Used to be weekly-ish but now likely to be occasional musings
October 2010
And on we go with October (only running about 6 months behind!). I am sorry. With Xbox live, the Kinect, Halo Wars (which I'm bordering on an obsession with), going out, Christmas & NY, it's been tough to do the months justice. I wanted to get October properly because of the belter at the end but I fear I may have to dial it down. For the eagle eyed amongst you I have also added a little bit more content to some of the other sections but I'll leave you to find these.
I started the month by popping round to some new friends (well an old friend and her new partner) with my brother for a spot to eat and had a really enjoyable evening. They busted out the Lips Inc karaoke game for the Xbox which was fabulous fun. We were all 'ramping it up' with our versions which involved a fair share of crotch grabbing, knee falling, head tipping and general drama making. They are wonderful fun to be with and I hope we get to see more of them in 2011.
Not much else for the weekend really bar watching the new Robin Hood film with Russell Crowe. It was okay in a mildly entertaining form but it wasn't a patch on the Kevin Costner, Prince of Thieves which is a cracking film despite the constant moaning and "Alan Rickman stole the show" cracks that we always have to hear.
Saw The Town again with M during the week as he hadn't had a chance to see it on the Sunday of waistcoat weekend. It's such a good film that I was more than happy to check it out again. We got in some Halo Reach fire fight on the Friday along with some Domino's pizza, which I'm sure you won't need telling is a great way to spend a Friday evening.
After this we went to check out Wall Street 2, which we'd been looking forward to seeing.
I thought the original was excellent but this film was pants in my opinion. I was pretty disappointed when they showed Gecko coming out of prison and then suddenly skipped forward 7 years. I was intrigued to see him pulling his life together not just conveniently jumping forwards. Everything about the film just felt so clichéd and predictable.
Stone couldn't have been more self indulgent with his appearances as the earring wearing trader, the regular zoom fade out and streams of figures racing over the face looked tired and the story just felt uninteresting and uninvolving. Was anyone really surprised by Gecko's actions? The four of us came out thinking it would have been better left untouched.
On Saturday P and I had offered to go and watch a good friend in a musical play that she was appearing in. She is actually a client but to be honest we like her so much that she transcends the client/friendship line. It was good to do something different, I can't remember when or if I've ever been to Watford. As for the play, well it wasn't my cup of tea. I don't mind musicals but I don't like the ones where everything, and I mean everything, is sung i.e.
"Mother, what's for dinner?"
"Son, what are you asking?"
"Mother, what's for dinner?"
Imagine those mundane lines sung instead of spoken. Still, she's a lovely person and I don't for a moment regret going along to offer my support. Got caught in some awful traffic on the way back through north London, which the sat nav kindly put us right in the middle of. P used a little local knowledge and we managed to fashion a way out of the melee. Dropped her off home and headed back so that Ant, myself and Mark could head over to Biba's in Bromley.
I'd been aware of the club, having gone some years ago but I knew it was over 25's and hence wanted to wait until Ant was old enough rather than face the embarrassment of being turned away. What do you know though two weeks before his 25th birthday and I discover that they are re-fitting out the club and making it over 21's. Typical.
Anyway, so we head over there and it's a little quiet to begin with. No worries as it gave us a chance to see how the place is looking. They've clearly thrown some money at it, doing up all the bars, the sound system, the carpet - the works. The drinks seemed very reasonable and the bar staff amazingly attentive and friendly.
All it needed was some pretty girls and a few more people. However it didn't get that for the hour and a half or so that we were there. Nothing but ugly munters who could have literally been yanked from a bingo hall for the effort they'd made in their appearance.
It was hugely disappointing. Decent music downstairs, a karaoke bar and a champagne bar on the top floor. Everything was there for it to be a cracking night but unfortunately nobody was out. When we walked back to the car at 11.45ish, the roads and streets were deserted. Where was everyone? Does nobody go out in Bromley? Had there been some kind of apocalyptic event that we'd not heard about?
We can't let that be the last time we go there. So we'll have to pencil in another visit in the new year once the word has had a chance to get round.
Sunday was a lazy start with some MotoGP and a spot of Halo before Ant and I headed on to the O2 to attend the Jean Michel Jarre concert.
It had been great getting the tickets because it had encouraged me to re-listen to many of his albums, catch up on an enjoyable documentary I recorded on Sky and generally re-immerse myself in an artist that had dominated a big part of my early teens. It was quite emotional really for I had been massively into Jarre when younger and listening to the music helped 'tap' back into the feelings and tribulations that I was going through at that time. 
This was always one of my favourite pictures of Jean. I loved the contrasting colours of the red, white and blue along with gallic good looks. At a time when I didn't like the French, I always thought my embracement of him rendered me quite the cosmopolitan!.
His influence over me spanned across some very formative years from when I was 11/12 right through to 20/21. I saw the concert in the Docklands with my dad (one of the few noteworthy things he ever did), saw another concert at Wembley Stadium and is the artist for whom I own the most albums.
I read books about him, had his posters on my walls (both blue tacked on and properly framed) and even wrote to him, which earned me a signed postcard. So in the lead up to this concert, I bought another album as well as trying to expose Ant to a few of the albums so the music wasn't completely alien to him.
We drove to the venue and after having done some internet research discovered that you could park in the Jubilee line underground car park for £5 and it also happened to be the closest car park to the O2.
As we pulled up I saw the signs for the car park but as I drew closer I realised it wasn't the actual station car park and they were charging £20 for people to park there. I asked an attendant if he knew where the entrance to the underground parking was and he feigned misunderstanding.
Thankfully we found it without his help but it really did demonstrate the value of a little pre planning. I'd been to the O2 before but never to see a show so it was great to actually pass through the barriers and into it's beating heart. You have to applaud the organisation of the place that it seemingly handled the crowds with ease and we took a moment to people watch the various types that were coming to see the man.
It was funny seeing so many different people. I know popular artists have a wide range of fans but when I started listening to Jarre there wasn't the internet or the opportunities to share my passion/obsession with others. Nobody else at school was into him so enjoying Jarre always felt a very lonely insular thing. It certainly wasn't the kind of music that you shared or listened to with others in the car, well not then, and hence I think I always felt I was one of the few that really knew or appreciated his music.
Seeing so many other fans almost made me want to go over to them and start asking them questions just to see how deep their passion for him was.
Anyway we took our seats and the arena was impressive. They had this cool melodic piano playing and I could have sat there for some time drinking in the building atmosphere, the chilled music and just taking in the vast space that the arena encompassed.
The concert started with Jean running up onto the stage from the back of the arena meaning he got to slap hands and touch skin with his fans as he headed up to take his place.
The music was good, the lights and lasers were impressive and you could feel the audience swell when he dropped some of the big numbers like Equinox, Oxygene and Rendezvous. The laser harp looked particularly cool being in a confined space.
Overall, it was a great experience and a lovely present. I hadn't got to the arena to see Michael Jackson, so for the impact that Jarre had on my formative years I don't think there is anyone else I would have liked to have broken my O2 virginity.
I saw a great quote during the week. I think it was on a website I sometimes look at called passive aggressive. It just seemed to be a random picture but I thought the message was very telling.
I'd taken the Monday off due to the late night at the concert. Granted that sounds a bit gay. Usually on a Sunday I stay up ridiculously late even when working the next day but it was nice to see the concert knowing I could lay in and have a lazy one. Back at work it was still busy and my evenings were filled with late night walking and a concerted effort to reduce my daily food intake. This being made slightly harder with the increasingly cold weather.
Friday was a quite one so we decided to give Ong Bak 3 a go. It's been some time since I've since a Tony Jaa film and though the 2nd was bearable, I hoped this might be a return to form. Unfortunately it wasn't. We'd hired it on DVD as it didn't even make it to the cinema. It was self indulgent nonsense. Okay you might not expect a great deal from the story but the fight scenes were disappointing. I fear that the bright light that was Tony Jaa may be fading. He needs to get over to Hollywood and make a big splash before it's all too late.
Saturday was a long walk, a little shopping and a haircut before Mark headed on over. We did our usual night of ridiculously concocted shots mixed in with some frantic Halo multiplayer replete with verbal abuse and much killing.
Grabbing the white beads, which are now a mainstay of an evening out for me and now doubt encouraged by the guys from Jersey Shore, we headed on down to Affinity. We did try chatting to some girls but they seemed dis-interested so we tried to concentrate on having a boogie ourselves.
When we came out to get our cab home there were these two lovely looking girls who asked what the direction Dartford was in. It was a cold evening, they were wearing very little, their shoes looked uncomfortable and Dartford is about 3 miles away. Having the cab there we decided to be chivalrous gentleman and get him to run them home. Hell, you never know what a good deed might reap.
Ant travelled along with them as Mark and I started jogging the 2.5 miles home. He picked us up later and said that although they were grateful there hadn't been any opportunities to exchange numbers. Stupidly I should have given them a card and told them to swing on by if they were interested but of course I didn't and well I guess we did the right thing.
The following week was another busy one interspersed with planning for the approaching Halloween weekend. We decided that we were going to try to fully embrace it and sort out some decent costumes. I did my usual taking it to the next level and after much thought and mulling over decided to utilise the hooded fingerer robe and become Death.
To that extent I tracked down a company in the states that did these amazing face masks that were latex creations glued to a full head sock. The jaw was separate from the skull and with an additional sponge under the chin could give the impression it was moving it you started talking.
They looked so cool and also did these matching gloves that again were realistic looking latex stuck to a material glove. The company that makes them is called Zagone Studios and actually made the latex nun masks that appear in the brilliant film, The Town.
I tracked down a UK supplier and after entering some email correspondence decided to bite the bullet and get them. I think with the mask and gloves it came to about £60 - £70 but you know how I get.
I love the challenge of creating something spectacular so I also looked for and ordered a full height scythe. Unfortunately this item was out of stock and they didn't bother telling me this until after Halloween.
I gave much thought to what I'd wear underneath the robe and how I would go about drinking when fully masked up. As ever my colleagues were all up to the challenge of pandering to my mind rambles. I decided that underneath the robe I'd go for a full lycra catsuit. Similar to the red one the HF had but this time in black with full arms and a turtleneck line. My goal was to not have any visible skin and I thought I could also then wear the belt with the diamond skull on it that I wore on BGT. All of this sounds quick and easy but if you know me, you can imagine that it took a week of research and planning.
During the week I'd been also researching where we could go to showcase these outfits. The catalyst for doing something had been a DJ that we know was doing a party locally and had requested back up. As it turned out that didn't go ahead, so we decided to hit a local bar/club on the Friday as a test run for the Saturday. Trouble was deciding what to do for the Saturday, which had to be the tent pole.
There were certainly some events going on in London but as with everything it's hard to know what was going to be good and what wasn't. Of course there was also the point that whilst we were happy making an effort but would anyone else?
I stumbled across a big event sponsored by Lynx that was taking place at Alexandra Palace. It was happening on the Saturday night, which was actually Halloween and had Halloween in the title of the event. Trouble was it had guest stars such as Roll Deep and Aggro Santos which concerned us that maybe it would be full of teeny boppers, who wouldn't have made an effort and we would look ridiculously out of place.
I investigated a little further, trying to see if the event was getting any buzz on the net. I even phoned Ally Pally to enquire as to whether it was going to be themed around Halloween. They assured me that it was. I even registered online to enter a competition to win some free tickets. Amazingly I actually won, though I had a sneaky feeling they were simply giving them away.
With all this info I took the idea to my brother to see what his thoughts were. He was strangely reluctant, fearing (quite understandably) that the kind of crowd that would turn up for the likes of Professor Green etc wouldn't appreciate the fancy dress.
In the end he came round. Mark sounded up for it and I think this, along with the fact they were talking about numbers of people going in the 000's, was enough to make him think well at least there will be people to show off to.
On that Saturday went off to see my Granddad who was in hospital after a fall. Ant and I went along stopping along the way to pick up some food, provisions etc. We bowled in with our usual high energy to try and make a noticeable and positive impact. It was good and we've both been a little remiss in spending time with them.
At family functions I don't feel that I have the same rapport with them that I used to have when I was younger and conversation seems frustrating for both of us, i.e. ourselves and our grandparents.
Granddad though seemed just as sharp and if I'm honest we wish we'd had more time with just him and ourselves. It's like he seems to be able to 'cut loose' a little more with us than when other members of the family are there. Anyway, we did a couple of hours with them and then headed down to the brand new Sainsburys in Crayford.
First off we were looking in Hobbycraft for some bits to help augment our outfits. For myself I wanted some braid to go round my waist to keep the robe closed and for my brother some red spray paint to make some black shoes of his, well red.
It was then over to the Sainsburys, which I have to say looks cool. They've put in another floor and opened it right up with clothing and all manner of other departments. It's pretty lame to be excited at being in a new Sainsburys on a Saturday afternoon but you've got to take the highs where you can.
After watching Man vs. Food and checking out my hamburger website AHT.com, I'd decided I'd wanted to have a go at cooking my own burgers. I was tired of buying fresh or frozen ones that when cooked shrink to a third of their size and hoped that if I made some monsters, they would fit properly within a large bap rather than having the impression of a ravioli i.e. all bun and no meat.
I'd looked online to see what it was you were meant to add - breadcrumbs, egg, onions but got no definitive answer. I spoke to the butcher in Sains who was great and he said, just take some normal quality mince, squash it together into balls with your hands and just fry that. No need to add all that other shit.
So we got some mince, baps, onions, Monterey Jack cheese, bacon and these fabulous chicken in batter nuggets things. I had fresh oil and frozen chips from Waitrose at home, so the chip angle was completely covered. Whilst in the drink section we got a text from Mark saying that his parents had unexpectedly gone away and he had a free house if we wanted to head round.
We jumped at the chance and called him to say we'd be round in an hour. Hurried to get the rest of our shit, bombed home to grab all our other crap (clothes, the fryer etc) and blasted on over to his gaff.
I loved the impromptu nature of it all. From nothing a night had materialised and we intended to run with it. With Halloween approaching a horror film fest seemed the only, and most sensible choice, to adopt. Mark had resisted watching Paranormal Activity for the number of times that he spent in the house on his own when his folks went away but this was the time that he said he'd give it a go.
Unfortunately our local video store had been all out of them when we popped in en route, the local blockbuster to Mark didn't have them so in a hugely impressive and commendable feat to the cause of the evening both Mark and my brother drove to Bluewater to buy a copy on DVD. Mark had only been working there two hours previously, so stepping back into the lions' mouth to provide entertainment for the evening is a great example of commitment to the 'moment'. Whilst they did this I prepped the homemade burgers, got the buns ready and prepped the oil within the Kenwood DF380 deep fat fryer. Man, the burgers were good. Surprisingly juicy and succulent with the cheese, bacon and onions lifting it even higher. Naturally the fresh chips were equally tasty.
It was great to stay up all night watching horror films. I know when you grow older you should grow out of that but I don't think I ever will and it was such the perfect timing what with our plans for the following Halloween weekend.
After the standard lay in and cooked breakfast, we left Marks to head over to B&Q's to source a small plastic hose so that I would have something to drink from. The plan, or at least vague thinking, was that I would struggle to drink with the full mask on so with a mixture of sellotape and elastic bands affix a little tube going from my mouth underneath the mask, round my neck, over my shoulder, down my arm and into the palm of my hand.
I could then extend the pipe out a little, place it in a glass and take a drink without ruining the look. I also thought it would be hilarious if you saw my hand go over a glass and the level of liquid fall with no explanation as to why. Of course we couldn't be sure that this would work but we did have the Friday night as a means of a test run so we could see if it did.
Unsurprisingly, the week running up to Halloween was a bit of frenzy. Even with my outfit sorted there's always little ways that I feel I can add to it plus I was still waiting for my scythe to arrive. After having almost resolved myself and helped Ant, we turned out attention to Mark's outfit.
I did some research and found this cracking site from where he got this wicked looking mask and machete so he could be Jason Voorhees, the relentless killer from the Friday 13th films. We found some other sites from which we could build a decent reconstruction of the outfit needed. The look was that of dark trousers, dark shirt a jumper and then a green jacket/coat with a collar.
P with her astonishing web hunting skills found an army surplus store which sold the kind of shirts/jackets that looked perfect. A quick call to them and they confirmed they had the jacket in stock and could deliver it the next day. That Friday using an assortment of tools that P had brought in such as a bradle, Stanley knife and nasty looking saw along with some brute force, we went to town 'fucking up' the jacket.
The serrations on the saw were great for distressing the jacket and giving the impression that it had been torn by trees branches, which as you well know surround the Crystal Lake resort from the films. We then stained it with some used tea bags and applications of the snazaroo gel blood I'd bought during the week. We got some great marks by sticking it on my hand and then grabbing the jacket. By the time we were done, it looked fabulous.
I put the finishing touches to the cover of the special CD I'd put together for the nights, with much thought having gone into the songs to go on the playlist. Here are some of the belters that we went for:
The man comes around, Devil in disguise, Bad moon rising, Devil woman, Cry little sister (from The Lost Boys), Highway to Hell, Ghostbusters, Thriller, She Wolf, Beautiful monster, Saw theme (dancy mix) and many more. Mark came round and my brother came up and we began putting the pieces together of our respective outfits.
I had the base layer of the black lycra body with some black makeup across my eyes so that the whiteness didn't show through the eye holes in the masks. I also then applied the same dark makeup to Mark's face and neck so that you couldn't see any normal skin underneath his hockey mask.
My brother was having an awful time with the jigsaw mask, primarily because it had gotten bent in travel and despite our efforts to heat up the latex and remould it with newspaper and letting it cool, we couldn't get the bridge of the nose to recess properly back into the mask. It looked ok from the outside but it meant that it wouldn't sit flush-ish on his face and in turn making it harder for him to see out.
We sorted out the rest of our crap and then had some photos taken, some of which were real belters. Got a cab up to Affinity for the Halloween party they had there. The bouncer, the tall fat Samoan looking one, acted like a real arsehole by demanding that we lift our masks. We understood the need for that but literally as we were removing them, he demanded it again virtually shouting.
I so wanted to say "alright mate, I'm taking it off for fucks sake. What do you think I'm going to do? Put all this on and then kick off a fight?" What a prick he was. We moved inside, for which they still charged us the £4 entrance, even though we were the only punters in fancy dress, and we made our way to the bar.
The two got a drink in whilst we fielded all the stares that were coming our way. The bouncer then came over and complained to Mark that he had to remove the fake blood from the machete because he couldn't get it off his gloves where he'd had to check that it wasn't real!
We did our best to put that arsehole behind us and concentrate on having a good time. The bar was only about half full but we chatted to some people both upstairs and downstairs. They did have a photographer in but as ever he was more interested in taking pics of some girls that had put a dab of colour in their hair rather than the three guys who looked like they'd stepped off a film set.
My brother won a bottle of champagne for the best outfit, which I guess in all reality, was just between the three of us. We ended up giving it to a couple of pairs of girls as we couldn't really drink it. We left there a bit grumbly. To some extent it had served a purpose and allowed us to see what did and didn't work.
I'd considered taking a bag tied round my waist of sweets and badges but I realised this didn't work and shelved it for the Saturday night, along with the drinking pipe. I'd put it in place but I didn't want to run the risk of it dribbling drink down the tube and also the hassle of trying to keep it in my mouth. So that got binned as well.
Come the Saturday night and we'd improved Marks mask so it sit better on his face, along with affixing his wicked looking machete to his belt so his arms could be free. We also did our best with my brothers outfit. Although our outfits were better, we still were a little unsure of how the Lynx all-nighter would pan out but we loaded up the car with drinks, sweets, spray and smellies, the CD and the tom tom and headed off.
The tom tom took us a little round the houses but we did pass through inner London where there were loads of people out in fancy dress which really stoked us up. It was great to see others that had been making the effort and we arrogantly knew that if we got out and mooched around in our outfits, we'd look just as good.
After stopping for a piss in a garage in central London, well Mark and my brother went in for one and Mark actually thought it better to go in wearing the Jason hockey mask rather than having a 'blacked up' face, we eventually found Alexandra Palace. Worryingly there didn't seem to be masses of people or cars in the car park, which was disappointing considering how big the event was meant to be.
Still, we applied another dousing of deodorant and got our bits together. Paula had found this amazing fruit juice that came in these realistic looking blood bags, so we sunk one of them and headed on in. I think we were all a little nervy of what we'd find, especially when we got the remove your masks again, which was spoken a little gruffly. Once we'd got through the checks and shown the tickets we 'formed up' in the main foyer.
They'd done it pretty coolly with a couple of big skulls and some coffins and tombstones. There still weren't masses of people but we were here and the night had to be embraced. Another quick pop to the toilet where we tried to negotiate our first contact with some guys but they were good spirited and once that was done, we decided to have a good wander round.
From the previous night, and indeed other nights where we've worn fancy dress, the attention we received at this event was amazing. Practically everyone that walked past commented positively or wanted to have photos taken with us. What was nice as well was that instead of the snatching a quick shot and then turning away as if we weren't needed so many people were really polite.
They'd come up, compliment us on how good they thought the outfits were and then ask if they could have a picture. You could really see in their eyes that they wanted one and then were really grateful when they'd got the shot, thanking us and wishing us a good night. It was so refreshing for people to be so friendly and so well mannered.
There were moments when we'd stop and two of us would be being photographed with some people, whilst the other was in different photos with someone else or even when people would patiently wait for others to have their photo done before then asking if they could have a quick one.
There was none of this grabby, trying to snatch any of our outfits and it really felt that in the main people were thoroughly impressed with the efforts we'd made. We were even asked to do one of those vox pop style 'shout outs' for a camera crew.
We considered getting a drink but they were operating this ticket scheme meaning you had to queue to get a stub and then queue at the bar to get a drink. We decided against this, thinking the reduced visibility and 'closeness' of our outfits would be too much for the bar huddle. Instead we decided to throw some moves on the huge dance floor. There certainly wasn't the 10,000 people that the organisers had hoped would be there but I'd say there might have been about 2,000.
Even on the dance floor we were still getting attention and photo requests which were great. Some of the girls that were coming over were amazing and would never have even looked at us if we weren't in the fancy dress. I guess the question is, is this a good thing or not? Personally if a grade A honey is going to come over and want something from me for a change, I've got no problem with that.
Some of the highlights would have to be these two Indian girls that came over and wanted a picture. They smelt mesmerising and were so damn fine. We also had another bunch of girls that had equally made an effort and I know my brother said he got pleasantly close to one of them in the photo clinch.
We went outside a couple of times to catch some air and cool down. It was warm under my robe but my brother had on a suit, waistcoat, shirt, bow tie and gloves along with the latex mask and hence was sweating like a dog. Mark was the same but unbeknown to me, he was also battling with a cold that was adding a running nose to his facial sweat.
We took some pics in the foyer and had some more interactions with other people before enjoying some more of the acts on stage. As the evening wore on, the numbers did begin to thin but it was incredible the amount that would see you and come rushing over because this was the first time they had clocked you all night.
We had a bunch of girls come over that we started to have some fun with. They seemed to love our dancing and particularly when I set them up for the reveal of what was under my robe. I liked leaning in and telling them that I had something wonderful and then as I opened it to reveal the diamonte skull I could hear them scream out.
We did try chatting to them but unsurprisingly it was pretty hard through the masks. Still, all three of us tried to show them a good time even when others would come over for photos etc. I'd taken some green glow sticks along and as one of them was celebrating a birthday I gave the birthday girl one. She was made up with it and there was enough to give to the other girls in the party.
It was getting late around 4ish and we thought it best that we leave before the girls did, so as to be memorable. We thought we'd done enough to have added something to their night and as we left I gave them some of my cards in case they wanted to drop us a line.
Walking back to the car, I think we were contented with how the night had played. Of course it would have been great if our efforts had led to something a little more solid and I think the build up to the night had taken something out of us but I was still happy for the attention we'd received. We'd made it an event, put in some major effort and for once got the recognition and attention that we deserved.
Sunday was a rather lazy day as you might expect. Watched a couple of episodes from the 5th season of ABDC, which included this fabulous jump roping crew called Saltare. Although their dance moves might not have been as crisp as some of the other crews such as Jungle Boogie, the fact that their routines were all completed while jumping over skipping ropes was truly sensational. The perfect way to round out the weekend involved a Domino's (what else could it be).
And that was October. Lord knows when I'll get November up but hopefully this has provided a few smiles. Take care and talk soon.
September 2010
And onto September we go.
Had a busy week at work but still managed to get in some walks and no eating days. I confess that my mind did turn to the missed opportunities of the wrestler weekend and I certainly felt it dented by desire to head out or make an effort.
Leanne was heading back to Canada at the end of the week and we agreed to meet up for a drink and some nosebag. She's a great person to be with. Possessing an engaging, magnetic personality that you can have a laugh with. We had a good deep chat and I'm really glad that I managed to spend some quality time with her before she returned.
I know saying the 'quality time' line sounds lame but I felt after investing the time to come over from Canada, she didn't seem to get a decent night out. Unfortunately Ant and I didn't seem to get round to really showing her around and I wish I'd had more time to show her the London I know.
She seemed to have such a good time when we just went out for a meal that it made me feel bad for not having made a bigger effort in showing her around. I don't mean from a romantic angle but you know me, I love the idea of making a difference to people and showing them a good time.
One gets so used to people being blasé about everything and not wanting to admit to being excited or impressed in case it damages their cool that you find yourself adopting this default of 'there's no point in making an effort because people won't appreciate it and they won't be blown away as you would arrogantly believe'.
As it happens I think Leanne would have enjoyed a trip round Canary Wharf or St James park with my overblown, pompous delivery! If you're reading Leanne, I'm sorry but I still had a good time on our walk around Chislehurst.
Watched Clash of the Titans on DVD on the Friday night and it was pretty much as I'd thought it would be. Bland, generic fare. Entertaining enough to watch on a plane trip but not one that you'd remember by the time you'd made it out of customs.
Saturday was the usual tanning followed by a killer walk which must have been about 4-5 miles. Again, I appreciate that this is hardly marathon-esque but it must offer some benefit. That night, we headed round to the wedding reception of our neighbours. It was being held in the working mans club of our local village, a destination that you would never ever see me go in.
However, I've got a lot of time for H & C. They're good honest, hard working people and I thought it very sweet that they'd invited us along. So the three of us headed round. Myself, my brother and my step dad. Although they are popular people within the block, we were the only ones they invited and I just felt that they would be pleased to see us.
I know what it must be like for the bride and groom at a wedding. You've got so many people to talk to and want to have photos with etc that as a guest you feel that you don't want to take up too much of their time. They were great though and came over to thank us for showing up and they spent some time with us.
We got in some drinks from the ridiculously cheap bar and I managed to drink them out of Archers (peach schnapps). It did taste a little stale but I imagine that in a working men's club they don't get much call for Archers and lemonade! We even got our step dad to have a small tipple.
We did our bit on the dance floor to keep it moving and I did put in a couple of requests to the DJ. You've gotta love a wedding DJ. All the classic songs that you can get up and shake a leg to. I'd asked him to play Sex Bomb, which I'd promised the bride would allow me to set the dance floor alight for her. Unfortunately he didn't have the normal radio mix meaning I couldn't really hit my creative chi.
So I then requested You can leave your hat on. He dropped that and I dragged the bride to start showing off with some ridiculous sexy dancing. Unfortunately she decided that it would be fun to have a go at start to strip me. I tried to protest but it was the woman's wedding and I didn't want to be the one to play spoil sport.
So I let her unbutton the shirt and pull it off. I thought that would be enough and was very grateful for the tanning sessions I'd been on. I've far from a great body but at least I hoped that I wouldn't look like a beached whale.
She wasn't stopping though and as the music continued (I'm sure he was playing an extended version) she started to undo my belt and tug it off. I really started to protest now and struggled to hold them up but again, what was I going to do. So I let her fling the belt to the floor and hoist my jeans down. Thankfully, even she appreciated the need to keep my boxers on though it didn't stop a cheeky bastard from sneaking up behind and trying to yank them down.
By a stroke of luck, or paranoia that she wouldn't stop, I'd held onto the top of them so we didn't have a full breach but it was close! Oh well, sometimes you've got to do these things and if it added to the nights entertainment and their day then I was happy to add my own small contribution (obviously that's not a reference to the contents of my boxers!)
We headed off home after this and tried to add to our step dads experience by grabbing a late night kebab. He didn't fully embrace it but he gave it a go and having some donor meat and chips in a park on the way home, is all part of a good night.
Sunday saw another long walk and the second series of Jersey Shore starting. It looked encouraging and it was good to see the gang back together.
The final week leading up to my birthday week off was unsurprisingly busy. I do have some quietish weeks but I wanted to try to clear as much up so I didn't feel bad for leaving loads of stuff for others to do.
With Halo Reach coming out, Bungie released another live action trailer, which was an absolute belter. Here's the extended version. It really is special and further proof that if Bungie were handling it, a Halo film could be so good.
I love how it has the confidence to be so unbombastic. Setting all that action to such a melancholic piano tune adds so much more drama and emotion. When I showed it to my work colleagues one of them got a little teary eyed, whilst N was visibly blown away and asked to see it again immediately.
He won't like things for liking them sake so for him to asking to see it again, is certainly something.
Went round to a friend during the week to celebrate his birthday. I'd been threatening to make him my spag bol for years and now was the time. It went okay and they all seemed to like it but you can never be sure can you? My ego makes such a big deal about my bolognaise that they could hardly say "Christ, this is disgusting".
I also took round a Tesco finest Banoffee pie and bless him; he'd never had banoffee pie before. Now that's the kind of birthday treat you don't get everyday.
Friday was a bad lunch of Domino's where, after studying the menu, I tried to improve the Mighty Meaty by removing the onion, adding tomato and smoky bacon, which I believe takes it up to 6 meat toppings. It was certainly mighty!
We also had a Victoria sponge from Asda, which is certainly the office cake of choice. We've tried different brands, (Tesco's, Sains) and amazingly, Asda tops them all with a really light sponge and a satisfyingly generous amount of cream. I got given two tickets to a Jean Michel Jarre concert at the O2 for my birthday, which was really cool. I didn't even know that he was on tour!
Went out that night to Affinity. It was an okay night, we got drunk and I managed to rip the heel off my brown shoes. They'd served me well but they had to cope with the two mile walk home, which was a laugh as it was like walking with one flipper. For someone who said they'd never get brown shoes, the £15 purchase from Amazon must be one of my best ones.
Towards the end of the week my thoughts had turned to winning the euro lottery and what it would be like having that much money. My mind usually does when bored but it normally needs a little trigger. On this occasion it was the launch of Cunard's new ship The Queen Elizabeth. I found myself looking on their website and marvelling at the ships and what it must be like going on an all expenses cruise.
I know some are reasonably inexpensive but for me it was the thought of going upper class, dressing up for dinner, midnight walks on the decking whilst wearing a tux - are you getting the picture? They had some nice rooms although they still looked a little stuffy. I'm sure this was intentional for their clientele, so I looked to see if you could get anything better when cruising.
My word you could. Oasis of the Seas is one of Royal Caribbean ships mega cruise ships. It basically has a central atrium meaning that the rooms are effectively two 'arms' extending down the back of the ship. This naturally means that nearly all rooms, above deck that is, have a balcony either looking into the ship or out to sea.
As you'd imagine the place to be would be at the end of the arms, where you'd be double aspect, looking out towards the rear. Well their top of the range rooms are called Royal Loft suites. As the name implies they have a loft feel with a double height reception area with the master bedroom overlooking this area. Two bedrooms with en-suite, a double aspect balcony with external Jacuzzi, drop down projector for the master bedroom and flat screen TV's throughout. You can even link a couple of them up if you really want to get some people in there.
Check out this walk around
Royal Loft Suite, Oasis of the Seas
Man, this blew me away. I knew you could get some cool stuff but a double height loft apartment on a cruise ship. You could have so much fun couldn't you? As long as the ship was full with lots of people, hopefully younger ones bearing in mind the style and demographic appeal of the ship, and what a ride.
Two or three nightclubs, being able to dress up super smart if you wished. No need to drive, the chance to get pleasantly drunk. Get me two rooms, my brother, some friends and Charlie Sheen and we'll be off.
So whilst I was off, what did I do? Well, naturally I played Halo Reach, which was enjoyable. The campaign was good and at certain points you could feel the futility coming through in the atmosphere of the game. For those that don't know, Reach is a prequel, so the actual planet gets totalled by the Covenant forces. It was good fun and the ending was quite well handled. I didn't think it was quite as good as Halo 3 though.
We decided to head up to town on one of the days with M and my brother. First up was The Imperial War Museum. I'd wanted us to do something a little different but I wish I'd gone for the Science museum or similar. I liked the IWM but I think because the subject matter has always interested me, there wasn't any great stuff that surprised me.
From here we headed into the West End and into Selfridges. Considering my earlier daydreaming with lottery winning, it was the perfect place to go and slowly amble around imagining what damage you could do with a black Amex. Although I'm not a big drinker they do have some lovely looking bottles of spirits and champagne in there.
We'd been doing some work for one of our clients looking for some upper end corporate gifts. This lead to me discovering the world of decent fountain pens such as Yard-o-led etc and from this I was building the picture of me being a quintessential English gentleman replete with pen, watch etc. How ridiculous!
From our enjoyment of the Man vs. Food series (see the TV section) which is still great fun to watch, we'd done a little research to see if there were any restaurants in London that could offer that kind of food. We found a place called Bodeans which sold burnt ends, ribs, pulled pork, chicken wings, burger, fries - the works.
So this is where we headed off to after our shopping trip. The three of us got in there early, intentionally being some of the first to get a table as you seemingly can't pre-book. I tried to imbue our waiter with the sense of anticipation that we had for the meal but I think the language barrier put paid to that.
Overall the food was good. It wasn't great throughout but some bits were really good like the chicken wings, the chowder (though its presentation was a little poor), the chips and the behemoth Jacobs Ladder ribs. These were virtually pieces of steak stuck onto ribs.
We had our own little 'bonkette' meaning we could get stuck in with impunity. There was fingers and thumbs, sauces and an accompaniment of grunts, groans and "get in there's" as we'd discover more bits of cooked flesh. Man town! Headed home after this, sated, tired and satisfied.
Watched a couple of films whilst off. The apocalyptic film called The Road which in reality didn't really go anywhere and The Crazies. We'd given this consideration when it was at the pictures but seemed to miss it. Likewise when it came out on DVD, I'd read some review where it mentioned it contained a lot of shakey cam, which neither of us are a fan of.
Add to this it seemed whenever we'd tried to reserve it from the store it was always out, awaiting to be returned or the final one that it had been damaged and they were ordering in a replacement. In the end I just took a chance and went and bought it.
It was a cracking little film. Solid performances from the cast which included Timothy Olyphant and a great story. It had the themes that Romero had initially touched on in his original film but the makers had improved on those themes very well.
It had good action scenes, characters that weren't stupid and managed to keep up with what was going on and possessed that 'through the night - against the world' atmosphere that I really love when done properly. Worth checking out.
So on the Saturday we headed off to Chelmsford. One of our mates girlfriends celebrates her birthday at a similar time to ourselves and being an Essex girl wanted to head out into Chelmsford. We'd booked ourselves a room at a Travelodge and drove on over that afternoon.
I'd read loads of whingers moaning about the hotel on trip advisor but I thought it was perfectly fine. The room was a good size, clean and tidy and the shower looked decent. We dumped our crap and headed into the town centre to get our bearings. It felt like a mini break, which I guess it was.
Looked around the shops and as it began to get a little late decided to grab some nosebag. Accidentally found the same chain of restaurant that we'd visited in Maidstone a few months back for one of mates. The food was good and even at my age I still felt grown up at the self indulgent treat of a meal out.
Headed back to the room to get ready for the night out with drink chilling in a sink full of cold water. The others arrived and once we were dressed we headed over to the girls room for some pre drinks. I was on it and felt great. I was wearing my new Ed Hardy style Next boxers and with the drink inside me was on super confident chatty form.
We had the door open whilst drinking and I was chatting to any random girls walking down the corridor which seemed to elicit plenty of smiles etc. It seemed Chelmsford was up for it. Whilst the girls hopped in a cab for the ridiculously short distance to the centre we walked it, and still beat them to our starting point.
The place was busy and there was a vibrant atmosphere which myself and the others were feeding off. Moved onto another club which was a little less busy before moving to a final venue which was lacking in even more atmosphere.
Feeling the returns diminishing and the energy levels of the girls disappearing, the three of us decided to bail and find another club or similar. We managed to get in somewhere but we were all feeling pretty drunk so trying to chat anyone up was almost out of the question.
As nothing was going down, and everyone seemed to know everyone else, we hit the local Subway for a feast of dough and meat. Whilst walking back the town was still buzzing with people and we had to hand it to Chelmsford for knowing how to party.
We got back to the Travelodge and knocked for the others to see what they were doing. It could only have been 2 - 2.30 yet they were all tucked up in bed. I was astonished. Why hire a hotel room and come somewhere new to then go out until about 1.00am then head back to your room to get some sleep. Surely people would want to party and have fun.
Clearly not. I was disappointed in their lack of spontaneity and live for the moment attitude. Was a highlight of their night meant to be getting a good nights sleep? The three of us headed back to the room where we decided to have an impromptu wrestling match fight. Chairs and mattresses were thrown around the place whilst we carried out a series of ridiculous moves, throws and leaps, all accompanied with the relevant grunting.
At one point I managed to stack it into the wall mirror and put a crack in it. I hadn't really slammed into it, more rolled onto it but the damage was done. I thought they might take some money from the card but there was nothing. The funniest thing related to it was when I posted my review on Trip Advisor and when reading others read one miserable sod that bemoaned the lack of toiletries etc and then said "there was even a cracked mirror in our room".
I know it's hugely irresponsible and causing damage in a room isn't big or clever but it was funny to read this guy grumbling about it.
Anyway after the night before, we headed back into town to grab a full English and stave off the potential alcohol that was still in our blood stream. This was then followed with a slow drive home, a lazy afternoon, an enjoyable Domino's and a watching of Tears of the Sun.
It was hard heading back to work on the Monday. Not that I dislike my work but I'd unsurprisingly begun to enjoy a life of leisure. Cutting back on the eating and getting out for my walks was equally as hard.
Headed into town on the Thursday for some leaving drinks of a former client which was good. It's always good heading into town and feeling it's atmosphere. One of the women there even commented on my fragrance (white musk sport) which amazed me because no one has commented on my 'scent' for years.
I used to get comments on my aftershave when younger but recently nobody says anything to the point where I wasn't sure, and still aren't, whether I don't put enough on or what I do put on simply isn't very nice.
We were building up to another big night and this time is was WW. Waistcoat Weekend. It started out as us looking for the worst waistcoats we could find but then it seemed to materialise into looking for some decent ones. I seemed to be on eBay for a good weeks trying to hoard a collection of decent ones without paying through the nose.
So Friday came and we headed down to Marks again and started the 'break' with a Domino's which will come as no surprise. The Hangover was about halfway through so made for a perfect accompaniment as we did our thing. I'd seemed to have gained a couple of mouth ulcers which as you can imagine far from helped my enjoyment of the pizza.
We then checked out a film called Defendor. It's a really interesting one to pigeon hole. You could say it was Forrest Gump meets Kick Ass but I don't think that would do it justice. It's certainly different, thought provoking and touching. We did then follow this with Kick Ass. Such a quality film, thoroughly entertaining and totally enjoyable. The absence from seeing it had not diminished it's appeal or lessened the experience. Brilliant.
As ever and in the relaxed fashion that a weekend at his entails, we went to bed late and got up late. We mooched around during the day and played some system link Halo: Reach as Gears still wasn't working. It was good fun and carried us through to the evening when we started to get ready for our night out. We all had white t-shirts, our beads and our waistcoat of choice.
We started hitting the drinks and Matt turned up looking like Michael Buble. After some deathmatch COD and a hearty glass of the Ron Ron juice that my brother had created we jumped in the pre booked cab. Matt had also bought down some glasses which we kitted ourself in.
First stop was Cala reds for a couple of firewater's to kick the night off and we gave each other names for the evening. Obviously we had Michael Buble, Mark's waistcoat was predominantly blue so he became BMG (Blue Man Group), my brother's was very Chinese with a red background and golden flowers/dragons so he became Daniel Son and as my waistcoat had been described as looking like the interior of an old Nissan Micra, so I became Mr Nissan.
We moved onto Moons and had some fun in there. My brother disappeared off to hook up with some old school friends. It was good for him to see them as it had been some years but it did mean we didn't see him for most of the night which was disappointing. Thankfully the dynamic wasn't hugely affected as there were still three of us.
We'd still been hitting the drinks and then moved over to the Roadhouse, where we hooked back up with my brother. He was looking drunk and I was certainly feeling it. On the cab journey back I felt decidedly unwell and concentrated on my breathing and keeping it together. Once I got in I had to hit the downstairs toilet.
With my head leaning on the rim, I waited for the inevitable. Nothing seemed to come and fearing the worst thought I would remain there for a little bit. About 15 mins one of the guys checked on me and apparently I was passed out on the toilet floor.
My brother was faring even worse and was sprawled out on the kitchen floor next to the dining table. His shirt was off and when I staggered back into the kitchen he'd been sick where he lay. I headed back to the toilet thinking it best if I make myself sick before anything else. Amazingly the other two cleared up my brother's chunder and made sure he was okay which was just heroic.
After I'd taken care of business I went back to where he was and couldn't work out where the chunder had gone. He was too hammered to get up so I lay down on the cold tiling to make sure he was okay. What a picture, two drunken brothers lying on the kitchen floor together.
After about an hour or so I woke up feeling very cold and stiff and dragged him, and myself, up to bed.
Needless to say that the next morning I felt a little rough and a little guilty that the others had had to bail us out the night before. I also felt bad that Matt had come all the way down but not really had a belter of a night. What a night. Mark who'd kept it in the night before ended up blowing in the morning so it was only Matt, in typical fashion, that kept his cool. I whipped us up some breakfast for us and after Matt headed off we had a very lazy day.
Finished the weekend off by checking out The Town at the cinema. As you know I was aware of the trailer and was keen to check it out after Ben's previous directing work on Gone baby gone, which is an outstanding film.
The Town didn't disappoint, it was brilliant and one of the best films of the year. Good story, acting, tight direction with great action scenes that didn't require the camera to shake around to add a little drama. Ben really is a fine director in my point that's really going from strength to strength.
I've always liked Ben. Even when he was getting slated for some of his roles, I've enjoyed the magnetism that he has as an actor. I think his wife, Jennifer Garner, has been a really positive benefit to him.
Finishing off by returning to the film, it's one of the best I've seen this year and I'm sure will be making an appearance on my DVD shelf.
And that's it. Only what three months late and hardly worth the wait.
See you when I next post.
August 2010
So let's crack on with August shall we?
I continued apace with the cutting back and the evening runs/walks. At one point I was even managing to jog for like a solid 10/15 minutes. I concede that isn't all that impressive but it was only at the height of my gym attendance a few years back that I could maintain a constant jog on the treadmill.
The UK Air Guitar championships were taking place in August and I did give it some consideration. I had spent some time thinking what new thing I could bring to it. I even considered going in the wrestler outfit hidden under the robe and bursting out to a Spanish/Mexican themed musical piece.
In the end I decided against it but having slipped the wrestler outfit on, and it feeling awesome, I decided to see if the guys wanted to go for a wrestler night in the UK. I got some bites with three of us agreeing to don the outfits while another would source elements from the US to act as the referee.
Saw the latest Tom Cruise film, Nights and Days at the cinema and it was great. It was hokum but it was entertaining, engaging and Tom was just the man. So cool, so calm, such a lead. I'm not a huge fan of Diaz and to be fair had virtually dismissed seeing it because of her involvement but she injected her character with fun. Some of Tom's lines like "I'm the guy" and "through and through, no bone, no artery - it's all good" were repeated a lot during the following weeks.
As a company birthday present for Paula, we took Biscuit to have a studio photo shoot with David, the excellent photographer who I got to know through his photos from the Air Guitar championships. We'd done one the previous year in a local park but they hadn't turned out great and as David had said he could now get use of a studio, we went for it.
Driving into London (the studio was close to Chancery Lane) on a Sunday was surprisingly busy up to a point and then deathly quiet. We must have been there for a good 2 or 3 hours with both David and Biscuit being very patient. I think we got some belting photos that really captured the beauty of what M calls "a fine looking beast"
Paula was off work the following week so it was quite intense. It's not that I couldn't cope but M & P are such a good team that it's more the fear of something unknown cropping up and me managing to balls it up, that is unnerving. It was busy and productive.
Friday night was The Expendables along with a trip to GBK before the film. It's amazing just how many people hit Bluewater on a Friday night. I know some say that Friday is going out night and Saturday date night but no one seems to be reading that playbook because everywhere seems to be simply heaving on a Friday night.
It's always a little depressing if I'm honest. There I am 'geeked up' getting ready to see a film that I've been looking forward to for a good few months whilst so many others are out with women who seemingly have made an effort to look good and have a nice evening. I guess the reality is probably a little different.
The guys are no doubt having to contend with a 50/50 chance that their girlfriend is in a mood or that they are being dragged to a romcom because there would be no way that the GF would entertain seeing a film that the guy might want to check out.
GBK was enjoyable but unfortunately the film didn't deliver on the expectations. I know many will say that a film never can but Rambo certainly did, so I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for a good film. It was entertaining but I didn't think it was as good as The A Team.
The shaky cam was frustrating for hiding a lot of the fighting. The story was a little poor and though you don't watch it for that, when you are finding it hard to see what's going on during the action scenes, you notice it even more.
Statham seemed very comfortable and really showed how at ease he is with the Hollywood set. It was a very blokey film and was enjoyable. It's just that on mild analysis it falls a little short and wasn't for me as complete a film or study of a good unit as The A team was.
Managed to get in some tanning the next day along with another long walk and that evening started to get blasted. We played speed halo with shots as forfeits and really started to feel the alcohol take effect. We had planned to just hit the usual spot in B'Heath but with the party ship firmly pulling into dock we decided to grab our beads and my HF badges and head on over to the Venue.
We got in there and burned very brightly for a good few hours. I'm talking the kind of power dancing, control the dance floor, don't give a fuck control. We weren't reckless or careering around like Sailor from Uncommon Valor but it was good to just fully cut loose. Maybe it was the effort I'd been expending in cutting back, hitting the tanning salon or the walking but I felt great in my shirt with the beads and badge swinging and thought that the confidence might be pouring off me.
The hopes that maybe this commitment to having a good time would attract the attentions of females did not though materialise and when the inevitable 'come down' manifested itself, we could be found in the smoking area slagging off the empty shallowness of so many women that surrounded us.
Bundled out of there and grabbed a cab from outside. Instead of a Ghana cab, this one was driven by a Scot who'd impressively undercut the other chaps squabbling for our business. He seemed quite sound if a little reckless in his driving, but hell, when you're pissed up and just want to get home, that's all you need!
So the next film that popped onto my radar was The Town which looked very promising. It was directed by Ben Affleck, who I have a lot of time for, both as an actor and as a director following the brilliant (and it is) Gone Baby Gone. The music in the trailer particularly caught my ear.
I discovered it was by a guy called Zack Hemsey who also did the stand out music for the third Inception trailer. I discovered he had a website and dropped him a line
"Hi Zack
Just a very quick message to say how impressed I am with the trailer music for The Town. I love it when the cello (?) comes in at the 0.48 mark. It's a shame because to be able to listen to it, means I need to keep hearing the spoken words in the trailer, and with the film looking so good the last thing I want to do is 'buff up' too much on it!
Needless to say I also thought the track Mind Heist was pretty damn impressive as well. On that occasion I wasn't as impressed with the film (one of the few seemingly). When I first heard it I thought it sounded like the trailer music used in the new Tron film. Did you work on that as well?
Anyway I won't take up anymore of your time but just wanted to pay kudos where it was most definitely deserved.
All the best"
Amazingly, he actually came back to me the very next day
"Hey Simon,
Much appreciated... Yeah, if I were you I would relax with that trailer, ha ha... At some point I will be selling that track ("Redemption") through my website (music.zackhemsey.com), but that won't be until The Town has at least left movie theaters. But I will be sure to record your email address and send out a notification when it does get released.
As far as Tron goes, no I did not do the music for that trailer - it's definitely awesome though. As I understand it, that music was done by Daft Punk, who scored the actual film.
Farewell for now, Zack"
Okay, it was hardly incredible but it really warmed me about the wonder of the internet and the power of communication, that I could hear someone's music, find them, drop them a complimentary line and they could read it and respond. It made me feel good about myself and about the world that there were some people that knew how to receive nice words being sent to them. It made the world (albeit for a fleeting moment) feel smaller and more personable.
Following this, I found another song he'd composed called Empty Room, which is great and just as good as anything Two Steps from Hell have produced. Check it out
I also discovered the programme Man vs. Food. What a brilliant, wonderful, appetising show this is. Check out my television section for my full thoughts but it's been something that I love watching, led to our seeking out a similar restaurant in London and getting the DVD for my birthday. Go Adam!
The Spartacus series came to end and we've really enjoyed it. When it first started I thought the sex, violence and swearing were masking poor writing and plotting but as it continued it seemed to get stronger and stronger with plot strands coming together with satisfying conclusions and the development of varying characters being thoroughly entertaining to watch. Hannah was a revelation.
By the conclusion, it was great to see many get their comeuppance in wonderfully violent means. We felt it dipped during the middle episodes but all it was doing was building the foundations of twists, turns and events that would resonate long after the series. Top draw entertainment and I look forward to the short prequel and the next full series which I believe starts shooting in October.
On a side note I have to say how impressed I am with Andy Whitfield, the lead actor. He battled and temporarily beat cancer, which held up the filming of the second series but I love his 'normal-ness'. This none more so demonstrated than him seeing some videos on YouTube that he thought looked cool, emailing the creators to ask if he could appear and then fitting it into his schedule. Brilliant.
Time Crisis feat Andy Whitfield
I love the fresh creativity of the Freddie Wong. Some of his other videos are just fantastic both in the originality and in how he explains how he produces these effects on such a limited budget. Amazing.
I continued building up to the Wrestler Weekend (WW) by deciding to get some leaflets produced for the night. I'd had this idea of having some flyers to jokingly legitimise the night. I had this vision of placing leaflets on tables and then someone seeing the leaflet then looking up and seeing us.
M kindly designed the flyer and then I want on Vista print to get some of the postcards printed. Unfortunately I got a little carried away and had 100 printed along with some key rings. The idea was that we'd hit Maidstone for the first Saturday as a testing run and then take the show to Basildon where we thought it would be better received.
So the weekend was a little quiet as we organised final bits and held off any major expenditure. Hooked up with Leanne and my cousin in Beckenham but it was a disappointing night. It wasn't necessarily the fault of the company but we didn't hook up with them until about 10.00ish meaning there wasn't really any time to make a decent night of it. We both felt bad for Leanne. She's come over from Canada and then has a shit Saturday night like that. Poor showing.
We spent Sunday making sure that outfits were tight by stapling, gluing and adding Velcro to our belts to make sure that everything was going to work and being secure. I'd gotten myself some cheap boxing boots that were blue and white along with some different forearm bands.
The week before WW was another busy one. The postcards arrived from Vista Print and looked really cool, though I was a little disappointed with the key rings. Printed some A3 posters at the office so I could place them around Marks to 'add' to the night. Because his folks were away, we were going to spend the entire bank holiday weekend round his which I was really looking forward. DVDs, pizza and the 'tent pole' of wrestler night.
Marks referee outfit arrived and looked great. A pucker ref shirt along with wristbands, silver whistle and rules card. Ordered plenty of food and eased down on the walking as my joints were a little achy. Hopefully I'd done enough that the lycra outfit wouldn't look too ridiculous. Also managed to get a few more tanning sessions in to bring the skin tone up a little.
WW was here and I drove down to Marks straight after work. I really enjoy heading down there. It feels like a mini holiday. Got in, stashed everything away and got a massive Domino's order in. Mark had pulled together a fine selection of wrestling matches from through the ages for us to enjoy and me to buff up on my knowledge. We mixed in a little COD and eventually crashed out around 4.00ish
Spent Saturday watching some real belters of wrestling matches. I know it maybe all arranged but you have to hand it to the guys for their athleticism and entertainment value. Some of the TNA matches featuring Amazing Red, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe were cracking along with some of the bigger ladder tag team matches. It was really stoking us up for the evening and we took a break to smash down some hot dogs.
The other two arrived and we could feel the night begin to evaporate. Despite the obvious efforts that we'd made you could just tell they weren't up for it with their moaning about being tired, how the cab had been booked too early and how they wanted to just get it over with.
I could feel the night disappearing away. It started raining forcing us to put the cab pickup back an hour or so and meaning that we probably wouldn't do the walk up from Jumpin Jaks. I could see that Mark and Ant were feeling similarly low with the depression grenade having been properly detonated.
We still tried though and got some tunes on and shots sorted whilst we got changed. Again some were only prepared to make the most minimum of efforts and when it came to collecting everything to go out we realised one had come out with only £30 whilst the other was going to buy his own drinks. Fair comment if you are feeling strapped for cash but it wasn't really an exhibition of pulling together for the team was it?
The cab arrived and he was really cool. He thought our outfits were awesome and I think it gave us a little jolt to remind us that we did look fucking good. We gave him a flyer which he thought was cool as well. He really helped to lift our spirits and when he dropped us off he told us that it was one of the best drops he'd done for some time.
As we walked up the disappointingly empty road in front of Moons a group of lads clocked us. One of them asked what we were and before we had a chance to respond, one of his mates piped up "you've got the wrestlers, the ref and the ring announcer". Excellent, at least we weren't going to be confused with something else.
Headed round to Cala Reds where we all took down some Firewaters and I had to take my down through a straw which was little tricky. It was a little empty in there, which was a tad worrying but what the hell, we were in it now. A couple of girls came over and wanted a photo with us and one of them smelt absolutely lovely. I told her and she responded with a sweet thank you before heading back to the gang.
We also got chatting to this army guy who was out with his girlfriend. He was stoked with our outfits telling us how cracking we looked. He even asked Ant when he saw him in the toilet later whether we were part of the forces because he'd only seen that kind of 'tight crew' effort when he'd gone out with his fellow soldiers. He was a nice guy and it was quite handy to know that we'd befriended a soldier if anything kicked off!
We headed round to Moons and even though our outfits rocked, they still wouldn't waive the entrance fee. I didn't actually have any money on me because neither mine, Ant nor Matt's outfit had any pockets. We got in there and there was the initial mixture of people looking surprised and others doing their very best to ignore the fact that they'd seen us.
We handed out some leaflets along with passing one up to the DJ who was pretty cool in that he waited until later in the evening before reading out all of the names on the flyer - The Mexican Hurricane, Big Red, GI Joe and Dwayne 'The Justice' Cooper. At one point, I did get my dreamed of vision of someone casualy looking at a leaflet on a table, then looking up to clock us and then down again at the leaflet in surprise.
We had some people wanting pics along with the usual small minority that came up and just wanted to have our belts or masks. One girl after just demanding an item seemed to try to throw a drink over a couple of us. Some people eh?
The sweet smelling girl from Cala Reds turned up again and came over, which made my day. She was called Cairo and was this lovely light brown skinned honey. We chatted a little but I couldn't hear a great deal and well, my game wasn't that tight at that point. I could feel that some of us were bored and going through the motions and that was still resonating with me.
She headed off with her mate but said she would come back later. We then decided to move upstairs to see what was going down. It was okay but the club seemed less busy than normal and with one of us constantly texting their girlfriend we just weren't a tight team. We found some other girls who we tried to have a laugh with. I then felt my WWE belt come off, which sucked the fat one. I'd stapled it, taped it and planned out where the Velcro needed to go but it seems the one place where I hadn't put a staple is where it came loose. What a pisser, it just meant I had to hold on to it, which kinda impeded the night even more.
We headed back downstairs and though we got smiles nothing noteworthy. Maybe the dynamic of five of us is too much for people to think of interrupting. Maybe without realising it, we are presenting our own ring of steel.
Our return cab which had to be a people carrier because of the number of us was booked for 3.00 so we headed over to Roadhouse. Strangely the night seemed to improve a little. I don't know if feeling we were in the final stretch or just thinking the quality of night had been blown added something else but it picked up a little.
I bumped into the lovely smelling Cairo girl at the bar. God she was hot but unfortunately in the interim she'd picked up some other guy. She was though happy to chat to me for a good five minutes and I could feel there was some real chemistry going on. My game had returned and I was playing a good mix of wild flirtation and fun. I'm not being cocky but if she hadn't made her bed with this other guy, I think there could have been some sparks.
She did keep pestering me to see my face but I didn't want to disappoint her, or anyone else that asked. Besides, although I didn't say it to any girl I should have asked "why are you worried about my face, surely the fact I'm making you laugh is more important than looks"
We moved further round the club and after one of the guys decided that he was going to spend the remaining half hour outside, we carried on trying to make something. I could see some of us were flagging but my brother and I carried on charging and I think he instigated some conversation with another couple of girls by some sofas. I went into clown/entertainer mode with them and strived to get them laughing and having fun.
Eventually we decided to leave and hook up with the cab. As we walked down the hill I saw the two girls that I'd been joking with right at the end of the night. I thanked them for the laugh and they said to me "why are your mates so miserable?" - That summed it up didn't it? Out wearing that kind of outfit and people are thinking some of us are morose.
If you are going to go out like that, you've got to be high energy all the time, otherwise you look a chump and that unfortunately was ultimately how the night had played out. All the effort, all the flyers, expense, food, wrestling videos for a night that could have been so much more.
We headed home in the cab in virtual silence and I could feel the frustration building inside of me. I think Basildon would have responded more favourably and think we'll have to pencil it in for next year. Once we got in some of us hit the sack but my brother, Mark and myself stayed up to watch the UFC event that was on that night featuring Randy Couture. Randy did the business and put his man down with a submission.
Sunday and it was tough to get up. The detritus of the night and the outfits were on the bedroom floor and none of us had come back with anything. One of us was desperate for a cooked breakfast so I got up and obliged everyone, including myself, with one of my monsters. Another one headed off, leaving just the defiant three and we spent the afternoon and evening watching some films.
We kicked Mark off with Bubba Ho-tep which both amused and depressed him with its blend of off kilter humour and apathy of getting old and dying alone. It was good to see again and still really is the best film that Bruce Campbell has done. Next up was Blue Thunder, one of my favourite 80's films, that always over shadowed by Airwolf but stars Roy Schieder, a very young Daniel Stern and a long since passed Warren Oates. Great entertainment.
Followed this with Mouse Hunt, which is also such a great little film. To see Gore Verbinski who went on to direct the massively successful Pirates of the Caribbean films bash this out of the park is brilliant.
We took a break for some spag bol which I knocked up and deliberately did a load of so I could leave some for Mark's parents along with a bottle of wine and some dessert to thank them for allowing us to stay in their house whilst they were away. It was damn tasty though I did forget to put in the cream which I think made the sauce just a little too sharp.
Finished the day with Into the Night, another belter of a film and one that I discovered on my own a good few years back. I love the concept of it, guy who can't sleep (Jeff Goldblum) gets involved with Michelle Pfeiffer in her crazy little adventure. It speaks so much about the drabness and apathy of modern life being turned upside by the heady excitement of a woman. Watching it always gives me good thoughts to mull over when I turn in for the night after seeing it.
So Monday came and I think the disappointments of the Saturday were beginning to fade. We had a lay in, a lazy breakfast of a bacon sandwich and watched Uncommon Valor, what better way to finish off the bank holiday weekend?
So the wrestler night had been disappointing. Strawberry Moons to its credit had tried to help and the DJ had given us a couple of big shouts to promote us. We should have done more and I certainly should have tried harder with Cairo, especially after raising a smile when I told her how much I liked her pyramids!
Talk more when we cover September.
Hey y'all. So I'm coming up to nearly three months with no entries. And I'm sure I've managed to lose pretty much all of the very few faithful who ever swung by to see what was going on.
It's a dilemma isn't it? Stay in and sacrifice the going out/doing stuff to write about what I'm not doing or try and live what time I've got.
Don't get me wrong, the absence isn't down to the fact that I won the lottery and have disappeared on a worldwide whirlwind tour of spending, whoring and well, more spending.
However there have been some highlights that do need to be reported in due course. Some good films in The Town, Night and Days, obviously Halo 3, Spartacus, Man vs. Food, Jersey Shore season 2, some nights out where we tried to go the extra mile - Wrestler weekend, Waistcoat weekend, Chelmsford and even the approaching Halloween along with cultural trips to plays and musical concerts. And even two birthdays in between.
So I haven't forgotten this and I will try and get something down soon, if not for the people who no longer read this but just for me to read when I'm older and greyer. Keep well and be safe.
So my interest began to waver in the World Cup when Germany got knocked out. I'd really got behind them after their defeat of us but when the Spanish put them out, I just couldn't be arsed. Or at least I thought.
Hit the cinema to check out Predators on the Thursday as we we're going to be round M's at the weekend. It was ok, it had a good concept and it's certainly better than the AvP films but it did have an air of predictability to it.
It needed a real kick arse action scene in it, which I guess is why they put the pred dogs in it but you have this gnawing feeling that you were aware of how quickly or slowly they would kill off the members of the team or the predators.
In the first you had the big action scene to kill loads at the camp and then the predator picked them all off, in predator 2 you had the pred killing off loads of human and in AvP (which I'm not defending) you had either humans, aliens or preds being killed.
It felt like, to me, that I could feel how they couldn't afford to kill off a pred here or a human there. And please, the doctor was so unnecessary. Have a medic along to patch up the wounded prey but to have gone to the effort of selecting a criminal that has even been caught by the US authorities indicates that the preds would have gone way too far in securing some 'fresh meat'.
Obviously it couldn't touch Predator and I don't think it was as good as Predator 2. I'm disappointed that in the reviews & interviews they are trying to have this running straight after the 1st and ignore the 2nd one.
Although Predator 2 isn't great (Maria Conchita Alonso's acting is probably the worst ever committed to film) it does still have some stand out scenes - the penthouse massacre, King Willy in the alley, Glover's dismissive face-clap, the subway shoot out and the abattoir attack. Predators had one, maybe two.
So it did have some tension and was entertaining but if I had a choice of what to watch again over a pizza, I'd still go Predator 1 or 2.
The film company really does need to be sued or reprimanded for the blatantly misleading trailer. It shows Brady at the end standing on top of the windswept ship with about 10 red dot targets appearing on his body. At that actual moment in the film there are only two preds left!
If they can have a go at computer games for pretending to show 'actual game footage', showing deliberately false scenes, is a little naughty in my book.
Headed over to M's once again as his parents had jetted off for a weekend break. As I've said before, I really do enjoy staying round there. It genuinely feels like a mini break for me. We can chill, M (the host) is easy going and relaxed, I just love the size and the position of the house and I really feel that I can unwind.
Got down there and my brother had arrived earlier and set up the consoles for some decent link up. He had to run an update to get the latest patch for Gears of War 2 but we think there must be a bug in the patch or something because we just couldn't then see each other on the system link.
We tried everything and though it would tell us when one of the consoles was disconnected it simply refused for them to hook up to each other. I was really gutted because the last time we were round, we'd played some GOW and it had really fired me back up for some more. I even got another friend to come on down especially, as he'd never played 4 player link up GOW and unfortunately it seems never will.
I had bought Marvel Super Alliance 2 which was a 4 player game, where 4 of us could all play together on the same screen. It was okay and once we'd got the hang of it, it was reasonably entertaining but it wasn't Gears of War! We also hit the local Dominos and unsurprisingly that didn't disappoint us.
Hit the sack quite late and then had a lazy lay in on the Saturday. It was a blistering hot day and we soaked up a few rays before checking out Apocalypto. That was good to see again and its still a very enjoyable film even though there isn't a word in English.
After this we headed into the garden to soak up some afternoon rays. It was lovely and hot with almost no breeze. In a way it was great but in another really gutting that we just couldn't have anyone over. The house is so set up for entertaining and on such a barmy day with the gas powered BBQ round the corner we could have showed people a really good time.
When you see these shows/films where it seems having friends is such a piece of piss, they never seem to struggle to have people round. They seemingly get on the blower and an hour , news has spread like wildfire and you've got a mass of people, drinking out of those plastic beaker/cups. Just to have a couple of girls round who we could chill with, who would be happy to have a little fun, some drinking etc - would for once be so cool. We had all the ingredients. The house, the weather, the garden etc. Still we managed to make do chilling on our own and at one point I dozed off in one of the chairs outside.
It was probably the most relaxed I'd felt in sometime. Lying comfortable in the chair, feeling the warming sun on my body, not having to get up and do anything and drifting in and out of a lazy sleep. Would that be like what winning the lottery was like? Drifting in and out of the day whilst on the beach, by the pool or in your own cabin if on a cruise. If so, I'd like some of that bliss.
Eventually, I had to drag myself out of the garden and back into the house. We watched the 3rd round play off of the World Cup whilst we demolished some more Domino's pizza. No it wasn't the reheated remains of the previous night's adventure. We went for brand new, Dom's on two consecutive nights. It was just as tasty.
The game was pretty entertaining finishing up 3-2 to Germany over Uruguay. Followed this by watching The Thing, which M had never seen before. Still a cracking film. Sunday was much of the same with a 'light' breakfast of sausage sandwiches and a matinee performance of Mousehunt. As M's folks were heading back early we made an evac back to ours to watch the World Cup Final. I wasn't sure who I wanted to win after the Germans got knocked out but watching the Dutch play like a bunch of dirty fouling fucks, there was really only one team we wanted to win. And win they did.
The broadband had gone live that weekend and with the laptop picked up from the chap who removed all the crap from the hard drive, it was game time. A world of porn, trailers and iTunes was opening up and I probably didn't go to bed earlier than 2.00am on any of the first few nights.
We'd been watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand which started on Bravo towards the end of May. It had had a good strong start. Plenty of swearing (some unnecessary), violence (always necessary) and smatterings of sex (always welcome). It's put together on a lot of green screen and is aping the style of 300 but it works. We've got our reservations as the main lead seems to be acting like a frustrating, whiney bitch but maybe it will get better.
On Friday night we went and saw Inception. I'd had high hopes as the trailer looked good and I'd really enjoyed The Dark Knight. Umm, if I'm honest I was a little bemused by the film. I got it but I didn't feel a great connection to it. When walking out with my friends we were agreeing that we thought we enjoyed it but we weren't sure.
I think for me because of it mainly existing in dream worlds, it's hard to feel any real world threat or danger in the action scenes.
They are well filmed but you don't, well I didn't, feel any connection or a feeling of peril for the team. When you've people emptying handguns and machine guns into cars and only one person gets hit (and you feel that was added purely to add pace) it just feels a little hollow.
When the film starts in a dream, then you think you are in reality but discover it's still a dream and then think you are in reality but it's a further dream it blurs the line so much between what is real and dream that you lose a sense of grounding.
There's no real detail into Leo's life or the company orchestrating the dream walking and hence although what happening on the screen is pretty on the eye, it's not really resonating.
An example (and this is in the trailer so not hugely spoilerish) is when a character is trying to take out a bad guy with a small assault rifle and then a crew member comes along and tells him he needs to think bigger and takes him out with this massive gun.
Now one assumes that he just had to think of a bigger gun and it appeared as he didn't physically take it with him. Hence if you are conscious whilst in a dream, surely you could do anything. So instead of getting a bigger gun, you could drop a nuke on him or possess superhuman powers.
The point I'm making is that when you say there is no rule book, it's hard to maintain tension by showing scenes played within the semi physical rule book that we know of but the director has said doesn't exist. I don't know if that's clear.
For instance The Dark Knight was a far better film for me because they placed it in the context of a real world city and location. The scenes, the setting, the characters had more impact because you could 'latch on' or 'identify' with the real world that you knew. In Batman Begins it made nods to this but then the whole Gotham City with it's overblown buildings, slums and intrusive monorail jarred against this and un-anchored it from the setting that you would normally place it in.
I remember reading that Nolan had always wanted to do a Bond film and the snow sequences certainly looked like that but that was the thing. They looked like them but they felt empty and going through the motions because there wasn't a real feeling of peril. You were constantly reminded that it was a dream, it was fantasy and as such 'bad guys' were despatched with the resonance of a computer game.
I just feel that the film got a little carried away with it's belief in it's own cleverness. There is also a niggling thought that by saying you don't like it or 'feel' it, you will be accused of being someone who only likes the low brow, point A to point B, Michael Bay style films. Hence I think there is a good chance of many people saying they like it for fear for not being considered a dullard.
So although from a technical POV it was very good, acting was top notch, film score enjoyable I just felt it lacked something. As I read recently it's possible that Nolan could be becoming more of a craftsman than a storyteller.
My brother drove to the cinema and when we got home, I was delighted to discover that some fuck had taken the two hub caps/wheel nut covers off my alloys on the pavement side. For the love of god!
Joy of joys, when I left the flat the next morning I noticed that they'd subsequently come back and taken the ones on the roadside as well. C's.
So I walked to Bexleyheath (trying to keep that fitness vibe going) to get my hair cut. I then popped into TK Maxx to see if I could see any jeans, as my brother wanted to get a pair for that evening's night out. I spied quite a nice G Star pair and he came up to try them on. He tried a couple of different sizes and eventually decided to get them.
So that night we headed into Maidstone to celebrate one of our friend's birthdays. In a very civilised fashion we went for a meal to start the night, which was really cool. It added a real something to the night and if funds were unlimited I certainly think it's the way to begin all decent nights. We were all in good spirits and even judging from just those in the restaurant, there was a fair smattering of women out.
We hit a bar after leaving the restaurant (can't even remember what that was called) and then headed over to Cala Red's where the guys started hitting the firewaters. The birthday boy (BB) was seemingly on a mission to see if he could out drink everyone and my brother was there to match him. We got chatting to a couple of girls in there, Becky and Ruth, and we got them a firewater as well. They tried to take it down with confident ease, well one of them did, but you could see in their eyes that it rocked them.
After some time in there and the two leads doing either 4 or 5 firewaters each, which is utterly crazy, we headed round to Strawberry Moons. Got in there and headed to the back downstairs, where we set up camp. My brother and the BB continued to test each other culminating in some 'naughty & nice' event which involved shot of vodka, shot of baileys etc. No mistake this was binge drinking at it's finest.
Beck and Ruth turned up and we kept them entertained, though it was clear to me that the firewaters still seemed to be resonating with them. The atmosphere was good and we were all having a laugh, though I noticed the BB seemed to disappear. About 20 minutes later I got a text from my brother saying he was outside and as the night was drawing to an end, we decided to leave.
BB was utterly hammered and it appeared had staggered outside for some fresh air. My brother had gone outside to check up and found him sprawled face down in the gutter. He'd blown chunks but thankfully not over himself. We mooched around outside for around 15 minutes while he tried to compose himself and we chatted to the two girls who followed us out.
As BB didn't look like he was getting any better we picked him up and two of us struggled to drag him to the garden of remembrance that is on the way to the car park that we park in. At least in this I thought he could catch some more air, be sick again if he had to, let himself settle before I put him in my brothers car which I'd driven and not have to worry about getting any shit off passers by, police etc.
With him recuperating on a chair and my brother walking back to the taxi rank a couple of work mates that had joined us for the night out, I thought this a good opportunity to run the two girls home. Apparently one of them lived very close by so I hoped I could drop them off safe and sound and be back to run everyone else home.
I left one of the guys watching over BB and took Mark with me as back up. They were quite drunk and half way to theirs one of them started to say how we should come in for a 'party'. She didn't have much to offer and even though it was nearly 3.00 am she wanted to have some fun. I looked at Mark with a 'typical' look but gracefully declined as we had to get back for the others.
It was around this point that we received a frantic call from the guy who was watching BB. BB was being sick and my brother had somehow managed to bust his face up and the police were there. My heart jumped and I immediately told the girls I'd have to sort them out later as I had to get back. We raced back to the car park and I hurried over to my brother, worried how he might be.
The side of his face was covered in blood and he had a nasty cut just above his eye. There were two coppers standing with him and I feared the worse.
What had actually happened is that he'd seen his two mates back to a taxi and then on the way back to the RV had decided to jump, as only a drunk person would, a nearby bollard. He'd clipped his feet while going over resulting in a full face plant into the ground. He then unbuttoned his shirt for fear of getting blood down it, so I imagine when he walked back into the garden he must have looked like he'd been in a fight. Unbeknown to him, he'd performed this jump in front some police who had to come to find him just to make sure he was ok. In a rare act of friendly diligence, they called the ambulance just to make sure that he didn't suffer from any concussion.
My brother was incredibly apologetic to everyone and to give the two girls credit they did stay with us whilst we kept an eye on everyone. The paramedic arrived in a Volvo, thankfully it didn't warrant a full ambulance and decided that she'd run him to the hospital to get his gash glued up.
As they headed off, we went back to BB in an attempt to get him up and home. He didn't want to move but I impressed upon him the importance of us moving and me getting back to Ant at the hospital. This seemed to get through and he hauled himself up with us once again dragging him over to the car. At one point we had to stop, whilst the girls pulled up his trousers which had slid to round his ankles. He fell into the car and after thanking the girls for their patience and support, we blasted off.
En route the guys had to try and keep BB from slumping over onto the gear stick as I was trying to change gear. We pulled up at his house and then struggled to get him out. He collapsed into the gutter and once again we pulled him up. While M and I tried to support him on his sloping front lawn, G dug his keys out of his pocket and tried to open the door. Fumbling around we managed to wake his folks and his mum came to the door to open.
She wasn't too happy, as I could understand, but once I'd taken off his shoes and put him in the recovery position on the sofa, I suggested that she could take it up with him in the morning. From here we blasted back to Maidstone hospital. Full kudos to M and G who refused to be dropped back home and insisted on staying the course to accompany me to the hospital.
We got there and discovered my brother who couldn't seem to stop talking. It was a mixture of enthusiastic talking about the night and apologising for him screwing it up. Thankfully by the time we had got there, they had already x-ray'd him and we were just waiting for him to get his cut above the eye glued up and the full skin graze on his chin covered over with a plaster.
When we eventually left the hospital, the sun was up and it must have been 6.00am. Sunday was a very lazy one, where we simply chilled, my brother came to sober terms with his busted up face and we dealt with the hangover blues with an outstanding Domino's.
It was certainly a memorable weekend. Yes, I'm sure the naysayer's will bemoan how desperate and sad it was but life is about having fun and forming experiences. I had them when younger (and still now) and thus my brother and his mates have to go through them now. No one got seriously hurt and well, sometimes it's good to get utterly wrecked.
It's funny how you can trot along through life but it's only when you have these kind of incidents that you appreciate or are reminded of the support network that is constantly working underneath the surface. When you think that my brother was banged up and went to the hospital at like 4.00am, was treated, mended and sent on his way, it's actually quite encouraging.
Had another busy day at work. I'm conscious that I always seem to say that now, as if it's some catch all statement to pass us through the week. This one was though. M & P had three meetings including one which was effectively an all dayer. It's cool to be busy and will be even better when they are converted into lovely invoices.
I've been trying to cut back on the amount of food that I'm eating during the day. I pretty much miss breakfast all the time and I've been cutting out lunches as well. Add to this an increase in walking and it must be doing something. I know it doesn't constitute a full workout but any exercise is good and cutting the intake of calories can only assist that.
M in the office had the shits and his body basically switched off his hunger for nearly 11 days. He didn't pass out, he didn't die, his body (in an attempt to fight the tummy infection) just said you can manage on water and liquids for the next week and a bit with no real loss of function or ability. Needless to say that a nice side effect of the starvation was some weight loss.
Now, I know drastic cutting back isn't ideal but if the body can do that, i.e. raiding the fat stores when it needs to for that period of time, then why can't I cut out some more meals and rely on an attack on the fat store. Hence towards the end of July, I've started to cut out the odd evening meal. I try to eat one proper meal on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday but then on maybe the Monday and the Wednesday, I'll just not eat.
I'm sure health bods etc would tell me how dangerous it is but really. If my body was screaming for food and I started to get the shakes, of course I would eat but when it doesn't need it, and it has surplus fat to attack when I make demands on it from walking/jogging, what's the problem.
It is having results. I'm eating less food and I am losing weight. The only downside is how my arse can ache from all the walking. It's like I can no longer can find a comfortable chair to sit in on some days.
Friday night and we were back out in Maidstone as we'd promised G that we would attend some female friend of his' birthday party. My brother couldn't make it as his eye was still bloodshot and bruised, though the swelling had gone down, and he didn't think he'd stand much chance of getting into a club looking like that.
I drove and picked up M en route. We got to the pub in Maidstone, meeting G and his new girlfriend (F) who was very friendly. The same couldn't be said for the birthday girl, who despite G's prompting couldn't be arsed to say hello to us or introduce any of her friends. If she had, M and I would have bought her a drink but she was so far up her own arse she would have needed a torch to see it.
Okay, when it's your birthday you are going to be the centre of attention but extending a smidgeon of courtesy isn't going too far is it? Without any real notice, the girls all took off saying they were leaving to hit Belugas. G wasn't even halfway through his drink so we hung back to finish it off, before deciding we'd hit Cala Reds for a couple before entering the den of C's which is Belugas.
When we eventually started queuing, the bouncer decided to keep those in the non paying queue deliberately waiting whilst he funnelled everyone else through the £5 admission queue. He'd keep coming over saying "why don't you join that queue". We just looked on and after about 10 minutes the queue we were in became the paying one because it had gone 11.00pm. What a coincidence.
This had royally pissed us off and knowing that the girls within couldn't give a flying fuck how we were doing, we decided to move on Strawberry Moons. Of course, when G texted them to say we couldn't get in they decided to let on that we were actually on the guest list and wouldn't have needed to pay! They also then had a little grumble about why we weren't with them.
Really, what a bunch of self centred, vacuous, deluded bitches they really are. They couldn't give two fucks about how G was getting on, especially as he was out with his new girlfriend. They just wanted additional bodies to ply them with drinks, blow sunshine up their arse and be treated with casual disdain. Also they clearly didn't like the idea that there was a chance that we could have a better night without them.
As it happens, we all had a great night. Even though M had to work the next day and I wasn't drinking (note to G there) we still got down, had some drinks and partied the night away. We did everything we could to make F feel welcome and show her a good time. For her part, she reciprocated the favour and looked like she had a good time. I think because Moons was slightly less busy than a Saturday night, it had a little more room for 'free expression' in the dancing field and we took full advantage.
At one point M and I started playing Moody Model Shootout. We'd count to three and then turn and face each other with our moodiest, most chiselled male model pose (think blue steel but with way more intensity) and see who could hold on the longest before cracking into laughter. Neither of us could seem to last but it was bloody funny.
Left there and headed down to the kebab, where I showed unknown levels of restraint by declining the tempting thought of 'chips & meat' or 'chips in bread'. By god, I wanted to eat them but my cutting back regime was telling (maybe shouting) me not to. Drove home and dropped some Power Ballads, which went down fabulously well. You can't beat some power singing to Winds of Change and Here I go Again after a night out can you?
I was awoken on Saturday morning with some texts from a girl I'd been chatting to on Faceparty. She was going on a couple of dates, after I'd pumped her up with this motivational, spirit lifting message I'd sent through. To this end she wasn't sure what to wear on the dates and we spent an hour or so trying to work out what she had. I stuck to my guns and after sending through one pic, which I thought was nice but not quite right, she decided to change and sent me a picture the next day of the revised outfit. It looked much better and I think she headed off with renewed confidence. Obviously after doing this (pumping her up, providing moral support etc) I didn't hear from her for another three or four weeks.
Brother and I watched the final episode of The Mentalist, which was good but not brilliant. I've really enjoyed the series and have thought it an improvement over the last series (which wasn't bad either). It's just that the ending, although leaving food for thought, felt a little unclimactic.
Got the bikes out on the Sunday and went for a ride. It started off fine, cycling along the Thames, which sounds very romantic until you consider that it's the Thames path east of the Thames Barrier. Meaning that it's pretty industrialised and you have to go past one of Europe's largest sewage plants.
Still it was good to be out, burning the calories and breathing in the not so fresh air. The seat though, sweet jesus. I thought I had some padding on my arse but this was next level. I grinned and bared it to begin with but the longer the ride went on the more this thing just killed. It was a deep pain almost like I'd grown a bone in my sack that had then been broken in two. Every small pebble or stone that I went over caused tremors that seemed to stem from an epicentre that was seemingly located deep in my arse.
Supernatural series 5 had also been building to an end. From our intense blast through of the four previous boxed sets seasons we'd sky +'d the remaining 12 episodes and just hadn't seemed to get round to watching them until now. It was good to see but although entertaining the makers were pulling similar tricks as they'd used in previous episodes and seasons. Don't get wrong, it was still enjoyabable..
Crowley, who played an English sympathetic demon, had some great lines and the set up of Death, the final horseman of the apocalypse, was very well handled. The final episode of Season 5 was very good and had one of the most touching scenes when Sam/Lucifer was pounding Deans face into a bloody pulp yet Dean still managed to say
"It's okay Sammy, I'm still here with you".
Through the awful battering he's receiving, he's still trying to reach out to his brother and make him feel batter. Very touching and brought a lump to my throat. For me, it was one of the most 'brotherly' moments in the series. Along of course, with that one at Christmas, when they are watching the TV together in a backwater motel with a couple of beers.
The following week was another busy one with all hands to the decks. I continued on my evening walking and cutting out meals where I could but when my brother had to come up town for a work related meeting, it seemed the done thing for him to stop in on the way home and us go and grab a curry. It wasn't on my day of not eating but although I'm trying to cut back, I'm not intending to stop living. It was damn fine and as tasty as ever though I ordered too many sides.
Friday was the start of a weekend of films with a trip to see The A Team, which we'd all been looking forward to seeing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Reviews for the film had been pretty sketchy with the consensus being that it was quite poor. So we went in with low expectations. If I could have one or two decent laughs and some solid gunfire, then I'd be happy.
Well for me, the film really hit the spot. I loved the camaraderie and bro-mance between the team. Although different characters, they all supported each other, this being picked up in the small things like Hannibal calling Bosco 'big man' or Hannibal and Face discussing previous jobs when they were in the diner. You got a real sense that they had history together. There was no sniping, just fondness for each other and their idiosyncrasies.
I really enjoyed how they set up each of the characters, how they came together and how they showed them pulling missions as a tight unit in Iraq. To include all of this, along with the 'crime they didn't commit', their escape and story resolution without repeating scenes within two hours made it a fabulous tour de force. I enjoyed the script and thought many of the characters had some good lines, even Pike and Lynch.
The makers were bold enough to dispense with the limiting factors such as the van or BA's attitude. They gave them a nod but understood that it was the tight cohesion of the team that was the central core/concept of the franchise as opposed to the excessive neck jewellery or Murdoch's zanier outbursts.
Neeson led the team well, Cooper just oozed sex appeal, Copley was great and even Rampage did a good job (and let's face it Mr T wasn't a great actor). The action scenes were fun, if a little over edited, and even the tank scene, which I thought from the trailer looked silly, worked. I think because of the frenzy inside the cab with all four characters speaking and them having this 'crazy' attitude, you just carried along with it.
On the downside I found the chop, chop lightning editing a little frustrating, especially as their set up, planning and execution of the missions looked so good and the ending (i.e. the dockyard) was a little poor but overall I thought it was great. I've recently seen both Predators and Inception and I'd certainly take watching the A-team again over the other two.
Personally I don't know what the critics problem is - It's an A-team film. Now I don't mean that excuses it from being lazy or poorly made, which it isn't. But what you don't expect then is some overly complicated techno thriller or a searing portrayal of over achievement in the constricting life of an army fugitive. What you want is light hearted fun, action, teamwork and ultimately entertainment. The A team delivers this aplenty.
I know the film had wallowed in development hell for some time, so bravo to Carnaghan for digging it up, sticking with it and giving it the resuscitative jolt it needed. If they were to put together a sequel (though I fear the critics might have dashed that), it could certainly count on my support.
We'd planned to head out into Dartford that night and my brother had given me the jeans he'd bought the previous week as they were just a fraction too short for him . They seemed to fit me really well and coupled with the shirt I'd decided to pull on and having had my spirits buoyed by the film and seeing Face look so cool, I felt really good.
I had on my white 'drinking' beads and I just seemed to feel super confident and sexy. I'm sure I still looked like a dribbling imbecile but sometimes you've just got to run with it. The feeling didn't actually translate into anything tangible and we headed home after an average night out in Dartford. Still we had the film and with all of us having enjoyed it, I was happy.
Had another belter of a walk on the Saturday before checking out both The Cove and Couples Retreat that evening. The former was good but not the tour de force that I had expected. Yes the plight of the dolphins is shocking and I would like the act to be stopped but it didn't pull at the heartstrings as much I'd expected.
Couples Retreat had some funny moments until it, unsurprisingly descended into love/couples generic pap. On the Sunday we met up with Leanne, a friend of my cousin, who had come over from Canada. It was great to see her again as I've always enjoyed her fun, infectious personality. The four of us had a drink in Blackheath before heading over to Bluewater to grab something to eat in a little Italian.
This was then followed by a trip to the cinema to check out Toy Story 3. This was another really good film that offered so much entertainment and once again demonstrates the abilities of Pixar at putting out excellent quality films. It had everything for everyone.
Okay people, that's July done. Sorry if it got a little tedious. Just August to do and I might be back up to date. That might be a shorter entry as it will predominantly be filled with musings on Spartacus, Man v Food, The Expendables and the build up to the Wrestler night which is taking place on the Saturday of the Bank Holiday weekend.
I hope you have a great weekend and we'll talk soon. Take care.
June 2010
It will be five years at the end of this year that I've had the site so maybe it's about time my entries were no longer confined to writing and posting them after work. I'd like to say that this will lead to a whole new raft of content but I can't promise that. I do try and think of witty new observations to amuse/bore you with but maybe you get to a certain point where you've actually written down a lot of the stuff you have thought about over the years. Drawing on new material and observations then seems to take a bit longer.
Anyway, on with the show. So the last time we spoke it was coming up to the bank holiday weekend. It was hot and I caught some rays but not a great deal happened really. Lack of funds and an air of apathy stopped me from heading out though I did watch both Up and Up in the air. The first was the latest Pixar film. It was good and entertaining but it was hampered, if that's the right description, by a 5 minute scene near the beginning, The Married Life scene, which was just perfect. It set the scene and laid out the foundations of the story within the film but it contained such powerful yet delicate emotion, which proved to be the emotional high point that the rest of the film could not regain. I've mentioned the scene in more detail in the movies section.
The other film was Up in the Air with George Clooney. Cracking film, completely different obviously to Up but still had a lot of resonance. George was on fine form and it was good to see him back doing a normal decent film rather than some of that Cohen Brothers tosh that he regularly does.
His character was in a similar dis-interested state to that which I sometimes think I'm in. The script was tight and well honed and the conclusions mature and honest. Top draw film.
I don't know if you remember a few journal entries ago I mentioned the group Two Steps to Hell. These were the duo that wrote the trailer music. Well they released a digital album called Invincible which I just had to get and it had some stellar tracks on it. If I thought Freedom Fighters was good, then a track called To Glory is just awesome. It really does sum up the title To Glory.
I just build this picture of some Tolkien-esque scene where this band of horsemen charging towards some impenetrable fortress are sweeping across the landscape. At every step when the song builds you picture another wave of horsemen joining the flanks, until in the end and as the music builds to a roaring crescendo this huge mobile army is tearing down a valley towards certain death and to glory!
So back to the cinema. We went and say Brooklyn's Finest, which although it had a stellar cast was a tad disappointing. It was all up in the air and seemingly trying so hard to be Training Day but also then have some clever inter connected twist that it was, well a mess.
For some reason I decided to have a look on Trip advisor and in particular, the Florida forum. Someone had mentioned how they weren't sure what to see whilst away and although it's been three years since I'd been, I responded to their posting giving them a little info and letting them know that I'd happily send them the 'bible' and day planner that I'd put together for when we went away.
They were very keen to receive it and I seemed to get a great response with four or five different people asking me for it or for my advice on what to do. As ever I wrote them nice messages, which of course I personalised to their needs and sent them the bibles and planners. Stupidly and naively once again I thought to myself 'hey, maybe this will be a great chance to open some dialogue with people. To make a real contribution to their holidays'. But surprise, surprise despite the length of messages I sent them, I either got nothing in response or a one line 'thanks, we don't need you anymore' kind of response.So, in the gaming world we had Halo: Reach and plenty of other games to contend with being showcased and teased to the hungry public. Unsurprisingly an announcement was made about Gears of War 3. I guess it was never in any doubt but it was still good to hear. That won't be out until Feb/March 2011 but in the meantime there is Halo: Reach in September and an almighty bust up between Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops and EA's Medal of Honour which come out in October and November respectively. Looking at the footage, I'd have to say that MOH is shaving it.
The World Cup started and although my expectations were low and I knew that England were still suffering from the same lame arsed, passion free attitude of four years ago, I was still determined to try and get into it. Our first game against the USA happened to fall on the Saturday which also happened to be the day of a big family event to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.
My brother and I did what we could in the hours before the game to chat to everyone but I'm afraid rather selfishly when the game was about to start we slinked off to one of the living rooms where there was a free TV.
I guess it was good to get caught up in the moment but unsurprisingly we were disappointing. We started well enough with an early goal from Gerrard but then with our goalie making a blunder and the rest of team seemingly unbothered in trying to remedy the situation by scoring a winning goal, we settled for the draw.
The following Friday we headed to Maidstone after work to watch England play Algeria. For that game we were truly awful and all of us watching were thoroughly cheesed off. The performance was a million miles from those in Italia 90 and as a team we seemed infected with apathy. We tried to head out in Maidstone afterwards but it was hard to get motivated. We wouldn't have minded if we'd been thoroughly beaten or got a draw after a hard fought game but it was like the team didn't care. And I guess in reality, they didn't.
There were people out in Maidstone but not in any real numbers. Drinks did seem to be £1.50 everywhere with no admission costs, or not that I noticed.
Still, while the tournament carried on we continued to our final game which was against Slovenia. The highlight of this was seeing it at work over some Dominos pizza. We eeked out a 1-0 victory but again by not trying any harder, we allowed the USA to win the group meaning that we had to face Germany in the last 16. I felt sick at the prospect as I knew they were playing great and we still weren't coming together.
The Saturday before the Germany game (which was on the Sunday) we headed into Bexleyheath and to Pure. This is the club round the corner from Affinity that always look like it has better looking, younger women in it but who are all blessed with amazing levels of stand off attitude. Although it was good to try somewhere different, that diagnosis had not really changed.
There were still pretty girls to observe but the over riding message coming off them in waves, and here I quote M who summed it up perfectly,
'Look at me, look at me. You can't have me'
So Sunday came and we met up at Bluewater to check out the Germany game in the Sports bar. We weren't sure how busy it was going to get and not wanting a dodgy place, got there early with mags to read. As ever we might as well have not bothered. There were people there but not enough that we had needed to be there an hour or so before the game.
We played poorly and deserved to lose. The Germans were far superior and took us apart. However I do have to hand it to England for providing the biggest emotional turnaround that I've experienced for some time. We were 2 - 0 down against Germany and with their track record, it's basically good night. From the pits of despair where although 1 is salvageable, 2 is impossible, England in the space of a minute scored a bumbled header and then Lampard had a shot which clearly went over the line.
I know we could discuss how bad it was that it didn't stand and given the nature of it, maybe it was payback for 66 or similar but wow, the rush of emotion when we scored to make it 2-1, and then within the same minute to make it 2-2 was breathtaking. We were bouncing round the bar, hearts thumping away in our chest before we realised what happened or that the goal had been disallowed.
The end result didn't hurt like the one in Italia 90 because Germany were a class act and apart from the 5 minute moment of insanity were deserved winners.
So after much thinking we decided to go for a laptop. Sky were offering some good deals on broadband and as I've been impressed with their TV packages, I thought why not. We're so close to the exchange that we could receive the full 20Mb broadband which obviously was great. I hit the AV forum boards, as well as trawling the net for the low down on what was a good laptop to buy.
As I said at the beginning, I went for a Dell Inspiron. The IT guy that helps us out narrowed down the search and I took his thoughts on board. The one we went for has a nice candy coloured red lid with 3Gb RAM along with a 320Gb hard drive. So I ordered it and when it arrived sent it down to the IT guy for him to de-install all of the crap that they like to pre-load onto the thing.
P hired Paranormal Activity which she lent us to watch. Full credit to the film. Just like Blair Witch many moons ago it showed that with a good set up and a little creativity, you really didn't need a huge budget to unnerve and scare.
The film managed both with ease. Really simple things like the slow closing of a door or loud footsteps coming up the stairs had to power to put the heebie jeebies up me. I thought it was an excellent film. I know it has been hyped up by the studio that I guess wanted to maximise the profitability of their indie hit but, for once, the hype was deserved. You should check it out.
It was my step dad's birthday and I asked him what he fancied eating. Poulet du Marge. Now my regular devout readers will know what this is from the recipe/instructions on the food section but for those newbies (are there any?) it's pieces of chicken breast dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and then fried in margarine and it's good.
It needs a fair bit of prep so isn't a regular meal but when someone asks for it for their birthday I'm happy to do it. Besides which we've not had it for an age so I was looking forward to chowing down on it.
You can't have fried chicken with something like new potatoes or a jacket so I took the plunge a little further and picked up a deep fat fryer! The food fascists will being going ape but what the hell. If you are going to have chips, the only way to cook them is to fry them. Oven ones are shit. You have to cook them for twice as long as they say on the packet and in the main, they taste like cardboard.
I concede that getting broadband, a laptop, being able to go on Xbox live and getting a deep fat fryer will probably see me descend into a hellhole of regular porn, late nights and expanding waistlines but I'll try to hold off some of those elements!
The poulet du marge was very good. I spent about two hours the night before prepping the chicken and crumbing it so that the following day I could just get in and start cooking. We had it with baked beans, frozen fry chips from Waitrose (some of the best you can get), oven baked buttered rolls and glasses of coke with ice and lemon. It was mighty fine.
My interest in the World Cup dipped a little but came back when I witnessed Germany take the much favoured Argentineans' apart, 4-0. The Argies might be good coming forward but they are an undisciplined lot and put them under enough pressure and their South American hotheadedness bubbles to the surface. I really got behind the Germans and wanted to see them go all the way. To me, they played like I wish we could. Intelligent, structured, disciplined and with real fire in their belly.
Caught a couple more films on DVD. Armoured and Daybreakers. Both were pretty poor if I'm honest. Daybreakers had an interesting concept but descended into formulaic pap.
On the music front two songs really caught my eye. The first was a track called Closer to the Edge. I first saw it on MTV and liked it but had never heard of the band playing it. Indeed I wasn't even sure if Closer to the Edge was the song title or the name of the group. It was the former with the group actually being called 30 seconds to mars. I recognised the lead singer as being Jared Leto but then thought well it can't be him as I never heard he was in a band.
A little Wikipedia research and my initial spot was proved correct. He liked to keep the two elements of his life - actor and rockstar completely separate and always strived to not use his stage name to promote the band. I say bravo to that.
Here's the vid. I think it's a great tune and an enjoyable video. Some could say it's a little pretentious and clichéd but there is something in the purity/innocence of what the kids are saying. Maybe I am being a little less cynical! Oh and I love Jared's pink Mohawk.
Closer to the Edge - 30 Seconds to Mars
I know I've still got loads more to talk about but I hope this is a little something to chew on.
April/May 2010
Right, I'm back so lets crack on. Moving back to the car I had to arrange getting it collected by the insurances bodywork people and then in turn arranging the hire car that would fill the gap. My insurance company handled most of it and all I had to do was get my brother to run me to the hire place.
They fitted me up with a brand new shape Clio, which turned out to be a real pleasure to drive. The steering was light, the clutch piss easy and the ride really comfortable. I never found out what sized engine it was but in the right gear it had some poke.
The best thing about it though was the fact that it had an input jack for an iPod. Unfortunately it was the left/right white/red kind but a quick drive to Bluewater got me the relevant lead (which I can also use in the back of my hi-fi, which is cool) and my iPod was hooked up. It was great. Being able to listen to all the Manuel le Saux download mixes as I'm blatting along is just the best way to listen to proper trance. I usually listen to CD's or the radio but being able to bang out some decent thumping dance on the way home, and into work, was a huge bonus.
Regarding the accident, I've had my car back but it seems the liability resolution is taking some time. Unsurprisingly after the womans performance at the accident she's been dragging her feet somewhat. When I did eventually hear back from my insurance company, they said she was contesting the accident and trying to blame me for having had my indicator light on! How typical. It has been agreed or anything and rest assured that if they push further down that line, I will go apopleptic.
I mean the fact that she hit the rear left of my car with the front left of hers can't be too difficult for one of their crash investigators to work out how that could have happened. The fact that my car was clearly past the front of hers before she pulled out to hit me, is a good place to start. Add this to her unwillingness to provide her address details until I called the police also, one would believe, would speak volumes for her, shall we say, sense of fair play.
Also managed to see Kick Ass on a special preview. The trailer had been great but I'd deliberately tried to limit my exposure for fear that I would corrupt the experience.
It was a really great film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Top notch writing that made you connect, laugh and care for the characters with a great story and some wonderful action scenes. I came out of the cinema and had that tingling, excitable feeling that I get when I've seen something that I've thought was brilliant.
I like how it mocked some of the superhero clichés yet still didn't compromise or resort to 'going soft' at the end. It would have been easy in delivering swathes of violence and then bludgeoning the audience with a 'tut-tut' attitude of violence solves nothing but it didn't.
It could have gone like Cameron did in Avatar. You know James loves technology, military hardware and blowing shit up yet by the end it's the trees that we are meant to care about.
It gave the audience what it wanted and took it in refreshing directions. There were actually a couple of times when it seemed our gang were the only ones laughing, which even further re-enforces our feelings of being in the minority when it comes to games, films and maybe even life!
All the action scenes felt fresh and varied and the use of Elvis in the final action denouement was inspired. A lot has been said about Hit Girl, and yes she is super cool, but so are many of the actors and actresses. Big Daddy is great, Mark Strong as the main bad guy and the main lead, ie Kick Ass himself who is another British actor, carries the film well.
A fantastic, cracking film that truly delivered on what the trailer made out it would be. I went into sponge after the film, considered buying the Making of book and my brother even bought me the Kick Ass goodie from French Connection, which is supremely cool. I know maybe that a man of my age shouldn't be wearing hoodies from films, and I know my brother would make it look far cooler, but I think it's great.
Went out into Maidstone on one of the Saturdays, which was good fun. Partied, or at least tried to party, hard. At one point we got chatting to a group of girls. They seemed like good fun, though one of them felt compelled to demonstrate that she was taken by showing us her engagement ring. Fair play to her but it did lead to us ripping her at every moment with these grandiose proclamations of "I'm taken, I'm taken".
They headed off and we carried on dancing. Amazingly we then got chatting to two girls who were very entertaining. They seemed fun and lively and we continued the chat when we headed outside and visited the Subway. Nice girls and it added a welcome spark of excitement to the evening.
The following week was the lead up to the Easter weekend and I'd noticed that Domino's were opening a franchise on the Old Kent Road. With some of the people in the office not having experienced the wonder of Domino's before, I decreed that the Thursday before we broke up would become D day. I knocked up a little sheet in PowerPoint with a few pointless Domino's facts such as
Founded in 1960 as DomiNicks before becoming Domino's Pizza in 1965
Or
The three dots in the logo represent the first three Domino's stores. At the time, the plan was to add a dot for every new store.
It was just a bit of fun so sign off the last few busy weeks we'd had but I confess to looking forward to it. The pizzas went down well. We all had one each plus a plethora of starters, well actually just the garlic bread and chicken kickers but since they stopped doing the potato skins these are the only two sides worth getting.
Also saw the new trailers for The Expendables and The A team on firstshowing.net. I'd say I preferred the one for the A-team but given that the first trailers for Rambo were truly awful I wasn't surprised that I didn't enjoy the Expendables trailer. Check it out
The A-Team trailer. Watch in HD if you can
Caught a few more films including 9, an animated film that was ok but quite short, and an awful film called The Line with Ray Liotta. We did wonder why it had literally no movie critic quotes on the box but thought "well sometimes you have to take a chance".
It was awful, clichéd, tedious, confusing and the ending, though trying to be a WTF moment, just felt lame. It had that similar and overplayed sitting on the bed with hands in the hair which is jarringly edited to give an indication of a passage of time.And please the amount of aerial shots of Tijuana and that large arch edifice. If nothing else at least if I ever speak to anyone that has been there I can ask them about that structure. How they got such a stellar cast together for this dross is beyond me.
Was heading over to Basildon for a house party followed by a night of clubbing so I started the day by hitting Bluewater and thinking I might get something to wear that night. I must be getting older because there was literally nothing in the shops I liked. I had money and I had the desire to buy something but it all seems to be either 'distressed' t-shirts or check shirts. Man, the lack of choice unless you are prepared to pay upwards of £150 is heartbreaking.
Basildon was good fun. Started at the house party where I did everything I could to get the party started and people communicating with everyone. The host was very sweet when she insisted on showing everyone my BGT performance on YouTube. Naturally I wasn't offered immediate committal free sex for being a celebrity but it helped break down the barriers of people knowing who everyone was.
After exhausting almost all of the available alcohol in an assortment of shots designed to get everyone moving, we bundled into a couple of cars and heading over to the clubs. They were already in full swing and we hurried to bring ourselves to that level. We were dancing and drinking and all seemingly having a good time.
As the night progressed I did become disappointed with one of the people who decided to go and get their coat, put it on and sit down with her bag on her lap and a sullen look on her face. I can't abide that kind of selfish "I'm bored and want to go home and will make it obvious to everyone that I'm feeling like this" attitude. Miserable bitch.
By the time we got back home, some were a little hammered including my brother who'd taken a double round of shots when the MB I mentioned earlier went to the bar to get some drinks and then decided that she didn't want to play ball. After furnishing the other revellers with some chicken that I'd found in the fridge and chucked in the oven, my brother and I hit the road. Grabbed a drive-thru McDonalds and had a good chat about Babylon 5. Even through the faze of drunkenness, he still expressed how much he loved the series and the characters.
Broke the next day in with one of my classic fried brunches. I've recently discovered the art of dry frying the bacon and the sausages and man does it increase the taste, particularly of the sausages. Get some decent quality ones and try it. The juices that come out are just fabulous.
Watched the special features of Michael Jackson's This is it later that afternoon. I thought the actual film was good but the accompanying documentaries were really excellent for further developing the man and the work that went on to almost bring the concert to life. The ending they had planned with the 3D plane was great and the costumes that they designed for his performances were truly out of this world. The effort, thought and design that went into the clothing, particularly the Billie Jean outfit, which would have been stunning, beggars belief. Even more proof, if it was needed, what a show this might have been.
Also caught Into the Blue on DVD. It's all good living and beautiful bodies starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba. Jessica really is something else. A wonderfully pretty face, a slim body that although I'd prefer bigger boobs is still amazingly sexy and a bottom, that in this film is presented so well in an assortment of shorts and bikinis, that it's a work of art. Wow.
Popped round to P's the following Sunday to start watching another of her recommendations. Supernatural. My brother and I were impressed with what we saw and taking the boxed sets that P had we hungrily started to watch them. We really liked the two brother characters of Sam and Dean and the closeness of their relationship is certainly one that echoes that of my brother and I. You rarely see it so well shown in film, let alone TV, that it was great to watch.
The writers seem to understand the simple notion and comfort that comes from being with your brother, sharing a beer or just watching the TV together. Add to that a casting director who secures some of the loveliest, prettiest women to appear on the show either as main leads or just secondary characters and some kick arse action and you've got a show that certainly at the moment has us both hooked.
Another busy week in the office with the first of the three political debates held during the week. It made for interesting viewing though did wind me up with the immediate post debate analysis. Everything was reduced to a digestible sound bite with immediate polls taken to ascertain who won. I mean it's good to get people talking about politics but the almost X factor nature with people's decisions being swayed so mercurially by how someone said something and what tie they were wearing is concerning. This was then repeated and re-enforced through the news, Question Time and then This Week.
I found it so infuriating and worrying that a couple of people's opinions on the TV could then multiply into the collected consensus that someone had done well or done badly.
Indulged in another trip to Domino's for a work colleagues birthday as well as keeping up the Supernatural viewing. We had thought we could manage on holding fire to the weekend but such was the pull that we'd end up wanting to watch them during the week nights. They still consistently deliver though I have to say that I don't think Season 2 is as good as the first one.
We had previously arranged to hit the Venue for a double birthday celebration on the Saturday. One of our team had to miss it due to being grounded by the Icelandic volcano ash cloud that appeared that week and grounded every plane in the UK. Headed on down there and managed to get pretty drunk but it wasn't as good a night as others we'd had down there.
The time in the club didn't drag, I smashed back my fair share of alcohol and danced my little socks off but there was something missing. I don't know if there were less people there or not the same level of pretty girls in my circle of vision but it just didn't fully 'click'. Ambled back up the Old Kent Road to my friends pad where we all destroyed a large order of KFC that had seemed to take an eternity to prepare.
That Sunday we started watching another series that would keep us hooked for another couple of weeks. Jersey Shore. It's basically a group of American 20-somethings who go and stay at a beach house on the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore seems to be the US chav equivalent of The Hampton's populated by Guido's and Guidettes. Shallow, vacuous, self obsessed individuals constantly out looking to score and 'battle' a dance floor.
We would usually have switched over but it looked entertaining and one character Mike "The Situation", yes that was what they displayed on the screen whenever he spoke, was so outrageous in both his name and actions that we were hooked.
I appreciate that admitting that I like it is akin to jumping into bed with the devil but I think I like it because they are so shallow. Mike's arrogance is so ridiculous at referring to himself as "the situation" that it's funny and in turn legendary for being able to cut through the crap and be memorable, albeit for the wrong reasons.
I like seeing people have fun and enjoy themselves, so watching a bunch of people heading out regularly and witnessing their antics is enjoyable, but I'm certainly not looking up to them as role models. Some of the lines that we've had from "The Situation" such as calling girls 'grenades' or one that he described as a 'bomb' that Paulie D didn't have the code to defuse are hilarious.
Another busy week at work followed that was compounded by a ridiculously slow internet connection. Prepared a couple of wonderful dishes, if I do say so myself, during the week. One was dry frying up some meatballs in a rich meaty, creamy sauce with a some mushrooms and onions. The better one though was a dish of sausages (these wonderful chipolata ones from Tesco) dry fried and cut into pieces, then some bacon dry fried in the same saucepan, followed by onions and mushrooms fried in those juices.
I then added a tin of chopped tomatoes, a Lloyd Grossman sauce and some single cream. This created a lovely, deep dark rich sauce that I then added to some bronzed penne pasta. The penne was a little bigger than others that I've had, and coupled with the sauce retaining qualities of the 'bronze' pasta, made almost every one a delicious package of pasta and sauce. Sprinkled with grated cheese and served with garlic bread, it made for a wondrous meal!
Finished season 2 of Supernatural and continued on through the 3rd. We both thought it was a better season than the second with episodes that seemed fresher and a willingness by the writers to kill off some of the regular players. We became more used to the brothers and although many seem to prefer Dean, for me, I always felt more for Sam. Maybe with my feelings towards my brother, I just identified with the younger Sam even more and noticed more acutely Dean, the older brothers, less than equal treatment towards him.
Went out on the Saturday locally. Got drunk but it was another disappointing one. Well actually, we had a laugh and our favourite DJ was upstairs but the club was only about half full and there was zero female interaction. Power walked home and my brother amazingly managed to start chatting to and actually pick up a girl he met en route. "The Situation" would have been impressed!
The first bank holiday weekend of May was a muted affair. Unsurprisingly we got some more Supernatural in, which pushed us into the 4th series. If I'm honest I think it's beginning to lose it's way. The characters aren't arcing as they should and tricks that we've seen before become predictable when you see them regularly. The whole Dean acts all stubborn and bossy but then relents at the end of an episode is a regular feature and I'm getting tired that Dean hasn't got to a point where he takes on board Sam's opinions and advice on a situation.
It's like with all they've been through I can understand him being protective but there rarely seems to be a time where he seems to think 'I wonder why Sam is acting that way, let's talk it through'. I think they missed a huge trick at the start of the 4th series when Dean has died and gone to hell. They could just have shown a little difference by maybe having Dean not in the first episode. It would have added immensely to the drama gravity of the situation. It would have reminded the audience to miss Dean and see how people got on without him.
It literally went from him being in the last scene of the third series and the first scene of the fourth series. I know he's important but couldn't they have been bold enough to have left him out. I would love to have properly explored how the far milder Sam went off the rails a little bit. How losing his brother made him harder, more vengeful and less inclined to worry about upsetting others. I wouldn't mind but they touched on it when they had the Groundhog Day episode with the trickster so why not develop it when Dean is supposedly gone. We were disappointed and concerned that if the makers could drop the ball on something like that, what else was going to cheese us off.
Don't get me wrong. It's still very entertaining and there are lots of clever things but I find the writers take you in a certain direction and then seem to forget or not return to a subject for 2 or 3 episodes. It's good but it's no Jericho and certainly not in the league of Babylon 5.
Went into Maidstone on the Saturday night but again it was an average evening. There didn't seem as many people out and there were no opportunities, no real sights and no even glimmers that we spotted, or were spotted, by a group of girls. Very disappointing.
We did however see Uncommon Valour on DVD. My brother had admitted when we were at The Venue that although we'd talked about it, he'd never actually seen it all the way through. Needless to say as a caring family relative, I couldn't possibly let that situation continue and purchased the 'vanilla' version on DVD (that's all there was) so we could check it out. Now at least he's fully aware of the story behind Sailor, why Swayze's character went on the mission and why Blaster was so happy to bust his record. Cracking film!
Talking of films, we did head to the cinema recently to check out another film. Hot tub time machine. It was okay though I wish that being all middle aged, they'd done more to embrace their chances to act differently. I mean if I could step back into my body when I was in my early 20's with what I know now. I don't think I'd be a player or anything ridiculous but having a little more self confidence and assuredness would, I think, have stood me in a far better place. It certainly would have helped with Tracy and Sally as I think I was a real sap then.
I've never really listened to any Motley Crue but there's a track in the film that I just had to download called Home Sweet Home. I always got the impression that Motley never actually produced anything worth listening to and their only reputation was for simply having a reputation as being crazy. This ain't a bad track.
One of the reasons for my poor form on updating my journal was the number of political threads I found myself commenting on, on a forum that I regularly visit. It made for some interesting exchanges and helped focus my mind as to what so hacked me off about this useless, meddling, bureaucratic, economy mishandling administration.
With the general election that gripped (well for those that actually give a damn about politics that is) the country, my brother and I got to do our poll clerk work again. The polling station was made a dual station this year which added to the excitement and with a bigger turnout than we'd ever seen after only doing the local elections, the day zipped along.
We left mine at around 5.30 to get to the polling station and start setting it up for 6.30. At 7.00 am on the button we opened the doors and there were even some people that had been queuing. It was encouraging to see more people turn out and the amount of people coming in to vote certainly mirrored the average, which I think was around 55%.
Thinking about it, and seeing some of the old folk struggling in to cast their vote, it is disappointing that more aren't prepared to carry out their civic duties but I guess with such an apathetic nation what can you expect. We only had one memorable arsehole that was a chap whose name I mis-pronounced and then later when we tried to assist him by explaining which ballot paper had to go in which box, snapped back that he "could read, and that he'd been to university".
Whilst he struggled with the rather simple notion that a folded ballot paper that was wider than the aperture on the ballot box wouldn't go in without another fold we just looked at him, both of us festering with the desire to either verbally or physically tear this chump a new arsehole. As I said, the day flew by with I don't think more than a three or four minute gap when someone wasn't coming in.
We bagged up and packed everything away when we closed the station at 10.00pm and raced over to the town hall to start with the count. Once again, it was all very well organised and I continue to be impressed that there are something's that a council can arrange that can run smoothly when people actually take the time to sit down and think about them.
We were done by around 3.15 - 3.30 and made it home for around 4.30. I watched a little of the election night coverage but sleep claimed me about 5.00ish and I had to hit the sack. I awoke to be a little frustrated at the outcome of the election. It was so indicative of the apathetic nature of so many people that we'd got uncertainty and indecision.
I'd taken a couple of days off work to do the count so it turned into a long relaxing weekend and I achieved very little. Watched a couple of DVD's. Dirty with Cuba Gooding Jnr which was a poor and tedious attempt to be Training Day and Law Abiding Citizen. The latter was better though it seemed the makers weren't sure at what point Gerald Butler had crossed over to the dark side and his retribution was no longer acceptable.
Criminals had murdered his family and the system had let one of them get off so the other could be fully punished. What was worse that when Jamie Fox explains it to a distraught Gerald, he abruptly brings the conversation to a close with a "the deals already done, there's nothing more to say". Personally, we backed him all the way and had no sympathy or remorse for the people he ended up killing. Even at the end I wanted his plan to wipe out those at the top succeed. Maybe though I'm a dark, unforgiving soul!
I really want to get my soft frame into the wrestler outfits that we wore last year in Malia for a couple of nights out in the UK. I'd like to wear them to both Maidstone and Basildon to see in which location we would receive a better reception. Personally I think it would be Basildon. To this end I have been trying to cut back. I know I only ever go on about eating bad stuff but I have cut out eating breakfast and lunch which maybe is having some effect.
I know that 'cutting back' is nothing without exercise and since I cancelled my gym membership I've not really done a great deal but maybe as the weather improves I'll try to get out more. I have been on a couple of 5 mile power walks but unsurprisingly I'm not seeing a massive change. Trouble is that I like eating too much and find exercise boring.
Finally on the weekend just gone I went round to our friends house, whose folks were away. I've got to admit that I really love going round there. It's like a little mini break. I get in bits and bobs for us to eat either snacks to munch or the ingredients for a killer breakfast or evening meal on the Sunday, we usually set up the Xbox to play some co-op Halo, COD or GOW, order in some Domino's (I went half & half this time - Pepperoni Passion with extra pepperoni and mushroom / The Sizzler - it was great) and crack on with a few DVD's.
I really like the house and feel very comfortable within it. The size of the rooms, the feeling of space, the lack of clutter, the fact that we don't have to worry about disturbing neighbours when we crank up the volume and even the fact that we always commit to having ridiculously late nights. I know as an adult, I should have grown out of that but staying up late with my brother and the guys, who are all really easy company, chowing down on junk food and just being a bloke, is great fun.
If we could just find a bevy of ridiculously hot busty girls who enjoyed pizza but weren't fat, who loved action and sci films but hadn't actually seen a great deal and who were entertained by watching guys playing Xbox games for a couple of hours at a time without losing any interest or getting bored (maybe even if they could be watching so intently that they actually got turned on when one of us performed a particularly satisfying head shot or similar) - then the world would be a wonderful place.
And I think that is about it. I'm sure I've missed stuff off and apologies for the delay in posting. You've no doubt gathered that I'm probably easing down my journal entries. I only seem to have one serious, regular reader (Hi Kim) and I think she understands that the journal has moved to becoming more of a record on the year rather than anything short and snappy.
I could try the blog like entry every two or three days but I don't think I'd find the content to fill it. There's plenty of other areas I could do with filling in such as films, games etc that I should one day work on those. Ideally I could win the Euro millions lottery and then set up a separate section that detailed all the holidays, nights out and purchases that would happen.
So thanks, as ever, for stopping by and checking up on what's been happening. I'd give it another few months before you swing back again though I do sometimes add new bits to other sections at the expense of completing the journal.
Take care.
March 2010
Yo peeps. Yes, this is somewhat of a greeting from the hood but I thought I'd try shakin' it up a little (see what I did with dropping the g from shaking).
First up apologies for the regular font issues that keep appearing around the site. It must be some screw up at Mr Site for I keep seeing small font, some in grey, some in black and some in bold. It's always had problems with returns and spacing but maybe the sheer amount of content in the site is pushing it to it's limit!
So, what news for the past month I hear you ask. March has been re-assuringly busy and coupled with February picking up towards the end allowed us to bill quite a bit. April shows good signs of remaining busy so, for the moment at least, the company is doing ok.
On one Friday I was heading home to go out that night to a fancy dress party at the local club when this woman decided to pull out of a turning as I drove past. She clipped the side of my car and I pulled over and got out, thinking 'what's this going to be like'.
Thankfully the car was still driveable and she'd just dented the door, rear panel and scuffed the alloys. I headed over to ask what she was thinking and she had the audacity to blame me. I exploded in indignation. I didn't start swearing but my incredulity was not contained.
"How could it possibly be my fault" I asked "you hit the side of me". "You pulled out of a turning as I went past and hit me". I know the insurance companies insist you should never admit blame but sweet Jesus when it's blatantly obvious it's her fault, keeping that game up is pointless.
She gave me her name and telephone number but refused to give me any more. I was so fucked off with her attitude that I called the number in disbelief that it would be current. I spoke to her husband/partner, I told him his wife had been in an accident but didn't elaborate and asked what car she drove. He fumbled his words, asking me what had happened but I was in zero mood for chit chat so demanded what car she drove.
He confirmed it was a red polo and then I hung up. She even had the cheek to ask if she could have spoken to him! She still refused to give me her full address, citing that I had enough info and with little else to do, I called the police. This seemed to panic her into giving me the address details but by this point I was already through to them, who ran a quick number plate check and confirmed the address and that she was insured.
I had the work camera on me so after grabbing some final snaps and I bid her goodbye and drove home. I felt remarkably calm. I think the flood of testosterone and adrenaline from the accident and then having to be quite firm with her was now making me calm and though I was frustrated by it, I didn't want it to ruin the evening.
Got in, jumped in the shower, pulled on the Hawaiian shirt with shorts and garland, smashed back some alcohol and headed out. In my heart of hearts I knew the night would be poor, that hardly anyone else would make an effort, that it would be full of blokes etc - and that's how it pretty much was.
Got hammered which is always good but nobody really said anything and to add insult to injury the photographer for the club didn't even bother taking a picture. I know that sounds vain but one of the reasons my brother and I went was to almost show support for the club. They are making an effort in going 'cheesy' for that night so I thought we should show some willing. As ever, what was the point?
Hired out The Firm and Pandorum but they were both disappointing. The Firm was by the same director of Football Factory and The Business. Clearly he thought if he combined the two he'd be on to a winner but it was woeful. Lame characters, crap action and poor imitation of the other two. The only decent thing was the rather colourful DVD box which was an illustration of a bunch of guys in various primary coloured tracks suits (Fila, Sergio Tacchini etc) and clothing.
Pandorum wasn't a great deal better. It did have Ben Foster who usually gives a strong performance but it got caught up in it's own self belief and descended into the whole split personality but with the other personality taking physical form a la Fight Club which I can't stand in films.
The following day we went to check out From Paris with love. It starred John Travolta and was directed by the same guy who did Taken. The film was ok but you only began connecting with the characters about half way through as prior to this it just felt too forced and like it was trying to be a John Woo film. Entertaining but nothing more.
On the Monday, I was randomly surfing the web and I got another virus, well actually malware program ( very similar to the one before) on the PC. I felt this cold sweat and then a very hot one as I realised what had happened.
My mouth dried out and I felt sick to the stomach. We were building up to another busy week and I'd basically sodded around and managed to take my computer out of action. I had to put in the call to our IT guru and on the next day speak to my bosses. They took it well but I was pretty embarrassed and felt terrible. I envisaged another trip down to Southampton to get the IT chap to basically re-build the PC. He managed to find some stuff online and with a little guidance, I did a little corrective surgery and incredibly managed to eliminate the malware.
Lesson was learnt and shall we say the 'more colourful' websites will be avoided from now on.
Moving onto better things, the Halo universe added to the range of things available with the release of Halo: Legends on DVD. This was a similar treatment to that which had been given to the Animatrix. Access to the Halo 'canon' for a selection of Japanese anime directors to each interpret their own story and vision within the Halo universe.
There were many different styles of animation in the DVD and if it was a personal decision I would have happily watched an hour of the kind of truly awesome FMV that we had during Halo Wars. However, Halo Legends was never envisaged to be like that but rather a showcase for a range of different animation styles. Some I liked, some I didn't but for me, the style in The Duel blew me away.
The style of animation threw me to begin with but once I got my head around it, and witnessed how it elevated the wonderful sound effects, I loved it. Every shot could have been frozen and framed on the wall. The style of animation was so different but so amazing for it. As they said in the making of it's like watching a moving water colour painting. Remarkable.
The other standout (though I did enjoy other episodes) was The Package. The animation was low end CGI looking like a cross between Anime and in-game graphics if that makes sense. It did feature Masterchief , along with some of the other Spartans from the books, notably Kelly and Fred.
The colours, explosions were all great but when they boarded the covenant ship, it really stepped up a gear. They hurtle in, riding this wave of fire and destruction and as it clears they are crouched within a bubble shield. It falls and they leap forward but just at that moment they freeze the shot for a nano second - it's awesome.
And then they open up with the carnage, the music sweeps in, the cut to the first person view but the best moment of all, which I'm not afraid to admit brought a tear to my eye and made the hairs stand up on my neck is when Kelly jumps up, grabs the two plasma rifles in slow mo just as the thundering resolution to the Halo theme swells up.
Breath-taking moment that really blew me away.
A week or so later and I had completed Mass Effect 2 and if honest, I was disappointed. Granted it held my interest and it had some enjoyable moments but it really wasn't the tour de force that the first one had been. Maybe this was more apparent after having literally finished the first one a day or so before starting the second one.
I compiled my thoughts into written form and placed them in the gaming section of the site. I'm sure you'll be racing over there to read all 3,500 words! In essence I felt the game had been play tested, just not emotionally play tested. Like BioWare had asked them how the game felt but not how the players actually felt. For, to me, it was missing the emotive resonance that so punched through from the first one.
I decided to pop them onto the Mass Effect 2 forums. I posted my thoughts on the first game there and they had been very complimentary, so I thought it only right to provide some balance to my opinions. I thought I'd get flamed but amazingly some actually responded that they felt the same and had noticed the same things.
Of course, we were in the minority but it was still refreshing to see that some hadn't just swallowed the love of the game completely to the point of not being able to see anything negative. One guy even abridged the whole game into a condensed that demonstrated a sense of humour that perfectly encapsulated the things I was disappointed with. You can check it here.
So I have got other things to bore you with but I've just not managed to get them down! So let me leave you here and hopefully I'll get the chance to add some more stuff next week.
Have a good one and thanks for checking in.
January / February 2010
So another year, and another decade awaits. As ever I've been slow in updating but I still regularly check in, so those thinking 'will my message to the magician behind the curtain be picked up' - fear not, it will be. Not that I've received numerous messages from the multitudes of people that have stumbled through the front door and can't believe the chapel of enlightenment that they've discovered.
It's been a rough start to the year. The shitty snow we had during January, which the media had you believe was leading to the fall of man, pretty much wiped out any of our clients calling at the beginning of the year. Add to this a not brilliant meeting with the accountants about the state of the company and we were in Operation Desperation. A mail-out action plan was swung into place, along with a call up, email firing exercise to lapsed clients or potential new ones.
Our first mail-out was based around Groundhog Day, which was a great prop to use. I'd done some research the week before to build up a body of recipients and had to follow this up with calls on the actual day. It was a little nerve racking and I could certainly feel the heat creeping up my neck and cheeks during the first few calls. I managed to relax into a friendly patter with my primary goal trying to ascertain whether they had received the mailer and we could just email them our creds rather than having to full on cold call sale them.
We got some positive feedback, some nice comments and some contacts to send our email out to. It's hard to know what success it will have. We aren't the type of company to go for that 'in the face' type of sales tactic but you never know. It could bring a smile in the mind and when we follow it up with others it may lead to some much needed new business.
With the news, I thought it best to cancel my gym membership. Having committed to the TV and Sky+ last year it makes financial sense to stop paying £40 a month for something I was rarely using. Of course in the long term cancelling a gym membership to offset the cost of a Sky+ subscription is basically admitting that I'll be a fat (fatter) bastard in less than three months time.
Talking of fat, I have put on a few more pounds and really need to shift some. Getting rid of the gym membership probably isn't the best thing but I can't justify that cost anymore. I know I should be getting fit and slim for my own needs, but really when you don't have anyone take any notice, it's hard to motivate yourself.
On the gaming front, I've been aware that Mass Effect 2 was coming out at the end of January and so was keen to get back into the first one to get my eye back in. It was good to step back into the shoes of Chris Shepherd and lay down the hurt, sci-fi style on a choice of bad guys looking to lay waste to the universe.
Mass Effect 2 came out and I managed to lay my hands on one of the seemingly rare special editions. I started playing once I'd completed the first one and though very first impressions were good, it has dipped off a little. I don't know if it's having played the first one right before getting stuck into the second but some things they've 'improved' just really bug me. It also seems like they'd dialled up the action but made the game feel more constricted.
It could well be the post euphoria 'low' setting in but my brother feels it as well. Maybe I'll have to leave it for a few weeks before re-commencing the adventure.
Because my Xbox had been encountering difficulties in reading some of my discs, I decided that I was going to treat myself to an Xbox 360 Elite. I couldn't be doing with getting Mass Effect 2 and then it not working because there was something wrong with the console. It's set up in the living room and looks great on the 50".
In the bundle came two games, Pure a quad bike racing game that we'd played before and is ok and Lego Batman. We'd not really expected anything from the game but my brother and I popped it on one night and it was fabulous. Simple but funny and in a way quite cool. It allowed us to play two player and kept us entertained for a good few sessions. It turned out to be a way better game than Pure.
On the film front, I've been still trying to reconcile how average Avatar is and how me and a few select others seem the only ones capable of recognising this. Really, it isn't that special. With the world going seemingly nuts about it and it surpassing Titanic in the highest grossing film of all time, I'm taken back to when Titanic was out. I defended that stoically for the impact it had on me but now I'm wondering if I was then, one of the same deluded individuals who can't see the normality of Avatar. Yet, even when Titanic was out there were people who disliked it, yet I find it hard to find anyone who disliked Avatar. It's getting to the point where I'm finding it beginning to impact on my feelings towards Titanic. Seeing the flaws and weaknesses in Avatar is making me question whether they exist in Titanic.
I was always aware that the love story was not hugely strong in Titanic but then again in my mind I thought that it wasn't meant to be. The main story of Titanic is the ship itself but to prevent the film becoming a documentary it needed a secondary story to drive it along. Hence the love story. For me though it felt woven into the fabric of the sinking of the ship and helped in no small part by the connection I made to Kate & Leo, who's characters I really liked.
In Avatar, James writing weaknesses were exposed. In Titanic the story was created for the bigger 'sinking' story to hang on. In Avatar, there wasn't a bigger story, just some fancy graphics and effects. Hence the film felt like the story was only serving that and not something greater. Disappointing, but at least it's now off the top spot.
I have been to see Edge of Darkness. It was good to see Mel Gibson back on the big screen but the film was pretty average if I'm honest. Moon and District 9 both came out on DVD which naturally I picked up. Watched them both again and District 9 still really is something special. On the movie related front I managed to track down the music that featured (and hence was responsible for) in the best trailer of last year.
It's by two guys that just make music for trailers and it has to be one of the most inspirational, emotive pieces of music I've ever heard. I'll confess that when I eventually got hold of it and started to repeatedly listen to it, I got a little emotional.
Somehow it conjured these really powerful emotions of bravery, loyalty and sacrifice leading me to wish that I could almost make a film that would properly demonstrate all the scenes that the music should accompany. It involved old style swords and shields fighting and two brothers on a battlefield fighting side by side against an evil horde.
They get separated and the younger one gets injured. This leads to the older one valiantly battling through almost insurmountable odds, bellowing rage and anger to rescue his brother. Blood and limbs are flying everywhere as the images show the increasingly frantic and desperate warrior struggling to reach his brethren in time. He succeeds in getting to him, ignoring the numerous wounds and damage that he received en route and manages to stand again side by side even though they are ultimately doomed.
As they both battle on refusing to yield and stubbornly, hopelessly defending their ground the camera pulls up and away to reveal the thousands of enemy racing to fight them. Overwhelmed but defiant. I couldn't stop playing the scene or continually tinkering with it in my mind for some time. At one point I even got a wrapping paper inner tube to play act it out!
The connection to my own brother is fairly obvious and if I ever won the big one (and by that I mean the tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds) I'd love to have a crack at trying to get those feelings down into a film. Someway of highlighting characters that I would really empathise with and demonstrate their bravery in just the way I would like them to. I like films that try to tap into the power that rage can bring but use it for good, if you know what I mean.
I'm sure you won't have the same experience when you play it but there you go!
On the TV front the Sky+ has been used to do a series link on the new Mock the Week, which are always funny and also a programme that I stumbled on, America's Best Dance Crew. I've been aware of the show but never actually sat down to watch one. I only ever used to catch the judging panel whose pointless urban slang of "ya'll brought it tonight" and "I'm so proud of you for representin" was a little too much.
I caught an episode where the teams where doing routines to Britney Spears covers and my word some of them were good. I then went on Youtube to have a look at the guys that I'd seen in some of the adverts but never actually watched. These being the guys with the masks and gloves.
They were called Jabbawockeez and were the winners of the first series. Their routines and choreography were sensational and their whole 'look' with the masks etc was fantastic. By taking away their need for individual recognition you found yourself concentrating more on their technique rather than spotting an individual member.
Check out some of their routines if you can in hi-def. For me they were really something else and I felt quite cool that I'd discovered them.
Part 1 of their dance routines from the show
Part 2 of their dance routines from the show
With the Mass Effect 2 and sci fi connection I've managed to get my brother to start watching some Babylon 5. So far during January and February we've managed to get through three series and I'm delighted that he's really taking to it. For me the characters are so richly written and the story so involving that I really wanted him to experience it.
It's a franchise that you need to expend some time to get into, which he has, but one that really delivers. There's some great episodes that I'm looking forward to watching with him.
On the going out front I've been out a couple of times. One Saturday was to Basildon and I have to say that I was impressed. It was the second week or so of the year, so I didn't expect anyone to be out but there were plenty of people and plenty of sights to see. You have to hand it to Essex, they certainly know how to party.
There's a big collection of clubs, bars etc in Basildon and although I might have expected it to be rough and rowdy, it wasn't. I didn't have my drivers license, seemingly a necessity nowadays, but I was able to actually reason with a bouncer that I was so old I'd forgotten to bring it and he let me in. I made a point when I left of thanking him.
There were the usual kinds of people in there but not as many arsehole blokes or the ever present atmosphere of a fight. I did see one particular arsehole though who was worthy of mention. There was this girl on the dance floor wearing a lacy body with hipster leggings that effectively showed her naked hips. She had an amazing arse and she knew it. At one point she started walking across the dance floor and this opportunistic twat followed closely behind her grinding his crotch into her posterior.
He didn't know her and was waving his arms around as if he was party boy from Jackass and in some vain attempt to convince everyone that 'hey, he was having a great time and not trying to cop a blatant grind'. After a few seconds, she cottoned onto it and turned around with a glare but he managed to conceal by turning away and continuing to wave his hands like some kind of partying gibbon.
What a cock. I love women but just assuming you can touch and maul them because they look sexy is out of line. I've never groped a woman or pinched a bottom of a random in my life.
Been out a couple of times locally to see if the Alfie Moon fan club were around but to no avail. On both occasions the idea was to get hammered but no matter how much we drank it didn't seem to take us to 'that place'. We've also had a weekend round a friends house, which as it coincided with Valentines Day and was going to lead to a Dominos Pizza Armageddon, could only be labelled the Valentines Day Pizza Massacre.
Caught up on some good films, Tango & Cash, Chocolate (the Thai fighting one not the french film), Payback, Brotherhood and Cloverfield. Also got the guys playing some Halo 3 multiplayer. They took to it amazingly quickly and playing king of the hill with either energy swords or rockets was just madness. As soon as you re-spawned, you go steaming towards the 'hill', hurling blind grenades and firing off your rockets with no idea who was in the middle. It was a frenzy of explosion, death and insults being hurled. Great fun.
Finally we've had the start of the Winter Olympics. As I'm sure I've mentioned before when the Olympics are on, I do enjoy watching them so much. In most cases the competing athletes have been quietly doing their thing, perfecting their talent and building up to this one big moment to shine (I know they have separate world championships etc but you know what I mean).
I find when I tune into other sports, ie not Olympics, they seem to be league style matches or obscure Texaco Cup Athletics from Gateshead. I like how the Olympics are the fulcrum and pinnacle of that field so when you are getting your snapshot of it, you know that everyone competing is driven and at the very top of their game. There's little 'playing the long game' or 'it doesn't matter if we lose this one'.
At the Winter Olympics, I always particularly look forward to the Ice Hockey though like to stumble across the many other sports, moguls, speed skating etc where possible. As our chances were quite strong in the women's skeleton I tuned in to watch Rudman and Williams. It meant staying up late but I think that's a fair sacrifice when they are representing our country.Rudman had a poor first run which pretty much put her out of the running but Williams started with an astonishing first run that smashed the track record and put her in the lead and from which she didn't fall. It was great to see and she seemed so down to earth, thanking the people who stayed up to watch and seemingly more amazed with being able to speak to Claire Balding than being interviewed.
Good work girl. I also have to say how impressed I am with the Team GB kit but I'll elaborate on that in another posting.
I also had to get my car sorted, which was fun. I'd been aware of sound coming from the left rear tyre but it got to the point where I thought it should be checked out. As I thought, it was a bearing problem but getting it fixed led to my attention being drawn to the state of the rear brakes, along with the front brakes and also the front tyres. Hence in the course of about a week I ended up forking out over £550 on it.I guess it needed doing and there was some satisfaction in knowing that I managed to get the full usage out of the tires and brakes. It also means that with the rear bearings, rear pads & discs, front pads & discs and front tyres, I shouldn't have any problems with those for a year or so!
And that's about it. My work PC managed to contract some horrible virus from a Las Vegas info website, which has been hugely frustrating and I don't know what it will need to repair it. It prevents me from going on the web and is a tad annoying.
It ended up for me being off the web and unable to update for another week, which was a pain. With the help of our IT guru we managed to remove the virus but it lead to it needed some corrective work which necessitated a trip down to Southampton to drop it off with him. At least it reminded me of the value of the internet, though it's always a little disappointing when you then check back into your facebook, email etc and they are still empty.
Thanks, as ever, for checking out the site and apologies for the lack of updating. My life can be a little repetitive so if desperate for info just check back on some of the earlier journal entries (2006, 2007 etc) as I used to ramble a lot more then.