crazybobbles

Day 2 from the epic Leeds Weekend…

8am: They’re after my lucky charms!

Sleep was a precious thing, some people treasure the amount of time they have for sleeping, in particular with those who go to work on a 9 to 5 basis and are suffering from fatigue. I myself having finished uni and am in the middle of being in a jobless and studyless state don’t need to cherish these moments. This is why I woke up at some ungodly time and just lounged about for a bit. I think I woke up about 8 odd and got changed and ready for the next day, unfortunately inn wasn’t actually ready so it meant I had to just… sleep some more. That’s right, another micro sleep. I keep doing this every morning due to the fact that the sun really gets into me.

So yeah, fastforward this a bit more and we get to the point that I eventually wake up because inn woke up. She kept moaning about how I snore in my sleep which kept her up when in fact.. my snores were minimal, just a bit of heavy breathing I’d say. Man breathing.

Gem eventually knocks on our door quietly to see if we’re all up and all, she jokingly knocks the door really hard like what happened the night before, twas funny until one of her housemates go “HAR HAR VERY FUNNY!”, but even then it was still pretty funny haha.

After much preparation and getting readyness we all head down to the get ready for breakfast, I eventually walk downstairs and have a friendly chat with everyone. Eventually it was time for some lucky charms and orange juice action.

Alice and Inn have no tried lucky charms so it was a new experience for them (of how to get really fat haha). We went in the kitchen to get the bowls and picked 3 nice big blue bowls and a dish like bowl for inn (a bit like a bowl where you’d put milk in for kittens to drink). I poured an ungodly amount of lucky charms into the bowls and served everyone, we only had about 1/4 worth of lucky charms left haha.

Everyone was loving the lucky charms, Gem used to love lucky charms when she was a kid so this was a nice blast from the past whilst the other two just enjoyed the marshmellows and frosted oats. Of course the breakfast won’t be complete without some shots of the lucky charms.

We eventually headed off to Leeds for some shop browsing and lounging about

12am Lioning climbing and jazz scat music

Inn wanted to go to sound control to check out acoustic guitars so we started walking to the place, we eventually stumble upon some lion statues which inn wanted to climb on, it was literally a photo break for our journey where we just go photo trigger happy haha.

Sound control was quite close to the train station and all, Alice was the only one who actually knew where it was so we all relied on her in finding the way, she didnt seem to convinced at where it was suppose to be and people started to doubt her on it hehe bless, I strangely had confidence that she would get it right so I stood by her side that she was going to find it. We eventually found the place and headed in for some musical jamming.

The sound control was quite fun and friendly, we instantly scattered to instruments and played with them (well just me and inn anyway haha), inn went straight to the acoustic section since she wanted to get an acoustic guitar whilst I went straight at the keyboards. There was some random guy playing lots of Muse songs throughout the visit and it was rather annoying since he was only doing the guitar riffs and it was pretty boring haha. I played my typical tracks to Alice including the odd take a bow, some super mario tunes and pokemon.

Soon I went to the acoustic section to play some King of the Hill and Mansun. I tried the bass a bit too but it was a bit boring on its own, soon after that I went to the keyboards and tried out new sounds, one in particular was “Jazz Scat”. It was awesome! Every note was a sampled scat note, I played a few muse tracks including Hysteria which sounded awfully like the acapella rendition of it and eventually I did Leekspin too! I also switched to church organs and played Phantom of the Opera at full blast. Good times!

We eventually left the store and Inn bought some plectrums which made us look less like we were here JUST to jam (I know I was haha).

1:30pm: Nero and goodbyes

We headed to a nearby Caffe Nero and bought some drinks to chill out, we picked the one pretty close to the train station since Alice had to go at 2 odd for her prom (lots of preparing involved). Soon after we ordered our drinks we went trigger happy again (we’re terrible arent we). Twas a nice chilled out sit and chat, though sadly it was time for Alice to head back to Halifax, I walked her to the station and gave her a quick hug goodbye before heading back to Nero.

Now thats one person down, we were expecting Paul (ril from the board) to arrive and keep the numbers above 3 people hehe. He came by and got himself a coke, we continued to talk for a bit until we decided it was time for lunch and all.

…meanwhile somewhere else… Alice’s train broked down so she was a bit delayed and all, she had a hair cut and go ready to goto the prom in a retro car ready to rock mid level venues hehe.

15:00pm odd: The return of the singing sushi man

Inn and I wanted to get some sushi action for lunch, Gem was fine since she had quite a large bowl of Lucky charms and she didnt really have breakfast in the morning so that was pretty much lunch sorted, I think ril had eaten already *shrugs*. We went back to sisushi (well not we, I did, the rest haven’t seen it). The waiter who sorted out the bills last time was there whilst there was a different female waitress serving us (the other waitress was probably traumatised from Kev’s advances). This time I decided to order out since it was a lot cheaper than eating in. I ordered myself a gourmet set which includes:

• 4 Salmon Nigiri
• 1 Seabass Nigiri
• 1 Prawn Nigiri
• 1 Octopus Nigiri
• 1 Tamago Nigiri (egg)
• 1 Ikura Salmon Roe (salmon eggs!)
• 3 Grilled Ell & Avocado Maki rolls (unagi!)
• 3 prawn and avocado make rolls

This was about £8 odd, I was silly enough to not ask for water of any sorts whilst inn got herself the same gourmet set and some miso soup.

We continued harassing the male waitress with the whole all singing all dancing sushi men! He told me that he did ask the sushi chefs but they gave him a dirty look! Inn was convinced in getting some boyband singing sushi men so she tried her luck on the male waiter to see if he would give him a rendition so he said name a song and he’ll do it. Unfortunately he didnt know the songs we wanted him to do (“I want it that way” by Backstreet boys was the grand choice) so Inn said he has to learn some next time she visits, Inn was definitely going to pay them a visit again!

We took our food and headed outside to eat on the grass. It was a lovely lunch I must say, I haven’t tried quite a lot of the stuff in the set. The salmon roe was the scariest one since liquid comes out when you bite into each egg. I sort of used the line in Jonathan Ross (in regards to eat maggots) and told inn that she had to bite into each egg in case fishes started to spawn out of her tummy hehe. I used the tripod I asked inn to bring and took some photos of us eating it from afar.

During our meal some random kids came by and jumped around like monkeys, it was pretty surreal, they were doing backflips, front flips and all sorts of monkey related activities. We just ignored them haha (I took some photos since I had the tripod and remote set up).

Afterwards we started to plan out what we were doing this evening, we were going to go play some bingo! It starts around 7 odd so we had quite alot of time to kill. We decided to do some shopping and relax at another coffee shop

4pm Corn Exchange and the stories of random people

We decided to head over to the corn exchange and browse around, it was quite a nice play I must say, first time I’ve ever been in there. It was like the miniature version of Camden without the in your face goth’s arse sticking into your face. There were a few clothes shops selling alternative clothes, Paul bought a tie in one of the shops for someone. We also went to some comic book store type place and looked at figurines and comic books haha. We had a look at quite a few shops and during one of them I bought myself a man of mystery type mask. I was hoping to gate crash Alice’s prom dressed in a cape and mask (and other clothes, not naked haha) and kill someone (Inn keeps thinking it’ll be Zorro). But yeah, least I took the first step in finding the mask. It was only £2 so it was all good. I was tempted to get a cat one too haha but passed since noone was going to wear it.

During our random wonderings we also went passed a games workshop, the same one me Alice and Kev stumbled on when finding little tokyo. The funniest thing was the fact that one of the pasty kids was looking into the manual for the game, they were getting the rule book out, we laughed so hard at them and I even asked inn to take photos of them (since she had her camera out and mine was in my bag) I dont think she managed to get the shot in the end though I would have literally walked in and took a photo of it if I wasn’t lazy ahha.

We later on went into a Starbucks and camped there until it was Bingo time. I ordered myself a Strawberry Frappacino as well as some yummy blueberry cheesecake. We sat around and had a lovely chat, talking about all sorts of things including kev, laptops, manchester, manics etc. I later on suggested to play a game where we sort of make a life out of the people walking past us underneath (the photo should explain where we were sitting and were people were more). There were odd couples kissing down this path and we sort of made cheating affairs with them and stuff. Was a fun game for a bit, then it died out haha.

We sat down until it was time for some hardcore Bingo action. Me and Inn were well excited about it all.

6.30pm Bob Spektor and the 3 bingo’s

It was a weird experience one might say, me and Inn were really curious as to why the likes of kev and Gem are having so much fun at an OAP game. So we ventured into the whole bingo thing to see what all the fuss was about. Upon entering we were prompted to register ourselves with Mecca. Knowing me, I used a fake name to sign up (Bob Spektor), Gem was impressed at how I was able to make up a signature and write it again at another time with the signature looking exactly the same hehe. I was so tempted to use “Dr” instead of “Mr” but that might give it away haha.

The entire experience reminded me of the scene in mighty boosh where vince and howard went into a Bingo hall to find Nanneratu. We looked extremely out of place upon entering, everyone was old and pasty whilst we looked like a couple of fresh meat ready to rock these old people’s worlds (or rocking chairs).

Gem explained the rules of Bingo to us and we bought our tickets for £14 (quite a lot of rounds though). We also bought dabbers to jot on the numbers, I picked myself a green dabber and got some water along the way.

Bingo was definitely out of this world, it was an intense game that required full concentration, I was amazed at how focused you need to be when listening to the people call out the numbers whilst you mark them on your bingo sheet. At first I missed out a few numbers but later on I really got the hang of it and went dab crazy. We discovered that you can say or do anything to alert people that you have won, kev apparently used “bingo” when he won but the others seemed to just go “yup” or “yeah” when they win. I was hoping to use “GWAAAAAAAAAARGH” whenever I won and do a double metal sign just to really get things going. Of course I would be shouting it too!

Each round was intense, but sadly some random person wins it and not us haha. At one point the person behind me and inn shouted “YUP” and scared me and inn hehe. It was a classic scene, the guy eventually apologised to us and bought himself a beer haha.

Eventually Inn starts to really get lucky (probably from my lucky charms) and wins at Bingo, she quickly confirms that she was won on her ticket and goes “yep!” Really quietly, I was disappointed that she just went yep like the other people, but then again you’re concentrating on it all too much that you don’t really think about it when you’ve called. Inn won £100 for her first go. We all hi5′d each other and everyone at the bingo hall gave us a smile, the kind that goes “i wish i was young” i’d say haha.

There were all sorts of sub games going on tonight too, including an american version of bingo, a national bingo and some other one. The national one was pretty scary since all Mecca bingo halls across the nation were playing and the prize money was scary! One of the problems with me winning it was the fact that the money was going to be paid via cheque so you can imagine how much of a bummer it would be if I wont and had to tell them that my name wasn’t Bob Spektor. I had to settle with the giving my ticket to either Gem Inn or Paul if I won and they’d split the money 4 ways afterwards, it stressed me out that if I won i wasn’t able to celebrate! Once those games were over I was able to relax and enjoy the game like normal since the payout was in cash (some random person handing out money to your table).

The games continue and near the end, inn wins AGAIN! This time £20. Nonetheless she claims her money and is super chuffed about it. There were many times when I was one number close in winning too but some other person starts calling before you. I usually cursed them for winning haha, just added to the drama! The final game was won by, yup, you guessed it..INN AGAIN! She managed to pull off a hattrick of wins. This time she did it in style and went “YEAAAAAAAAARGH!” really loudly. This time I got the feeling the other players were adding inn into their hitlist for winning so many times that night. The prize was £50 this time so inn won a grand total for £170.

It was a proper buzzed evening, purely because inn had done us proud and won £170 which was later split 4 ways (there was a sharing rule in place where we’d share all the winnings). The celebration of it wasn’t too good however… we just went to a local fish and chips store and ate chips and stuff on some steps at Corn Exchange haha.

11pm: “Stacker, my nemesis in life”

Right after some food (I ate some ungodly amount of fish and chips AND a sausage haha) we went to Dr Wu’s apparently it was a nice place to hang out, unfortunately for that day it happened to get all dancey and filled with twats. Kev explained later about how other nights it’s a great bar and all but tonight was just that one night where it’s utterly crap and filled with konbs. After a quick drink and all there we decided to head to another pub. Gem took us to some pub that used to be a library. Upon walking to the pub we met a lot of students dressed up as romans which was quite fun.

We managed to get nice seats upon entering the pub and all, we then ordered some drinks and went back to the table for some random bantering (i got myself a pint of guiness haha) Gem managed to put in £2 to play some manics tracks on the jukebox. Paul pointed out a game to me in the pub that was called “Stacker“. Heres a quick explanation of the game taken from Wikipedia (wish i read this beforehand)

Stacker is an “Amusement with prizes” style game manufactured by LAI Games. The aim is to align rows of moving blocks on top of each other by pressing a button. When a player gets to the top row, they win a major prize

Now we werent initialy going to play this, I wasn’t keen on winning prizes neither was playing games a social way of spending the evening. Only until we heard some girls winning the game and getting a Nintendo DS Lite. I was pretty amazed by it I must say. I dont know what happened but soon after that I decided to venture in on this game. Upon trying it, I was able to immediately reach to the last level of the game. This is where it gets annoying. EVERYTIME i push it at the right spot, it would show that I just missed it. I wasn’t too chuffed about it so I decided to play the game again, like before I woosh past the minor prize band but totally screw up at the last level. Suddenly a crowd begins to build around me as they notice me do a really good job at getting near the end but screwing up. Most normal players would take their time and mess up at certain areas, I did it at a disturbing rate and more instinctively. I’m quite good with my hand eye co ordination so it wasn’t hard for me to get to the top. But the problem was that everytime I do get to the last bit, it messes up. I got quite addicted to the game and more addicted in trying to win the damn ds lite (even though I have one myself). The crowd became bigger and wilder, it got to a point where they asked Gem my name and began chanting it throughout my ventures. I even got people paying me money to win minors prizes since I could “win the minor prize in my sleep”. It was quite a buzz having loads of people surrounding me watching me try to beat the machine and all. I even asked inn to break £10 worth of notes into coins so I could play the game, but it simply got to a point where it wasn’t my fault I wasn’t winning the prize, it was simply a rigged machine. If someone had just won a DS lite over that game, clearly it would be impossible for me to actually win it again based on the probability and all. The machine was rigged up to only let the player win if a certain amount of profit was made.

It was ever so tedious, inn told me how all I wanted to do was beat the machine and that I was far too stubborn and determined to do so haha, she was right. I think in total I actually spent £20 on the machine (maybe more from the other people paynig me money to play for it too haha). So yeah, heres the lesson for today, don’t try and beat a machine that’s rigged. Nonetheless I had a lot of fun on the damn machine what with the crowd and all.

After that I decided to have a game of pool with inn (since Gem and Paul didnt really play pool and all). We racked up the table and began a vicious game of pool, the problem was the fact that the table was missing quite a lot of things. First it was the triangle and than it was the cue ball, Inn tried asking the manager of the pub to sort out the problem but it got to a point where he had to fish out loads of pool balls and evenetually just gave inn a red ball and told her not to pot it haha. We did get the triangle though. The game was quite fun, inn was in the lead most of the time but it got to the point where I managed to catch up on the last ball, and pot a flukey ball in and win the game It was quite fun since inn would have won if she got the black ball near the end hehe. That cheered me up quite a bit. After a while we decided to call it quits and head back to Gem’s place. It was pretty dark and all outside too (being 1am in the morning and all)

1am Doobeedoobedooo

Now, not sure if anyone knows this fact about Hyde Park in Leeds. It has been reported to have a high percentage of gay rapes there. So walking around at night at 1am in the morning wasn’t a clever idea. The park didn’t have street lamps either so it meant the entire place was pitch black and very dangerous for late night wonderings. Gem thankfully had a torch light on her phone that we used to find our way back.

I constantly went on about the fact that the park could be filled with naked men running around ready to attack you, I made a sort of sound that naked men would make if they were to move about which went “doobeedoobedoo” in a slightly funny but sinister way. The entire journey was filled with possibilities that naked men could be hiding behind trees, above trees and even inside bins. We did some shadow puppets along the way with the light too which was fun. But eventually we did return hope safe and sound.

It was quite late but nonetheless some late night bantering in Gem’s room was necessary. Me and Inn got our DS lite’s out and began battling it out with brain training as well as 42 games in one. I played Gem in several of these games including a game of pairs where we took turns to find out pairs from a stack of cards. It was fun and intense since we were both good with our memory. We mutually decided to call it draw since it was quite an intense game and we had already endured enough games for today haha. After that we decided to call it an evening and all went back to our rooms to go sleep. Inn and I were still traumatised about the whole banging last night but went to sleep anyway. We didnt have spare dovets this time so chances are it won’t happen again ahah (and it didn’t)

Thats about it, our final day in Leeds includes the return of alice and a godly impromptu bbq in Hyde Park.