Wake Up Call....

Its surprisingly been quite a few busy days recently. After our christmas party on thursday I expected my days to quiet down what with most people going home soon after.

However, once Muscleman and Cymraeg Bachgennes went home amongst others its all been fun and games with the hockey boys. First uo was the 1s game on saturday where I watched them narrowly lose 2 - 1 to Deeside Rambler's 3rd team :( Next up on sunday was a friendly game for the 3s against the Ladies 1s team. I didn't play them in the last friendly where the 3s won 5 - 2 against a weakened Ladies team so was expecting a reasonably tight game as they had all their players back other than the captain and our captain was off skiing in France. It was therefore a bit of a shock that we beat them 10 - 1. Finally last night we had a night of riot at the christmas dinner followed by ravin it up in Time before hitting Josh's for an after party. As good as last night was it was slightly out done by this morning. Normally getting woken up by phone calls doesnt amuse me in the slightest but the phonecall this morning was gratefully received  as it was to tell me that some fo my photo's are going to be used in an advertising campaign across Bangor :D

Beginning Of The End....

We're nearly there folks, its almost time for me to return home, and to be honest I can't wait. Three months is far too long a time to spend away from people you've known your whole life. Whilst yes I have loved living away from home I am in dire need of seeing familiar faces and my first new years eve spent out on the toon. Just 2 more weeks then I'll be back in the land of the Prince Bishops ready to get back to the pub quiz team and seeing everyone from Fram :D. And this seems as appropriate time as ever to reflect on some highlights of my first term at Bangor.

1. Hockey AU Cowboys & Indians Night   -   Best night out by far £1.80 for double vodka and coke makes nights one hell of a lot more fun
   
2. Zoo Volunteer Work   -   I've enjoyed every minute of work there even if the hours are atrocious and a lot of the work is menial, but getting the experience I need has been incredibly rewarding
   
3. Tegfan and Peris Drinking Sessions   -   what can I say but best bunch of people you could meet in these halls and I'm very excited to be moving in with some of them next year
   
4. Cooking For Myself (And Not Killing Myself)   -   Yes I have survived my own cooking for a full 3 months and I actually have a certain (low) level of skill in cooking which I was unaware I possessed aswell
   
5. Hockey In General   -   Expensive as hell but damn well worth it
   

Ready For The Weekend.....

Well it's been a good few days :D Thursday I had a good hockey training session then back home for the return of Gavin & Stacey aswell as QI. You have little idea how much this excites me I LOVE Gavin & Stacey it's the best British sitcom since Blackadder and I shall dearly miss it when it ends in 6 weeks. There was only one thing that dissapointed me about the latest episode and that was the joke about Owen Hughes. I don't get it and non of the answers being suggested on the internet seem likely to me.

Friday was some good craic at Northern Boys kitchen. True we were just hanging around drinking and watching Films but Cymraeg Bachgennes made the night totally worth while. She'd had a wee bit too much vodka but theres honestly nothing funnier than repeatedly telling someone your watching Titanic the extended edition when your really watching is Don't Mess With The Zohan.


Saturday was an awesome day spent taking photos of the 1s game against Bolton and whilst Im not as pleased with them as I was with the ones I took of the 2s a few weeks ago I think that I still got a few decent shots although a new lens is definately required to make the most of the games. On the night I went out with hockey lads but I learnt my lesson from last week and didnt drink too much as we had an early start to play Llandudno in the morning.


Todays match was really fun we beat Llandudno 8 - 2 and thankfully by going light on saturday my game wasn't affected nuch at all really and I felt great and played quite well if I do say so myself. Afterwards we dud the adventure play ground challenge which was awesome fun and thanks to my 'low centre of gravity' I kicked ass.

Good Times

Today has been a really good day :D I got up at 6:30 ready for the zoo and apart from a slight cold I felt completely better so knew I'd be able to cope with the rigours of a 9hr work day. I remembered my iPod so had fun times boppin along to music on the empty train carriage which is always better than just sitting there forcing yourself to not fall asleep. Once I got to the zoo there were actually two pieces of bad news (oh noes!) the weather took a turn for the worst and thanks to the wind not only was work going to be much tougher today but the zoo was to be closed to the public aswell. The other bit of bad news was that another Seal pup was brought in injured. Whilst the keepers are glad to help and would never leave a pup to die they can be frustrating things.

The main problem with them is the inability to feed. The vast majority of pups have to be force fed to begin with, this is incredibly stressful on the keeper and more importantly on the Seal but without food the pup would die. When I was last at the zoo there were just two pups neither of which were self feeding. Today I found out that there were 3 but thankfully the two that were there last week had both started self feeding and will now hopefully be released soon. Then later that morning another pup was brought in with a seriously bad cut to the eye. As bad as this was it was relieved considerably by the news at lunchtime. Whispa, the pup that was brought in only yesterday had started to self feed. It needed to chew first and spat up any fish it took tail first by mistake but very quickly it had gone through its 15 fish in its bowl and was onto extras om nom nom nom!

There was other good news such as the discovery of a terrapin egg in the reptile house and getting a lift back not just to the station but all the way to morrisons in Bangor which cheered me up greatly, but apart from the Seal pups feeding there was only one real highlight for me. As the zoo was closed most of the keepers were able to finish early so some of us went to watch the Alligator be fed. This you would imagine this is fairly standard and nothing to get excited about but you can never underestimate the hilarity of the look on a keepers face when they've just dropped not only the meat but also the grabber into a pool with a fully grown male alligator in it :D :P

The Morning After Two Nights Before

So today has been an incredibly unproductive day, I feel like death to be perfectly honest. I felt only slightly better yesterday but thankfully I was still able to play hockey. I got called up to play for the 2's and I really didn't want to let them down. Unfortunately my head was a bit all over the place possibly thanks to the night out on saturday and this meant that I was quite disappointed with my marking and positioning. Thankfully it didn't matter as we still won 5 - 1 away at Dysynni.

The away trip to Dysynni is the longest away trip of the season, a good 2 and a half hours drive and now I've done it twice. Unfortunately the first time when I was playing for the 3's we lost 4 - 3 thanks to a wonder strike from a little kid, but I feel this result was avenged yesterday.

As good as it was to get out and play (despite not feeling too good), I kinda missed playing with the 3's as I would've loved to have been playing in there first proper victory especially as it was there first game in about a month. You see the weather and other team's just havn't been kind to us lately and because of this the 3's have been left kicking their heels waiting for someone to accept the challenge which is a blow to all of us.

Anyhoo im in dire need of some more of my homemade chicken soup :) so hopefully I'll be in better spirits tomorrow and if not then I definately need to be by wednesday getting up at 6 to go work at the zoo will be no fun when still ill.

Wild at heart??

Ive just been reading an article about how noise pollution affects the stress level of Snow leopards in Zoos and it's got me thinking about the Snow leopards at WMZ. You see we currently have a mating pair of adults and until very recently had 2 cubs aswell. Unfortunately these cubs died due to feline small pox and at the moment it is not known how they became infected or why it did not effect the adults.

As perplexing as this is thats not my major concern at the moment as there is little I can do to help only being a volunteer. What is troubling me is one of the major arguments about Zoos are they a help or a hindrance to animal life?

By essentially locking away animals and removing them from their natural environment we undoutedly have an effect on their behaviour be it raising stress levels by noise pollution or increasing dependence upon humans through hand rearing. However since starting work at the zoo I've come to learn some invaluable truths about the work they do in conservation and one example inparticular springs to mind. Chester Zoo has the largest Jaguar enclosure in the world. Whilst this undoubtedly provides great entertainment to the general public (myself included) by showcasing these magnificent creatures it's most important function is as a method of conservation. With the money this enclosure brings in it supports the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Project in Belize. This is probably the biggest and most significant Jaguar conservation project in the world and without Chester Zoo's funding it would'nt exist and the numbers of Jaguars in the wild would have dwindled majorly.

Children In Need

Its a night in for me tonight :(

True I could be out having a few pints and games of pool at Belle Vue with Muscleman and Northern Boy, but I was knackered after a massive gym session and Hockey training just a few hours later.

But I guess I picked a good night to stay in anyway as tonight is Children in Need with the sneak peak of the Doctor Who Christmas special :D thank god for BBC iPlayer

At the moment I'm a little over an hour in and there hasn't been anything especially good entertainment wise but that normally dosn't happen until later anyway so it hasn't been especially disappointing

However, this year more than ever before the clips of where the money goes to help has made me realise how privileged I am. I can moan all I want about my workload and trying to fit in Hockey and nights out but I know I'll never have it as bad as the kids on there. This sparked an interesting idea; I'm a student without a paying job and as such don't have a lot of cash but I've stayed in on a night I had planned to go out so I must be able to afford giving atleast a little bit. With this in mind I'm going to donate however much my mates have spent at the pub. I don't know if I'm doing this as I want to because of the sad videos of kids or just because I'm trying to be more independent now I'm not living at home and before I just relied on my parents to donate but either way it can't do any harm can it?