Remember remember the thingy of whatsit.

Hello readers and let me start by appologising for being slightly overdue creating this little blog. My reason is that my time has been rather spare this week, but I will start at the begining...

... Last Sunday me and Father went to the MPH06 show at the NEC. We arrived early and went round the classic car show first with father saying things like "I used to own one of those" and "I remember when you'd see these delivering the milk!" you know the sort of thing... After the 5 halls worth of Ford Anglia's and Triumph Stags we got to the show hall where the MPH show was. It was like being on the set of Top Gear whilst tripping on acid... Millions of pounds worth of vehicles and stalls, each competing to be the loudest or most colourful exhibit. I took around 30 photo's, but for the sake of my time (and your sanity) I have only posted you a select few...

The first thing you notice when you enter is a stand devoted to the loudest vehicles on the road. That is to say the loudest sound system, not engine noise... The UK's current record holder is a chav's wet dream on wheels. A proper bass-heavy, super-thunder-mega-blaster sound system with an engine and a steering wheel... Naturaly I took a couple of pics'



Right, see where the passenger seat should be? See all those black things? They're amplifiers! Now it's all very well having a sound system that would repel an army, but sheer power is nothing without something to squeeze it through....

Now I would forgive you if you thought that I had taken a picture of E.Ts living room, but in actual fact thats the boot. the 10 speakers are linked to 10 subs (yes, they have a sub' EACH!) and a synchroniser that has an output to a DVD system (so the lights flash to the beat, and the little screen shows pulses of colour when the music is on)

It is sheer madness... I mean, where does he put the shopping?

As I was doing the rounds of all the stands I came across 3 very special vehicles... All parked up on a single exhibit. I dont think they need any introduction...

Yey! Starskey & Hutch's Ford Grand Torrino! Cue the huge, purple, Huggy-Bear flares!

And here is the General Lee (which kept letting it's horn sound every 20 minutes) All together now "Da-da-da-da dadadada daa-daa-daa-daa!"

And my personal favorite....

It's K.I.T.T (thats "Knight Industries Two-Thousand!") from Knight Rider. Complete with working scanner and sampled voice unit so that everytime someone looked in, they would break a little beam and KITT would say something like "pardon me, but do you know it's rude to stare" in his famous voice... it was proper Bo, I tell thee.

At 11:00am it was time for the first show of the day, held in the MPH arena. Now I said that being in the hall was like being on Top gear whilst off your face, but the show!? Hell, it was like being on Top Gear, off your face on acid, with really loud music and Jeremy Clarkson shouting "POWERRR!" at you and James May pointing at you with a large colourful mango...

... Hang on I've lost my train of thought... Sorry...

We sat down (clutching a pair of 3D glasses we had been given) and the first thing I noticed was a suspended caravan to the left, a large screen centre stage, and a podium underneath it. Clarkson, James May, and Tiff Needel appeared and proceeded to wreak havoc...

They played Car Football with Vauxhall Fox's, had a 3D hologram of an Apache helicopter trying to "shoot" a real Lotus Elise, a parade of the worlds top 10 most expensive cars, strapped a jet engine to a bicycle, and a whole range of other antics (one involvig a motorbike and James May's buttocks...... Don't ask!) There was talk of a special guest at the start of the show and as the end drew near we were wondering who it could be. I thought Richard Hammond might make an appearance, but with the end drawing near there was no sign of anyone. With about 10 minutes left Clarkson called for silence and said "I'm sorry but it's time to introduce someone special... Some say, his Nipples are miniture satalite dishes..."

(The crowd now new who it was)

"... And that his skin has the texture of marmite..."

(*Big Cheer*)

"All we know is... He's called The Stig!"

Next thing we all know is there is a hell of an explosion and the Stig, driving a dune buggy shoots into the air from a hidden ramp mounted UNDERNEATH the front row of seats. The people sitting at the front must have shit themselves at the Stig's head appears from a few feet below their.. uh... feet!

He did the usual bout of stunt driving with big explosions and crazy cornering. The finale' of the show was good though... Remember the suspended caravan I mentioned? the dropped it to the floor with an explosion as the stig blasted through it in his buggy.

Afterwards our tickes got us entry to "The paddock" where all the vehicles used in the show are kept and worked on. Whilst there Jeremy Clarkson was signing autographs. He walked out just behind me and I didn't know until I saw a crowd decend on me like vultures! I turned round to walk right in to him! I told him that I enjoyed the show and he signed my copy of the show guide (which has smudged!) and let the rest of the crowd maul him for a bit.

We walked back through the classic car show and set about getting home. I got back for about 4:30pm and relaxed a bit before going down to my nans for tea.

Monday! I went to work, came home for about 4:30 and sat playing Chromehounds. I was relieved to know that Adam, Marcus, and Jenny had returned from Italy. We all went for a game of Bowling in Rubery and to have a gander at their holiday photos. I hope Adam actually updates his blog with them, they have a few good ones.

Tuesday evening was spent doing much of the same thing... Sorry, not much to blog about.

After coming home from work Wednesday (Hurrah! It's November!) I had a package waiting for me. My mask that I will be using for the Round Table's Charity Masquerade Ball. Most people will be using cheap cardboard ones but I have found a seller on eBay who does custom 17th century style replicas. It was delivered in top condition! It is a "Prince Harlequine" mask and looks really really snazzy!

In the evening I went to dads, but not the quiz.

On Thursday evening in the Swan, I started to get that gritty feeling you get in your throat when you are about to contract a raging bout of something nasty. I stuck it out for the evening but I awoke Friday morning feeling like I had just been hit by a bus! I phoned work to tell them I was not going to be in and went back to bed. I awoke periodically to dope myself with strepsils and couch medicine! at about 3:00pm I got up and faced the world. I decided I wanted something to watch because daytime TV is awful! I mustered up the strength to go in to Solihull and buy Season 2 of Transformers on DVD (well, what with the film coming out next year it has triggered my nostalgia glands!) I came back and put disk one (of the six) in and watched it right through. By the evening my symptoms had started to subside and I went for a quick drink with Adam and Marcus, joined a little later by Jenny after she had finished work.

By Saturday morning I was on the mend and had to collect my new suit from Moss Bros in Birmingham. I collected the jacket and trousers, decided on the shirt I wanted, but was unsure about the bowtie and whether or not I should wear a cumberbund. I had a look at some snazzy modern ones, since I didn't want to go looking like a grandad. I settled on a bow/cumberbund set in dark violet after about 20 minutes trying to decide. I raced home to try it all on together with the shoes I bought the other week. Selena took a photo of me in full "James Bond mode"

I look rather bewildered but thats because the bow tie is restricting the oxygen flow to my brain. The only thing wrong with the suit is the shirt. I bought it based on my collar size (17") but the body of the shirt is massive. Too big to look right so I shot down to Colliers in Kings Heath to see if they could alter it for me. They said that they could and took my measurements. I have to go and collect it next Saturday.

later it was Adams fireworks party (we hold one every year!) so I had stopped off in Kings Heath to buy a few rockets. At 7:30 Jenny and John arrived at my house. We headed off in my car to pick up Marcus and Jo. Marcus had decided that bigger was better and baught a 25 shot cube-like thing and a torpedo.... Yes readers a firework that really was the size of a torpedo. We started small, did the catherine wheels, the candles, lit the sparklers, set a couple of my rockets in to the sky and then decided to blow the crap out of Adams garden. We lit the smaller bomb first...

... Which was big and loud...

... We then lit Marcus's war-head...

... which was a multi-shot firework, it was so loud that you could feel your ear drums shaking, and so bright that you had to look away... Honestly, it was awsome! Afterwards we went to the Red Lion in Shirley for a pint. I came home for about 11:30 and watched some Transformers before going to bed.

I awoke Sunday (yesterday) and stuck on Transformers again to watch. I got through 4 DVD's and am now on the last disk! Hurrah! During the day I decide that I needed to design Selenas' Birthday cake on Photoshop. The picture will be printed and scanned by the Cake Gallery on to icing using edible inks and placed on her cake. I took a rather dodgy screen shot on my phone...

She said from the start that she wanted a musical theme to the cake so I have kept it modern and simple without being boring. In the evening I went to my nans for tea as usual and was relieved to find that "The best of Top Gear" was being shown on channel 4 as a remedy to Heartbeat... Thank god.

I was home for about 10:00 and after swigging a mouthful of cough medicine I went to bed ready for work this morning.

... And it's about there that I will leave you, dear reader. As I'm typing this, Kieron is playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on my xbox 360 and I want a go!

TTFN readers.