It all began with my slightly chipped front tooth getting rechipped, sustained from my July the 19th 2004 episode. My mum superglued it back in after I retrieved the small enamel jigsaw piece from my lollipop, and it felt weird until I finally lost the fragment down the sink, and constantly prodding the gap with my tongue didn't lessen the weirdness. The dentist sorted it all out in the end :) Lasered in and everything (although there was some stuff that did suspiciously smell like superglue). The dentist said it was the best mouth she'd seen all day (and then she saw my teeth :B).
I again went paintballing with my St. George's friend Haseeb and his lot; we got there after a chilled-out train journey where I was reading my Yes Man book in between catching up with my mate. We got things going after his friends finally arrived, and the weather was quite nice; not too hot and not too cold, but that all changed later on, with the thunderstorm raging on and off, the rain pounding down like it had a vendetta against us. The other team was full of cheats; people who didn't go off once you shot them, so I decided to get out of the castle I was supposed to be defending and navigate through the thorns all the way around the edge until I was behind their base, stealthily shooting them in the backs before disappearing again, take that! On the way home the thunderstorm raged on, and Victoria station was evacuated because of the leaking roof and flood, but it was an experience, and if I wasn't in the 'Yes Man' phase, I probably could've enjoyed a nice dry day at home.
I saw Ice Age 3 with my brother and his mates (my friends were practically non-existent at this time), and I liked it, certainly better than number 2!
Then an Iraqi charity dinner, £25 per ticket, me and my brother and his mate, waiting ages for the food and doing bizarre things in the process. And afterwards the raffle, which my brother bought FIVE tickets for, before we had any chance to discuss whether we should be getting them or not. Our eyes were on the two Wembley tickets up for grabs, but what did we win? A women's arab dress. And then another! My brother went up to collect the first, I went for the second, but I was gobsmacked even the first time that one of our numbers was called!
Obviously the thing that stood out most in this month was the trip to Spain and Morocco (which I'm still typing out the diary for!). My final thoughts being quite mixed; Spain looked amazing, clean and was full of character. It's just sad seeing an old Muslim land no longer in the hands of the Muslims, with them being relegated to less affluent parts of town, and the old landmarks turned into tourist attractions, adorned with crosses. But nevertheless, it was an enlightening experience, and to be honest, I enjoyed the character of the place more than I did Morocco. I'll try and elaborate further after my diary's finished inshaallah.
My brother and I also joined a newly-formed football club, Cricklewood United, and the first day of training didn't go too well for me; I collapsed every so often because I'd twisted my ankle in some slim and unstable red football boots, which weren't the most comfortable in the world. But luckily, I had another pair I saw in a sale recently, exactly the same type as my red ones, and which also happen to be my mum's favourite colour.
They look nice, but a training session in these beauties left blisters and rubbed heels. But it did make me appreciate how cool blisters are; the body making cushions so you could feel more comfortable, that's what they essentially are!
~~~~~~August~~~~~~
The month kicked off (literally) with my first proper official-like football match in more than ten years (with my last time being in the under-10's league at Lillie Road), if you don't count the couple of matches I had at Imperial. It went alright, until I came off with cramp in my left leg, and we lost, but it was good getting to know our new team-mates, and how greedy some can get with the ball!
We went to Brighton as a family, ate freshly-made doughnuts (where you see the machine making it and flipping it over in the oil) and ice cream that we had to run to the car in the heavy rain. Sea-world, a very old Victorian aquarium with a cool tunnel so you can see the sharks and the big 40 stone (I think) turtle swimming along from underneath. I also saw a couple of smaller turtles getting intimate with each other, not making the '5th leg' mistake again ¬_¬, and managed to touch a shark fin before noticing the 'Do Not Touch' sign. And that's about all Brighton had to offer, apart from the pebbled beach of course.
Another match, we drew this time, and I came off with a cramp in my left leg. More training, but with the new boots I bought from Niketown. I noticed their bright colour behind the counter days before they got on the shelves (I saw some footballers wear them before... yes I'm a sucker for subliminal advertising), and just as I was about to leave and contemplate getting some non-orange ones as well, but I'm sure you'll agree they are quite nice. They're just like the ones in my dream!
We got an ice cream machine which is supposedly like the ice cream vans make, and they do taste the same, but it also needs you to freeze parts of the machine beforehand, which I think is a bit of a cheat. The ice cream at Hamleys was also nice; we went around London as a family, on the boats in Hyde Park, the pet section at Harrods (and the fossils weren't bad either!), and stood where my mum always used to stand when she was working there all those years ago... 'twas good. The next day three of us went to my afghan friend's house and chilled playing FIFA, and we liked it so much, we went to another friend's house the next day after my mate's wedding to do the same! Oh yeah, the wedding; we sat ourselves down in the packed venue and played with the toothpicks whilst some guy at the front was speaking Somali, and the occasional cheer as we picked up our friend's name being mentioned. Not many of our secondary school friends turned up which was sad, but the food was nice, and the lesson learnt that day was that if a Somali guy offers you some green sauce, politely decline; it's hot!
There was another dinner, this time for Palestine, and they had an auction at the end (after the nice asian food), and to get things going, I bid for practically every painting out there, until others bid higher. This did work out until the guy who I was mainly bidding against decided that he'd bought enough paintings that night, resulting in me having to lug home a massive £55 painting on the bus!
(It looks better upside-down I think)And another friendly football match, winning this time, and my first goal! Oh and how can I forget the awesome family picnic we had in Richmond park? Sheltered by an old tree enswathed by the bracken, spotting a few deer and their fowl on the way, and eating food we could've easily had at home, but without the wonders of the wilderness all around.
I've just realised how much waffle I have to
1 comment:
blisters aren't comfortable dumbo
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