Transitional

It may still be August - just - but signs that Autumn is not far away are all too clear. Our road is lined with conker trees, ripe with their spiky fruit and already a few eager beavers have fallen to ground.

In a month's time the street will be thick with the green skins and the brown shiny peeble-y seeds.

At times the conkers can rain down from the trees, setting off sensitive car alarms and leaving the odd mark in the over polished roofs of over expensive cars.

When that times comes, it will my sign to end this particular blog.

I'll keep it open at least until we return from holiday. We've two weeks booked in Greece, on the small island of Alonissos.

Goody needs two weeks of absolute relaxation and that's what I plan to do.... nothing.

Plenty of books, sun tan lotion, shorts, t-shirts and the ipod are all that I plan on packing.

Four years ago we spent two delightful weeks in Rhodes, so we're hoping for more of the same. Although, our bags got lost last time, so let's avoid that!

Four years ago, the digital camera, blogs, laptops and PSP were not part of my world.

So here's too a relaxing, gadget-filled holiday!

Almost there

It's Goody's last round of concerts this weekend. It's been a tough, long and stressful summer for her, working crazy hours in difficult conditions, juggling absurd demands.

But at the end of it all she can look back on an amazing achievement. Tens and tens of thousands of people will have been entertained. Great music will have been played, and you've made more than a bit of money for your employers as well.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating - I am so proud of my wife and in awe of what she achieves.

Congratulations Goody. You've almost finished.

The Tardis, Kew

The Tardis, Kew
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Spotted in Kew today, a little house with a sign on it reading The Tardis!

Which way home?

Which way home?
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

A rare thing - a day off for Goody! We had the day together and shopped, lunched and wandered. In the evening we strolled around Kew - we are so lucky to live in such a lovely place. Perfect!

Leeds hat-trick

Leeds.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary with two nights in a country hotel near Leeds.

We were impressed with the city - it's mix of the industrial past and present. The people of Leeds were also very friendly.

It's been such a hectic summer for Goody so it was great to indulge ourselves and spend some time together.

My wife is an incredible woman and I'm lucky to have her.

Reality is smaller than memories

reunion.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

I spent three years in the 1990s studying at Sussex University. It was, I suppose, a typical university experience - spent in two states, drunk and hungover.

Despite the damage to my brain cells, I still have great memories of my time there. Living on a campus is being part of a huge community, a social network which is 24/7. There is always someone knocking at your door or a door to knock on.

I am by nature a nostalgic person - and my memories are very tied to places and objects. So I was greatly looking forward to returning to the campus for my best mate's stag party.

Five of the 15 of us had studied there so this was also something of a pilgrimage.

We rolled up after a night's drinking and found our way to rooms in East Slope, the block I had been on in 1990/1, much as I did for many many evenings as an 18 year old.

Waking up in a cramped room with wobbly furniture and the gulls screaming outside my window, I had the strongest sense of deja vu. And with good reason.

I spent an hour wandering the paths and corridors of my alma mater, strangely quiet now that the students have returned home for the summer months.

Little changed, except the whole campus felt as though it had been shrunk somehow.

Everything seemed closer than I remembered. Long treks to bars or lecture halls were little more than a two or three minute amble.

Strangely, my memory had expanded distances between places when in fact the campus is quite compact.

Different locations triggered memories of conversations, antics and the humdrum stuff that I still treasure.

University was where I left my family and struck out on my own. It's now part of my personality, my character and it was emotional to return.

One of my university friends Craig remarked on the weekend that a "door is just a door", saying he would not be bothering to look at his old corridor, his old room.

Later that night I stood in front of the door of my old flat on campus 57c and felt drenched in so many great memories.

It wasn't even the same door from my time there - but it didn't matter a jot!

Alumni alert

I'm on a stag party this weekend and we're heading to Brighton. The 15 of us are going to be staying at the University of Sussex, where five of us, including myself, were students between 1990 and 1993.

We're actually staying in my old block of flats!

I'm a nostalgic person so I'm interested to see how I feel when back there.
University years are a disproportionately important time in your life, given you are only there three years.

But the memories are strong and it's great I will be back there with 5 friends that I met when there and are still close to.

The stag, incidentally, also went to Sussex.

In many ways getting drunk and acting like idiots will be the perfect way to recreate the university feel - as that's all we did while "studying".

Fireworks

IMG_1845.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

It was fantastic to see the inside of a concert - the hard work, passion, and dedication that goes into providing entertainment for 20,000 people.

My admiration for my wife is boundless. She works ridiculously long hours in tough conditions to make her concert as good as they possibly can be.

She's underpaid and overworked but deals with all the hassles and problems with amazing good grace.