Emperor Ryan's Roman Banquet (w/Pool)

A week later from Mils' Pool Party and Lip Sync Battle, my friends and I gathered at Ryans for another Summers day of Pool shenanigans with a Roman Toga Party theme.
This was my second year at Ryan's for this annual summer bash which was an excellent and fun day in the sun with my buds.

Ryan's house is amazing and it's where I spent my New Years Eve 2013 where I tried Absinthe shot during Shot Roulette (ugh I felt like I have drunk bleach or something and I could breathe better or spit fire - ha I wish). Anyway, this party was just a summer annual with the right people and this year it had a theme, Roman Toga. Yeah... I was going to cosplay/ dress up but it got too complicated finding a bed sheet plus it was a warmer than usual day and there was a pool too, me and the others didn't see much point and didn't bother. But that didn't stop "the Emperor" (no not Chancellor Palpatine) from dressing up like a king with all his subjects haha. Oh and Bradley and Lauren dressed up too later on.

I will mention that the night before, nearly all the same lot and me went out to Horsham's Giggling Squid to celebrate Cathy's birthday. The food (Thai) was different and nice (still mildly spicy). I went for the Yummy Duck Rolls, the Thai Green Curry Chicken "Mild" with Egg Fried Rice.
I bought Cathy a "I AM GROOT" ha ha, I mean I bought her a Guardians Of The Galaxy - Dancing Groot Funko Pop since she bought me a Avengers: Age Of Ultron - Iron Man Mark 43 Funko Pop for my birthday in June.

Richard and his
Tinfoil Duck

We all went to The Anchor since we couldn't get into The Dead Parrot unfortunately but it was still a fun night and the fun would be continuing the following day.






So anyway, I turned up after 2.00pm after Dad and I delivered a Rowing Machine to a friend at work (doing business) and popped to ScrewFix to purchase some new Steel Toe Cap Safety Trainers for work.
I was pretty convinced that nobody else was gonna go with the theme (I was right) and everyone had already turned up and ready to go nuts.
I was really pleased to see that my friends Sophie, Ash and Nikki from Portsmouth had made it as well (whom I met the last 2 visits over 2 years whilst we all drunk merrily at The Hobbit Pub whilst continuing the drinking challenge, that's another story). I met them on my first visit with the group in 2013 and they're a right laugh and good friendly people.

I didn't get round to drinking till after 4.30 because Nikki asked for a favour for us to pop to the Train Station at 4.00 to pick up her friend Katie who was coming up from Portsmouth later on.
After picking her up and dropping the ladies back here, it was time to strip (not entirely) and finally jump in the cold pool whilst running away from those stinking Wasps.
Alex and me got chatting to Katie most of the day since she only knew her friends and I wanted to make a new one. She was lovely and a real pleasure to meet and get to know (maybe we'll see each other again someday).

Nikki showed me how to
spell "blood" with her hands

The Emperor was
"overthrown" into the pool

Everyone was messing about with the music playing from the Macbook in the front room, we all chose some awesome Rock, Metalcore etc. I was really surprised and also pleased to see that Nikki had an excellent taste in music along with now liking Bring Me The Horizon like myself recently. We played Sleepwalking (a soft-ish song from their latest album, better than their old stuff which to me sounded like Oliver Sykes was speaking in tongue or trying to hurt his throat) and were going to play Antivist or The House Of Wolves but it seemed it would maybe kill the mood and not everyone likes to here serious stuff like that at a time and place like right then (no matter how awesome and head banging it is). My only regret is not liking them and having not used to the chance to see them when I was at Download 2014 haha, Oh well, always next time!

Anyway, as the afternoon carried on, I got chatting to Ash about some catching up and some news that we were both beginning to think up and execute plans to make out lives better and on a better track.

After eating the BBQ that Ryan had made perfectly, later on when the sun had almost gone behind the house, almost everyone and I participated in a funny exercise. You see, I saw that Nikki and Ash were trained in Martial Arts and I was their dummy (to a certain extent) and before I knew it, I became the Deadlift Bar for everyone to try lifting me up for laughs (I think it's cause I weight around 50-60KG so it was a test of their strength really). Everyone took turns and even I gave a go and Squatting with Nikki on my back and even tried... and failed at being a bar for Liam to bench me on ha ha. To end it all, Ash and me managed to re-enact the famous Dirty Dancing moment.

After all that silliness, the rest of the evening was playing my favourite card game - Cards Against Humanity.

The coolest sword - Asda
Halloween for a Fiver
(looks like a Monster Hunter
weapon or Fantasy sword)

After Katie left, soon after Nikki had to leave as well so Ash and me being good men decided to walk her back to the station since I couldn't give her a lift thanks to the few drinks I had. I'll see her again sometime for sure. Ash and me ended up talking about Marvel and Dinosaurs (two awesome subjects) on the way back and I even told him the short plots for the Land Before Time sequels (which I'm getting round to writing up here sometime).
When we came back, everyone was all fighting each other on Super Smash Bros. For Wii-U, perfect timing to come back and join the fight.

What really makes that weekend unforgettable right now is the fact that after everyone had gone to sleep upstairs, my good friend Luna and I got round to messing about with her amazing 3D Projector. She positioned me to stand in front of the projector and shift my body around like a Manikin so that I could look like some designs including Tony Stark/ Iron Man, Roxas (Kingdom Hearts II) etc.
But the main thing is the long talk we had that went on from Midnight till 4.30 in the morning!

What started off as discussing my plans for my career including doing what I've been meaning to do for about a year and a half - to save up for a 13" Macbook Pro (which I should have in my possession by next week after all the months of assurance and discussions with Luna). It soon turned into us both talking about Autism and deep thoughts. I was most impressed and surprised to learn that Luna had once looked after a paralysed man who couldn't even speak. Luna explained how she amazingly managed to help this man draw his first picture by holding his hand and spoke to him clear as day on using his eyes as a stencil for the control of the pencil whilst Luna just held the pencil still, wow!
I explained how I've changed since School years and also revealed how I've still failed to let go of my mistakes and for not standing up to people that caused me great pain.

I also explained my connection with the Andrew character from Chronicle because of the layer of darkness we both have from being victims of bullying and having never fought back. I even admitted that with the Telekinetic power from the film I would harm/ threaten those that hurt me (rather than go looking for a fight) but mainly I would just fly away from my problems and escape to quiet places like flower fields or forests to just calm down from reality (but we know this will never happen). I aim to mention more in my post of the film sometime over the next few months along with my school life (which is taking a while to write up as well as trying to not mention any names). I'm not a bad person for thinking this way still or deep down but not everyone can move on so easily but let's not focus on that right now.
Luna mentioned how she too can see how I have changed and grown up for the better as well as open myself up to others whilst still having a good time.

"Being different is not a problem, even if you think that way. The fact that you explain honestly these feelings and on AsperJosh is special and helps you out as well as teach others about the real you.Your not a bad person, Josh, you just feel lost and sometimes feeling lost is a good thing because you learn how to find yourself and learn a lot. At least you know you have friends and loved ones who care about you compared to back then and that's the best thing. You may not be able to change the past but at least you are living in the present and have learned from your mistakes (it's human nature)."

Hearing her say all that and something along those lines is surprising because she's reminding me of the truth and what I seem to forget. And everything is true, I may be this way and I do seem to go on about it (I reckon it's just a phase or the fact I'm a little tired/ stressed). But at least I am FINALLY taking action with starting fresh with a new and expensive machine which will help me begin to shape my future and start me on a path that I've been afraid to start for almost a year or so. Plus when I come back from Holiday (4th-18th September) in Greece again (I'll hopefully write up my long post about my 10 years of Greece sometime in September whilst there), I will also FINALLY sign myself up to a dating website (maybe not Tinder or Persian Wife Finder - sorry that's a bad joke that I saw in Jim Carrey's film Yes Man). These two changes will help me deeply and once I begin them both, I will begin to become a better Josh and will begin to see things differently as much as they are scary and exciting at the same time.

Anyway, after this long conversation which we had been yawning through mostly, we decided to finally fall asleep and managed to sleep till 10.30am. Everyone was up and not hungover (that's a relief) so I had to gather my sh*t and take off as I had to pop home to sort out some things and write up some AsperJosh drafts.
So this weekend was great and everyone enjoyed it and I learned something from a great friend whom I'll be seeing sometime in September once I've acquired the Macbook Pro because she'll be able to introduce me to some apps/ software that will help teach me coding and maybe even animation like in my College years.
Right now, I have a load of things to think up on what to write in order, I'll be purchasing the Macbook Pro asap by next week after sorting some money out in my ISA and right now, things are starting to tense up a little as I still haven't been able to go GYM since last time which I think was June/ July. I aim to get back into it sometime (least I can still do my set of 50 Press Ups and 30 Leg Raises and 30 Dips at least if I don't end up going and it counts as something, right?!) Don't really know if I'll write up a post on Going To The Gym For 2 Years since I haven't made much progress due to training and then taking it easy after The Tough Mudder. But Greece will be awesome and a big break from reality for a while, definitely not gyming there but I'll do my set in the room and will be swimming.
But before that, I need to purchase that thing and I also have Dave and Caroline's Wedding Reception on 29th August and then the following day, I aim to be in Tilgate Park (if the weather plays right) with my Mum's side of the family (all the people and more from Boxing Day 2014 basically). I'll write those up soon.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!