Strike Factory

My first blog entry of this decade! Well it seems that despite a recession NYE Syndrome is waning! Before the recession I always struggled to arrange a birthday celebration or know of anyone else celebrating early January due to most people being skint from NYE. Well it seems that people do have money now after NYE. I plan to attend the birthday celebrations of Mr and Mrs Murad, and possibly Ali Jenkins in Brighton this weekend! Last year I marked 23 years on Earth, by going to a Indie Disco night at Digital with the legendary Ben Miller and getting conned for £5 in the toilets by a fragrance guy! This year I had four brave souls, travel up from the Sussex coast, to have some drinks and fun in Crawley (shocking I know!) marking 24 years. There was fun and games, and just outside Strike Towers to drop me off, so they could return to Brighton, the group of four got excited about being in Quaker land (well its owned by Quakers with their 17th century meeting house on the site and Strike Towers HQ being a tenant for the moment I am not a Quaker if anyone wonders), and Simon Sissling got excited about the Simon Turner Hall near my HQ which is partly named in his honour.

The Simon Turner Hall would witness another great moment aside from classic table tennis tournaments, BBQs, and teenage girls doing various Irish dances it has hosted down the years, when we drifted into discussions about elephant gods, porridge, jedis, Dan Rolf and pacifists in the car next to the infamous hall! We were along with the other special guests Sarah Steeples, Rakesh Pandit, and Emma Froud discussing (or trying to) philosophy, at about 3am! Though the discussion came out with some interesting views with the variety of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist and Jedi views in our group, with one the girls thinking that Quakers are a secret society of porridge makers that meet at the hall for a weekly session of enjoying munching Quaker Oats in silence, and Simon questioning whether I really was a Jedi! With a bit of drink inside I struggled to convince the group that Quakers are not just a manufacturer of porridge! This made the graves of the Quakers the other side of the car park from the Simon Turner Hall turn! Eventually we parted after this fine historic moment but not without the group getting lost in Ifield, which I would like to apologise for!

The snow has once again snowed me in once again but I have not been hit by the power cuts or phone lines going that have plagued most of Sussex luckily. But that is all. More news coming up next week, and for more information on the Quakers (Religious Society Of Friends), or Quaker Oats (the porridge) check out these sites, www.quaker.org.uk (the religion) www.quaker.co.uk (the porridge). (sounds a bit Channel 4 like I know haha)