Dance your cares away, worries for another day....

Welcome readers, to another weekly edition of my little blog.

Well, where to begin? I suppose I could go on about my birthday but that really would be jumping the gun slightly so I guess I'll start from the most interesting point of last week, which would be Tuesday.

It had just gone 3:00pm and I was getting ready for the 10-or-so kids that come to "Art Club" after school. I had opened the cupboard to get some things out and was casually biting my nails, as I most often do. Whilst biting my thumb nail though I felt something give way. I looked at my nail and realised that it was intact... So what the hell had crunched? Answer: My tooth! Not the whole tooth (and nothing but the tooth! ha ha... sorry) just a little piece of enamel off the edge of my front gnasher. It looks like a little gateway in to the tooth itself. Quite strange. Needless to say I was surprised. If my teeth are going soft then I want it put right imediately! Unfortunately the dentists were closed by the time I left school so I decided to go on Thursday... I left at 3:30pm (which is early!) and shot back down to the dentists on Prince of Wales Lane. Now it must be said that I havent been to the dentists in a few years and I wasn't registered with anyone. So I went in and asked if I coud join their dental plan and told me about my tooth. The lady on the desk (who looked like her name might have been Sharron, or Tracy... You get the picture) told me to fill out a form and she would book me in. Whilst she was tapping away on the keyboard she was firing questions at me...


Sharron: Naim' ?
Me: Gareth.
Sharron: Ser-naim'
Me: Evans.
Sharron: EE-VEE-AY-EN-ESS?
Me. Yep.
Sharron: 'Ow long as it been sinse yoo visitid a dent-hist?
Me. About three years I thi-
Sharron: Eny nown Ullerjic reac-shuns?
Me. Uh, none that I know of.
Sharron: Eny 'Istory of 'epilepsee or 'art trubble?
Me. No.
Sharron Are yoo pregnunt?
Me. .............?
Sharron:.... Probubly not

At this point I gave her the form back and asked when my appointment was. She said the only available slot was 5:00pm on the 27th of March... And I would have to pay £30 there-and-then to secure the appontment! So I paid up. I suppose if it gets my tooth sorted it's worth it.

In the evening I went down to fathers as usual, but UNusualy that is not where we stayed... We headed over to one of the Laaads houses, a Mr Andy Lake (that spelling of "lads" will be made apparent later on) to try and finalise the skiing holiday in April. We have the flight booked but are in the process of playing a couple of hotels off against each other to get a good deal. Whoever gives us the lowest price will be booked! It's a lovely situation to be in, knowing that a 1000 miles away 2 fat Austrians are fighting and undercutting one another just for you...

Anyway we left at 10:30pm and I drove home from fathers. I didn't really do much exept eat some porridge (because my tooth was still feeling weird) and go to bed.

So I woke up on Thursday the 8th of March 2007 and the first thing I did was become older! 25, quarter of a century... I'm in my "mid-20's" now and i wonder if things will change? I suppose only time will tell.

I didn't really have time for cards and stuff, I had to get ready for work. The day went much like any other. Sal' (who's birthday it also on the 8th) had given me a card with a badge on it saying "Expert beer drinker" and I was told I had to wear it... So wear it I did! After school was done with I went home to open cards and presents. I admit I didn't really have many presents as such because I just asked people for money. I did get a few things to open though. My nan bought me some paint brushes and chocolates. and my aunt and cousins got me a HMV card and a My Chemical Romance T-shirt (which, as I type this, I am wearing.) I then went down to my nans to see her (and get my pressie! ha ha!) Now the story of my nans present is one exciting tale...

It begins in January. My dad and all the lads were going skiing in Lake Tahoe, America, because it was the 20th year they had been away on the lads ski holidays. You see, dear reader there are usualy 2 ski holidays per year. The normal family one, that anyone can go on, and there is the lads skiing holidays. (Over 18's only) I have been to pretty much all the family ones, and 3 of the lads holidays making me a fully paid up "lad." Now the lads holidays are never booked in a school holiday. It ramps the price up, and the pistes are always packed with people. So since starting at Woodrush over 2 years ago, I havent been able to go. I wasn't able to go to Lake Tahoe either, obviously which I was disapointed about. It was decided that because it was the 20th aniversary holiday something special had to be done. The answer was personalised fleeces and hats: My dad and Pete Twist went and found a company that did that sort of thing and made everyone who was going on the 20th matching, but personalised apparel. Now, one of the lads (a Mr Michael Murphy) doesn't say "lads" he pronounces it "laaads" (see, I told you the spelling would become apparent!) So the clothing had "The laaads on tour" on the front, with the owners name, and all the dates and places skiied on the back, much like tour dates on a band Tshirt. The hats (which were supposed to match the jackets, but Pete Twist deliberately picked ones which were bright orange!) had "The laaads on tour" on the front. They looked brilliant, but sadly, much to my dismay, I didn't have one made for me since I wasn't going on the trip....

... Or so I thought! Originaly, I really WASN'T going to get one, but my nan thought of this prior to the order and asked my dad to include me in the list so that she could give it to me on my birthday.

It was a good present. The only thing is that I now have the dubious honor of being the only member of the 20th aniversary list who wasn't on the actual holiday... And I'm not sure if anybody is going to wear them again! Ah well.... it's all good

Anyway I left my nans and went home to get ready for the packhorse. Lank was ship-shape again and so he was out in force for the first time in almost a month! At the swan my dad came for a pint and so did aunty Jan. I had a few more cards and a few drinks bought me and it was a very good night. We left at about midnight as usual, completely knackered!

Friday was boring... Oh except for the evening when I went back down to my nans for a chinese. I ate about 3 meals worth of food. Rice, noodles, chicken... The list is endless. Why do you always eat more than you can comfortably handle when it comes to chinese food?

Ah Saturday. I took Donna for lunch at the Red Lion in Earlswood. I hadn't seen her over my birthday so I picked her up and drove us out for a bite to eat. when we got there we found a table and ordered I had steak (as always) and donna had a burger that was actually a bagel... Yes I know, weird, but it lookedquite tasty. After passing up the opportunity for dessert I dropped her home. I then went over to selenas since thats where mum and nan were. I got there at about 3:30pm and sat down to watch a very good copy of Ghost Rider on DVD. I had been to see it at the cinema but decided to watch it again. The copy, however had bits of the film missing. Nothing major, just little scenes here and there that were either cut short, or had dialogue missing. There was probably about 20 minutes of film gone in total. Ah well, no matter.

After leaving at 6:00pm I rallied the troops for a night out. It was supposed to include lots of people from the Packhorse, but i hadn't heard off them. I didn't know if they were going up to Solihull (like they said) or not. I got Jenny and Marcus, Jason and gemma, Dan, and Adam on board and we all met up in Weatherspoons in Solihull. We had a couple of bevvies before moving on to Loaf, or Loft, or whatever the fuck it's now called. We all had a good bop' on the dance floor and expended some pent-up energy, not to mention some pent-up cash in the process! It was 2:45am when we caught the taxi... We dropped Adam home and then directed the cabbie to Wythall. Before going to bed I needed something to eat, so microwaved a cornish pasty and melted some cheese over ther top of it, and topped it with a splash of worcestershire sauce and a squirt of ketchup... Magic! I then collapsed in to bed and slept soundly until 10:45 this morning, where I woke up, gathered my head, had something to eat and began blogging!

I will leave you there dear readers as I am about to go and give Dan his birthday card since he to now joins the mid-20's club.

TTFN dear readers.