Father's Day

I can't believe all of last happened since my last post - time just seems to disappear! I can't even remember most of last week now. This weekend we had Father's Day on Sunday. I somehow managed to forget my dad's birthday this year, so I made sure he got a card and a gift for Father's Day. I myself got some DVDs I have been after for a while from my wife and kids, which was sweet of them. I took them out for a bike ride in the morning, followed up by another walk and a Sunday lunch in a village pub. The food was lovely and we all had a good time.
This week feels a bit disjointed because I have had to take today off to take my daughter to another town so that she can do a guitar exam. Seems a bit crazy to have the exam in another town but that's the situation. So I had a busy day yesterday and now I get to relax and tomorrow and the rest of the week will be busy. Bit of a stop/start week.
I'll have to do something constructive this afternoon, this morning I'll take it easy but I feel I need to achieve something later, so I might take a trip to the dump to get rid of some of the broken stuff we have in the back garden: I've let it pile up a bit and need to do some clearing so that we can take a bit more pride in the garden: I'll have to do some grass cutting too then. Pity that grass doesn't just need a cut at the start of summer and one at the end. Oh well, have a good week trekkers!

In the closet at Download 2010

This weekend the Download Festival plays host to some of the best bands on the planet:

• ACDC
• Them Crooked Vultures
• Rage Against The Machine
• Megadeth
• Aerosmith
• Stone Temple Pilots
• Motorhead
• Saxon
• Bullet For My Valentine
• Stone Sour
• Killswitch Engage
• Lamb of God
• Five Finger Death Punch
• Atreyu

I've attended only two large music festivals and they were over ten years ago now, infact the Phoenix Festival as it was called only ran for something like 3 years. It did attract a lot of good bands though and I saw some great music. The experience has stayed with me. The first time I went with a friend and stayed in a motel nearby, driving to the site each day. The second time I went, it was alone and I took my tent and camped. It was quite a solitary experience, which was weird with so many other people around. The thing is, when you go to an event like a festival, you see people who are living the alternative lifestyle more than I ever could as someone with a job and responsibilities. You see people who have really long hair, tattoos, piercings, druggie trappings, wearing clothes that look like something out of the Mad Max films. They wear the badge of office: the signs indicate that they are of another class - a class I feel affinity with yet somehow a class I both aspire to and paradoxically one I also look down on. If I bought a death metal band T-shirt it would feel odd and I'd feel awkward and out of place. Even though, I might really enjoy listening to that music on my iPod. I also know that a proportion of those people attending have responsible jobs and families and go as large family groups - I miss that, I would love to take my family to a festival with a group of other families who also like rock music but the truth is my wife has made more social connections than me with other families - I talk to other daddies but they aren't interested in rock music and film and videogames like I am. My wife isn't interested in those things either and there's a limit to how much I can indulge my liking for those things in a family environment. I'd like to know of a club or community for other adults in my situation, does one exist?

One Gold Medal Later

My daughter won a gold medal for her Judo competition last weekend. This Saturday my son has a mini-competition to attend and then the weekend after that it is the local Judo club championship, then another competition after that I think. So we've quite a bit of competitive fighting over the next few weekends.
I've got to take my car in to the local garage for its MOT test this Friday, I hope it passes. I have new tyres to replace the ones that were close to the legal limit, so at least I know it won't fail on tyres.
The World Cup starts on Saturday and England play the USA, so I'm looking forward to watching that match. I haven't really been looking forward to it that much recently but now it's closer I am starting to feel more excited by it. My wife can't understand why I would watch it when our own country team aren't playing but I just like to see different styles of football and I like to watch matches to see good football skills on show. I can't explain it any better than that. It's something to talk about with other men I suppose too, something my wife doesn't really "get" either. She thinks men should talk about how we feel, what fears we have and what's happening with our lives but really they're the last thing we like to talk about. That's perhaps a bit cliched but it's not all that far from the truth.
I mentioned we visted Collectormania recently, well the day after we went I heard from someone else who went that they saw Keifer Sutherland signing autographs there. My wife was ever so disappointed she missed him, she loves him! He wasn't advertised, so perhaps it was to avoid too long a queue: even so there was a very long queue for him apparently!

Collectormania May 2010

Collectormania was good again this year, my son really enjoyed it. being a Star Wars fan he was in his element. Certain characters were dressed up and walking around, including old R2D2 below.
I bought a figure of Marcus Fenix from Gears Of War and my wife purchased photographs of various people for her wall at work.

End of May update

Just as the Eurovision Song Contest was beginning on Saturday night, a friend we hadn't seen for months called and so I didn't watch it live. I watched it on Sunday, after coming back from Collectormania.
I watched it with my daughter on BBC iPlayer. It was a mix of techno pop, slower ballads, chart-friendly melodic metal and pure pop. This year's wierd entries were from Spain and Serbia. We had to suffer Spain's entry twice because of a stage invasion the first time they sang by a guy wearing jeans and a fez! I didn't see the need for them to perform again because they coped very well and it didn't affect their performance. In the end Germany won, after what I said about the Germans in my last post I now have to eat my own words. I thought it was a good song but certainly not a winner. The second place country was Turkey with a metal song, I scored it joint first so I was close to picking a winner. A few songs were equally as good as the winner but didn't really feature in the top five, Iceland's song for instance. But that's the Eurovision. Norway did a great job of hosting the competition and nothing went wrong. One nice touch, which really worked well and made me feel all warm inside was a flash mob dance routine across the whole of Europe. Such a simple idea but one that I think Eurovision should do in the future, you can watch it below.

Eurovision 2010

A quick search of this blog will reveal how I enjoy and lok forward to the Eurovision each year. I don't watch for lasting appeal of the songs - it is rare that I actually remember the songs even on the next day to be honest. I enjoy it because it is a song contest that stretches across Europe and it brings a small glimpse of different national costumes and cultures in the 3 minute country portraits before every song entry. I liked it as a child because the UK or Great Britain actually used to win it sometimes when I was young. Lulu won it in 1969 with a song titled Boom-Bang-A-Bang (believe it or not I don't think it was about sex), but I was too young to remember being less than a year old at the time. Abba won it with "Waterloo" in 1974, it was a win for Sweden but Abba would have been a class above the competition in any year. Brotherhood of Man had a song "Save All Your Kisses For Me" that I think was a Eurovision winner from 1976, it was a ridiculously popular song on the radio I remember as a child. I also remember the skirt ripping-off antics of Bucks Fizz from 1981 when they sang "Making Your Mind Up", another ridiculously popular song. The last time the UK won was when Katrina And The Waves sang "Love Shine A Light", a hideous song in my opinion but most of our entries have been even worse ever since. I couldn't believe it in 2006 when Finland won for the first time in the history of Eurovision with Lordi singing a metal song "Hard Rock Halleluja".
The songs are all song first and then there is an intermission before the voting begins. As a child the voting was the most interesting part. An illuminated scoreboard had lights and scores. Each country was telephoned and a local TV presenter read out their votes, scoring a series of votes across all the countries who they wanted to vote for. As more countries have joined the contest across Europe (with things like the break up of the Soviet Union too), the contest has got larger and the voting more predictable, or should I say political, as each country awards most points to its closest neighbours: statistical analysis of this bloc voting has been studied and the figures suggest it is a real problem: Eastern, Scandinavia, Balkan and Baltic bloc voting are the worst offenders. It means that countries who spread their votes fairly on just the quality of song and performance often end up very low down the scoreboard (that's if any country actually does this).
When things go wrong it is quite funny too. Like when communication breaks down - less likely now we have better telecomunications but I remember phone lines being a problem when I was a child. Or when the computer scoreboard crashed as I seem to remember it doing one year - again less likely. No, these days the amusement is more likely to come from a country with a song and performance that is idiosyncratic: chosen by the public in that country to represent them. We have had some real howlers - especially from Germany: those crazy freaks!
So anyway, here is a link for you to find out more and I hope the UK does well!

Looking Ahead But Not Very Far Ahead

Looking ahead to this evening and tomorrow actually (well, alright and maybe into next week...). Tonight, is the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest (more about that in the next post). Tomorrow, we're going to Collectormania 2010, this time we have the correct weekend! So I'm looking forward to seeing the real General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard and catching a glimpse of someone famous from the Star Wars films or Doctor Who or some other such famous cult TV series or film. On Monday, it is a public holiday so I don't have to work. I also have Thursday and Friday off, so I will hopefully be going to Brighton on Friday.
My other news is that my daughter auditioned for her school play and would you believe it ended up with the part of the main character of Robin Hood! So not only does she feel like she has to blast us all out with singing at the top of her voice, she now feels she has a legitimate right to do so: hope her head doesn't swell with the fame!

Stop and pause

I was looking through the music section of our local library on Saturday, as I usually do. And I stopped and paused over a CD that looked interesting. I didn't in the end borrow it. I wasn't sure what it would be like. Rather like making a purchasing decision, when you like the look of something but you don't know how it will taste. I decided not to take the gamble. Instead I made a voice clip on my cellphone of the artist name and CD title. The voice recording is a feature I've never used for anything practical before - mainly I've used it to record my son using a weird voice. On this occasion, I decided to play back the voice recording and look the artist up on LastFM and she sounds like just the kind of music I'd like. Typical! Anyway, I'm going to reserve a copy from the library and yyou can watch her  below, the artists name is Tina Dico and I love this song Count to Ten.

Early Riser

I don't know whether it is being away from home or whatever. I have woken up at 4:45am two mornings this week. This is early for me. I don't know why I should wake up at those times, it's not like I set my alarm for that time but it has happened twice now. This morning, I actually booted up my laptop and got some work done, so it was useful in a way. I bet I'll fall asleep earlier tonight than I normally would.
I am looking forward to this weekend. I'm going to take my son up to see my mum while my daughter competes, I find it hard to watch. I usually have to hide a tear in my eye by wiping it away quick, regardless of whether she wins or loses I'm so proud of her because she works so hard and some of these girls are so much bigger than her.

Away Days

My daughter's competition is this Sunday rather than last Sunday, I got that wrong. I did get my tyres seen to though, which was a bit of a relief. They were still legal but had the weather been worse I would have been at risk. Tyres aren't cheap and I had to buy two new ones. I was talking to the mechanic and found out they also do air conditioning re-gassing, so I booked my car in for that on Saturday coming. My aircon doesn't work and with the summer fast approaching I really need temperature control in my car.
Not much else is happening really, hence my posts being fairly quiet. I have been away from home a couple of nights this week, I get back tomorrow, so it has felt a bit like I'm a stranger in my own home. A feeling I don't like very much.
I have noticed that my belly is getting bigger, which I find a bit of a downer. I will have to do something about that. I should diet. You heard it hear first!

Paranormal weekend

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last posting. A new government is in post and a new man is running the helm with a deputy who day earlier was a competitor. Weird how things turn out isn't it?
My daughter takes part in a Judo competition this weekend, so we'll be cheering her on. I've borrowed the film Paranormal Activity from the Library to watch on my own tonight as my wife is out for the evening.
I should probably go and get my tyres checked and replaced this weekend too.
That's about it, have a great weekend folks!

Would you believe it?

You know when you have one of those experiences that embarasses you and you just have to put down to experience to get past it? Well, yesterday we all got up early-ish for a Bank Holiday Sunday and planned our travel to Collectormania. The venue has changed this year, they moved it from the large shopping mall space to the new stadium further out from the centre. We thought it would be busy and parking might be expensive but we knew we could park near the shopping centre for free and we found out from their website that there was a free bus to Collectormania. So, although it was chilly and a bit wet we did that. Walking briskly we left the car and headed for the bus stop. We considered popping into MacDonald's for a quick breakfast snack but decided against it because of not being sure whether the bus would be on time or late (they're never early are they?). We got to the bus stop but had some doubts. There was nobody else waiting, which I found a bit puzzling. There were no temporary bus signs indicating the free bus to Collectormania stopped at that particular one. So, we decided to wait. We waited. And waited. And then decided to check the website again on my phone, which I did and we were in the right place. Still no bus. By this time the bus was 30 minutes late and we'd been waiting 45 minutes. I suggested we cut our losses and go shopping in the mall, where the shops were now starting to open, because I reasoned that the free bus must have been cancelled. After my wife had bought a dress she needed for an upcoming event, we headed off to Collectormania. We got to the stadium and the car park was quiet, a few cars but nothing like what we were expecting. There were also no signs up and no indication which entry door to go to. So we drove around and pulled up to eat a few sandwiches we had picked up. I re-checked my phone. Guess what? You guessed it, it was on the Bank Holiday at the end of May and not the one at the beginning. It was my wife who told me it was on this weekend, I was a little bit surprised when she told me because in my mind I thought it was further away but I was so excited I wanted it to be this weekend that I accepted it. I looked at the website but didn't pick the date up very easily because it wasn't written in text, it was part of the graphic button and written in yellow I think. So the lessons to learn? Check your facts before you set off! Listen to your inner voice!

Collectormania 2010

I'm excited this evening because tomorrow we're going to Collectormania. I love this show, we see some celebrities who are signing autographs and some collector's memorabilia that can be bought. I'm not really going to buy anything but if I see something that takes my fancy I might do that. I like seeing things from movies and TV in real life. I'm looking forward to what I might find tomorrow.

Trouble brewing

In our town tomorrow there is a march by an anti-Islamic group. Our community is made up of many different faiths and the police are expecting trouble. We are avoiding the town, the library is closed and I suppose many of the shops will be closed too. I can't stand intolerance and I hate the fact that these outsiders are coming to a peaceful community like ours to make trouble in this way.

Soon be May

May is just around the corner. Less than an hour away infact. It's been a busy week workwise, I've got a lot done but there is so much more to be done over the next few weeks. This weekend is a Bank Holiday, which means I have Monday off. The weather has gotten a bit cooler in the last 24 hours and it is apparently going to stay cold for the next few days, including rain. Shame about the rain, we were planning to do some gardening work. Might have to put that off.

Listening

I was enjoying listening to my iPod as I drove home this evening in the warm evening sunlight. A song by Krtistin Hirsch came on and reminded me how much I enjoyed her songs. The video below shows her in 1994, I really enjoyed this period of her music. Hope you enjoy it.

War Games

I had a nice few days off recently. I've got a few photos of my travels. I took some panorama shots from the top of a hill on Sunday morning. They turned out OK, it was the first time I used that feature on my phone - I didn't even know it had that feature to be honest!
I titled this post War Games because that is what I've been playing recently. More specifically, Battlefield Bad Company 2 on Xbox360. I don't normally play multiplayer games, preferring the story mode to what sometimes feels like mindless running around and shooting the crap out of each other. BFBC2 feels a bit different because your success depends on working as a team. I don't play with a headset, it just seems too nerdy to speak to other players and I don't take it all that seriously. I do like to play as a squad though and I play as a medic so I drop health packs on the ground and get points for the healing that they give to other players on my team. I also have the ability to use defibrillators to revive fallen team members after they've been shot, that's quite satisfying. Of course, I also have a bloody big gun that I use to kill with! There are other roles that can be adopted in a four person squad, so when I've racked up many more hours as a medic, I can stretch the game out even longer by adopting a new role and learning how to get good at it. I've looked at the player statistics and some people have over a hundred hours of play time. It makes my 6 hours of multiplayer mayhem seem miniscule.
Here's a photo of me on Sunday, enjoying the rays.

Weekend

My weekend has been quite good. On Friday night we went to see the filming of a TV show "infront of a live studio audience" at Pinewood Studios. The show was The IT Crowd, here's a clip from a previous episode. I've been once before, the studios there have a Bond 007 stage but I don't know if they do tours. They embarassed someone in the audience because we were told to turn off all our phones (they don't allow any filming etc.) but someone was Twittering and he got found out. I have no idea how they found out though.
On Saturday, our library had a big AV sale and I picked up a couple of videogames - one of the Grand Theft Auto series for PSP and the second Halo game for Xbox. A new exchange shop opened on Saturday in town and I bought another videogame, this time it was the first Halo game for Xbox. I really like the Halo universe.
Today, we had to go and get our old broken PC from the shop who had tried to repair it. I got some of my money back at least. Then we went out to go and buy a new one. I was looking at the new touch screen all in one PCs but we saw one that could just be plugged into our existing keyboard, monitor and speakers. It was more powerful than the all in one we could afford and because it was the last one in stock and was on display we could get it for 100 pounds less - the warranty and support terms were exactly the same, it just didn't include the original packaging.
I set it up this evening and moved most of the data off our old hard drive. The only hassle has been that our old programs are not on the new machine, so I've left a few things until I have more time to sort them out. At least we have a family computer again. We use it more than a car, so we spent a bit more than I was expecting to on it but I think we got a good deal in the end. Things don't last as long as they used to though, especially where computers are concerned.

Holiday coming up!

We're going to visit some friends of ours in the later half of this week, we haven't seen them for a while and they have gone through a few changes in life. They have two children now, so it will be interesting to see how they are liking it. I'm just looking forward to getting something of a break from work with my family. The place we're going to is an old Roman city in Northern England called York. It has a famous cathedral and I also like that the city walls are still intact and you can walk along the stone battlements. We'll probably visit the Viking centre because the city has a Viking heritage as well. Last time we went, my daughter and I met up to take a walking Ghost Tour of the city in the evening, it was very good - the man leading the tour was quite theatrical. I'm looking forward to doing that again. I like local history, especially if there are supernatural stories to hear.

General Election 2010

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a general election on May 6th. I am already completely bored by the politics. I really dislike politicians and don't trust any of them. None of the party leaders really appeal to me to be fair. I think there will be a hung parliament and I don't know if I remember anything like the election this time around. I will vote though, even though I despise politicians I believe in democracy and politics for the people by the people. I just wished that some of the politicians did as well.

Demanding week!

Hi, it feels like a long time since I've been able to blog. I'm looking forward to catching up with the blogs I like to read after this. The reason for my absence has been because of two things: firstly, at work I've had an incredible amount to do. I had to plan, organise and run a workshop on Thursday and secondly, our family computer just wouldn't work last Sunday. The power was working and it started all of the fans however after a few seconds (without any motherboard beeps) it would just power down without any information on the screen, so didn't even boot. So I took it in and was told there was a queue and it was taking up to 14 days to get to new repairs. I heard on Friday from them, so in better time than I expected, however the news wasn't good: they think the motherboard is the problem and they don't sell the same motherboard anymore and advised me that it was not really cost effective to repair, so we have to get a new PC. So, my wife has been using my netbook which I use for blogging this week - at least until we got her laptop from work to talk to our wireless broadband modem.

Gym in a park

We recently took the kids for a play on a park in a nearby village. We call it the Helter Skelter Park because it has a helter skelter in it but next to the children's play area there are a set of gym-like exercise machines for adults to try out. I think they are a great idea but it's the only park I've been to where I've seen such things. Here is a photo of one of the new machines recently put in place. When I say machines, they don't work on there own, you have to move the parts but they are great because the stuff you have to do can be done by any mobile adult - so the age range they can be used by is wide. Also, they don't require a lot of strength so you can be having a nice stroll and do some gentle exercise along your way. A great addition to the park I think, I wish more places had these sorts of human-friendly devices!

Bad Blogger

I'm a very bad blogger! Haven't had a lot of time recently, been doing some packing and other stuff in relation to getting on with moving house. Still more to do. My thanks and appreciation to Mrs Hairy Woman for awarding me with a blog award over at Northern Sky Chronicles. Sooo nice of her!!

That's it for now, only had time while the kettle boiled to write this!

The New Blues

I like the Blues as a form of music, it is the basis of so many great styles today. Here's a young protagonist of the Blues that I like listening to and want to share with you. His name is Joe Bonamassa and I think he's fairly well known!

A Day Without Work

Hey folks, I had a day outside of work today. I am working tomorrow and then I also have Friday and Monday on leave too: so a nice long weekend. I had a few days I needed to use up and thought what the hell, I need a break. Work can take over, it's time to put the balance back!

My wife had to go into London, so I dropped her at the station and picked her up from it when she returned. I also picked my kids up from school and took them and a friend to the gymnastic class they attend. Then took them to McDonald's for tea as a treat.

I saw an old friend for a drink and a chat in the pub around the corner at lunchtime, it's good to catch up. I haven't seen him since just before Christmas.

I visited the library to take some things back and ended up loaning a few CDs and the film Moon, which I've wanted to see for a while. I also got my hair cut and took a batch of magazines to a couple of charity shops for them to sell. So all in all I've had quite a good, productive day.

Happy Mothering Sunday

Happy Mothers Day to all of you who have children. Yesterday we had to leave the house early, we needed to get to the tyre place so that my wife could get her tyres looked at. The mechanic advised that her rear ones were fine but that the two front ones were probably worth changing. When she had the MOT test in January they said the tyres would need to be changed soon and the fact that she hadn't changed them was weighing on her mind, I've been driving us in preference to using her car for longer journeys. But today, she is driving my daughter to a judo competition quite a long way away and wanted new tyres for such a journey. I think the tracking was out because she was saying it wasn't going in a straight line, so we got that done too.
Leaving the house early meant we could get into town sooner than we normally do. It was 8.30am and most shops don't open until 9:30am except newsagents and bigger stores like WHSmith and Marks & Spencer. My wife wanted new trousers and my daughter wanted some pens so they went off while my son and I visited McDonalds for breakfast. I like an occasional breakfast there.
Our library opens at 9:30am on Saturdays, so we visited that and I was lucky to pick up the Halo Legends DVD (I like the Halo universe stories/games) for loan. Last week I was lucky to find a Dio live DVD in the withdrawn stock but there wasn't anything that I fancied there this week. Sometimes they hang on to withdrawn audiovisual material and have a big stock sale, which I love because I enjoy the serendipity of finding a rarity amongst all the popular stuff.
The weather is getting warmer and nights are getting shorter, I like when the seasons change. I especially like looking forward to the summer.
The new Formula 1 season gets off to a start today, I enjoy motor racing even though my wife can't see the point of watching anything but the last lap!
I'm only working 3 days next week, so I'm looking forward to thinking about other things than work.
Finally, my son bought himself a green Star Wars Clone Wars lightsabre yesterday. He loves it. It doesn't light up or anything but it does fully collapse into its holder. It's pretty cool, I almost bought one for myself (never having had one as a kid) but I held myself back: I'd always have to play the bad guys! We'll see how long it lasts for without breaking and maybe buy him a light up one for his birthday in September.
The UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest was selected by the British public last night. Josh Dubovie sings the song and he is described as a "teenage sensation" (like they usually are). I'll have to post an entry just about the Eurovision Song Contest in the next few weeks. I watch it every year.

Sometimes only meat, fat and carbohydrates will do

Funny how this morning there was nothing perceptibly wrong with me. I dropped the children off for school, visited a store and picked up my regular music magazine and some rolls and sausages. At home I ate a couple of rolls and sausages before starting work. And I felt much better afterwards. How crazy is that?

Horror spoof The Exorcist

I enjoyed the spoofs that French and Saunders used to do, this one always makes me chuckle.

Oscar 2010

It's that time of year again for the Oscar ceremony. I wonder who will be victorious tonight? I hope the following get some awards:

• Avatar
• District 9
• Inglourious Basterds
• Up

 I haven't seen many of the films nominated, I've only seen the two above. I think Avatar should win just for its trailers, they were pretty awesome. Up and Inglourious Bs were great fun to watch, while District 9 just sounds exactly like the kind of film I'd like to see (trailer good too). I'd also really like to see The Hurt Locker so I hope that gets an Oscar. In a way, I would like Hurt Locker to win best picture over Avatar like it did with the BAFTAs. Avatar must be the favourite though but it would be good for a female director to win an Oscar and does James Cameron need any more awards to prove he's great?

Alice

We spent this morning at the Odeon cinema in town, watching the 3D version of Alice in Wonderland.

I can't remember the last time I saw a 3D film at the cinema, not having seen Avatar yet. The illusion of 3D works very well though and I forgot I was wearing the spectacles during large segments of the film. The black plastic glasses Blues Brothers style spectacles work much better than those cardboard ones I remember from my youth: the ones with a blue "lens" for one eye and a red "lens" for the other eye. You could sort of watch the film without the glasses on because the colours were the same however there was a double image effect. In old 3D movies everything kind of looked green I remember, except for a red tinged outline.

I don't recall reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass all the way through as a child but I have been exposed to parts of the stories before. I've read excerpts for comprehension exercises in school and I've seen other films so kind of knew what to expect. I think Tim Burton has done a brilliant job, he has come up with a film that I could enjoy watching again using a story I never really liked very much. Or I should say using elements of different stories because it's not a "true" film adaptation of the original book. It doesn't pretend to be either, it kind of updates the story from the book and gives it a better, more coherent, structure that I prefer to be honest. The actors and voice actors all do a fine job.

Action theme songs

I used to like playing with toy guns as a child. I had a few, not a great many but enough. I played with other children down my street. We played a variety of different types of games based on film or TV characters of the time. My favourites were shows like The Professionals and James Bond. These had great theme songs that inspired me to play at being a spy or a paramilitary person. I moved on from play to reading novels by Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy, and have moved back to play with the advent of realistic videogames like Modern Warfare. Here are a few of the themes I enjoyed as a kid, imagine me in my bedroom singing these and pretending it's me in the opening credits.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, one of the best themes for Bond I think. I like the film but it's not my all time favourite Bond.

The Professionals, I loved this show. Bodie was my favourite character. I loved the way the actors would look up and the picture would freeze during the opening credits.


The Hawaii Five-O theme, a classic.


The Man from U.N.C.L.E. theme (embedding disabled). These were rarely shown on TV when I was a kid, maybe they shown late but I really loved them. My brother had the annuals and I pored over them, fascinated by the two characters and the mysterious U.N.C.L.E. agency.

Mission Impossible, I enjoyed these as a kid. The theme is now a classic because of the advertisements that have used it.


The New Avengers, I liked the drums on this one.


The A Team: I was getting older but I still enjoyed the A Team theme.



The Sweeney: a tough cop show featuring John Thaw who later played Inspector Morse (Colin Dexter's Morse books are very good apparently but I haven't read them myself).


The Persuaders theme (embedding disabled) a show I don't really remember much about but I always liked the theme however it's not one I could hum.
The Avengers were a little strange and troubling as a child (I must only have saw repeats) but the theme was really strong.


For a childrens sci-fi series I thought the opening credits of The Tomorrow People were great.


Blakes 7 was an adult sci-fi series that had a great theme song. I enjoyed acting this out.


The UFO theme was excellent, I saw this show a few times and it terrified me as a kid.


Actually, now I've pulled this list together there are a few other great themes I loved that didn't quite make it to this list: The Equalizer, Quincey, Miami Vice, The Rockford Files, Magnum P.I. and Starsky and Hutch to name but a few near the top of the list.

On the eve of March

It's the 1st March tomorrow. I've had a busy week at work, my time off last week put me behind a little bit so I've been playing catch up. This week coming up is another busy week as well.
My wife and a friend went to Paris this weekend. They saw the Eiffel Tower and rode the elevator to the second observation deck, the view is quite something she says. Paris is quite flat and the river runs through it. It's been about ten years since I was in Paris I think, a long time anyway. She was only there for a few hours before having to head back. I didn't go up the tower when I was there, my fear of heights took over.
I'm quite tired, Saturday on my own with the children wore me down a bit even though they behaved well. I hope the weather gets warmer and more Spring-like now March is here, I like Spring.
Last bit of news, while waiting for my wife to return after midnight last night, it gave me an opportunity to complete a couple of pages of my comic strip Adventures of Stan.

Saturday update

Well, we went to the cinema on Thursday to see Up. The weather was wet and horrid, so it was the best thing to do. The film was really great, the only downside of the whole thing was I had a headache when I came out. It soon cleared up after I got home. On Friday, I drove us all down to Brighton so that my wife could go shopping for glass. She loves glass and there is an area of Brighton known as The Lanes. It has lots of little shops that sell all manner of things, it really is an eclectic mix of shops and I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. The streets are narrow (hence "the lanes") and the buildings have murals on them. My wife did buy herself some nice glass ornaments. I bought myself a great volume of black and white Spiderman comics in a book format. I love super hero comics and Spidey is a favourite of mine.

Lastly, I've bought a game for the Wii that is quite unnerving. I usually only buy games for the Wii that we can all play. Mainly because I have an Xbox360 and it has plenty of great adult games that don't seem to translate very well for the Wii. The game was Resident Evil 4 and I can recommend it for the story as well as the gameplay.

I finally also got to watch the Star Trek film this week. I really enjoyed it. I borrowed it from the library and also borrowed GI Joe at the same time - I started watching GI Joe and fell asleep though: it's not something I'd recommend except to people who insomnia sufferers.

Thursday

I have today and tomorrow off. Just began the day by popping out to the drive thru Macdonald's to get breakfast for the family. We haven't yet decided what we're going to do. We may go and see a film at the Kid's Club, Up is on and my son wants to go see it. No other plans at the moment, other than to have a relaxing time.

Courtney

Courtney Love appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross last week, the equivalent of a show like David Letterman I guess. It's the second of these two videos. I don't really know if this appearance is under the name Hole or Courtney Love, I heard she was releasing a solo album next. I've always liked Hole ever since I bought a comilation CD in the first half of the 90s that had a track by them. I have Pretty On The Inside on vinyl and the other two albums on CD. I once saw Hole live in Wolverhampton's Civic Hall. I really like Melissa Auf der Maur's solo album. I don't know what the other former member of Hole, Eric Erlandson is up to these days.

Falling in love

Falling. Into the terrifying pit. Like jumping out of a plane to your death. It's a phrase I've never thought about but falling implies an unstoppable certainty. It also implies a landing that might be hard or soft. I think it's a good phrase, which is probably why it's stuck around.
I heard once that there is a difference between being "in love" with someone and "loving" them. I've been "in love" with some women who never knew how I felt (for the better I think). I am friends with some of them to this day and they don't know how I felt about them. The feeling of being "in love" can fade and be replaced with a kind of friendly love that you would never act on: the word is friendship. Friendship is a kind of love is it not?
I have been a fool of love. When I felt I could manage it and tame it. But I was wrong. You can't tame love. It changes and moves as we grow and change as people over the course of our lives. Loving a partner is a much richer experience but it's a long haul one. You might not like what they do at times but we are all subject to external stresses and pressures that make us behave oddly or unlike ourselves at times (drink and drugs being a big example of an external factor). But essentially, with a partner you admire and respect them and you both protect each other and just enjoy the time you are together much more than the time apart. This is how I feel about love and now I'll shut up about it.

Valentines

There has been a noticeable amount of advertising for Valentines Day I've noticed this year. I don't know whether this is because:

• it always happens but I just have noticed it more this year
• more advertising money has been spent by those selling products/services this year
• everyone wants to spread some fruity good news as we come out of the recession of last year
• it falls on a weekend this year and it gives an extra shopping day or two to get sorted out

The whole thing has always left me slightly uncomfortable. In the same way that asking a girl out did, usually because it was such a difficult thing to do I made a hash of it out of embarrassment and my shyness.  After my experience, my advice to my son (if he asks when its time) will be, just be direct and ask. I found that if I got to the stage where I was taking a girl out for a night, I would instinctively know if she was interested. The danger is when it's borderline and you can't tell. I've probably lost a couple of friends that way and the other way too: rushing into something physical when it should have remained platonic. Can you have a platonic friendship with someone you could have loved? Or does the love eventually destroy it by rearing it's ugly head?

Funny how fast a week can go by

It's so weird how a week can go by without you really noticing, isn't it? I can't believe it is Thursday evening already. I haven't felt very well the last couple of days. I have a thick cold and it doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. I blame the changing weather, the cold retreats a bit and lulls you into believing Spring is on the way and then it comes back with violent snow and sub-zero temperatures. At least it's not as bad as the weather I see on the TV in Washington.
Not much to say at the moment, kind of feel like sleeping off this cold.

Don't panic!

I was listening to the radio on Wednesday morning I think, as I was driving to the train station and the DJ dedicated a song to everyone who was trying to ignore a warning light that morning. Thinking about that, I imagine that there are thousands of people around the world doing just that right at this very moment. I've done it some times, I had a car that had a break light indicator come on without warning and I would ignore it. Probably ill advised but it never affected the car, I did get rid of it though eventually. I try to ignore the petrol low light sometimes but I don't keep the resistance up for long because....well, obviously I don't want to run out of petrol!
Anyway, I was listening to a Liz Phair song from the nineties and thought I haven't heard a song from her in years, so I watched a few old clips of her on YouTube, she was a good singer sonwriter but I don't know if she is still going. Somehow, like you do, I moved on to another singer songwriter I really like called K T Tunstall. She dedicates this song to long distance love, I really really love this song and I love KT. I hope you like it too.

Constant Traveller

It feels like I've spent a lot of time on trains this week. Mainly due to a marathon yesterday, cancellations across the board. A journey that would have normally taken 1.40 hours took 3.30 instead. Today I feel exhausted. I tried something this week I've never tried before - a bottle of Lipton's Iced Tea. I chose a lemon flavoured variety. I never thought it sounded very nice before - tea is usually hot and with milk, at least I've always drunk it that way before. But I broadened my perspective this week and it paid off, I really enjoyed it. It's always pleasing when a new experience really works out.
When I hear on the radio about soldiers being killed in Afghanistan it makes me sad. There's a phrase that is now commonplace on the news: "Their families have been informed". It just makes me think about the terrible sadness and sense of loss those families must feel.
Katie Price (Jordan) and Alex Reid tied the knot this week. Marriage doesn't seem to mean the same for celebrities as it does for the rest of us.
My last thought is on the news that Pete Waterman is going to write the next UK Eurovision Song Contest song. I look forward to the competition every year, each year the prospect of a UK win seems more remote - I don't think there is any way we can win the competition anymore. It doesn't really matter who writes the song or produces it. Still, even though I know this there is a little voice in my head that is full of hope. Grow little seed, grow!

A song from a songwriter I love

Final Day of January 2010

I can't quite believe its the end of January. It doesn't seem that long ago since I was returning to work after Christmas. The weather is very cold, we had a few flakes of snow for a few minutes but nothing prolonged or longlasting.
I was thinking about what this year might bring. And thinking about the usual things I look forward to. Things like Easter, the Eurovision Song Contest (Pete Waterman is apparently composing the UK entry), booking a holiday and looking forward to summer in general. I'd quite like the weather to get lighter in the evenings and mornings: not to mention it getting warmer.
Moving house is something I look forward to, although that's an adventure that's not really begun yet. One step at a time. I am optimistic about this year though. This weekend was good overall.

Week of travelling

Had to do a lot of travelling for work this week. On Thursday I got a new cell phone. A Samsung Tocco Lite, a kind of iPhone without the expense! The touch screen is pretty cool on it. It's got a 3 megapixel camera so I hope to be posting a few shots to Twitpic with it, see my photo from Knightsbridge on Friday looking towards Harrods lit by afternoon sunlight.
My boy and I got our hair cut yesterday, my hair is quite fine and I don't know what the best style is for me. My wife prefers it short, so I had it shaved close to my head. The minus temperatures outside are going to be felt a little closer!
On the tube in London this week, I saw my first commuter holding an e-book and reading it. I don't know how I feel about e-books really. I'm not filled with a new sense of enthusiasm. I sort of feel the same way about music downloads, there is something precious about handling books and albums that you don't get from a purely digital format.
Apple launched their iPad this week. It looks great of course. I'm sticking with my Netbook, it's light and portable and has a proper keyboard, which has to be quicker than a touchscreen. The jury is out with me whether the iPad size is correct; size, feel, screen contrast and battery life are the most important factors when selecting a portable device.
I'm starting to think about booking summer holidays.

Presenting the work of ... A.A. Twanklebagg

You might be interested to notice that I've started doodling again and you might like to check up occasionally on the progress over at Doodles and Dinkums. (or even Dinkums and Doodles! - ed) For your pleasure this week I would like to present the latest book by that great geologist Aaron A. Twanklebagg - or rather it's book jacket, designed by yours truly.
I've always been easily amused by making up silly names and AAT is not real of course (disclaimer) but in a small way I've been amused by Aaron being one of The King's middle names. The idea of having a middle name exactly the same as a first name also appeals to my funny bone.
Holmes never actually said "It's elementary my dear Watson" in the books, only the films, but I felt I could extend that license. Please forgive me and tell me if you like this sort of thing. And have a nice, fun, weekend!

State of Mind

My boss commented “You look brow beaten” to me today. I worry about work a lot. I worry about work more in my current job than I have in any other job I’ve had. I worry about doing something wrong and getting humiliated. I have a co-worker who confides in me about everything and everyone. She is handful at times and while I might be a good listener to vent off to, some of her paranoia rubs off on me. As if I didn’t have enough already. It’s like I’ve been loaded down with her baggage as well as my own.

Enter title here

Couldn’t think of a title for this post. It’s been a bit of a funny week really. Work has been a mixture of very busy and then pretty quiet periods. I don’t really mind being busy, I prefer it, but if it’s quiet I do stuff that isn’t so pressing. One of the things I don’t like about my work is that some of my co-workers feel they work harder than everyone else and if something is forgotten about they are quick to point fingers at others. As if it’s ultra-important and they have to defend themselves and be seen by everyone to be really busy. As I said, I’ve nothing against busy but I don’t broadcast it to everyone and be really crotchety with others. I just get on with it. My other pet hate about work is when their is a bit of vagueness in determining what needs to be done. I like to be clear what I have to do and how to go about it. I don’t like wishy-washy and hesitation until its too late to do a good job. I don’t like being micro-managed, if there’s a task or project to do, I just like to get on with it and do it to the best ability I know I can. Not having enough leeway to make decisions and quick progress gets me down sometimes.

Anyway, that’s quite enough about work, it takes up enough of my life as it is. The weather here was shocking on Wednesday. Icy roads and more snow hit me when I got to my car, I luckily had a shovel in my boot and helped someone get their car moving after they got stuck trying to reverse out of a lay-by. Lots of schools closed, including my children’s. We really aren’t prepared for this continued cold period with snow. The road gritters are conserving stocks, meaning not all routes are gritted. I got so far and realised I might not make it up a steep hill on the way to the train station, so I decided to turn back. Good thing I did because my train was cancelled anyway. Better working at home instead of being stuck out in the middle of the country miles from anything.

2010’s first disaster has happened with the Earthquake in Haiti. I feel sorry for the thousands of families affected. Events like that always remind me how fragile life is.

Snowed and blue

The cold weather got colder on Tuesday evening this week when the snow started. I parked up and was out for a couple of hours and when I got back to my car I had to shift about two inches of snow off my car. We’ve probably had 7 or 8 inches of snow altogether so far and more is forecast. We haven’t had this much snow since 1981 apparently. I see that the US, Western Europe, China and Japan have had it bad too. The weather map even showed parts of Florida in blue.

Here’s a photo I took at lunchtime of some icicles hanging off my shed in the backyard. Wherever you are, I hope you stay warm and comfortable.

 

Inglorious

I watched the Inglorious Basterds DVD last night. It was a very watchable film.
I have one more day of holiday tomorrow before work begins and if it goes as quickly as today did then I'm out of luck! Oh why oh why do we have to go to work? It's totally not fair!
There is some pork belly, sausages, onions and potatoes roasting in the oven: a treat for my wife who had to work today while I looked after the children, so I hope she enjoys it all when she gets in. Certainly smells good. I took the children to a town about half an hour away where there is this large play structure. All of the trees looked beautiful today because of the frost giving every branch a crystal white appearance. I noticed that the trees looked exactly the same on our return journey, so I guess that means the air temperature has stayed in the minus numbers all day. The forecast talks of a chance of snow for later this week. If it's bad it might affect my journey to work. I can still work at home though, so there is no chance of escape for me really.

Welcome to 2010

New Year greetings to you!

I was pondering what the attributes of a good horror film are after a discussion between a couple of family members after Christmas lunch. They had both seen Paranormal Activity (I have not) and were saying how frightening it was and how it sucked them in. Here are a few things I can think of:

(a) a good horror will include scenes that make you jump or cover your face the first time you see it
(b) it will include scenes that scare you even after seeing them again
(c) it will come back to you when you are alone or when you are in darkness and scare you again
(d) the concepts of the supernatural it explores will stay with you forever
(e) you should eventually be able to laugh at how it still scares you

I'm interested if you agree or if you think some of these aren't just applicable to the horror genre.

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.

Outdated tech

There is a list of technology that is on the verge of extinction in 2010. Here is the list:

• DVD players (not for me, I still only watch DVDs, no Blue Ray for me. I could download a film from Zune but it would be for my Xbox connected screen not the one in my lounge)
•   Fax machine (well, I can’t remember the last fax I sent so its not a surprise to me, I always hated faxing anyway the quality was shocking)
• Analogue TV (no surprise again, with the digital switchover imminent. I have noticed that digital reception is affected by adverse weather and while you could just about watch analogue TV through interference it just becomes impossible to watch digital TV through it because the picture just freezes)
• The landline phone (not for us, again we still rely on our house phone as an alternative to Skype and our cell phones, I have noticed however that we use it a lot less frequently)
• Mobile phone charger (there isn’t an imminent alternative in our household, I’ve heard about these charging mats but have never seen one in real life. A universal connector would be a bonus though)
• Wii remote (I don’t think this will happen so soon, considering the number of Wii consoles out there. I’ve seen a demo of Xbox’s Project Natal and it looks interesting but as far as I’m concerned I like the feel of a controller in my hand)
• Sat-nav (our Sat-nav will still be in use throughout 2010 as I don’t see us buying into smart phones that are muted to replace these, we’re happy with the basic cell phones we have)
• 3G Dongle (I hate 3G anyway, it’s slow and reception is generally poor wherever I go with my work 3G card. I hate the way USB dongles stick out so much. I’m much happier using my Netbook, although I only use it around my home so I can see the need for mobile broadband coverage –I just don’t think 3G is the future)
• The computer mouse (I don’t see this going anywhere, it has survived over a long period and has evolved from the pretty terrible ball to the cool optical variety)
• Chip and Pin cards (I wasn’t aware there was an alternative but Wave and Pay is mentioned, I’m not sure what that is – sounds too prone to false payment to me. I’ve gotten so used to Chip and Pin now that I can hardly remember what life was like before it. I feel more comfortable typing in a pin and carrying a card around.)

Do you have any other ideas of your own? I’ve got a few items we have ditched in the last couple of years:

• scientific calculators (people have phones with calculators on these days, the days of having a block-like calculator with lots of complex scientific functions seem to have gone – at least in my life)
• Personal CD player (move over CD, the MP3 player has probably already made you obsolete)
• VHS video recorder (sorry, another easy target)
• Film-based SLR camera (yep, I can’t remember when I last bought a roll of film)
• 1.3 MP digital cameras (yeah, you can’t buy these now can you? Don’t they give them away free with Happy Meals yet?)
• Tape based voice recorders (the micro cassette variety of voice recorders are surely obsolete. Digital recorders offer hours of record and a lot of MP3 players allow record too now)

Bear with a sore head

I didn’t have such a good weekend this week. I was like a bear with a sore head and probably not very nice to be around for my family. My bad vibe carried over into today as well. Do you think it’s possible to have male PMT? I’m not very happy with myself for being Mr Grumpy.

I brought the advent calendars down from the loft this afternoon. They can go up tonight in preparation for the children to find in the morning. They love opening the windows and finding the chocolate and toys to hang up.

I watched some clips of kids opening their Wii on Youtube. Some of their reactions are hilarious.

Happy Thanksgiving

I know this is late but I hope my US blog friends had a great Thanksgiving. You could say I had an early Thanksgiving, last weekend my brother and his wife flew over to the UK to see the family. I haven’t seen them for a year and I hadn’t seen my folks since August, so it was nice to see the family again on Saturday. I took my children with me but my wife had to take a group of colleagues to a work related exhibition that day. Dad opened some champagne and mom put out some food, I had a beer and a chat with my brother, which was nice. My folks gave my son a Lego box they had kept for 5 years for him until he was old enough. It helped get me, my son, daughter and my brother and his wife laugh about things while we all tried making stuff. We so rarely get together, it was special. After my brother and his wife had left and my kids were in bed, I fell asleep – must have been the alcohol and the journey. I woke up feeling like I was being boiled, I was under a duvet on the sofa fully clothed: it was 10:40.

This week was a very stressful one workwise. However, at the same time I pulled off something quite successful. I devised a workshop, led the facilitators and facilitated the wrap up session at the end of the afternoon. Everyone who attended said how well organised and run it was. My line manager even said how impressed he was with how I’d driven the whole thing. Some weeks just end on a high don’t they? There’s always a balance though and I think the next few weeks are going to be tough, with a lot of work to get through by mid January. I’m also looking forward to a break from work at Christmas.

Get well soon, Ronnie

I learned this evening the news that Dio has stomach cancer. I hope he slays the dragon quickly! Dio sang in his own bands Elf and Dio, but has also been a vocalist in Rainbow and Black Sabbath and latterly the band Heaven and Hell with his Black Sabbath bandmates. Dio has an incredible range to his voice and I love the mythology he employs in his lyrics. There’s a taste of his solo work in the video below.

I'm listening to...

Getting fatter again

My weight gain has been noticeable to me over the last 12 months. I’m going to have to deal with it more effectively, I have got to take control. Otherwise I’m going to end up having a heart attack or something. It’s very difficult to keep an eye on everything when you’re stressed and got a lot on your mind and when you’re generally depressed like I have been. Everything is gradual, you hardly notice it on a daily basis but the effects are cumulative. I try to tell myself that I’m not as big as some guys I see but comparing my size to others has never been helpful to me. I’m quite petit for a guy and am not tall, so comparisons are pretty meaningless. Packing the Wii away has meant that I have no real tracker of my weight: Wii Fit was great for tracking my weight – its just a shame the activities weren’t compelling enough for me in it.

Blog changes

I’ve made a few visible changes to the blog. Hope you like them, please vote over on the right side panel. I’d appreciate it if you could change the name of this blog in your links. I might also change the address to http://tortoisefeathers.blogspot.com but because I’m not sure what the effect of that will be, I don’t want to change anything like that just at the moment.

Change change change

It’s more the lack of change that is the issue for my personal life. I don’t mean my romantic life, rather things like the desire to make some changes but not having the time or energy to actually make the change. I need to change my job or career and we need to move house. Both of these things take a lot of energy and careful consideration. They are big things around which lots of important smaller things happen, like they have heavy gravity. Gravity is the problem: you need a lot of thrust to break out of Earth’s gravity and that’s what I’m lacking in my life: thrust to break out of my current gravity. The problem is more difficult because I have two gravitational things to change, my job and my house. Does anyone have any advice on how I should manage this predicament? I’m just floundering at the moment, I’m paddling but just not getting anywhere. I’m also worried about the recession: if I quit my job, what happens if I can’t get anything else? How would we cope without my income as the main breadwinner? I guess the other side of the coin is that at the moment, is it better to have stability and a steady income, even though I’m not happy at work? So many considerations! It’s overwhelming! I can’t see the wood for the trees, if you know what I mean.

 

Happy Halloween!

Whatever you’re doing, I hope you have a great time. My children are excited and I’m exhausted after battling through crowds in the shops today. Suddenly, it doesn’t feel like there is a recession on at all. The shops were rammed with people, don’t know if they were buying though but there was certainly a lot of hustle and bustle and a feeling of Christmas coming. Funny how Christmas has more feeling in leaner times. The Christmas gift market had lots of great gifts but we were just browsing. I was tempted to buy a bottle or two of Caribbean Punch but I didn’t in the end, my wife was worried there would be too much ginger in it and she doesn’t much like ginger. I don’t mind it so much.

It’s been a hell of a busy week at work this past week. I did get a bit of time back on Friday afternoon though, so that was good.

We ate in a restaurant for lunch today. I couldn’t believe the bill when it arrived. Don’t get me wrong - the food was lovely. However, first of all my son’s plate had to be sent back because it arrived with beef instead of chicken. Then my wife’s had to go back because she got pasta instead of brown rice with her meatballs. My wife did at least get a complimentary drink out of it but even so. It was just short of 60 pounds, we usually eat out for less than half of that. I would have felt more cheated if the food hadn’t been good. I’m just not sure it was THAT good. We also had to queue a few minutes for a table. There was a much bigger queue on our way out. I’m really surprised how popular the place was. My wife and I shared a plate of nachos, the kids had ice cream and we had two rounds of drinks. I guess it all adds up, we normally just have mains plus drinks. Probably won’t be going there again any time soon.

Halloween is coming

Halloween is in 7 days time. How will you be celebrating this Celtic New Year? An adult Halloween party with apple bobbing games and toffee apples followed by some dark rituals? A night at home with a scary movie? A party with friends in a public bar? At a party for children, taking them Trick or Treating or playing games? Dressing up in costume? I will be attending a family bonfire with our children. It should be a fun evening if its not raining and will involve the traditional games and roasting marshmallows on sticks above the fire. Hope you have a good one, whatever you're doing.

Poetry practice

I haven’t done very much creative writing over the last 12 years. I’ve started to practice writing again recently but not compulsively. I thought I’d share with you a draft of a poem I’m working on. What do you think? I can’t work out why the first line is indented. It’s annoying but nothing I can do about it.

The Unexpected

It's funny, life
The unexpected happens
Like air under plastic
You think it's flat, move your hand
Revealing the bubble

I used to potter through life
In my teens, my twenties
When I didn't know who I was
Now I'm dad, hubby, home owner, pension payer
Once impossible
Now reality

How did that happen?
Where was I?
When did my hair go thin?
When did my face lose its youth?
When did I get stale?

I don't recognise the face
In portraits I take
While on the train
Or at home, between emails
A middle aged man stares back
Dull, with middle class mores

Dream dream dream

I had an anxiety dream last night. I was asked to give a presentation using PowerPoint. It’s something I’ve done a lot of in my career. But this time I couldn’t find the file on my computer. I was looking in all the usual places but just couldn’t find it.

The people in the audience wanted to get up for a comfort break but I refused to let them take a break, saying that my presentation was about to start – I even rapped on the table with a paperweight to get their attention. But instead of starting I carried on looking at Windows Explorer sifting through my folders and subfolders to no avail.

I think I had this dream because we have a new filing system at work I find confusing and I had to write some notes up for my boss, who was giving a presentation. It just shows that you can’t always leave work when you leave work, if you see what I mean.

Weekends

I was just musing, what if weekends didn't exist? What if, the powers of economic determination forced everbody in the working world to accept, as the 'norm', a 7 day week? The only days off work being those taken through holiday. What would that do to holiday days? If it was the case that we got the same number of days for holiday as we get for weekends would that be so bad? It would be like taking a weekend whenever you wanted. Who invented weekends anyhow? There must have come a point between the cavemen and the businessmen of today when somebody said, "Hang on. We're working our employees into the ground with this 7 day week, let's give 'em a couple of days to make 'em feel like they've got a life". Why only 2 days for a weekend? Who decided that particular regimen? I'd prefer to work 3 days and rest 4 days. I'm sure I would be a better worker, the reduced week would ensure I made every minute count. How many employees can truly say every minute counts with a 5 day week?

Saturday Musings

Just finished a nose bleed. It's neither a common experience but at the same time it's the third or so in the last three months. Slightly alarming is the way it gushes out. I think I may have high blood pressure, due to stress. It clots up pretty quick though so it's not like I'm losing much blood or anything. I'm not alarmed by my own blood, obviously though I prefer not to see it. I have donated blood in the past, maybe I should donate again, they do always welcome volunteers. It's good blood as far as I'm concerned. Speaking of blood, has anyone seen True Blood? Channel 4 here has started showing the first season over here and I've missed 3 episodes so far, if its any good I might watch them using the 4 On Demand service on the internet.
Not much else to report. I have been finding it difficult again to think of something to write about. I borrowed a book from the library that is about writing. Maybe it will free up some thoughts and help me to write again. We shall see, I've a story I started using Google Docs earlier in the year, maybe I'll pick that up again and add more to it.

A cold

I have caught a cold. It developed on Thursday evening and got worse on Friday. Today I feel pretty dreadful. I hope it’s not swine flu, doesn’t feel like flu but is pretty unpleasant nonetheless. I don’t do colds very well, I think my asthma makes them feel worse.

Life v Work

My wife and I have alternately had to work late this week. We meet in the middle somewhere. I often feel like I wanted to talk about something but we missed each other because she was one place and I another.

Pity we can’t work together and see more of each other. Does it work for couples who work together all the time? Or do you think it just gets complicated with other problems to have to deal with?

Does anybody have an easy life? Really?

Name search continues

My brainstorming for a new blog name goes on. I have a few I’d like to share to get your opinions on possibly:

• Inn of Intensity
• Mundanity
• Mundane Review
• Tortoise Feathers
• Blog Tank
• Mood Tank
• Frantic Wagon
• Future Warp
• Fact Worryer
• The FW Station
• Mangle Wangle
• Wangle Dangle
• Furtive Murtive
• Cone Zone
• Bloggo Mondo
• Bloggo Blanco
• MojoDojo
• A Fistful of Blog
• Swing Top Blog
• Double Hinged
• Unhinged in Rio
• Footprints in Mud
• Cuckoos Nest
• Twist Your Risk
• Thought Traveller
• Bubblewrap Brain Blog
• FW5020

Some of the above might already be blog names, I haven’t checked any of them out. Do any strike you as good or appropriate for me? Let me know.

The longer the search goes on, the less sure I am that Furtive Wangler is wrong for me.

She wolf?

I don’t know what you think of the Shakira single She Wolf? Catchy but a weird video and odd movement.

Time for a name change

I want to get a new name for my blog. I didn’t really think too hard about the current name and have kind of regretted it ever since.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Leonard Cohen collapses on stage

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Leonard Cohen collapses on stage 

Leonard Cohen writes songs with wonderful lyrics. I sometimes feel that cover versions are better than his originals but then again sometimes his voice hits me with powerful sincerity and I “get it”. I love Jennifer Warnes’ cd Famous Blue Raincoat in which she sings a variety of songs he wrote, Jennifer Warnes has what I think is one of the most underrated female voices ever.

Leonard Cohen’s album I’m Your Man is probably my favourite of his.

I hope Leonard makes a full recovery.

Weekend thoughts

A sequel to The Da Vinci Code was published this week, I didn’t read the first book but my wife did buy a copy of it. She gave up after a few pages. It is weird how extraordinarily popular a book can become even though (I bet) a large percentage of its buyers never finish it. I don’t know why but I don’t normally buy or read books that sell millions:

• chicken soup for the soul
• men are from mars women are from venus
• the da vinci code
• 7 habits of highly effective people
• how to win friends and influence people

Have you ever bought a really popular book that failed to live up to its promise?

Wild horses

Wow! One of my favourite songs.

Blog history

I spent a few minutes today looking at some old bookmarks I’d stored of blogs I found and read. It’s sad the number of blogs that have been removed or just not updated for years by their owners. I wonder what’s happened to the people? What percentage are still blogging but with another identity? Or perhaps there is a percentage who have moved their activity onto Facebook or another medium.

I like the bloggers who keep going. It shows a commitment to the medium. Gives it some kind of validity.

A little music for Monday

A great song and one close to my heart with the line “libraries gave us power”. Hope you’re having a good Monday.

Another weekend flies by

Well yes, the fact is that time seems to be speeding up. I seem to have less time each week. I constantly worry about time slipping away from me. I can’t think of what I’ve been doing and when I do get five minutes to sit down and blog I get sucked into web browsing and looking stuff up.

This weekend has been pretty good and relaxing. Nothing special has happened but that’s ok. We’re still sleeping with the windows open and it is starting to get chilly at night, good job we’ve got our big bed cover on now. It’s lovely and furry (without being fur) and is quite heavy. After half an hour or so I have to kick part of it off – I like to keep my feet uncovered to help regulate the temperature of the rest of my body. Funny how I’m always covered up by morning, even my feet.

I’ve been eating way too much recently, it will be difficult but I’ve got to start reducing my intake. I did cook a nice Chinese curry last night. I prefer home cooked food and it often doesn’t take as long to prepare as I think it might. If I find any good, simple recipes I’ll post them here to share.

Penultimate day of school holidays

It was the penultimate day of the school holidays today. Today and tomorrow are daddy days for me and the kids. Mummy has started back at work, so it’s just the three of us. Last year we spent this day in ZSL the London Zoo and this year we decided to visit the London Aquarium (now called Sea Life or something like that) and the Natural History Museum.

Hope you enjoy the photos below. We walked from Waterloo Station past the London Eye to the aquarium. I didn’t take any photos in the aquarium, I don’t like flash photography when animals are close. What annoys me is that people just ignore the warnings when there are clear signs saying not to use flash. We walked over the bridge past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Then a tube ride to the NHM. What a fine building it is, there are lots of stone creatures or gargoyles on the outside making it look like a cathedral. Inside there is a entrance hall and a cast of a diplodocus skeleton.

After visiting the dinosaur hall we visited an exhibition about the human body. The kids enjoyed it because there were lots of buttons to press, lights to turn on and off, levers to pull and plenty of interactive learning exhibits. The ones on perception and optical illusions were very good. I looked closely at a human brain and spinal cord in one case: the spine and brain stem are really like a trunk cable, lots of interwoven electrical cables. I found it surprising how it made me think of computer cables carrying data and that’s exactly what it does of course.

We had a full day and were all tired by the time we left to catch the train back home. As tomorrow is the final day of the holidays we’ll probably take it nice and easy, not quite sure what we’ll do but we’ll have fun. My parents leave to visit my brother in the USA this week, he lives in Massachusetts.