Nothing amazing happened last week, so I'm struggling to come up with a title.

Hello readers and welcome to another little update. I will begin, as always, with last Monday...

I got up and posted a reference for Select Education, which they wanted, and then lounged about playing Spore for most of the day until the evening when I went over to Sutton to see Julie. We went for a drink at one of the local pubs until chucking-out-time when I dropped her home.

Tuesday. Again, Spore took up most of the day and in the evening I went over to Adam and Carls.

Wednesday. I actually completed Spore! This was bad news because now I didn't have anything to occupy my time with. In the evening I went to The Swan to meet up with Donna and the quiz team... Except that the quiz team was Donna, her mum, and me! It is only one of the few times I have sat with them through an entire quiz and, don't forget there was just the 3 of us, was pleasently surprised that we came 7th! Afterwards I came home and watched some TopGear before going to bed.

Thursday. I awoke to the sound of my mobile. Select was calling me... DID THIS MEAN SOME WORK!!!?...

.... No. They were ringing me to thank me for getting the reference to them which apparently arrived the day before. But now they wanted 2 passport sized photographs for my ID card... This was a bit annoying because they could have told me that when they asked for my reference. So I spent the day trawling around trying to find one of those photo-booths... Sainsburys? No. Tescos? No. Post Office? Wasn't working. Aldis? No. Homebase. Wasn't working. Morrisons? YES! they had a working photo booth... so after paying FOUR GOD-DAMN BASTARD POUNDS!!!! for 2 mini photos I left to post them... Then I had an idea! I decided that I could save time by taking them straight to the office, so I phoned Select and explained that I would pop in. So off to Brum I went and got there for about 4:00pm. I went in and said hello to 2 girls that weren't there in the easter term when I signed up. They told me that the guy who was there left, along with 2 staff, so they were the replacements. They did my ID card and after a chat and a laugh I made my way back home. That evening I drove to The Swan since Lank was "temperarily out of action" See Lanks blog for details... (Gorey, gorey details.) At 11:30pm I left the swan and made my way over to the airport as I was picking dad up from his trip to Lanzarote which he went on with his gym mates. After waiting at Arrivals for 10 mins he showed up and I dropped him back home before carrying on home to bed.

Friday. I did nothing during the day but in the evening I went over to Sutton to pick Julie up and bring her back to the Red Lion in Shirley as Marcus and his dad's band were playing. In fact they do some very good stuff. They are called The Blighters and you can check them out here. Carl arrived, then Jenny, then after a while Kate and Ben showed up. We watched the music until chucking-out time and then started the long trek back to Sutton to drop Julie off. I was exhausted when I got there so she suggested that, rather than risk driving back to Wythall I should kip there and go back the following morning.

Saturday. I awoke with a start because I forgot where I was and it took me a second to realise! After some brekkie we sat watching Spongebob for a couple of hours before sitting in the garden since it was sunny. At about 3:00pm I left for home. I got back just as my nan and grandad were leaving. I lounged about for a bit before going over to carl and Adams for a chinese takeaway.

Sunday. Normal one. Legion, Nans, Home...

Right, I will leave you there readers. TTFN

Saturday

We all want to be a big rockstar...

Hello readers and welcome to yet another little blog.

It's late so I will be brief.

Monday evening was spent with Julie in the pub... And McDonalds... Somewhere I havent been in years! After a lazy drink and a bit of TV I made my way home.

Tuesday. During the day I blitzed through Spore, and came away with square eyes! In the evening I went over to Adam and Carls for some xbox-related mania.

Wednesday. Again the day was spent playing Spore but I did take time out to go and buy Metallicas' Death Magnetic from HMV. It's a good album with the reintroduction of the long-forgotten guitar solos. It's an album much more in the style of their early stuff, which is no bad thing. In the evening I went to Fathers and then we went to my aunts to have a look at why her new doors weren't hanging straight! The answer is because they are warped!

Thursday. During the day I did sod all, but in the evening I went, with dad to the NEC to see Nickelback! We got there to find that Stain'd were supporting, which was a bonus. Naturally I got some photo's:







And of course I got a video of them singing Rockstar... Listen to the bit where he references a certain "sofa commercial"... It's classic.

Anyway, the show was great and I had a good time.

Friday evening saw me back over in Sutton. I took Julie out for a drink before dropping her back home.

Saturday. During the day I went over to selena and Kierons after dropping mum at the station as she was off to London for the weekend. In the evening I went to pick Julie up because we were having a barbecue at Adam and Carls. We spent a good few hours scoffing hotdogs and playing RockBand (note: The Mothers of Destruction are now called Leviathan Seed). When it was time to go I dropped Julie back home before coming home myself.

Sunday: normal.... Legion, nans, home.

Right. I'm knackered. TTFN

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu...

Hello readers and welcome to a shorter blog this week. As you might remember I blogged up until last Wednesday so I only have 4 days to blog about...

Ah, but before I start I will show you something I said I was going to do at the end of the previous posting...

I had finished creating Voyager on Spore and said I was off to do the Defiant from DS9... Well I did it...

I put the original there for comparison. I then ran out of things to build. Fortunately Kieron hadn't and had been hard at work creating a Klingon Bird of Prey...

I couldn't find a good "on screen" picture so I got this die cast model as a comparison.

I then decided to do a ground vehicle. Now as a teenager I was mildly obsessed with the "Mechwarrior" series of games. Now in Mechwarrior 3, one of the biggest accomplishments was to pilot a "Mad Cat mk II" which looked like this...

pretty cool.... But I thought "hmm..... I wonder if...?" and set about building... The result? look below!

Tadaah! I think it looks quite niffty.

Anyway, in the evening I went down to fathers as usual. We watched some Laurel and Hardy!

Thursday. During the day I didn't do very much and in the evening I went to the Packhorse.

Friday. Again during the day I didn't really do anything except play Spore. But the evening was quite entertaining... I went to pick Julie up from Sutton and bought her back over to this end of the world, stopping off to pick John up along the way. We then made our way over to Solihull to meet Adam, Carl, Jenny and Marcus in Woks Hall for a chinese buffet! I had several courses of various meats and sauces (hey! that rhymes!) topped off with some chocolate covered marshmallows for dessert. After spending an hour-or-so in there we paid the bill and went back to Jenny/Marcus' house to watch a bit of Family Guy before everyone left and I dropped John home and then took Julie back to Sutton.

Saturday... Was interesting. Me and John met Adam and Carl in Birmingham in the afternoon outside the Carling Academy as we had tickets to see "The Chairmen" compete in the Battle of the Bands. We got in and found a spot to stand. Now we knew Gemma, Woody, Jo, and Paul were in there somewhere, and that they would most likely be at the front, so we waited until The Chairmen had finished there set and went to look for them. Sure enough we found them at the front. We watched a couple more bands, one called "Strangle Kojak" though one fan had tried to unsuccesfully write it on his T-shirt and had written "Stragle Kojak" by mistake... Idot. We decided that food was in order so we set off towards pizza hut. We were told that there would be a half hour wait to be seated, despite half the restaurant being empty, so we decided to go somewhere else. On the way out I tripped over a chair...

We ended up in Weatherspoons and ordered the grub. I had a burger and decided that it would be better if I ate it with a knife and fork. Something that everyone else ridiculed me about! Anyway we left and discovered that everyone was queing up outside the Academy for some reason. We decided that we weren't going to bother going back in so Me, John, Adam, and Carl left for Solihull where we had quite a moving experience...

You see John is going (or rather, as I sit here typing this "has gone" would be more accurate) to live in Plymouth with Selina (his fiance, not my sister! notice the spelling) in her student flat. So that meant that our RockBand band: The Mothers of Destruction, was losing it's vocalist. We decided to play one last time...

Then, at a reasonable time, Carl dropped me and John home.

Sunday. Sunday was a normal one, though it was the day John was going to Plymouth. I went to the Legion and left for 7:00pm then went down to my nans for tea as usual...

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN.

Faites-le vous-même

Hello readers and appologies for this late arrival. I have been kept busy with a new toy, but more of that later...

I begin with Monday the 1st of September, and the last week of the holidays. During the day I did nowt, but in the evening I went over to see Julie in Sutton. We went for a drink at a nice Toby Carvery pub. We grabbed some comfy seats and sat chatting until chucking out time, then I dropped her home and started the drive back to Wythall.

Tuesday. I had a lazy day but decided to go for a wander round Solihull. I bought Slipknots new album "All hope is gone" It's a good album with a nice variety of styles. Yes, there are what I call "typical growly Slipknot songs" on there but also some slower, more heartfelt tracks as well, where Corey Taylor really opens up his voice (I dare anyone to listen to "Snuff" and not be moved by it) Anyway. In the evening I went over to Adam and Carls with John.

Wednesday... Now Wednesday was a bit different. Iwas having a very normal day, when at around noon Father phoned me to ask if I would accompany him on a little trip...

... To France!

Yep. We would be going to Lille to make a drop-off. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

We started out at about 2:30pm and had a 4 hour blast down to Dover, made easy because of my tomtom, where we caught the ferry. Now I don't know what kind of ferry it was but it wasn't like any other sea-going vessel I'd ever been on. it was a labrynth of corridoors with no obvious sections devoted to the public. Everyone got out of their cars and lorries and disappeared! We found a lounge with about 10 reclining chairs so we grabbed a couple and got an hours sleep. We got to Calais for about 9:30pm local time where we set off, again following my tomtom, towards Lille. Now in Lille they have a Cadbury's factory... I mean it's nothing like Cadbury's in Bourneville, no this place looks like a prison, but our mission was to deliver 5 tubs of raw Glucose to this factory...

... Yes. You read that right.

We were technically "couriering" as it was an ordered delivery, but anyway we got to the factory for about 12:00 midnight local time where some geeky security guard.. Sorry, I mean "Guarde de securite' a la geeky" (I think) signed for the goods and then we turned around and started the journey back home... Now readers, for your amusement, a little game... Can you guess the name of the road that the factory was on?

Scroll down for the answer....

It's not "Cadbury Road" so stop thinking it...

It really is quite inspired...

Someone obviously put real effort in to coming up with a name that would grab peoples attention...

Can you guess?

Yes! It's the good old "Rue De La Chocolatierie" or "The road of Chocolate"..... I mean seriously!? How long did it take for someone to come up with that?

Anyway. We started back home. We got to Calais and hopped on the ferry (after some "pilloque" of an attendant directed us to a part of the port that we weren't meant to go to) which was much more aimed at being inhabited by humans. There were shops, a bar, arcade, etc. We got off the ferry for about 3:00am GMT and started back for home which we got to for about 7:00am where I went to bed! I awoke at about 2:30pm and started pottering about until the evening when I went over to Adam and Carls, I think.

Thursday. Ah Thursday was a good day. It was the 5th of September... At the begining of this blog I said how I had been kept busy with a new toy and it was Thursday that I went to get it. Now unless you have been sat in a cave... On the moon... With your fingers in your ears... You will have probably been caught in the marketing blanket of a certain PC game that goes by the title of "Spore" well I went to get it and bought it home... And I will say right now that it is BRILLIANT! it is the first PC game I have bought in about 5 years (the last one being the expansion set to Warcraft 3) and it has saved PC gaming! Basically, the game starts with a little itty-bitty tadpole-type creature breaking out of a meteor that has crashed in to a planet. you then control the creature, eating food and mating to produce new generations... But for each new generation that comes along, you get to evolve your animal with new parts, different body shapes, etc. You have complete control over everything. When your creature has enough "brain power" it grows legs and crawls onto land, where it must survive, again mating to grow new offspring... when more brain power is achieved your creature discoveres fire (in a tribute to 2001: a space odyssey) and starts a tribe. When your tribe has dominated the land, a city is formed and technology is developed, culminating in the building of a spaceship where your species begins space exploration. It is truly epic with some good in-jokes and fantastic animations. It is the reason my blog is late this week.

I played it right up to when Lank collected me to go to the Packhorse!

Anyway. Friday. During the day I played Spore (what else?) and then in the evening Adam, Carl, and John came round to mine. Adam started his own Spore save on my PC and the rest of us played RockBand.

Saturday. More Spore! and in the evening, Adam and Carls.

Sunday... NOT a regular Sunday though! oh no. After the legion I had to make my way over to Wroxall Abbey. Julie was attending a wedding party and I had been tagged on to the guest list as her partner for the evening. So off I went, only getting partially lost along the way, and got there for about 8:30pm. There was food, a disco, all the usual things you would find at a party. At about 12:20am It was time to leave. Julie and her mum were staying in the hotel for the night so I said goodbye and came home.

Now at this point I usually sign off, but I'm feeling frivolous so I will carry on blogging....!

Monday, the day I officially started working as a supply teacher... But didn't as there were no calls! So I played some Spore until the evening where I took Julie out to the Queslett pub. We had a good night out and I got home for about 12:30am.

Tuesday, still no work, so, again, I played with Spore until the evening where I went down to Fathers like I do on Wednesdays. We watched a few Laurel and Hardy's before I came home.

Wednesday. I was playing with the creator tools on Spore and discovered that I could make just about anything I wanted. Kieron then phoned me to ask me what spore was like, and while I was decribing the spaceship creator he said: "could you build the Enterprise?" It sounded like a challenge so I set to it...

Want to see the results?

Ta-daaah! The enterprise in all it's glory! I then got the bug and continued....

... With the Enterprise D! But I wasn't finished.... oh no...

Because we now have Voyager! woohoo! I then ran out of doable 'Trek ships and moved to 'Wars... (last one coming up)

yeah! Imperial star Destroyer.

Im going to go away and build the defiant...

Anyway it is there I will leave you as i'm sure you're sick of reading now

Spider-Carl.

Hello readers and welcome to that time of the week when you sit down to read another installment of the life of yours truly...

Actually this is the second time I have written this. I wrote it all out then buggered up my "Word Verification" that blogger makes me type in before it lets me publish my blogs and so it discarded it for me... Bloody stupid system if you ask me.

Right, I will crack on with last Monday where Me, John, Adam, and Carl went to Ragley hall. We walked round the lavish house which, as carl pointed out "didn't have a plasma TV" and round the gardens and the maze... A maze which involves ropes, slides and overhead walkways... We had to negotiate a rope-haul and while Carl and John went for the traditional approach, Adam adopted a much more "unique" method...

Ah, yes... Feet first!

After we had found our way out, we came across some rock-climbing walls... It was then Carl decided to show us his niffty skills.... Though my battery was low, I managed to film his endeavour, put to a possibly recognisable tune...

I appologise for my singing.

Anyway. After we left we decided to go and have a barbeque at Adam/Carls.

Tuesday. During the day I didn't do aything. In the evening it was back over to Adam/Carls with John and Rockband, though we actually ended up playing Lego Starwars.

Wednesday. Again, during the day I didn't do much. In the evening I went down to fathers where we watched some Laurel and Hardy. By the time I had wiped the tears of laughter fron my eyes it was getting late so I didn't pop in to the Swan as usual.

Thursday. Daytime was filled with a big bunch of sod-all.... In the evening we went to the Packhorse where we all sat outside in the warm night air. But, as with all good things, time came soon enough to leave, at around 11:40pm.

Friday. During the day I worked the lunchtime shift at the legion as Tony and Val had gone away for the weekend. I did my 3 hours and came home. I wached some TV and had something to eat and before long it was 6:30pm and I was back out the door to work the night-shift at the Legion. Although it was a bit of a drag, we had a laugh and afterwards, just as a spur of the moment thing, I drove the staff down to Millenium Balti for a curry.

Saturday. Lunchtime came and it was back to the Legion... It was dead. Seriously, I counted the total number of customers... In the 3 hours I was there I had 16 people in. And some of those only stayed for a quick pint before going again! In the evening I went back over to Adam/Carls with John to play Rockband.

Sunday. Lunchtime = Legion. Evening = nans. As per usual...

Right. It's getting late. I'm going to actualy publish this draft and hopefully not stuff it up again!

TTFN...