Monday, November 21, 1988

Smart Trenchcoat ...

Oooh, nothing quite like the feel of a brisk aerosol can of deodorant on a cold morning to get you ready for the day!

We had a good snowstorm today, and with it being the coldest day since I got here, I decided that my Gore-Tex jacket was no longer enough. So, before class, I went into town (in the snow) and, after walking around a bit, went into the Army-Navy Store and bought a nice trenchcoat. It was only £8.70! It keeps me a lot warmer, and looks really smart.

Happy with my purchases (which included a cassette of "Bolero"), I returned to the halls to prepare for my Poetry and Drama class. It was a good class. We discussed Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," and watched part of the film as well. This is probably one of my favorite books, so it was quite an interesting discussion for me.

I spent a good bit of the evening with Viv. Then at about 10 of 12, I decided that I was hungry. So we took a walk up to Cottingham Road, only to find all of the restaurants closed. These are the moments when I miss Millersville. There's always someone ready to sell food to a hungry college student there. We walked back, dejected and hungry, and we bought a candy bar in the hall vending machine.

A Twix bar.

Satisfying.

*****
(Pictured: Rick and Doug in downtown Hull. Rick is sporting the trenchcoat he purchased 20 years ago today. He wore that thing for about 12 years before finally replacing it with a newer, significantly more costly trenchcoat. Oh, and this is one of my favorite photos from England. It was taken by J.P.)

Sunday, November 20, 1988

A Good Day to Stay Inside ...

Well, it snowed today. I thought that was pretty cool. It was also very cold today, so since there wasn't anywhere I had to go today, the only time I went outside was during the brief moments it takes to walk from St. Martin's to St. Michael's and back. (Pictured is St. Michael's hall, from the point of view of the front door to St. Martin's. This was taken on that "snowy" day.)

The first thing I did today was eat the classic English Sunday lunch in the refectory: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding, which wasn't too bad. Then I returned to my room to finish reading "The Importance of Being Earnest" (it had been a couple of days since I last picked it up.)

When I was done I took one of those brief walks outside and crossed over to Doug's room, and gave him the book so he could read it. Oh, but when I got their I found some of the guys were in the midst of a game of Risk, so I jumped in to help Big Jon, who was struggling big time in the game. I salvaged what I could and helped make him a minor threat in the game, but his losses before I had gotten there were too great. Andy was the first player wiped out (naturally).

After the game came dinner (makeshift), then some studying and reading of the newspaper, followed by a little writing. Dad called this evening, so I got to talk to him for a bit and find out what was going on back home in Camp Hill.

***

• Number One Song in Britain This Week: "The First Time" - Robin Beck
• Number One Song in America This Week: "Bad Medicine" - Bon Jovi

Saturday, November 19, 1988

A Record Day ...

Woke up at 10 a.m. to head down to the big Record Fair. Might be the last one Doug gets to go to. Doug and I gathered our weighty pound coins (always feels good to have a pocket full of them in your pocket... I'm now quite used to using those coins instead of dollar bills) and left to go crazy downtown.

It was a singles day for me at the Record Fair. I bought two Genesis EPs ("Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "Mama"), a Peter Gabriel EP ("Don't Give Up"), and a core of 7" singles... 15, to be exact. Nine of them were The Police, and five were Sting... they were all singles that had non-album songs on the B-sides and were hard to find nowadays. The other single that I got was Captain Sensible's "Wot." It's a great song from the early MTV days, but I could never find the song until I came over here. Awesome!

We left the show and headed to the bank so that Doug could refuel, then it was off to Cottingham Road, where I bought a newspaper and some chicken kiev at Haworth Fisheries. While we were walking back, we saw Little Johnny, Big Jon, J.P. and Paul walking on the other side of the road, heading to the bus stop to go to Beverley. I asked Little Johnny if it'd be OK if I borrowed the record player he has in his room so that I could play some of the records I had been purchasing. He said sure, then tossed his keys across the busy four-lane road, and I made an absolutely spectacular catch.

I returned to my room just as Viv was arriving and she began to do some school work while I ate my chicken (garlicky!) After eating, Doug and I went into John's room (a very trusting lad he is!) and we took turns playing the records that we had acquired over the past few months. "Twilight Alehouse" was first... an interesting old Genesis tune. I like it. The biggest disappointment was the Genesis "A Trick of the Tail - Outtakes" record. Interesting stuff, but the quality was quite poor. I guess that's the risk you take with a bootleg.

After awhile I returned to St. Martin's to take a shower while Doug remained in the room listening to his records. After dinner I returned to Johnny's room and I was able to tape some of my records. So I can now listen to some of the music I had purchased. Stuck around until Johnny returned, and hung around a bit more to listen to some of Johnny's music. He was very interested in letting me hear a band called The Macc Lads. Very rough and vulgar, but pretty funny at the same time. Their song "Beer and Sex and Chips and Gravy" was quite entertaining. This is what my band Yokel should be more like.

A bit later, we went down to the telly room where we watched "Time Bandits," one of my all time favourite films. Enjoyed that for a good couple of hours, and afterwards Viv and I returned to my room for the rest of the evening.

Friday, November 18, 1988

Liz's New Boyfriend

Woke up for breakfast and then tried to keep it down during my Roz seminar. It was nothing exciting, but I guess it was somewhat interesting. I'm able to tolerate her a bit more, though I still don't like her very much. Returned to my room with the whole day still ahead of me, so I rested, read, ate some lunch, and didn't take a shower.

After dinner, almost everyone went out, but Doug and I stayed in and watched some telly. We caught some old shows like "Sgt. Bilko," then watched some modern British sitcom that wasn't too bad. After that Doug and I trotted down to Double Happiness for some Chinese, then brought it back to his room, where we chatted for a couple of hours, including the planning out of the sequel to "Harry Luger and the Case of the Dead Husband," a little video movie I made in 1986 with my cousins. I was Harry Luger, a dimwitted private investigator on the trail of a killer, but who couldn't spot a clue to save his life. I'm going to miss our conversations when he goes back home in December.

Shortly after I left the gaggle of St. Hilda's Pissheads returns (most of them, anyway), from the Student Union. Later that evening, Viv came to my room and took me back to her room, where Liz and her friends, Angie and Puree, were hanging out with Liz's new boyfriend, a guy named John, who was waiting for a pizza delivery. We sat and talked, listening to a horrible Tom Jones tape. John turned out to be pretty cool, and a Conservative, which provided for more compelling conversation about the politics of the day and my take on the recent American presidential election. I told Liz that she did very well.

Well finally, at 3 a.m., the pizza arrived (I did not have any), and soon afterwards Viv and I left to return to my room, where she stayed so that Puree could stay in Viv's room with Liz that night. I was happy to oblige.

Thursday, November 17, 1988

'The weather still continues charming'

(Quote from Cecily Cardew, "The Importance of Being Earnest")

It was certainly a nice enough day outside to pull an appropriate quote from the book I am currently reading.

I woke up about mid-morning and decided it would be OK to skip my class today, since I hadn't read the book they were going to discuss. I went into town again to check if the new CSN&Y album had come out yet, and then I picked up my new black-and-white photographs (including the one of my room shown here. Notice Viv's sweet television seems to have found a more permanent home here in my room.) I thought they turned out nice, for the most part.

I returned to the room and put my photos in the photo album right away, then showed the pictures to Doug, J.P., Big Jon, Kenny and others. After dinner not much of any import happened. Viv stopped in for awhile, so that was cool. And Mom called today, so it was nice to hear from her and get updates from home.

One thing I've noticed during my time here of late is that the days and weeks seem to fly by quickly. I can't believe that I've been in England almost two months already!

Wednesday, November 16, 1988

Doug Makes the Decision Final ...

Woke up early for class, and then afterward I headed into town to run a few errands, including dropping off my roll of black-and-white film, buy a newspaper, and see if the new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album was in yet. Not quite yet. I'm looking forward to hearing how they sound reunited after all these years.

While I was in downtown Hull, I ran into Doug, who had just gone to a travel agent to buy his plane ticket home. So I guess it's really happening, he's leaving early.

He said his flight leaves London on December 19... which means he's going to miss the Duran Duran concert. That's a shame, but it's his decision and he's cool with it. That's how badly he wants to go home and put this experience behind him. Also, he wanted to fly British Airways and that was the best flight he could get. We ate lunch at McDonald's, then returned home where I read the paper.

Later I went around to visit Doug, J.P., and the rest of the St. Hilda's crew, during which time we, of course, broke out into a water battle. After dinner it was "business as usual" with the good Doctor (Who). It was the conclusion of the 3-part series "The Happiness Patrol" featuring the Kandyman. It was kind of weak, actually, but I thought the irony of a world where happiness is force upon you was a clever idea, and the series actually had a pretty good ending.

Afterwards, I came back to the room, and later on Viv stopped by for a bit. Later on after that, the day ended.

*****

Pictured: Doug discovers some ducks swimming in the reeds at a park in downtown Hull.

Tuesday, November 15, 1988

Doug Makes a Big Decision

So I woke up today around 8 a.m. and went to grab some breakfast. Then I took a shower and went to my classes. While there, I was informed by Doug that after talking to his parents last night, he has decided that instead of finishing the year at Humberside College, he's going home at the end of the term, which would likely be right around Christmas.

Rats.

Well that wasn't the news I wanted to hear, but hopefully he'll be able to stick around until the Duran Duran concert we have tickets for in London on December 23. It'd be a shame if he missed it since he has been so pumped to see them here in England.

Anyway, I still had other matters to resolve, that being Viv being upset at me for the row we had last night. So after Geography and Soc/Pol Structures classes, I went back to make amends to Viv. We talked it out and realized it was a misunderstanding, so we're cool again. Then I went back to work on the map I'm creating on large poster board. (It's loads of fun, but I don't know why.), then Liz visited my room for awhile. Went to dinner, and then Viv and I returned to my room to make amends even more.

When she returned to her room, I completed my map (the country of "Flamenoria") and hung the finished product on the wall. I must say that I am quite pleased with the final results.

Later on I went over to St. Hilda's, where I found Doug had gotten quite drunk, I guess in celebration of his decision to leave early... though I don't know if celebrate is quite the term to use. I hung around there for awhile, and then came back to catch some sleep.