The Grax Domain - Misc

mmmm.... brains.....

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I knew I shouldn't have petted that Sumatran Rat-Monkey before going to work today....

Snowdon Hike October 2008

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:40:00 +0000

If you can't watch the video above I said:

So what does a guy do when he's got a week off work and doesn't have much to do? Why he goes off hiking up the tallest mountain in England and Wales apparently. Last Thursday I got a spontaneous invite from a work colleague, J, to go hiking and camping up Snowdon, in North Wales, for the weekend. I thought "Yeah, I'll give it a go. Good exercise. How hard can it be?"

On Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast, we all drove to our starting point at the foot of the mountain. But the car park was full and they were not letting anymore people in. So we had to pull over and quickly rethink our starting point (which incidentally worked out in my favour because it meant us starting on the easiest hike route, rather than the hard bastard route that J had in mind).

Once we reached the foot of the mountain and did our final check of our camping gear we began our hike up Snowdon. And man, it was hard.

Still it was a sunny day, we got to see the sights (which included sheep, grass and the train that ran up and down the mountain), and we were heading to the top of the mountain, which was deep in the clouds.

We stopped by a cafe that is about halfway up the mountain for a quick snack and to check on the map exactly where we were.

Then we continued with the hike. By this point my rucksack full of camping gear was getting very heavy, my legs were straining under the pressure, and I was lagging behind.

Then we actually walked into the clouds [show video] and the nice weather was gone, to be replaced with low visibility, cold winds and spitting showers. But the bastard hard part was stepping up those bloody stepping stones, the ones that made you lift your legs and knees up on every step, for what felt like an eternity. Suffice to say Grax was tired.

Mind you I did find it odd that there were various people walking down the mountain with less clothes than us. Even people with shorts! Not to mention all the crazy people mountain biking down the track in the wet, cloudy weather. One thing that did make me chuckle was watching this little girl bawling her eyes out as her dad took her down the mountain.

In the end we made it to the top of the Snowdon mountain. And there is photographic evidence of us at the top. We rested our hands on the sun dial thingy that was at the top.

We shortly found a quiet spot to rest up and began digging into our rations, which had a surprizingly good spread of food. I tell you Solid Snake has the good life if his rations were as good as what the MoD provide their troops. We took the time to reflect upon how the hiking has gone so far.

Feeling temporarily recharged we made our way back down the mountain, [show video] through the dense fog and with me lagging behind again. One disappointing aspect of the hike was there wasn't enough time to stop and admire the scenery and the views (even though there wasn't exactly much to see). Despite looking like a scene straight out of Silent Hill I felt strangely calm and tranquil and I just wanted to sit down, relax, and take it all in. Even if it was spitting.

But no, I was to be denied this luxury because we had to reach the bottom of the mountain before nightfall to set up camp. We all pressed on through the cloud. Quite literally; when we came out the other side we found out that the weather for all the people at the bottom was still the sunny day we had at the start of the hike. Bugger. But we were still only halfway until we reached the foot of the mountain. Bugger.

Anyways, we made it to the foot just as it was getting dark. We then drove to the nearest campsite, set up camp, finished our rations for dinner and stayed up late drinking rum and whisky whilst playing this cool dice game. I think it's called Hot Dice, but I bet it has many names.

Despite all the strain, sweat, panting, and aching muscles (my calfs are still aching a bit) it was a bloody great hike. It was me first proper hike and I'm quite looking forward to me next hike, wherever it might be.

September 08 Update

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:10:00 +0100

Reporting From The Temporary House

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:10:00 +0100

Moving to a temporary place

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:15:00 +0100

You never really comprehend how much crap you have in your home until you move out of it. That's something I've come to terms with now that I've moved into my temporary home.

I've been evicted out of my previous home I'm renting. In fact all my housemates have been evicted. The reason for this is because my landlord and lady wants to tart up the property for renting, only this time they want to live in it too. Well it would be silly to try and sell it now, what with the falling house prices and everything.

I needed a new place to stay and I do have friends that I will be staying with. The problem is they won'tbe coming back to Oxford until September for various reasons. So I needed a place for August. After looking at some various house renting websites I found a room that would do. It's a student house off Cowley Road. It's only available for a month because I'm "house covering" for someone that month while they do their thing. In other words Im paying and staying in their room for a month while they move on.

Being a typical student house it's... Small and shitty. But it's only for a month.

So after spending all week slowly packing up all my things and tidying up the place (well it was my housemates mum that did most of the work. We didn't ask her to, it was pure mother instincts!) it was time to move out. After filling a Vauxhall Big Van™ with half my stuff and lugging it all upstairs I realized that not everything was going to fit in my room. And that bungelows are awesome. So I filled the van up with the other half of my crap and drove it to my mums house, which is an hour and a half away.

It was 3:30pm and I'd reached my mums house. It was within a few minutes of arriving that mother panicked me when I told her that I had to return the van by 6:00pm. "Grax you'll never make it!" she wailed and rushed me to call up the van hire company to find out what time the van was due back.

Turns out the van didn't need to be back till the next morning. Everyone's blood pressure returned to normal.

Mum and I sat down to lunch and she did the typical mum thing of making sure I was well fed. "Do you want another roll Grax? Do you want a hot cross bun Grax? A cup of tea? I've made shepherds pie because I wasn't sure if you'd be hungry or not. Are you sure you don't want another roll Grax?"

Just imagine what it would be like if a guy was trying to seduce a woman...

"Would you like a shag? Do you want to give me a hand job? How about if I go down on you? I bought a twelve pack of condoms and a bottle of lube because I wasn't sure if you want to try anal. Are you sure you don't want a shag?"

Oy...

After lunch and unpacking she showed me the extension she and my step dad did to the house. It's quite an amazing job they did. You'd think it was aways a part of the house. This led on to the repeated lecture of me getting a mortgage to buy a house to rent out to other people even though I can't actually afford to do so. And I'd was a bit surprised by their reaction when I told that one of my good friends that I'm moving in with this September just finished university and doesn't have a job yet (partly because I wasn't that bothered about if she had a job or not).

I mean, I know mum and step dad love me and they mean well. It's just that it would be nice if they didn't sound so worryingly disappointed in me.

Don't worry, it's the last stretch of the story.

It came to 5:30 and I drove back home, feeling less than content. In fact the more I thought about it the more angry I got because I still needs to tidy my room, it was gonna be 7:00ish before I got back to Oxford, I thought I could have actually fitted everything in my room, the whole trip was starting to feel like a waste of time (although looking back in hindsight I know this not to be the case). I became more stressed out with the situation.

Getting back to the house I found out the landlord and lady had arrived and were staying the night. Panic packing ensued. Filling bin bags with crap I was keeping I threw them into the car and began work sweeping up the carpet of dust, toenails and bodyhair that was on my wooden floor. Finally I finished with my room, drove to my squatters hole, pile the last of my things into it my room and collapse into bed.

It was around midnight when I finally went to bed and peaceically passed out through exhaustion.

The whole thing was much more stressful than it should have been. Still, I'm here now surrounded by a wall of boxed stuff, hoping to find something for next month so I can do the whole moving again.

Is it September yet?

A response to T2 Risk Taking

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:40:00 +0100

Seems like my rant about T2Darlantan's Player Hater entry has caused quite a reaction. The first part has received dozens of comments, ranging from praises to hate-mail to even "WTF is with your eyes??" The second part has only received a handful of comments, which tells me that the majority of people didn't bother to watch part 2 of my rant (which is kinda important to watch as it rounds off my rant). It certainly seem to be case judging by some of the comments that have the vibe of "Don't you tell T2 how to live his life, fuck you!"

And if that wasn't enough T2Darlantan himself made a video response to my video response.

So there are lessons to be learnt from this exercise.

Don't split your videos into multiple parts; people will probably stop watching after the first part and ignore the rest
If you want lots of comments and subscribers on your YouTube account target a person that has a huge fan base, leave a video response to one of his entries and have him to respond back

Run Twinkletoes Run!

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:10:00 +0100

If you can't watch the video above, you can read what I said below:

Hi there. My name's Grax and I have a friend that is going to be attempting something quite spectacuar in a few months time.

On Sunday 12th October 2008 my friend Mitu will be attempting the London Parks Half Marathon. And the reason she's doing this? She's doing it for The Right To Play.

Right To Play is a charity that uses the power of 'play' to improve health, build life skills, and foster peace for children and communities affected by war, poverty and disease. Using their specially designed sports and play programmes, and working in both the humanitarian and development contexts, Right To Play has projects in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Now this is a sponsored run and Mitu would like everyone to give their donations towards this run. She has set herself a minimum target of £500 and I would like to do my part for her run.

So Mitu, a message for you, I've added my sponsor money to your run. And I hope it goes towards a good cause.

Now Mitu has also created a website for her to keep a video diary of her progress at www.runmiturun.com. Since she's created this website a couple months ago she a grand total of two video entries. Which is a shame really because I personally would like to see more or Mitu and see more of her video entries.

In fact, here's an idea Mitu. You can use it as an incentive to get more people to give more donations. How about this: for every £10 towards the £500 goal you recieve you'll release a new video blog. I mean it doesn't even have to be anything amazing. It can be something crap. Why it could even be something like....

"Hi everyone! Mitu here and I just got out of bed ready for my morning run! Except it's 7:15pm now and I... kinda... missed it.... Still, nevermind! I got my music player, I got my trainers, I got my Ready Brek, and I'm ready for action! It's gonna be awesome!!!"

Well... it's a thought.

If you would like to give your donation towards this sponsored run then you can. By going to www.justgiving.com/mitu. Alternatively if you would like to check out her progress you can take a look at Mitu's website at www.runmiturun.com. And hopefully by the time she sees this message she'll create some more video blogs for our amusement.

Please give as much as you can towards this sponsored run. Every penny can go a long way for the right to play.

Thank you.

Cowley Road Carnival 2008

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:15:00 +0100

Last Sunday I attended the Cowley Road Carnival in Oxford. Well it was just down the street from where I live, so I thought I'd see what all the hub-bub was about.

If you can see the video clips below you can watch them on YouTube by clicking here and clicking here.

Executing The Other Idea

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:30:00 +0100

Guess what I did to myself yesterday....

Another Grax??

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:08:00 +0100

You can watch this entry on YouTube by clicking here.