Still in Whalley

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  Whalley, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Monday, March 10, 2008

G'day once again to all and sundry and allow me to offer my apologies for having taken so deplorably long to get another post together. Of course, as those who know me can and likely will attest, I am something of a world class procrastinator, so I'm reasonably sure that the delay was not entirely unexpected.
 
Well, Doug and I are still living and working here in Whalley, Lancashire, and are probably in danger of becoming alcoholics. Well, we would be in danger of becoming alcoholics if alcohol wasn't so expensive, so I suppose that our livers and kidneys are safe for the moment.
 
We're still living in the Whalley Arms, which is slowly beginning to feel a bit like a home. The search for work continues, though without much in the way of success as yet. This may be due to the fact that anytime we get a free day around the place, we tend to head off chasing some cheap pints. About two Mondays ago, we headed of to Burnley (which everyone pronounces burn-leh) to go to an Australian pub, of all places. Walkabout Hotels, are a pretty big chain of pubs over here, famous mostly for selling cheap beer and employing Australians. I suppose we could've looked for work there, but it's a bit far to be travelling. They even had a few Australian beers there, but unfortunately, they weren't on the cheap list and consequently we had to resort to drinking John Smith's, which was a pound a pint. We drank pretty much all day and wound up in quite a state. True to form, Dougie (ever the ladies man) had attracted the avid attention of a young lady with a s.o.c.k. (if you don't know what a s.o.c.k. is, don't ask - you won't like the answer) whereas the only person who seemed to want to talk to me was an elderly gent intent on having a deep conversation about jazz music. I don't know bloody anything about jazz, but, not having anything better to do, I decided to see how long I could continue the conversation without that becoming evident to the gent. While this was going on, Dougie was getting busy with the young lady whose name escapes me (I'd ask Doug, but it probably escapes him too). As it turned out, I managed to hold up my end of the conversation far too well and the old fellow was quite convinced that I was a true aficionado of Jazz, and consequently, I now know where and when every jazz festival in northern England will be held for the next 6 months.
 
After I had finally managed to extricate myself from the jazz conversation from hell, I went to find Doug. Seeing that he was pretty well sorted, we had a brief conversation the end result of which was that I would head off to catch the bus home, and Doug would be sleeping at the young ladies house. I took the phone, so Doug could contact me in the event of unforeseen difficulties (we only have one phone between us) and off I went, leaving Doug with whatever-her-name-was and thinking that somehow I'd gotten the shitty end of the stick, but all is not always as it seems...
 
About an hour later, I'd made it back to the Whalley Arms, in time to have one more beer and then head off with Louise and Hayley (two of the staff with whom we've become good friends) to the Judge Wallmsely, which always stays open about 2hrs after everywhere else. While we were there, and into about a 3rd pint or so, the phone rings. It is, of course, Dougie, wanting to know where I am. So I tell him the Judge, and he says no worries, I'll be there soon. Somehow or other, he had managed to to blow it with the young lady in Burnley, and having missed the last bus, decided to run (somewhere between 6 and 10 miles, local opinions vary) back to Whalley. Did I mention that it was raining? And it's winter? Who says alcohol doesn't make you do stupid things, eh? But I guess that's just what happens when you don't want to pay for a cab.
 
Probably the most surprising thing, for me, is the fact that he managed to even find his way back! I don't think I'd have managed that. I'd probably be silly enough to try running back in the rain, but I'd have wound up six villages away, in the wrong direction.
 
Anyways, he made it back, safe and sound and soaking wet. So then we all had to drag the story out of him, as to how things had gone so badly south, none of which I can now remember, likely due to the amount of alcohol I had consumed. Send Dougie an email if you are really keen for the details ;)
 
So... what else have we done? Well, there's been a few other little adventures I suppose, but mostly, life now consists of working in the pub, looking for more work, going to the local nightclub (which is significantly better than players, back home, though about the same size) and hangovers.
 
We have a few little plans in the works though, that will hopefully come off soon. One of the hotel managers in Bulgaria that we met, a top notch bloke called Nasser, told us about a trip he's organising to Turkey which I think is in May, if we can organise things, we might try and go along on that one.
 
The Isle of Mann TT is coming up, at the end of may and if we can make it there, that'd be fantastic. There's a massive, V music festival in July and a smaller, local one a little earlier than that. St paddy's day is soon, march 17th so we'll have to try something for that.
 
At any rate, life is good, but things are probably likely to be somewhat slow for a little while here while we try and save money for future adventures. If anything else terrible noteworthy occurs, I'll try and get it on here.
 
Hope everyone back home is doing well, and not too bored by all this! We'll try and do something exciting soon, I promise. The photos uploaded with this are pretty indicative of the randomness and silliness that happens on nights on the piss...
 
Cyas!

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doug getting amorous	lou, me, doug and hayley	blah	doug and hayley
doug and hayley	doug and hayley	Becci and Lou	me... fuggen poser
dougie	smee again	hayely and paddington	yes, this is how they dance here
hut 42! hut 42!	wtF?	doug and lou	hayley and lou
retard	what? no, really WHAT?	more Whalley dancers   Comments!	thats it. you're out
dougie trying to kiss me. Again.	i swear, he touched my arse.	lou and hayley, again!	doesn't look posed at all does it?
Blackburn cathedral	the old and the new

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