We were up on the top floor, merrily dancing away, when I look down and notice what looks like dry ice moving across the floor at our feet. I point it out to Hayley and Liz and we assume they've had new dry ice/smoke machines fitted.

The next thing we know, there's an alarm going off, people screaming and shouting "tear gas", couldn't see my hand in front of my face for smoke, no-one can breathe, and there's the most foul smell choking everyone. We all make for the doors, people are streaming down the stairs into the middle floor in coughing fits, smoke billowing down the stairs with them...

Bouncers and security staff close off the top floor and usher anyone who's still coughing outside, where they'd stopped letting people in. Initially they said it was due to a tear gas release, but then (presumably to stop the spread of just this sort of gossip) they just called it an unknown gas release. We made our way outside, Hayley and Liz decided to go back for Liz's brother then get a taxi, I had to go home as I was feeling really sick and still coughing pretty badly.

One suggestion made is that someone either let off or damaged a powder fire extinguisher, which when combined with the ventilation system could create the clouds of gas. However, a quick Google tells me all powder fire extinguishers are odourless, and that place definitely stank. It also wouldn't make sense how it spread over the whole floor, looking like dry ice, then rose up causing the choking (surely the powder would sink to the floor, after all fire extinguishers are pretty directional if released properly, and if it exploded surely there would have been a cloud in one corner which then spread outwards?

Other ideas? Maybe it was a riot gas/smoke grenade of some sort? No-one was crying (directly due to the gas anyway), which rules out tear gas.

It does concern me a little that the place appeared to be staying open, and there was no sign of Police, Fire & Rescue or Paramedic response. Again, googling the "best case" scenario of a powder fire extinguisher release, H&S guidelines still say anyone who inhaled or got the powder in their eyes should seek medical advice immediately.

Can someone more "in the know" fill me in?

So much for a blaze-of-glory-last-night-at-tap-and-tin-before-uni!

My skype ID is "r9paul", and my phone number is 01614 082 879.

But. I hear you ask (or, at least Chris asked) Where did you actually go, and who did you actually see? Well; I saw Andy, Kim, Chris H, Chris A, Alex, Pete, Teilo and Rob (Apologies to Matt, Amanda and Nick A - who were on the plan, but got missed for various reasons) and I visited Southampton, Worcester, Birmingham and Manchester over the space of 5 days.

It was an absolutely fantastic week, I enjoyed every minute of it. Its good to know that I'm managing to maintain friendships beyond the end of school, and hopefully many of these will last through uni and into later life.

Note, there are lots of people I would have liked to have visited, but they inconveniently decided to go to Uni in far-away places, very inconsiderate of them I think. **hides his deferred application to Durham**

Another Note, can you bring my t-shirts back with you next time you come home please Kim

Rob says:
You forgot something though.... [Original Post]

But he is mistaken, I was still pondering the morality of mentioning what happened between Rob and Mavis in the car on the way back from Manchester. Given that Rob attends a College of Theology I thought it might be best people did not stumble accross information regarding the relationship between the couple.

At first, it looked like they were hitting it off, Rob seemed impress by Mavis's.. um.. "features", and whilst Mavis has never been the talkative type she too seemed to have a liking for Rob. Alas, things were not to be though and after some rather intimate relations their partnership took a turn for the worse. By the end they were ignoring one another, and that once magical spark had clearly gone out.

Its day, errmmm, three - no four - of roadtrip and I'm in Manchester visiting Rob. He's at a Bible College (!!!) studing theology and there are lots of scary (American) Christians around.

This evening we went to Wetherspoons, got a bit lost in Manchester (both on foot and in car), and are now back in his common room sharing music (slowly, grrr to battery power) whilst I check up on emails, forums, stats and the suchlike.

None of this is very exciting, but I'm proving a point.

Rob says:
um... did you know mehaffey fancies you
Paul says:
I dont think so Rob

I wasn't even goint to bite at this without some morsel of evidence behind it.

Rob says:
it's on her myspace
Rob says:
in the thingy bit i think

The Thingy Bit ehy? So, I humour him and open up myspace, sure enough, quite clearly nothing about me on the page as expected. But.... Was there something at the back of my mind that said: "could he be right?", "She did buy me a few drinks on a few occasions...", Then I was reminded of one simple fact, its Rob we're talking about here. Planet Rob is a very different place to the world the rest of us know.

5 Minutes Later... still no further word from Rob...

Paul says:
Oh dear, has your failed attempt at a hoax fallen apart around you leaving you buried and unable to respond?

5 Minutes Later...

Paul says:
Rob? **peers under blocks of lies**

Then! "Evidence" magically appears from Rob's "cache"... [Click It]

Would a normal person just own up at this point? Probably. But, not Rob, when presented with all the errr... weaknesses in his photoshopping...

Rob says:
I use an odd browser with weird caching capabilities
Rob says:
you've got visual proof!
Rob says:
WHY OH WHY WONT YOU BELEIVE ME?!?!?!?!

On a different note, I finally finished school and its really really weird. Last few days have just been a rollercoaster of emotion, I've waited so long to be rid of school and now its actually over I can't work out whether that makes me happy or not. There are of course things I will not miss in the slightest (a certain teacher's maths lessons, for example...) but even though I loathe them, will there be part of me that misses the loathing?

Of course the main thing I will miss is the people, I don't have to wave goodbye to the building and staff for another year yet. Being a prefect I feel I'e made some really close friendships this past year. I'm going to miss the things we all do together, the random lazing about on the sofas pretending to do some work, and then the frantic organising when we realise we have 24 hours left to organise a concert, or a party or whatever.

I'm planning on setting up a keep-in-contact service over the next few weeks. Should let everyone post their details (MSN, e-mail, address, myspace, phone, uni, job, etc) somewhere that everyone else can get to. If anyone wants to be involved in that please let me know.

After numerous disasters during the day (amps dying, mixer dying, emergency trips to maplins etc) we botched the sound system together in a way that it vageuly worked, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

OK so the sound wasn't perfect, (everything was routed through a lesser amp, with the main one seemingley dead) but it was still a superb evening.

The Long Weekend were amazing, even if they did trash our nice stage layout And with numerous bands from the medway Towns playing the quality of music from some of the groups was overwhelming. Of course I should mention The Space Peacocks who won the evening, as judged by our panel of experts including KMFM; but also The Scopes, Old No. Eight, Something Like Serenity... and how can I forget The Unknown, bless their little cotton socks. (As well as many other fantastic groups... I won't mention them all.)

All in all a brilliant evening, and over a hundred pounds was rasied for charity. The soundtrack and DVD will be released shortly, we've just got to sort out copyright issues with The Long Weekend, since they went and got themselves signed!

Cited from my journal at last.fm.