My Weekend!

Today's photo:

A bit early, but meh XD.

Grandfather passed away

My grandfather of eighty-odd years passed away peacefully this morning. I received the message from my mom as I was on the way to church, causing me to miss the minibus because I had to text back frantically. He was always kind to me and my brother, and treated my family with love. I am happy that he went this way, living till a ripe old age, but when I think of my grandmother having to live without her partner of more than half a century it really tears my heart up. I will remember him carrying me when I was a child, walking in and out of our house in our village, and will always remember him giving me saga seeds and palm seeds as a toy to play with when I was about seven years old. He will forever have a special place in my heart, and I am glad that I managed to meet up with him before I left to the UK this summer. No father should have to witness the absolute sadness of the death of their child, and that’s what my granddad did when my own dad passed away of a heart attack six years ago. I am so happy that now he and his son will be able to be reunited finally. I just wish I had the chance to say something to him before he went, and now that chance is gone. I will never see him again but he will always remain in my memory and heart. Rest in peace grandpa, I hope you’ll meet with dad in the afterlife to a happy and tearful reunion. We miss you over here already! 

Taken before we left for the UK in 2004. This was the last time my grandfather saw his son (my dad) before my dad passed away in the UK.

The last time we saw him before he passed away. Taken summer 2010 before I left for the UK for my Masters.

Less morbid details

I thought I would take my mind off things by writing (or rather typing) about my weekend and the Friday before. Friday was an awesome day! Woke at about 1100 hours and did a bit of memorizing/reading on the Washington Consensus, and managed to form an idea of how my introduction to the 2500 word essay due in December will turn out. After a few hours of doing this, I felt rather proactive and texted Raj and Katelyn confirming our dinner date for that day. Katelyn of course being her very efficient self replied almost immediately but Raj was silent on the wire. Later I found out on Katelyn’s very accurate guess that he was still asleep when he received my text, because he actually told us that he woke at 3pm and saw the text, apparently jumped straight into the shower, dressed and got the bus to the city centre with great haste! Took some photos while waiting for Katelyn to arrive.

Some steampunk engine.

The church opposite The Forum

Merry go round

The Christmas tree they set up in town hall. Couldn't get the whole thing in the frame, it was that big!

Katelyn and I actually met at about 4pm and went over to Harbi’s workplace, L’Occitane. Bit of a weird name for me because not knowing French, I had no idea what the shop purveyed. Of course when we arrived, we found out that Harbi was a fully fledged cosmetic consultant! He gave me some good advice on dealing with my acne, which he thought wasn’t too serious (phew) and recommended me a cleanser with a RICE base! That’s right, a RICE base. This will certainly be interesting should I acquire it once my existing cleanser is depleted.

A bit of a wander round the city centre, and then Raj finally arrived. We went to Malaysian Delights, a nice hidden restaurant located somewhere off the street near Castle Mall (thank you Thomas Maxwell for bringing me to this wonderful establishment 2 years ago) and realized that we were early by an hour! So it was back to Harbi’s workplace and off to Greggs just round the corner, where some interesting photos were taken by yours truly. Nothing much really happened in Greggs, just a lot of general banter and suggestions for a social on an Ed Anderson scale (which means pretty damn awesome because Dr Anderson is AWESOME!). Then it was accompanying Harbi to his bus stop where he had to catch a bus down to the train station. Arguable because the train station is actually walking distance from L’Occitane and we actually walked all the way up to near Chapelfield for his bus! Pointless no? Harbi don’t argue, you know as well as we do that it was walking distance mate, you were just lazy haha.

Katelyn and Me

Raj looks a little confused there!

Better photo taken!

Then it was bang on off to dinner at Malaysian Delights. The food was good, but it wasn’t really authentic other than the Satay Chicken and Chicken Curry on service (really should have taken photos here but was too hungry, so decided to just eat instead and afterward forgot about photos altogether). And then, there was talk about an authentic cook up at Harbi’s place (sorry we invited ourselves to your house Harbi. Hope you don’t mind!) and international development matters which are slightly too complicated for the average blog reader. Although if you are actually reading my blog it probably means that you’re interested in my life, and therefore know that I am immensely interested in International Development (I spelt it with capitals as testament to how serious I think it is) and International Organisations’ roles in facilitation of regulation and economic policies. But yes, I shall reserve a post for that in future blogs focused on development studies when I develop (see what I did there) a keener sense of the world around development.

Near the end of our meal, the restaurant owner and a scroat/chav (scruffy-looking gentleman dressed in classic chav uniform of baseball cap, sports clothing and trousers tucked into socks) had a bit a disagreement. It seemed that the chav went and ordered a couple of beers and refused to pay, saying that he already had. Of course, this wasn’t lost on the restaurant owner who told him in no uncertain terms to not come back. And of course Mr. Chav had to respond with his own vernacular, and a very interesting scene would have folded out but the restaurant owner was at least 2 heads taller than Mr. Chav, so of course he left without incident (although not quietly. Shouting all the way downstairs more like it!)

Malaysian Delights.

After dinner, we went outside to such a thick fog that I had to take a photo of the street!

And thus, a good end to a good evening was observed, with us parting ways and saying our farewells till Tuesday where we have Development Perspectives, where I’ll be customarily late by 5 minutes and shuffle to the front row wearing hi vis, and Rajiv to follow after 15 minutes.

Sunday!

Helena was very kind to give me a lift to church, effected by John Lee after I rang him in half a panic asking if there was any way I could possibly get to the Space having missed the bus and expected to attend Ignite (which is the Youth Group for church which I have recently gotten involved in). And of course I arrived 2 minutes before the service started which was quite a relief. Out we went: 5 mature adults and a bunch of gangly, rambunctious and violent teenagers. Jonny Novak (our youth leader) was on the job as usual, delivering the message in a quick and concise way, and then we played a couple of games which the complicity is too complex to be described here!

After the session, I hung around the group killing time because I had to check my CRB forms with Sue Spooner. Joshua Barton was getting involved with my phone and searching random videos in YouTube which involved him falling over while on a bike while I, perhaps being more civilized, decided to have a conversation with Tom Walpole instead. Found out he was an anime fan as well, and he introduced me to an anime series called Katekyou Hitman Reborn! Basically it’s about this kid in high school who finds out that he’s actually the heir of the head of a mafia gang after all the rightful members ahead of him have perished, and the gang has sent over a midget assassin to train him to be a killer. I fib you not; a midget hitman! Ridiculous, but it’s an anime. I’ve seen worse in Naruto and Bleach. Given that it is based in Japan, I found it a little bizarre that a Japanese kid with red hair had any Italian connections until it became apparent that his dad had moved away from Japan to Italy and started up his crime syndicate there. Complicated, and I still find it slightly dubious, but have since told myself not to critically analyse it like university students do. I am now hopelessly addicted to It, as you may have seen on my Facebook status comments. Possibly the last time I listen to a 13 year old who’s equally into anime as me. 

My life is now over.

 

Will have to divide my time up watching Reborn!, typing this blog, Ignite, Hope for Latvia, Work (did I mention that I haven’t actually been fired from the security agency which I had that little disagreement with over a certain nightclub, so I’m still on their books apparently), mentoring and my own little fundraising project. I am getting my hair done tomorrow, and am so excited. Unfortunately I’m running out of cash, and will have to conserve money until my mom returns from my dear grandpa’s funeral in the countryside. 

The rest of the day was spent at Sarah Week’s house and I managed to call my grandma to offer my condolences and find out what was going on. It was then when she told me he died a peaceful death and not to worry about her. I still could not help crying on the phone, though. He was dear to me and I will never forget him (gosh I’m going on like a broken record aren’t I?).

Just before we left for the evening service, I found out that Katelyn had decided to come and see for herself the wonderful church that is Proclaimers. She texted me and told me that she was able to make her way to the minibus pickup place and managed to get to the Space in time for the evening service. I’m so glad that she actually came to see what it was all about. As Pastor Tom Rawls was away for a funeral of a loved one, the message this time was mainly about spreading the word through normal walks of life. Found it fine, but it didn’t have the same familiar vigour that Pastor Rawls radiates when he gives his sermons. Hope he gets back fine!

It was off to the pub after the service, and Matt Webb suggested that we take advantage of Orange Wednesdays to go and see Harry Potter. I don’t usually watch movies in the UK because they’re really, really expensive and because I can easily torrent them off the internet. Yes I said it; I download movies and music off the internet. And so do the rest of the country although they won’t admit it as readily.

So… it’s a Monday night but I’ve not actually done anything interesting today save my essays and reading, and walking all the way downtown just to find out that the bike shop had closed. Looks like I’ll be walking to UEA tomorrow. Will have to get up extra early. Damn!

Clement