I could write here about how I spent most of today hanging about the hous in a skirt, tights and pink tee shirt, and about how remarkable I find becca, who remains my girlfriend even though I do such dubious things, but it feels wrong to write about such silly, happy things when I see so much suffering on my tv. when i last looked, 80,000 people had been killed by the tsunami in the indian ocian. tonight, my thougts are there. I feel sad.

yesterday wee tried to watch lord of the riings all he way through – all 10 hours of jackson’s masterpiece. my family got bored after the first film and started a card game. I suppose it was too ambitious to expect them to be so patient. we will watchh the third film later tho, having watched the second later yesterday evenning.

a few days ago I wrote a stupid entry agbout my friend shannon. given that shes a very privatee person, it was aa foolish thing to do. I can only offer an apology and a vow to leave her out of my little rants.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4117997.stm

I read this article this morning, aand I’m furious. for one, I’m not sure about specialist SEN schoolss, as it might be a step back away from inclusion, but for the torries to criticise the precious few steps towards inclusion that labour has made has me absolutely fuming!

chill the zimfandel, dad – I’ll drink it with tim colins liver!

becs is away from her pc, so I’ve recently been communicating witth her via mobile phone text messages – physically holding the phone to talk hurts my arm after a while. I’m getting rather fast at it, but the tning is texting is probably the most fiddly, frustrating acctivity ever! for a person used to a dock-off extended keyboard, to write anything using the three-press letter-sellection of mobile phones takes ages. to say anytthing of substance is nigh-on impossible. oddly, tho, the fact that Its becca I’m communicating with makkes these frustrations seem quite, quite insignificant.

this yyear has provedd my assumptions are mostly pants! ok, so look at the following:

1. I assumed I wouldnt go 2 uni.

3. I assumed I’d not be popular

I assumed that i’d never get a girlfriend

I’d addumed i’d never ace an exam.

wrong! crap. matt assumed wrong. at the end of this year, I’m flourishing at university, surrounded by friends. I’m in line for a reasonable degree, and I have aan absoluttely wonderful girlfriend in becca, whom I adore. In short, right now life rules, and to think I was once so pessimuistic is laughable.

merry christmass everyone!

Like most ppl, I read several peoples blogs – I just read my friend shannon’s. she’s in florida, and is one of the best damn writers I know [thereby re-igniting my faith in yanks]. without wanting to breach confidenntialitty – she’d kill me – her mosr recent entry has me fuming. My dad got katie uptight just by using the H-word; what shannon discribes hre, in my opinion, is far worse. in short, it ammounts to abuse, and makes me want to cross the atlantic and doo some unprintable things.

but somehow I doubt mumor dad will let me go on killing sprees in america, so I”ll just say to shannon that shhe has my respect, and can contact me any time she wants to.

This film is an astoundingly beautiful film about 3 aboriginal girls who walk across Australia after forcibly being taken from their mothers. Its hard not to be sutured into the text, and I found myself getting very angry at the authorities. I wanted to stop them taking these kids away, through no reason other than racism. Some of the shooting is awe-inspiring. However, it was only when I watched the ‘making of’ documentary that I actually felt myself welling up with tears, forcing me to go telephone Becs,

Above all, though, this film is testament to the human spirit. For these girls to walk 1500 miles was phenomenal. Without doubt, their story had to be told.. ordinarily, I’d do a close textual analysis – or attempt one – but that can wait: this film is too beautiful to take apart.

Thanks, Becca, for a great Christmas present!

one thing is certain, university rules. never have i worked so hard, or partied so much. but now its christmas, I think I need home. ok, I go there every weekend, but i’m kinda tired. I find myself thinking about the tree at home, the smell of mum’s cooking, seeing maark and luke. I really do love uni. never felt so free. went to a very cool party last night. got drunk. 🙂 sigh…but I think its time for a rest. dads picking me up tonight. time to unwind at home. and do some serious sleeping!

http://www.yanous.com/ p’qua? sille na non comprendes! any help, kat/auntie dina/uncle aki/cyril?

okok. this is embarrasing, but i only just realised. when becs said she was going to stay at her friend anne’s place, i thought fine. to be honest my prime concern was finding her house. but earlier today I was looking at becca’s livejournal, where she mentions anne’s full name: anne rae.

this name might not mean alot to most of you guys, but instantly a bell rang in my head. Mrs rae has written a vast amount concerned with disability, disability rights and inclusive education. she is a very VERY senior authority in the field.she is known nationally.

and my mum offered to help her make tea. oh god, talk about faux pas!!

Havr just spent a very pleasant evening with becs. mum made a v. nice meal. i’m not a total gossip, so i’d raather keep the details between me and my girllfriend. Ii just want to say thhat right now, i’m one of the happuest and luckiest man on earth.

I’ve woken up early so I thought I may as well get up and do some blogging. Last night was the Christmas disco at the bar, and, you know me, I couldn’t resist the chance to dress up. Hey, I’m an extrovert!

Anyway, I’d been planning this since last week. I went shopping with Mark, my PA, and got some fairy wings and pink netting for a tutu. That evening, I asked my home-helpers if they knew a way of making the latter into a skirt: this seemed to excite them quite a bit, and they offered to make it. I got dad to make sure my pink leotard was ok to wear.

So, to cut a long story short, 7.30 last night saw me heading round to the bar in pink leotard, tutu and tights, the shades of which were all discordant so I looked rather garish and cool. I had my cute wings on. I sat down at the table with the usual carling, watching ‘the social’*. A while later, the party got going. In order to avoid getting chilled, I found a nice warm pipe to sit by.

Believe it or not, several girls danced with me, sort of “he looks so cute, lets dance with him” in a maternal kind of way. Everyone wants to mother me. Why?

Eventually, I found my cool Irish friends and got chatting. Did some more dancing, talking, etc. as the party wound down, they invited me over to the Kellick common room for more talking, but kellicks miles away so I had to say no thanks. One girl asked to buy my skirt – still thinking about that.

Well, that’s about it. A couple of friends walked me home, saying “I’d never be able to wear that outfit matt.” Got home, pulled off my costume (glitter everywhere), and went to bed. What a cool night!

* the weekly group piss-up of the football team. Bloody stupid if you ask me.

yesterday I spent the night talking to becs. we were having this great discussion in which we created a harry potter fanfic charachter, miles. we were wondering how the hogwarts staff would cope with a severely disabled student. miles has very severe cp, is noonverbal, and has learning disabilities. he reminds me of the PMLD kids at school, or ross down my road. it was great to see him being created during the course of the evening, with me and becca throwing ideas at eachother. the problm is, I can’t quite get inside miles’ head just yet. think I need to do some more exploring with becs before I/we write anything in full.

I wonder how people like professor snape would react to such kids. he reacted to miss stanhope badly enough, but she is both articulate and bitter enough to cope with him. either way, this willj most certainly be an interesting experiment.

why is it that the one day that we go up to mancherster, beccas not in town? she’s at 1voice, in liverpool, i think. we’re going up there to see luke, cyril, and eevee, a distant cousin. summit like that anyway. dad has been spouting bullshit about beca not being really in love with me, or she’d try hardserr to see me. mind you he also threatened to pimp me. go figgure.

I really want to see becs. I mean really! hugging her i fee;l complete. she kissed me that night, and i felt my heart pound in my chest. that nght i descovered why man created poetry and song and all that is good. at one time, i thought all the world hollow – how can it bee, with people like rebecca younng in the world? definitely going to see her next week tho – as sure as th sun rises.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to the christmass disco, for which i’m dressing up. if i dont catch pneumonia, it should be fun. i’ll tell you what i’m gonna wear later!

music – all you need is love, the beattles