At last! a place to keep my memory...!

Hadouken!.... Crikey, I did it!

2009-03-24T17:04:00.003Z

Hello readers and welcome to another blog. Now I know last week I started with a bit of a moan. Saying that my blog was getting tedious to write but I have come to realise that it's only as fun as I make it. In fact this apiphamy came whilst I was reading Lanks blog purely for the fact that Lank has such a humourous writing style that I thought "my god... I'm not even trying with mine anymore!" and so this blog will attempt a revamp of my writing, rather than be a list of paragraphs writen with contempt and anguish at being forced in to remembering the week previous...

Anywho...

Last Monday. Work went well and I was soon happily doing battle with the Moseley and Kings heath traffic that can form at any time, but specifically when I'm trying to drive through the god forsaken hell-holes to go home. I mean how is it rush-hour at 3:45pm???

The evening was spent in Solihull with Carl, marcus, Jo, and Paul. Adam wasn't there as he was at a scuba-diving class... Actually I'm sure Adam would have an unfair advantage. Coming up from 6 metres, most people have to swim to the surface...

... Adam just has to stand up.

Anyway, it was great to see Jo and Paul. We haven't heard from them in ages so a catch-up and a chin wag made for a pleasant evening. At chucking-out time we all made our way home.

Tuesday. Work was amazing! We had our St. Patricks day parade and everyone dressed up in Green!

The evening was spent back in Solihull and I was pleased to see that Adam hadn't caught the bends. We watched some TV before i set out for home at about 11:00pm.

Wednesday.... Work went surprisingly quickly... The drive home didn't. I got in for 4:40pm and relaxed in front of the TV for a bit before dozing off! I then got a call from Jess as she wanted a drink in the Swan. Now Wednesdays I usually go down to see father but since it was early I could go for a drink and pop in on the old man afterwards. This plan was thrown in to turmoil as father had broken down in Moseley and needed me to come and get him! What made this more difficult was the fact that my phone was on the blink and wasn't receiving sound, so I had to text everything. Lank arrived and lent me the use of his phone, like the scholar and gentleman that he is. I was about to set off when father contacted me to say that he had been lent a van and I didnt need to leave the Swan, but it would be some time before he got home... So I stayed and had a drink.

Thursday. I ended up in the swan again but really didn't mind! Jess came out and lank revealed a startling piece of news that he has cunningly worked in as a cliffhanger ending to his blog this week. I wont reveal what the news is, but make sure you read it next week.

Friday. Work finished and the weekend began at precisely just after twenty-to-four... I shot out of work and came home. I played a bit of Street Fighter to try and get my eye in with it... I'm getting slowly better after watching Kieron play it and after a few pointers I think I can muscle my way through... Thank God.

Ah Saturday... Me, Adam and Carl went to Edgebaston little zoo. It cost us £2 to go in so we went for a wonder... Naturally, I have photos...

A goat...

Sure for men? No! Some Lynx!

He can't help you with cheaper car insurance! Simples...!

They say I might as well face the truth.... I am just to long in the tooth.... And my old knees have started to knock.... I've just done to many miles on the clock....

Well that was that. Afterwards we came back to Adam/Carls to watch some TV and chillax for a while before I came home.

Sunday. I went to the Legion as usual but didn't go to my nans as my cousin had taken her over to Henley. I took the opportunity to drop some money in to a friend that I owed (and being made to sample Wii Fit whilst I was there!) before coming back to zone out watching QI and Mock the Week before going to bed!

Right. Thats me done for this week. TTFN!

This blog is too weak!

2009-03-17T18:01:00.005Z

Hello readers and welcome to a 2 week blogging bonanza! I awarded myself a week off from blogging as I didn’t really have the time to do it and to be honest the whole process is becoming stale and repetitive.

I think I have combated this now, but I hope the trend doesn’t continue or it will be the death-knell of my blog. I will just get later and later until there is nothing left. My blog would be confined to the scrap heap, and although it can be a pain trying to find the time to do it, I would miss it if I let it curl up and die… So, on to 2 weeks ago…

Monday was a normal one. The evening was spent at Adam and Carls where we watched TV...

Tuesday was pretty much the same.

Wednesday was spent out at the Packhorse with the TA's from Woodrush who I haven’t seen for a while and it was nice to catch up.

Thursday. I was in the Swan. Jess and Paul came out which was nice, and I was even visited by Dad and Lindsey who had come up from waaaaaaaaaaaaay down south for a few days... A good time was had by all.

Friday. I spent the evening in the cinema with Selena and Kieron watching The Watchmen. If you haven’t seen the film, go and see it! (there’s boobs!) It is a fantastic film with one of the best intros ever! Afterwards I dropped Selena and Kieron off home and came home to bed.

Saturday. Ah now... Saturday was good. It was the night that everyone celebrated in the Beer Keller. At this point I would like to upload some funky pictures...

... But I don't have any. Sorry but it's true. I was far too busy dancing and drinking to take photos however Jason has some, Katie has some and Marcus bluetoothed me a video of myself...

I will upload it just so you can all have a good laugh at me. Now bear in mind that what you are about to see is not only harmful, it is also sexually explicit...

... Well, ok no it's not... But I bet I got your attention for a moment didn't I!?

turn your speakers on.... This is cringe worthy, but funny...

Stop laughing and read on…

We got home for about 4:00am and I went straight to bed.

Sunday. My birthday! I awoke at about 10:00-ish and unwrapped my pressie from the TAs at Woodrush. They had bought me a doodle book, which was nice. And some Cobra Beer… Which was even better!

To combat the experience of the night before I went with Jason and Gemma for breakfast at Little Chef. This helped quell the hang over. Jason then Dropped me home so I could go to Fathers where he had prepared tea for me, selena, my nan, and aunt. My cake was a TopGear one. Naturally I got a photo of it...

Some say, Yellow icing is made from the tears of baby Jesus. And that if you ate it all to yourself you'd be a fat bastard... All we know is, it tasted lovely!

Right. That was the week that was…

Now on to last week!

Monday. Work went rather quickly and the evening was spent at Adam and Carls where Carl was attempting to construct an 819 piece 3D puzzle of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings.

That thing…

We watched some TV before I came home to bed.

Tuesday. Again, work passed by quickly and the evening was spent once again over at Adam and Carls. Carl had made drastic progress with his model and it was taking shape!

Wednesday. After work I came home to play around on Facebook before getting something to eat and going to Fathers. A new series of Ice Road Truckers started a week or so ago and so I watched it to catch up.

Thursday. The Swan was the evenings destination and me and Lank popped along as usual. We drank our fill with the usual crowd until 11:30pm when we left. A good time was had by all.

Friday. Work ended and I left work as usual. I was home for 4:30pm and I decided that it was time I spent some of my birthday money. I went to GAME and bought Street Fighter 4 for the 360. I came home and stuck it in the machine. Now I haven’t played a street fighter game since Street Fighter 2 Turbo on the SNES, and what I am about to say I say seriously: The SNES version was a far better game.

SF4 is a complete disappointment. The controls feel like you are playing a BETA version and the computer spams fireballs at you like its been programmed to act like a douche’ on xbox live. SF4 is the worst game I have ever bought…. There. I said it!

I then had to turn off the pointless game and get ready as I was being picked up by Donna to go in to Solihull for her Birthday shindig! We were dropped off at Wetherspoons where we met up with some of her dancing school and people she worked with. Benji was there and Kate joined us a while later. After trying to watch Comic Relief with no sound we drank up and headed on over to Reflex! Now the last time I was there it was a bit dead and boring, but that night was far superior. 80’s tunes + dancefloor + booze = awesome….

We were there until about 2am when we decided to get a taxi back. I came in and went to bed…

Saturday. I awoke at some point in the morning and had some lunch. Nan, Grandad and Selena came over as usual but I went over to Adams with SF4 so that he could experience the shoddiness of it…

… Rather annoyingly he seemed to get on with it better than I could, though it still made him shout and swear at the telly….

After a while we turned it off, watched some TV and then ordered a Chinese since we were all feeling peckish. After that was over it was more telly and off to the Greville for a swift pint before I came home.

Sunday. Normal one really… The only different thing I did was get up and go to get Donna birthday present. I ended up getting her a book entitled “A shopaholics guide to the web: 1000 useful websites” I hope she finds it useful (I had a flick through and noted down a few of the menswear sites, so look out for some funky new threads in the near future!)

I came home to go to the Legion and afterwards went to my nans for tea before coming back home….

Right. I will leave you there readers…

TTFN.

Oh look! a Camel...

2009-03-05T17:00:00.006Z

Hello readers and welcome to another blog. It's a full 2 days late, what with one-thing or another so I have made a pact to try and get it ontime next week. In fact I may start updating on a Monday like I used to. Anyway, I have to tidy the house in a bit so this will be brief.

Monday. Half term was officially over and I was back at work. It passed quickly though, and I was home before I knew it. The evening was spent over at Adam and Carls as usual.

Tuesday... Was an almost carbon copy of Monday to be honest...

Wednesday. I spent the evening at fathers and popped in to The Swan to see Donna.

Thursday. Swan! I was joined, along with the usual crowd, by Dave who I work with. He used to work in the Swan many a year ago and he made a fresh addiction to our "Thursday Rabble"

Friday. I went back over to adam and Carls on the evening and we were wandering what we could do over the weekend. The decision was made to go to West Midlands Safari Park the following day...

... So we did!

People arrived at mine at 9:30-ish am on Saturday morning. We jumped in my car and set off. We went round the drive-around first (after a brief stop for a burger and some 200'c hot chocolate) before going round the rest of the park. Naturally I have photos...

Some deer

Whats black and white and eats like a horse?

woah!

A white thing...

I know what I'm calling my next blog...

Anyhoo... We made it round the park and came home at 4:30pm where it was decided that we were having too much fun to simply end. That meant only one thing..

... Curry! Yes, we headed on in to Solihull for a meal at "The Deli" before going on to O'neils for some live music! I spent the night in the spare bed so I could have a drink...

... Or 9.

Sunday. I got home for 12:00 midday and was glad of Sunday lunch! I went to work at the Legion, but didn't go down to my nans... no! I went over to Solihull with Kate who I havent seen for a while. We ended up in The Masons. Everything was going well until the fight started. Someone had punched a bouncer and it kicked off. Judging by her reactions I dont think Kate had ever witnessed a proper punch-up before... I took her home for about 10:45pm and came home myself. That reminds me, I have to phone her in a bit.

Right. I will leave it there readers as the Livingroom is a tip and mum is expecting visitors...

TTFN!

Good Lord!

2009-02-25T17:00:00.003Z

Hello readers and welcome to another thrilling update...

... Well I say "Thrilling" but I'm blogging the week of the half term holiday and I actually didn't do very much. Though I do have quite a strange tale to tell...

In fact I might as well not do a "day-to-day" style blog as it's all going to be the same... Xbox, Internet, Food, Solihull, Sleep etc...

However there are a couple of highlights.

I borrowed a couple of Anime DVDs off Kieron and Sat down to watch them. The first was Street Fighter Alpha, which I actually saw at Kierons, the second was a film called Sky Blue which is a great film about the last human city on a future Earth. The third is the Anime prequel to the videogame "Deadspace" and I have another to watch simply titled "X" so I'm on a manga/Anime high at the moment.

The big thing to happen to me during the week was the rather unusual accomplishment of becoming ordained! I applyied via an online form to the Universal Life Church in a town called "Modesto" in California and they sent me an email a couple of days later which stated that I was ordained as a minister by Pastor, Kevin Andrews on the 16th of February and that, because it was an actual person, I "was not ordained online" and "it should not be refered to as such."

... This has lead Carl to give me the not-so-honourable nickname of "Reverend Bullshit" but I combated that by "Blessing" his tapwater (which I think I'm allowed to do!) and flicking the newly-founded holy water at him! I then made the sign of the cross, and then a V!

So that was that.

Wednesaday saw me trying to teach my father how to make CDs but the terms "rip" and "burn" were confusing him so I simplyfied the process and before too long he was uploading a multitude of music to his computer.

Thursday was spent in the Swan as usual where I showed everyone my letter of ordination...

... No-one gave a shit.

And that really is just about that. Sorry readers but apart from the tales I've told you, nothing else really happened during the holidays.

I will sign off this short blog with a biblical quote: "And the Lord spoke unto moses. "Come Forth" but Moses tripped and came fifth..."

TTFN

Why has it all gone dark?

2009-02-17T15:50:00.002Z

Hello readers and welcome to a post which is on time! Yes, I know. It's amazing! I'm actually blogging when I should so a big hurrah! all round...

... no? Oh ok then...

Anyway I will dive straight in to it...

Monday. I finished work and came home to play a bit of Red Alert 3 before taking it over to Adam, John and Carls. we watched a bit of TV and looked at red Alert before Jenny and Marcus came over. We ended up watching Wall.E which I had never seen. I'm glad I have though as Pixar has never done a bad film and it is hillarious throughout. After it had finished I came home to watch QI before going to bed.

Tuesday. The evening was spent over at Carl and Adams. Watching TV and having a laugh before taking a quick excursion to The Greville for a swift pint. Afterwards we came back and ordered a chinese!

Wednesday. I went down to fathers as usual and spent a while watching Terry Pratchett on TV and trying to clear a virus off his PC before popping in to the Swan to see Donna and co'

Thursday. What a day at work! The class I was helping look after were being visited by Taffy Thomas the Storyteller! He is a professional story teller based in the Lake District and tours the country telling stories with his "Tale Coat" This thing is amazing. It has pictures on it that relate to a certain story. Children can point to a picture to hear Taffy tell that particular story... It's like a Jukebox for storytelling! The artistry is amazing and it apparently cost £4000 10 years ago!
See the Tale Coat here.

At about 2:50pm, as we were gearing up to go, the lights went out and everything went off...

... Powercut! inconvenient, but no big deal, right? Well soon enough it was time to go and off I went. I spent the evening in the Swan as usual with the regular crowd. We drank and laughed and had a merry-old time until it was time to go home, where Lank kindly deposited me. I came in, had something to eat whilst watching Mock the Week and went to bed.

Friday. I awoke, got ready for work, got in my car, and as I was setting off I got a phonecall from the agency telling me that Calthorpe was closed due to a power faliure! Apparently it was the main fuse boards that had blown out the day before, not a typicall power cut. Nothing was working so the decision was made to close for the day! that meant only one thing...

... LONGER HALF TERM! WOOHOO!

Ahem... I went back in side and went to sleep for an hour. I got up at 9:00am-ish and had breakfast then pottered about for the morning before Phoning Kieron to see what he was doing. The answer thankfully turned out to be "not much" so I went over to play some xbox/PS3.

I came home a while later and decided to stay in and play some Red Alert 3.

Saturday. During the day I went over to Solihull to by "Only By The Night" and Chinese Democracy" by Kings of Leon and Guns and Roses, respectively.

The evening was spent over at Carl and Adams where we watched some TV played Wii Sports and ordered a chinese. I had Macao Chicken Curry which is awsome (must remember its a 49.D on their menu)
At around 12:00am-ish I came back home to bed.

Sunday. Rather normal. Dinner, Legion , Nans, Tea, Home, Bed.

Right. I wil leave you there readers.
TTFN.

The Sex-U-Tron 9000!

2009-02-11T23:35:00.005Z

Hello readers and welcome to a hurried blog... I say "hurried" as it's already a day late (as usual) and it's currently 11:30pm.

Right. Lets blog...

Monday. Well I awoke to discover that someone was either: A) filming the sequel to "Day after Tomorrow" outside my house, or B) We had been given a shit-load of snow by the goodwill of the baby Jesus. I recieved a phonecall shortly after I got up and was informed by Kirsty at P+K Recruitment (thats the agency I work for) that Calthorpe was closed because of the snow...

... WOOHOO!

By way of celebration I immediately went over to Selena and Kieron. Kieron was in all day so we played through Little Big Planet for most of the morning and then Command and Conquer: Red Akert 3... In the afternoon, I went to tax my car.

I didn't go over to Adam and Carls that evening as I wasn't going to risk driving on roads that could have hosted a medium-sized olympic slalom!

Tuesday... I awoke to the familiar sound of my phones alarm ("Layla" by Eric Clapton) and looked outside to the crispy whiteyness! Again, phonecall... Snowday!

... WOOHOO!

It was Carls Birthday so I went over to his house. I phoned Marcus (who I knew would be off school as well) and we decided to go sledging! Now the main problem with this was that none of us owned a sledge... So we decided to make some!

We got 3 big plastic lids off the recycling boxes and put a cuchion on top of them. We then bound them up with a couple of bin bags and "voila!" 3 little sledges! We took then over to Elmdon park to try them out. About a million other people had the same idea though but we decide to try them out....

... They didn't work. There was too much friction so they didnt slide. We put them back in the car and went for a walk. Whilst we were approaching the top of the hill I had a couple of snowballs whizz past me. I turned around to find about 8 youths, about 15-16, lobbing snowballs at people and shouting and acting like complete dicks. No one was challenging them about it and they were spoiling the day for families by swearing and throwing snowballs at little kids. So I decided to draw their fire a bit... So I started calling them nancy-boys and that got there attention. The inbreds then started throwing big bits of ice at me but couldnt throw for shit, so I kept avoiding them and everytime one landed I would say something like "ooh, so close" or "keep trying, you're getting better" in an overly sarcastic manner. One of the inbreds then got a handful of ice and charged at me... Now I was certain that this would turn in to a fight but he threw the ice at me from a distance of about 6 feet and still managed to miss me. I started laughing and he walked off looking like a prat. We walked off to let the gayboys sulk. We had a wander round and, when we made our way back up to the top. The gayboys returned and threw a couple of missers at me. I didnt acknowledge them so the one crept up behind me. I didnt know he was there until a snowball shot past my left arm. I turned round to find him standing RIGHT behind me! So I said "how the hell did you manage to miss, you utter retard?" which he didnt like but I took a step towards him and he ran off... nob! We decided to call it a day after that. As we were leaving the gayboys decided they'd had enough as well and threw one final snowball which missed me by an inch. Since this was the closest they had come to hitting me they took that as a victory and started laughing in an over-the-top manner. The fact that they had at least 30 attempts to hit me and COMPLETELY FAILED didnt seem to stop them from thinking they were victorious... This was short lived as the one I threw back would have hit the one pleb in the face but he managed to get out of the way. They eventually walked off and so did we.

We decided to get some lunch at the Greville and then in the evening we went bowling in Rubery. All in all it was a good day!

Wednesday. I awoke, like you did, to snow but alas! I checked the radio and the BRMB website and Calthorpe was open!

... D'OH!

I made my way in through the hectic traffic and the arctic conditions and proceeded to do a full days work.... In the snow! Whoever heard of such a thing!?

In the evening I went over to fathers where we watched Terry Pratchett talking about his Alzheimers. I then called in to The Swan to meet up with Donna and co' After coming home I got myself a bite to eat and went to bed.

Thursday. I got up and looked out of the window... Frosty goodness in all its sugary whiteness (and I ain't talkin' 'bout no breakfast cereal!) And then it happened... Phonecall. Snowday.

... WOOHOO!

The day consisted of TV and microwaveable food. In the evening people went to the swan (sans Lank who, quite understandably, didn't want to drive in the harsh conditions) where we were told that, because of the weather and the lack of people the bar would be closing at 10:00pm...

... D'OH!

We drank our fill and at 10:30pm we left. I had walked up rather than ask ma' for a lift as I quite enjoy cold nights. I always seem to feel more comfortable in the cold than I do in the warm...

But on this occasion Carl offered to drop me back and I obliged as even I could see that negotiating icy pavements after 5 pints of Guinness isn't just silly, it's down right SUICIDAL!

Friday. I awoke to slightly less snow and consigned myself to the fact that Calthorpe would be open. I was getting ready for work when I got a phonecall!... Snowday!

... WOOHOO!

I went back to bed for a bit and got up around 10:00am-ish to mess about on the internet watching just about every video on youtube and discovering all sorts of things on wikipedia!

Then I turned the Xbox and played a bit of Halo.

In the evening I went over to Adam and Carls and John had appeared! Yes he was back in Brum' so we celebrated by watching TV! yeah... We know how to live it up...

... Ahem.

I came home at about 11:30pm and went to bed.

saturday. I got up and needed something new to occupy myself with. I had enjoyed playing C&C:RA3 at Kierons so I went in to Solihull to buy it for myself. I was in and out of GAME in Mell Square within 20 minutes.

I came home and played the first few levels before heading over to Adam and Carls (and Johns) with my 360 Hardrive and C&C:RA3 to show it off.

Right. Sunday. This is where it gets strange. After Dinner I went to the legion as usual but because of the blizzard outside we were quite empty... Not totally empty, but a little bit empty. Myself and David (who I work with on a Sunday) felt the onset of boredom... So we decided to stave off the boredom by cutting up boxes to throw away...

... Then it got out of hand...

... I grabbed some plastic cups, and a knife and I just started building...

... The result is below...

Sexy!

It wants you!

I christened my creation the "Sex-U-Bot 9000" and wore it for a while before taking it off to serve at the bar. Yes it was silly but it was good fun!

Afterwards I went to my nans for tea as usual before coming home.

Right. I will leave it there readers.

TTFN.

All good things...

2009-02-04T18:27:00.003Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks blog.

Last week I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger when I said that I was feeling shite. Basically I text Julie asking her if she would like to go out for the evening and the reply I got wasn't inspiring. She said that she thought it was a good idea if we didn't see each other anymore and all communication was severed...

... Lovely!

So I went with Donna to the Red Lion in Earlswood for a drink to try and drown my sorrows...

... What nobody told me is that sorrows can swim!

Anyhoo... Tuesday. Work went quite quick and in the evening I went with Donna to the Swan for a drink and a chat. Whilst there we ran in to father and one of his friends so we joined them, and somehow we managed to get on to the subject of Tiramisu and that Dad has a good recipe for one. We had a good old chinwag but chucking out time soon came along and Donna dropped me home,

Wednesday. The evening was spent at fathers as usual where we watched something like "Americas-wildest-most-outrageous-police-videos-gone-bad-ever-uncut" until I went over to Donnas house (with a Tiramisu recipe!) as she wasn't at the pub because she had a bit of a sniffle. Whilst there I noticed that she had Wii Fit. I was asking her what it did and so she decided to show me. Now I thought that it was all aerobics and yoga, but NO! it has all sorts of balancing games and a full range of fun things to do. Now the one that caught my eye was the skiing... I had one go and discovered that I was crap at it. But I became slightly obsessed with it and spent an hour or so getting good at it until finally I dominated the top spot on the leaderboard... Just because I thought it was something I SHOULD be good at...

... Not that I'm a competitive person, honest.............

Ahem... Anyway time soon came to say goodnight and I came home to go to bed.

Thursday. Work went well and I was home before I knew it. The evening was spent in The Swan as usual and a good time was had by all. At 11:30pm though it was time to make tracks.

Friday. I went, in the evening, over to Adam and Carls. Adam was out with work so Myself, Carl, and Marcus went for a curry. We ate ourselves silly before coming back to rendezvous with Adam (and "houseguest")

Saturday. I got up fairly early and was going to go over to Adam and Carls but realised I had let my tax expire on my car. I didn't do much except that in the evening I covered a shift at the legion. The band that were playing were a good bunch and I enjoyed myself.

Sunday. I did my normal shift at the legion and then got picked up by Selena to go off to my Aunts as it was my nans 85th birthday and we were having tea to celebrate. After a delicious bolognaise and homemade cake Selena dropped me back home.

Right. I will leave it there readers as I'm off out in a bit.

TTFN.

No funny title this week.

2009-01-27T17:21:00.004Z

Hello readers and welcome to another blog. For reasons I wont go in to I feel like shite, and it's about to get worse so this blog will be a bit brief...

I should have put this at the end of my last post but I felt that I couldnt as I was a bit upset. Going back to last Sunday night/early Monday morning I found my cat, Paws in the entry unable to walk. We got her in and she imediately started having a fit. My ma' and I quickly got her to an emergency vet over in Birmingham but unfortunately it was inopperable and the decision was made to put her to sleep to save her from the stress.

We came home, tearful, and I had to go to bed as it was 2:00am.

Work on Monday was hell. I felt like a bag of crap but muddled on through. I came home and dozed off on the couch to catch up with some sleep. In the evening I went over to Adam and Carls house to try and take my mind off things.

Tuesday. Work seemed to drag and I was glad to get home at 4:30pm in the evening I went back over to Adam and Carls for the usual weekly lads night in.

Wednesday. On Wednesday I had the night to myself as father was Skiing in Austria. I played some Xbox and went over to Adam and Carls.

Thursday. Work went well and I was out the door before I knew it. The evening was spent in The Swan as usual. A good time was had by all but before we knew it, it was time to go. We drank up and Lank dropped me home.

Friday. After work I came home and watched a bit of TV before going out... Somewhere. Damnit! Why can't I remember Fridays?

Saturday. I awoke early-ish and phoned Mr Turbitt to see what was what. I went over and it was decided that we should go out to Dudley zoo! Marcus drove and we were soon on our way. We got there for about 11:45am and went straight in. Of the many animals we saw, the one that got my attention was a Raven in a big cage who was as domesticated as a small puppy. It even played Fetch!

Naturally I have photos (and one video that Marcus doesn't want putting on the internet, so to see it you will have to ask me to show it to you!)

A cheeky monkey!

Once, upon a midnight Dreary as I pondered weak and weary....

A snow Leopard

A lion (well duh!)

This isn't zoomed in! I actually got this close to 2 lynx cats! (though what you cant see is the pane of glass between them and me!)

Anyway. We soon arrived at the point in the day where we had seen everything and the zoo was winding-up for the evening so we made our move and came back home. After a while I left Adam and Co' as they were off Bowling, but I had arranged to meet up with Kate whom I know from College and haven't seen in a while. I went over to her house to pick her up but we ended up staying in and watching various episodes of The Mighty Boosh on DVD. At about 11:30pm I called it a night and came home.

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

Right. I'm off out in a bit to drown my sorrows (more on that next week)

... Thats right. I've used the old "cliffhanger" on you...

TTFN!

No holes "Bard"

2009-01-20T17:20:00.006Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks blog. I am going out in a bit so I won't be long.

Last Monday I rolled in to work and in to a class that I have only worked in once before and was told that I would be there all week... Which was nice! Afterwards I came home and messed about on t'internet before taking Gears of War 2 and my hard drive over to Adam and Carls where we sat trying our hand at some of the achievements before I came home for 12:00 midnight.

Tuesday. Now Tuesday evening is a bit of a blur. I can't remember if I saw Julie or not... I think I did. Hmm... Can anyone help me out on that one? Thanks...

Wednesday. Work seemed to Fly by and I was home after what seemed like only a couple of hours! I went down to Fathers as usual where we watched some good old fashioned "Worlds most amazing videos" I love that show... people being electrocuted, cars crashing, police shootings, and fat kids in lion enclosures.... It's no wonder the American psyche' is so well balanced...............

... Ahem.

Anyway, afterwards I popped in to the Swan like I always do to see Donna and her family. (Shit, that reminds me, I said I'd give her a call to organise a drink sometime.)

Thursday. The evening was spent in The Swan. Jess and Paul came along which was nice. Alas, Carl had the dreaded Lurgy so he wasn't able to come out. We all had a drink and a laugh until it was time to go when Lank dropped me home.

Friday. ah the weekend beckoned. I spent the evening in playing Gears of War 2 and then some Fable 2. I also decided to download the Fable 2 additional content off Xbox Live, adding more quests and new areas to the world.

Saturday. During the day I went over to Adam and Carls. Now I know I usualy say something like "we watched TV" or "we played Xbox" but no! we went out to Stratford for the day, just for something to do! Aren't we good little boys for getting out in the sunshine and crisp air? Naturally (and because I thought of this blog) I took photos!

Shakespeares Birthplace

The Church

The garden, complete with 2 grotesque gargoyle statues....

... Oh, no, wait, It's Adam and carl...!

Hee hee...

The next photo I took for effect. I can imagine it being some sort of photoshop stock photo... If the image was much better quality and the sodding light in the window wasn't on...

makes your eyes funny doesn't it?

Anyway, when we had done we came back and I had to shoot off as I was going out! Dave (who I work with, and randomly knows my sister through college) was having a night out for his birthday. I was invited and so was Julie so off I went to pick her up and bring her back to Wythall where everyone was meeting. We got to the Swan for about 8:45pm and Dave was already there with some friends. After a few drinks we ordered a taxi in to town where we went to Subculture at the Academy. I had never been to Subculture before and found that I was overdressed, wearing a shirt. Now Julie isn't a massive fan of metal but they threw in some hippety-hop music as well so she could join in. Whilst there I bumped in to Nicola, Kaz and John. I haven't seen Kaz since the middle of last year so it was good to say hi.

We drank and moshed a bit until about 2:00am where we had to call it a night. Me and Julie live in opposite directions so I made sure she got in to one taxi, and then I got in to the other. I was home for about 2:45am where i went soundly to sleep.

Sunday. Not a normal one. Although I went to the Legion I didn't go to nans. I stayed in and had a play of Fable 2!

Right. I will leave you there, readers.

TTFN!

Why do you have a balloon tied to your hair?

2009-01-13T16:21:00.004Z

Hello readers and welcome to the first regular update of 2009 as promised last week.

I will kick off with last Monday. As the first day back at work, my brain couldn't comprehend that it was 7:15am when I got up and didn't really kick-in until about 10:00am so the first hour at work was a daze.

During the evening I went over to Adam and Carls. We decided to have a drink and watch Star Trek DS9... Yes. Yes we did.

Tuesday wasn't so bad. After work I came home and dozed off before having a bite to eat and heading off to see Julie. We went for a drink in the Queslett but Jules was suffering from a bit of a head-cold so we didn't stop long. Soon after dropping her off I came back home to bed.

Wednesday. After work I came home to mess about on my xbox before going down to fathers in the evening. For Christmas I bought him a new Freeview box because his had broken and whilst I was there i decided to install it for him as he hadn't done it yet. I got it up and running and thankfully it did what most "self tuning" devices don't normally do... Tune itself!

Afterwards I popped over to the swan to see Donna and co' before coming home.

Thursday. The evening was spent in the Swan, though with reduced numbers. Jess came out though which was nice and added her unique blend of wonderful madness to the mix. When it was time to go home Lank dropped her home before giving me a lift back as usual.

Friday. Ah the first week at work was nearly over. I left Calthorpe at 3:45pm and made haste for home. During the evening I went over to Adam and carls with my copy of Gears of War 2 though we ddin't play it. We had a drink and watched Star Trek DS9... Yes. Yes we did.

Saturday. Adam and Bobby's birthdays. During the day I stayed in whilst my nan and grandad came round as usual. At about 5:30pm-ish I bungled my shirt into my backpack and set off for Adam and Carls. When I got there I found them having a drink and watching Star Trek DS9. I joined them and when it was time to get ready I threw my shirt on. We waited for Marcus and Jenny and we made our way in to Solihull, meeting the rest of the gang in Wetherspoons. Whilst there we met Jo and Paul who were out with friends. After Wetherspoons we went to Reflex. Now obviously being a dual-birthday celebration you would expect to see a multitude of photos...

... Well I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disapoint you. Sorry. I only took one and it is of Bobby with a balloon tied to his ponytail...

There we go!

Everyone stayed until about 1:40am when we decided to cal it a night and to go and get some chips...

Sunday. I awoke late (after eating chips and sobering up I drove home... seriously, I only had 2-3 drinks and stopped all together at about 12:00 midnight, meaning that by the time I left Adams after eating my chips I was fine) but managed to scoff my dinner and get down to the legion for my usual shift. Afterwards I went down to my nans for tea before dropping back in on the legion for a swift half before coming home to bed.

Right. Thats where I will leave you readers. TTFN

Happy new something....

2009-01-06T16:38:00.005Z

Well readers. Here we are... 2009. I will first appologise for not blogging over the festive season but to be quite honest I had neither time nor the energy to do it. I thought it would be better to amalgamate (ooh! big word... Triple nerd score!) 3 weeks of blogging in to one generalised one as the first blog of the new year.

For this reason, I'm not blogging every day, I will give you an overview with certain points of interest highlited with a little more detail and prescision...

So. Where to begin? Well the last week of work usually involves not doing much but what we did do was take the kiddies to a church service. I haven't stepped in to a church in a long while... And the last service I went to (weddings not withstanding) was when I was a child. So, as the old oak doors swung open I swear I could hear the choir singing the theme from The Omen (refresher video below)

Great piece of music...

I also took a couple of photos which I was going to manipulate with photoshop to see if I could get them looking a bit artistic though I havent bothered as yet so here they are in original format...

I'm sure John will offer constructive critisism

Anyway, the week was soon over and after recieving choccs and cards from more people than I thought knew me, I was a free man... Or was I?...

... Well the short answer is "yes" but I still had to do all of my christmas shopping so I arranged to go in to Birmingham with Adam that weekend. I got over to his house on the morning of the 20th. We were all set to go and then we looked at the weather and thought "sod it" and had a beer and a gaming session on the xbox.

We did, however get to do our Christmas shopping on the Monday, so we were OK.

Chrismas eve was interesting. I was working at the Legion and hadn't done a night-shift in a while. I was surprised to find that it was fairly quiet but the band were quite good so I had a good evening.

Christmas day was spent over at my nans house. We did the whole presents thing and had lunch. We were there until about 5:30-ish when me and Selena left to go to our Aunts house to see the rest of the family...

... But not before a quick detour...

We weren't due down to our aunts until about 7:00-ish so we popped back to Selenas because she had gone and bought herself "Little Big Planet" for the PS3. I had heard about it but not actually played it so I was looking forward to having a go. It plays beautifully and is quite funny in places. The level creator can be a pain because you have to build EVERYTHING from scratch which would take forever but apart from that the game is amazing. Check it out.

So after Christmas I bought some clothes with my money from Birmingham and in the run up to the new year I didn't do much except keep nipping over to my sisters for games of LBP or going over to Adams to chill out and generaly get out of the house.

New years eve came upon us and everyone was rallied to The Swan as a starting point for the night out. Our ultimate destination was Benjamines in Halesowen (since nic' and Jules' dad owns it!)

We arrived after a considerable journey in a mini-bus taxi and we got straight on to the important business of waiting to be served to have a drink. We had some grub as there was a nice buffet laid on and stood beside the bar enjoying the disco. At the pivotal moment we all cheered and hugged and shook hands before getting back to dancing and trying to ingest as much beer and spirits as possible. Sadly the only photo I took was of Jasons ear when he stuck a cocktail umberella through his piercing...

Lovely!

Well anyway the following day I awoke at about 3:00pm... Yes. You read that right. The next few days I spent recovering until Yeasterday when I went back to work.

Right. Thats it for now readers. Service will return to normal next week.

TTFN

"Calling all units..."

2008-12-17T16:31:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a Wednesday blog. I would have done it yesterday but I was a little hurried after work. Anyway, enough excuses, lets crack on with it.

Last Monday I went to see Julie over in Sutton. We went for a quiet drink to pass the evening in another local pub (seriously, there are loads in Sutton!) before we had to call it a night at about 11:30pm when I dropped her home.

Tuesday. I went over to Adam/Carl/Johns where we had a go on Tom Clncy's Endwar. I had downloaded the demo the week previous and had shown Adam. he was so impressed with it that he had gone and bought the game. A bold move, and yet I knew that I was going to end up buying it myself as it is a very good strategy based battle simulator.

Wednesday. After work I came home and decided that Buying Endwar was inevitable so off I went to Solihull to purchase it. I came back and got stuck in to it. It's one of those genre-defining titles. The game can be played using voice commands and it is brilliantly done. Tactics are key, and knowing when to use certain resources to your advantage is vital. I love it! After an hour or so playing I went down to Fathers as usual before dropping in on Donna and co' in the Swan for the final leg of the quiz.

Thursday. After work I came home to get to grips with Endwar and emerse myself in all its futuristic fighting goodness. In the evening I went to the Swan as usual and drank some Guinnesses!

Friday. After work I came home to shout at my xbox before going over to Adam/Carl/Johns for another Lads night in... Though Adam wasn't there as he was at a works do.

Saturday. Right... Saturday morning was spent in a place that is almost alien to me. A place that fills my puny, podgy little body with dread... Thats right...

... a Gym!

Me and Kieron went to Ironworks in Cotterige, and for those of you that know the area, as you go up the long hill towards Cotterige island, you pass a Toby Carvery (opposite the junction to the trading estate) and a BP garage on your left . Well between the two is a little driveway and it lies down there, tucked away. I never knew it existed and I have been up that road hundreds of times on the way to see my nan! We spent an hour doing cardiovascular exercises before moving on to the weights. Now I will pont out that Kieron used to go to Ironworks regularly, and his job involves moving big bits of metal around... Usually bits of a forklift! So his arms are bigger than mine, and he knows what he is doing. I decided that rather than look like a complete wimp and take weights off the machines I would try to match him in weight and times lifted...

... That was a silly thing to do.

To my credit, and this is me trying to grasp at least the slightest glimmer of a positive outcome, I surprised myself at the amount I can lift. I got up to 8 reps' of 80kg (just short of one-tenth of a tonne) but I reckon I could go heavier... By the time we got on the big thing that lets you attempt such a feat, we had already been lifting weights on a smaller thing. Anyway, we left at mid-morning and went back to Selena/Kierons for a bit before I came home as they were off up the Villa. I ended up going over to Adam/Carl/Johns but Carl and John weren't in as they had gone to Plymouth for the weekend! Me and Adam played Endwar for a bit and then got something to eat before watching some TV with a cold beer. Proper lads night in!

Sunday. I woke up and I couldn't move... My arms and shoulders were killing me from the day before. I concluded that I must have pulled the muscles in my shoulders and arms because they felt like lead weights. I went to the legion and afterwards, went to nans for tea. Watched the last of the current series of TopGear, came home to bed.

Right. I will leave you there readers.
TTFN!

You push your fingers in to your what?

2008-12-09T16:39:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks update. Well, I say "readers" but I'm not sure who reads this anymore. Readers? Are you out there? My aim when I started this was just to jot down what I had done, but that has changed. As John pointed out I sometimes get days mixed up, but it doesn't matter because what I want this to be is a general space where my readers can feedback, host little conversations in the shout box, and really input to make my blog bigger than the sum of its parts. I might sit here typing it, but it doesn't count for much if it is a static entity. It needs to grow and... And...

Oh, bollocks who am I kidding?

Anyway, enough of that. Lets blog.

Monday. Monday evening was spent round Adam and Carls and Johns. We ended up playing some Carcassone and Catan (if you don't know what they are, you didn't click the links in my previous posts) until finally breaking out RockBand! Yes! The Mothers of Destruction were reunited! We played until about 12:00am and then I had to get going.

Tuesday. Work passed quite quickly and I was home for 4:30pm. In the evening it was back over to Adam/Carl/Johns and Marcus and Jenny joined us for some TV/xbox

Wednesday. The evening was spent at Fathers and then at 10:00pm I made my way down to the Swan to meet up with Donna and co'. Now I always help them with the last couple of rounds of the quiz, though I usually don't get many answers in. This Wednesday though I didn't have to! Rent-a-crowd (The team name of Donna and co') came joint first! Well done to them! They won some cash and the respect of everyone in the Swan!

Thursday. After work I came home and nodded off for a bit! In the evening I walked up to the Swan (Lank was at the Villa) to meet the usual suspects plus Paul and Jess who have recently moved back to Wythall! A warm welcome to them both, and I hope to see them out and about more often!

Friday. (You'll notice I'm doing these quickly. I'm off out in a bit!) I went to......?

... Yes, you've guessed it! Solihull to meet upwith the lads. We ended up ordering Chinese...

... Which was nice!

Saturday. I went to HMV to take my copy of Guitar Hero back as it had gone the way of the Dodo. I got my cash back and glad that I don't have to mess about with it any more. in the evening I went, yet again, over to Solihull.

Sunday... Ah, Sunday... I finished the Legion at 6:00pm because I was going, with Jason and Gemma to the NIA to see Slipknot in concert! I had seen them years ago when I was at college on the "Iowa" tour. Gemma hasseen them at the Download Festival, but Jason was a Slipknot Virgin.

We got to the venue in good time and had a couple of drinks. We then went in to the arena to catch the first band "Children of Bodum" who play some good old "simple-riffs-and-a-lot-of-shouting" kind of metal. We headed on out after they were off stage to refill our glasses. We came back in to see Machine Head. They were awsome and did a really good set. After an hour or so Slipknot came on stage to much rowdyness... As is the way at these events! (well who ever heard of a quiet gig?)

They did all of the crowd pleasers and then some! I have a couple of photos for you...

The black smudge in the middle is Corey Taylor

Band members with the glorious "Tribal S" logo.

These photos don't do them any justice.....

So here's one I half-inched from the website!

Yep. That's sort of a better quality, isn't it?

Anyway they left the stage after one encore and I honestly thought they would come back on and do "Wait and Bleed" which was their first ever single and the song which they are known for... You know what I mean... "Wait and Bleed" is to Slipknot what "Rockin' all over the world" is to Status Quo. But alas! They did not reappear! I was a bit gutted and I think Jason was too. Still Jason is happy he can say he's seen them live!

Afterwards we went to Macdonalds. We sat inside and ate our grease-pots before climbing in to the nearest availiable taxi to come home!

phew! Right. I'm off out in a bit so I will eave you there.

TTFN!

Yawn...

2008-12-03T16:43:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a half-arsed blog. I'm tired, hungry, and have to go out later so this is going to be brief... Well, I'll try and put a little effort in for just for you.

Monday. Work went well and in the evening I went over to see Julie. We went for a drink in the local Apres' bar where Guinness is regarded as something only your great grandfather might drink, and all the lights are flourescent because anything else "just wouldn't do"

We sat and chatted for a few hours before deciding to head on back. I only stayed a short while before coming back to Wythall for about 12:00am

Tuesday. The evening was spent round Carl and Adams and lo-and-behold John was there! Yes he is back from Plymouth and currently staying in the Sambourn residence. We had a number of games of Carcassonne which is another of Carls many board games...

... Though we were playing the Xbox version!

Click the link to see what it's all about. Or, for those of you with an interest in history, click here to learn about the real city of Carcassonne in France!

... Did you click the link? if you did, I can say that my vlog is being used for educational purposes!

Anyway we played until about 12:30am and then I decided that I should go and get to bed, so I left.

Wednesday. Work = Good. Went down to fathers as usual and then went off to the Swan to see Donna and her family.

Thursday. The evening was spent in the Swan with the usual crowd. A good time was had by all until 11:30pm when we were out of drinking time and had to leave.

Friday. Work came and went and I was free for the weekend. The evening was spent back over at Carl and Adams (and Johns!) playing Guitar Hero and watching TV... However. Disaster struck when my GH drum kit (that had to be fixed before) suffered a heart attack and partially died on me! The left pad and symbol were refusing to work (so actually, a "stroke" would be a better description) I was livid! we continued with Johns RockBand drum kit but it just dodn't feel the same...

saturday. I went back over to Carl And Adams as the plan was to go in to Birmingham. We took one look at the weather and thought "blow that for a game of soldiers" so we stayed in. More Xbox, films, snacks etc... I thoroughly enjoyed it! I didn't leave until about 1:00am!

Sunday. Normal one. Legion. Nans. Tea. Home. Bed.

I will leave you there for abnother week readers. TTFN!

Heeeeey!

2008-11-26T16:46:00.000Z

Hello readers. Welcome to another thrilling update. Let me dive right in with last Monday...

After work I came home to watch some TV and then head on over to Sutton to see Julie. We headed over to the pub and had a good natter. I enjoyed it. After dropping Julie back home I made my way back to Wythall.

Tuesday. Work went quickly and I was out of the door and back home before I knew it. In the evening I went over to Carl and Adams. I took Guitar Hero with me and we had a good old jam session before I decided to call it a night at about 11:00pm

Wednesday. The evening wasn't spent down at fathers as he was attending a "meeting" for Ladies Night (more of that below) so I met up with Carl and Marcus in the Greville for a swift pint.

Thursday. Work went well and the evening was spent in The Swan (as always!) though our numbers were dwindled. Still, we all had good fun and at 11:30pm lank dropped Nicola and me home...

... Hang on, I will clarify that...

Lank dropped Nicola at her house, and then me at mine...

There we go. Thats better.

Friday. At 3:45pm I shot out of work like the building was on fire. I wanted to get home and kick-start the weekend, since I had a busy but enjoyable one planned! In the evening I went back over to Carl and Adams and we ended up playing a board game called "Settlers of Catan" which is a trading and city-building board game, though it is relatively simple to play. (Click the link to view the wiki article) I enjoyed it and might look in to aquiring one of the many variants and expansions that the game has spawned.

Saturday... During the day, not a lot happened. But the evening.... Ah, the evening. It was Ladies Night at the Chateau Impney in Droitwich. The Tuxedo was pressed and pin sharp! I arrived at Fathers with Selena at 6:15pm ready for the taxi at 6:30pm. We, along with some of dads neighbours, were at the Chateau for 7:00pm and imediately started mingling and saying hello to people. We went in to the meal which was a 5 course bonanza (all of which was fantastic) and then the entertainment started...

Basically, every year the lads put something together, last year they did a hula routine. This year they did a "Husbands military-style drill, with deckchairs" (seriously!) I hoped that by the time I sat down to write this that the video would be on youtube but it's not. I wil post it when it is though!

Anyway, to tide you over here is a still photo of said drill...

I must commend them on the choreography. The rifle drill with the deckchairs was most impressive!

After the entertainment the disco started. I have a few photo's though they aren't mine. They are "borrowed" from Sophie's facebook album...

Selena. The Minnie Mouse ears appeared at some point throughout the evening and she ended up wearing them!

Now, before any of you pass judgement, let me explain that I had been drinking WINE. You can see the glass in my hand. Secondly, why has no one ever told me that when I smile I look like a younger CAPTAIN MAINWARING! for Christs sake!?

I mean lets compare that, shall we?

Me, aged 50? You decide...

Anyway. At 1:00am the taxi returned to take us home. I was ready to drop. I got in and went straight to bed.

Not-very-many-hours later I awoke, Sunday morning. I got up and headed over to Adam and Carls as we were off to Memorabilia at the NEC. We got there for about 12:00 mid day and were soon wandering around all the geeky goodness that makes up the show. We spent time looking at all the...

... Oh sod it...

... Sod the lot of it. You know what? All this is completely pointless. I could witter on about film props, movie posters, and people dressed up as daleks... But it's all for nothing....

Because whilst there I saw the king of cool, himself. The one and only....

Can you tell who that is?

It is non other than Mr. Henry "The Fonz" Winkler! Oh yes, people, lap it up! There he is.

He did a talk on stage about the first ever interview he had at the studios. He is naturally funny and, as I realised when he was asked a question from one of the crowd, a really nice bloke! I wishe we had hung around to see if we could have got an autograph but we decided to press on. It must be said that this years Memorabilia seemed smaller than previous ones. It was in the same hall, and filled it no problem, but somehow there didn't seem to be as much happening. Anyway we saw everything that there was to see and left. We went to The Greville for lunch and then back to Carl and Adams for a game of Settlers of Catan. I didn't go to my nans as the driving, walking round the NEC and the large lunch had made me sleepy so I lounged around until it was time to come home.

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN.

Ding-Ding. Round 1...

2008-11-18T16:59:00.001Z

Hello readers and welcome, yet again, to my little piece of the internet. I will start blogging for your viewing pleasure...

... Now!

last Monday is where I will start, and a good Monday it was, too. After work I came home to relax for a bit before heading over to Sutton to see Julie. We went for a drink in her local and ended up playing on one of those games machines that eat all your money for the chance to answer a hundred questions so you can win a pound of it back. However, the games machine we were on seemed rather more forgiving... We were playing guess who and, after a couple of wins I won (sorry, "we" won) £5.00! I was rather pleased with myself (sorry, "us")

Afterwards I dropped Julie back home and came home myself to go to bed.

Tuesday. Work went quite quickly and I was running out the door before I knew it. In the evening I went over to Solihull and took Guitar Hero with me. We played for a few hours before it was time to pack up and come home.

Wednesday... After work I came home and in the evening, went down to Fathers as usual. We watched a bit of Laurel and Hardy before I came home. I didn't meet Donna at the quiz as she wa a bit knackered and hadn't gone.

Thursday... After work I went over to my sisters as it was her birthday. I had bought her Bill baileys new DVD "Tinselworm" which we actually saw live at the NIA. I came back for about 7:30pm and was picked up by Mr. Thomas to be whisked off to The Swan at 8:00pm. I drank some Guinness... And then we came home for about 11:30pm... Seriously, there isn't much else to tell.

Friday. Ah, I could smell the weekend. I finished at work and went in to Solihull to pick up my Guitar Hero Drums and Microphone from HMV so now I had the whole set. I spent most of the evening playing them and I am now officially naff at drumming!

Saturday... I awoke and played Guitar Hero for a bit before Selena, Nan and Grandad came up as usual. In the evening I had tea before getting out the ol' tuxedo for a night out. Basically, there was a night of Boxing in Birmingham, organised by the gym that my dad attends. It was a "black tie" type of shin-dig, with a meal and non stop wine. There were 6 bouts of boxing from various weights and classes. The evening went on until 12:00 midnight. We were picked up by our taxi and were all dropped home.

Sunday. I awoke late, as my head was full of Cabernet-Souvignon, and had dinner. Went to the Legion, then afterwards I DIDN'T go to my nans for tea, instead everyone went round Fathers as he had made tea. By the time I got there everyone had eaten so I sat on-my-one-dot-com and had my chilli con carne alone... Tasted good though! At about 10:00pm everyone left and I came home to watch a bit of TV before going to bed...

... Right. I will leave you there readers. Next Saturday is ladies Night so thetre will be piccies for you next week! TTFN!

"Overkill" live, and then on the xbox?

2008-11-11T17:10:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another little update.

I will begin last Monday, and after work I went home for a bit and then got dressed in my bset rock-togs because Father, Mr parlett and I were off to see Motorhead at the Civic! We set off at about 6:00pm and were there for 6:45pm. We parked in a nearby car park and walked over to the Hall. Saxon were already playing when we got in, so we got some drinks and found our seats. It wasn't too long until Motorhead were out in full force! The concert was brilliant, though the only peeve I have about it is that one of the lights had no filter on it, and it was aimed straight at me, so everytime it flashed, my eyes melted! I overcame this problem by closing my eyes every beat to miss the searing flash that it emitted. Apart from that slight hiccough though I enjoyed myself. The last couple of songs were "Overkill" and of course "Ace of Spades" The latter of which I videoed...

See what I mean about that sodding light?

Anyway...

Tuesday, and work passed quickly. I came home to blog and then went over to Solihull to pick up a couple of jumpers. Well the colder weather is settling in, and I don't want to catch a sniffle now, do I readers? No, no I don't...

In the evening I went back over to Adam and Carls (I do a lot of driving, don't I?) to watch some TV (Star Trek Voyager was on!) and to chill out... Well, home is generally boring, isn't it?

Wednesday... Now Wednesday was interesting. After work I came home and got changed because Father and Mr. lake were having a fireworks evening. Dad picked me up in the van and we set off. We set up the bonfire... An old oil drum filled with scrap wood and things and with a few holes in it to air the embers... It's what I like to call a "Hobbo Fireplace"

The family Lake arrived soon afterwards, followed by my Aunt and cousins. We had some good fireworks and, of course, sparklers! Whilst the sparklers wer lit I decided to "do a John" and "paint" with the light by using a slow shutter speed on my camera... Something I haven't really done before... The result is sort of like I imagined, but by no means David Bailey standard...

See what I mean?

Anyway. After the fireworks and the mulled wine had run out, we decided to call it a night. We finished off by fueling the fire and watching it for a bit before leaving (with the Hobbo Fireplace still lit!) Father dropped me off and I watched a bit of TV before going to bed.

Thursday. After work I went to Tescos to buy myself a gentlemans scarf. Now I have had scarves in the past and I don't really like them, but Tescos had some in that looked nice, and were made of soft wool. So off I went. I got a chocolate brown one (that goes with my jacket perfectly) and left.

The evening was spent in The Swan. I walked up, (wearing my nice new scarf) as Mr. Thomas wouldn't be joining us until later. I arrived and quickly started the important business of sampling the Guinness... It was good! After the merryment and the laughter t'was time to go. Lank dropped me back home where I went to bed.

Friday... Ah Friday. I shot out of work like a Bat out of Hell, into Solihull to pick up my copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour. I left HMV and high-tailed it back home to have a go... IT IS BRILLIANT! The new features on the guitar controler are awsome, and the game is as good as the other 3. I then got bored of playing solo, so I went back over to Solihull to Carl and Adams to share the musical wonder that is Guitar Hero.

Saturday. I don't remember much about Saturday... Strange, considering it was only 3 days ago, as I sit here typing this thing... My nan and Grandad came over. Then I think I went out... somewhere... Possibly back over to Carl and Adams. Sorry.

Anyway. Sunday. Normal one. Dinner. Legion. Nans. Home.

Right. I'm off. TTFN

I know it says it is, but it just isn't a Penny Farthing!

2008-11-04T17:37:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another little blog... So let's begin.

Last Monday was the start of the half term week so I was not at work. I woke up at about 10:00am and sat playing Fable 2 for most of the day. In the evening I went over to Adam/Carls as usual to while away the evening so as to stop me being a lonely recluse.

Tuesday... Fable 2 all day and then I might have gone somewhere other than Solihull during the evening... I might have met up with Donna... I can't remember. Sorry.

Wednesday. Sorry, but Fable 2 ruled the daytime hours. In the evening I went down to Father and then we went down to my nans as my Auntie Molly and her daughter "Auntie" Betty had come over from America... Actually when I say "Auntie" it's more like "Great-second-cousin" (I think... Since Aunt Molly was my Grandads first cousin) and "Great-second-cousin-once removed for betty (Have I got that right? Geneology isn't one of my strong points)

We stayed for a couple of hours before leaving. I dropped father off and then met up with Donna in the Swan for the end of the quiz.

Thursday was an interesting day... I stopped playing Fable to turn my hand to something I hadn't done since I was little... I was going to carve a pumpkin! I had got the idea a few days before and had purchased one with the intent of carving it out, cutting it, and making pumpkin soup. Now I didn't want to do a traditional "angry face" pumpkin, I wanted to do something different, but still cool... So I did! Want to see the results? Check out below!

Oh yeah! Thats right! Decepticons forever!

I thought it wasn't bad for half-an-hours work.

In the evening I went with Mr Thomas to the Swan for a drink. Whilst there Leigh and Donna turned up for a drink or two (unusual for a Thursday)

Friday. Ah, now then Driday was good. We all went to Coventry Motor Museum! I had never been before but Adam had. He drove, following my trusty tomtom and we were there and parked for 2:00pm (we didn't get an early start, but we didn't really want one so it was ok.)

There were many different exhibits: old cars, new cars, fast cars, even faster cars, the fastest car ever, famous cars, not-so famous cars, and, to top it off, bikes!

Naturally, I have piccies for you...

Adam on a "Penny Farthing"... which it quite clearly isn't despite being labeled as one.

The fastest car in the world!!! Thrust 2, which went supersonic!

And a Metro... Not just any old Metro though, no... This one was Princess Diannas!

Anyway we left at 5:00pm and went back to Solihull for a bit. I then came home to get ready for my cousins birthday! She waas having a curry down at my aunts house so I went down for 8:00pm... Though we didn't eat until 9:30pm by which time I was starving!

I stayed until about 11:30pm and then called it a night.

Sunday. Ah Sunday.... At the Legion I caught the end of the F1 and watched Lewis become the youngest ever F1 champion... Well done, sir, I say!

Afterwards it was nans for as usual...

Right, I will leave you there readers. TTFN

Appologies...

2008-11-01T12:35:00.000Z

Sorry readers. I know this blog is 3 days late but I haven't really had chance to sit down and type it. I will start with Monday 20th October... Which, for one reason or another wasn't the best Monday I have ever had. But I wont bore you with details, I will just crack on with it.

So Monday after work I came home and sat about on the internet, checking Facebook and reading Emails, as usual, then in the evening I went to the Swan with Donna, and we were joined by Jason, Gemma, Nicola, Julia, and lee... Which was nice!

Tuesday. I finished work and had to fight my way out of the carpark, and then fight my way round the island, then fight my way through Moseley... Seriously, there must have been some sort of diversion nearby because the traffic was twice the intensity that it usually is at 3:30pm. Anyway I got home and sat about watching TopGear before going over to Adam/Carls for a drink in the Greville.

Wednesday. Work seemed to pass quickly... Which I suspect no-one complains ever complains about, and was home for 4:00pm. I spent an hour looking at the reviews for Fable 2 and thinking that in less than 48 hours I would be sampling all it's gamey-goodness... Now at this point I expect that your expecting me to say that I went down to Fathers house... But no! I actually had a far more cultured evening planned... I went to the theatre! Yes readers, the Theatre. the TA's from Woodrush and I were going to see Fame!: The Musical at the Old Rep as Craig Hall, who teaches drama at Woodrush was in it as Joe Vegas. We got to the Old Rep for 7:15pm and the curtain went up at 7:30pm we had a good laugh as craig is quite comical anyway, but the charecter of Joe is the typical "class-clown" (something I can relate to!) It was about 2 and a half hours long, with the interval, so after a natter and the goodbyes we were back on the road for 10:20pm and back to wythall for 10:40pm. I got dropped off and came in to watch some TV.

Thursday. I went to work in the knowledge that I wouldn't be needed the following day, so this was my last day at Calthorpe. Work went well and I was out for 3:30 so I came home and played about on t'internet before walking up to the Swan. Mr Thomas was otherwise engaged... He and Mr Bennett were off in Aston, watching some men in shorts fight over a ball of air... All sounds dodgy to me. Anyway, I enjoyed the Swan as everyone had a good laugh. Mr Heales gave me a lift back with Gem' and Becky, saving me from the cold. I came in and had a bite to eat before going to bed...

... Friday morning I sprang out of bed, into my clothes, jumped down stairs and was in my car less than 10 minutes after waking up! I shot over to Solihull and picked up my limited edition of Fable 2 from GAME. I then came back and got to grips with it! In fact I was on it for most of the day. In the evening I went over to Adam/Carls as Adam had got his copy after work that day. I stayed until about 11:00pm then came home to play more Fable 2!

Saturday... Guess what I played all day? In the evening I may have gone out but I can't quite remember... Sorry readers.

Sunday. I had a normal one... Dinner, Legion, Nans, Tea...

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN

I'm a compulsive gambler...

2008-10-21T15:33:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another little blog.

I will begin with last Monday, as always. I went over to Solihull to see Adam and Carl in the evening. We spent time watching TV until about midnight and then I left.

Tuesday. Whilst at work I did something rather peculiar... I chipped my tooth on a Twix! Yes. You read that right... Well actually I had chipped my tooth a couple of years before and my dentist put a surface filling over it. But eating a twix dislodged it and so I now have a little bit missing off the edge of one of my front teeth.

I went to see Julie in Sutton. We went for a drink at one of the many locals she has near her and we sat chatting until chucking-out time when we left.

Wednesday. After work I went over to Solihull to pre-order a copy of Fable 2 from HMV for when it is released on Friday 24th of October. I did that and then popped round the shops and bought some new togs before coming home. In the evening I went down to fathers as usual before meeting up with Donna in the Swan.

Thursday. I came home and watched TV before Going over to pick Lank up as he was returning to the Swan after his leave of absence and I wasn't prepared to let him drive. (It didn't seem fair somehow.)

Friday. In the evening I went back over to Sutton to see Julie. We stayed in watching TV before I left at about 12:30am

Saturday. I phoned Adam up to see if he was doing anything (since I was bored) and during the conversation he mentioned that his pre-order of Fable 2 was the Limited Edition disk that came with a bit of extra content... Which I didn't know about. HMV had run out of places for LE-disks so I had the basic one on order... I wanted to sort that out because the LE-disk is only about a fiver more, and I would rather have the "full game"than miss out (purely because I am a big Fable fan) so I headed over to Adams, and we walked in to Solihull. Now adam had pre-ordered his copy of Fable 2 from "GAME not HMV so I went in to GAME and enquired about preordering the LE Fable 2... Which they did for me right there and then... And as a bonus they gave me a redeem code for the Xbox:live Arcade so that I could download the "Fable 2 pub Games" which allow you to start earning money for your charecter before you get the game... If this all sounds rather geeky, well, it is but hey-ho.... Anyway I then went to cancel my pre-order with HMV before walking back to Adams.

In the evening Me, Carl, Adam, and Marcus went for a bite to eat at The Black Boy in Knowle. I had Lamb in Redcherry and Rosemary sauce which was excellent, and Fruits of the Forrest Cheesecake for dessert. Also excellent! We left and went back to Adam and Carls for a bit before I left at about 11:00pm. I got home and downloaded my free Fable 2 Pub games and started betting (not real money, you understand) and betting, and betting... Seriously it's addictive. My favorite game is "Keystone" It's a cross between roulette and what the Americans call "Craps". You basically bet on which of the outer stones will be removed, which you do with the dice. Check it out here... Clicky!

Sunday. Normal one... Except while I was at the Legion I got bored... Maily because there were very few people in. I decided to "decorate" the Calendar on the wall......

Presenting "Kitty La Forge!" Sorry about the quality of the photo.

Anyway, I then Built a little Blu-Tac monster and put him by the sink with a note...

I want to know how long he lasts! (probably not long though)

Anyway. I left at 7:00pm before going down to my nans for tea as normal...

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN!

I tried to do handstands for you. Everytime I fell on you...

2008-10-14T16:08:00.000Z

... I've still got that bloody song stuck in my head... DAMN YOU, iPOD COMMERCIAL!!!

Sorry. I got carried away there.

Anyway, welcome yet again to another blog. Lets begin...

Monday. I finished work at 3:30pm and came home to mess about on the computer for a bit. I discovered a little gaming gem' tucked away on the internet called Fantastic Contraption. The game levels consist of a red object and the goal in which it must be transported to, and you are given wheels and rods to literally build a contraption to do the job. Seriously addictive... Give it a go by clicking the link provided..... Clicky!!!

In the evening I went over to Julies.

Tuesday. Work was again completed by 3:30pm but I was unable to leave because someone had blocked my car in! It turned out to be some random parent of a child that had decided to park her mega-off-road-earth dwelling-land moving-super-thunder-commander 4x4... (because you really need those in moseley!) right behind my car... not in any sort of car parking space, or indeed, in line with any other cars whatsoever. I told the school who checked the visitor register (that notes your vehicle reg') and lo and behold... she hasn't even bothered to sign in! so she was somewhere within the grounds wandering about. Fortunately as I was checking to see if she's moved, after going in to the office, she was walking back to her tank as I was walking away from my car. Now at the very least she could have said sorry, but she glanced at me, shoved her child in to the back and drove off.... Stuck-up bitch. If I ever see it on the carpark again I will deliberately block it in out of sheer spite, with a note on the windshield saying "f***ing annoying, ain't it!"

Anyway... In the evening I went to meet up with Donna, since it seemed like ages since I had seen her. We had a chinwag in the Swan before leaving at 11:00pm

Wednesday. I got out of work to find..... Yes. You guessed it... I was blocked in again! Only this time I was more sympathetic... I discovered that it was the school nurses car and she had to move it out of the way of a school bus. She had then gone in to attend to a child who had broken himself on something and hadn't had chance to move it back. I came home and in the evening went to fathers as usual. We watched a Laurel and Hardy Classic: Block Heads. It was one of the earliest "talkie" feature films and it involves Stan guarding a trench in WW1... and then found still guarding it 20 years later! It is a masterpiece of comedy writing, slapstick gags and visual jokes. After watching it I went to the Swan to help Donna (and Leigh!) and her folks to lose the quiz.

Thursday. I left work with no trouble at all and was in for 4:10pm I lounged about for a few hours before getting ready to go to the Swan with the usual gang. Carl picked me up and we were there by 8:30pm.Everyone had a good-old natter and there was amusing banter when the lads started flicking through the collection of girlie-mags the women had bought along! At 11:30pm we were booted out and set off for home.

Friday. I left work and came home, switched on the computer, logged on to the inter-web and stayed there for most of the evening! I played through Contraption. Checked my emails. Logged on to Facebook. Watched all sorts of funny things on youtube and pottered around on Digg.com before watching some TV and having something to eat.

Saturday. During the day I didn't do anything except go to Solihull and pre-order Fable 2 for the xbox. In the evening I went to Highgate Hall in Moseley with Julie for her friends wedding party. It was also Gemma and Woodys wedding party that evening in the Red Lion so I will say my congrats' here (as I'm pretty sure Gemma reads this occasionally)

CONGRATULATIONS GEMMA AND WOODY!

MAY YOUR FUTURE TOGETHER BE ONE OF HAPPINESS!

phew! It's not often I get all sincere like that. Well I got to the hall by taxi for 7:00pm. Julie and her mum were already there as they had been to the service. There was a disco and a guy singing as well at one point. It was a really good shindig and the food was great. At about 12:30am it was decided that we should all be going. Now I could have ordered a taxi back to Wythall, but Julie and her mum were getting a taxi with another couple back to Sutton and suggested that I get in with them, split the cost, and Julie could bring me back the following day. I agreed and so hopped in to the taxi/minibus... After a 20 minute wait. We got to Sutton for about 1:20am and I almost immediately nodded off.

Sunday. I awoke and was offered breakfast, which I ate and before to long me and Jules were on the M6 heading back towards Wythall. It was the first time she had driven on the motorway but she did fine. After a short stay at my house she was ready to leave before the traffic built up. I lent her my Tomtom so she would get back ok, so after setting it up and saying goodbye I went back in and got ready to go to the Legion. Afterwards I went to my nans before coming home to bed!

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN!

Go for it Blackpool, Go for it Blackpool, Go for it!

2008-10-07T17:16:00.001Z

... Seriously, does anyone remember that advert from the early 90's?

Anyway. Welcome once again dear reader to my little blog. I will begin with last Monday.
The phone rang at about 8:40am and Select Education had a job for me! WOOHOO! I could start earning money again! I was to go to Calthorpe School in Moseley, but obviously I wasn't going to get there for 9:00am. I set off and was at the school for about 9:30am. I was there until about 3:40pm and then came home. During the evening I went out with Julie for a drink.

Tuesday. Back to Calthorpe, and a different class. It was good fun and I left at 3:30pm feeling quite relieved that I was earning some cash again! In the evening I went over to Carl and Adams.

Wednesday. More work at Calthorpe and then down to fathers as usual. I popped in to the quiz to see Donna and her folks before coming home.

Thursday. Work during the day went quickly... I don't know why. In the evening I got a lift down to the Swan where I sat drinking with the usual crowd... Except Lank... there is a lonely space where he should be... Come back Mr. Thomas. We need you.

Friday. After work I came home and started packing for Blackpool, since we were going the following morning. I popped in to tescos to grab some much needed items and went over to Adam and Carls. We sat watching TV and then got an early night. I kipped on the spare bed.

Saturday! I awoke, got showered and dressed and rallied the troops for our trip. We piled in to my car at about 8:00am and set off towards Sutton to pick Julie up. I arrived at about 8:40am. She put her things in the boot and we set off. I stopped at a services at about 10:15am to grab a bite to eat. We then set off on full stomachs and before too long we were cruising around the Northshore end of Blackpool. Jenny, Marcus, Kate, and Ben were a few hours behind us so we decided to check in to the hotel and then go and have a look along the seafront and the pier. The hotel was cheap... And basic... And crap. We set off for the seafront just to get out again! The weather was a bit crap but I took a photo of the Tower anyway.

Check the colour of the sky!

We had a go on the Waltzers (which lasted ages, and did something to my head because I got off and couldn't focus properly for a few seconds) We had a wander through the arcades and ended up in the bar on the pier. By this time the others had arrived and had checked in to the hotel.. And checked out again! They were so put off they had decided to switch. They were going to get some food, but we had eaten so Me, Julie, Adam, and Carl went round the sealife centre... Naturally I have a couple of photos.

A starfish (or a "patrick" as Julie calls them!)

A dogfish doing that thing that stingrays usualy do!

A funky white dogfish! I decided that due to his colours he was the pimp-daddy.

Not that you can see very well but this is actually a photo of Carl! (The strangest deep-sea creature of them all!)

Afterwards we met back up with the others at the hotel where they were just checking in to their new one just round the corner. It looked a bit nicer but I couldn't be bothered to shift all the luggage so Me Adam, Carl and Julie stayed where we were. The staff were friendly and we were only spending one night there anyway. Everyone went into their respective hotels to get changed for dinner as we were booked in to an italian restaurant. We walked round to the nicer hotel and got a taxi as one big group. We got there for 7:30pm and were soon enjoying our starters (I had chicken liver with some fancy sauce!) and then the mains (I had Veal with another fancy sauce!) and then for dessert we had Jenny's Birthday cake! By this time I was quite tired and the heavens had opened and it was pouring down with rain. After the meal we walked to a taxi company and ordered a taxi back. I went straight to bed as I wanted to be as fresh as a daisy for the Sunday as we were heading to the Pleasure Beach!

Sunday! I awoke quite early but didn't actually get up until 9:30am. Me and Julie checked out of the hotel, being beaten by Adam and Carl by a good half-hour, and met up with the others. We walked along the seafront towards the Pleasure Beach in glorious sunshine....

Oh, you want proof do you.... ok...

Mr. Blue Sky! (please tell us why, you had to hide away for so long... )

We joined the short queue for the pleasure beach and got in quite quick. The first thing people had a go on was a big swingy-thing that I bottled. I did get a video of Adam, Carl, Jenny, Marcus, and Ben on it though...

We wandered round and basically did every ride there was. We stopped for a breather around lunchtime and I took a photo of marcus and Jenny...

HEY! Thats not Jenny! Marcus you fool, thats a plastic cowgirl you're groping!

I also wanted to take a photo of me and Julie, but she's a bit camera shy... This is the best I could do...

It looks like we're both amputees...

Anyway we finished off all the rides by going on "The big one" several times before leaving to wander back to the car. By this time it was 7:00pm and I wanted to start the trek back home so I did...! We set off and no sooner had I hit the road my tiredness caught up with me! I drove for an hour before stopping off at a services for a triple esspresso and a can of Relentless: Inferno (it's like Tango mixed with nitroglycerine... it's quite nice!)

While sipping my esspresso, the Fishbourne posse wandered in! Randomly they had decided to stop off at the same services. I continued my quest and dropped Julie off at her house for about 9:40pm. I then continued on to Solihull and dropped Adam and Carl off for 10:10pm and then got home myself for 10:30pm where I went straight to bed!

Right. thats me done for now. TTFN readers!

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

2008-09-30T15:54:00.000Z

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...

2008-09-23T23:19:00.000Z

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...

2008-09-16T13:14:00.000Z

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

2008-09-11T07:35:00.000Z

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.

2008-09-02T23:53:00.000Z

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...

It's a nice day outside... I think I'll have a bath

2008-08-27T09:41:00.000Z

Hello readers. welcome to a short blog this week... I'm going out in a bit.

Last Monday I didn't do much. In the evening I went over to Adam and Carls with John to play a bit of Rock Band.

Tuesday was much the same. I'm getting bored of the holidays. I want to start work again so I can get back to my routine.

Wednesday... Was boring. In the evening Iwent down to fathers and then popped in to the Swan to see Donnas family (Donna wasn't there as she was, and as I write this still is, on holiday)

Thursday was ever so slightly more interesting... I went out in the day to Solihull and bought myself a new wallet from Next, as mine was falling apart. And I also got myself a sat-nav' from comet. I got a "TomTom One Europe T" Im not sure what the "T" stands for, but I'm sure it makes all the difference! In the evening me and Lank joined the frivolity in the Packhorse. Katie Wren dropped in to see us, which was nice, but time came when we had to call it a night.

Friday. I spent the morning doing nothing, but in the evening I had to use my tomtom! Remember last post when I said I was at a party in Great Barr? Well while I was there I got talking to my dads-mates-next door neighbours-daughter. her name is Julie and we ended up dancing... And I had arranged to meet up with her for a drink. So I programmed her address in to my little TomTom and I set off. It works like a charm and I was at her front door in no time. We went for a quiet drink and a chat in a local pub and then I dropped her home

Saturday was interesting. father, me and a few of the skiiers went over to another fellow skiiers house to build him a water feature... Except that:

a) he was on hoiday and didn't know we were doing it, and
b) the "water feature" was an old bath and a water pump!

I was on "camera duty" and filmed the "Laurel and Hardy-esque" performance. We filmed all the messing about and the jokes, but then we had to set the bath up for real. It didn't take us long to rearrange part of the garden, and set it all up... In fact I think it looks quite professional! See for yourself...

Looks lovely doesn't it!? And look below for proof that we got it all working.........

You see! an excellent service!

Anyway we left and in the evening I went with Jess, Paul, Benji and Lank to Birmingham for Jess's birthday. We all met in Wetherspoons on Hurst Street. We had a few drinks and then moved on to Reflex for a dance... At some point Benji left us, but I didn't notice when that was. Anyway our Saturday Night soon became Sunday morning and as it was Jess's party we let her decide what we should do next... So she suggested we go to Legs 11! (apparently she loves it there!) so we went. I played it "low-key" obviously but time soon came to go home. paul, who had driven, dropped me and Lank off close to a taxi rank a few miles closer to home to save us a bit of cash. I eventually got in at god-knows-what-time-O' clock and went to bed.

Sunday... I got up and had dinner, then went to the Legion, afterwards went to nans for tea, came home, and went to bed!

right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN.

To me, To you, To me, To you.

2008-08-20T09:27:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to yet another "5 minutes to read but an hour to wrtite" update. Right, I will waste no time and begin with last Monday. I got up and went out to Solihull to see if I could buy "Afro Samurai" on DVD. Now for those of you that don't know what Afro Samurai is let me explain...

It is a 5-part anime set in the past-but-somehow-the-future of Japan that follows the revenge killings of a warrior called Afro... Samuel L. Jackson does a couple of voices, and the main baddie is voiced by Ron Perlman. It is ultra-violent and can get a bit weird... Actually, let me show you what it's like via Yotube:

You may draw your own conclusions but I'm a fan. End of.

anywho, I couldn't actually find it in Solihull so I had to come home and order it online, which I was a little peeved about. In the evening I went over to Adam, Marcus, Carls as is now the law.

Tuesday. The day was a cacophony of bad TV, Boredom, and Chicken Pies (that I have taken a liking to) In the evening, I may have done something different... I can't remember.

Wednesday. I did sod all. In the evening I went to Fathers as usual. At about 10:00pm I payed a visit to the swan to see Donna and Leigh who were going on Holiday the following morning.

Thursday. I spent the day watching Afro Samurai and in the evening went to The Packhorse as usual.

Friday was a big day. Jenny and Marcus were moving into their new house and I had offered the services of my Mondeo. I went down to Jenny's where her Ka was full of things, her mums car was full of other things, and my car was loaded up with even more things. We set off in a convoy to the house, which is past Solihull Ice rink, and unloaded al the stuff in the livingroom. After a sit down on the new couch Marcus arrived. Jenny and her mum then had to go to a friends wedding which left me and Marcus to do some hauling. After putting some things in the loft, and messing with the alarm system we did about 6 runs to-and-fro' hauling cupboards, bikes, shelves, music equipment, etc. until finally, at about 8: we all went to Woks Hall in Solihull for a meal. Afterwards everyone went back to Marcus and Jennys for a couple of hours before heading on home.

Saturday. The day was a bit empty but in the evening I went, with Father and Selena to a party at the Great Barr Hotel in... 'er... Great Barr. We got there for about 7:45pm and stayed until the end... at about 1:00am.... There was cake!

I had a really good night actually.

Sunday.... You know the drill: Dinner. Legion. Nans. Bed.

Right. I will leave you there for another week readers.

TTFN

I'll let you all make up your own title this week

2008-08-12T18:31:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a fuzzy-blog.... I say fuzzy because all the days are bleeding in to one and I dont know how im going to remember what ive been doing....

... That would make a perfectly good Slipknot lyric...

... Anyway. Last monday.... 'erm.... I didnt really do anything until the evening when I went to Adam and Carls with John to prat around on the xbox.... I think we ordered a chinese as well.

Tuesday... Again, nothing happened. In the evening Adam, Carl and John came over to Wythall for a change... We sat playing the xbox though...

Wednesday. Still nowt happening in the day. I went to fathers in the evening to sort out his computer before going to the Swan to meet Donna.

Thursday... Nope... Sat doing nothing until 8:15 when Lank came to collect me to go to the Packhorse. Actually I had a good time there, but sadly at 12:00am-ish it was time to leave. Lank Dropped Nicola home first and then me

Friday... I actually had to be up early! yay! I had to take father to Birmingham international Station as he was off to visit our relatives in the south of France for a long Weekend (actually as I sit here writing this he is actually on his way back and I have to go and pick him up in an hour)

In the evening I went over to Carl and Adams... I was actually invited to the Red Lion by Jo (bless her) but by the time I was ready to go out it seemed a bit late.

Saturday. Ah, now during the day I went over to Selenas where Kieron had bought "Eye of Judgement" for the PS3. If you havent seen it, just give this video a look...

Funky isn't it? It's a bit nerdy... but in a kind of "geek chic" way.

Anyway I sat and had a few goes before heading off to pick Kate up. We were going in to Birmingham, for an arts show organised by one of kates friends. We were told that there would be a "performance element" to the show but we didnt know what that would be...

... As it turned out, everyone was going to "perform". There were hundreds of little objects and trinkets around the room and we were told that we could choose any of the little trinkets and objects to keep. We were filmed so that the artist could watch it to try and draw narratives between the choices made and the route people took around the room... It was all very conceptual and exactly the kind of thing Carl finds annoying! (don't you Carl.....)

Anyway. Afterwards we got a drink in a near by pup before going back to Kate's house where she made toasties. At about 1:00am I left to come home for bed.

Sunday... Whilst at the Legion, Donna and Leigh decided they would pay me a visit. They stayed until 7:00 so I dropped them home after I had done my shift... Oh and before I forget I must mention that Donna earned her keep by helping me Bottle up the fridges! (thanks Donna!)

After that I went down to nans for tea as usual before coming home....

... Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN.

Why so serious?

2008-08-05T16:40:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another update.

I will jump right in with it by begining with last Monday. I spent the day decorating in Beoley (see last post for reminder on why I was doing that...) and finished for about 6:00pm. In the evening I, along with Kate, Adam, and Carl went to see The Dark Knight in Solihull. I picked Kate up from hers and we waited for the others in La Tasca. We got our tickets and went in...

The film is amazing and quite frankly, if you haven't seen it I don't want to know you...

(the late) Heath Ledger is indeed a brilliant Joker as everyone was suspecting, though this leads me to ask one simple question... If he could act that good all along, why did he waste his time and ours with the likes of "A Knights Tale and Brokeback Mountain? (not that I went to see Brokeback Mountain)

Anyway... Tuesday. More decorating and then in the evening it was over to Solihull as usual to have a jam on Rockband where we effectively completed it... Yes, we finally cracked it.

The Mothers of Destruction are:

Mr Adam "Turbo" Turbitt on Drums,
Mr Carl "The Jackal" Notman on Bass,
Myself; Mr Gareth "Garth Vader" Evans on lead guitar,
and of course Mr John... [insert hastily made-up nickname] Robinson on vocals.

he band would like to thank: Mr Marcus Wheatley for providing back-up guitar/vocals and for being the band technician in providing us with a better foot-pedal. Also, Jenny Fishbourne for providing back-up vocals and for being the bit of crumpet that any good rock band needs to be seen with...

Anyway. Wednesday. MORE decorating and then in the evening, down to fathers. I called in at the Swan as usual to see Donna and help them lose the quiz.

Thursday... Thursday there was no decorating so I sepent the day just trawling the internet and watching TV... It was really fun! In the evening I went, with Lank, to the packhorse. We had a merry-old time chatting and joining in with all the mirth. Sadly, at about 12:00ish it was time to go... so we did.

Friday. More decorating. In the evening I may have gone out... Sorry folks, I cant quite remember.... Could have been back over to Adams with John.....

Yeah, actually, I think it was.

Saturday... I didnt really do anything. Mum was out with friends and was staying over until Sunday so I had another day of trawling the internet and watching TV!

Sunday... A regualr one... Dinner (which I made myself!) Legion. Nans. Home. Bed.

Right... I will leave you there readers as I'm off out in a bit...

TTFN

I'll have a Pina Colada, shaken, not stirred...

2008-07-30T16:39:00.000Z

Hello readers, and yes, it's update time once again! And as you may remember I left you with Monday evening meaning that this little post will begin with a Tuesday...

Last Tuesday it was my mums birthday! We had lunch at my nans and then we went shopping in Northfield. I waited for mum to pick some skirts from Bon Marche (a shop dedicated to freaks and old people) I was stood there so long that one old lady thought I was a security guard and asked me if she could try on a top...

I ended up buying her <-- (my mum, not the old lady) a handbag that she wanted. Afterwards we went home!

In the evening I...

... Can't remember what I did! I might have gone over to Solihull. Anyway, shortly after coming back from wherever I went, mum and some of her friends came home from a meal they had treated her to... You see Mother chats (and chats and chats!) on UKChatterbox, a simple no-nonsense chatroom. Once in a while some of the regulars (yes, there's regulars!) meet up. Mother first organised this a couple of years ago at Becketts where everyone who turned up had to have a badge with their online name on it so people knew who was who! Well a few of them decided they were going to take mum out for a meal on her birthday so off they went... Oh and one of the ladies drives a black-cab so it can seat about 6 people! They came in for a chat, though in person, not online... Though one of them did suggest that they turn the computer on to see who was logged in to the chatroom....

... Is it just me, or do you find that a bit weird?

They were there a while, discussing all sorts of things (mainly the internet and the wonderful chat facilities it provides) before another friend turned up. Then they sat discussing more things... (like chatrooms and the people in them!)

Eventually they left and it was quiet enough for me to get to bed. So I did.

Jump to Wednesday. During the day I didn't do much except take my car to Becketts to get the tyres fixed... You may remember last post I told you about Quick-fit trying to charge me £140 for 2 tyres when all I had was a slow puncture and a loose valve. (scroll down to last week and it will be there) Well I took it over to the place at Becketts and they did the job for £13.50!

Bargain!

In the evening I went with kate to see Hancock. We had a drink in La Tasca first before going in to the cinema. Hancock isn't a bad film. Will Smith plays it well but the writing seems a bit "off" somehow. There are major plot-holes and questions left unanswered. Also the ending isn't what I would have expected. There is a perfect opportunity to end the film, (and leave it open for a sequel) but they dont... They drag it out for 20 more minutes trying to tie-up all the loose ends (and fail) and then create the typicall "fairytale-happy-ending" where as I would have liked a grittier, darker alternative...

... Anyway. Afterwards I dropped Kate home and then went home myself.

Thursday. I went with mum and Selena over to Broadway in the Cotswolds. I drove, since my car has Air-con'. We parked and wandered round the little shops for an hour-or-so before stopping at the pub for a cold drink. After that it was back home. ]

In the evening I went to the Packhorse as usual. A few of the TA's were in there so I said hello and joined everyone outside in the beer garden. Quite a lot of fun was had by all but at 12:30am we left for home.

Friday... Friday was interesting. I got a call from Father saying that he was in Beoley and needed a hand painting... Fair enough... So I went down to meet him at a fishery centre that also had some warehouses on it's land. I discovered that the "painting" that he was talking about was in fact the redecoration of a showroom and office of a company that sells sports equipment (though mainly golf stuff)

So I got stuck in...

At 4:30pm we called it a day and went home.

In the evening I stayed in and watched a lot of TV... Something which I haven't done in a while. It was nice, actually, to zone out for a bit.

Saturday... Nan and grandad came over as usual, but Selena was out so she didn't come for her usual intake of red wine and a doughnut! In the evening I went with a couple of the TA's over to another TA's house for her 30th birthday. It was advertised as a "cocktail party" so I found a couple of old bow ties (don't ask) and stuffed them in my pockets. When we got there we had food and music, and the promise that the cocktails would be mixed shortly. When the ONLY OTHER male TA arrived (guy called Tim... nice chap!) I gave him a bow tie... We then disapeared and put them on (they were clip-on so we just put them round our necks!) and got a laugh from everyone when we reappeared. The night went on and we had music and dancing... Sadly, at about 12:00midnight we called it a night and went home.

Sunday... Ah, you must all know how Sundays work for me by now... I go to the Legion, then go down to nans for my tea and to watch TopGear... Which is exactly how it went!

Ok. I will stop there and resume as normal next Tuesday.

TTFN readers!

Thanks for the memories...

2008-07-22T15:05:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this little update.

Well. I have finally left Woodrush and am now looking forward to 6 weeks off before starting as a supply teacher, but more of that later.

I will start, as ever, with last Monday. It was the begining of my last week at Woodrush and in the Evening I went with Kate out for a drink in Solihull. We started off in Wetherspoons and after a brief pint, went in search of cocktails (since that was what Kate was in the mood for!) we ended up in Lloyds bar where I ended up swapping Guinnes for a bright red drink with vodka and lemon in it! Afterwards I dropped kate home and came home to bed.

Tuesday! The evening was a fantastic affair because myself and the TA's, plus office staf from school went to Hall Green dog track for a meal and a flutter on the doggies. Whilst there Sky Sports were covering the races. After the main derby the cameras came in to the restaurant and came straight over to us! WEEEYY! we were on Sky Sports TV! (I've never been on TV before!)

The staff also decided to give me my leaving present! A HMV voucher for £20 and a rather nice watch. I was chuffed!

Wednesday. In the evening I went down to fathers as usual to watch a bit of TV. I then went up to the Swan to meet with Donna and co' for the last hour of the quiz. (not that I'm a lot of help!)

Thursday was a bit of a disaster... I had picked up a puncture on my back car tyre. I have never known anyone get as many punctures as me... Ever! I really must write to The Guinness Book of World Records and see if I can enter. In the evening I went to the Packhorse for my weekly quota of booze.

Friday... My last day. At the staff party in the staffroom I got handed my big card, signed by everyone, a cheque for £60.00, and a bottle of wine. I was then told that I would be missed, and that they hoped I would be coming back to do some suply for them next year... Which is technically possible, since the agency I am with are one that Woodrush use! In the evening I went with John over to Carl and Adams to have a Rock Band session. Adam was at his parents so the "Mothers of Destruction" (Rock Band profile Band Name!) were a three-piece. Whilst there we ordered in a Chinese takeaway which was nice, before calling it a night at 1:00am. I dropped John home andcame home, myself.

Saturday. After nan and grandad had been up with winr and cake (as is the Saturday tradition in the Evans family household!) I played through some Warcraft II before getting ready to go to Nicola and julias birthday barbeque. Lank drove myself, Mr. B. and Donna. At 7:00pm-ish Lank and dan left to watch the Villa match and I had to pop in to a Engagement party in Kings Heath for one of the TA's. I only stayed an hour or so before coming back and spending the rest of the night at Nicola and Julias. It was a good party with music and steaks! We finally called it a night at about 12:45am. Lank dropped Donna home first followed by me and Dan.

Sunday. I got up and had dinner, went to the Legion, went down to nans after a brief stop off at Donnas house, then after leaving nans, caught up with Jason, Gemma, and Becky (sorry, she prefers "Bex") in the Packhorse for the last hour before coming home (only after Jason had used his electric pump to reinflate my tyre... bless his little cottons!)

Right now it's usually here I say "TTFN" but because i will forget the start of this week by the time of my next post, I will blog it now...

Monday... I.E yesterday, I went down to Quick Fit in Shirley to see ift hey could fix my tyre. I needed the punctured one plugging and the one in the boot (with my 4th alloy attached to it) needed a new valve since that keeps deflating... Now the grease-monkey at the garage was adamant that:

a) the tyres were down to the wear-blocks
b) they were split
and c) would therefore need replacing at a cost of £70.00 per tyre thankyou very much...

(oh, and he came to these conclusions without taking the tyre off or even looking at them for longer than about 30 seconds.....)

PISS OFF!!!!

£70.00 per tyre???? So a loose valve and a slow puncture was going to cost me £140?

I think not!

He said "bring it back in an hour" so I said "yeah, mate, will do..." then came home with absolutely no intention of going back...

... EVER!

Ok, let me just take a moment to add this so I can google-bomb it later:

"Quick-Fit are a bunch of bastard con-artists"

Thats better!

So I popped over to Donnas (after making sure I wasn't driving on my rims) to assist her in creating some certificates for the kiddies in her school. I spent an hour doing that but had to take them home with me to cut on my guillotine (yes, I actually have one!) as Donnas printer was printing at a cock-eyed angle...

In the evening I went with Adam, Carl, and John over to Rubery for a night of Bowling! Carl kindly drove us there and we imediately payed for 2 games. Adam won the first with a not-bad 118 and I won the second with a mighty 156! After the games we played in the arcade for a bit where I was beaten on Mario Kart Arcade GP.

After Adam nearly walked out with his bowling shoes still on, we left for home, and Carl dropped me off. After watching a bit of TV I went to bed...

Right. I will leave it there readers. TTFN...

PROPER computer games!

2008-07-15T22:39:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to yet another thrilling update.

I begin as usual with last Monday. John and I (ooh, get you with the grammar!) went, with Rock Band over to Adam and Carls where The Mothers of Destruction (thats our band!) rocked out to some classic tunes.

Tuesday was the same as the day before, with another Rock Band session... Mr Turbitt is becoming quite the drumming superstar!

It should be noted that Marcus and Jenny weren't there as they had gone to Majorca for the week!

Wednesday I went down to fathers as usual. At 10:00pm I was going to meet Donna in the Swan but she was feeling unwell and had left early.

Thursday. Ah, the call of the Packhorse was answered with great merriment! Jason, Gemma and Becky arrived to swell the small number of people and I spent most of the evening with becky, feeding the games machine pound coins to try our luck at some of the quizes to win money. After the booze and the laughter we decided to call it a night and make our way home.

Friday. After work I came home and fell asleep! In the evening I went over to Carls. Adam was at his parents so me and Carl whiled away the hours playing marathon sessions of Mario Kart followed by a going from start to finish on Guitar hero III...

... Mental!

Saurday. I got up and went over to Adams. We had decided to go to The sealife centre in Birmingham as Adam had a voucher (and we all love a bargain!)

While I was at Adams he gave me something that took me back to my (late) childhood...

... You see, in the late '90's/early '00's I was a HUGE fan of Warcraft II on the PC. In 200 (ish) Warcraft III came along and moved the game into it's current 3D format. The graphics were good, the cinematics were great and the story was interesting... And yet I have always stood my my opinion that Warcraft II is a better game. Yes, it's not true 3D, yes, the story is thin on the ground, but it plays so good and is so entertaining, that when my original disc got mangled years a go I was genuinely upset... So you can imagine my excitement when, on Saturday Adam handed me a Warcraft II disc and the expansion pack "Beyond the dark portal"

We drove to the station where we met Carl, hopped on to a train, and set off. We disembarked at Snow Hll and took a leisurely walk down to the Sealife Centre. We got in (with the voucher!) and walked round. Along the way we saw shark feeding and the Sea Turtle enclosure... Actually, I can treat you to a little video of that!

After a few hours wandering around we decided it was time to get some lunch so we popped across the canal to The Malt House where we had a drink and a bite to eat. We THEN set about walking across Brum to a shop where Carl wanted to buy a new boardgame based on Villages in France (!?) it turns out it is a rather good strategy game where you place tiles to build cities that score you points. Simple, but Amusing. We THEN went back to Solihull before getting ready to go over to Gemma and Beckys house for a BBQ they were having. Lank picked Me, Carl, and Adam up from my house and drove us to Redditch. We had already got supplies (meat and beer!) from Tescos. So we set off and were the first ones there. We met some other people who were invited and Jason set about cooking the grub! I had a few burgers and some smokey bacon, and a ton of Guinness before admitting defeat. We all sat chatting until the small hours when people started to leave. We were the last out, at about 1:00am and Lank dropped me home where I went to bed.

Sunday. I got up and had dinner (since it was that time by the time I had crawled out of bed!) and at 2:30pm went down to The Legion as usual to do my stint. After coming home I got changed and went to nans for tea and to watch TopGear before coming home to bed.

Right. I will leave you there for now readers...

TTFN!

Ooh! Look! an update!

2008-07-07T15:46:00.000Z

Hello readers. Firstly, let me appologise for neglecting my blog. I do hope that this doesn't herald the death-knell of the thing. I know once you start slacking, the posts get fewer and fewer until it goes the way of Adams blog... (And Johns' as well!)

Well anyway. I will begin with Tuesday the 1st of July since the days previous were all quite boring and filled with nothing indifferent.

Tuesday was the opening night of the school play which I had been preparing for (along with everyone else) and it went down a treat. After it began I made an exit and went over to Solihull.

Wednesday evening, second night of the play and after school I did a bit of a touch-up to bits of the set which had been knocked or scraped. Later, I then stayed to watch the play as an audience member with Donna and afterwards went over to Fathers for a bit before coming home to bed.

Thursday. Last night of the play and I had a role to perform! I was basically IN the play dancing but I don't want to ruin your appetite so I will consign any description to the wastes of the blogosphere. Afterwards I went up to the Packhorse as usual to meet up with everyone. Mr. Bennett was even there! (though he still hasn't given me my Ratatouille DVD back!)

Friday. Ah the weekend dawned. I went, in the evening, up Solihull with Katie from the Swan who I haven't seen in a while. I met her and her mum in the Masons before we headed over to Reflex (where else!?) for a bop... Actually her mum isn't a bad dancer! Anyway. After we all got slightly merry and the music went in to overtime, we decided to call it a night and went for a taxi. It dropped me home first before taking Katie (who at this point was asleep on my right shoulder) and her mum (who at this point was half asleep on my left shoulder!) home.

Saturday, I awoke rather late and went, with mum, down to Selenas to meet nan and granddad. Selena and Kieron have redecorated and re-jigged the livingroom so everyone went over there to have a gander. After we left, I had a job to do.... I was covering a saturday night at the Legion! Myself, Emma and Sam were on and we had a right laugh! I had forgotten how fun they can be and may decide to cover a few more in the future!

Sunday. Business as usual. Dinner. Legion. Doctor Who on catch-up TV. Nans. Tea. Home. Bed...

Bish Bash bosh!

And I will leave you there readers!

No! wait! No I wont!

I will just tag on to the end of this blog, my new link. The one that says "Werewolf!" If you could all please click it I would be most grateful. It is a link to an online multiplayer game that, if you so wish, you can join in on (for free, with nothing to download!)

right. I will leave you there readers!

TTFN

ding ding... Round 2

2008-06-25T00:48:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a Tuesday blog thats now so late being written that it's technically a Wednesday blog.

Lets just get started...

Ok so I begin with Tuesday evening... Well, actually I can't remember what I did, It's currently 2:20am and I've had a full day at work plus afterschool painting.

Lets skip to Wednesday. Evening wa spent down at Fathers before popping in to the Swan to see Donna.

Thursday evening was spent in the Packhorse as usual. A good time was had by all... until about 12:30am when we decided to call it a night.

Friday evening... Was probably spent out somewhere...

Ah, now Saturday is where we get to the main crux of the matter... I didn't do to much during the day but the evening... Ah the evening was spent at the NIA watching Amir Khan fight Michael Gomez! Father picked me up at about 6:00pm and we set off. We arrived and got seated for about an hour later and watched a few bouts from various weight divisions including the commonweath-middleweight championship title fight, and a british middleweight title fight. The fights drew more and more interesting until the main event...

I took a (rather sketchy) video of the entrances. Gomez is first, and Khans enterance is about 2:00 minutes in...

I also took some photos butt hey aren't that great so I wont bother uploading them. (maybe next week)

The fight was great but in my humble opinion it was stopped too early. Gomez wasn't fighting back at the time the ref' called the fight closed but it's not like he was unable to fight at all. Hell, it may even have been an attempt at the "Rope-a-dope" technique Muhammad Ali was famed for... (although I doubt it)

Anyway, even though it only lasted 5 rounds I enjoyed it. I have never been to a big boxing match before and will enjoy telling people, years from now "Ah, well I remember watching Khan in his early days... Saw him live once, too!...etc" Afterwards we went in to one of the bars in Brindley Place and waited for the rush and the traffic to subside. After a pint we made our way back home.

Sunday. I did my usual stint at the Legion but before going down to nans, I was called to the Swan by Jason as I had to rescue a damsel in distress. After that, it was down to nans for tea and then home.

Monday. After work I stayed on to do some painting. In the evening I went to Solihull for a quiz with Adam, Carl, and some Transconians (People from Transco) The quiz was run by a couple of dorks who obviously knew a lot of the other people who were there at the quiz and seemed the type to award points to people they like so the chances of winning via pure brain-power were slim at best. Well our two teams (yes, they forced us to split up!) did ok, even though random points seemed to be "forgoten" about at the final tally at the end we finished 9th and 13th. After seeing off our drinks we left.

... God I'm tired. It's now 03:53am (I took a slight break after writing about Sunday to watch a bit of"Waking the Dead")

Ok... Today. After a monster stint at painting to get it all finished, I came home. At 6:30pm John rang to give me some interesting news... he had purchased a game... An xbox game... A game of greatness...

... He'd gone and got Rock Band!

We went to Adam/Carl/Marcus' house and set it up...

... IT IS BRILLIANT!

I had a go on the drums, and singing (much to the dispair of the others!) The game plays beautifully, and is a great laugh! We spent a few hours unlocking songs and gaining achievements. When it got to 12:30am we decided to call it a night and came home...

OK that is where I will leave you, readers as it is now 4:25am and it's light outside and I haven't been to bed yet! (I took time out a while ago to watch the end of Waking the Dead)

TTFN

You might have the talons of Saloth-sar, but I have the belt of strength and the spear of eternity... Oh shit...A Goblin!

2008-06-17T17:17:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to yet another (brief) episode. These next few weeks until the end of the school term will be hectic so I will appologise in advance for any short and/or late blogs...

But lets kick off with last Tuesday, which was spent at Adam and Carls. Carl had a new boardgame called "Zombies" which is good fun to play. It basically aims to parody every zombie movie ever made in that you are a lone soldier trapped in a town awaiting helicopter pick-up. To read a brief summary and to see what it's about... clicky!

Anyway, fun was had by all but time soon came to go home.

Wednesday evening was spent at Fathers watching football... Joy.

Thursday evening was spent in The Packhorse as usual. A fun time was had by all until it was time to go home to beddie-byes.

Ah, Friday. I went with Selena (sister... Notice the spelling.) To get Fathers Day gifts. I got him a CD (That "Dad Rocks" one thats been advertised, just because he enjoys things like that) and a gum-shield and some boxing shorts... Nocite I said boxING not BoxER... There's a reason for that...

Father has decided to go boxing! Now obviously he hasn't had to fight yet but he is going through the training for fitness purposes. So I thought that some shorts and a gum shield (just in case) would come in handy. Actually the shorts were perfect. You see my dad has always been a huge fan of Muhammad Ali. And as anyone could tell you he always used to wear the same style shorts...

... All...

... The...

... Time...

And as it happened JJB Sports in Shirley sell the classic Black and White Everlasts! So I bought him a pair! Bargain!

Later on that evening I went with Carl, John, and Selina (Johns new lady-friend, who I hope will become a regular reader!) to The Peacock for a drink. I had forgotten what it is like in there but in case you don't know I will explain...

... Have you ever seen "Deliverance"?

Anyway we chatted and chatted until it went dark and then left for home. I dropped John and Selina off and then came home myself.

Saturday! I awoke early as I was off with Father and fellow skiers Andy and Lorraine to Southampton to visit other fellow skiers. Lindsey and Simon. We got underway at 10:00am-ish and were there for 1:00pm-ish after a toilet stop and a slight hold up on the motorway due to a van that had overturned. We sat in the garden drinking wine and eating pistachio nuts! The evening was spent in the local hotel/bar drinking Guinness! we then went back for some tea (lasagne) and then went to bed (I had a pull out bed and my sleeping bag to keep warm.)

Sunday morning we awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs! We had a good hearty breakfast and lounged around before packing our things up ready for the drive home... I was asleep for most of the journey but when I got back to Wythall I got ready to meet up at nans. I stayed at nans until about 9:30pm and came home to play a bit of Dragonball Z on the ol' Xbox.

Monday. And art club went well after work. I came home for a bit before heading off to pick john up and go over to Marcus and Adams and Carls house. The evening was spent playing another game... "Talisman" it is your basic magic/dragons/heroes/quest/adventure game but it is actually rather fun to play! There are RPG elements to the game as you can level-up your character by collecting items and at one point I found myself caring about my little warrior as he faced off against a Dragon (strength 7) with only 2 lives remaining....

.. Strange.

Anyway we played until about 12:30am when John won (I played a saving card but John was able to nullify it with a spell... Ooh, that crafty John!)

So after I had been cast to the fires of damnation we called it a night and came home, dropping John off along the way...

... Bloody Wizards! Who needs 'em?

Anyway, that is where I will leave you readers, as i'm going out in a bit!

TTFN

Why does it have to be so hot!?

2008-06-10T16:42:00.000Z

hello readers, and welcome to this weeks thrilling update. I will tell you right now that this is going to be brief because:

1. My tea is nearly ready
2. Im boiling hot and need a cold shower to stop myself from spontaneously combusting, and
3. I am a very busy bee, painting the school set for Grease. I have had to bring some of it home with me to get it finished on time.

But lets start at the begining...

Monday. The evening was spent in Solihull with Adam and Marcus.

Tuesday. See Above

Wednersday. At Science Club after work, we did a bit of alchemy and made gold! (well, fools gold, actually) In the evening I went down to Fathers before popping in to the Swan to see Donna

Thursday. Packhorse night. Lank picked me up as usual. We got to the Packhorse and was joined, after about 15 minutes, by none other than Carl! Yes, he is back from Uni' and a merry welcome back to Brum goes out to him!

Friday. I went, after work to buy Dragonball Z: Burst limit for the 360. it is rather good... Actually it is absolutely brilliant! I love it. In the evening I went over to Carl, Adam, and Marcuses with it to show off.

Ah, Saturday. In the day I was out-and-about. In the evening I went with dad to a Birthday party for one of the skiing crowd. it was a good house party with a marquee and a barbeque! A most excellent evening!

Sunday was spent in the Legion, and at nans for tea...

And speaking of tea mine is nearly ready... And I haven't even finished my painting!

TTFN readers

Nina's eyes popped out of what was left of her back...

2008-06-03T17:38:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another Tuesday blog! Though rather than being for a reason, this one is just simply a day late.

I will begin with Tuesday…

I spent the morning pottering about before deciding to start reading Making Money by Terry Pratchett. Now although it sounds like a get-rich-quick sort of book it is in fact the latest novel in the Discworld series (number 35 I think!) I had received the book for my birthday along with others, but had not started it yet. I read the first few chapters before getting myself something to eat and heading off out to pick Donna up as we were going for a well overdue drink! We ended up in the Harvester next to The Plough in Monkspath (albeit only after I started making detours because I forgot where I was going whilst half-way there!... No seriously! In fact it happened the day after as well, but more of that in a bit.)

So anyway, we grabbed a table and ordered the drinks. After a good few hours we came to the conclusion that it was probably time to leave. We hopped in to my car and I dropped Donna home before coming home myself. I read a bit more of my book and went to bed.

Wednesday. I decided to have a lie in, since I was on half term, so I woke up but lay in bed reading before getting up at 11:00am! I spent the day checking Facebook, and playing various games on the PC via free game websites. (Hey, I know it’s a bit sad but that’s what happens when you’re at home all day without anything to do!)

In the evening I DIDN’T go down to fathers, no! I picked Kate up (that’s “college Kate” as I call her) from Dorridge and went to Solihull for a drink and to see “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” Now rather than blindly telling you all about it I will refrain in case you haven’t seen it and would like to. I will say, however that whilst the film is full of pace and Indiana goodness, it harbours the sour pip of unrealistisity (which is a word I have just made up, but think it has the makings of a brand new word so I would like you all to start using it appropriately, and immediately!)

Now after the film had finished it was time to go. So we got in my car and I started the journey back to Dorridge…
… Except I didn’t. I was on auto pilot and because every time I come through Solihull I am usually going to Adam/Marcus’ house that is where I stated heading off to before Kate asked me where the hell I was going. I turned round and headed for her house. I got home myself at about midnight. After grabbing a bite to eat I went to bed.

Thursday morning came along and I spent it doing a spot of reading. In the evening I went, as usual, to The Packhorse. Me and Lank found the comfy seats and awaited the arrival of everyone else.

After the booze and the laughter, it was time to call it a night. Lank dropped me back at about 12:20am and I went to bed.

Friday… I got up and had breakfast and watched a bit of telly. In the afternoon Gemma rang me to see if I fancied a drink in the Swan since we were both bored. (for the benefit of Jo, John, Carl, or Adam, the Gemma in question isn’t “our” Gemma, it’s Jasons Gemma I am writing about.) So off we went, with the promise of Jason joining us after he had finished the washing up. After an hour or so Jason did indeed arrive. After another few hours of chatting to two random guys from the legion who came and sat at our table (the annoying b*****ds!) we decided to go home. We were contemplating having a BBQ but the sky looked a bit overcast so we did the only logical thing…

… Went back to the Swan!

And there we stayed, until about 11:30pm when we decided that we had drank enough booze to float a small boat on…

Ah. Sunday. I got up and had dinner… Roast Lamb… lovely! Before heading off to the sanctuary that is Wythall Legion for my usual stint of pint-pulling. At 7:00pm I came home for a bit to watch Doctor Who on catch-up TV before heading down to nans for tea. After Heartbeat I watched the last in the series of Ultimate Force. I never really got into it when it was first shown. The writing is a bit dodgy and the acting is a bit wooden, but it’s good for an hour of mindless shooting and things going bang.

At 10:30pm I came home.

I awoke Monday morning and went to work. The day went as one would expect and at 3:00pm I got ready to do a bit more painting of the set for the school play. The trouble was that I can’t really spray-paint in school so I decided to lug everything in to the back of my car and do it at home. I managed to get a bonnet and a bumper in to the back of the Mondeo and bring it home where I spent an hour spraying. It looks quite nice, but then the rain came and I had to hide everything in the shed!

In the evening I went over to Adams with John. He bought a DVD called Garth Marenghis’ Dark Place. It is a satirical piss-take of ‘80’s horror drama. The (false) premise is that back in the 80’s Garth Marenghi wrote a screen play set in Darkplace Hospital. Channel 4 then supposedly cancelled the show for being too “radical” and it is only now that the series is finally being shown with interviews from the modern day “cast” of the show (bear in mind that this is completely made up.) The style of comedy is like a darker “mighty-boosh” (in fact Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt make appearances) but not quite as zany or surreal. It is deliberately badly edited and poorly dubbed in places to give it a very “crossroads” quality to it.

Check it out below...

At 11:30pm we called it a night and we left. I dropped John off and came home to bed.

And that is where I will leave you, readers. TTFN

Oom-pah-pah. Oom-pah-pah. That's how it goes...

2008-05-27T14:57:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks update, posponed 24 hours so that I may blog the Bank Holiday.

Lets dive straight in with last Monday. After work I came home to relax and in the evening I went over to Adams as usual to arse around on the xbox.

Tuesday, work went quite quickly and in the evening I DIDN'T go to Solihull! No,Instead Adam came over to my house where we had a look at the DragonBall Z: Burst Limit demo before heading up to The Peacock on Icknield Street to meet up with Jo and Paul. We sat outside for a bit but moved in when we started to get a bit chilly. A good time was had by all but at 11:00pm we decided to call it a night.

Wednesday. After work I stayed behind to help out with "Science Club" it sounds nerdy but I assure you it isnt! We were basically playing with Methane bubbles made by bubbling Methane through fairy liquid. We then ignited the bubbles for no other reason than the fact that it looks cool. It was then mentioned that due to the rate of combustion producing only the energy required to ignight the fuel (the methane) then the fireball that was created didn't have sufficient energy to burn things as you might expect... And therefore, anyone ignighting the solutuion on their skin "shouldn't" be burned...

... So what did I do? Yep! I picked up a load of the stuff and set myself on fire!

It was brilliant! My hands went up in a fireball but it didn't have any affect on my skin... So then I thought "what if I could "throw" the bubbles at a small flame? Could I launch a fireball from my hands? Obviously I had to try! Now I do have a video that shows me doing this rather succesfully, but it was recorded by one of the kiddies and bluetoothed to me. The problem is I can't uploaded it here without being in breach of a multitude of child protection laws, so, no vid, sorry. The best I can do is show you a random youtube video of someone demonstrating the basic princible...

I did the same thing but rather than have someone ignight the bubbles for me, I thrust my hands (a la: "dragonball Z Kamehameha" style) over a lit splint and watched the flame erupt from my hands...

... WHICH LOOKS SO COOL!

Anyway, I came home and watched some TV before going down to Fathers as usual.

Thursday... In the evening it was The Packhorse as usual. Lank picked me up and off we went. We grabbed the comfy seats, and stayed there until it was going-home time at about 11:30pm. A good night was had by one and all!

Friday. The school bell heralded the begining of half term. I came home to fiddle with the PC and decided that, actually, going out was a bad idea. here I was, snug in my lounge and would have to go out in to the dreary cold to do anything. I therefore decided that a night in was for the best and so that is what I did.

Saturday. The day was spent doing pretty much nothing until about 6:30pm when I went to Lanks to grab a taxi to pick benji up to go in to Birmingham! Gemma was having a leaving do from work at The Bier Keller in Exeter Street. We got there for about 8-ish after meeting up with the rest of the gang. It was pretty quiet when we went in but started to pick up after a while. In fact it turned in to a fantastic evening, with everyone dancing on the tables and singing along... I think I have the perfect picture to sum up how the evening went...

So, Mr. Thomas, how good was the Bier Keller?

Oh yeah! It was THAT good! We stayed there until god-knows-what-time before deciding that we must call it a night and heading off to find a taxi at New Street Station.

I awoke on Sunday with an OK head and had dinner. I then went off to the legion as usual. It was pretty dead in the Legion so time seemed to drag a bit but 7:00pm came along eventually and I made my getaway. I went down to nans for tea and to watch Heatbeat! (sad, yes, but I don't care!)

So on to Monday. The day was spent pottering about until lunch time when me, mum, Selena, Kieron, nan and grandad went for a meal at The Hollybush. When we arrived we found that the winds had bought a nearby tree down that was blocking the road, so we had to park up the top and walk down the hill. We got seated and ordered. I had the 10oz Ribeye steak which is always good. After wolfing that back and a couple of drinks we set back home. I relaxed for a few hours before getting ready to go out somewhere special... I was off to see Lee Evans at the Bromsgrove Atrix theatre! Basically it is a warm-up tour of his new material before he does his main tour later this year. The venue is tiny and we were 5 rows from the front! No photography was allowed during the performance, but I got one of the stage to show just haw close we were...

Now thats quite close! His new stuff was brilliant, and he actually had his script notes in his hand, since it's that new he hasn't had time to learn it all off-by-heart yet! He did two halves of about an hour and a half each and finished with a request... His version of bohemian rhapsody! If you have never seen it, here's a video of one of his bigger tours a few years a go...

It makes me laugh everytime I watch it!

We eventually came home and I dropped of Selena and father. I came home and went to bed...

Which is where i will leave you readers. TTFN!

The corrolation between lizards and memory loss...

2008-05-20T14:58:00.001Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks late blog.

I will begin as per usual with last Monday where, after doing some painting for the school, I came home to, well, um... Blog, actually. In the evening I went over to Solihull with John to Adams where we enjoyed a relaxing evening of TV and Xbox.

Tuesday: I went back over to Adams and did the exact same thing as I did the evening previous...

Wednesday came along, as it often does after a Tuesday, and in the evening I went down to Fathers and then took a trip up to The White Swan to meet up with Donna and co'.

Thursday. The evening was spent in the Packhorse having a good ol' chat anda sing-song... Well, ok, maybe not a sing song, but you get the general idea.

Ah, Friday. I woke up with my sinuses full of gunge and my head felt like it was going to explode under the pressure, and my throat felt like I had swallowed a cheese grater! Yep, I was ill! I called in to work sick and went back to bed. By the time I awoke at about 3pm I wasn't feeling too bad and decided that I would venture out that evening to watch Marcus and his Dad play with their band and The Red Lion in Shirley. Kate picked me up for about 8:10pm and after heading towards The Red Lion in Earlswood, found her way to Shirley. I was armed with Strepsils though, to keep the illness at bay...

... Now here's where it gets interesting. You see after the songs and the booze we were waiting for the band to tidy away, and Neil, who works behind the bar started pouring all sorts of cocktails and wonderfully colourful drinks for everyone. I, on the other hand was the proud recipient of something that looked quite ordinary... A clear liquid in a regular whiskey glass. I was told that it:

Wasn't Gin or Vodka

Had only been served 5 times in the pubs history
Came in an unusual bottle

and, last but not least (though probably most important)

Would make me so drunk that I wouldn't be able to walk out of the pub!

So I necked it!

Saturday... I woke up at about 12:00pm mid day not remembering how I got home, how I got to bed, or how it was that I was still alive! Nan, Grandad, and Selena came up as usual for the wine. I stayed off any alcohol until I was sure I was completely sober... Which I wasn't too sure about!

I browsed through my phone looking for clues as to what happened the night before and I came across this...

and then this...

Then it clicked! I remembered why the bottle was so special. The thing you can see in the bottle is a fully grown (but obviously dead) male lizard! Yep! thats right a lizard... A gekko, to be more precise. I remembered necking it and feeling fine... For about 15 minutes and then it hit me like big sensory wrecking-ball! The rest is still a blur though.

In the evening I went over to Kierons while Selena and mum went to play bingo! We pratted around on Mario Kart for the Wii until Selena got back. We had a laugh until it was about 11:00pm and then I decided to call it a night and left. I came home to download the Dragonball Z: Burst Limit demo from Xbox Live marketplace before going to bed.

Sunday. I woke up covered in blood... Yes. You read that correcty. My pillow (not to mention my face) were covered in blood... It took me a few seconds to realise that I was in the middle of the worlds biggest nose-bleed! (lovely!) I came to the conclusion that it had happened due to the pressure in my sinuses, and the fact that I have weak blood vessels in my nose (thats why I never blow it, because I would just end up staining my shoes red all the time!) I got cleaned up, had dinner at 1:30pm and set off to the Legion. After a while I was stood at the bar and guess what? Yep, it started doing it again! My head was hurting so when my face exploded (which is the only way I can describe it) I could actually feel the relief of pressure behind my eyes! It is the worlds most strangest sensation... Not entirely unpleasant either actually since it does indeed relieve the pressure you have in your face! I managed to stop it (though it took me a good 10 minutes!) and at 7:00pm I went home. I then went down to nans for supper and to watch Heartbeat on ITV!

Monday. I got up and my pressure pains in my head had returned, but not so much that I could forget about it. I went to work and came home at 4:00pm after doing some painting.

In the evening I went over to Adams to prat about on GTA4. I came home, after dropping Luke home, for about 11:30pm and i went to bed.

Today, my head and throat hurt! Seriously, I'm not to sure if this is a cold, or hay-fever. I stopped at spar on the way to workto get some Venos cough syrup, and some Vicks sinus capsules. I also took some strepsils with me and so, as I sit here, with my achy head and sore thoat, I am completely doped up on medicine...

... ha ha... see how the elephants dance across the screen... look at them! their pretty dresses look so velvety... hey! Mr. Churchill, what are you doing here...? You like the elephants as well? wow... shall we say bye-bye to our readers? yes...

bye-bye readers.... mmm.

Did you hear about the dyslexic pimp? He bought himself a Warehouse!

2008-05-12T16:13:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks slightly shorter blog!

You may remember that I bloged up until last Monday so that I could relate the Bank-Holiday goings on to you all.

So lets begin with last Tuesday. The evening was spent with John and Adam having a good old fashioned cheating session with GTA 4. There are numerous little bits 'n' pieces to find within the game and so we started a new game save to spawn ourselves the best weapons, vehicles, and the such-like to mess about with. (those of you who have never been INSIDE the statue of happiness, spawn a chopper and go do it! It's weird!)

Actually, as a side story, when I went to pick john up I was surprised to see, plainly hanging from a telephone cable, a single shoe! Whoever threw it must have been some sort of professional footware-hurler (or a strong-armed tosser! ha ha!)

I took a zoomy photo just because of the pure sillyness of it...

Anyway. At about 11:30pm we called it a night and we left.

Wednesday and in the evening I went down to fathers for a bit before popping off to The Swan to meet Donna and co' to assist them in losing the quiz! After some dismal "stand-up bingo" and the final round, we left and I came home to bed.

Thursday. The evening was spent in The packhorse, though Mr Thomas was not in residence. The numbers were bolstered though, because Jess and Paul were there along with the kiddies and Pauls brother. Lets hope they come out more often!

Friday. The weekend... The evening was spent with Jenny, Adam, and Marcus along with a lot of Jenny's work collegues out and about in Solihull. We met in Lloyds bar and after a few hours downstairs, we moved up to the 1st floor where the partying was done. I didn't over do myself though, and left at a reasonable 12:30am.

Ah Saturday. Me and Kieron went for a pint in The Packhorse whilst mum and Selena were shopping. We pulled up to encounter a group of horses in the carpark! Yes, horses. The riders were standing around with drinks, chatting. After a while Selena and Mum turned up and had a drink, and we got something to eat, though to be honest I don't think the usual chef was on, since the food wasn't the best I've ever had at the Packhorse.

In the evening I met up with Jason, Gemma, and Becky and we went for a pint in The Resevoir. 2 of my ex-year 11's now work in their as restaurant staff and so we got the promise of "really nice desserts" if we ordered them. We ordered food first, but after stuffing myself with grub couldn't bring myself to eat dessert, so maybe another time. After closing time we phoned for a taxi to drop us back home and I was in for 12:00am midnight.

Ah, Sunday. I had dinner and then went to do my stint at the Legion. We were quite busy due to the football. We had Man-Utd on one telly, the Villa on another and The Blues on the radio! After the cheering of the 3 glory-hunters... Sorry, I mean Man-Utd fans, and the so-so chat of the Villa supporters who I suppose were happy enough with 6th place, we endured the back-chat and despondant arguments from the blues fans who have to face another season in the 1st division. (oooh! Get me, talking about the football like I know all about it!) Afterwards I went to nans for tea as usual before coming home and watching a bit of Jack Dee and QI before going to bed!

And thats the end of that chapter...

TTFN readers.

Why do ATM machines have to work on Bank Holidays?

2008-05-06T23:12:00.001Z

Hello readers and welcome to a TUESDAY blog! While this counts as “late” I have in fact left it so that I may blog the Bank Holiday while it is fresh in my head, rather than write about it next Monday…

So lets’ begin…

Last Monday work flew by and in the evening I went over to Adams with my hard drive so that we could play a bit of Call of Duty under my name, since my ex-box (ha, see the pun there!) is still in the repair centre.

Tuesday… After work I came home and lounged in front of the PC for a bit before watching some Dragon Ball Z. I then had tea and went back over to Adams for a bit more Call of Duty.

Wednesday. After work I had to stay behind until 5:30pm to photograph the school fashion show! I tried my best but some of the photo’s were naff, though I blame this on the equipment and my instructions…

1) The camera was a bog-standard Kodak.
2) I wasn’t allowed to use the flash.
3) The kiddies didn’t stand still.
4) It was dark.
5) The spot lights were flashing, not still.

Now call me “Mr. Fussy” but I think a dark room, photographing a moving target with no flash, is pretty much a photographers worse nightmare (and I’m not a photographer!)

In fact I would like Mr Robinsons opinion on the matter (and to tell me if such a task is even possible!) since he is far better than me at professional photography.

In the evening the T.A’s from Woodrush decided to go and enter the quiz at the Swan… We got there for 7:30pm and had a carvery first, then waited until the quiz started. We were doing very well and even held it together in the music round… The result? A resounding 2nd place! We won £20 (which meant £2.50 each with a bit left over) which was nice. Anne dropped me home (as she had driven) and I went in to bed.

Thursday. After work I watched some Dragon Ball Z before being picked up by Lank and deposited in the packhorse as per usual. Much merriment was to be had by all until closing time. At around 11:30pm we decided to call it a night and Lank dropped me home.

Friday… Ooh… smell that 3 day weekend!

In the evening I went over to see Kate (that’s “College Kate” as I call her) I took my USB stick with me to copy some files to her new laptop for her. After fiddling with her laptop for a… No wait, that sounds dodgy…. After transferring and printing the files on her new computer (that’s better!) we sat and watched TV for a few hours before I came home to beddie-byes.

Saturday was a bit of a non-day. I got up, had dinner and went over to Solihull, then came back and watched some DBZ (I think)

Sunday After my usual stint at the Legion, Lank picked me, Dan, Kate and Ben up to go bowling. We met Jenny and Marcus there for 8:00pm and got underway. Ben won the first game, and Mr Bennett, after a rather spectacular flying-leap down the alley, won the second. We then had a quick mess around in the arcade before heading home. I got in and went straight to bed!

Bank Holiday Monday. I had arranged to meet up with Donna so I picked her up and we went and had lunch at The Black Boy in Knowle after a brief session of walking round the shops in Solihull. When we got to The Black Boy we found a table and ordered some grub (I had faggotts, chips, and mushy peas!)

After stuffing myself, me and Donna went back to hers to have a gander at t’internet to see if we could book some tickets to see Phantom of the opera… We could have done so… If we wanted to spend £120 each on the show and a room!

… erm… no!

So we have postponed it for the time being until we either have the funds or some sort of “money-off coupon” (they have those for the theatre, right?)

Well afterwards I came home to grab a bite to eat and went back over to Adams. Whilst there, Donna phoned to say that she wouldn’t mind coming out for a drink so Me and Adam went over to The Greville and were joined a while later by Donna. We had a drink and a laugh before calling it a night at about 11:20pm. I came home to grab a cold drink and go to bed ready for work the next day!

And that is where I will leave you readers.

TTFN!

GREENS! PUSH FORWARD!

2008-04-28T16:01:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a short blog. I can't sit here typing as I have had the day off work with a cough and a sore throat and I still feel quite terrible.

Let's begin. The sooner I type this, the sooner I can have a lie down again.

I left you wondering why I needed to be up so early last Monday. Well Father needed his car taking to Atlas Garage in Birmingham for a service and I had to follow him to drive him back. I was up for 6:30am and down to Fathers for 7:00am. We set off and got to the Garage for about 7:30:am. After saying hello to Hazel, who runs the place, we set back off for home. I got in at 8:00am-ish and got changed for work and set off at usual...

I finished at 3:30pm and came home. In the evening I went to Adams where we...

... Oh sod it... I'm too ill. I'll have to give you the amended version of the week and focus on the weekend...

Tuesday: Possibly went to Adams again.

Wednesday: Xbox cable arrived. Tried it... Didn't work. In the evening I went to Fathers.

Thursday: Went to Packhorse. Drank Guinness.

Friday: Could taste the weekend. Met up with Kate, who I haven't seen since Christmas. I met her in Solihull and we had a good chat and a drink.

Weekend: Main highlight was the paintballing. Me, Dan, Lank, and Jason went to Bassetts Pole Paintball Fields with some of Dans work collegues. We were split in to two teams which just so happened to have me and Dan on one side, and Jason and Lank on the other. Unfortunately our side included a bunch of kids who obviously thought that the aim of the game was to sit in a trench at the back of the field and watch the rest of us have a game of paintball, while they let off a few rounds in the general direction of the enemy every few minutes. The result was that, of the 6 scoring games, the Heroic Greens, of which me and Mr. Bennett were proud members, only won 2 and drew 1. While the Pestilant Reds won 3 and drew 1. After the days games had finished we were put into the "Grand Rumble" all the teams were merged into 2 armies and we had a 70-a-side game set in trenches...

... Yes, you read that correctly... Seven Zero... 70

Our batch of 70, with the Bennett-Evans and Thomas-Heales teams now united along side 66 other people pretty much owned the other team.

At 4:30pm we left and drove through rain that can only be described as "biblical" to get home. Lank dropped us off and I squelched in to have a shower and relax.

Right. That is just about as much as I can do... Time to dope myself up on Veno's and Strepsils again...

TTFN readers

Chalk-up another kill for Microsoft

2008-04-22T16:04:00.001Z

Hello readers and welcome to a Tuesday blog... And by "Tuesday" I do of course mean "late"

So lets get down to business. I will begin, as always with last Monday. After leaving work I came home And played a bit of Call of Duty before heading of to Adams with John (I think). We watched a bit of telly and messed around on the Xbox before coming home.

Tuesday was exactly the same as Monday, though I don't think John came with me... Or it could be the other way round...

Wednesday evening was spent at Fathers house watching TV. At about 10:00pm I left to go and meet Donna in the Swan and help them lose the quiz (?)

Thursday... Was interesting!

After work I decided to get my hair cut, and came home to trim the face-fuzz since my beard gets itchy if I let it get too long. In the evening I met up with Kate, a friend of mine, in The Horse and Jockey for a drink. After a pint I drove us to The Man on the Moon, where I have never been before. Unfortunately the heating was broken, so it was freezing inside, and they had a quiz on done by the loudest, most ghastly woman imaginable! She wouldn't shut up... Seriously she's either single, or her husband is deaf... Question, Question, Question, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, Screech, Screech, Screech! We decided to leave and go to Kate's local... But I can't remember what it's called... (Could be "The Woodpecker" but possibly not!) And after a lengthy chat, and the promise of meeting up again soon, I dropped her home and then came home myself...

Friday came and I could almost smell the weekend! After work I came home and played some Call of Duty.

Ah. Saturday. I went with Adam and Jenny to Redditch. Now Reditch is somewhere I don't usually go, but it meant getting out of the house for a few hours so I went along. We had a good mooch round the shops and I ended up buying as new Tshirt. After making our way back to Wythall, we ended up playing Guitar Hero 3 for a bit, before Adam and Jenny set off for home.

In the evening I was invited by Donna to a Birthday at Wythall House. Her next door neighbour had turned 18 so he was having a "do" on. He is also one of the youngest Royal Marines in the country and was there in full "passing out" uniform (that doesn't mean he fainted...)

Sunday... Was a bad day! I turned my Xbox on to discover the worst possible thing imaginable... Blinking at me, as if mocking my very soul...

Three.
Red.
Flashing.
Lights...

I was looking at The Red Ring of Death.

Basically 3 flashing red lights around the power button means "critical hardware failure" or, in laymans terms "Naffed!"

I decided to phone the helpline... Then I realised that the service would be based in somewhere like Krapistan, so I decided to phone John... Who told me, after some comforting words, to phone Krapistan... But they'd be Swedish... (Crepe and a Pancake, anyone? Smoke and a Pipe?)

I phoned and sure enough, after waiting for a few minutes:

"Thenkyuh fuurr kyalling hex-boorx coostem'r supoort... Mya nyem iss Bjorn, hyew myay ey hyelp yhoor?"

And so began a lengthy process of spelling, using the phoenetic alphabet, my email, gamertag, and address. He diagnosed the problem ("it wasn't working" being the verdict!) and so I am at the start of a journey which will probably take a good few weeks to get my "hex-boorx" fixed... More on that in the blogs to come.

I went to the legion, depressed, had to endure the football... Which is depressing, and then came home to my ex-xbox... DEPRESSING!

Anyway I went down to my nans for tea as usual. After a while I came home and watched some TV before going to bed, as I had to be up particularly early the following morning...

... But that's for next weeks blog!

TTFN readers!

T3S all the way, baby!

2008-04-14T16:38:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a rather shortish blog... It's short because I haven't really been anywhere for the past week...

I will endevour to keep you entertained though, so lets begin...

Last Monday I went to work, but after a good first day back, thee vening was spent playing Call of Duty 4... Until 1:00am.

On Tuesday, I did the exact same thing, though Kieron wanted to take CoD4 to a new level and formed a Clan! We played until 1:30am!

Wednesday... Work passed as normal, and in the evening I went down to Fathers and we took a trip over to Solihull so that he could get an electric motor off a collegue who had one for him to fit to a forklift. After we got back I watched The Apprentice and came home to play a bit of... Yep' you guessed it... Call of Duty.

Thursday was a good day... In the evening I went with Mr. Thomas to the Packhorse. A good time was had by all but at about 11:00pm-ish, we had to call it a night.

Friday. I was looking forward to the weekend, and after work I was invited down to Selenas as she had bought MarioKart for the Wii. Now I have been a fan of the MarioKart series since I had it on my SNES many many years ago and I am pleased to report that the Wii version lives up to the hype... So much so that I now really want to go and buy a Wii... But unfortunately I don't have £200 to frivously spend on another games console so I will have to wait.

After unlocking several challenges, we had to leave as we were going for a curry in Kings Heath for my aunts' birthday! I drove myself and Selena to fathers, picked him up, and headed off. We arrived just as my cousins, aunt, and nan got there in a co-incidental accident of epic good timing.

After being seated, we got straight in to the business of ordering the food (one chicken balti for me!) and the drink. (though we had some bottles of our own, I fancied a bottle of Cobra) We ate and chatted until quite late but eventually left. After dropping Father home I went back to Selenas to find Kieron watching From Hell on DVD. I watched a bit before coming home to bed.

Ah, Saturday. I spent most of the day on Call of Duty... Actually, thats a lie... I spent ALL of the day on Call of Duty... Seriously, I haven't really got much else to report!

Sunday I spent at the Legion, and after 2 games of football being force-fed to me via the magic of Cable TV, I was ready to gauge out my eyes... Fortunately at that point it was time to leave, which I did. I then went down to nans for tea as usual. I stayed until 9:40pm, by which time I had watched as much golf as I could take and came home, had a game of Call of Duty, and went to bed!

And it is there I will leave you, dear readers, since that about wraps it up!

TTFN!

I'm Back.

2008-04-08T14:54:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to my holiday blog, just as I promised.

I appoligise for it being rather late, but since coming back on Friday, I haven't had time to sit down and type.

That has now changed and here I am, ready to blog...

I will begin a week and a half ago, at 5:00am Friday morning... Which is when Father arrived to pick me up to head off to Coventry airport. We arrived there for 5:45am-ish and were the first of our party to arrive. After about 20 minutes the others turned up and, after an argument with the woman on the desk about suitcases and how much they weighed, we checked in.

We went in to the departure cupboard (sorry, I mean "lounge") and waited 45 minutes before being called. No sooner were we through the gates and on the aeroplane, we took off on our 2 hour flight to Salzburgh airport.

We touched down at 10:15am local time and got our luggage. we then located the minibus and driver who would take us to Saalbach and set off for another hour and a half. After reaching Saalbach and dumping the luggage, the hardcore skiiers, myself included, got our gear on and went skiing!

We stayed local, and didn't stray out in to the neighbouring resorts, though that is quite possible to do. The areas are all connected by pistes and ski lifts so from Saalbach you can ski to Hinterglemm, Vorderglemm, and Leogang making the milage possible to cover, very high. In fact if you want to see the area just click here for an interactive map with pics and videos!

We kept it low-brow though and did a day skiing the Saalbach side. Afterwards we got in, got unpacked and relaxed. I began reading Richard Hammonds Autobiography; On the edge. It is a powerful book charting his childhood and up to his crash. His wife then takes over the writing in the period where his memory was damaged and they then share the writing from his reccovery up until he was able to fully go home. If you haven't read it, do so. It is very good.

Dinner was at 8:00pm and we went down ready for a feast. The food is always good in Austria and I ate all 5 courses with room to spare. (probably because I had been awake for 13 hours, had done 4 hours solid skiing, and hadn't eaten since breakfast!)

After dinner we sat in the bar for a while before going to bed... Actually this formula would become the norm'

wake > brekkie > ski > lunch > ski > relax > dinner > bar > bed > repeat.

Saturday! The first "proper" day! We got up to some seriously sunny weather and, after people who needed to hire equipment had done so, we got up the mountains...

... Now I'm going to take a moment to show you some pictures. Mr Thomas did a bit of showing off before he went on his round-the-world tour on his overgrown pedal boat, and I realise that the islands of the Carribean, or the bahamas, or wherever he went can easily outstrip any European destination, but I will have a go at "top trumping" him with some scenic photo's I took throughout the course of the week...

On the piste,looking at the valley floor (that light green bit in the middle) just to show you how high up we are (and I'm not even at the top!)

Looking across to the other side of the valley. The centre peak is "Hone Penhab" standing 2112 metres above sea level.

Some lovely scenery that I hope competes with some of lanks sunny, sandy, beachy, pics.

Traditional mountain lodgings. I took this as I though it might look a bit "postcardy." I reckon it would make a nice post card.

Anyway we had our first full day skiing, exploring Saalbach and hinterglemm. At lunch we stopped at a restaurant and had Goulash. Again, this would become the norm' since goulash is high in calories, but isn't a heavy meal. We skiied until 4:30pm and then came down.

After we got back to the hotel we had a quick drink before getting ready for dinner. I had time to read a chapter of my book before going for the evening meal though, and time again after for another chapter before going to bed.

Sunday. Just as before we got up to a sunny day and after a quick breakfast went skiing. We skiied over to Leogang via Vorderglemm along one of my favorite trails. I remember it from last year. It is possible for any skier to enter the trail at "full throttle" and emerge from the other end doing a fair lick of speed. From there the piste turns through a wide right hand bend, but if you cut it tighter you can cut that corner altogether and go about 200 yards off-piste, with a rather good jump at the end of it that lands you back on the run...

... Guess which one I went for?

... Yep! I only got about a foot-and-a-half in the air though, as I scrubbed off some speed in the deep powder to stop my skiis from bedding down and shooting me out of my bindings!

Anyway, lunchtime came and I decided that pizza was the choice of meal!

Afterwards we skiied on until an impressive 5:00pm. After drinks at the bar, I headed up to the room as I wanted to read more of my book before dinner. After the meal myself, dad, Andy, and Simon decided to check out Bobby's bar, as it is the only bar in the entire valley to sell a certain beverage...

WOOHOO! Yep, Guinness and it's a bloody-good pint, too! I remember my eyes lighting up as I saw the Guinness sign over the door the year before.

After drinksies, we headed back to the hotel for bed.

Monday. We ended up doing a sort of "Grand Tour of the valley" as we skied just about everywhere. We must have racked up some high milage, and at the end of the day the "laaads" (me, father, Andy, and new recruit Simon) decided to ski "Black 1" from the top of Saalbach mountain to the botom (thats 4km) non stop! That IS NOT an easy task but we managed it alright...

Oh, before I forget, during the course of the day, there was a disscusion about a particular run, and whether it was possible to get "air time" of a ridge that wasn't intended to be a jump. Naturally I had to give it a go...

There we go! question answered! A jump... a whopping 4 inches high!

We were extremely tired by the end of the day and I ended up going straight up to the room and falling asleep for an hour. At dinner I was, for some reason, still tired, but woke up when we were in the bar!

Tuesday... Tuesday we got up to an overcast day. The sky was a little dark, but we went skiing anyway.

We spent the day skiing around in the colder air and experienced some fresh snowfall. Always a sign that skiing the next day would be on good powder, unless it froze and we had a blizzard, in which case the following day would be hell.

We got on with it though and ended up having a good day skiing, made better by the fact that the sun emerged for an hour or two in the afternoon.

In the evening we went to Bobby's bar for a pint before Dinner, but it was dinner itself that proved interesting... Allow me to show you the menu...

No... Your eyes aren't decieving you. That does indeed say "kangaroo" as an entree course. Cool, huh!

Wednesday... We awoke to a blizzard. It was going to be hell..

We got up the mountain, but visibility had dropped to around 5 metres. After a while though, it dropped to around 3 metres and we were experiencing what is commonly refered to as a "white out" we battled the elements until after lunch, where it did clear up slightly, though not by much. We came down via an unusual route though weather this was intentional or not, I'm not sure.

We were glad of some dinner later on in the evening and popped back to Boby's bar for a guinness on the night time.

Thursday. The last day skiing. The weather wasn't to bad for us, though a bit cloudy, it didn't snow, and the sun had brief but regular appearances in the sky...

By the end of the day we were quite sad. We had a couple of commemorative photo's though I only have one of just the "Laaads"

From left to right: Me, Simon, Father, Andy.

We left to go back to the hotel knowing that we wouldn't have our skis on our feet for another year to come. At dinner that evening we had Ostrich steaks....

Friday... Coming home day. The taxi picked us up at 8:00am and we headed on out to salzburg airport. I bought some choccs and a T shirt saying "No kangaroos in Austria" as I thought it was ironically funny since there was a portion of one, cooked medium rare, on my dinner plate a few days earlier.

After the usual waiting we got onboard to find that myself and father had been allocated seats 1A and 1B right at the front... (seriously, I thought we'd be doing the flying!)

After a 2 hour flight we touched down at Coventry, got our stuff fairly quickly, said our goodbyes and headed our seperate ways... It was quite sad, really. Father dropped me home, where I unpacked and relaxed for a bit before going to see my nan.

Now I could blog right up until today, but I wont as I will leave this week intact ready for next weeks blog...

TTFN readers!

The Sony Ericsson K850i is BRILLIANT!

2008-03-26T16:23:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a late blog. And this week will mark a first for my blogging because not only am I going to blog what I HAVE been doing, I will attempt to blog what I WILL be doing 2 days in advance! (the reasons for which will become apparent.)

So. I begin with last Monday and the evening was spent in the Grevile with Adam, Marcus, Jo, Paul and Jenny. We had a good laugh and kept on laughing until home time, at about 11:30pm.

Tuesday, I found myself back over in Solihull, with John, at Adam and Marcuses house playing around on the ol' Xbox. Call of Duty 4 was the game, and It's one I have particular grievance with... I like the single player camaign very much (even if it is too short) but I never got on with the multiplayer. It was bland and I had my love of online gaming rooted in Halo 3... Never the less, I played on, hoping that my views would differ...

On Wednesday I went down to Fathers (No, actually Gemma, Ice Road truckers wasn't on! The series had finished! So there! yeah!.... Sorry... I got carried away for a moment...)

Thursday, and once again the Packhorse beckoned to me. Lank was/still is on his paddle boat somewhere adrift in the mid-atlantic enjoying himself, so he wasn't there. It was a good night (despite Mr Thomas' Phileas-Fogg-style antics) spent mostly on the games machine, answering questions about 14th Century Russia and the name of some prat form Hollyoakes!

Friday... Ah, the weekend was calling. In the evening I went down to Donnas house where they were having a bit of a party. There was food and drink and good conversation. I stayed until about 10:30pm before setting back off home.

Saturday was an interesting day. I got up and watched a few Dragonball Z episodes on the PC. nan and grandad arrived, along with Selena as usual so the wine came out. Now it is here I may need some help as i can't remember what I did in the Evening... Sorry.

Sunday. I spent the morning re-discovering Call of Duty 4! I put it in my xbox, and began playing. I was soon racking up the kills and ranks and had to admit that I had been far to harsh on the game the first time round...

Halo 3?

What's halo 3?

After lunch went to the legion. I came out of the legion a few hours later and headed down to my nans for tea!

Ah... Monday The first day of the holidays. I spent the day in the house, really, just messing about. Selena and Kieron came over for a while but left because they were going out. In the evening I found myself back over at Adams playing call of duty 4!

Tuesday. I got up and picked Donna up as we were heading in to Birmingham because I needed some new sunglasses and ski goggles and Donna needed a look round the shops and a memory-stick. We got to Birmingham (after a slight detour!) for late-morning and set about the BullRing. Donna had a mooch round before we went in to Currys and got her a 2Gb memory stich for £10.00. We then went and found Blacks. A sportsware shop up near House of frasier. I had a look at glasses and goggles before heading over to Snow and Rock to see what they had. Now usually they would be more expensive but they had a sale on and the prices were pretty decent. I eventually got what I needed and we left. I dropped Donna home and came home to play a bit of Call of Duty 4

Tuesday evening was pretty much the same deal as Monday, except that John had an ace up his sleeve. He had access to one of only 5000 passwords that allowed him to join the Battlefield: Bad Company Multiplayer Beta. He brought his hard Drive so we fired it up, and waited as the loading screen popped in to view...

... 20 minutes later we guessed that something was wrong, as we were still watching the loading screen! Wedecided to throw Call of duty back on for a bit before trying again...

... And got the same result! So no Battlefield: Bad Company Beta was played... Sorry.

Now today has been an interesting day... I got up and realised that, stupidly, I had left my phone at Adams from the night before so I went over to find Marcus at home. I got my phone and was going to come home when he suggested that we have a pint in the Greville. I agreed and off we went. After about 10 minutes Jackie (who I knew from college, and who I haven't seen since a random meeting in Tesco's about 2 years ago) walked in with 2 friends! We sat chatting and during the course of the conversation she mentioned that she still sees people from college and that Lesley (who is a great laugh, and whom I became good friends with) now works in Dorridge. I decided that since I hadn't seen her since graduation 4 years ago, it would be a surprise if I paid her a visit. After my pint (and lunch, because I was starving hungry) I set off to find Lesley. I found her! and we stood chatting about everyone and everything that has happened in the 4 years since we last met. After a good hour I came home and started blogging.

Now here is where is get diferent. You see I'm on Holiday from Friday for a week and so will attempt to blog up until this Friday so that when I blog next week I am up to date and can just tell you about skiing, complete with Photos and possibly video...

... Right. Here goes.

Tommorow will be a lazy day, exept for when I swap my currency to euro's and then pack for Austria. In the evening I will be down at the packhorse, enjoying myself (seriously, It feels weird to be blogging what hasn't happened yet!)

On the friday I will be rushing round sorting things out and making sure I have got everything before setting off for the Airport.

... Right! Done!

I will leave you there readers....

TTFN!

The Sony Ericsson K850i is RUBBISH!

2008-03-18T17:42:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a short blog. I say "short" because due to reasons I can't go in to, I'm not allowed to blog work anymore.

Monday evening came upon me and I went over to Adams (I think... Ooh heck, here we go again) and played a bit of the old Xbox.

Tuesday evening I think I went out... Possibly.

Wednesday evening was spent at fathers. I would have gone to the pub with Donna but she stayed in.

Thursday evening was spent in the packhorse. Lank wasn't there because he was on holiday.

Friday evening was spent in Birmingham with Donna and her mum and dad. Her Birthday was on the following day so they had decided to go for a meal at Wongs in Birmingham and invite me along... Which was nice!

The food was excellent and after the two courses they brought Donna cake out! Photos are below...

Cake, complete with Blue VW Beetle

Ms Pickard cutting her cake!

We left and I was dropped home for about 10:15pm. I came in and watched a bit of DragonBall Z before going to bed.

Ah Saturday. I got up and and went to Solihull to get Donnas Birthday presents. I got her some choccs and a desk ornament. When I came home I sat and watched some DragonBall Z before getting ready to go out to Solihull (again) for Donnas Birthday drinkage! Me and Benji got to Donnas and we got a lift in to Solihull with her mum (bless her cottons...)

We arrived in Wetherspoons and waited for everyone to arrive before setting off to Reflex for some Birthday dancing! We bopped away until the early hours before deciding we had better go home. I left with Donna and headed for the taxi queue. Whilst standing there a rather inhebriated girl and her friend staggered up behind us. One of them (thankfully the more attractive one!) decided I looked like the perfect way to hold herself up so she sort of just clung on to me, before turning round and saying, in a rather loud voice:

"DON'T TRY AND FEEL ME UP!"

I said "I didn't! You grabbed ME!!!!" In an equally loud tone. She hung on to me to stay upright and used her scarf, hooked round my head, for balance but that plan only lasted until the taxi arrived. She sort of said "*hic* nice to meet you, kissed me, and let go... Which is where I expected her to fall over but, fair play, she managed to stay standing with only a minor wobble! Me and Donna got in for about 2:45am and I immediately went to bed.

... Sorry. I should explain that properly, just to avoid any rumours. Donna got dropped off at her house, and then I got dropped off at my house for 2:45am, where I went to bed!

Anyway, Sunday I got up, had tea, went to the Legion where time seemed to come to a stand still and then what felt like 3 decades later i came home before going to my nans for tea as usual...

Right. I'll leave it there.

TTFN

My Squiggly Black hangover

2008-03-10T17:54:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to my birthday blog. Indeed my birthday was on Saturday, and so begins a new era.

I might just do a quick run down of the weeks events so that I can get to the party...

Monday: Work went quickly and in the evening Adam and John came over to my house for the evening.

Tuesday: Work was great, and the evening was better! Me, Jason and Gemma went to see Korn in Wolverhampton! We arrived early and had a bite to eat in subway and a drink in the Little Civic before going in to the big Civic to watch the warm-up acts before Korn came on! The gig was awsome and part-way through Jo and her sister, michelle turned up. I knew they were going to be there, but they were delayed due to train errors. I have some rather good photo's of Johnathan Davis... Bless his cotton socks... Here we go with the photos...

One of the whole stage. Jonathan is the little black triangle with legs. It's the kilt, you see...

A close up of JD and the infamous microphone that appeared in most of the later videos.

And ol' JD playing the bagpipes! I was hoping he would play them, and I nearly missed it because I was in the loo when he started!

After a good two hour set they encored with....

...NO! not freak on a leash, they played that half way through! They encored with one of the newer ones and afterwards we left and Gemma bought me a Korn Tshirt as an early birthday present (bless her cotton socks!)

We decided to catch a tram back to Brum and we had 10 minutes wait before the last one of the night left...

...Or so we thought! You see the info' displayed on the electronic board was the old timetable, which finished the day before. The new timetable was very different and we had in fact missed the final tram to birmingham. The one tram that did arrive was only going back to the depot as Wenesbury! The driver told us about the old/new timetable changeover so we shouted at him for being employed by wankers....

Anyway, we eventually got a taxi from Wolverhampton to Wythall. It was going to cost £60 but Jason, looking mean and gothy, managed to "haggle" (and by "haggle" I mean "threaten") a taxi driver to do it for £35. So we got in at roughly 2:00am and I went to bed.

Wednesday: Work was rather good and in the evening I went down to Fathers to watch Torchwood and Ice Road Truckers.

Thursday: Work went well and in the evening I went down to the Packhorse. Lank arrived late due to being at a works shindig but it was a good night.

Friday: Work went quickly and in the evening I went with some of the TA's to a quiz on at the Coppice primary school. We took our own drinks and had a really good time. We wee leading at one stage but dropped to 7th place by the end because of a disasterous music round where 30 points were available (10 questions: one point each for artist, title, and year!) we left in good spirits though and I came home to play about on t'internet before going to bed.

Ok, Saturday... My Birthday. I was up early because we were having new carpet fitted. I moved the furniture outside and covered it with large plastic sheets. The guy turned up at 11:00am and got started. After he had laid the new stuff (mmm.... soft) I started getting furniture back in, the TV back in, and the PC back together. This took me until about 2:00pm. I then decided to go to Kings heath with Selena as I could upgrade my phone! I love my K800 but the K850 was beckoning to me... I went in to 02 and started chatting with the sales girl (mainly because they pounce on you like vultures) but she was very nice and allowed me to have a free k850, a half price 4Gb memory card, and a free bolt-on, so now I have free 02 to 02 calls... Thats just about all of my family and a couple of my friends! suits me! I came home to discover that the phone is very cool, but is sold under some rather dubious advertising... Allow me to explain. Please consider the following image:

Now you would think, wouldn't you, that the sides of the phone light up? I would think that because it has been highlited in this photo to be the same colour as the navigation key light...

WELL IT DOESN'T! it's just a bit of plastic that adds a dab of colour to the handset but does, in no way, light up. Now this wouldn't be a major selling point for me and it's not like I'm going to hate the phone just because the sides aren't illuminated. What does annoy me is the rather lax attitude to advertising on Sony Ericssons behalf. There is, however, a feature available on the '800 that they have removed from the '850 that I think was a good idea... They have removed the file manager.

Now I used to love that system because you could add folders to your memory and organise photos and music as you wanted them. This has now been scrapped and music is only available through the media player which is sometimes a pain because other than going in to the main "tracks" tab you cant search for a track on the keypad, you have to manually scroll through them... I have over 300 tracks of music on my phone! Do you realise how long it takes me to scroll through them? I have countered the problem by making playlists but it isn't the same as the good old file manager. I would prefer it if I could somehow load K800 software onto the K850 and keep the look of the media player but have it operate in the same way as the K800, and bring back the file manager... Sony Ericsson, you have been told!

Anyway, other than that it works great and the 5Mp camera is excellent.

After all that me, mum, selena, and Kieron went to the Packhorse for a bite to eat. We only stayed an hour as I needed to get back to be changed for when Lank, Jason, and Gemma arrived to jump in the taxi I had ordered. It came and we left at about 8:00pm. We got in to Solihull and dived in to Wetherspoons. People started to arrive and by 9:30pm I had a full contingent of followers. Dad turned up for a quick bevvy' before going home and we went in to Reflex. A call-out for my birthday was made by the DJ (who kept making references to me throughout the evening)

I took some photo's but Marcus has a lot more. Mine are as follows.

Lank, trying to clean Jennys' ears with his tongue, as Jenny strangles him and Jo. (I like Jo, she should come out more often.)

marcus having a good time but Bobby looks like he isn't fully warmed up yet...

Ah! there we are! Throw Adam in to the mix and things get frisky! Bobby loks happy now!

lank, trying to stretch Gemmas arms out (and succeeding, by the looks of it!)

hee-hee! Well after a time people started making a move and at 2:20am the last of us rolled out (except for Adam who stayed because he found his friend Becky, but thats another story.)

Me and lank caught a taxi from the highstreet and we were home for 3:00am. I went to bed because I needed to be awake fairly early...Sunday morning and I had to shrug off my squiggly black hangover. I was going clay shooting with father. We used to go quite regularly but haven't been in over 12 months. We headed off to Long marston at about 10:00am. We got there for 10:40am-ish and were shooting for 11:00am. We had 50 clays each. I could talk about cross-pairs, rising birds, low skeet and pairs on report, but I wont because it's not very interesting, and just refers to different clays. I hit roughly 30-or-so with about 5 more "wounds" (clays that break, but doesn't get hit with a direct shot)

After an hour or so we left. I came home and lounged in front of the PC for a few hours before being picked up by Donna who was coming with me to my dads house for tea, along with my nan, aunt and selena. He cooked spag-bol and put a few songs on the jukebox (I swear, he is trying to marry me off to Donna) which was nice and we all had a round of laughs before coming home for about 10:20pm.

Right. Thats about it readers. I have to cut it short there as Dan has come round and we are going for a curry at Millenium at the Maypole.

TTFN readers.

There's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake...

2008-03-03T17:47:00.000Z

hello readers! Welcome once again to a spankingly good update from yours truly...

Lets crack on with Monday.

I went to work in the regular fashion and spent the day running around... Which was good because time seemed to fly by and I was out of the door before I knew it. In the evening I went with John over to Adam and Marcus' house where we watched some TV and played a bit of Xbox.

Tuesday, and work was the same. I got out for about 4:45pm and came home to watch some TV before going back out to Adams with John who had brought his Ricky Gervais DVD with him. The newest DVD: FAME is hilarious and I now want to watch "Politics" and "Animals" because I have never seen them. We called it a night at about 11:30pm and so we left.

Wednesday at work was a good day but I didn't leave until nearly 5:00pm due to a bit of training (every Wednesday we get talked to about how to do our jobs better!)

In the evening I went down to Fathers as usual. he had the football on so I witnessed "that" goal made by the GoalKeeper.

Thursday at work, time seemed to slow down from it's 3 day rush. I got out at 4:30 though and came home to play my Xbox for a bit. Lank picked me up at 8:00pm to take a trip down to the Packhorse as usual. It was a good evening filled with merryment, laughter, and song...

... Well, OK, not that much song.

We unofficially set up my Birthday arrangements (Which is on Saturday!) with the plan being to hit Solihull in the evening and have a bit of a crawl around the bars (In fact everyone is welcome to come along if they want to! Saturday 8th March, Solihull, 8:00pm-ish, meet in Weatherspoons!)

Friday. Last day of the week...

... It dragged.

I left at what felt like silly-o-clock, even though it was actually 3:30pm. I came home to relax and then went, with John, over to Marcus in Solihull. Now Mr Turbitt was not there, as he was going to London early the next morning and was his parents house for the night.

John had bought "The Orange Box" with him for the Xbox. Now for those of you who don't know, The Orange Box is the collective name for 5 games that come in one package, namely Half Life, Half Life 2.1, Half Life 2.2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Now of these games there wa sonly one that captured my imagination to the point where I would buy the 5 games just to play the one: Portal. It's difficult, frustrating, time consuming, but most of all, it's BRILLIANT! No enemies, no complicated back-story, no frantic button pushing, just pure awsomness. Allow me to explain:

You play a person contained within a building made up of various rooms with each room connected by a lift. You are being tested on your logic-solving ability and must work out how to open the door, or sometimes simply traverse, each level. To help you do this you are equiped with a clever bit of kit. Namely a Portal gun. You can fire at a point on the wall to open an entrance portal, and fire again at a different spot to open an exit portal. Now this sounds like there is no challenge, since you can effectively go anywhere, but believe me it is! To give you an idea of how compicated it gets, let me tell you that the game is made up of only 19 rooms (plus a few after you complete the testing stages and find yourself roaming the "secret" rooms, and then a boss) and the only reward you are promised on completion of the game is some cake!

Anyway...

We got so far but time was against us so we left at a reasonable 12:30am.

Saturday. I got up early as me, mum, Selena, nan, and Grandad were going in to Birmingham so we could get mum a mothers day present, and mum could get nan a mothers day present. I picked Selena up and she handed me some CD's with the first 80 episodes of Dragonball Z on that Kieron had ripped for me. I then set off to Northfield to get my nan and Grandad, before setting off for Birmingham. We spent a good few hours wandering around various shops. Whilst in HMV I bought Run Fatboy Run on DVD. For those of you who haven't seen it, SEE IT! It is extremelly funny without being overly complicated. Anyone who finds Simon Pegg funny should definitley watch it.

In the evening I went with John back over to Solihull (seriously, it's like my second home!) to play some more Portal. Before this though we ordered in a chinese. I had cantonese style chicken and enjoyed every bit of it! Afterwards we watched a bit of TV and at 10:30pm Adam came back from his trip to London. We started playing Portal and got to the 14th room with little problem. It then turned up the complexity and we were soon arguing over the best way to complete each level. It was at this point that we all wanted to know (with the exception of John, since he had already completed it) what the end of the game was like. Level 16 came and went with about 20 minutes of thinking and 10 minutes of playing... 17 was tough, but we cracked it. 18... Very tricky. 19 was near impossible but I got through it after a few tries. We then had to run the "secret area" (i.e. the area of the building where your character "isn't supposed to go")

This took ages, and we were all very tired, but wanted to try to beat the game, so we pressed on. We eventually did it, but John had to beat the end boss because it requires accuracy and timing... The two things I haven't got a lot of!

To cut a long story short, we ended up leaving at about 2:30am!

I awoke on Sunday at about 11:00am. Nan and Grandad came up to the house, watched us eat dinner, and then it was time to do my usual stint at the legion. I went in for 2:30pm as usual to find the club quite devoid of any custom. There were about 5 people in the club. Rather fortunately it started to pick up until we were nicely busy! I left at 7:00pm and watched a couple of DBZ episodes before going to my nans for tea as usual.

Ok. Thats where I will leave you. I have to tidy the living room as Adam and John are coming to my house for a change, and the living room currently resembles a film set from Independance Day.

TTFN readers.

... And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun for the people who are still alive!

Preserve Reflect on Famous River

2008-02-25T23:21:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to another installment

Let me start out by saying that this blog may become a little hurried and disjointed as I progress. This is for 3 reasons...

1. I can't remember what I did at the start of last week.
2. I fancy trying a slightly different format and writing style, and
3. It's late, I'm tired, and want to go to bed.

I will begin by telling you that after a week off work, Monday Morning felt like Beelzebub had risen from the depths of hell and ripped my eylids open with a red-hot pitchfork. I dragged myself to work, which I don't really remember, and then sort of dragged myself back home at 4:00pm. Now point number 1 above means that I will skip to Tuesday. (I think I went over to Adams, like usual on Monday.)

Getting up for work was slightly easier and I went in feeling quite good. At 4:30pm I made my usual getaway and in the evening... No! Wait! I've remembered what I did Monday! I did go over to Adams, and he lent me Fable for the xbox!... Sorry. I'll get back on track... In the evening I went back over to Adams (I think)

Wednesday, work was work, but alas, hometime was not hometime. I walked out of work to discover I had a flat tyre AND my car wouldn't start. Anne thankfully dropped me to the garage (because I thought I had just run my car out of petrol.) Well the extra fuel helped when I swung the engine over... I got it started, just and inflated my tyre. Anne followed me home (bless her cotton socks!) and I rumbled home knowing that something was definitely wrong with the engine...

In the evening I tried to go down to fathers, only to find that my car wasn't running properly! (yes, again!) It turns out that one of my sparkplugs wasn't firing and so my engine was running on 3 cylinders... And I had petrol backed up that had soaked the plugs and caused god-knows-what damage. Father came up to sort the problem and we got my car healthy again! I went down to his house as he was having problems with his computer, so I fixed it.

Ok, Thursday... I went down to the Packhorse as usual (though Lank didn't come out, as he had something on) where kate had a quiz for us! It gave a list of cryptic clues that related to band/singer names. If you would like to try it, go here (click the "click here" link in the larger grey box in the new page.) The title of my blog is one such clue! *

We spent a while pondering all 7 billion of them (Ok, that may be a slight exageration, but there were a lot!) before coming home with Jason and Gemma.

Friday and work flew by! The first week, Gone! woohoo! I, along with all the other staff, shot out of school at 3:30pm! In the evening I went with Donna to see a friend of mine play with his band in The Jug of Ale in Mosely. Matt, who is a fellow TA, and in my sisters year at Woodrush, and his band, The Rock Dogs, were headlining an evening of music so we popped along. Donna had never been to The Jug' before, and I knew how she liked a good "rock pub" I picked her up at about 8:00pm and we got to the pub for about 8:45pm. They played a really good set and I would suggest if you ever see them advertised, GO AND SEE THEM. They play some excellent songs, and do a mean cover or two.

After we had watched them, and well after the bar had stopped serving, me and Donna left and I dropped her back home. I then went straight home to bed.

Saturday was spent at home playing Fable with Selena and Nan, and granddad coming to visit asd usual. In the evening I went over to Solihull where we watched a bit of telly before going for a drink.

Ok, Sunday... And i'm getting tired sat here now... so this will be a quick round-off... I went to the Legion, came home, went to nans, and then back to the legion because one of the sixthformers has started work there and I wanted to wind her up! hee hee!

Ok... sorry I need my bed...

TTFN!

* Preserve reflect on famous river...

Preserve = Jam
Reflect = mirror
River = River Kwai

Jam-mirror-kwai...

... Jamiroquai !!!

Plateonic Terraforming

2008-02-17T11:24:00.001Z

Hello readers and welcome to another blog.

I begin, for a change, with last Tuesday (Since I blogged the Monday in my last post... You know, it was the day of utter catastrophe with my car.)

Ok, so Tuesday I got up and did vitually nothing all day exept play some Guitar Hero and some Blazing Angels. In the evening I went over to Adam and Marcus' house for more xbox related procrastination.

Wednesday... I pretty much did nothing except when nan and grandad arrived. I decided to wash up (seriously, it's come to this; blogging about "washing up" for christs sake! thats how unactive I become in the holidays.) and put all the crockery away before settling back down to watch some TV. I then went and did a few hours at the Legion, because they were under-staffed. In the evening I went down to fathers as usual. I watched Torchwood and then we stuck a Laurel and Hardy DVD on.

On Thursday the morning was spent on the internet trying to beat this damn quiz!
The evening was spent, as usual, in the Packhorse. There weren't to many of us this week, we were quite a small and select group. The only major difference was the heat... Or lack of it! The heating had broken so the place was freezing cold. As a result, it was fairly quiet in there. We had had enough by about 10:30pm though and everyone left. I came home and turned the TV on.

I sat watching Dave Gormans Googlewhack Adventure. It recounts his journey that started life as a drunken bet. Now for those of you who don't know what a Googlewhack is, let me explain:

It is simply two random (but real) english words that, when typed in to Google, without quotations, returns just ONE webpage. an example of this would be: Lipped Rejectivist The blue bar above Google's search results confirms the validity of this Googlewhack in two ways. 1) it says "returned 1-1 of 1 results", and 2) both words appear blue and underlined in the blue bar, meaning they can be linked to Google's all-encompassing dictionary. This is what must happen for a "true" Googlewhack.

I decided that I would make my blog a Googlewhack in itself. But that posed a problem... I first needed two English words that, when typed in to Google, returned NO results, and therefore would allow me to create a new Googlewhack...

... It took me the best part of 4 hours!

I sat typing all sorts of words in to Google to find an "open slot" as it were (incidentally, this process of elimination is called "whacking-off"!!! thanks wikipedia!) I was ready to give up when I found it! Two words that have never been combined on any web-page ever created... You already know what they are. Or at least you should do if you read the title...

plateonic terraforming

There we go! A brand-spanking-new Googlewhack has been born! (I just hope Google picks it up!) Ok, so enough of this tomfoolery...

Friday. Again, it was a bit of a nothing day. In the evening I went over to Adams and Marcus' but Marcus was out with Jenny at a show at the MAC. I sat watching Adam play Mass Effect whilst playing with his hamsters (no, it's not a metaphore...) Marcus and Jenny arrived a while later and we got down to the nitty-gritty of some Guitar Hero. After playing 'til our fingers bled we called it a night.

saturday morning I got up and played on t'internet for a bit until nan and granddad arrived with their new car! they had a Skoda Octavia estate but swapped it for a hatchback. Its quite nice inside (all jam and sponge! ha ha!.... no? oh, Ok then.) Selena turned up as usual and after nanny and granddad had gone we decided to take a trip to Shed-city in Shirley (I.e Argos, Comet etc.)

Selena needed a telephone because they now have a land-line in the flat, and I went along because I needed a foot-pump (since I now have a slow puncture in one of my tyres!) along with some new dustcaps and a wiperblade.

We did Argos first where Selena picked up her phone. We then went to Halfords and after some time I found the correct blade, cheap pump, and dust caps. We then went home and Selena shot back to the flat but said I was welcome to go round. I inflated my tyre, had a bite to eat and went over. We ended up playing Mario & Sonic at The Olympics on the Wii which I bought her for christmas, but had yet to have a go on it. The game in insanely difficult and I cannot see how children cope with it. After pulling every muscle in my arms, and sending my heart rate to never-before-seen limits I decided to stop incase I died!

Kieron told me that there is to be a Dragonball Z game coming to the Xbox 360 (AT LAST!) so we youtubed the trailer. As a life-long fan of Dragonball Z I watched with anticipation! We then put a few episodes on (since Kieron has them all on his PC) and relaxed until about 12:30am when we decided to call it a night.

This morning I got up and waited for dinner whilst I stared this blog...

... Which I have now finished!

TTFN readers.

Ah, solitude...

2008-02-11T13:36:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome once again to another thrilling episode of my blog.

Lets begin, shall we?

Monday morning was the begining of the last week of the half term. It went really quickly as well which was a bonus so at 4:30 I left and went home. In the evening I went over to pick Jo up to see Cloverfield. We met Adam in the Masons and after a quick drink we went across to the cinema.

Now for those of you who haven't seen Cloverfield, let me tell you this: It leaves you with more questions than answers. So if you have been wondering what all the fuss was and want to see it just to find out what it all is, then prepare yourselves for dissapointment. Those of you who want to see it because it's a kick-ass monster movie, go and see it, it's brilliant!

After the film, I dropped Jo home and went home to bed.

Tuesday at work was spent trying to sort the stock out for the year 11 mock exams which start soon. I got a fair bit of work done and at 4:30 left as usual. In the evening I went over to Adams and Marcus' for an Xbox fix.

Wednesday at work was a bit different. I was sat in on 2 SATS tests (I love being able to juggle with the future of smaller people... MUAHAHAHAHA!... Hmm... Maybe saying that in interviews is where I've been going wrong... Just a thought!)

Anyway it broke the day up and at 4:30 I left. In the evening I went down to fathers as usual for a bit of telly. I also fixed a slight issue with his PC and then left to meet Donna in the Swan for the last hour...

... That reminds me. I've got to phone her... I'll do it now, hang on!

... No answer, I've left a message!

After the drinks, I went home to play a bit of Call of Duty 4 before going to bed.

Thursday at work was interesting. I realised that I had sold myself short on oil pastels in the art department! I put them on a requesition form and put it in the appropriate draw... We will have them on the Monday we get back.

In the evening I went with Lank to the Packhorse as usual. Most of the evening was spent playing the games machine. We won about a fiver after putting about £15 in (between about 6 of us.) Jason and Gemma were out in force again which was nice, I hope they make it a regular thing. We left at about 12:00-ish and I came home to play a bit of Call of Duty before bed.

Ah, Friday. No kiddies in school because they had finished. It was a Teacher Training Day so everyone was in normal clothes. After the powerpoint presentations and the food, we split in to our respective departments to do some departmenty-type-stuff. I was away for 3:00pm... Magic!

In the evening I went over to Adams and Marcus' because Carl was back for the weekend! The plan was to go for a curry but people had already eaten. We watched a bit of telly and played a bit of Guitar Hero 3 before we called it a night at 12:30am.

Ah, Saturday (this is where it gets interesting) The plan was to take my car down to the garage to have my aloy put back on from when I had my blow out. I took it down to Kings Heath and the guy sorted me a new tyre. He was in the middle of taking off my spare when *CRUNCH* "Oh bollocks, mate. D'y'know y' springs gone?"

"... Pardon me? what? No?... What?"

Basically, there must have been a crack in my near-side front spring, and it has shattered when the goon was taking off my wheel. It was driveable (just) but it meant that he couldn't put my alloy back on (because it was a bigger radial than the spare and it would have caught the edge of the broken spring) so he ordered me a new shock absorber and told me to come back Monday (i.e. today) I went home and sat playing Blazing Angels, just because I haven't played it in a while. In the evening the plan was to go for a curry, but because of my car, Carl kindly picked me up. Carl, myself, Adam, Jenny, and Marcus went to Cafe Saffron in Knowle. I had never been before but it is a really nice place. Check it out. After the feast we came back to solihull to watch Blade Runner on DVD. Carl had gotten the new boxed set "final directors super duper cut" of the film for christmas so we put it on. Afterwards he dropped me home.

Sunday. I had dinner at 1:00pm and then went to the legion for my weekly stint. It was quite quiet and not a lot happened. I was out for 7:00pm. I then got a lift down to my nans for tea as usual, and Selena dropped me back home at about 10:30pm

Ok. Today... Monday... I got up to take my car down to the garage for the new shock it required. However. Before i could do that, I had to de-ice my car. So I turned the engine on and put the heaters to maximum, then got out of my car with my scrapper. Big Mistake! A gust of wind blew my door shut... Now obviously this isn't a problem since the car needs to be locked with the key and doesn't just lock itself automatically... That would be silly...

"zzzt-click!"

??????????

"WHAT-THE!?"

Somehow, due to either the cold, or god not liking me, the central locking system decided it was getting bored and so decided to play all by its self. Yup! The engine was on, the doors were shut, and the car had locked itself!

It took me a good few minutes to realise that I had a spare key hanging in the kitchen, AND that there is the spare key to the front door! PHEW! Crisis averted... yes?

... Well no, actually. Keep reading...

I set off for the garage and got there in good time. I told the bloke on the desk what I was here for...

"yuh-what? Spring? Mondeo? You Sure?" was the response I got. He looked in the book for my name and when he found it, he put a big cross through it!

He then told me that whoever had ordered me a new spring was, and I quote "A right dozey tw*t" because they dont have a spring compressor to fit it with! He suggested I try Addison road garage. I popped round the corner and they told me they could do the job £20 cheaper and I am to go back tomorrow... So I left fairly happy (ok, I have to wait another day but it saves me £20) and decided to go home. I was on the bypass when there was a scraping noise, a mild crunch, and then my car had a heart-attack and died!

Problem 1: The broken spring was rubbing the tyre. Problem 2: Somehow, the jolt my car had suffered from the friction on the tyre had caused the ECU to think I was having a crash and had tripped the emergency fuel switch. I just, and I mean *JUST* managed to coast it half way on to a lay-by on the A435. I had to push it a few feet to make sure no-one was going to smash in to the back of me and then I phoned the RAC.

The RAC van arrived and the guy got under my car to throw the fuel switch back over. So I now had power but the spring was still to close to the tyre to drive so he decided to tow me at slow speed back home. He did and I thanked him...

... I came in and started blogging...

... Now I'm going to hide in a ditch somewhere. hang on, Donna is phoning me back...

... Sorry. Yes, I'm off to hide in a ditch somewhere incase anything else goes wrong today!

TTFN readers!

Well you never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine...

2008-02-04T23:46:00.000Z

Well hello readers. Welcome to this weeks update (It’s actually the second time I have written this because Internet explorer crashed while I was publishing the first draft and it lost it!). Now last time I told you about a “new link” on my page which was the “mini city” link. (I hope you all regularly visit it!) But since then I have another new link. This one is for my Xbox 360s’ blog…

… Yes. You read that correctly. My Xbox 360 writes its own blog, without any interaction from myself! If you don’t believe me, just click the link over on the right, or if you prefer, clicky here.

Ok, on with the blog.

Monday morning came along and I went to work. It seemed to fly by, and at 4:30pm I was out the door.

In the evening I went to see Sweeney Todd at Cineworld in Solihull. I picked Jo up for 8:30pm and we waited in the Masons for Adam who arrived a little while later. We finished our drinks and went over to Touchwood.

The film is really good. If you are thinking of going to see it, don’t let the fact that it is a musical put you off. In fact I think that it works better as a musical than it would if it was a regular film.

Afterwards I dropped Jo home and came home myself.

Tuesday. Work went fairly quickly, due to my day being busy. Not hectic, just nicely busy. In the evening I took my guitar over to Adams and Marcus’. Marcus showed me how to play a 12-bar blues and we sat having a jam session playing Hound Dog. This means my song repertoire now consists of TWO FULL SONGS! Woohoo! I left after my fingers started to sting, at about 11:30pm

Wednesday. Work went well and at 4:30pm I was out the door. I decided to have my hair cut but I fancied a change. Instead of having a short-back-and-sides #3 and #4, I told him to “just buzz it with a #2” so he did. In the evening I went down to fathers as usual. We watched “Ice Road Truckers” on the TV followed by some Laurel and Hardy. We put on one of my favourites; “County Hospital” I have found a short clip of it for you on youtube… Enjoy!

Ah. Comedy in its purest form. Afterwards I came home to bed.

Thursday at work I managed to get quite a bit done. In the evening it was “business as usual” in The Packhorse. As a bonus my quiz was partaken in! (You may remember last week I took it but no-one wanted to play.) If you would like to play my quiz (well, the quiz I found and printed out) online you can do so here. (click the little link in the larger grey box to open it.)

After the booze had been drunk and the jokes told, it was time to leave at a rather respectable 11:30pm.

Friday. My nans birthday! Work seemed to drag a bit but it was Ok. At 3:30pm everyone made a run for it. I grabbed my nans card from home and shot down to see her…

… She was out. D’oh! No matter, I would call back in an hour. So off home I went. I popped back an hour-or-so later to find my nan in and my mum was there as well. I stayed for a bit but had to get home because I was off out! You see many of the staff at Woodrush were going to The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath for a bit of a party! Me, Anne, and carol got a lift down to the pub where we met up with some other people. After standing at the bar for a good 20 minutes, we were served and made our way upstairs to the room we had hired. About an hour in, the food was unveiled, and the disco started. It didn’t take long for everyone to be up, busting some moves, strutting their stuff, and twisting some shapes on the dance floor!

Sadly their are no photos. I can imagine teachers don't want to be posted on a website that some of the kiddies access... Rightly so, too.

It stayed that way until midnight, when people started to leave. At 12:30am we decided to call it a night and ordered our chariot to take us back to Wythall. I immediately went to bed as soon as I got in.

I awoke Saturday and did nothing… Seriously. Selena arrived along with nan and granddad but after they had gone I didn’t do anything. In fact the entire day can be summed up thusly: Food, TV, Xbox, Guitar, Food, Xbox, TV, Food, Bed. The final “TV” slot was actually spent watching “Die Hard 4.0” since I hadn’t seen it I decided to order it on pay-per-view… Or “TV on demand” as Virgin Media call it. I then went to bed.

Sunday… Now Sunday was spent eating Sunday lunch, and working at the Legion. Actually the Legion was fairly quiet and so we took it easy. No fuss. No stress…

… Until the moment came when I had to tell the people in the club that we didn’t have the Villa/Fulham game on. It wasn’t that the cable TV was faulty, we just didn’t have the channel it was being shown on. (I will point out to you all now that we have some sort of Greek/Turkish cable package at the Legion… Don’t ask…) Well did they believe me? Did they heck!

I had people demanding to have the remote controls, people shouting, people fiddling with the set-top box, people swearing, more people shouting… Just because they didn’t believe the match wasn’t being shown…

… Dopey wankers.

Anyway, at 7:00pm I dropped my collegue home, and came home myself for an hour before going to my nans for tea. I came back at about 10:00pm and sat watching South Park. I don't get to see it very often but it was the World of Warcraft episode which in my opinion is one of the funniest episodes around...

Oh, what the hell! I'll share some of it with you...

After I had stopped laughing I went to bed...

… And that’s where this blog ends… Now lets see if blogger will let me publish it this time!

TTFN readers.

... On a horse with no name!

2008-01-27T23:39:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks update.

Now before I dive in to the weeks events, allow me to explain to you the newest link on the right-hand-side of this page. It is the link called "Please help my city grow." I have been meaning to tell you about it for a while and, while I have no doubt that some of you have clicked it, I'd like to explain what it is you are contributing to. The link points to my mini-city and every time someone clicks the link, I get one more person living in the city or a boost to the cities commerce...

... It is worth mentioning that this is completely pointless. No one wins, no one loses, there are no cash prizes...

... I just like watching it grow! There is a restriction though. The link will work for one person, per computer, per day (so you can’t just sit there clicking like a madman) So I ask you: every time you log on to the 'net make sure you visit my blog and click the link. There is no need to do anything else!

Right. On with the blog...

Ok, Monday. Work went quickly and I was out the door for 4:30. In the evening I went with Donna to the Harvester for a drink.

Tuesday was a good day. The T.A's from school... (That's "teaching assistants" not "territorial army") went to the Crescent Theatre to see "James and the Giant Peach" because Craig Hall, who teaches drama at Woodrush was in it!

I drove and picked up Anne and Carole, plus her son, and set off towards Birmingham with only a shadow of an idea as to where the theatre actually was! (I knew it was "Brindley-Place-ish") On the way there my phone rang. It was John, but I couldn't answer because I was driving, so I gave the phone to Anne and told her to answer it...

... Now Anne has a devilish sense of humour and when she answered, she did so in the worlds most sultry voice imaginable! She then told John that she didn't want to disturb me from "doing what I was doing to her, because she enjoyed it so much" and that I wouldn't be finished with her for at least an hour!!! By this point I was trying not to laugh (and not to crash!) When she hung up (which she did by saying "ooh, don't stop" as she took the phone away from her ear) everyone burst out laughing, and I got a weird look from a woman who was along side me by the traffic lights.

... Well, we got to the theatre and met up with the rest of the T.A's. We got the tickets (which had been reserved in the name of "Craigs' Bitches".... Thanks Craig!) and went in to the auditorium.

The cast comprised of 6 actors/actresses playing various parts and the whole production lasted no longer than an hour and a half…

The story was expertly done and they made clever use of performers. I would recommend you go and see it, but it is not showing anymore.

Anyway. After the show we had the unique opportunity to take a back stage tour! We met the cast and had a look round at how the stage is set up. Anne took a photo of us looking through the door of the “Peach Seed House”

Enjoy!

From left to right: Sarah, Jayne, Julie and Me!

We left and after I dropped people home me and Anne nipped in to the Swan for a quick pint. I had a really good night!

Wednesday… Work was the same as usual and when 4:30pm came I made a run for the door! In the evening I was at a bit of a loss because father was away skiing! My prayers were answered though, by Jenny. Kate, Naomi, and Jenny were in The Swan doing the quiz, and invited me up to join them! Whilst there, Donna came in with Richard, and they joined their regular team (who ended up beating us, but that’s not important.) Whilst there, Donna asked me very nicely if I could take her and a friend to the Airport on Friday because they were having a weekend in Cork. I agreed (after making sure she meant Birmingham Airport, not Heathrow or Manchester!) and then went back to the others to carry on losing the quiz!

Afterwards, I came home and went to bed.

Thursday… Again, work was work…

… Actually I have been thinking; When I write about my job, does it sound like I don’t enjoy it? I only ask because I realise I don’t write a lot about it, and then emphasise the point of leaving at the end of the day. It has become a kind of blogging formula, but I ensure you that I enjoy working at Woodrush. It’s a fun job, and the people who I work with, Staff and Pupils alike, are all fantastic…

… Right, now we have got that sorted, lets continue…

… 4:30pm came along and I left feeling like I had done a full days work. (well, I had done a full day’s work!) I sat playing on the Internet for a bit (Facebook is so addictive!) And before Lank came round I started work on another quiz for the Packhorse. I printed a quiz made in Excel. There are 100 pictures of cartoon characters and you have to fill in what the cartoon is. You can play the online version here. I got 87 out of 100! (but searched the web for the answers to the other 13)

When lank arrived, I was just finishing off printing the quiz. We then set off to The packhorse…

… Where no-one played my quiz!

Fan-bleedin’-tastic! I will take it with me next week to see if anyone wants a go. Anyway we still had a good evening, and at 11:30pm-ish we left. Lank Dropped me back home and I went in and went to bed.

Ah, Friday. Work seemed to pass quite quickly. Afterwards I went to put some petrol in the car, came home to get changed and went down to Donnas for the airport run… She and her friend (shit! Can’t think of her name!) finished getting ready and I sarcastically asked “have you got everything?” before getting in to the car and setting off…

… Turning round 30 seconds later because Donna had forgotten her coat!

Ahem! I decided to go down the Coventry road, since at 5:00pm I figured the M42 would be busier. I was correct, and we cruised down to the airport, with the only snag being the main roundabout in Solihull, which was a bit busy. I said goodbye and started the journey back. When I got in I sat practicing my guitar playing and have mastered "Traveling through the desert on a horse with no name" It's official, people. My song repetoir now consists of ONE WHOLE SONG! YEAH! If you are very, very lucky. Then I WON'T post a video of me playing it for you! (but I might!)

After my playing was over I decided to give Adam a call and since he wasn’t doing anything I decided to grab Guitar Hero III and head off back to Solihull. Adam, Marcus and Myself spent a good few hours playing through various songs before having a go at Call of Duty 4 just for good measure. We decided to call it a night at around midnight and so I came back home to bed.

Ah. The weekend! On Saturday I got up to take the old washing machine to the tip. When I got back, Selena phoned me to see if I would like to go for lunch at The Lifford Curve pub for Kierons Birthday. It sounded like a plan so she picked me up. We got there and it was very quiet. I ordered a curry and Kieron the same. It tasted good, but it was obviously out of a packet.

Afterwards, we came back home and had a glass of wine with Mum, Nan, and Granddad. In the evening I text Jo to see if there was a band on at The Red Lion in Shirley like the week before. There was! So I decided to join them for 9:30pm. The band were really good, and we were even joined by Marcus and his dad. Adam remained cocooned in his house though. After the merriment and the dancing, I left at a respectable 1:30am.

I awoke this morning to the smell of bolognaise! I ate that and then went to do my stint at the Legion…

… Just like usual!

… And just like usual, this is where my little blog ends for another week.

TTFN readers!

Ocky-Mocky-Ching-Chong-Choo

2008-01-21T16:57:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a late blog. Before I go any further I suppose I am going to have to explain the title to you: You see I couldn't think of what to call this little blog so I had to come up with something random. Fortunately I was sitting in an art class at work on Thursday and 2 year 10 girls were using "ocky-mocky-ching-chong-choo" in all their sentences (no, I don't know why either) and that is all I could think of when trying to name the blog... So I used it.

Anyway, lets crack on with it...

Monday... Well work seemed to pass quite quickly as Mondays tend to do. From 3pm until 4pm Art Club were painting the wall by the Drama studio (People who are familiar to Woodrush will know where I mean) red. Yes, thats right. Red. Because it is something that was put forward to me before Christmas and have only just got round to doing!

In the evening I met up with Kate from college in Solihull. We started in the Masons, but ended up in the Coach House since we had some nob-head try to muscle in on our table, and Kate didn't like the fact that he was eyeing up her bag... I had a good night out and promised to keep in touch with Kate more often.

Tuesday was very much like Monday, but spelled differently...

In the evening I may have gone out somewhere... I probably enjoyed it (I am sorry about this)

Ah, now. Wednesday (the memory is becoming a little less hazy) was a good day at work and I was out for 4:30pm.

Now here begins a story: I left work and I had a plan. A plan which had been formulating in my brain for a while now... I don't use my bass guitar very much... mainly because I don't have an amp' and also because I was never very good at it... But I have wanted to be able to play some sort of instrument for ages and the only way this was ever going to happen is if I could get said instrument for a cheapish price, and for it to be an instrument that I can practice and actually enjoy... Oh, and I wanted to be able to have limitless resources available via the internet so that I could possibly begin teaching myself! said instrument would be a guitar. Not an electric, as that would require an amp, and leads, rather an acoustic guitar. I took my bass to Cash Converters in Kings Heath and they gave me £30 for it. I then went upstairs to the shop and started browsing the guitars they had in. There was a classic Fender for £89.99... Too expensive, and it was a "baby-poo-brown" colour with no scratch-plate. They had a Gibson in for £129.99... um...no!
and a nice guitar priced at £39.99...

... Which was pink!

I was begining to give up hope when I noticed a few guitars in the corner I hadn't looked at. Not expecting them to be any good I wandered over only to find a nice acoustic, in a deep reddish brown for £34.99! Marvellous! I paid for it and brought it home... Naturally I took a picture

Quite nice, isn't it?

I came home and looked up "guitar chords" on wikipedia. I sat practicing but became distracted by another little game I found on the internet. Do you remember I told you about "Bowmaster"? well I have now found "Flash Element Tower Defence 2." Granted, the title isn't as catchy but it's quite a fun game. You have a selection of towers that have various attacks and you build them to stop waves of enemies stealing your gems' It's rather enjoyable... Check it out!

In the evening I went down to fathers as usual for some telly.

Thursday at work seemed to drag a little. But it was OK and 4:30pm came soon enough. I was playing my Tower game right up until 8:00pm when Lank came to pick me up to go to the Packhorse. I was nearly ready to go when I remembered that Kate said I needed to make a quiz for her and Jenny, since she had done one for the last couple of weeks. I decided to create "Gareths Super-Fun-Music Quiz" and set a scoring system for it. It took me about 40 minutes to complete but as soon as I did, we were in Lanks car and off up to the pub!

... Kate didn't like my quiz...

Anyway. A good night was had by all. Jason and Gemma even turned up! I haven't seen them for a while so it was good to be able to catch up. After the laughter and the merryment it was time to leave. Lank dropped me back home and I went to bed.

Ah, Friday. Work whizzed on by and I was out the door for 3:30pm. I came home and messed about on the PC for a bit before going down to nans to say fairwell to father who was going skiing for a week. After I had done that I met Jenny at my house and we were off to meet up with Adam and Marcus in Solihull as we were going to see "Alien Vs Predator: Requiem" at the cinema. We got there and got our tickets, got a seat in the rather surprisingly empty auditorium, and were then asked to get out of the surprisingly empty auditorium so that they could clean it!

After the faffing around we got re-seated and the film finally began... It's Ok actually. The first one was a bit cheesey and I didn't think much of it. This one had a slightly more "grown-up" feel to it and the ending leaves it open for another sequel. All-in-all not a bad evening. Afterwards, we went home where Jenny came in for 10 minutes before setting off.

Saturday was good. I did virtually nothing all day, but then in the evening went to The Red Lion in Shirley. Marcus, Bobby, and Jo were there and so were a lot of other people as it was the Lions' first "band night" Every couple of weeks they are now going to host a band evening in the back room. They converted the snooker/quiz room in to a proper little gig area. It's small, but that only lends itself to the "cozy" feeling of it. During the course of the evening a rather drunk/mad woman decided to get up and have a dance... A dance that involved some rather peculiar moves... Do you remember Bucks Fizz singing (I think) "Making your mind up" when Cheryl Baker spun out of her skirt to reveal a smaller skirt underneath? well this woman kind of had the same idea... She began unhitching her dress infront of everyone then performed the move in a not-so-gracious-manner...

... I was relieved when she did actually have a skirt on under her dress!

During the course of the evening Jo's dad decided to have a dance with his sister-in-law, which naturally made Jo cringe... I then added to the embarrasment factor by offering to dance with Jo's mum! Actually, Jen' isn't a bad little mover on the dance floor! I was impressed. After the music we stayed on at the pub until about 3:00am! Then we went back to Jo's for drinks... Or rather "drink" since I was driving. We sat chatting but eventually left at about 4:00am! I got home and went immediately to bed.

I awoke at about midday on Sunday, and to the smell of Sunday Lunch being cooked. I practiced a bit on my guitar and then ate Dinner before doing a stint at the Legion. Afterwards I came home only to go back out again to my nans an hour later.

After eating tea I came home to play a little more on the ol' six-string and went to bed!

Right that just about wraps it up... I'm off out with Donna in a bit. TTFN!

A martial art where you could beat up dogs...

2008-01-13T12:45:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome once again to my little blog. This week I will dive straight in to it as dinner is nearly ready, and I am doing a stint at the Legion in a bit as well. Ok, so Monday morning I was back at work and to be honest it felt like we were never away. The kids were grouchy, the teachers were grouchy, I was grouchy... Honestly, Eeyore would have felt right at home! (I hate that stupid manic-depressive donkey!) Anyway I think everyone was glad to get out at 4:30pm.

In the evening I went over to Solihull and the usual gang went over to The Greville. The quiz was on, but we didn't stop for it. After a couple of hours we drank up and since everyone was feeling tired I came back home and went to bed.

Tuesday at school was a normal day. The shock of waking up so early had started to pass and everyone was more up-beat. The day went fairly quickly and I had a sense of accomplishment when I left. It was one of those days where you feel satisfied for working and being part of the system, if you know what I mean. Now in the evening I was under orders to go down to fathers for 6:30pm as he had tickets for a show but wasn't going to tell me where! I had done some browsing on the internet and the only thing I could come up with as a possible candidate was a stunt-bike show at the NIA...

... Sure enough we set off towards Birmingham and my suspicions were confirmed when we pulled in to the NIA carpark...

Our seats were fairly far back, but the woman on the doors to the arena said that because the show hadn't sold out, we could sit wherever we liked provided the seats weren't occupied! Excellent! We moved round for a better view, and got a bit closer as well. The show itself was brilliant. The troop of riders call themselves "The Crusty Demons" and the show has many aspects to it. The bikes made up around 90% of the show. The rest was dancing (by some women called "The Crusty Babes" Now is it me, or is that the biggest turn-off ever? "hi, who are you?" "I'm a crusty babe" "ok, luv' see you later, I'm off to wash my hands") There was a guy called "The space cowboy" who hung irons from his eyelids (no, really!) and swallowed a luminous tube (again, really!) as well as a few other people. One on a skateboard, one on a quad bike, and one on a snow-mobile. In fact rather than me explain it to you, I have some videos...

... Actually I have about 15 videos, but I wont put all of them up. I will give you the best of the bunch and give you the links to the rest, to watch at you own convenience...

Ok, video number 1 is just some warm up jumps followed by a main trick...

Video 2 is a quad-bike backflip...

The 3rd video is a snowmobile doing a backflip. They showed footage of the guy a week before and he stuffed the landing up completely and ended up knocking himself out!

Now every show like this has to have at least one guy getting something wrong and fortunately, I got it on video! Watch the skateboarder... I don't think he intended to land using his face to cushion the blow!

Ouch. He did it on the second try though

After a good 3 hour show it was time to leave. Father dropped my back and I had tea, and went to bed.

Wednesday. Actually work was the same as usual and not a lot happened... In the evening I stayed in so not a lot happened there either... Sorry. Wednesday is a bit of a no-blogger.

Thursday. Again work was the same as is always is and I was out the door for 4:30pm. I went to get a haircut and came home to watch a bit of telly before being collected by Lank for an evening of merryment at the Packhorse. We got there to find Kate and Jenny sat on the couches as our usual table had been claimed. A good evening was had by all especially when Naomi turned up with a plastic cap shaped to her own head. Everyone decided to try it on and we all came to the conclusion that Naomi has a very small noggin since no-one could get it to fit. After the laughter, the booze, and the singing... (well, ok there was no singing) it was time to leave. Lank dropped my home and I went in to beddie-byes.

Ah, Friday. Work was over quicker than you could say "here comes the weekend"and everyone, staff and students alike, ran for freedom at the sounding of the bell...

In the evening it was comedy time as Me, Adam, Marcus, Jenny, and Jo, along with some Transconians (people who work with Adam at Transo/exoserve/whatever they are called this week) wentt o the Glee club in Birmingham... Though I am getting ahead of myself because just getting there is half the story...

It came to my attention 2 hourse before we needed to be at the club that Jo needed a lift. Adam had gone in early to meet Marcus and me and Jenny were getting a taxi. After some phoning round it was decided that Jo would get a lift to mine, mother would drop us down to Jennys and we would get a taxi from there... Right, so I went to book a taxi with A2B (or Always 2 Bollocks as I shall forever now call them...)

I kid you not, this was the phonecall:

person: "ullow!"
me: "hi, is that A2B?"
person: "Ya"
me: "Ok can I get a taxi from [jenny's address] plea..."
person: "wh're yu go?"
me: "..se. Birmingham"
person: "ya"
me: "Ok can I book that for ten-past sev..."
*click*
me: "... en... You Twat!"

The git just hung up! anyway I phoned them back to confirm and thankfully I got through to a lady who could speak English. She confirmed it was on the system so we set off (since Jo had arrived while I was on the phone) we got to Jennys to find that there were now 2 taxis there! they had arrived early and the one driver phoned me just as I was getting out of my mums car. I told him that I was getting in to the closest one (since it was sleeting) and hung up. A2B then rang me whilst I was in the taxi to have a go at me for screwing with them...! I gave the woman on the other end an earful, saying that it wasnt my problem the system is crap and nobody undertands basic English and hung up... To add to the evenings frustration the Taxi driver we were ith didn't speak much English either!

We eventually got there and got in. We had a drink and went upstairs to the stage area. We had a compere and 3 acts and all of them were hilarious. The one guy was talking about childhood and crap toys (like remote control cars that had a wire conecting the handset and the car so you had to walk around with it) and the 3rd guy talked about skiing, and Teachers... All eyes on me, then! he also did a skit about learning martial arts and if there was one that taught you how to beat up a dog!? He decided on Kendo because you have a large stick, so if you're not very good and it looks like the dog is going to win, you can just throw the stick to distract the dog and make a run for it!

Genius!

Anyway after we had finished laughing like maniacs, and after the show had finished, it was time to set off for home... Or not! We ended up in the Red Lion and then went for a curry in the Shapla. We had a really good night out and after I had filled up on chicken curry ordered myself a taxi home.

I awoke Saturday and set about some chores... I needed a new cable for my 360, since mine had decided to die on me, along with a battery pack for the handset, since I had lost mine a few weeks ago. Comet was my port-of-call and I got the necessary ingredients for my gaming fix.

Anyway after playing Chromehounds for a bit (something which I haven't done in ages) I went over to Adams with a gamepad and we sat playing Conan. It's not a bad game, actually. The graphics are a bit PS2-ish but the gameplay is really good. I stayed until midnight and then left. I came home and went to bed...

This morning I got up relatively late which is why I am now hurrying to get this blog finished before I have to leave for the Legion...

... Which is now!

TTFN readers...

Lime sandwiches?

2008-01-06T12:52:00.000Z

Hello readers. Welcome to the second blog of 2008.

I am covering a shift at the legion in a bit so excuse me if this is done rather quickly.

So lets begin with last Wednesday (Since I have already blogged the Tuesday). The final week of the holidays was half way over, and it was a day of just lazing about (the day after new years day always is!) In the evening I went down to fathers as usual for a bit of telly. I came back at about 11:00pm and messed about on the 'net for a bit before going to bed...

.. At 4:00am! You see I came across a rather addictive little game called BowMaster. You spend ages firing arrows at invading monsters... Time consuming, but it's rather satisfying when an arrow you have launched across the screen strikes an enemy and it lets out a blood-curdling "WAAAAGH!"

... Anyway.

I awoke, rather late, on Thursday with the idea that I would pick Donna up in the afternoon so that we could go and see "Alvin and the Chipmunks" in Touchwood. I had lunch, got ready and went to get her and we set off for Solihull. We got there and went up to the cinema only to find that everyone else in the West Midlands had the same idea... The film was sold out, and the only other showing was in two hours time. We decided to give it a miss and do some shopping instead! You see for a while now I have wanted a smart casual jacket. I always wear my cotton one (Which Donna insists isn't a jacket, but rather a "Jumper with a zip") so we trundled around Touchwood. I eventually found myself in Sport World (or whatever the bloody shop is called, it's not my usual venue for clothes shopping) only to find that they do some nice Jackets! I found one I liked, and then tryed it on, using Donna as my own personal shopper (since, as anyone who has ever been shopping with me will tell you, I'm awful at it. I can never make up my mind, and get fussy about what I buy!)

We eventually left and Ms Pickard asked if we could swing-buy Sainsbury's because she needed to get some ingredients to cook tea. We got to Sainsbury's and the only items she bought were a loaf of bread and two limes...

... What were we having for tea? Lime sandwiches?

We went back and Me and Richard sat laughing hysterically at Scrubs while Donna slaved away in the kitchen. She made Lime chicken with Potatoes and mange touts! T'was very good. After tea I made a move to get ready to go to the Packhorse. Lank wasn't attending this week as he had been struck down with a cold. I got a lift off mother and I was down at the pub for 8:45pm. (wearing my new jacket, of course!) Kate had bought a little "puzzle ball" with her she had out of a christmas cracker. You basically have to assemble the 6 pieces to make a ball... It's tougher than it sounds but eventually I did it... After watching James and Naomi complete it! After the drink and the laughter it was time to go home. I was preparing for the long walk home when Naomi offered me a lift (god bless her and her little Peugeot!) which was nice. I got in and went to bed... After playing more of that Bowmaster! (seriously, give it a go!)

I awoke on Friday and basically did nothing all day! Mother went to Tesco's and I stopped in playing Bowmaster (It automatically saves your game for you! It's really good!) Hours passed, and in the evening I phoned Kate up because I still had her Chrismas present! I went down for about 8:20pm to find her sat on her bed watching ER. Now I have never been a fan of American Dramas but as I sat down and began watching I found myself starting to care...

... I actually began caring about Dr Greene and is tumour. And about the deaf kid. And about the lesbian nurse who can't tell anyone she's a lesbian, and who walks with a limp...

... AAAAAAARGH! I had to purge my head... Fortunately Kate had a quiz she had printed out from work. There were pictures of pieces of chocolate/crisp/drinks wrappers and you had to name the chocolate/crisp/drink that it's from. I got about half before giving up...

... "Wait, what did Dr. Carter just say to Dr. Benton?"

... AAAARGH!

I would have either gone mad or become addicted to the show if it wasn't for Kate keeping me sane. Actually this scenario took me back to Turkey. Me and Kate would chat for hours in the room, and to be honest I quite miss it. She is one of a few people who I can truly relax with...

... Hang on that sounded better in my head than it does typed out. Reading it back, does that sound a bit weird? hmm... Well if it does, it's not meant to, sorry.

Anyway, I will move on incase I accidentally type something to incriminate myself...

I left at about 12:30am and came home to bed.

Yesterday was a good day. I actually BOOKED Tickets for "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and Donna picked me up at 4:00pm. We set off and parked in John Lewis carpark. We got in to the cinema and the film began. It's a good laugh actually, not a super-mega-epic blockbuster, but a good laugh non-the-less. Infact the only thing that dissapointed me was the lack of the Theme song...

... Which I now have in my head... D'oh!

After the film Me and Donna went for a meal at The Plough on the Stratford road. I had steak but filled up on the salad and ended up not finishing it! Me! Not finishing a meal! Oh the shame, the shame... After we had paid Donna droped me home since a big meal will always make anyone feel sleepy.

I kept myself awake by sitting at the computer firing little arrows at invading monsters...

"wheee" *smack* "Waaargh!"

Excellent...

I am going to have to leave you there readers since The Legion beckons...

TTFN.

welcome to twenty-oh-eight

2008-01-01T13:34:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to the 1st blog of 2008! Technically this is 2 days late, because it is Tuesday, but I wanted to be able to blog new years day for you, and if I had posted on Sunday then there wouldn't really be anything to blog about now except for new years eve i.e. yesterday evening.

So lets get to it. The Christmas/New year period is always a strange one, lots of excitement punctured with a weeks utter boredom... It is for this reason alone that I am going to blog just the interesting bits, and not bother with the boredom.

Ok, so lets begin with Christmas eve. the highlight of the day was going to the Windemere in the evening with the Packhorse crowd. We couldn't get tickets for the Packhorse, which is where we usually end up, so the Windemere was the next best choice... And a good one, too. It wasn't over crowded, there were plenty of seats, and no mile-long queue to get to the bar. We ended up playing charades/pictionary. Basically "Draw a cartoon to represent the title of a movie" I thought some of mine were quite clever. If you want to play along then you are in luck! I have recreated some of them for you... See if you can guess. Answers are at the bottom of the post. (Oh, and 2 and 4 are identical, but they are not sequels!)

Ok. Now after the random guesses, the wine, the laughter. It was time to go home... But first we had to make a "special delivery." You see Marcus was playing the Midnight mass at a church in Dorridge and Jenny was with us... All be it completely and utterly drunk. She was mumbling on about how she wanted to see Marcus so...

... Off we went!

We got her in Lanks car, and set off. When we arrived at the church, we pulled up, got her out, showed her where the entrance was, watched her go in, and drove off!!!

We were in agony with the laughter. Lank dropped me home and I went in to bed...

Christmas Day!!! Woohoo!

I awoke and set out everyones presents. We then waited until nan, grandad, Selena, and Kieron arrived before we started ripping things to shreds to get at the christmasy goodness held within...

I got Call of Duty 4 for the 360. Some Alcohol. Chocolate. Aftershave. More Alcohol. More Chocolate. And, quite possibly the coolest of all, Selena had bought me "Transformers Monopoly"!!! It was soon time for Christmas dinner. Selena and kieron left to have dinner at Kierons parents house and we got on with ours. After gobbling the turkey and stuffing myself with stuffing, I was ready for a good old fashioned "Christmas afternoon nap" but I didn't bother because I was too busy eliminating a terrorist threat in the middle east on Call of Duty 4.

In the evening, I went down to my aunts. Selena came as well, and more festive unwrapping commenced. I got books, a T-shirt, and more alcohol! After tea was eaten, it was time to depart...

... Well someone had to sort out that terrorist threat!

Ok. So that was Christmas. Now as I'm sure you are all aware the week between Christmas and New Years is a bit boring. Most days I have been going over to Adams and Marcuses, and taking the occasional reccy' out somewhere. The highlight of these little trips was watching Marcus play Zelda on the Wii. He has a rather unique style of play as you will see. I did a bit of covert filming, pretending to talk to Adam who is to the left, off screen while aiming my phone at Marcus...

The good bits are at: 00:30. 00:57. 01:18. 01:42. and 02:43... Just watch.

Fantastic!

On Thursday me and Lank took a break from the packhorse and went with Donna to the Drawbridge. We ended up helping some of her friends with the quiz which was nice.

I will skip to new years eve...

During the day Jenny phoned me to say she was bored and asked if I wanted to go out somewhere. I agreed and she came round to pick me up. She wanted to go Go-Karting (!?) but it was too expensive. So we decided to go to Cadbury World since neither of us had been since we were children... So off we went...

... It was closed. Shit. Right, plan B...

We headed off towards Birmingham and we went round the Sea Life Centre. I took a few photo's for you all to enjoy:

A Loggerhead turtle (Not of the teenage Mutant Ninja variety)

The new "Otter Park" in the very centre of the Sea life centre...

We got some lunch in Weatherspoons when we had done and then Jen' dropped me back home. I sat playing with the internet for a bit but soon it was time to get ready for our New years party at the Windemere. James and Kate picked me up and we set off. We were in, and drinking before 8:0pm.... Magic! Adam, Carl, and Marcus, complete with speakers and amp showed up and the music got underway...

... Oh yes and he had a microphone as well... That was an interesting choice!

We all had a dance and a game of charades (!?) and just before midnight I dialled the speaking clock, and held my phone speaker to the microphone so that everyone could hear the countdown. It went a little like this...

..."will be twelve AM preciseley... *beep*"

crowd: "WOOHOOO!"

Me: "No not yet, you bunch of..."

*beep*

*beeeeep*"

Me: WEEEEYYY! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Or there-abouts.

Anyway, after the merryment, and the buffet, and the copious amounts of Magners. It was time to go home. Naomi kindly dropped me off home and I staggered in and went to bed...

And thats about it readers. I hope you all had a good start to 2008, and I will see you all soon.

TTFN.

(Answers to "Guess the movie:" 1=Toy Story. 2=Lord of the Rings. 3=Final destination

4=Elf. 5=Day After Tomorrow. 6=Free Willy.)

I want snow!

2007-12-23T11:28:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to a festive blog!

I will jump right on in as I am in the middle of helping repair a roof! (no, really!)

I will begin with Monday. I awoke knowing it was the start of the last week of term so that immediately put me in a good mood. After scraping the car I went to work and got on with the usual task of keeping everything cushty. Time seemed to fly by and at 3:00pm I got on with helping out for the Christmas concert which was on the Wednesday. (But more about that below)

I was given the task of spray-painting the music stands... Hmm, not an easy task. After spending quite a long time doing the first two I thought "sod it" and just gave the rest a quick blast to tidy them up!

In the evening I went over to Solihull. Carl was back from Uni' and so we all had a get-together.

After coming home I was greeted by the cat who had taken to using the Christmas tree box as a make-shift bed...

At least it gave me a laugh....

Tuesday... Work seemed to go fairly quickly and before I knew it, that magical time came where I could go home. In the evening Myself, Adam, Carl, Bobby, and Jo went to The Fieldhouse for the quiz. I picked Jo up at 8:00pm and we set off to meet everyone else. We were the first to arrive, though and parked up in the one and only space on the carpark. we were joined a while later by the rest of the gang who had to park on the road. Seating was impossible, so we stood with our drinks leaning on what ever to write our answers down. As you can imagine, by the 4th round our legs were aching, but luckily Jo spotted some people who were leaving and expertly grabbed the table!

We ended up finishing mid-table. 7th-or-8th out of about 20 teams. Not bad I suppose. After we heard the final scores, we drank up and left.

Wednesday, it is at this point that work tends to drag a bit... I'm not sure why, but Wednesdays go slowly for me. I was glad of the bell at 3:00pm as I could get on with helping for the christmas concert. In between hanging a few more stars on the stage, and touching up the back wall, I found time to:

test the lighting
sound check the bands
have a go on one of the kiddies bass guitars
(un) impress people with my (lack of) drumming skills
swing the 10 ft' stage ladders around my head
"sing" in to the microphone (the word "sing" is used very optimistically)
re-test the lighting
drop the 10ft' stage ladders

It was a right laugh! Now last week I said I would take you a photo of the stage...

Well I forgot. Sorry.

I didn't actually go to the concert, because I had heard all the songs being rehearsed at school. That saved me £3!

I left at about 5:30pm and came home to watch a bit of telly, before going down to Fathers to watch a bit more telly! (and to give him his christmas card)

Ah Thursday... The last day of real lessons! In fact it was just like a normal day so I wont bother typing about it... in the evening, I went to the Packhorse as usual, though we had to sit in the retaurant section as it was quite full. We were joined by the rest of the gang. Jenny had bought my christmas pressies though I am at a loss as to what they are. One rattles, one's flat, one feels like a toy car and the other is in the shape of a small box. Go figure!

After the frivolity and the merriment, and the faliure to accuire tickets for christmas eve (bastards!) we left and Lank dropped me home.

Ah yes... Friday! The last day of term, and there were no lessons. Kiddies were in forms all day and Myself and John Pearson (yes, ex-woodrushians Mr. Pearson is still there) were working in shifts to mind a form who's teacher had not turned up. Although they were hyper, we had a laugh. We had quizzes and sing-songs. I went in to one of the assembleys to watch a version of Deal or no deal on stage with the behavioral team... Very strange, for some reason they had called it "meal or no meal" (although one of the prizes was a voucher for McDonalds, so maybe that was the reason)

Then, like a chorus of angels, singing from the heavens, the most glorious sound in the world...

... The bell.

I'd done it... I had survived the great winter term. I was free...

... Well, not quite, we still had the speeches in the staff room, but that only lasted half an hour. I shot out of the doors like a man possesed... Actually EVERYONE shot out of the doors like a man, (or woman) possesed!

I came home and thought "What shall I do to occupy myself from now until christmas?" The answer was easy... I went and purchased Guitar Hero 3!

HMV was rammed. I'm not sure where the back of the queue was, so I just walked up to the counter and paid for it! I probably angered a few people but hey, you know the saying: all's fair in love and HMV. (That's right, isn't it?)

Anyway, I came home to try it. I then thought "I know who would appreciate this!" and phoned Carl. After a short chat, I shot over with my Xbox Hard drive and my guitar-pad. We had a jolly time completing the co-op career. Adam had a go, and so did Jenny and Marcus. Afterwards, as Adam was going to bed, and Marcus had fallen asleep on the couch I thought "maybe it's time I left" and so headed on home to my own bed.

Saturday... Saturday was spent indoors, a lot. We had some people over who were fitting new guttering to the house, and so we thought it would be a good idea to change the glass panels in the enrty-way to polyurethane since they are lighter, and better insulated. it was a full days work, (though to be honest I diodn't really do much) and at the end of it all, the polyurethane sheets were only tacked in and had not been set properly... That would be a job for me and grandad... More of that in the next paragraph though. I stayed in playing Guitar Hero 3 and was coaxed by some kiddies on to Halo 3 during the evening. I wish I hadn't accepted. *rant alert* It comes to something when 13 year olds win 50 to 42 when they have TWO extra players, and then start smack-talking saying how I was "owned." and that they are, oh-so-obviously better than me. The little shits (who are going to get it big time when we get back after christmas) then thought it would be funny to send me a load of messages insulting me and my family. Messages I still have, and might just record and send a copy to the parents (since I can access the school network and get the addresses of those involved!) It pissed me off, having tiny little puke-stains insult me, and then for no reason started bringing members of my family in to it. Whats the point?

Anyway, rant over (for now) and on to Today. Grandad came over and so this mornings task is to seal and flash the polyurethane roof panels, which we are in the middle of doing, but have stopped while my grandad fetches my nan and the dog. (see, I told you I was in the middle of helping repair a roof!)

I will leave you there for now.

Have a Merry Christmas and, In case I don't blog until January, have a very happy new year.

TTFN.

We don't play hip-hop, but we're waiting for a hip op'!

2007-12-16T12:13:00.000Z

hello readers, and welcome to yet another thrilling blog, from the master blogger himself... Moi!

Lets begin with Monday. Now Monday mornings are always dreary and nobody likes them (which poses the question: "why do we have them!?") but I draged myself to school in a car that still smelt like puke and just got on with the day in hand... Actually Monday went by me quite quickly and I was out the door bang on 4:30pm. In the evening I went over to my nans because my dad was back from the USA! he had brought me a pressie: A T-shirt from the Harley Davidson factory!

Nice!

Afterwards I went over to Adam and Marcus's. We decided to go for a pint in The Greville because it had been rerfurbished so we took a walk up...

... Only to discover that, in fact, it was STILL being refurbished and therefore closed. We then decided that, rather than vegetate in front of the telly, we would go for a walk... And go for a walk we did! We were ambling along for a couple of hours before coming full circle and getting back to Sambourn Close for about 11:30pm. I didn't stay long after that and left feeling quite rejuvenated!

I awoke on Tuesday with a bit of a twinge in my neck (bloody excersise! I'm sure it's not good for you!) and so went to work with a bit of a funny look about me, since I found it hard to move my neck and had to turn my entire body to look at people! I got out after what felt like a proper full days work! I was actually tired and when I got home I found myself dozing off for an hour... I will call it a "Power nap" even though it was just me being a bit sissy and falling asleep during the afternoon. In the evening I went back over to Solihull and this time Marcus had seen people in the Greville and was sure it was open, so we took a walk up...

... He was mistaken, it was still closed, so we went back to the house to watch some telly for a bit. I left at about 12:00 midnight and came home to bed...

On Wednesday work was a bit boring and dragged on a bit. Still, no matter, I would be out the door at 4:30pm, right?

Wrong...

... You see Wednesday was the final day before the "Awards Evening" at woodrush, where they give out awards to kiddies that have done good at something. And I had been placed in charge of getting the stage looking like a movie set... The theme for the awards evening, and for the Christmas Concert next week, was "A night in Hollywood" So during the week I had been making wire struts above the stage to hang stars from, as made by Art Club and Miss Cormack. I had a small army of people helping me but didn't get out until 6:00pm!!! And to make matters worse, we weren't finished. The stars were up, and so was the "HOLLYWOOD" sign I had made, but the back wall of the stage still needed painting. We left knowing that another long stint would be needed the following day...

... And it was! At 3:00pm on the dot, myself, Carly, and Emma (art and music) plus some kiddies, came down to assist with the painting. We sponged over the sign, and began working on the wall in green paint to create the "Hollywood hills" effect that my paper sign would sit over. Now usually readers, I would have a photo for you to enjoy and to marvel at. But since I was fighting against a very tight deadline, and the fact that I don't take my phone to work with me I didn't. What I will do for you though is take one at the Christmas Concert next week so that you may all praise and admire me for having such creative vision...

... Or not. I'll let you be the judge.

Anyway, I got out at about 5:20pm with everything ready for the awards evening.

Friday... I got to work and everyone was comenting on how good the stage looked and how the parents who attended the ceremony thought it was wonderful that all that work had gone in to it...

... Bloody good job, too! If they had have complained about it I may very well have started biting people! Anyway. Work was a bit disjointed. sally, head of art, was off so I was left with the cover work. I had the year 7's who were no problem and the year 10's... who were! In fact I'm not going to go on about it since it makes me angry, but the room was left looking like a bomb-site after they had finished with it!

I was glad to get out at 3:30pm... Ah the weekend had started! In the evening I went over to Marcus's. Adam was out on his works Christmas party at the Metropol hotel so me and Marcus went for a drink...

... IN THE GREVILLE!

Yes, it was finally open! actually it looks really nice in there now. Not quite as many hols in the carpet, or bits faling from the ceiling... It's nice, even the fleas adhere to the dress code!

Afterwards we took a brisk walk back to the house. I flicked the telly on, and sat watching it until about 1:00am before coming home.

Saturday. During the day I went shopping in Solihull for the rest of my gifts for Christmas. I got everything I needed (except for a couple of select items, of which I am going to Tesco's for after todays dinner) and came home for about 2:00pm. I then began the menial task of wrapping. Now i'm not very good at wrapping... So, this year, if your gift LOOKS like it might be a television arial, it's not... It will be a book or something, but the shape of the parcel never resembles the shape of the actual gift... No no, not when I'VE been wrapping the pressies!

in the evening, I went with Donna over to The Lyndon pub where Richard was working. Donna had said to me "lets go. They have live music on a Saturday!" I thought "fantastic!" and off we went...

... To a 40's night! Thats not for people who are in their 40's... But a wartime band playing music FROM the 1940s!

At one stage the lead singer (who looked like Corporal Jones from Dads Army!) pretended he was going to vault over the stage banister... Thankfully he didn't actually try it. We were joking about how the old-timers don't play hip-hop, but most of them were probably waiting for a hip op' to which Donna requested that become this weeks blog title... So it did!

At one point things got a bit interesting

Afterwards we shot over to The Packhorse to meet up with Neil and Maggie (Donnas mum and dad) for a swift drink. At about midnight (and 5 pints of Guinness!) Donna kindly dropped me back home where i made my way, as gracefully as I could, to bed.

I was awoken this morning at about 11:00am by the sound of Selena and Kieron nipping over (they didn't come yesterday due to having been invited out by one of their friends) They stayed for an hour-or-so and then left, leaving me with the task of blogging...

.. Which I have just completed in time for dinner!

Bonus!

TTFN readers

Regurgutated bodily fluids? No thanks!

2007-12-10T17:50:00.000Z

hello readers and welcome to another late blog. I am in a bit of a rush so I will will keep this brief and to the point...

Ok, Monday at work went quite quickly, and after art club had finished at 4:30pm I left as well. In the evening, nothing happened since me and Adam were both knackered and too lazy to go out in the cold.

Tuesday, again, work went fairly quickly and I got out for about 5:00pm. I went over to Adams and Marcuses for something to do. I discovered that they were putting up the Christmas lights! After several attempts i felt that i had to do my duty to my readers, and so created a video for you...

Looky below!

I think thats how they have left them!

Anyway. After getting some chips, and discovering that The Greville was still closed for its refurbishment, we headed back. It wasn't too long before I left to come home to bed.

Wednesday... Was a bit long for my liking. Work dragged on a bit and by the time I got out, it felt like the middle of the night! I stayed in wednesday evening...

... I think. Can't quite remember that one. Sorry readers.

Thursday was the same as Wednesday, but at least I had the Packhorse to look forward to! lank picked me up for about 8:00pm, but we didn't leave my house until 8:20pm because he was having a look at all the music I have on Windows Media player! (coupled with the fact that I wasn't ready!) In the Packhorse,Kate had a short quiz for me. She has been trying to stump me with riddles and questions for a while... I'm not sure if she genuinely thinks I'm too clever for my own good, or whether she wants to just see me fail at something, but either way, I got 6 out of 8 questions correct... So she was partly happy!

Ah, Friday... Friday, Friday, Friday... Where to begin. I will skip the events at work, since they are pretty mundane to the events of the evening... I had arranged to take Katie out for a drink, since I haven't seen her in ages and I thought it would be a good thing if I actually took a girl for a drink once in a while... (you know, just because it's the done thing, and all...) So I met her in the masons for about 8:40pm. She came in and introduced me to her mum and dad who were stopping for a quick bevvy' and then she mentioned going to Reflex. This I had not planned on, but was happy to agree, since you might as well make the best of a good night out. She then told me that her new boyfriend would be joining us...

... fair enough, I suppose. wasn't expecting that because she was single the last time we met... But hey! the more the merrier! Now it is at this point that I have a confession to make, readers...

... That although she most definitaley introduced us, I can't remember the guy's name... For this I feel quite bad... (But not as bad as Katie now feels for the faux-pas she commited of which will explain at the proper point in the story!)

So we were having a good ol' laugh and a drink, and a bop on the dance floor, and some more drink (though I was on Soft Drinks due to the fact I had driven) And come 2:00am Kate was truly merry... They were going to get a taxi home, but since she didn't live all that far away, and the fact I had my car, and I quite enjoy driving at night when there are no cars about, I did the "Good Samaritan " thing and offered them both a lift home...

So there we were. kate and fella' in my car, and I set off...

... Kate promptly fell asleep. She awoke momentarily complaining of feeling a bit queezy. Thinking it was nothing more than my driving, I drove nice and steady, with the window down.

... In fact that was the best decision I made...

... Guess what happened?

... Go on, guess... Here's a hint: What's the title of this post?...

... It was horrible... Though 90% of the puke ended up streaked along the outside my car, the remaining 10% ended up spattering her boyfriend, and my door upholstery and passenger seat!

Now before I go any further I have to mention that, while it was horrible, and a situation in which many would have become angry, I saw the funny side and don't really blame her... (I mean how can you accuse someone of doing anything malicious when they are half-unconsious?) And I have since told her that, since I saw the funny side, that she is allowed to as well and that there are no hard feelings.

So I got her home, and helped get her inside. Then me and... (oh, lets call him "Dave") me and Dave got on with the business of clearing up my car. I was thankful for the help, as I don't really do sick... It sets me off far too easily.

Anyway I got home for about 3:00am freezing cold as I had the windows down on the way home to try an alleviate some of the sicky-smell!

Right... Sunday. I was supposed to drive Donna and myself in to Birmingham as we had arranged to go and have a look round the German market and to start Christmas shopping. I told her about the incidents of the night before so, rather than sit in a sicky-smell car she offered to drive. She picked me up at about 11:00am and we set off. After parking at the back of Centenary square we walked round towards the town hall and then set off down New Street having a look at all the stalls. After grabbing some cash at a nearby ATM, we had a walk around before giving in to the temptation of Christmas shopping.

Now obviously I won't tell you which shops we went in to because that might give away too much about what we might have bought, and since I know certain people read this on a regular basis, I don't want to start giving anyone cause to speculate on their christmas gifts this year...

.. After all there is no fun in ruining a surprise, now, is there?

After the shops had beaten us, we had lunch (for which Donna paid 10p due to the till girl messing up her change!) then took a walk up to the market to get a beer (Though Donna had hot chocolate and Amaretto... Seriously, try it! It's a fantastic combo!) before we made our way back to the car and set off for home.

After we got back, I sat and helped her type out a worksheet she needed for her year 7 maths class, and then had a bugger-about on Youtube before getting her to drop me back home.

I spent an hour on the PC before heading off down to my nans for tea as usual and to watch TopGear. I got there and was there a good half-an-hour before I noticed that my nan has a new Cockatiel! Her last one, "Cocky" was tremendiously old (seriously, he was nearly as old as me!) when he died, and she hasn't had another one since and I only noticed this one because he started making a noise during the end of Sports personality of the Year! His name is "Cheeky" (though my cousin wants to call him "Nutter") and as yet he can't talk or sing any kind of tune. (It is to be noted that, while my nan insisted that Cocky could talk, I never heard him, and am pretty sure that nan used to assign words to what anyone else would describe as a "Random squawk") I have therefore made it my business to whistle the theme tune to "Super Mario" at him, and repeat the words "piss off" until he picks it up for himself...

... Well, it's a laugh isn't it?

Right. I will leave you there readers. TTFN

Robert Du Sable is a wanker...

2007-12-03T17:31:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to my (slightly late) blog for this week. details of why this blog is late will appear somewhere below... But lets begin, shall we.

Last Monday at work, time seemed to fly by. Maybe it's the run-up to Christmas but work on Mondays always seems to go really quickly of late. I got out of the door at 4:30pm after helping with "Art Club!" and went home to play through a bit of A/C (assassins creed, incase you didn't read last weeks blog or did read last weeks blog but have forgotten that I shortened it.) In the evening I went over to Adams, then we went for a drink... I think.

Tuesday at work was another good day, and again, I was out the door before I knew it. More A/C ensued and again, in the evening it was decided that we go for a drink. I picked Jo up at about 8:15pm and we headed on over to The Colebrook because Jo was sure there was a quiz on. We arrived ans Waited for Adam and Bobby to get there as they would provide some stable knowledge for the team...

... Or they would have done if the quiz was on a Tuesday and not a THURSDAY!

... Oh Jo, what will we do with you!

Anyway, it didn't matter since we all have a laugh and a drink, and a good time was had by all.

On Wednesday work seemed to slow back down to normal. I didn't mind though, as I got a fair bit of work done. 4:30pm came along and I left.

The evening was spent in the Swan with the rest of the T.A's as it was our annual night out and this time I really was part of a quiz team! Now usually when some of the T.A's go out for a quiz they call themselves "The Hollywood Wives" but since I was with them, along with eveyone else they decided to call themselves "Gareths Hollywood Wives" I swear that wil be a rumour before too long! Anyway, we didn't do to badly at all. We came 3rd out of about 20 teams so we were dead chuffed! When it was time to go home Tim gave me and Ann a lift home in his mini... Not a new mini but an original mini! I have never been in one before...

... And probably never will again! The back seat is really small and there is no headroom. Still, I was thankful of the lift since it beat walking back in the cold.

Thursday. Thursday at work was OK though it felt like I didn't get a lot done. I was glad to get out at 4:30pm. Before going to the packhorse as usual, I went down to my nans for an hour because Father was there and he was jetting off to the stated the following day. I spent an hour there before coming back home just in time to grab a lift to the packhorse with mother before she went out. A merry time was had by all, though we were abit thin on the ground. Myself, Matthew, Lank, Benji, Naomi, and Kate were all that there were. At a respectable 11:30pm-ish people started to leave and lank kindly dropped me home, where I went to bed.

Friday! I love fridays. Work went quite quickly and I was out the door for 3:30pm! I spent the evening playing A/C and very nearly completed it. It was a jolly nice change to stay in and save a bit of cash for once.

Saturday came along and I awoke just as mother was coming back from Tescos... At 11:00am! I never usually sleep in quite that late! Selena popped round along with nan and grandad just as i was playing through the final assassination on A/C. My grandad seemed quite enthralled with it, but declined the offer of a quick go on my xbox. In the evening I took Donna to see "Stardust" at the Empire Cinema in Rubery. Although it is a bit of a girly film in parts, Robert DeNiro more than makes up for it in brilliant comedy... Oh and there is a slight lesbian undertone in one scene, so it's not all bad! Afterwards I dropped her home, sat in the car talking for an hour, and then left (as I was pretty tired.)

Sunday... The day that this blog should have been written... I got up and played a bit of A/C but couldn't do a lot on it since I had met my match in terms of gameplay difficulty (Damn you Robert du Sable!) I turned it off, made a curry for Sunday lunch (what? It's perfectly normal!) and then got ready...

... For a shift at the Legion!

I had been asked to come in to lend a hand since Blues were playing and it would be quite busy. After they won it quietened down a bit, and the last hour wasn't too bad. I got out at 7:00pm and shot home for a bit before going down to my nans to watch TopGear and Long Way down (which I was dissapointed with, as it was the last of the series, and they rushed it a bit. The ending was truly unspectacular!)

Anyway. After that I came home and got some sleep...

And thats your lot for this week readers... TTFN

I've got ham but I'm not a hamser...

2007-11-25T11:50:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to post 231 of my blog...

... Not that it's any sort of important number, I just thought I would mention it. Anyway on with the show!

I begin, as usual, from Monday. I awoke to the results of the blizzard we had the night before (we don't usually get snow at this time of year. Whats going on?) and drove to work... All be it, slowly. Work went surprisingly quick, but have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you haven't got anything done? Well for me, Monday was one of those days and I came away knowing that the following day would have to be used for finishing off little jobs and menial tasks that I didn't have chance to complete.

In the evening I went round to Adams because he had bought Assassins Creed for the 360. I had been wandering if it was any good so went to have a proper nose at the game...

... And the results are glorious! The whole game feels like a proper historical epic. The game engine works beautifly and is just about perfect... (with the exeption of the main assassinations, which I find a bit annoying, but I am told this is because I'm not doing it properly!)

Anyway. I left at a reasonable time and came home with the thought that if I am a good little boy, Santa will bring me the game for Chrismas.

Tuesday morning came and, actually, work wasn't as hectic as I had imagined. I had a productive day, but at the back of my mind was still the thought that it would be fantastic to be able to play Assassins Creed again. Throughout the course of the day the snow melted and we had sunshine by the afternoon. I came away at 4:30pm hoping I could go round to Adams for an Assassins Creed fix...

... But. He rang me to tell me that he wasn't going to be in. He was off to see Frank Skinner at the NEC...

... WHAT WOULD I DO!?

... Well, after that crushing blow, a rather strange series of events happened...

Mother wanted me to have a look on the internet for a new oven, since ours packed up the week before. (Which I suppose I should have mentioned in my previous blog, sorry readers.) Whilst doing that I had a look at the Argos website just to see, purely out of interest, how much a certain game cost. (I'm sure you know by now which one I was looking at!)

After browsing various electrical retailers websites I couldn't find a good brand of double oven cheap enough so I suggested that we go to Comet to have a look what they have in stock...

... Comet in Shirley...

... Thats right by Argos...

... Oh my god...

... It all sort of happened in a bit of a blur. I always thought I had such good will power. I knew in my head that it would be far better to wait and get Assasins Creed for Christmas. I knew that it would be foolish to get it now... But my hand just sort of started moving of it's own accord and before I realised I had reserved a copy of it to be collected at shirley...

... Oh the shame. I had turned to the dark side... The force is not strong with this one, dear readers... I was... I was... IMPULSE BUYING!!!!

... Oh the shame, the shame...

... Anyway. We set off and I dropped mum at Comet, then whipped round the corner to Argos to collect my gaming fix for the next few months. I then went back to Comet to get mum... She had purchased a Zanussi oven and it was going to be delivered on Saturday. We left and I raced home to play a bit of Assassins Creed...

You know what readers, I'm just going to refer to it as: "A/C" from now on... It saves wear and tear on the keyboard...

So, on to Wednesday. I went to work and was put on 2 cover lessons! This meant that I had no spare time to do anything for the art department and spent the day trying to teach science and history...

I was quite knackered when it was time to leave at 4:30pm....

In the evening I... Well. Don't get me started about Wednesday evening...

... I mean to come back from 2-0 down and then let Croatia score a third is just unacceptable! (Ooh, get me talking about football!) I know I'm not the worlds greatest fan of the game... But when it comes to England... National Pride... I'm all for giving the rest of the world a proverbial middle finger. And if that proverbial middle finger comes via the world of football then it has my blessing... Provided, of course your team isn't comprised of TURF-KICKING NUMTIES!!!!

Seriously... (here we go, I'm on a rant now...) I want the Managers job... I'd get the lazy bunch of troglodytes working for their bloody pay-check! I'd wipe the slate clean first. Get rid of unnecessary players. Then go and scout a few clubs for some real talent! Offer them a place on the squad but say, "Your paycheck will depend on your performance. You don't come up with the goods, your money will be your clubs standard rate. Do well and your paycheck will start with a bigger number than usual" And if they didn't like it, and I ended up with absolutely no-one willing to play under those conditions, then I will have proved a point: That players play for the money, and not for the love of the game...

... Which I believe is the case right now, and is the reason England will never win the world cup for a second time.

... Ah, rant over.

Right. Thursday. Thursday at work was a good one. It went quick and, although I was on cover again, felt like I had accomplished something. 4:30pm came round faster than a carousel with a nitrous kit and I was out the door. (Did you like that similie? I thought it was quite good! "Carousel with a nitrous kit" Not bad concidering I plucked it out of the air... I will remember that one.)

Ah. Friday... Friday was excellent! Work was good and we were out for 3:30pm. But that wasn't the reason why it was excellent... No, no, no... It was excellent because I was going to see Bill Bailey at the NIA!!!! Oh, yeah! I saw him at the Hippodrome in Birmingham about 5 years a go, when he was doing the "Part Troll" tour. His latest tour is the "Tinselworm" tour... But what is a Tinselworm I hear you ask?

"Is it a worm? Or a metaphor? Is it in fact a hybrid worm, so favoured by celebrities? Or is it more sinister, a GM worm, a freak of nature? Too cheap for silk, too proud for earth... The Tinselworm is a mid-level worm that dares to dream."

Anyway. Kieron drove myself, Selena, and John. We met up with Adam and co' in the NIA itself. Before Bill appeared we were instructed to:

"Turn off any electrical equipment, including mobile phones, pacemakers, powerful electromagnets, and electrostatic nuclear devices, as these items may intefere with the venues navigational systems"

Then another announcement:

"Please remember to remain optimistic at all times, as hope is the key to human survival"

This is exactly the type of lunacy involved with Bill Bailey...

During the show I attempted some photos but the focal range on my mobile is a tad limited. The only one decnt enough to show you is below... And even that one is a bit ropey!

I appologise for the slight blur. You can see Bill centre stage... Or on the huge screen in the upper left!

Anyway he did a fantastic show, covering everything from doorbells, to song lyrics, to emo's! Afterwards I bought a recording of the Birmingham performance to listen to (Though that wont stop me buying the DVD when it's out! We dropped John home, then myself. I played a bit of A/C before going to bed.

Ah Saturday... Saturday started out as a good day. I got up, played A/C for a bit, nan and grandad and Selena came round, we had wine, I played a bit of the Bill Bailey gig, it was all jolly. The new oven arrived as well! it looked nice and was installed within minutes. Then selena said "Why don't you come round and have a look at Mario Galaxy?" (which she had bought the day before) I agreed so she set off, and I followed about 5 minutes later. So there I was, driving along, minding my own business, when

BANG!

there was what sounded like an explosion going off under water, my car pitched itsef violently to the left, bounced off the kerb and would have ended up swerving across the road, had I not fought the steering wheel, and just about won, to keep it pointing just about straight...

... I could feel that the car was sort of leaning over slightly, and limped it round the corner to Selenas flat where I descovered the cause of this impromtu surprise...

... I had suffered a complete blow-out at 40mph!

if you have never experienced one, let me give you a piece of advise: Never EVER think "Ooh, that sounds exciting, I'd like to experience that!" because you don't! I thought I had driven over a land-mine! Fortunately there wasn't any cars around me. If there had been, it could have resulted in a bit of a mess. My nearside front tyre was totally flat, and I'm not sure if I have buggered up the alloy. I put the spare on and went in to Selenas. To top it off, Mario galaxy is a bit naff. It received absolutely fantastic reviews but I had a go and found it basic, repetetive, and unresponsice in terms of the control system. The story is exactly the same as Mario 64: 140 stars have been nicked by Bowser so Mario must travel to different worlds to get them back. Oh, and some worlds are only available after you have so many stars... See? It's mario 64 all over again! I mean Mario sunshine was a bit original with the whole water-pistol thing, but they really are the laziest game designers in history. Anyway, after that I dropped a DVD off at fathers house and went round to Adams. We all watched Hostel 2... Which was a bit lame. I mean it had it's good bits, but essentially it was a gore-fest with a few boobs on display to keep people interested.

I left at about 1:00am. Came home, and went to bed.

And thats about it readers...

Thankyou for your time, and I will blog again next week

TTFN

"Hello... No, I'm not a waiter!"

2007-11-18T12:55:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to this weeks thrilling update. And what an update it will be! I have some lovely photo's for you, and even a video or two! So prepare for a feast of juicy blogging...

I will begin, as always, with Monday... Which dragged on a bit at work, but it wasn't too bad. In the evening everyone decided to stay in. Myself, John, and Adam ended up on our Xboxes playing Halo.

Tuesday at work went quite quickly and I was out the door for 4:30pm. I spent a few hours browsing the inter-web when I came across the following picture. It is such a simple thing, but it had me laughing like an idiot. (so much so that it is now my PC desktop wallpaper...

Ha ha! You can just imagine the one on the left thinking: "Oh for gods sake"

Ah well, it made me laugh... In the evening Jo was supposed to join us but she was feeling tired and decided to stay in. We ended up... um... Actually I can't remember... I will have to think.

What I do know is that it was my sisters birthday. She had gone out with friends for a drink that evening but would be available the following day to accept presents from family members!
Wednesday, work went fairly quick, though I rather stupidly missed a staff briefing! No matter though, I was told that the information could be Emailed to me at my Woodrush staff email account...

... Wait! What? I have a Woodrush staff Email account!?

I logged on for the first time since it was created in September... I had quite an inbox and some rather important stuff which I needed to respond to! I will have to rememeber to keep on top of that in the future. In the evening me, Selena and Dad went for a meal at the... um.. pub... the one I can never remember the name of... I always get it mixed up with The Peacock and The Bluebell... I think it's over towards Bromsgrove....

... The Fleur de Lis! Thats the one! We went to The Fleur de Lis for a meal... I had fish and chips (not fish 'n' chips... Fish AND Chips... There's a difference!) which was nice and cheesecake for dessert... Which was even nicer! Afterwards we left and got back home, since a big meal will undoubtedly make me want to sleep...

Thursday... Thursday was an interesting day at work... I was called in for my "Annual review" because every member of staff must, by order of the powers that be, have a review of progress every year without fail... Well I have been there 3 years and have never had one! So at 10:15am on the dot I was summoned in to an office. It was an informal affair and within 15 minutes I was back out and getting on with whatever needed to be got on. 4:30pm came round soon enough and I was out the door.

At the packhorse that evening me and Lank were the first to arrive. Jenny followed, and then everyone else a while later. We had a good evening, though I spent most of it talking to one of Dans' mates at the bar! Lank and myself left at a respectable 12:00midnight, and I got in and went to bed.

Friday! Friday was non-uniform day at school for Children in need and so the kiddies were hyper! (it's just the way it is when it's non-uniform) I had to cover a science lesson which should have been revision, but it soon decayed in to madness and I was forced to shout... Something which doesn't happen very often, but is always an option if needs be. Anyway at 3:30pm I left and was gearing up for the weekend. It had been arranged that me, Adam, Jenny, and Marcus, along with some of Adams work collegues, would go for a bit of a night out in Solihull. Jenny kindly picked me up on the way to Marcus and Adams at about 6:00pm. When we got there, Adam was playing Assassins Creed... It's a really good game and I think I will add it to my christmas list! At about 8:00pm we started the walk in to Solihull town centre. It isn't far, but it was cold! I was being manly and went out without a jacket...

... Sorry, did I say "manly"? I meant "Stupid"

Actually, my years of throwing myself down mountains during blizzards meant that I felt it a lot less than the others. We started off in Weatherspoons, but ended up walking up to... Where else? Reflex. (One of Marcus' favorite drinking establishments!... Not!) We met up with some of Adams friends and got the drinks in... During the course of the evening we aquired a set of novelty sunglasses... remember I said there would be pictures? Well here you go...

Adam... Or should I say "Insect-boy!!! Ever alert for the call to action!" (No, wait, thats Bananaman, isn't it?)

... And his companion, "Bug-girl" (with a ghostly, mysterious face in the background!)

... And here we see... Um... "Marcus-Man!" about to unleash "The finger of superhuman pointing!"

... Oh screw it, you get the idea!

Anyway, a little later on people were inexplicably attracted to the dancing pole... Mr. Turbitt got up, but...

... Refused to have a go (though I still have a video, which is on my blog somewhere, of Adam dancing around this very pole)

then Marcus wanted a go...

Pole dancing with a pint in his hand... Classy! Fortunately, a few minutes later...

... Jenny, who has hips and knows how to use them, decided to join in and teach marcus a thing or two about dancing.

We were in Reflex until about 2:45am... Which is when it closes! I dived in to a taxi and went home where I went straight to bed.

I awoke Saturday morning and waited for my sisters arrival, along with my nan and grandad (who had bought me a sausage roll which is still in the fridge... Hmm.)

After pottering about people left because it was time to get ready for the main event... It was ladies Night at the Chateau Impney! The theme this year was "Moustaches and Tiarras" so I cut mine in to what has been described as a "Wyatt Earp" style 'tash... After doing that Selena went home to get changed, and I got my tuxedo out. Selena was dropped back to my house by Kieron, but we had to go back because she had forgoten her necklace. After retrieving it we picked Donna up since she was my lady for the evening. (I mean that in a completely innocent way, of course.) Mum dropped us off at fathers house and we waited for the taxi. Whilst waiting we got a couple of photo's...

These have been poached from Donnas Facebook album...

Me and Donna. Doesn't she look lovely?

Dad, Selena, and me... You will notice that, since my dad had had a 'tash for the past 35 years, he didn't have to actually do anything for the evening.

The minibus taxi arrived 10 minutes early (there's a world first!) so he was waiting a good while before we were all ready. Us four, plus my dads neighbourse from both sides of his house, piled in to the minibus and we set off. It was about 20 minutes to the Chateau and when we arrived, we got stuck in to the routine of mingling, and doing introductions (So that Donna knew who people were.) At about 8:15pm we were sent through to the main dining hall and the evening got underway. The meal was 5 courses: Salmon and mayonaise starter, Mushroom and pea soup, Lamb and veggies with new potatoes for mains, Honey topped Bruille for dessert, and then coffee and chocolate. It was all rather suave... That is until everyone picked up the pea-shooters provided and started pelting each other! Oh yes, and then there was the entertainment. Last year it was a Tiller Girl act which was blogged one year ago! This time round, it was a hawaiian/surf dance routine... Words fail me... The guy closest to me is my father... Oh the shame, the shame! ha ha... just watch the video!

ha ha! It had everyone in stitches.

Afterwards the lights were dimmed and the disco started... Again, I have a few photos for you. Some are mine, some are Donnas...

Off donnas camera, I reckon this is the nicest photo of the evening!

One I took of the entertainment. Father is on the right...

Donna caught my dad trying to dance... What move do you call that, father?

One of Selena and Neils partner. They used to work together at Joffsons Forklifts, and Selena didn't know that they were going!

Proof that I at least attempted to dance!

And again, on the floor.

My real test was when Donna grabbed me for a rock n roll number... And my footwork was expected to be impecable since donna had taught it to me a while a go whilst I was fixing her PC. (though she did give me a quick refresher course at the table.)

I think I passed my test (just.)

After the wine, the music, and the helium (Oh yes, there was balloons galore!) it soon became time to do one last dance (New york New york, what else!?) to close the evening. At about 1:30am we got back in to the taxi and went home. I was the first to be dropped off along with Selena. I said goodnight and went in, to hang up my penguin suit, my waiters uniform, my bond costume for another year...

... But, I had an absolutely wonderful time. I mean, how could I not? I was dancing with the prettiest girl in the room!

TTFN readers.

I love rock 'n' roll...

2007-11-12T17:59:00.000Z

Hello readers and welcome to my late entry of a blog. I would have done it yesterday but my time was eaten up with doing things...

... But more of that later... Right now I will start with last Monday... And what a Monday it was. Work went fairly quickly, I got a lot done, I got out slightly earlier than usual, and in the evening I played Halo with Adam until about 1:00am... Lovely!

Tuesday at work was the same-old-same-old. It too went fairly quickly because I was looking forward to the evening... I was off to see The Foo Fighters at the NEC with Kate and her sister!
I gott o kate's for about 6:00pm... Well. It was more like 6:20pm by the time I had got lost, driven around Dorridge, and randomly stumbled across her road! Her sister was already there, and after 15-or-so minutes we were off to the NEC! I drove, and got parked rather quickly. We didn't waste any time and we were in the arena before you could say "support act"...

... Which leads me on nicely to the support act! I had a treat in store for me. I had been hearing good things about Serj Tankian's (lead singer for System of a Down) solo album "Elect the Dead" but had never got round to downloading any of the stuff to listen to...

... 3 Guesses who the support band were? Yep! Serj and his band. The sound is pretty much identical to System's and the vocals and structure are familiar too, but it's all good. Fans of System of a Down should check it out if they haven't already! Kate and her sister, didn't really approve, but I enjoyed it. And then came the main show! Foo Fighters in the flesh. We got a bit closer to the stage and had a really good view... As the photo's will now prove!

Serj Tankian (knelt down with the white top hat!)

Mr. Dave Grohl... Not looking at the camera!

Mr. Dave Grohl... Not looking at the camera, but facing the right way!

And a random one of Dave G. that looks a bit arty... Well I think so, anyway!

After a 2 hour set they encored with some stuff off their first album and then the lights came on... It was done. I had seen the Foo Fighters live, and up close, too! Now all I had to do was drive out of the carpark and get home...

After an hour we left the NEC carpark (they need more stewards directing traffic... Why did you give it up, John, why? Think of the tempers that you could save!) and I got us back to Kate's. I had a cup of tea before leaving, with the promise that I would phone Kate in the week to arrange a drink somewhere... (Shit, I had better do that!) I got home and immediately went to bed...

On Wednesday worked seemed to drag a little bit but I got what needed to be done, done. I came home at 4:30pm feeling like I had done a proper full days work... I was rather shattered! Father was out that night so I didn't go down to his house. Instead I played a bit of Halo and watched repeats of TopGear and QI on UKTV gold... Most enjoyable!

Thursday, and work was good. In the evening it was business as usual at the Packhorse. Lank picked me up for about 8:00ish and a good evening was had by all. Lank dropped me back for about 12:15am and I again, went to bed.

Friday... Friday was a good day at work as well. I raced around, did all I could and left at about 3:30pm. Mother had gone to Scotland that morning, so when I got home, it was the start of a weekend to myself! In the evening though, I went to Sweet Chillies restaurant with Selena, Kieron, and some of their friends for my sisters birthday (which is actually tomorrow) I drove Kieron and selena, and Steve and his girlfriend there and back, and therefore couldn't drink...

... Bugger.

Afterwards I ended up back at Selenas for a bit before coming home and going to bed, completely, and utterly, sober!

I awoke Saturday and just lazed about the house. I didn't do much, and didn't go anywhere particularly exciting... Selena turned up after having her hair cut, and we started talking about next saturday, which is ladies evening at the Chateau Impney. The theme this year is "Moustaches and Tiarras." Now I have a 'tash and beard so I could, if I so desired do nothing... But there's no fun in that! So I had a bit of an experiment... I wanted to really emphasise the 'tash, and so, with some eyeliner-pen to mark out the shape, I re-cut my 'tash!... want to see it?

... Well tough! you're going to see it anyway!

Ha ha! Yep! I shaved out the middle bit of my beard (though kept it at a #1) and left the sides. I thought I might kep it for later on that evening, but decided to just cut it back to a #1 as well, so that it all matched again... You see i noticed that it was how Lemmy from Motorhead has his 'tash and that was appropriate...

... Because I was going back to the NEC with Father and Mr. Mike Parlett to See: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Motorhead, and Alice Cooper!!! Now I have seen Motorhead before at the Carling Academy in Birmingham. But I have always wanted to see Alice Cooper live... We got to the NEC for 7:00pm-ish and got free parking all thanks to a little trick that Mr. Parlett knows because his brother works at the NEC as a steward.

I wont bother trying to explain in words what it was like. Well, OK, maybe one word: "LOUD"
Now I was further away than I was from the Foo Fighters, and so photographs were tricky to do in the low light... So you will have to do with my poor quality video's dear reader...

Well, at least this explains the title of the blog! Joan Jett's one and only recogniseable hit!

Ace of Spades by Motorhead.

Poison by Mr. Alice Cooper...

And Schools Out! The show topper!

Ah, what a night! After the show we beat most of the crowds and got out for a reasonable 11:15pm!. I got home for around 12:00midnight and had some supper before going to bed.

Ah. Sunday. I really should have blogged for you reader, but I was busy... At the Legion! where I was working from 2:00pm until 7:00pm, just to help them out for poppy day. After a long (but enjoyable) haul at the Legion, I went home to get changed, and got down to nans as usual. Me and Selena left early though since we had to go and pick mum up from the airport as she was flying back in from Glasgow. We left at 9:45pm and I shot down the M42. We parked up and were stood inside arrivals for 10:15pm where mother appeared about 10 minutes later. I shot back home, Selena left from my house and everything was hunky-dory...

... So that is that, and it is where I will leave you, dear reader...

TTFN