... On a horse with no name!

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

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...

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?

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

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.)