Manual labour

Yesterday I spent the day doing some more work on my project to convert the back of the garage into a room.  I actually planed a door with an electric planer - those things are powerful and could do some serious damage!

This followed work on Saturday when I had to lay a wooden (sort of) floor in the downstairs toilet.  Pete had decided that HE was going to do it, but following some swearing, the job became mine.  Not sure how that happened.  It was a tough job, but it does look pretty good, despite my initial reservations.

I am now very tired and in need of a beer.  And there is still quite a lot to do, including actually hanging the door.

And finally, Pete's brother did some concreting for us so we decided to leave our marks for people to see for years to come...

Spring cometh

It's been a busy few days hence no blog entry.

On Friday night, Pete and I met a few people and went to the local beer festival. If you have never been to a British beer festival, you haven't lived! It brings out the weirdo's of society (us not included of course). There were many bald men with ponytails and guts hanging over their trousers and people with no fashion sense at all! Saying that, (mostly) men of all ages attended and the town hall was packed.

There were around 60 local ales and plenty more foreign beers and ciders. The only way to tackle the vast choice is to pick at random or choose one of the crazy names that some ales have. After that we wall went for a meal at Prezzo (sans voucher!).

On Saturday, Pete and I got the train to Cambridge to look around the shops and take in the sites. It's always a fun place to visit and this weekend the city was heaving with people. We can only assume that the Universities had an open day. It did mean that the posh totty was out and it was a pleasure to see them!

In the evening we went out for another meal at a local restaurant that had been recommended to us for Pete's "official" birthday meal. We have decided to just buy each other a nice meal rather than presents from now on. It was £95 for the two of us and the food was amazing. Who would have thought that a provincial town would have such a high class restaurant.

On Sunday, I went for a run, did some more work in the garage and then watched some of the first Grand Prix of the season. What a dull race! Taking away the refueling seems to have ruined part of the race action.

In the afternoon yet another meal out, this time at Pete's mums house. Far too much food over the weekend you will agree!

No more alcohol for 3 weeks is my plan...

Catching up

Yesterday, Pete and I spent the day in London. We just walked and walked, taking in the sights and sounds. We ended the day with a tapas meal - with too much food of course.

I bought a couple of work shirts, 2 CD's (to complete my Beatles collection), a faux leather jacket, a book on sketching and a couple of coffees.

Walking back to the station, a slightly drunk homeless guy approached us and I thought, here we go again, but he started firing jokes at us - some of which were funny, so Pete gave him a pound. The only one I remember properly was...

- What do you give the paedophile that has everything?
- A bigger parish.

On the way home, we had 20 minutes to kill before the train at King's Cross, so we walked through St Pancras International station next door, that was emptying after its usual busy day and I took this photo balancing the camera on a railing:


Today is going to be a relaxing one: hopefully a run (after weeks of injury), plant some seeds, read the papers, watch some football and rugby on TV and a valentines meal this evening!

I am exactly halfway through the month of a blog entry every day. 14 down, 14 to go...

Resolute

Pete and I travelled to my parents in Kent for New Years Eve. It was a quiet event, but I really wasn't too worried about going out and paying through the nose for a cramped night. This could be a new trend - the small town near to where they live has about 6 pubs and 12 restaurants and half of these were shut on New Years eve.

On New Years day, most of the family came round - both my brothers and 3 of their kids. My oldest brother has just bought a Jack Russell puppy and called her Scrabble. At 7 weeks old, she is very cute and has teeth as sharp as razor blades. We all played on the Wii until the early hours and had a really good laugh.

On Saturday we drove home via Decathlon at Lakeside. Decathlon is one of my favourite shops - it's a massive French sports chain and despite not being the most sporty person, it's a great place to walk around. They cover every sport you can think of and their skill is having ranges that are really cheap, right up to high quality and expensive stuff. Pete and I bought our bikes there. I bought a "nice" fluorescent coat for running and Pete got a real bargain of an England rugby coat that was reduced for 10 minutes from £40 to £5.

So here are my official New Year's resolutions and you can remind me about them throughout the year!

- Run at least two 10k races

- Start a new blog on a positive thinking theme

- Produce a podcast for this here blog

- Do the IMC exam (a fun investment exam!)

- Read more

- Take lots of macro pictures and sell 1

- Do the things on the kitchen list (more about this soon)

And so back to work tomorrow. Boooooo! To end with, I took this picture on the way to the pub on New Years day. There must be a story behind it, but we will never know!

Post Christmas lull

Christmas was fine, spending the day itself at Pete's brothers house - there were 7 of us and enough food for 17 I think. I made New York baked cheesecake and Pete made Tiramisu - I think the battle of the desserts was a draw. I have had a cold that doesn't seem to want to go away, so the festive period has been dulled for me.

Over the past few days, Pete and I have watched a couple of films and to enhance the experience, we bought a surround sound system in the sales. It's great! We should have done this long ago.

We went to Cambridge on Sunday and the whole city was packed with bargain hunters. I bought a couple of CDs but couldn't be bothered to queue in Gap for 30+ minutes to buy chinos. Sales seem to bring out the worst in people... actually the worst in women! They push and shove and say nothing when they barge into you. The number of times you let someone through a door and they fail to say "thank you" is increasing!

We are out tonight, in black tie dress, for a meal. New Years Eve is up in the air as plans have changed - not sure what will happen now.

Snippits and Monochrome Weekly #1

The Fleetwood Mac post on Saturday has become the most read single entry on my blog already, mostly thanks to a couple of sites linking to it. Two people emailed to ask if I mind them taking the photos I posted (they could have stolen them and I would never have known of course). Feel free to use and abuse any photo's on my blog - those pictures I sell commercially will not appear on here, at least not in high resolution format anyway.

Talking of well read entries, the one containing the "letter to my 16 year old self" has inspired my friend Andrew to produce his own version.

A week ago I mentioned that Starbucks were wasting food and I have now received a well structured reply. It basically says that the local branch should plan carefully so that they sell all (or nearly) all of their stock and not throw good food away - last weekend may have just been a slow sales day. Whilst Starbucks appreciate that food could be passed on to good causes, they would have to set up systems to do so and as previously stated, there shouldn't really be any food to pass on. I understand their position and mostly satisfied with the reply.

I want to mention a fun charitable event that my friend Sonny is taking part in this month. He is growing a moustache for charity and it's has the clever title of 'Movember" - you can read more on the Movember site and in this news article. I think he may well end up looking like a kebab shop owner by the 30th, we shall see. If you are feeling generous, you can sponsor Sonny here.

A big thank you to Marco for sending me a book called The London Collection that contains strange facts about London. It's actually very witty and even contains detailed instructions how to recreate the scene from American Werewolf In London at Tottenham Court Road underground station. For some reason, Marco thinks that I am pining for London life and therefore sent me the book (and included in the address on the package, the county was shown as "far far away" rather than Hertfordshire). For the record, I quite like living where the air is clean!

And I finish today (other than to plead for you to take part in "5 on the fifth" this week) is with a photograph. I have decided to contribute to a blog called the Monochrome Weekly where people post a black and white image each week. I will put something up every now and again I think, rather than each week. My first photo is of Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac taken last Friday that I think works well in black and white.

Unanswered questions

Yesterday was not the best of days. Pete was placed "at risk of redundancy" by his short-term thinking employer and I received a speeding ticket. OK, Pete's bad news was worse than my self inflicted annoyance, but it does also feel like the shin splints are also back as I can hardly walk today!

I was in Edinburgh for a day this week and seeing the "head office engine" made me appreciate that I can do so much more within the company than I am currently doing. I need to talk to my boss I think, but need to be careful how I word it. The Scots moan about the weather (as we all do), but it always seems to be sunny when I am in Edinburgh.

Last night, I made a great pizza - including making the dough which wouldn't stop rising! It was enjoyed last night along with a bottle of red wine. We were watching the Simpsons and Marge is talking to Homer over a shortwave radio saying "hello... hello... is there anybody in there?" - which is the start of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" which I now cant get out of my head.

One last food comment... I am going to attempt making my first cheesecake today. Wish me luck.

Some unanswered questions on a dull Saturday morning:

Was the Daily Mail article about Stephen Gately homophobic, usual misinformed Daily Mail rubbish or just plain evil? More here
[Bloggers comment: the article, which I have read, seems to imply that only gay guys drink, smoke some drugs and have a 3some. Now, I am sure that the straights out there may have done 1 or 2 of those things!]

Was the balloon boy event a publicity stunt? It was strange, but when I saw the the little boy, he immediately reminded me of myself when I was his age - not that I ever hitched a ride on my Dad's balloon.

Why does every new Bon Jovi song sound like "Bon Jovi by numbers"? Is it just a loss of talent or just very lazy songwriting?

Something that has puzzled me for a while... what sort of person is interested in Z list celebs like Jade, Jordan and Kerry? Who buys the magazines and the books? I don't understand it at all.

Why do I have to wait until late December for my new car?!

Where are the bloggers from Oz and NZ?

I had a crappy journey yesterday from home to Newbury in Berkshire - 85 miles in three hours! The M25 is bad due to the ongoing widening works (only another couple of years to go!), so that's understandable, but the M4 was awful due to selfish drivers. A major road linking to the M4 was closed and the queue off the motorway was around 5 miles long. Some selfish ****ards however, drove past the queue and then tried to cut in which meant that the middle lane also got blocked behind them and then the outside lane was blocked with people trying to get across.

If you are one of those people (usually in large 4 wheel drive tanks) that cuts in at the last minute... you are a selfish imbecile. Firstly, think about your actions and the massive knock on effect that it has. And secondly, just how small is your penis that you need such a huge vehicle?

Anyway... the main reason for this post was to ask where all of the Australian and New Zealandish* bloggers are?

I obtain stats from Google Analytics and I have bloggers for all over the world, but mainly the UK and USA. I am surprised at the lack of Australians and New Zealanders. Of course, I could go to London and see many thousands of people from down under, but it's just not the same.

If you are from Oz or NZ, please post a comment and let me know where you are from! And if you like this blog, let your countrymen know!

Only 2 days to go until I get a week off work - woohoo!


* New Zealandish? Now that cant be right!
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The smell of autumn

I have been out and about over the past few days and there is a definate chill in the air and, despite the leaves still looking green, the smell of autumn is around us. It show's how evocative smell can be as I had flashbacks to my school days - returning to lessons after the long holiday and the anticipation of a new term. I can't say that my secondary school days were much fun, so these memory blasts are not that welcome!

It's been a wet and cold summer in the UK, with only short periods of sunshine. Now we are entering autumn and it's a season that can be very beautiful in England. I will aim to take a few pictures of the changing colours around the countryside this Autumn.

And for my North American readers... I will aim to take a few pictures of the changing colors around the countryside this Fall.

My legs are almost healed after the shin splints, so I will try a short relaxed jog this weekend if the weather is fine. I had wanted to do the big cycle ride along the canal into London (30+ miles), but Pete wasn't up for it. I may well go hunting for some running shoes as it's been difficult to find a good fit.

Talking of running, I found this truly amazing blog called Ryan Runs Europe featuring an (obviously mad) American running, yes running from Amsterdam to Athens over the summer!!! He has a proper site here that answers a few questions about the route (that he has been running for over 100 days) including the fact that he is carrying everything he needs on his back, has no money for a bed at night and is averaging 20 miles running a day!!!

And finally, you know what perks me up when I'm feeling a little blue? Ryan Phillippe... need I say more?





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It's the... side of the tiger

It's been a great bank holiday weekend.  It started on Saturday with a big family BBQ in Kent which was attended by several of my cousins that I hadn't seen for many many years.  We had a wonderful time catching up and the chat went well into the early hours.  Poor Pete had to endure hours of family talk.

My cousin Julie reminded me that another cousin and myself drew beards on the members of Wham on a poster in her bedroom.  So my aim at the moment is to find a classic Wham! poster and send it to her to try and make up for the childish prank - come on, I was probably 11 at the time!

Another cousin mentioned that a friend of hers works in a care home and knows the man who recorded the famous "Mind the gap" announcements on the London Underground and many other rail announcements too.  Unfortunately, he is now very old and occassionally (and loudly) just lists a whole rail route perfectly, much to the annoyance of those around him.

On Monday, Pete, a friend and I travelled to Cambridge to have a look around the shops, spy on the floppy haired posh kids punting tourists around and see a film at the cinema.  We watched the new Almodovar film Broken Embraces which was very good - perhaps not as good as the last couple, but still beautifully filmed.

After the film, we went into a pub and Pete was pleased to see a sit down Pacman machine.  A 20something student seeing this commented that "your generation might beat my generation if we played that" - which did not go down well at all!  Our generation!?  We are still young!

And the subject of this blog refers to the small zoo next to the train line on the way to Cambridge.  If you sit on the correct side of the train, you will see a massive tiger laying in the sun.

Don't forget that next Saturday is the 5th of the month...
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The sun always shines

You will be pleased to know that the paintwork is now "acceptable" on my dining room wall. I think that the paint was not of the greatest quality - it was the own-brand type from a major DIY store.

Football fans may have read about the Crystal Palace goal on Saturday that wasn't given. I'm far too angry to comment other than to make 2 brief points: Firstly, in this game where results can be worth millions of pounds, the authorities need to get basic decisions like this correct and secondly, the referee owes an apology to all fans at the game as it makes the result a sham.

In a league above... the English Premiership is followed around the world, so here are my predictions for the season (though I am rarely correct) following the first games on Saturday:

1. Chelsea
2. Man Utd
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

Relegated:
18. Burnley
19. Wolves
20. Hull

On Saturday night Pete I went to a birthday party for one of his friends. It's always a bit strange to be the "plus one" at these events and it was hard work all evening. Though the wine certainly helped.

On Sunday, after several coats of paint in the dining room, I resumed work on my wire art (see picture on the right). I saw some interesting art in France a while back, so I decided to have a go. I appreciate that it's not great, but my three foot "installation" on the wall overlooking the garden means that the sun will always be shining at our house. It's modelled loosely on my tattoo.

Something I meant to mention a few days ago was this weeks Who Do You Think You Are which featured Canadian actress Kim Cattrall (of Sex & The City fame). I've always liked this TV programme, where celebrities trace their family history. This week was different in that Kim was only looking for her Liverpudlian Grandfather who disappeared in 1937. He walked out on his wife and 3 children never to be seen again. It's an amazing story and it shows how one very selfish man affected several generations of individuals in such a negative way.

I've been thinking about doing a one-off vlog (i.e. a video blog) to allow everyone to see and hear me! Any comments on this potentially awful idea?

And for the record, my shin splints are still painful!

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Paint

I hate painting. There, I've admitted it. The dining room wall is now painted blue and is patchy and looks awful. A tip for you: don't use "once coat" paint - it's too thick for a roller or a pad. Every time I start painting, I set out with visions of design splendor - and within minutes I am frustrated.

Give me some watercolours and some paper and I am happy - but give me a paintpot and a wall and I am an unhappy guy.

Not much else to report - it's been a quiet week at work and also social life.

Let me just add one comment: I caught a little of the Jeremy Kyle TV show yesterday. It was the first time I have seen it and all I can say is, what a piece of **** television it is. The producers should be ashamed to be associated with such negative, angry and unprofessional TV. It's gutter based programmes like this that give ITV a bad name.

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Another Bon weekend

Pete and I spent Saturday in Calais with our Mothers. Aren't we good to treat them to a day out!?

We travelled on an incredibly early Eurotunnel train and had breakfast in Calais. We had intended driving down the coast for the morning, but stayed in Calais as the beach was packed due to the Bleriot celebrations. This included stalls, food, entertainment and an amazing flying display by the French version of the Red Arrows called Patrouille de France - a photo I took is below and a poor quality video can be found here.

After some shopping (mainly for wine), we had dinner where we all ate far too much food and Pete and my mother drank plenty of wine. On Sunday, we went to a farmers market near to my Mum and Dads house in Kent and had a family lunch... and now we're home exhausted.

Lovebox

Yesterday Pete and I spent the day at the Lovebox festival in London - the next stage of the musical month of July. For me, it was too crowded and the park wasn't quite big enough for the number of stages and other entertainment. Also, my growing disdain with the general public was not helped by me being barged out of the way many times, seeing girls urinating in public, many guys doing the same and young people especially, just throwing rubbish on the ground.

The real reason for going was to allow Pete to obtain his Duran Duran fix as they were the headliners. I haven't seen them before. They are certainly accomplished musicians and showmen, but this was not the right event for them as a small proportion of the crowd were not that interested at all and one young guy (around 18) said "they should really only play songs that we all know". Idiot.
We stayed in Stratford which is not the nicest of areas in London, but is being slowly transformed into the main London 2012 Olympics venue (though many locations across London are being used). The stadium looks huge when you are up close to it - see a picture below and a couple of other misc things too:

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Pete is a slave to the rhythm

I had intended to post a special music related entry today but the events of last night mean that I have no choice but to change my plans.

James, Sonny, Pete and I attended the Grace Jones concert at Somerset House on The Strand in London. Who would have thought that an Inland Revenue office in the heart of London built in the mid 1800's would make such a great concert venue? The capital does this kind of event so well these days. This first video is just a pan around the courtyard during Pull Up To The Bumper. Sorry about the sound, it was my little camera.

By the way, Sonny wrote a guest blog a while back and he is FORTY YEARS OLD TODAY! So please send suitable birthday greetings to this person you don't know.



But the main reason for this post is to tell you that Pete managed to get up stage again when Grace beckoned for some assistants. I don't think he has a career as a dancer, but he enjoyed himself all the same. The proof is here - Pete is in the light shirt on the left taking a photo when he should be dancing:



And after 5 hours sleep, I need some coffee and quickly drive to see a client!

Phallic food

I have found a unexpected satisfaction in growing vegetables in the our garden. We have potatoes, onions, carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes, courgettes, peppers (hopefully) and despite starting with many seedlings, just one remaining cucumber plant.

When we went on holiday, I moved the grow bag containing the cucumber plant on to a chair and the lone plant has had it's first born. Unfortunately, this picture shows the result... it tasted great however once it was freed.

Still lost and now in pain

Back in January, I posted a blog entry about the TV programme Lost. On Sunday night, Sky One showed the last 2 episodes from the penultimate series. Wow, what an ending! Of course, I am more confused as ever at what is going on, but never mind: Jacob, the statue, the bomb!!! And now we have to wait until next year to see the conclusion.

In other news: On Monday I had a tooth out. The one featured in the picture on this blog entry. It's the top left as you look at it, top right for me. I hate going to the dentist and was dreading this visit for my first extraction. It took 3 injections to numb the area and then the tooth crumbled as he pulled... and pulled... and pulled. He needed various instruments until the tooth squeaked from my skull and throughout, my heart was pounding out of my chest. Even the thought of it many hours later, as blood continues to trickle in my mouth, makes me feel ill.To lighten the mood, as I feel very sorry for myself, this picture was taken in The Netherlands during the latest visit and is obviously not as rude as it appears...

Ale have a beer please

I mentioned a few days ago that Pete and I had made some nettle ale. The other night, one of the three bottles exploded making a glass/yeast/liquid mess. And on Saturday, we decided to try our well fermented ale...

The bottles had been sitting on the garage floor for a few weeks, so knowing the ale was very fizzy, I didn't move the bottle at all when I opened it. As I flicked the top of the bottle open (it had a top like Grolsch bottle), the rather potent mixture errupted like a volcany spraying about a metre and a half into the air for a good 5 seconds. There was very little left in the bottle - it tasted awful and wasn't drinkable!

Where did we go wrong?!

Help! I need somebody

The second of my two exams is over. Thank god! This one was 3 hours of mind jangling stuff. The result comes in 2 months, but I suspect I am just short of a pass... too many guesses on the day. I'm off to London for a team meeting tomorrow and my boss wants me to promote taking exams to the rest of the team. My best acting skills will be used.

The sun is shining in England and in fact, it's a really lovely day, despite the Chancellor presenting his credit crunch tax 'em high budget. Tonight Pete and I will be sitting in the garden eating my home made curry and enjoying a beer/wine (yet to be decided).

And we have Waltz with Bashir on DVD to watch.

On the 30th April, it's "honesty day" - so I thought I would produce a blog entry on or near the day to honestly answer anything you have to ask! Anything!!! So, drop me an email at the address shown on the right or leave a comment.

What no posts!?

The lack of posts has been due to me concentrating on examinations. Yeah right!!! Let me rephrase that... The lack of posts should probably have been due to me concentrating on examinations. I hate revising!

One exam done and another tomorrow. The first was awful - the examining board is renowned for picking tiny parts of the syllabus and making them into huge, irrelevant questions. Also, they have a knack for making the question as confusing as possible. Anyway... three hours tomorrow and I am done for a while.

I saw this just now and it made me laugh...

A judge in Stuttgart, Germany, is currently trying to decide on a lawsuit in which a man hired his neighbour to impregnate his wife.

Demetrius Soupolos, 29, and his former beauty queen wife, Traute, were very keen to have a child together, but Demetrius was sterile so they began to seek out other possible options. The option the couple eventually decided on was to hire their neighbour Frank Maus, 34, to impregnate Traute.

Maus, who was already married with two children agreed to do the job for the fee of €2,000. For three evenings a week for the next six months, a total of 72 different times, Maus tried to impregnate Traute.

When his own wife objected, Maus explained that he was "only doing it for the money."

After the unsuccessful six-month period Soupolos insisted that Maus take a medical examination. The doctor concluded that Maus was also sterile, which forced his wife into admitting that their two children did not belong to him.

Soupolos is now suing Maus in an effort to get his money back. Maus' argument is that he did not guarantee conception, only that he would try his hardest.