Locked within the crystal ball

I saw this today and really enjoyed the video and the song. I've read that Ritchie Blackmore's Night stuff wasn't very good but on the strength of this, I have to disagree.

The wretched shopping

Ventured to the shopping mall today and regretted it. It was probably quieter than Saturday but even so, I'd had enough after an hour. I went mainly for my son, who was just desperate to spend the money gifts he was given by some friends and family members. He bought some of the new Lego Power Miners kits, which are quite good I must admit, and a videogame for the Wii (Pokemon Battle Revolution). I picked up a couple of games that were reduced in the sale too but when I got home I looked up some reviews and one of the games is supposed to be a total turkey but sometimes reviews are misleading and I've had great times when the reviews said that I wouldn't. At least it was nowhere near the cost of full price and I can always do a trade in, if I don't like it. After the mall we called into the hypermarket and I picked up a bottle of "cuarenta y tres" as a birthday present for my mother-inlaw, I've enjoyed a few glasses of this liqueur in a Spanish bar with collegues from work and I think it's a delightful drink.

Boxing Day 2009

Well, Christmas was a brief affair but good while it lasted. There is a heap of litter now in rubbish sacks. Every family member has their own pile of presents that there isn't room in the house for. I have loads of washing up to do, my least favourite chore. I've had afternoon naps infront of the TV the last two days after eating large Christmas lunches with a couple of glasses of wine. I blame my napping on the wine.
This morning my son asked me to help paint a picture with him, he got a superhero painting set as a stocking present. We started it together but he got bored really quickly and I just carried on with it. I scanned it in when it was dry (it was a watercolour) and will post it on here as soon as I can get a chance, it doesn't all fit on the scanner so he might be missing a toe or something. I like watercolour painting but have never really done it seriously.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Time

I’ve had a sore throat since yesterday and the sniffles in my nose have gotten worse. I don’t like not feeling well but when you have a cold, you just have to get through the symptoms as best as you can.

This weekend was busy, we went to London to watch the carols and singalong. We took the children up to my parents. And today, well we had to pick a few things up from my wife’s workplace and pop into town. I borrowed a couple of books to read from the library, I don’t normally read fantasy fiction but thought I’d give it a go. I picked up a collection of short stories by Kelley Armstrong and David Eddings’ The Diamond Throne. I also picked up a couple of videogames that were on sale to go through.

I’m working on Wednesday but will try to do as little as possible ;-)

Hurrah for holidays!!

Well, I have one day to work next Wednesday but apart from that, I'm a free man until 6th January, huzzah! There is a lot of snow forecast for the early hours of tomorrow morning, I took tomorrow off to go to church to see my kid's school perform a carol concert. I love watching that sort of thing and this year my daughter is performing a solo guitar piece.  I'd hate to miss that for the sake of a bit of snow. It seems the first snowfall of a season takes everyone by surprise and everything seems to shut down. So I do hope that the school stays open and that the snow isn't too bad for us.
We've another busy weekend this one. We've tickets to watch a Christmas carol concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London again this year. We seem to go every year now and have a box which accommodates 8 people so that there is plenty of room behind us to have some drinks and food whenever we want to. I like singing along with everyone else, my mother inlaw invites guests too, so I'm not sure who else will be coming along. It will be good though I'm sure. Have a great weekend folks, Christmas is not far away now!

Christmas no.1

I’ve heard that a Facebook group has been set up to promote sales for Rage Against The Machine’s song Killing In The Name because there is a feeling that the X Factor is a cynical marketing ploy to artificially push it’s own winner to number 1. I like the Rage Against The Machine song and if I were to purchase one of the songs it would probably be that one. However, I’m not the type who buys singles and especially not at Christmas. The last single I bought at Christmas was probably the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?

It did get me thinking though, why not have an alternative alternative? So here is my choice for an alternative Christmas single: Death of Love by Cradle Of Filth. I jest of course but just imagine if my alternative catches on?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

It’s a busy weekend for us. My children’s school disco was Friday night, so I had to be a taxi. In between journeys I treated us to a Chinese takeaway from a shop we don’t often use. the food was really good though but we ordered way too much! Watching the children leave the disco was funny, all hot, sweaty and tired and covered with fake tattoos. Mummies were all red in the face, also tired. At least it finished at 8pm, early enough to get kids in bed and still have some time afterwards before retiring to bed.

Yesterday we spent much of the day in Oxford. I love walking the narrow backstreets of Oxford, its such an old town with such amazing history. My children were playing Harry Potter as we looked into windows of the jewellery shops: it was just like Diagon Alley with the numbers of people. The gargoyles on the colleges also fascinated them. We actually saw the touring show of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I have to say it was excellent. The stage sets were great and the car effects were magnificent. I loved the car as a kid and it brought all those memories back to life.

Christmas tree time

Yes, that time of year again. Our tree and lights are now up and I feel a little more festive. I also found out last night that our Wii isn't actually in storage but in its box on the shelf in the lounge. Funny that I've seen the box but assumed it was empty just because my wife said it was. I think she just said that at the time we were talking about a house move before Christmas. That's not happening now, so she's let up a little.
Well, December is racing along as it usually does. We actually went shopping for a few final presents yesterday and my goodness! It was incredibly packed. We thought we'd get there early (tills open from 11am but "browsing time" means some stores open before that). We actually got there at about 10:30 or maybe just before. As it was Sunday, there wasn't much food left in the house so we decided to have a Macdonald's breakfast: it was rammed! We had to find a seat upstairs because it was just so noisy and busy downstairs.
We lasted a couple of hours and even split up to save a bit of time. Then we were all done-in, exhasuted.
I drove home, went upstairs and then fell asleep on the bed for a couple of hours. During which my wife went out again to get a few final items from the local shops. Upshot of the day was that we think we've got most of what we need for this year.
Last night we watched Batman Begins on TV. I haven't seen that film for over a year but I do enjoy it.