This is a link to Rob's poem. I hope he doesn't mind me sticking it on here. He won a student media award with it this year too. I thought it was great, and think everyone should read it.

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Union/Helicon/April%202004/poetry.htm#The%20Terrors

Toodle egg.

Saturday I played a song I've written with Manu and Francesco Locati from the flat and Lucio, a friend of Francesco (of my room). We played at Lucio's house in Cognento, a small village in the countryside out of Modena. There were dogs and cats and geese running all over the place and his Dad was making a glider with an engine in a makeshift hanger. There were wallflowers all the way up the drive. It was a hot day, and the scenery on the way was such a change to Modena city centre. I was in Manu's car as we sped along lots of narrow roads dodging tractors and the like. The song went well anyway, and I hope to play it in France. It's a kind of Weezer meets Nirvana song. Sounds a bit passe probably but I don't care too much since being one hundred percent original is out of reach at the moment. My electric guitar that I'm renting along with the amp is great to play on, and is giving me loads of inspiration I suppose. It's just that when you write a song on an electric guitar, it sounds like it's ready for a band, but when you write on an acoustic for 4 years, you come up with an amazing back catalogue of depressing poo.

Happy Birthday to Miss Katie McGlade, 22 today.

Wish I was there to celebrate it with you, but in your absence I sang happy birthday when I woke up, and had breakfast for the first time in about 6 months to mark the day. Tea, biscottini things, marmite, bovril and a nectarine.

Hurrah and three cheers for Katie.

Lots of love,

Ben x

I was just thinking, in addition to what I wrote just a minute ago, that it'd be great if whoever looks at this site could just say what they are up to by leaving a comment or something. It'd be nice to know who visits the site.

Ben

I try to keep myself busy.

Why so? It makes me feel better than just sitting around, reading, playing music, eating and drinking.

Doing all that is great, but when there are exams looming, a massive essay deadline sneaking up, and a girlfriend a trillion miles away who you can only speak to on a crappy line, you have to keep on being productive.

I've just let down the guys in France. I can't make the gig on the 18th June because of exams. This is a huge blow, as the gig was a really big one in their home town of Gradignan, just outside of Bordeaux. I feel fucking awful, and hope to repay them by going over there late July and getting lots done.

I'm currently working on a questionnaire that I'm going to hand out to the locals about food, and am also hoping to interview the deputy mayor who I met at the trattoria last week.

Tomorrow I may buy a bike, and cycle around. I miss cycling from Mexico.

Francesco returns tonight. We will have fun and catch up.

Champions League final tonight. Allez les Monégasques!

I had a heart attack sandwich today.

It had lard in it. And that was it.

I can feel my arteries blocking up as I write. It was good though. It is my Italian version of last years double bacon, egg and black pudding sandwich.

I might have another tomorrow.

Last night we watched the final episode of Amici, a kind of Fame Academy thing. They have to dance as well though, and do a recital. It was particularly awful, but also quite hilarious.

Leon won. He could do great ballet.

I went for lunch today with Antonio, Caterina, Andrina, Chiara and Bastian, to a great little trattoria called Ermes. Ermes is the man who owns the place. He is about 60 or so. His wife cooks, his friend Aldo, who works in a jewellry shop down the road is a waiter at lunch time (he closes up his shop), and Ermes' son, who works in a bank, also helps at lunch. I am going to interview them for my essay.

The food was magic. We had antipasti of ciccione and salame with bread, I had the spaghetti al tonno, and then scallopina with balsamci vinegar and oil, which is one of my favourites. We sent this all down with lambrusco. The most overwhelming part of the meal was not really the food, even though it was great, but it was more the people in the trattoria. For example, we were all debating what to eat for the main course, and the man sitting on the table next to us over heard us, and promptly took a big chunk of the liver and onions off his plate, poured some balsamic vinegar on it, and presented it to me, telling me to try it. It was excellent, although I am still not convinced by liver, even if I try really hard to like it.

Later on, he gave me some parmeggiano to try with the vinegar, and we had a good chat about grappa. We then got chatting to a gentleman on the other table, who turned out to be the deputy mayor of Modena, who gave me his card, and told me to get in touch if I needed any help with anything. He then gave me a glass of his home made grappa that he seems to carry on him at all times, in cases of emergency perhaps.

Explosive arguments have been reverberating around the house over the last 24 hours. Manu and Cristina are irritating the hell out of each other, and seemingly for not a very good reason. It's one thing shouting at each other in your room, but another when you're doing it in a small kitchen with Bastian trying to read the paper.

It was Manu's birthday party last night, and we all had a good time anyway. We had drinks at Griffins where they now have the summer tables out, and then we went for a really good pizza in a local restaurant. And then we went back to the pub. It's a good feeling to be round a big bunch of friends again, and speaking Italian is very enjoyable. It flows.

I had a look at a hotel for Dan Gav Tom and Andy for when they come. It looks fine really. Not the cheapest hotel ever, but there don't seem to be many cheap ones about in Modena.

Tonight, Bastian and I are cooking for Andrea, Catherine, Clare, Ella, and Bastian's new squeeze Federica, a pHD student here in Modena. Should be a fun evening if I can keep my eyes open long enough. At least my bed isn't too far. We've been cooking since 2 this afternoon so it's all pretty much ready and we just have to throw it all in the oven. The best thing has to be that Bastian has been watching lots of Jamie Oliver, and keeps saying "pukka mate", and "let's whack a bit of that in, lovely" etc... It is very strange in a german accent, just believe me.

Phew! Got back to Modena at around 2 am this morning after a horrid Ryanair flight. I advise never to go with them. Tickets are indeed cheap, but the service is so bad, and they destination airport is always miles away from where you actually want to get to. I had to get the bus from Forli to Bologna and then the last train back to Modena.

Since then I have slept, been for a panino with Andrea Caterina and Bastian, coffeed, joined the library and replaced my lost aviators. Quite productive really. I plan to hit the library later all being well, to find out some stuff for my dissertation.

Bristol was great. Everyone is examing at the moment, so it was kind of them to hang around with me as much as they did. Rob and I played lots of snooker, drank lots of Flowers and Southern Comfort and went to the Vines gig. It was a good one, but fell inbetween the two I've already seen. Mr Nicholls was partially on the ball, which still made for a good concert.

I noticed that the mosh pit was particularly irritating this time. Usually there is a kind of rhythm to it, and pauses for chilling out, but not this time. Lots of violent, or supposedly violent people, who were all about 17, pushing too much, and generally being a pain.

Crowd-surfed for the first time, which was quite an experience, floating over all the hands. Like nothing else I've done before. Maybe it's a bit like bobbing on the sea. But with the worry that it'll all give if you're not lucky.

Jet lag still with me, and making me feel like bed is my best friend all the time.

Francesco has disappeared. No one is sure where he is, but it doesn't sound good. He may be changing college next year. The flat is quite empty without him.

I'm back after the 24 journey of fun. 4 airports, 1 train, lots of waiting around. I smelt baad too. Was sad to leave as well. Katie saw me off ot the airport, and thrust the perfect plane book into my hand; the Dan Brown prequel to The DaVinci Code. Yes, a bad book, but a good bad plane bad good book.

Interesting things on an uninteresting journey.

1) 22L, the greatest seat of all time. Emergency exit=all the leg room in the world+personal televesion.

2) Almost missed Madrid to Gatwick (sounds like Flitwick) plane because I was playing the guitar and didn't notice the change of gate from A1 to B18. A long distance to be covered in 4 minutes. I ran, and I resent that.

3) Man stabbed on train in front of us on Thameslink north. Train stops in Blackfriars, all out.

Woman "What happened?"
Balding Suit-wearing Man "Man stabbed"

Repeat 1000 times.

Lovely to be home. Played bassoon and piano, feel good. Surprised I can still play them. Off to eat now. Sausages and mash. I feel like a spoilt kid. It's great.

Today I went diving for the first time. In the boat there were me, Katie, Darren (another intern at Hurricane divers, he does the same thing as Katie), Nata, my instructor and Javier, the boat conductor.

We went out to a bay called Maguey, and Katie and Darren did some mapping training for their Divemaster course. I did what is called a DSD, a Discover Scuba Diving course. I went down with Nata, who deflated my buoyancy control device so I wouldn't float any more.

It was fun going into the sea. I sat on the edge of the boat and rolled back. Felt all professional.

When we were at the bottom around 30 feet, we stopped on the floor, knelt down, and did some exercises. One was taking the regulator out (the thing you breathe through), another was finding it as if it were lost, another was filling the mask with water and then emptying it, and the last was breathing from the other persons regulator in case yours didn't work.

This was all a little worrying and I didn't enjoy it too much. But we then swam on for the rest of the hour, and I saw some amazing sights. We played with an octopus for a while. You can hold it (the ink comes out initially), and the suckers suck to your hand. It scoots away, and you can catch it again. Not in a mean way I might add.

Seeing schools of fish flash by, brightly coloured blue and yellow ones, puffer fish, sea urchins, coral, bigger fish, was all breathtaking. The highlights sur le plan of sights were definitely seeing a seahorse and two turtles. I especially wish Dad could have seen the seahorse as I think they are his favourite. It was quite beautiful, very still, and without doubt one of the strangest looking animals I have ever seen. Apparently it is very lucky to see a seahorse; many experienced divers have never seen one. I think Nata knows where to find things. Seeing the turtles was a fluke. I was wondering what it looks like to see the air bubbles float to the surface, so I turned my head around, and saw high above me two medium sized (I don't have much reference) turtles.

As we were swimming about I also saw Katie doing her mapping. Funny to see her underwater like that.

Back in the boat we went to La Entrega for Katie and Darren to do some horrible looking test where they had one tank, and had to swap all their equipment around. So they were both breathing off the same piece while having to swap masks flippers, jackets, tanks, everything. I snorkeled around and watched. Fun to watch, less fun to do I think.

I confirmed (Katie rather) my flights for tomorrow. It has been magnificent to come here, and I am very grateful. I look forward to trying diving again soon, maybe going on a holiday to do it.

I see, so what you do is you click on

(0)comments or somesuch, at the bottom of the post...

then scroll down again, and click on...

post a comment

Good luck!

I got back from Soan Cristobal yesterday morning after not so bad a bus journey. 11 hours sounds bad, but when you leave at 9 pm, you really can just sleep through it. With the aid of some good old-fashioned pills.

San Cristobal was lovely. It is an old colonial town, with low buildings, a criss cross network of streets with more indigenous mexicans than here in Huatulco. It is very cool being a mountain village, and enabled us to wear jeans, shoes shirts and jumpers for the first time since I've been here. It was pleasant not having to wear my hair in a ponytail and having my hair scraped back by a band.

We visited some excellent restaurants that were unbelievably cheap, drank caipirinhas and mojitos, danced in a salsa club to a very good band and listened to very talented drummers outside the cathedral, whilst standing back frmo the fire throwers and the crazy dreaded braless hippy woman.

On Friday we went to a paper shop where they make their own, well, paper, and print and make books etc. We decided to come back the next day to take a class in printing. So we were set homework of drawing a picture onto a4, then putting it on acetate, and then bringing it in in time for the lesson. Quite daunting really, but we knucled down to it, and Katie got the acetates done while I had my breakfast tacos. The results were much better than we had hoped for. Katie did a flowery heart with two birds inside that was quite awesome. She printed it with red and yellow. I'm sure you'll see the result one day. Mine was a guitar, with words from one of Beautiful Lunar Landscape's songs going round the outside. I like it.I made it into a few cards too.

When we got back yesterday, Katie threw a surprise on me, and rather than going to dinner at Robert's house, she took me to where we are now staying for three nights. It is a condominium on the hill, looking over the bay of Santa Cruz. The view is beyond description. The sunset. There is a pool (I don't think anyone else is in the complex at the moment) that looks over to the sunset in the evenings. We can see the boats and the beaches way down below. It really is a type of paradise.

Oh, and I think I have now enabled a comments feature on this site, so if you want, I think you can leave a message.

Ben x

Had a good night last night eating pizza and playing cards at Robert and Pauline's house (Katie's bosses). I tried Mezcal which is a bit like tequila but slightly harsher in taste. It has the same end results though.

This evening I'm moving out of Huatulco for a few days with Miss McGlade. We're going to a place called San Cristobal, which is in the hills about 11 hours away by bus. We're taking an overnight bus. It is apparently a beautiful town that is very cool (weather).

I will report back as soon as I can.

Katie has got time off starting next Wednesday, so we're going to Oaxaca to see Mayan ruins and the like. Apparently it is a lot cooler over there as well, so I may even be able to don my jeans again.

On Saturday I played pool and drank pina coladas. In the evening I played darts and drank beer. Excellent.

On Sunday I went to the beach and drank pina coladas. And ate chips. And read my book.

I like it here. As I look out the window now I see palm trees, people selling drinks, a cruise ship, torta lady who makes great sandwiches and tacos, the marina and lots of Mexicans lying on the floor. Twiddling their moustaches. Like Kitchener might do if he wasn't always pointing.

When you point your finger, you always have four fingers (well, three and a thumb), pointing back at you.

What a load of rubbish. Pointing is great. It means you can single people out for ridicule or say "oi, he's stolen my bag". Would you point all your fingers on one hand forward? How would Kitchener look if he had done that?

Had a good Austrian meal last night at Helmut and Manfred's restaurant. I've met lots of very friendly people out here. I've been swimming and lazing, studying a bit, and eating lots of food. Oh yes.

I worked out a few Darkness songs yesterday by slipping the e string down a tone and hitting a few power chords. Genital warts song "Growing on me" was a good one to play.

And then I went down to a beach covered by the sound of waves, the splash of the moonlight, and the dust of the sand.

Have a good May weekend, and salute the mighty mighty Ronnie O'.