FRIDAY
KPUM Annual Debate 2010 Part 1
So I signed Charlaine, Melody and myself up for this debate. Mainly because Shaun, who was organising it, sent me a facebook message asking if I would be interested in joining. Then, when I emailed him back, he said there was only one place left. I signed us up before I had even gotten a confirmation from Charlaine (oops). Well too late now.
I went to London on Friday via Megabus. Normally I wouldn't bother writing how boring the bus ride was but this time, the bus driver drove around Victoria and even stopped for 10 minutes at the side of the rod. For no apparent reason. I mean, if he wanted to dash to the toilet, by all means, don't piss your pants. But 10 minutes? Come on! Don't eat curry if you 1) know you have to drive 4 hours on a schedule and 2) know you can't handle it.
Anyway, arrived late. Rushed to Glouchester Road Station. Used my last 5p to text Lea I was coming. When I got to Glouchester Road she wasn't there :( so I waited around for a bit. I wanted to buy some more credit for my phone so luckily the shop at the station sold reloads for my sim. Unfortunately, he didn't take cards. So I rolled my way across the street to Tesco to get cash. Rolled on back to buy credit. Credit bought, I proceeded to scratch the silver scratchy thing when Lea appeared. Late, albeit apologising profusely. No harm done.
Scampering back to her cosy studio apartment (it's smaller than it sounds), I explained to her that I had 2 and a half speeches to write and send off to Melody and Laine that night. Dinner and all be damned (but no, we did eat). So as I settled in, I pulled out my trusty computer and got cracking.
I should explain, that the Debate was Saturday morning, 9am. Friday night, I was in London, Melody and Laine were back in Cardiff working on rebuttals. They would take the 6am train up to London, Saturday morning.
Half a speech done, I told Lea that I probably wasn't going to finish before 8.30pm. Naidu wanted to go for dinner somewhere before he went to Oxford to see his gf. Yeah yeah, Oxford Uni. Lea took pity on my dire situation and decided for me (thanks Lea :) that it would be better to stay in and cook. Naidu followed suit and bought food over to cook. I banged out the second speech as they were cooking and started on the third when dinner was ready. I was feeling like I had done quite a bit of work at this point and deserved a bit of a break, if not at least some proper food. Claypot chicken rice, vege and some thai red curry broccoli and cauliflower. The curry was disappointing because the curry paste was nasty, but mainly because it smelled so damn good, I was expecting fireworks. The Claypot chicken rice was fantastic tho - even if it did have ginger in it.
I finished my third speech around midnight. By which time Lea was falling asleep.
Rhetorical question: Why am I surrounded by morning people who can't stay awake past midnight?
Rhetorical answer: Because I need people to guilt me into sleeping like a normal person.
I took advantage of Lea's stupidly fast internet and watched Let's Dance for Comic Relief before sleeping. Lea was gone by the 3rd dance.
SATURDAY
KPUM Annual Debate 2010
Ed: I'm resuming writing this almost a month from when I started it so this is going to be brief.
Got there early-ish. Nervously waiting for Melody and Charlaine to arrive from their train. I had texted them directions of which tube line to take - seeing as London is so intent on improving their tube stations by shutting them down on weekends.
I saw Shaun again! It was weird after not seeing him for at least 3 years. He looked well and in proper organising committee mode. Kudos buddy.
Melody and Charlaine got there eventually! A little late but not massively so. They had taken the 6.45am train up from Cardiff so they were understandably a bit tired and hungry. No food close by! I asked Shaun if there was food in the building or close by but unforch there wasn't.
Crisis!
Thankfully, Shaun, being the saviour he is, saw my distress and gave me his small box of Honey Stars! All the way from Malaysia! Bless! Melody's face lit up with joy :)
We were going thru some of our papers when the event officially started.
Long story short
Round 1: We won!
Round 2 (Semi-Finals): We won again! 2-1 split.
Round 3 (Finals): We didn't expect to make it that far. We lost but it was a good debate. We got the difficult side to argue but we gave it our all.
Met up with Lea after. Melody and I went for dinner with her. Charlaine had booked the 6-something train back to Cardiff so she left early.
We went to this Japanese restaurant tucked away somewhere near Oxford Street. Big portions!
So delish, I was so full.
We caught our bus back with moments to spare. The bus people were a bit snipy with us for being late but I was so happy that the bus hadn't left yet, I didn't care. As long as the bus was still at the station, I was getting on it. I made Melody run too haha.
We napped on the way back.
When I got home I realised I had somehow misplaced my glasses case. I remember I had it on the bus. Oh well.
Oh, and as the Runner-Up in the Debate Competition, we got 100 pounds to split! Which was a nice consolation :)
