Pitch and...pitch, and pitch again...and putt...and putt again...you get the idea

Over the past month or so Andy and I have become rather obsessive pitch and putt fans. This has had three main consequences:

1. I am no longer able to taunt Dad for wanting to wander round an oversized field hitting a 'small ball into a small hole with a big stick'.
2. I am poorer than I was when we played one pool night a week.
3. I have another sport at my disposal with which to tonk Andy.

There should have been an impressive fourth point...however, despite cramming in up to three rounds per week, neither of us have really seen a consistent marked improvement in our play, other than Andy's recent birdie and a few pars here and there. Our aim at the moment is to achieve a round of 36, which is 9 over par over 9 holes. That may not sound very impressive, but at the moment we seem to be hitting the 40 to 45 mark, so a good few shots need to be saved here and there in order to reach the target. Assuming anyone is at all interested, I'll let you know how we are getting on in future posts!

Another new pastime I have recently taken up is becoming an avid viewer of The Apprentice. I had never watched any episodes from the previous four series, but for some reason this time around I find myself hooked! OK, so maybe it's not the most stimulating or moral-grounded show on the box, but I cannot deny that it makes fascinating viewing and I would also point out that it provides an insight into the world through the eyes of people with whom I would not necessarily see eye-to-eye. That said, the media hype regarding the anger, backstabbing and immorality of the contastants to me seems completely unfounded, as the teams appear to, on the whole, work professionally. There is little doubt that in programmes such as this cuts are made in order to create the perceived 'best' TV and I have little doubt that behind the scenes tensions and personal rifts would not be as rife as they appear at face value. So, if you've never thought about watching the show, I would thoroughly recommend at least giving it a chance!

Of course, Apprentice nights are Wednesdays, and from now until late June these times will be double-booked with the Just10 Winchester event, which quite rightly takes priority (thanks, iPlayer!) My church, St Andrew's, is broadcasting a live stream every week from Winchester Catherdal, where well-respected evangelistic speaker J John (who I have heard in the past at Soul Survivor) is delivering a series of ten sermons, each unpacking one of the ten commandments in an effort to open their relevance to our lives and world today. Unfortunately, the live link failed on the opening night and the tech desk had to resort to a pre-recorded DVD of the planned talk. However, the message (about finding true contentment) still came across really well and rumour that a better connection has now been established means hopes are high for the talk this coming week. J John is a highly engaging speaker and I would encourage anyone who reads this blog to, if it is within their means, take a look at the website and come along to one of these excellent events!

Last weekend I completed the annual 15-mile bike ride for the SCRATCH charity, along with 22 others, from Dibden Purlieu to Calshot via Beaulieu (which included a cycle up the intimidating Beaulieu Hill!) Despite being absolutely shattered, especially after a lengthy return trip, the money I and the other cyclists raised made this a very worthwhile morning. One of the reasons I was so tired was that I stayed up until 3am making direction signs, which Andy and I then layed out along the course for those unfamilliar with the route the following morning. Not one of my wisest moments! Then of course, they all needed collecting...and the sign at Ipley crossroads had blown away in the wind! So if you find a salmon-pink laminated piece of card reading 'SCRATCH cycle route' then I would very much appreciate its return (though I'm not holding much hope!)

Also on Saturday, I was called in to operate the visuals for an Alpha day at church, and in the evening the whole family visited the Smiths for a lovely meal, which was followed by much hilarity over a perceived 'mouse' in Andy's bedroom. A plethora of rodent-related jokes soon followed!

So, it's been busy, as usual. In amongst all this activity college has of course resumed and, as I have said in the past, being part time seems to make absolutely no difference to the amount of work I find myself doing - my experience this year leads me to believe that I must surely have been slacking last year! Although I am not dreading the exams by any means, I am very much looking forward to summer, though I am sure I will still miss college, in spite of my anticipation of the promise of university. More to come on this in future posts I am sure. For now, I just need to get through this week, get revising and get some top grades. Sounds easy, eh...?!

I have to admit there is loads more I could have talked about in this blog but I am very much aware that I have gone on for too long as it is. I look forward to the return of The Noise Project this coming weekend, where more cars will be scrubbed, teas served and dances salsa'd as we aim to spread a little bit of love with the community. Read all about it next time!

(P.S - Starting to think I need to blog a few times a week, the way things are going. What you have here is only a snippet of what I could have talked about, but then you all lead busy lives and haven't got all day to read pointless waffle. I promise to use my time spent with your attention sparingly!)

Championing the Mundane

This week I decided that it has been too long since I last wrote a blog post, and thus another incident of unplanned bedtime procrastination has allowed me a window of opportunity in which to get the ball rolling again. I am writing this on my laptop in bed, where of course I should be making an effort to get to sleep, though it has to be said this is a rather dull thing to spend your time doing, despite the fact that the combination of a weary body, busy day and the darkness outside more or less necessitates it.

It does feel kind of weird to be using this laptop again, as since I last posted on the blogger site I have bought a new desktop PC, which has naturally become my main computer. The laptop is now used mainly for college - and currently as backup for Lydia, whose own computer has decided it wants to begin shutting down at will thanks to a faulty fan. Another visit to PC World awaits.

At this point the predictable route for me to traverse would be to sum up everything that has gone on between my last entry in early November and the present time. However, as most readers of this blog either know this already or hold little interest in the events of the past five or so months, I will unashamedly resist this temptation in favour of a relatively simple comeback post which will hopefully mark the beginning of a continuing stream of blogs for many months to come.

In spite of this, there is one element of my life which I believe does warrant a mention, and this is my decision to accept an offer from the University of Southampton to study IT in Organisations from October this year. In stark contrast to my previous experience of university application, on this occasion I genuinely feel excited about the prospect of studying in higher education as I feel I have considered my future with a much broader mind. This time I am also keen to live out in halls, as I believe a have matured enough within the past year to find this an attractive proposition and am now drawn more towards an independent lifestyle. Without wishing to bore you with any further thoughts and details regarding university in this entry, it is my intention to continue to update you on progress as I move towards this next chapter in my life.

In my last post I talked about introducing readers to some of my strange sayings through the means of this blog. While in retrospect I would now rather concentrate on publishing my thoughts on life as we move through the exam period, summer holidays and towards university, I will say that these funny phrases do continue to be used, probably to such an extent that they no longer appear amusing and have simply become an immovable habit. This was especially evident at the 'Get Ready to Go' event which I attended at the university during the week, where I found myself explaining to one of my peers how I 'champion the mundane' and 'enjoy the tedious things in life'! Lucky for me he was a computer scientist, or else I would have indeed seemed rather monotonous company myself!

As the Easter holidays draw to a close, rather than dreading the return to college, I find myself actually looking forward to the run-up to exams. Come this Thursday my coursework will be cleared, meaning it is simply a case of revising hard in order to succeed in the few exams that I am sitting. One of the best pieces of advice that I heard during the event at the uni was from a current student, who recommended viewing studies as 'a 9 til 5 job', which means that if you work hard during the day, you should not feel guilty for taking it easy in the evenings and at weekends, nor will an overspill of work infringe on your free time. It is definitely easier said than done, but I am keen to give it a good go in this final term in order to keep things as stress-free as possible. (Going to bed on time may also not be a bad idea!)

As I conclude this comeback post, I would like to ask for some advice regarding my style of writing in this blog. I have always struggled with 'net speak', as I do in fact find it easier to write using moderately complex vocabulary than simple words. In the past I have been concerned that this formal style is incongruous with the type of reading one expects to find on user-created content websites, though having said that I usually encounter positive comments whenever I put up a new post. (Maybe simply because these are much-anticipated rarities!) It could be said that it fits my perceived demeanor, but is that necessarily a good thing? Do you find my blog posts too heavy-going? I am simply querying this to gauge an opinion as, after all, this type of blog should be written in the way in which its author feels comfortable and thus don't expect a style change as result of any reader complaints!

That said, this post will set a poor benchmark upon which to pass judgement, owing to the fact that I am simply using it to begin blogging as routine once again. Future posts should lean more towards the current affairs of my life and, touch wood, be written in a chattier style in times of reduced intelligence (ie any time before midnight, after which for some reason I often gain a surge of positive and intelligent thought, left largely untouched for the majority of the day!)

And so, time to begin snoozing. I am sure there are many topics I have failed to mention, most of which would have surpassed he level of interest generated by the contents of this post. Oh well, they are destined to either be mentioned on another day or forgotten about completely. Expect a bright, fresh and exciting new post towards the end of next week, when the church bike ride looms large!

As Adrian Chiles would say - 'Have a bearable week at work'. See you soon!

Back from Wales...and have been for some time!

Hello. Yes, sorry, I know - I fail as a blogger once again. I have been back from Pembroke for over a week and a half now and, despite remembering to update the blog, I have neglected to actually do anything about it. Until now!

So..the week was excellent! As predicted, there was quite a lot of standing precariously close to cliff edges, although this was accompanied by ventures down very steep slopes, across slipperly boulders and along heighty thin ledges to make the experience just that little bit more hair-raising! Having said that, I think doing these activities went some way to combatting my tendency to be over-cautious, so with no broken bones to report we'll put it down as a success!

We stayed in a recently-referbished farmhouse in Nolton Haven (not MILTON Haven as I mistakenly said in my last blog) and this was extremely comfortable and spacious, with enough bedrooms for me to sneak my own room with double bed all to myself - cushy, eh? We had breakfast laid on for us each morning with a packed lunch supplied for our ventures out along the Pembrokeshire coastline which, despite involving an awful lot of walking, proved to be much more interesting than I had anticipated. The weather was kind to us on Tuesday and Wednesday, meaning that by the time we were forced back to the farmhouse early on Thursday due to strong winds and a rising tide, we had already collected a nice lot of field data to be used in the coursework. We were able to witness a large variety of geology and I thought it was especially satisfying to put theory learned in the classroom to use in the 'real' world. Taking notes out in the open was a challenge but we were able to share data upon arrival home in the evenings, then it was off to the nearby pub for our evening meal and several games of pool to round off the day! Overall it was a brilliant trip (in spite of the cliffs) and, as people had said beforehand, a beautiful part of the world that I would definitely visit again. (Something I thought about afterwards was that it was also the first time I had been on a residential since primary school!)

A few pictures...(pictures? WOW!)

OK, so that's that bit out the way - I did say I would try to keep it brief, didn't I? Part two of this blog concerns what I have been trying - and failing - to explain for the last three posts - the relevance of this blog's title!

Some of you may have been *cough* lucky enough to hear me use the phrase 'what is dust', even if you were puzzled by it at the time. If you get to know me really well then you will probably recognise before long that it is not the only strange thing that I come out with. 'What's occurring?', 'is it wise?' and 'it's a bit of a contre-tant' are all phrases that I use on a fairly regular basis which, on initial encounter, appear to be mindless gibberish. However, there is a usually a reason behind them, however bizarre it may seem.

My Dad and I are on the same comedic wavelength and both find satire particularly amusing. This has led to an increasingly uncontrollable tendency to make satirical observations, state the obvious and generally pick holes in anything and everything, even if the object or event in question is intended to be portrayed in complete innocence. We therefore now have a huge collection of inside jokes, coined phrases and 'cult' characters which seem to amuse whenever or wherever they crop up.

So, as I created this blog with the intention of making observations and picking holes in my life and the events of the wider world, I naturally thought it might be fun to introduce this terminology to those completely unfamilliar with such a strange brand of humour.

I hope that's explained it OK...it's not an easy concept to get your head round, but hopefully if you keep reading the blog then you will be able to cotton on to a few inside jokes rather then being alienated by suddenly realising that, yes, I can be very - um - unorthodox at times!

OK people, I think I'll wrap it up there for this post. I promise things will be shorter and funnier from hereon in, now that the formalities are out of the way. I might even get round to actually writing something exciting, who knows?

P.S. What do you mean 'what's occurring' is a catchphrase off a BBC Three comedy show? It wouldn't have been popular had I not coined it in the first place!

Off to Pembroke

I'm off to Pembrokeshire in Wales with my geology class for our second year field work tomorrow morning, so expect heavy rain to continually batter the UK for the majority of the week! We are going in order that we can complete the coursework section of the syllabus which requires at least three days spent out in the 'field' collecting real geological information for use in the project which I haven't yet started due to my inital three-week absence and as a result have little/no idea about (though this shouldn't matter as I will be able to plan based on results which I will then already know - confused? I know I am!).

We will be travelling up in a minibus, staying in a bed and breakfast near Milton Haven throughout the week and returning on Friday, with each day taking us to several sites of geological interest. I don't know anything about the area, but most of the people I have spoken to seem to be of the opinion that it is one of the most beautiful places they have been to, so hopes are high - with any luck the geology should be pretty reasonable too, and so it should be if we are bothering to make such a big trip of it!

I plan to blog briefly about the trip upon return (I'm sure you can hardly contain yourselves with excitement at this prospect) and, fourth time lucky, I might finally be able to tell you what this blog is meant to be all about...so prepare to be thrilled!

Wish me luck (ie that I don't tumble down any steps or get blown off any cliffs) and have an enjoyable week, people!

Muddled Mind

My head is in a bit of a spin - not through any emotional trauma, or extreme drunkeness, or knocking myself out, but simply because I just seem to have so much to do!

Now it may just be me being a slight obsessive compulsive, but I can't seem to be able to relax when I know I have outstanding things which need to be done. In this situation it's easy to feel as if everything needs to be completed urgently, even if it doesn't, and I find myself bound by an overwhelming desire to write everything down in a big, long list. So far I have resisted, although the whiteboard in my room (yes, I do have one!) is crammed with jumbled scrawls reminding me to 'design church Christmas card', 'finish ICT work' and - er - 'write new blog', to name but a few. To make matters worse, this 'list' is getting bigger by the day.

However, I am determined not to let myself become overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. Last year at college I let myself get behind too often, becoming lulled into a false sense of security by the self-assurance that 'I would get it done in the end'. This usually resulted in leaving work until the last possible minute before hurriedly completing it to a sub-standard quality. Ultimately I paid the price for this as I hugely underachieved in a number of subject units, although the experience did serve as a good lesson in that using time constructively, working hard and aiming high really does reap rewards. Apart from anything else it is far more fulfulling completing a job knowing that you have tried your absolute hardest (whatever the outcome), as opposed to doing just enough to get by and no more - the latter of which I foolishly succumbed to on numerous occasions last year.

Based on these words of wisdom I guess it would be best to just take one thing at a time, although I think it might be helpful to at least write down when each task needs to be completed so I can prioritise and plan my time. Part of the problem is that I am away on a geology field trip next week so anything that is important I will have to do over the weekend...

...sorry, I'm just rambling now. Even more so than I was before.

What I would say, however, is that writing this blog has gone some way to putting my mind at rest - it's no longer spinning like a tornado...more a gentle merry-go-round, maybe?

Wow, I've found a use for my blog. Amazing!

Well I suppose I should apologise for another shockingly boring post which mainly resembled a university lecture. And also for not doing what I said I would, which was reveal more about why this blog is called what it is.

The next blog will be better, I promise. It's just it's currently in it's fledgling stage, which is one of extreme tedium, mainly caused by the fact I haven't posted anything for over half a year and have therefore forgotten how to be both informative and entertaining at the same time (though you can't blame me for I am a bloke and we are not expected to multi-task!)

Please bear with me and expect a new (ie GOOD) post within the next day or two.

Laters!

Let me introduce myself...if I can!

Now, before I introduce myself I should just like to point out that I am utterly hopeless at introductions, so you must be prepared for a barrage of clichéd cheesiness and general pointless rambling about stuff you probably already know about...in the introduction, I mean...not the blog itself (although no doubt it will descend into that sort of thing before too long).

The main reason for this is that, although the majority of you will have been ushered here by me in the vain hope that if you really are a friend you may find it of some interest, I harbour the thought that my humble words could perhaps reach some random person just browsing the internet who may actually find them entertaining enough to waste a few minutes reading.

This is part of the reason why I wanted to start writing my blog here on Blogger instead of continuing to post sporadic entries on MySpace - there is scope for reaching a much wider audience as the readers are not limited to people on my friend list - who these days visit the site on an increasingly infrequent basis. I myself have 'jumped ship' from MySpace to rival networking site Facebook over the past year and as a result visit the former only in periods of intense boredom, or to read my sister's blog which is hosted there. It therefore seems illogical to continue to churn out blog entries which will only realistically be read by one or two people.

The other main reason for starting a clean slate is that my old MySpace blog tended to concentrate only on events taking place in my life at the time, usually with little or no mention of my own thoughts and feelings surrounding these events. OK, so these types of blogs may have been interesting to close friends but for anyone else the boredom would have probably set in very quickly. I became tied up in feeling that I had to constantly relay everything that had been going on in my world, meaning that I was far less inclined to write anything at all. As a result, blogs became less frequent and therefore lengthier, with large, off-putting walls of text offering little in the way of entertainment.

The idea behind this blog is, therefore, that I will be able to write regularly about things that have been of interest to me and are worth sharing with an online audience of both friends and general internet users. This doesn't mean I won't ever be talking about things that have been going on in my life, it just means that I will be more selective in what I choose to write about. I also want to express more emotion on these pages than I have in the past. Those of you who know me will realise that I am usually quite unflappable, so don't expect a pouring out my soul or writing about major life crises every other day, but when I do feel like sharing my thoughts and feelings then I hope to be able to do so.

And although this blog will naturally centre around things concerning me, myself and I, one of my aims is to delve into issues of the wider world and cast my opinions on things which are known to more than just the people around me. A steady mix of personal and public knowledge will, I hope, provide me with enough material to keep the blog regular, relevant and, above all, readable...

...although having got this far you are probably thinking that I have failed in that last point already! Fear not, for the tedium is nearly at an end. All that's left to do is...

...introduce myself! (See? Told you I was rubbish at introductions - I have managed to ramble on for half a page without ever having mentioned my name!)

So I'd better say a few things about myself...let's make it easy and say ten things, otherwise I would probably go on all night and I have to get up early tomorrow...

1. My name is Dominic, although most people call me Dom.
2. I am British - that is, I am from the UK - and I live in Hampshire
3. I live with my Mum, Dad and sister...oh and Clara, our cat
4. I am currently a student (which may give you an idea of my age)
5. I am a Christian. It's awesome, and don't let it scare you!
6. I am mildly addicted to my laptop (if you can you be mildly addicted)
7. I enjoy making videos - despite continual movie maker crashes
8. I play badminton and table tennis, albeit not very well
9. My favourite two bands are Keane and Coldplay
10. I would like to become a teacher after university

So, there you are - 10 facts most of you probably already knew and didn't want to hear again. Oh well...laterally thinking there's at least 10 future blog posts there for if I'm ever stuck for something to write about. (I'm not actively trying to bore you all, honest!)

Anyway, I think I will wrap this up for now as I've broken all my own rules in this opening post and it has already dragged on for far too long. I sincerely hope that you are not put off by its unrelenting tediousness and will return over the next few months to see how I've been getting on - hopefully with some sort of entertaining twist.

Oh and by the way, if you are wondering about the origins of the blog title and baffled by the description below then be sure to check back next time when all will be revealed!

Farewell for now...