The Australian Companion - James Alder

This man is in-charge of my safety in Oz.
Wish me luck

James Alder is a very unique individual. One of the poshest people I know. He is also one of the funniest people I know - not that i'm saying that if you are posh you are boring. A great standout story that comes to mind when I speak of Jimmy involves him, one lucky lady that he managed to sweet talk on one particular night and some Herbal Essences shampoo. For legal reason I cannot divulge any more information. But please take my word for it when I say it is hilarious.



We met at Canterbury whilst both studying at university. Jimmy was studying History with sport science and I was studying multi-media journalism. By know means, when we first met, did we 'hit it off straight away'. In fact the very first time we had any sort of interaction he was trying to knock my head off with a snowball. I think my mates exact words after this ordeal was "who were them n*bheads launching snow balls at us as hard as they could?". After all, when you're at uni and it snows it's like having a load of kids on ecstasy  running around.

The C4 Rejects.
Twice Varsity winners. League Winners 2010 -2011

Beside the somewhat violent introduction, a little bit later in first year we all started hanging out a lot more together and became good mates. Like the case with so many of my close friends the normal ice breaker (which, ironically was not the snow in this instance) was football. There would often be times when 20 - 30+ of us would go to the local playing fields and kick a ball about for hours on end, which does nothing to subvert the standard student stereotype. And it was towards the end of first year that one of our good friends Paul started up our very own football team the mighty 'C4 Rejects'. A real force to be reckoned with and one of, if not the, most pivotal and important aspects of my time at University providing a social life that could be unrivalled.

Every Wednesday from the end of first year all the way through to the end of third year we would get together, play (and normally win) a competitive match, and then go out in the night and act in such an unholy way that only students can do in student towns. God bless Canterbury.

The front room. Just the tip of the iceberg

Football aside - me and Jimmy were also house mates. Jimmy moved in to our house in third year and was a great addition to the team, because our house wasn't only a house, it was a shrine to football. We covered every inch of wall and celling with football shirts, scarfs, flags and memorabilia most of which belong to our good mate Stephen Staunton (not the ex-Irish and Aston Villa professional footballer). We had shirts on our walls from Barcelona to Barnsley, pinned across every inch we could. It is nothing short of a miracle that the land lord was able to rent that house out ever again.

As well as being a great centre back, a top house mate and one of the silliest people I have ever come across he is most importantly a true mate and has been so for me during some really tough times. I am ridiculously excited to meet up with him again and to start our road trip, despite being very apprehensive about whether or not he will even remember to meet me when I land. Really would not put anything past the guy.