute decision!

Anyway, it was noticeably cooler out now, so after a run-in with some photo shoot going on in the street, we stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken for some coffee, and then returned to City Hall to get our seats for the show.

I was a decadent individual today. I bought an Elvis Costello tour t-shirt, a tour poster, and a tour program. Good deal, though... I only paid £13 total for everything!

We then grabbed our seats and waited for the show to commence. The concert hall was rather small, about the same size as The Forum in Harrisburg, which gave the show a nice personal feel.

At 8 p.m. the lights dimmed and out came Nick Lowe, who performed quite well. I was impressed with his performance, and especially at his sense of humour (at one point he said, "I will now play a medley of my greatest hit," and then began to perform "Cruel to Be Kind.") I was also impressed by his new songs from his forthcoming album. I will have to check that out.

Lowe played for about a half an hour, and after a short break, Elvis Costello ran onto the stage and jumped right into an acoustic version of "Accidents will Happen." In fact, most of this brilliant show was simply Elvis playing acoustic solo versions of his songs, both from his new album and his classics from the past.

The songs he performed included: "Watching the Detectives," "Alison," a medley of "New Amsterdam/You've Got to Hide Your Love Away/American Without Tears," "My Radio Sweetheart," "Loveable," "Veronica," "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," "Pads, Paws & Claws," "Any King's Shilling" and "Let Him Dangle."

Next was the most brilliant song of the evening, a 15-minute humorous version of "God's Comic." In this song, Elvis talked of his inspiration from being on a Swedish talk show where God was a guest. My favourite part was after the lyric "wondering if I should've given the world to the monkeys," Elvis suddenly stopped, then broke into a few verses of "Last Train to Clarksville."

Even with a lot of his political jokes throughout the concert, I found myself laughing in spite of myself.

Next he brought Nick Lowe out on stage and they performed "Indoor Fireworks" and, of course, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" (which Lowe wrote). Their duet was excellent... certainly a rare treat for an Elvis fan to see live. I thought Lowe's style complimented Elvis very well with these numbers.

As the show wound down, Elvis concluded with three of his politically-themed songs, the last two being among my least favourite songs. He brought out the piano and performed a nice version of "Shipbuilding." But that was followed by a very bad "Pills and Soap," and concluded with "Tramp the Dirt Down." It's alright musically, but I hate the lyrics. In my opinion he should've ended the concert with something more upbeat, as he had now become quite serious in his demeanor. It was a downer of an ending to the show.

Apart from that, the show was brilliant and well worth the journey. As I sat in the audience, I thought to myself, "this is what it's all about." A definite climax to the journey. It was amazing how he could be the most amusing entertainer I've ever seen in a concert, and then the most serious. Will we ever be able to see the real Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, or have we?

At the end of the day, I would call this the second best concert I've ever experienced (Ol' Neil Young in Hershey still holds that title, with Peter Gabriel a close third).

All told, Elvis played for over two hours, so we did not leave the venue until after 11 a.m. That meant we were going to be getting home very late. We arrived in Hull at about 2.30 a.m., and the bus driver decided to take us all right to our homes, which was very nice.

However...

When the bus arrived at the corner of Cottingham Road and Newland Avenue, we contemplated asking the driver to just let us off there, and we could do the 10 minute walk back to The Grange. But we decided not to.

As a result, he turned another way, and we ended up on the bus for another hour. Then, when he did finally drop us off, it was at the corner of Cottingham Road and Beverley Road... about 200 yards away from the Newland Avenue intersection. Cat and I had a good laugh about this... an hour to travel 200 yards! It was dark and quiet, and we walked back most of the way in the road, while Nile walked swiftly back along the sidewalk.

Tired and approaching 4 a.m. by now, I still managed to hang my new posters up in my room - not only the Elvis Costello tour poster, but I also "liberated" the poster that was on the bus as well.

I let Shannon run around a bit, cleaned up, and then, completely and utterly knackered, I went to bed.

What a brilliant day!

Monday, May 22, 1989

Coming to America ...

It was yet another gorgeous day with sunbathing weather, thought there was more of a breeze blowing. I spent a few hours outside trying in vain to study, but ended up grabbing loads of rays, giving me a brownish-red colour, which should develop into a tan. It pretty much felt like beach weather today.

Early in the evening, after an afternoon chat with Sam, Viv called me from Madrid to say, among other things, that she will be coming to America to visit me for a month this summer, but she won't be able to get a work visa.

Also, she said things are still pretty rough for her down in Spain. Apparently her flat mates, while she was out, cleared out her room and had a party in it, and then got mad at her because she was upset that they had done this to her. Geez, there are some pretty thick people in the world, and Viv seems to be living with a lot of them.

Anyway, it was a good conversation, and I was so glad to hear her voice.

After that, I continued work on a short story I am writing called "The Thirty-Seventh Heir." But I've changed the setting. I worked on this, mixed in with some milling about the halls, until 9 p.m., when Sam, myself, and a few others watched the movie "Fail-Safe" on TV. It is tense, excellent old drama about an accidental bombing of Moscow starring Henry Fonda, Larry Hagman, Fritz Weaver, Walter Matthau, Dom Deluise and others.

Following that we (Cat, Sam, Jane Challis-Whish, her boyfriend Chris and some others) sat in Jane's room talking over tea and coffee while water dripped from her ceiling. A plumber came and checked it out while we were there. Cool music (Velvet Underground, The Doors), and good conversation. It was especially nice for me because it was the first time I'd ever talked to several of the people here.

I came back to my room at 12.45 a.m., wrote a bit more, and then went to bed.

Pictured are Jane (left) and Vicki (right) relaxing outside The Grange halls.

Wednesday, May 10, 1989

Another Movie Day ...

After a very interesting Geography seminar on rainforests, where I learned that it takes 55 feet of rainforest land to produce one McDonald's hamburger, among other things, I came back to my room to write, during which time Cat brought me £18 to buy her an Elvis Costello ticket in town.

At noon I got Buffy and we walked into town via Newland Avenue. Stopped at The Final Frontier, where I bought a copy of Batman's "Death in the Family, Part 3," for only £3.95 (it's selling in the states for about $40 right now). Amazing deal!

We stopped at other shops and I also bought batteries, guitar strings, Cat's ticket (only two were left for the bus to the Newcastle show!), and both Buffy and I bought the Scouse Aid "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey" 45 single for the Hillsborough Appeal, which was released on Monday.

Then we stopped at McDonald's for the 99p (guess I wasn't that concerned about the land my burger used up in Brazil.) After that we made our way to the Ferensway movie theatre where we saw "The Accidental Tourist." It was a good film, though it wasn't what I expected. Quite heavy, but William Hurt was great.

After the film we caught the bus back and I went to dinner. After that I bummed around St. Hilda's, getting locked with Paul in his room by Jodie for a half hour because she is a very funny person. I then went up to Buffy's room and we chatted for awhile, before I got tired and returned to my room and went to bed.

Today's fabulous quote, from Paul Crowley: "When words will fail, violence prevails."

Friday, May 5, 1989

She was right! ...

Cat was right, the American students got £15 extra food grant! Every little bit helps!

It's been a day of ups and downs. First, the downs: I woke up late for class, only scored a 56 on my Sociology essay (a high "C"), and Oliver North was convicted on three charges yesterday. The ups: 15 happy pounds in my pocket, and Ollie was acquitted on nine charges.

When I got back from the class I did relatively little of any significance. Read the newspaper in the library, began to write a letter to Uncle Larry and Aunt JoAnne, and bought yet another turkey salad sandwich at the corner deli (today it was 69p - the price has now changed three days in a row.) I also bought a Daily Express with my new money.

That evening I went up to Buffy's room and we talked for awhile, trying to decide if there was anything to do tonight. We thought about heading to the Architecture Union, but instead went with one of the French girls to the Gardener's Arms for a pint with a few of her friends. Shortly afterward they headed to the Architecture Union, while Buffy and I went to Double Happiness for some much-needed Chinese take away. We both had sweet and sour chicken (she ordered Hong Kong style), bouthgt a bottle of coke, and then returned to The Grange to watch some TV, where Tim the American (Skeletor's friend... at least, that's what Kenny calls the other American, anyway) was watching "Cheers."

Afterward, we watched a new American show called "Roseanne," a really bad "Clive James Show" (a copy of the David Letterman formula), which only special guest Michael Palin was able to save, and then a fantastic old movie called "Trouble in Paradise" from 1932.

After that, I went back to my room, let Shannon run about, then went off to bed.

I think from here on out, just to make things more interesting, at the end of each day I'm going to include a classic quote from someone over the past year. The first one is a classic from Doug, when commenting on the fish that was coming out of the oven in the refectory:

"Oh, this must be the plaice!"

Thursday, May 4, 1989

Lorna is Now Bright Red ...

Woke up bright and early today, ate breakfast, and got to the library before 9 a.m. to get right in and begin typing my essay. Since I already had it all in order, I was able to type straight through with only minor corrections until 12.15, when I let Buffy use the typewriter while I wrote up my conclusion.

When all was said and done at 1 p.m., I had typed about 2,500 words and was satisfied that I had successfully answered the question. I'm still worried, though. I left Buffy and J.P. (who said he didn't start writing his essay until today) to type, and went over to hand mine in.

From there I went to the store and treated myself to another jumbo turkey sandwich (odd: today it cost me 75p, while yesterday it was only 65p), before heading to Modern Prose Fiction class, where Allan McLaurin discussed Graham Greene's "It's a Battlefield." I got the scoop on our essay topic, and left there an hour later to check books out of the library for my next - and final - essay in Geography on Thomas Malthus. Should be fun. I'll be so glad to get it out of the way.

It was yet another beautiful spring day here in Hull, which almost prevented me from going to class. But afterward it was relaxation outside behind St. Hilda's, playing soccer, laying around, etc. Lorna is now bright red, yet she still insists on lying out in the sun. How odd.

Well, it was also Margaret Thatcher's 10th year in power today. No big deal - I figure she will be in for quite a time yet. Wouldn't mind a Labour government though... It'd be nice to see a 1 dollar to 1 pound exchange rate!

That evening I spent most of my time talking to Sam - first in my room, then with Louise Fenton for awhile, then in his room with Cat for awhile. Several hours, actually. Enjoyed several coffees and covered scores of topics. Sam and I are getting along quite well these days. He actually invited me to come to visit his house in Scunthorpe next weekend to meet his wife, Jenny. It should be real good to get away.

Cat told me that we may have some more money coming our way from the school. I sure hope she's right!

Friday, February 24, 1989

Talent? ...

I had a pretty good day today. First, I went to my early Social/Political Structures class, which was rather dry (about multi-national corporations), then relaxed around the halls. Early in the evening I called Viv at home, and she said she was feeling much better, so we were able to talk for awhile.

Afterward, and following further dilly-dallying around St. Hilda's, the lot of us went to the Student Union. It was the first time in a few months that I had actually been there. We were originally going to head to the Architecture Union, but a last minute change of heart convinced us to do otherwise (we didn't think we'd be able to swing cheap drinks.) Had a really good time at the Union. I had a bit to drink (went for the cheaper Newcastle Brown Ale - Newkie Brown - to save some money. Darn good for so-called "cheap beer"!), talked to some of my friends and to some people that I didn't know.

They were hosting a Talent Show at the Student Union that evening (though from what I saw, I don't think they found any), and I watched in amazement as the girls were blithely going into the guys bathroom all evening (due to overcrowding in the ladies' loo, naturally). I wasn't really in the mood to care.

I worked with J.P. to try to slap together an act for the Talent Show, and take the stage to perform Yokel's "I Don't Like Ugly People." Unfortunately, it didn't work out. Perhaps if we would've had a bit more time to prepare...

After awhile I lost J.P., but rediscovered some people I hadn't seen in a long while. I walked back to the Student Union with Cat (from Juniata, see September 29, 1988) and Helen (see October 4, 1988; also pictured above, right, with her friend Vicki), two people I hadn't really associated with in a few months. It made me start to wonder about some of those people I met and hung around with, and then disappeared, back in October. (German Karin?)

Anyway, I came back to my room well past midnight, let Shannon the Hamster run around before crashing shortly thereafter in bed.