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.