Feb photo a day #29

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Day 29 - 'What are you listening to'  (it was BBC 5Live on the car radio)
 

London Saturday

Pete and I spent the day in London on Saturday.  We started at the Kings Road and worked our way around town looking in shops, drinking, eating, taking in the sites and ended up drinking in the West End before heading home exhausted.  It was great fun.

And for anyone who’s been to the West End, City, Canary Wharf, Southbank or Chelsea will know, London is currently overrun by over 200 giant painted eggs. The Big Egg Hunt runs until the end of March and includes many weird and wonderful designs from leading artists and designers.

Here are some pics from the day...
  

Feb photo a day #28

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 28 - 'Money'
  

Feb photo a day #27

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 27 - 'Something I ate'

Feb photo a day #26

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 26 - 'Night' 

Q2 - February 2012

Welcome to 'The Question'... a single question to be answered by bloggers on the same day, with the aim of sparking some conversation, debate and shared experiences on various blogs around the world. If you choose to answer The Question, please add your link to my page and therefore, I hope that responses will then be compared.


The question this month is:

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given? 






The best piece of advice I received was when I was at college. A lecturer told us: "If you try your best and fail... then you are a failure".
 
This advice may sound a little flippant, but it's worth remembering. Yes, there are times when it just can't apply, but if you need to achieve something, perhaps your self-imposed best wont be enough.  In that case, you need to take a different tack; or even admit that you will fail!
  
In my "career" (I use that term loosely) I have had to take many exams. In fact, I've had to pass specific exams to keep two jobs. Doing my best might have been enough, but I couldn't afford to fail. Therefore, I worked hard and took various approaches to ensure I covered as many bases as possible.

And when I have failed in life, I have considered the advice again and wondered if I really did my best?

The advice can't be taken too seriously, but I like to keep it in mind when I need to achieve a positive result. I don't want fail, who does?! So make sure you know what it takes to succeed.
 

Feb photo a day #25

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 25 - 'Green' 

Feb photo a day #24

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 24- 'In your bathroom cabinet' 

Olympic hopefuls #6 - Chris Mears

In the latest of my series of fit and cute Olympic hopefuls for team GB, let me introduce you to 19 year old, Chris Mears. Chris is a diver who has overcome some amazing setbacks in his life, including being given only 5% chance of survival by doctors when he suffered complications from a ruptured spleen three years ago!

Feb photo a day #23

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 23- 'Your shoes' 

Mummy... Can you tell me

A client told me this great true story the other day...

His 2 year old son asked his wife, "Mummy, why do dogs bark?"

She replied "I don't know Jimmy*"

He thought about that reply for a few seconds and then said...

"Google it then!"


*made up name

Feb photo a day #22

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 22- 'Where I work'  (I happened to be meeting someone in Caffe Nero earlier today)
 

Feb photo a day #21

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 21 - 'A fave picture of me'

Feb photo a day #20

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 20 - 'Something I ate'

The miracle of the net... again

Pete and I went to lunch at the top local restaurant yesterday.  It was Pete's brother's girlfriends birthday.  The almost-four-hour meal was fantastic.

During the meal, Pete's brother mentioned that they had spent the day in London on Saturday. During a loooong trip to Harrods, they saw someone famous.  People were asking for autographs and taking photographs with them.

The problem was, neither Pete's brother nor his girlfriend recognised the man!

So they just said he had dark skin and good looking wife/girlfriend.  Not a lot to go on.  So I went on Twitter and and typed in a few searches:

- seen in Harrods
- saw in Harrods
- with wife in Harrods

After a couple of minutes and wading through spottings of an Indian film star and someone from a girl group, I found it was probably Dutch International footballer John Heitinga and his wife.

Finding a picture on Google confirmed it.  Isn't the 'net amazing?!?
 

Feb photo a day #19

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 19 - 'Something I hate to do'... look at spiders!

The Question #2 - Due date: 26th February

Welcome to 'The Question'... a single question to be answered by bloggers on the same day, with the aim of sparking some conversation, debate and shared experiences on various blogs around the world.

On Sunday 26th February, I will post 'The Question' along with my response. You can add your link to my page and therefore, I hope that responses will then be compared.
 
The question this month that you can post an answer to on the 26th was suggested by Anon':

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Feb photo a day #18

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Day 18 - 'Drink'

Feb photo a day #17

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 17 - 'Clock'

Slow

It's been a slow couple of weeks with not much going on to share with you. It's been busy at work and in the evenings, we've tended to just veg'. We have watched a few films.

I had a meeting in London a couple of days ago in Baker Street. I spent the whole sub-consciously humming and whistling the sax solo from the famous Gerry Rafferty song! It was one of those meetings to forget.  I was told not to bring a laptop as the firm was supplying one.  Of course, they did not have one and had to borrow someone else's. They then said that the office was too small for a meeting so we went to the bakers/coffee house called Paul (they are all over France) and it took an age to log into their wifi, which then was too slow to be useful!

One event from this evening... Pete and I started to watch a very recent film Tyrannosaur. We managed less than 30 seconds before turning it off. I wont explain why, but a violent start was not what either of us wanted to see.

To end for now, here's a picture I took in the City this week - it's actually 4 images stitched together.
  

Feb photo a day #16

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Day 16 - 'Something new'

Feb photo a day #15

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 15 - 'Phone'

Goats

If you have ever been part of a team training day, you will know that many trainers will have a "fun" part, often straight after lunch, to get the brain working.

One of these games used to do my head in!  It's all about goats and a gameshow...

A game-show host has placed a car behind one of three doors. There is a goat behind each of the other doors. "First you point toward a door," he says. "Then I'll open one of the other doors to reveal a goat. After I've shown you the goat, you make your final choice whether to stick with your initial choice of doors, or to switch to the remaining door. You win whatever is behind the door." You begin by pointing to door number 1. The host shows you that door number 3 has a goat. What should you do (assuming you want the best odds of winning the car)?

Switch to door #2
Stay with door #1
It doesn't matter
Punch the host in the jaw

The answer is explained in this video:

Feb photo a day #14

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Day 14 - 'Heart'

Feb photo a day #13

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 13 - 'Blue'

This is the great big blue cooking pot - it's brilliant for so many things. Best thing in the kitchen, other than the new Nespresso machine :-)

Feb photo a day #12

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Day 12 - 'Inside Your Closet'

Grrrrrrrrrr Rugby hunks

Yesterdays 6 nations rugby game between Italy and England was not a pleasant affair. There were certainly some weird looking guys in the teams, but there were a few cuties/hunks playing. I felt that it was important to share this with you!

Tommaso Benvenuti

Sergio Parisse

Ben Foden

Owen Farrell

Feb photo a day #11

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 11 - 'Makes you happy' 

The Smoking Room

I have managed to injure my leg yet again and have had an enforced break from running (well jogging) for the past 10 days.  To try and maintain some level of fitness, I have been spending the odd hour in the gym (the room I built at the end of the garage).

As I loath sitting on the exercise bike, I have to do something to pass the time and have been re-watching one of the best ever comedy series - The Smoking Room.

Set in a North London office, a few years ago when smoking was allowed indoors, it features 10 main characters who come in and out of the room. It is brilliantly written and it's such a shame that the writer, Brian Dooley hasn't written more comedy - the man is a genius.
  
If you see the DVD, which is bound to be cheap, buy it and enjoy!  Here's a clip where Robin comes out... after years of being in the closet:
  

Feb photo a day #10

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 10 - 'Self portrait' 

Feb photo a day #9

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 9 - 'Front door'  

Feb photo a day #8

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 8 - 'Sun'  

The current state of the Premiership

A clever summary of the English Premiership season so far...
 

The side that won 7-1 on Saturday beat the side who won 3-2 against the side who beat the 7-1 winners, 8-2.

The 8-2 winners lost 6-1 against the side who lost 2-1 to the side the 8-2 winners beat 3-1.

But the 2-1 losers beat the 7-1 winners 1-0 who beat the 2-1 winners, 5-3.

The moral of the story?

Andy Carroll is still shit.

Feb photo a day #7

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Day 7 - 'Button' 

Feb photo a day #6

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Day 6 - 'Dinner'  (Well, sort of...)

It's taken 25 years...

Pete and I trekked down to Kent this weekend to stay with my friend Jan (pronounced "yarn"), his wife and 2 kids.  It was a momentous occasion... Jan was cooking a meal for us!
  
Now this may not sound like an important event to blog about, but I have been promised a meal for 25 years at least. I have cooked many meals, some good some bad, but Jan's lack of confidence in his cooking has meant I had to be patient.

So we had a lovely Lebanese pork meal followed by an Apple and Pear crumble... all accompanied by plenty of wine!  

We stayed over and woke up to snow everywhere. It had been expected - reported and over hyped by the news channels. We drove home slowly and have spent the rest of the day in the warmth of our house.  Here are a couple of pics, including their crazy cat Mona, who seems to always want to sit on my lap, but wants to draw blood from Pete...
  

Feb photo a day #5

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 5 -  '10.00am'

This was the snow covered sign today at 10am in deepest darkest Kent...

Feb photo a day #4

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 4 - 'A stranger'...  sometimes we look into the mirror and see a stranger.
 

February movie update

Here are the films that Pete and I have received from Lovefilm.com and watched on TV and DVD over the past few months in reverse order, with my ratings out of ten from my movie list on the IMDB.

TrollHunter (2010) 5

Stupid film about Trolls in modern day Norway that bored me, despite one funny scene with Trolls farting!

  

The Skin I Live In (2011) 5

I really love the Almodovar films from the last 20 years, but this disappointed. It's a cruel story that doesn't have any 'good' characters.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 3

A classic film that left me cold. Unbelievable and the characters were annoying. You could easily tell it was once a play - too many long monologues.

  

Melancholia (2011) 5

A very strange film. I'm not sure what I can say without spoiling it. It's a character drama, sci-fi and arthouse movie all rolled into one!

Zelig (1983) 6

I want to like Woody Allen films and there are a couple that work well. The ones in recent years have been amateurish and cliched. This one is extremely weird and would have been brilliant if it were a 30 minute production.

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (2009) 6

Could have been a very good film - but the characters didn't quite work for me.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) 7

Far better than the 2001 film, but was still missing something - but I am not quite sure what. The ending was set for a sequel in a very obvious way.

Carry on Screaming! (1966) 7

My favourite Carry On film (along with Carry On Abroad). Silly, funny and quite different from the others - features the great Harry H Corbett.

The Big Picture (2010) 7

Gripping drama about a guy who makes a serious mistake and has to change his life completely.

The Smurfs (2011) 7

My memory of Smurfs goes back to the National Garage days when you could buy the little characters. OK, it's a kids film, but it's actually funny and has some great lines.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) 7

Well made, but dragged at the end. If you've seen the first one, this is the same, but the story is just slightly different.

Feb photo a day #3

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 3 'Hands'

Feb photo a day #2

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 2 'Words'
 

Feb photo a day #1

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 1 'Your view today'

The blinds in my home office.

Who would have thought it

If you asked me a week ago what I thought of Joey Barton and I would have said: "mindless thug". My views have changed a little. On BBC3 the other night, there was a documentary on gay footballers presented by Amal Fashanu who is the niece of the late Justin Fashanu - the only out gay English football professional.

No top footballers would take part apart from Joey Barton and a few from Millwall. Joey revealed that his uncle is gay and said he felt sorry for those players who were not comfortable discussing homosexuality. His view was that there were “archaic figures” in the footballing world who would discriminate against gay players, but that he expected an out gay player in Britain in the next decade.

Praise has to go for the guys at Millwall for speaking a lot of sense. They said that they wouldn't care if another player was gay and would take the micky out of him in the same way they "pick" on other players. It's all part of the dressing room banter.
 
For me, it wasn't a great documentary, far too much filler, but it's always nice to see Anton Hysén.  I am disappointed that a few top Premiership players were not brave enough to go on camera. It's quite pathetic actually. And the FA should have put a top person forward to be interviewed and state their position clearly. They failed badly in my opinion.
 
Justin's brother, John Fashanu didn't come out of it well either. I understand that his brother could have handled his coming out better, but the 80's were a world away from today's world where coming out is seen as far less of an issue for most people. John's comments were not helpful at the time and he doesn't appear to regret them too much.
 
It sounded to me that players who were to come out would probably have support from most colleagues, but the hassle from away fans could destroy them.  Anton Hysén plays for a small team in a more liberal country and is currently just milking his celebrity (so would I) rather than concern himself with football crowds.

In all of this, let's not forget the immense skill that Justin had.  This goal says it all...