'I nearly ran you over the other day.'

The best thing I heard in the last 72 hours has to be this, overheard in the last few days: ‘Oh hiya! I nearly ran you over the other day.’ Isn’t that the best greeting you ever heard? Sadly it wasn’t directed at me but some grubby looking lady in the Seven Stars in Penryn.

Anyway, aside from that, the last few days have been pretty hectic. Friday I went to London for an interview. This meant getting up at 5.30am. I don’t think my room knew, or will ever know again, what I look like at this time. Not a pretty sight. After a train journey of about five and a half hours we got to London and I had my interview in the EAT café in Paddington. It was like going on a blind date. They even had a sign with the company name on the table. No carnations though, mores the pity. The interview was tough going and although I was kind of prepared I wasn’t set for the questions they asked. It was all very direct and they held no punches. It was great experience in the sense that it was a reality check for the future, but a painful experience feeling like I had gone onto Mastermind having chosen the wrong specialist subject. After that I met a friend for a bit, then headed back and met the three friends I had travelled with for drinks. We ended up buying three bottles of wine and cans of beer for the journey back, which aided the five and a half hours tremendously. Oh and I introduced the others to the wondrous game of ‘FaithBreaker.’

‘FaithBreaker' is a great game me and my friend Moira devised during my undergraduate study. On a train you wave to someone on the platform that isn’t the one people will get on from. You then make elaborate arm movements and faces to ask them to get someone else on the platform. For example, if someone is wearing a hat you point manically at you head. If they are reading a book, you keep opening and closing your hands like a crazy person. They soon get the picture, then wander to the person to point out you are trying to get their attention. At this point you turn around as if you were never looking. It’s very immature, I know that. But it’s great too. Give it a go. Oh and we played the Rizla game where you stick a name on your head and have to guess who it is. I learnt that isn’t much fun for someone you are talking to on the phone (sorry Ian) as they have to put up with questions like, ‘Am I alive or dead?’ ‘Am I a man or a woman?’ You end up sounding possessed and a little frightening. So the train journey back was great. We made friends (and maybe some enemies) and were back in Falmouth about 10pm. I did have one awkward encounter on the way back actually which was at the buffet cart. Some man was stood behind me and the train kept swinging about so you sort of fell a bit. I said to the man, ‘Oh, it’s not very smooth is it?’ The man replied with ‘No, and it’s ten minutes late and there’s three people behind the bar and only one serving.’ This prompted an angry and tired looking Virgin train employee to turn round and spit, ‘We are all working at the moment Sir, but some of us can only serve First Class.’ The man then said to me, ‘Oh and they’re very sensitive about it too.’ Don’t you sometimes wish you hadn’t said anything?

Then we went for a curry and drinks. I started to feel as if I might die if I stayed up another minute so stayed at my friend, Holly’ house. Now, I have never been to Holly’s house before, so had never met her housemates. I fell asleep on the sofa with a duvet over me and was just coming to when someone came into the room. I thought it was a girl with no top on. This person gasped (very loudly) and asked, ‘Who are you?’ I said I was Holly’s friend and then the person ran away. I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not so when I saw Holly I asked who it was. It was her housemates son. It was all very scary. I don’t know who was more frightened: me or him. Judging from the gasp though, I would say him. I told you I look rubbish in the morning.

So, after the epic that was Friday I headed to Truro to pick up my Mum who was staying with me for the weekend. She had a nightmare journey, which meant that the train was three hours late. Once I picked her up though we went into Truro for a while shopping which was really nice.

My mum and I love Scrabble but I don’t have a set so we went to Argos to pick up a travel set. They didn’t have one and the normal sized one was more than I wanted to pay. On the way back to the car though, we stopped at a charity shop to see if I could find some ties. I mentioned to the woman we were looking for a Travel Scrabble set and she had one in the storeroom. We snapped it up for £2. Imagine. I just re-read that paragraph and it reads like a Boot Sale Tale from Take A Break. I’m suitably ashamed.

So then we came home, had a game of Scrabble and a couple of glasses of wine. Then decided to head to the local pub for a couple of drinks. We got there about seven or so and saw that The Sex Slaves From Hell were playing. I didn’t think this was hugely appropriate for Mother so was encouraging her to drink up. But we were sat next to the singer who assured Mum that the music was great; Irish folk music and that she would be singing Fairy Tale in New York by the Pogues. How could we refuse? So we stayed and didn’t leave until about half ten. I never thought I would be watching Sex Slaves From Hell with my Mum. What next? Strippers with my Gran? Gay gogo dancers with my Dad? Well, if the Seven Star have got it…It was good though and I was very impressed with the Sex Slaves. Though slightly disappointed by the lack of leather. Still, you can’t have everything.

On Sunday we went for a nice long walk on the seafront and then for a snack in one of the bars with the Sunday paper. Then home and cooked dinner and bed. She left today so I hope the journey back will be OK, no three hour delays fingers crossed.

So, that brings us up to today. Today has been good; I heard back from the interview people who said I hadn’t got the place but I’m fine with that. Their feedback was that although I can write well, they weren’t sure it was something I would have been completely enamoured with. And I can see where they are coming from. I mean, during the interview they did say, ‘The thing that worries me about you Liam is that you seem to be interested in every side of writing. We’re not sure if Business Writing is definitely a career you will pursue.’ I said that was right since I haven’t had much experience in it. How can I have had? But at the same time, you never know what the future holds. As much as I like to think I will write features and articles, another opportunity may arise which seems more appealing. I found it hard to say that this was exactly what I wanted to do and I think they saw that it wasn’t my passion. The person that got it, however, definitely illustrated this and so that’s good.

Other than that, not much has been going on really. I have been working on my creative pieces and developing my novel idea. The latter was greatly assisted by a lecture today on structure and plot. I have decided to make a few changes. I know this all sounds very cryptic, but it’s early days yet and I don’t want to jinx it. Superstitous you see.

Oh, and it's now Tuesday…BUT I haven’t been writing since yesterday non-stop. Oh no. I have instead been blocked from using the Blogger site. What I do, since I don’t have internet access at home, is write my Blog in Word and then upload it onto Blogger. Clever, I know. But not when the other half of the relationship doesn’t play their part.

Anyway, so I went out for a drink last night with some friends and had a call from my Mum. She arrived home safe and sound but about 2 hours late. The trains were playing up again. She was telling me too about a horrible chavvy couple who were at the train station and loitering around in the waiting room. The male was drunk and the pregnant female was stoned. Isn't that grim? My Mum said every other word was an expletive and the girl was flashing her stomach so people could see the baby kick. They then got on the same train as my Mum until they were taken off by the police. Sick. That kid will have such a rough start into life by the sounds of it with role models like that. I don’t know. I sound very Daily Mail, but it just seems very tragic that people like that think they can be parents. Horrible.

It reminds me actually of another chav couple I encountered yesterday. While I was seeing my Mum off we were sat at the train station next to a dressed-head-to-toe-in-white girl and a monosyllabic boy. They muttered and grumbled to each other while playing the ring tones on their phones. Then the boy started showing the girl porn on the mobile. So that was nice. She was laughing at first, then got really upset about it. When he asked what was wrong, she said she didn’t have videos of other people on her phone so why should he? He qualified having such material on his mobile by saying, 'Well they're not real people are they?' God knows how he values sex. Kind of worrying really.

Anyway, enough of this fun and games. xx