Pirates Of The...Camden?

Friday:

My sister had been staying with me since Weds night as she had work related stuff in London on Thursday. As she was down, we'd arranged to spend the weekend with my cousin, CD, who lives near Old Street.
After I finished my afternoon lectures, I had a quick munch of Jambu's* and Tea with my sister and our frind Chigga, and packed stuff for the weekend before heading off to get the Tube to Old Street with my sister.

*Which are one of my favourite Indian sweets - balls of flour, with butter and saffron, deep-fried so they are crispy on the outside but fluffy and light on the inside, and then served in sugar syrup.
Yes I'm probably going to need a Coronary Tripple By-pass at the age of 30 but seriously - they are GOOD!

We dumped our stuff at CD's before heading off towards Angel for food.
Angel is quite cool actually, a lively little area, although it seems that no one cleans up after their dogs there.
I also spotted TWO Banskys while I was there, which was muchas coolas.

We had dinner in a really nice Italian place on the main road, and through my cousins insistance had red wine with the meal (hadn't really done that before because I thought I didn't like wine [how wrong I was!] and only normally have alcohol when I go to a bar or club).
I ate so so much in that meal, but it was so nice. As we finished off the wine we chatted more and then began people watching. Fun game.

After restaurant came bar hunting, poncy doorman "not tonight"-ing me because of my Converses, more bar hunting, drinking, leaving, and then desert hunting, at which point we ended up in a different Italian restaurant.
I was the only one who ordered both coffee and a cake but meh. T'was gooood.

Somehow my cousin, who is 23, got in to a conversation about faeces, and you know when you just find everything hilarious for no reason at all...we were all laughing so loudly about the most random crap (litterally!).

Saturday:

My sisters long time friend from school Ree was having a Pirates of the Carribean themed house party at her house in Wellwyn Garden City for her housemates birthday on saturday night so we decided to go to Camden market on a costume hunt on Saturday morning.

By the time we got to Camden we were all hungry and it was lunch time so we went to a really funky pub for food, and then headed off into the market.
About 4 hours later, we were all tired and satisfied with what we'd bought so decided to grab a coffee at Cafe Nero before heading back to my cousins place.
It took us a surprisingly long time to find good enough costume pieces but my sister remembered a fancy-dress shop in the market near Camden Lock - luckily, because that's where we got pretty much everything from.

I ended up buying a Pirate's sword, eye patch, and as it was pirates of the Carribean...a black, afro wig!

Back at her place we all got dressed up, and then headed out to the tube station to get the tube to Burnt Oak where Chigga and Jin were picking us up.
I love going on the tube when all dressed up and looking stupid, it's so much fun. All the looks you get, and people laughing/commenting is great. We ended up playing Sharades with some random man which was funny.

Photos are on a certain Flickr account.

Randomly, let me fill you in:

My sister and Ree have been friends since the beginning of Secondary school.
Chigga and Jin are Ree's friends, who my sister met during their uni years.
My cousin, CD, met them all at my sister's birthday (the night of random poultry-textage) and started going out with Jin after that.
And I met them all through my sister over the years.
Thats how everyone knows everyone.

The house party was quite good seeing as I didn't know anyone else there but I got talking Paulo, a friend of my sister and Ree, whom they met when they went to Frankfurt during the world cup. As Ree put it they have a habit of collecting random friends from holidays.
I also met Paulo's friend Adie who like me didn't know anyone, but like he said that was cool because as no one really knew anyone, everyone got to know everyone...if that makes sense.

Anyway, the six of us finally got to bed at about 4am-ish, and with all of us in Ree's room that's when the jokes started.
Chigga is so so funny, and so is Ree.


Sunday:


After getting ready the six of us cleaned up the house a bit (oh my god I'm never having a house party, especially if it's actually my house that I've just bought and decorated - there was crap and beer everywhere!) and ate breakfast while my sister and Adie had a guitar-singing session.

Then when Adie and Paulo left we headed into St. Albans for lunch at Zizzis. St. Albans is a really nice town, lots of character to it.

We finished off the weekend with a trip to the cinema where we saw...

The Last King Of Scotland...

I don't think I can remember the last time I sat in my seat at the end of a film, watching the credits roll, unable to move, taking everything in, feeling totally blown away by what I'd just seen.
But that's exactly how I felt after that film.

The acting was fantastic, Forrest Whitaker deserves an Oscar. Infact the whole film does.

It's strange to see it especially knowing that my parents lived it, and this perspective is so different to what they've told me it was like. But it's shocking nonetheless.
I told them that they had to see it.

And you do too, go watch!

Even if we didn't watch it, we've all seen the papers and heard the news, the victim became the victor on Sunday as Bollywood Beauty Shilpa Shetty won Big Brother.

I missed the whole show that night and even laughed at my friend when she told me how she had cried during the interview and when Shilpa was named winner, "especially because Indians never win anything!", but watching clips of the night on the wonder that is Youtube, I was also choked with emotion at Shilpa's speech.

That beautiful (in every sense of the word) woman is so cultured and dignified, so respectful and humble, with so much inner-strength, it's inspiring.
Even after being shown the hate-tape of Jade, Jo, and Danielle's bitching towards her she chose to forgive and forget, "we are all human, we all make mistakes".

However, the thing that I loved most about her, and which made me so proud was after the interview when she was led outside on to the stage again to meet her applauding crowd - as she set foot on the stage she bent down and touched the ground before touching her eyes and head.
That is a mark of respect that Indians show their elders and their temples.

It shows respect for Mother Earth (Dharti Maa), the ground upon which we walk.

The Indian cricket team do the same thing to the pitches they play on.

What was so great about it though, I think, is that it just highlighted that no matter where which country we come from, we all walk on the same Earth.

We should love and respect it, and every country that shares it.

Being the first generation of British-Asian, and having the previous four generations of my family come from Uganda could be really unsettling, but it really isn't.

I'm so proud of the three cultures that influence who I am, and the two countries that represent who I am.

I have the best of both worlds.

I got the results of that Exam yesterday...

...and I failed REALLY badly.

Like 24% badly.

I don't think I've ever performed so poorly in an exam before.
Even though it was a mock, that's no excuse. Maybe it would have been okay at GCSE or even A-level but this was a Uni exam.

I got a massive bollocking from the 'rents too, which was 100% deserved, and I had nothing to say for myself, as my mum pointed out before she hung up.

She also managed to bring in totally random things like how large my overdraft is (money my sister borrowed in HK and is paying me back), that I go out all the time (hardly at all compared to people here, and it was the first term), and that I drink too much (so unfair because I'm really responsible when it comes to things like that and have never been sick or done anything stupid through drinking too much).

However she did point out how lucky I am to be where I am, and that there are so many people who would love to be in my position like my friend M who didn't get into MedSchool, and that my parents work so hard for me to be here, and I shouldn't take that for granted.

I did have excuses as to why I did no revision for the exam (HK, Xmas, NY's, and that I spent all free time I had finishing off notes instead of revising them), but I should have been responsible enough to know that I was going to have no time and done more in time that I did have.

My sister (I think in an attempt to console both my mum and I) pointed out that this is a pattern I've always followed, through GCSE's and A-levels and now.
That no matter how many times anyone tells me to work hard and study, I only begin to do so when I realise that I want something, and then nothing stops me from achieving it.

I'd have to agree with her. This has been the kick-up-the-arse that I clearly needed.

I've got more mocks at the end of this term, and I really have to ace them...

Last night, my friend Samuel came over to my place as he, Susie, Adam and I were meant to work on our PBL presentation for Thursday.
We'd also planned for him to teach us how to play Poker that night after getting our presentation done, so he brought his amazing Poker set bought on the Hong Kong black-market (gambling is illegal there).

Being typical students, by 9pm we still hadn't quite finished our presentation andBB started, so Susie and I watched while Samuel ate and then after that we gave up and he taught us how to play.

Having still not quite got the rules of Texas Holdem after listening to his explaination we decided to just play a few games to get the hang of it.

I LOVE POKER.

We were just playing for fun, but still it was so great. The adrenaline rush of winning is tres cool.
I started to play really well and managed to rob Samuel terribly at which point he decided to get aggressive with me (in the game), but still I knocked Susie and then him out of the game.
Not being able to take the shame of teacher being whipped by student he then began playing for Adam in the hope of taking me down a peg but still I won.

He put it down to beginners luck and he's probably right, but I'm definately going to be playing again....but just for fun, not for money.
My mum got a little concerned when I told her because it's against our religion to gamble (although the lottery seems to be perfectly acceptable!), but I reassured her we were just playing with chips.

Wow. I had one of the craziest and most interesting weekends I've had for a long time the weekend before last.

My sister had planned to come down to London to stay with me because she was going to record some vocals with her friend who is a music producer at his studio in south London.

She arrived quite late on Saturday night so we didn't bother going out and instead just chilled at my place and had an early night.

On Sunday morning we went to Camden market.

Oh. My. God. I LOVE CAMDEN!
It's so unbelieveably amazingly culture-infused cool. The markets reminded me of Mong Kok, only more funky and expensive, and less tacky. And the people there - all so funky and representative of their backrounds.

I bought a mustard coloured Shemagh because I think they are tres funky and it matches with my mustard coloured Converses that I got from Mong Kok.

We also got this CD of Indian fused lounge music. Nice beats with Tablas and Sitars.

After spending a good couple of hours in Camden and grabbing a bite to eat (Chinese...though the decision was hard - so many choices!) we hopped on the tube to make our way to the Studio.

The tube ride turned out to be surprisingly fun because of three guys that got on one stop after us. They had been out clubbing and were still a bit tipsy but were so funny. Especially the one with the black afro wig on (I so want one of those!). He kept trying to tell this joke but couldnt remember it and then started asking the stranger next to him to tell a joke, which was how we got talking to them.

It's so great when you meet random but cool people like that. It hardly ever happens in the UK but is how my sister met two of her really good friends in Japan.

We arrived at Kennington station and after a while of waiting my sisters friend turned up to take us back to the studios.

He is such a nice and down to earth guy, and after giving us a quick tour of the studio, he took us through the whole of his first album (the nearest to being released, out of the four), which showcases all of the artists on his label including my sister.
He went through every song telling us about its production except one which he wanted to keep secret because its very soon to be released.
He's so talented and so passionate about his music, MCing, producing, rapping in Arabic, I felt so priveleged being there. And his music is AMAZING. I think he's even too humble to appreciate how good his tracks were, they blew me away.

The whole album is really powerful. Every song has substance and a message. He's half English and half Palestinian and the album is about the situation in the Middle East but it's told in black and white, with no bias, just facts. And what makes the whole thing so much more rich is the cultural diversity of the artists. He even has Jewish friends talking about the situation.
Everything from MCs to Opera singers.

So anyway, the three of us were in the studio, listening to one of the tracks that he wanted my sister to record vocals for, and trying to come up with ideas. There I am singing harmonies to myself, thinking. And then he goes, "Oh my god you can sing", before asking my sister, "Can he sing?".
Apparently I can, and it runs in the family. And the next thing I know, he wants me in the recording booth.

Oh my god. Weirdest thing I've ever done. And I felt really stupid singing along randomly. I doubt he will end up using any of it because I didn't record enough material, but I did also record for the Outro.

We ended up staying until 9.30 pm by which time I was starving!
After leaving, and tubing, and walking, my sister and I managed to find a restaurant in Soho and ate before walking to Piccadilly Circus to get the bus home.

Carphone Warehouse Hangs-up on Big Brother

With every news bulletin comes a new development in this now global bullying/race row.

A record 30,000 complaints have been made to Ofcom, and just today Carphone Warehouse instructed c4 to pull all of their sponsorship material from BB and it's related programs.
Well done.

C4 are apparently to make a statement anytime soon. About bloody time. They've really angered me. Saying how they don't tolerate bullying and all that blah-de-blah when they clearly do because they've done nothing to stop it.

And everyone is arguing over whether it's racism or bullying - look at what's been said:

Jackiey failed to pronounce Shetty's name properly and began calling her "the Indian" and asked her whether she lived in a house or a shack.

Jack told her to clean the toilet with her teeth.

Jade told her to "go back to the slums".

Jo suggested that the reason why people in India are so thin and ill all the time is because they eat uncooked food.

Danielle wished that Shetty would "just fuck off home" and said that she couldn't even speak English.

Err, she speaks it better than you darling.

Shilpa said later:

"If they came to India they wouldn't be able to speak the language I speak. I've come to their country, and I think I speak it very well. And I think my vocabulary is better than most of them."

She went on to say:

"I’m representing my country. Is that what today’s UK is? It’s scary. It’s quite a shame actually.”

And it's true, those chavs make me ashamed to call myself British. They've really dented the reputation of the UK, especially as the whole world now has it's eyes on Big Brother.

Cultural ignorance is just not knowing. Racism is discriminating against someone based on their race, culture and where they come from.

This from the Guardian also made me laugh today.

Big Blow-up

Okay.

This is actually crazy now. This issue has escalated so very much since I first blogged about it a few days ago. I can't believe it.

It's easy to play the race card, and that word alone is what has caused outrage on the streets of India and caused the Indian Government involved in this.
What we have to remember is that Shilpa Shetty is like the Indian Cameron Diaz, she is famous in India, and people love her.
Not that her status has anything to do with it, no one should be treated in that way, wherever they are in society. It's just because she is so famous that she's had so much publicity.

C4 have responded to letters and according to them Jack used the C-word, not the P-word.
Thank goodness for that.

However, Jo did make a feeble racist comment, and Danielle in tonights show was called in to the diary room after wishing that Shilpa would "just f**k off home".
And where exactly is "home" Danielle?
When she was asked by BB what she meant by that, the poor cow didn't have a clue what to say.

Racism or no racism - that's undecided.
What is for definate though is there is severe bullying going on in that house, with a group of three picking on one individual.
And that is so very wrong.

Apparently on fridays show there will be a live eviction of either Jade or Shilpa.

Bully or Victim - Who goes? You decide.


-----------------------------------

P.S.
New post all about my very exciting weekend coming very soon!
Infact, it's half written, I just can't be bothered to finish it because I'm about to climb into bed and watch the amazing Ugly Betty.

It's tres funky, everyones so sexy and bitchy, je l'adore!

OH. MY. GOD.

Front page of The London Paper today - 2000 people have complained to Ofcom about bullying and racist comments targeted at Shilpa Shetty.

Also, the issue has reached the House of Commons!

Apparently so far around 10,000 complaints have been recieved by Ofcom and C4 together.

And Jade Goody has been dropped by the Anti-Bullying Charity that she's been reperesenting for the past 2 years for "unforgivable behaviour".

You can also sign a petition targeted at C4.

I'm so angry at BB Producers. This totally unacceptable behaviour and frankly unsettling footage is achieving totally the opposite of what they wanted by asking Shilpa Shetty into the house in the first place.

Oh dear. Looks like Big Brother has got into a Big Mess.

I love Shilpa Shetty!

So cultured, when she didn't touch the religious photo that time.

So kind, when she placed that blanket over sleeping Ken.

So dignified, when she didn't shout or swear at the chavs bitching in her face.

So respectful, in everything she does.

She said when she went into the house that she aimed to make every Indian proud of her, and so far she's doing an amazing job!

Big Bother 2

You can watch the incident below.

What really pisses me off is Channel 4 protecting Jack and hiding whatever it was he said. They even didn't put subtitles up for that comment.

Furthermore all posts on their site mentioning it were deleted by moderators.



If she annoys you so much and you think she's lesser than you because of her race then why did you eat the CURRY she made for you?

Ignorant, immature retard.

Big Bother

My God I am outraged!

If you saw tonights episode of BB then you will have seen Jade and her boyfriend Jack bitching in bed about Shilpa Shetty.
What we will never know however is what else Jack called Shilpa aside from 'wanker' because Big Brother bleeped it out.

However it must have been something a lot worse than swearing for it to have been censored, especially at almost 10pm.

Immediately after the show many threads, from different authors, appeared on the Big Brother Forums reporting that Jack had called her a 'Paki'.
Obviously this is an insult to any Asian as it is a racist term said with intent to offend.
Jack is entitled to his own racist and uneducated, immature opinions. The cowardly bastard can say what he likes.
I am extremely furious with Big Brother though.

1) Because they bleeped the footage and thus protected him from the reaction to whatever it was he said,
2) Because as I am writing this very post BB Moderators in the Forum are taking down all the threads mentioning the incident.

If that's not what he said, why have they not written one of their news reports telling us, and how do they have the right to stop people from discussing the incident.

I hope the Forum dwellers and I weren't the only ones who noticed the incident.

Telly

I've bought a TV.

I've just had to carry it all the way from Argos at the end of Kensington High Street all the way back home.
It's not that it was heavy, just that the box was so big and annoyingly shaped.

Don't they think of how students will have to lug their products all the way home through the busy streets of London when they design the packaging? Fools.

My arms ache so much now, just at the inner-elbows. And my hands actually shake for no reason if I hold them out. Stupidly large box.

Oh and to top it off, I got stuck behind this slow walking woman for ages. Slow walking people are possibly the most irritating things in the world.

While stuck behind her, the lyrics of a certain song came to mind...

Baby, I'm Back!

Before you read this - I've used fake names, because initials are just to hard to keep track of. People who I've used initials for in the past will remain with initials though.

Yes so I'm back here in the Queens back yard.

My parents wanted to come to drop me off so we came yesterday and arrived at about half 4 before dumping my stuff and putting all my food away.

I said that I'd do the rest in my own time so instead we could chill out a bit. As we'd managed to find some free parking just outside Hyde Park, we walked to Knightsbridge and sat in a coffee shop talking for a while.

At about 7 they said their goodbyes and I walked home.

It's good to be back in London. And back at uni.

But - something strange.
Have you ever had a feeling where someone (for no reason at all, and who is so nice) intimidates you.
Cordelia and Simon came knocking on my door to welcome me back to halls, and even though Simon is such a nice guy, I felt uncomfortable around him and almost like really unconfident around him last term.
I think it's because I get along with Cordelia really well and am affectionate with her but Simon is always with her and possibly subconsciously I was jealous. Moreso because he's really good friends with Katy-boo and I really fancied her and I think they both found out about it. Not good.

A wave of that scared (it's the feeling you would get towards a school bully, nervous, intimidated, uncomfortable) feeling came especially when he mentioned that their whole crew of people were going to the Medics weekend in Amsterdam in February.

I don't know why I feel like this, I have no reason to. And if people make you feel like that, then you've just got to not be around them. Simple as.

Anyway, I seem to have been mistaken about J and D and the people from upstairs as well.
They were all really happy to see me again and Doris (from upstairs) and D (of J and D) both loved my hair.

Oh yes thats right I forgot to say, incase you haven't seen the other Flickr photos, I dyed my hair brown in Hong Kong.
It turned out lighter than I actually wanted but I still liked it and both A and my sister loved it. In the sun and under strong lighting it did look a bit red though, hence why AT now has the right to call me ginger. The cow.
Anyway, 3 weeks later, after several washes and a cut it looks really cool. Loads of people have commented on it. I love it.
It looks like my hair mildy goes in the summer.

Back to the story...

Also earlier, J also did his thing of pretending to ignore me when he saw me and it didn't bother me at all, I knew he was joking and maybe it's just something that he does. Even just as I was coming back to my room I had a 5 minute convo with them both in the corridor.

Maybe it was all me, or maybe it was settling down friction in the first term. Now everyone knows where everyone stands it's okay.

I had my exam today. It was hard, and I know I've failed. But to be honest I wasn't expecting to pass. I did no revision for it.
It has scared me into working hard from now on though.
Especially when I saw the MBBS/BSc Part 1 Exam written on the paper.
I'm in uni now, this is tough stuff.
This term I'm going out less - less clubbing and drinking and more gyming, giging, and working. Thats the plan.

After the exam I got my ticket for the Amsterdam trip - I'm so glad I got mine because the 100 that were reserved for freshers have sold out so fast. I hope those that didn't get them today get some on Wednesday, but those 100 are for anyone in the Medschool!

Anyway, I'm going to go, will blog you soon.

Again sorry this was all rambles but there's just so much to write and I'm not as good at it as Anyhoo.

Azzypants.

Hong Kong photos are now up on Flickr accounts!

5 whole sets worth!

I didn't have time to comment on all of them, so I'll personalise the "photo tour" for you - leave a comment on photos and I can reply to them.

Enjoy,

Azbo

Hooray!

Yay!

Finally I have finished making my notes for the exam I'm going to have on Monday, and have even revised the first (and smallest) topic once.

Medicine is so cool.
This is the first time I can remember revising for exams and actually enjoying it and finding it interesting...appart from GCSE History and Biology.

And plus I get to learn and then use funky words, like Erythropoiesis.
How geeky does that sound.
Erythropoiesis.
Erythro.
Poiesis.

Erythropoiesis.

Anyway, yes so I'm back home now (although not for much longer), and here are 3 Random things about it:

One.
I can hear owls outside my window at night. I had forgotten about them (and how bloody scary they are) but it's cool all the same. Strange too as you can only hear them from my room.

Two.
I so very badly need a new mattress. Just one night in my old bed and my back was out like that. I have such a bad back for someone my age, it's always aching. And you can literally see the slump in my mattress.
For now I've borrowed my sisters Futon wnich is amazing. Who would have thought a 3 inch thick mat on the floor could be so comfortable?
And it folds away during the day to give plenty of floor-space. I want to get one. But a real Japanese one, not a crappy wooden western one.

Three.
It was really good to see my friends again (well the ones I have seen), and despite everyone falling out with everyone else and me being the only bridge between most of them, it seems like the handfull of people I thought I'd keep in touch with when we all left thought the same.
A, N, B, AT, and M.
And AT seems much closer to me now. Weird that.

Now I'm going to leave you with one of my favourite dance tracks of 2006 - this song is amazing. So smooth and sexy.
I'd describe it as Moloko meets Spiller.
What do you think?

Booyaka-sha!

Bon matin et bonne année.

Just taking a quick break from my horrifyingly large amount of revision because I'm about to have a mental breakdown.

I haven't blogged in ages I know, but can't allow myself to do it right now as then I'll get nothing done.

However...here are a few things for you to look forward to:

Hong Kong photos will be uploaded on Flickr accounts sometime this week

Hong Kong will be discussed, possibly in the 3 Random Things format

A special Back Home edition of 3 Random Things

A Uni edition of 3 Random Things

My quest to find the new Bring-on-Summer track

And now I'm going to leave you with my favourite track of the moment - I can imagine some of you are going to hate it, and especially as it's used some classic samples, and to be honest, I thought it was rubbish at first too, but now....now I LOVE IT!



This is the key that makes us wind up...

Blog you soon,

Azbo