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2008 Blog Archive

The year of major change, big change. Firstly was not only my first ever ski trip but my first group holiday with friends in January. This was closely followed in late March but a lifestyle change. I joined the gym (yes I know, not for the first time) but stuck at it and powered my way to going four times a week (even Sunday morning). The summer was rather bare but in September, I started a new job which also meant finally flying the nest and setting up my own place. With this came plenty of new challenges and experiences and I am sure you will enjoy reading about them all.

Wednesday 31st December 2008

What have I been up to during the Twixmas period? The strange seven days between Christmas and New Year, well I did not think I had done that much but when you put it down on paper (I scribbled down four sides of A4 notes this morning while Pav cooked breakfast). So I have decided to start from Boxing Day up to the end of the vintage year 2008.

Boxing Day as you may already know is my sister Julie's birthday but we decided to head to my flat in Newbury during the day. The main purpose of the visit was to construct the Malm chest of drawers from Ikea which I got for Christmas. The second reason was to check if the immersion tank had been replaced. The old one had been removed but the new replacement was left standing in the hallway (what little hallway I have in my flat). Construction took a while, even with four people and in theory eight pairs of hands (Dipesh, Natalie, Samantha plus yours truly). We arrived in Newbury around 2pm, and had to leave around 4pm so I could get back in time for the football. In the end it was a bit of a rush, everyone went to the car, as I packed things up. I was going to have to come back a little later than I had originally planned but at least some of my clothes were in place and I could stop living out of a bag as I have been over the past few months, with constant trips back home. During the drive home the realisation hit me that one week from now I would be back at work. (Ironically I now type that thought bubble onto my blog the day before it becomes a reality). We ordered pizza takeaway on the drive back and collected from the White Hart Street restaurant. Back at home it was birthday cake cutting, pizza and then football. We arrived just in time as the teams came out at Villa Park. The less said about Arsenal the better.

We move onto Saturday 27th December, not sure how it felt for you but it felt anything but a Saturday. In fact it felt more like a Sunday for some strange reason. I got up late but helped my Mum with the laundry, going over to the launderette in Flackwell Heath. We dropped the laundry into the machines, it was not actually clothes, just a few duvets, pillows and blankets. No service washes here like in Albert Square, Walford. Quickly we went into town, it was 12:30pm and the machines had an hour to run. We got back at 13:40 and it was time to use the industrial size dryers. In the afternoon my cousins arrived and much of the weekend was spent with them.

Sunday (28th) was Sazzle's birthday and I had been invited around to her house for a curry. I could not go because I had a bad sore throat, which had started on Boxing Day. Although the sore throat has gone, I am still fighting the chesty cough. The highlight of the day was watching The 39 Steps on BBC1 in the evening. Although not perfectly true to the book it was an entertaining watch. As a consequence, there was a scheduling clash, so I missed Top Gear: Vietnam Special but caught it on BBC iPlayer last night (30th).

In terms of movies, had a poor showing on television (most of which I had already seen) but those I chose to watch myself. Firstly there was Bangkok Dangerous, which I thought would be good as it starred Cage and I admire him greatly as an actor. Overall after a very good start, I was disappointed with the poor story and the lack of development in the character. I think they went for the American Beauty shock factor at the end (which you can almost pick up from the opening monologue) but instead got a bit of a whimper. The ending itself seems to be the easy way out, to not have to explain everything. I did not realise it was a remake until I read the up the film entry on Wikipedia and IMDB. However, I must confess that I had actually confused this movie with another. They had come out at a similar time here in the UK, so both trailers were shown almost together and were very similar. That other movie was Babylon AD and released a week before. Up and coming action star Vin Diesel stars here but once again a disappointing story but some good, if now average action sequences. Even Michelle Yeoh cannot save the day with a bit part and limited screen time next to Diesel. The idea was good and the vision of a future world where soft drinks manufacturers sponsor (or own airlines) was well worth exploring, it is used as an elaborate backdrop. In fact, I found many similarities with the Ultraviolet which I saw a few months back. There was a lot of potential there but I was really disappointed with the climax and ending. It could have been so much better.

On Christmas Eve I had watched Eagle Eye. I had seen the trailers at the cinema earlier in the year and it had looked very good but for some reason I had not gone to see it at Vue. Probably because I did not know much about it, not much is explained in the trailer. It was good fun and I enjoyed some of the twists at the end, but the main action sequences were completely crazy. In the end, I am glad I did not go to the cinema to watch the movie. It was good but not worth seeing on the big screen, particularly with the cast being relatively new. It was the best movie I watched over the Christmas period. I also watched Superman Returns on BBC1 on 29th but was on the laptop midway through so it had only part of my concentration. I spent the night on the so far, which was very uncomfortable. However, the radio kept me company, the over camp Bill Buckley on LBC 97.3. Bill was inviting listeners to call in with suggestions for the period between Christmas and New Year's Eve. He compiled a list, most of which I have forgotten now but the winning entry was S'nowman's Land.

Yesterday, Tuesday 30th was my planned departure from High Wycombe back to Newbury. This would give me a day to myself before New Year's Eve. However there was a possibility I would still be without hot water. There was a change of plan, my Mum suggested we drive over with all my stuff and check the flat out, show my cousins around and then head back home. I could then return the day after with a light load (if any) today. With hindsight, this worked out well. When I got to the flat today, the plumber, was close to finishing , so I unpacked a few things and headed to the gym.

It was quite a wakeup call going back to the gym for the first time in fourteen days. My last visit had been on Thursday 18th December, but my last weights training session had been the day before. The gym was busy with a few new faces but I expect many more to appear in the next month. After my workout I booked my review with Adam for 12:30pm on Sunday, I then headed to Sainsbury’s.

This was a bad call, the supermarket was mobbed. It was about 13:30 and it took me fifteen minutes to find a parking space when it usually takes me no time at all. I then had to deal with the crowds inside. However, I then opted to go up the road to Tesco Extra store. I love retail parks and this was my first visit to my local retail park (even though I stuck to the supermarket side). I always have loved retail parks, even before the Fosse Park days back in Leicester circa September 2000. Again another mobbed supermarket but I did not mind parking right at the back of the car park and walking in. It does not take that long. I had to pick up a few things for NYE house party at York Road, Caversham. Then I went back to my flat. It was for the first time of the day I could sit down and relax, even if only for a little while.

My priority was to get my Squeezebox Boom connected to my wireless network. While speaking to an ex-colleague and friend on MSN the other day, I had asked for suggestions for naming convention for my network. He instantly responded with the suggestion of planets from Star Wars. This could work, I thought, I could name my wireless network Death Star and the pieces of kit, Naboo, Tatooine etc. The more I thought about it, the more it became the ideal plan. I made the change to the router (wireless had been deactivated the moment I got the device as there was no need for it). However it did not work, my Squeezebox Boom would not connect for some reason, even with no security. I gave up, went into the lounge, had some somasas and onion bhajis my Mum had made earlier, put on the portable heater because it was so cold. In the end I opted to take the Boom and connect it via ethernet connection to my router, just to have some background music. I then went to my room and began unpacking my clothes, some of which had been left the day before. I also got my bag ready for the night and everything together, including my e-ticket for Raw Filth. With everything ready, I thought I would give the Boom one more try and sure enough it worked. Fantastic! I even sent a triumphant tweet at 4:15pm, it was an hour and fifteen minutes before I would leave Newbury for Reading.

It is at this point my notes change from coherent sentences to notes of a few words. It is going to be difficult to remember what else I should include but I will try my best. Actually perhaps I can save the story of the night for another post. Or maybe I will come back and add the rest later over the weekend. The main thing is that I have spent a good few hours writing this post and need some rest.

I left Newbury at 5.30pm and got to Pav's just after 6pm. It was the last night of 2008 and I was about to have my last supper. Pav had to burn his mix CD, having lost his Tunes #19 album, he burnt this and the tracklisting. Although the PlextorTools was not working correctly to read the CD-Text from the audio CD so therefore he had to type in the tracks manually (with the track lengths). Then it was cooking time, Pav got the wok out and prepared a fabulous stirfry for fajitas. Melanie arrived, in her shining silver MG TF, very much a car for her. She parked up behind my car, so I had to go out and move it slightly forward. It was save parked opposite Pav & Emily's as it was a holiday period. Although I was worried that I would return to my car and find the chain up or worse a clamp on the wheel. I put the thought to the back of my mind and began to look forward to the night. After dinner we got ready and headed over to York Road via taxi.

We arrived and eventually the door was opened by a t_dogg in a flowery bright pink and purple shirt. We went through to the dining room, where the table had been moved to one side and the decks had been placed on a cabinent on the side by the big wall mirror. However, they were playing a Guns amp; Roses album, because none of the current guests were big dance music fans. This soon changed, as Emily got on the decks. Two vinyl turntables but only one CD deck. Not good Mr. Fox, not good at all. He owns a varied music collection of some commericial material with some more heavy pieces to the right shelf. After Emily, it was a case of the flood gates opened everyone wanted a go on the turntables and it was down to the host with the most to give the guidance. The great moment was when Alan was on the decks and with the headphones on was too engrossed in the track to mix in that he did not notice the playing track finish to complete silence. He finally got it when we all burst out laughing at him.

The highlight of the evening, prior to the tolling of midnight was me losing my virginity. My Wii virginity. I have never played the console before but finally got a chance tonight. It was setup in the lounge, connected to a large 32 inch LG HD screen.Wii Sports was loaded and I first played Bowling, then later double tennis. Now there are two reasons why I no longer play computer games (on any platform). Firstly I just do not have the time, secondly I am just rubbish at them. I am glad that I stopped my addiction to Championship Manager in the mid to late 1990s. However, like I was not a Phyiscal Education fan back at secondary school, I now find myself a gym addict. Could it be a case of being a computer gaming failure, only to turn into a semi-pro gamer when I turn thirty two. My return to the games arena was poor, actually worse than poor. I could not get the hang of the controller for Tennis but for Bowling, I honed my technique thanks to some coaching from Emily. "Just play as bad as you can!" It did work but I improved my technique further when playing against Div and Nige. Nige had the special backdrift move to get strikes and I got it to work, just the once. Twist the controller gives it a little backdrift. I would rather not mention the tennis match at all. A doubles game with Foxy's housemate Ben (my partner) and two other friends (I did not catch their names). My character was Grace, and during the first match, I did not hit the ball at all. Ben hit my returns as he was serving. When I got a chance to serve, I only return two or three balls (to big cheers) before crashing out. If you had seen my long haired glasses wearing female character swing at thin air, you would have been on the floor with laughter. I gave up and did not go on the console again.

Some time around 11pm we were treated to the live entertainment. The performers? Well the local house band, made up of Geoff, Thomas (t_dogg) and his brother Matt. Plus also Pav and Nige (for good measure) just to try out their skills. What am I talking about? I am talking about Guitar Hero World Tour on the PS3. Foxy was a legend along with Matt on the guitar and Geoff put in a stirling performance on the drums. Pav had a go and enjoyed it but Nige opted for the beginner mode which meant he could hit any drum or symbol rather than using the colour coded tabs on screen. A cop out if I must say so myself, although I thought about having a go I thought against it, plus it was getting close to the witching hour. Pav started to give me updates and before I knew it, there were less than ten minutes left of 2008.

I got the champagne ready and got the party poppers. My Dad had left me a bag at home which I had brought with me. I handed a few out, the TV had been switched over to BBC1 (Freeview, because we could not work out how to put the Sky on) and watched the count down in London. I remember 29 being displayed on the side of a building in bright white digits, the count down continued. I was in the hallway by the stairs. Not the most convenient place to be for the start of 2009 but the lounge was packed and did not have much space with all the Guitar Hero kit all over the place. Then the bell struck midnight. 2008 disappeared and 2009 had begun. Once again I felt a sense opportunity for the year ahead.

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Wednesday 24th December 2008

A quick roundup before the festivities begin, although I bet if you will be reading this several days after the big day. I wanted to mention my shopping trip to Milton Keynes on Monday. It has become a tradition, to go Christmas shopping with my friend around the twenty something of December. We have been to various places but Milton Keynes the most. I say tradition but it only goes back as far as 2002. That year we went to Milton Keynes, then Oxford in 2003, Milton Keynes again in 2004 and Aylesbury in 2005 and back to Milton Keynes in the past two years. You will remember 2006 for the thick fog but I will remember for the Nightmare before Christmas. Overall MK has featured four out of our six previous Christmas shopping trips together. The town has everything (well practically everything) under one roof. Unlike previous years I did not have a lot to get and it was perhaps the first time we would not be venturing into the HMV store. The main reason for this is I had ordered my sister's computer online last week and it arrived as scheduled yesterday. The rest of my gifts were minor in size, well almost.

My friend had just driven down from Derbyshire the previous night (Sunday 21st) so we had opted to head out later than my usual 8am start. I got over to his house around 11am and we left a little while later. The trip over to Milton Keynes was straight forward, and by sticking to cross-country route we made excellent time. We parked outside Xscape and walked across to grab some lunch in the Theatre District. We opted for The Slug & Lettuce, had a light lunch and drink and then headed into the cauldron. The town was very busy but somehow we made our way through from John Lewis down to Marks & Spencer and back again. We were looking for an Argos store but discovered it was not in the centre. We got all the bits we needed, included a trip into Woolworths for potentially the last time. It was a shame to see the shelves so bare but there is no time for nostalgia in business. We left around 3.30pm and headed back to the car and put in the postcode for the IKEA store. It was located a little drive away close to junction 14 of the M1. This was my first trip into an IKEA store and I did not really know what to expect. I realised it was very big from the drive down. It is based on an industrial estate, close to where they are currently building the new Arena:MK. I was hoping to pick up a chest of drawers for my flat, the one piece of furniture missing. We headed upstairs (two escalators) and then were in the show room. However, the design is very clever, you are taken on a journey through the store, with a clear bright blue walkway with arrows. This ensure you walk through all the departments before getting to the checkout. We found what we were looking for and eventually I settled on a particular design. We grabbed the ticket from the showroom piece and then headed to the self service area. I forgot to pick up a trolley, so had to come back to the start of the self service area to collect one and then we managed to both pick up the flat pack box and place it on the trolley and then queue at the till. It was quite busy but only three tills open (perhaps four at a push). Eventually we got served and then went through down the lift to place the bulky item into the car. (The back seat had to go down.) That was my first IKEA experience and I am glad to say I will not be back again for a while. Or perhaps I am tempting fate a little.

Afterwards, we headed across the roundabout to the Argos Xtra store, which was on a retail park with a Next store among others. It was rather small for an out of town change, I had been in bigger stores in city centres (Leicester for example). We headed for a catalogue and found what we needed and check the computer to see if the items were in stock. Both of my items were available but also reduced. Plus, I was going to use up all my Nectar points! Job done, a pretty much stress free shopping trip. Well I perhaps that thought popped into my head a little too soon. We were stuck in traffic for about fifteen minutes trying to get out of the car park. Eventually we got out and headed back to Oxfordshire.

Tonight went into town with my sister, Samantha, her friend Kirsty and Dipesh. I wanted to check out the new pub that had replaced the Hog's Head. Although at the time I could not remember the name. The new name is William Robert Loosely. The last time I had been in this pub it had been the evening of my 18th birthday, so late November 1998. Ten years had past and I felt very much older, particularly with so many people that looked around seventeen to nineteen. The place was packed but we found a table upstairs. It was just for a quick Christmas Eve drink but even with my Santa hat, most other people in the pub had not made an effort. Afterwards we headed further into town, I had recommended The Falcon (another from the Wetherspoons chain) after seeing the long queue at The Litten Tree. Dipesh was not impressed with the clientelle leaving the pub and considering how busy it was, we headed across the road to The Antelope. Once again, a first for me. Many of my old school friends now frequent this establishment (many whom have then posted photographs onto Facebook for it to appear on my news feed). It was not really my type of place but fair enough, I was happy to stick around for a while. We headed outside and found a table free. The people here looked generally older and I felt a bit better to be with my own peer group. Plus they had made a much better effort in terms of Christmas. After our drinks we headed back to the car parked in Eden and drove home. Parking had been free (as Kirsty had pointed out the moment we had driven into the town centre). When I got home, it was time for a cup of tea before catching a bit of television before then finally going to bed.

Merry Christmas to all my visitors, both new and old. All the best for 2009 and may it bring you both success and happiness.

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Monday 22nd December 2008

Been a very hectic few days and my feet have barely touched the ground. However, I am somewhat settled here late on Monday evening to give a quick Woody's Roundup on the events of the past few days. I will start with Friday. I left work at 4pm and headed back to the flat. I had assembled most of my gear in the living room but still had a few things to grab and pack before heading out the door. It took a while because I had to clear out some rubbish and take some newspapers to the recycling bins. I got into my car at 5.15pm and it was pretty much a text book drive back home eastbound on the M4. I had expected the motorway to be quite busy but it was relatively clear and I made excellent time. I got home at 6pm and it felt as if I had never really been away. I dumped all my things in my room and then sat down to catch up with my Mum and youngest sister. A great feeling being back at home and with so much going on over the weekend, it was nice to have some time to just relax and unwind. Great to be able to watch The IT Crowd on the widescreen television in the lounge.

Saturday the day was quiet, I got up around 8.30am and caught the 9:42am bus into town to get my haircut. Wycombe has changed a considerable amount in the past few months. The Sainsbury's store (due to open in the summer) is taking shape and there is a new Lakes store and a new Wetherspoon pub (on the site of the old Hog's Head). I got my haircut at Jerry's and then to have a look around town before heading back to the bus station and back home. I caught Football Focus and then came online to sort out a few things before having an afternoon nap around 3.30pm. I got up around 6pm and after some food decided to get ready and head over to Reading for my Christmas party.

The Christmas get together has become an annual tradition and I believe this is the third year on the trot of my attendence! Although in comparisons to previous years, the night started a little light. Timing to me is very important, so being the punctual person I am, I left home in plenty of time to get to Reading by 7.30pm. We were meeting in the Oakford and I got there bang on time. However, as I entered and had a look around, none of my friends had arrived yet, so I went to the bar to queue for a drink. You could hardly tell it was christmas. There was a tree in the corner and a few fairy lights up but nothing else. None of the staff had any Christmassy clothing on and even the punters were not in the mood. I think I was the only person wearing a Santa hat at the time (although this changed a bit later). I was going to complain to the chief organiser on his poor choice of venue. Not taking into account that it is the ideal meeting point based purely on location. (Something I will appreciate more, if I ever have to make the trek over straight from Newbury on the train). Andy appeared and I got him a drink. He was closely followed by Sazzle and Phil. We headed back to the table at the back and waited for the others. It was a long wait or rather it felt like on. The excuse given by Pav was they were waiting for Melanie.

They did eventually arrive around 8.30pm, with both Em and Mel having made a great effort with their costumes. Mel dressed as an Elf! Along with them was Melanie's friend Pete! There were a few more people we were waiting for, Div and Nige, Vicky and Adam (Pav's cousins). Nige did not make it, he was suffering from man flu back at home.

It might not have been very festive but we did get some live music. Three bands played, the first, Neon Kicks being the bes, although the heavy grunge style music is not really to my taste. It was only as we started to get ready to leave that they started playing Christmas songs but not Wham! - "Last Christmas" as I had hoped for. We went outside and decided where to go. We opted to avoid Revolutions and went to Sakura the other side of town. We got in the guestlist queue by mistake (it was actually longer than the standard queue for some reason). We moved to the right queue and then had to wait to be let in. I was asked for ID and those without any form of identification were not allowed in (this happened to the guy next to me!). I then went inside and walked up to the top of the stairs and waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. I was impressed with the venue so far. There was more to come. Eventually everybody came in and we went in. Pav took me over to the back and I saw the dancefloor. Fantastic! It was a 1970s inspired floor that lit up with tiles with different colours. Plus the music was much more commericial and my cup of tea! After putting my coat into the cloakroom, I headed over to the dancefloor.

It was busy and got busier as the night went on. The DJ, although he played a good selection of dance tracks, could not mix to save his life. I know very little about being a disc jockey but being able to execute a seamless transition from one track to another, must be the first lesson at DJ school? Shouldn't it? Some of his song choices also were questionable, a dance remix of Last Night by P. Diddy? No Christmas songs were played but that did not bother me really. Just a shame the DJ was of such poor ability. The photographs from the evening have been uploaded to Facebook. (I am sure you have seen them on your news feed if you are one of my friends!)

I got home around 2.30am and felt that I had so much to do tomorrow, there was little time to recover and relax. I also felt very bad. I had only got home from Newbury on Friday night and hardly spent any time at home! I fell asleep around 3am and had to get up around 8.30am and get myself ready. I went over to Jenny's house in Downley around 9.35am and helped take the food and cake over to the hall behind the church. I also helped Jeff set up his DJ equipment. This will kill you, he left all his music back in Luton and as his parents had already left the house, he had to get a friend to go and bring them over by lunchtime. What sort of DJ forgets his music? It was not all a disaster though, Jeff had his iPod he could link up and then also some Christmas themed Soca from Elvis on CD. By the time everything was setup, it was time to head over to the church for the service. We sat at the back, but the only reason for this became clear at the end when Aiden was christened with the holy water at the back of the church, so I was in an ideal place for photographs.

Check out the rest of the photographs from the day over on the newly uploaded FlickR set. I did not stay that long but took mostly photographs from the church and a few at buffet afterwards. I was watching the clock tick by as I drank my strong cup of tea. Jenny came over and asked when I was going to be leaving and to make sure I came over to say goodbye! I left around 1.30pm, headed to my car and drove straight home. I got changed out of my shirt and trousers and put on my Arsenal away top for the first time. It has been hung up in my wardrobe since I bought it in August. I then grabbed my bits and got my Mum to give me a lift to the train station. As we drove past Staples, my phone rang, it was Ryan wondering where I was, it was a few minutes past 2pm. We met up outside the station and went to get train tickets. The original service we were going to catch (14:22) had been cancelled due to a fault, so we had to wait until 14:36 for the next service down. It would mean a bit of a tight window before we got to Emirates but I was confident we would make it in time. Little did I know how tight it would be.

As I boarded the train, Steve rang me. I had to explain I was going to the match but we could meet up for a drink after the match, he was in Wycombe for the weekend. I had also called Trevor and arranged with him to come to town as well. Everything was arranged and it would be a good little catch up, plus Ryan was going to bring his girlfriend Sarah as well to meet us. The journey was a non-event apart from Ryan trying to get through the barrier at Marylebone and trying his ticket a few times before being allowed through by the ticket inspector. I went to check the credit on my Oyster Card, there was plenty for the trip to North London. We then headed straight for the tube. At Oxford Circus we got off to catch the Victoria Line northbound to Finsbury Park. It was here I lost my bearings a little but eventually we got onto the right tube train and were heading on our way. We should have walked at a brisk pace (something that Ryan has been famous for ever since school) from the tube station to the stadium but at the leisure pace, among other fans it meant we got to our seats a bit late. As we had to use the South Side Club Level entrance, we had to walk all the way around the ground. Once again, Ryan had difficult at the turnstile with his paper ticket but eventually got through. We headed straight for our seats and I looked up at the clock, 45 seconds of the game had gone, we had missed the kick off but only just. I blamed Ryan for faffying around with his ticket at the turnstile. Great seats, excellent view just a shame about the lack of atmosphere at Club Level.

A reminder comes up on the HD screens at club level to remind fans to return to their seats and that the "Second half action is underway". However, even so, most still prefer to continue to eat or drink their complimentary drinks. The second half was not too bad until the sending off, which killed the game off in terms of Arsenal going for a winner and the injury to Fabregas was a big blow. Many people around us left a few minutes before the full ninety were up, not sure exactly how much quicker they would get to their tube station for the trip home.

We caught the 19:00 train back to Wycombe and got in just before 8pm, I called Trevor as I walked back into town but he was not feeling good and would not be coming down. Plus he had had no credit to text me back. Ryan had got a lift back home, collected his car and then collected Sarah. Meanwhile, I had gone for a walk through to Eden and then back just to stretch my legs for a bit. I waited outside The Falcon for Steve and Ryan & Sarah to arrive. Steve arrived later and we had got some drinks by then. It was good to see him and this was the first time I had actually been around to wish him Happy Birthday in seven years. We lost touch since I went off to placement in the 2002 and he had by then been in Rugby back in Wycombe and finally Bournemouth. Steve left after a drink as he had a roast dinner waiting for him back home. I left soon afterwards, calling up my sister and asking her to come pick me up. She had just got back from her weekend working in Bristol. I made my goodbyes and left to head home. Rather than going straight to bed after Match Of The Day 2, I opted to stay up and watch The Dark Knight with my sister Julie. Originally it had been my sister Samantha that had wanted to see the superhero blockbuster as she felt she was the only person on the planet to have not seen it by now. However, she went to bed and I stayed up until 2am watching it with my sister. Such a great movie and it just gets better after the second viewing.

Today I was shopping in Milton Keynes, but I do not want to bore you with that, I will save that for my next entry if I get time that is. For the meanwhile, hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I will try and blog again before the big day.

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Friday 19th December 2008

They say a week is a long time in politics. In my own universe a week is a very long time, particularly if you are waiting for some RAM to arrive which you think will solve all your computer problems. It is a long story but I will start right at the beginning, from the moment I last blogged, exactly a week ago.

I had a quiet weekend planned and there was no indication of the problems I would face on Saturday evening during the course of the day. I got up around 9am, after breakfast, spent a bit of time on the computer before watching Football Focus and spending a bit more time on the computer. I was originally going to leave at 2pm but my friend had to push things back, so I left an hour later and met up with him at 3.30pm, just outside Maidenhead. Here I jumped into his car for the remaining few miles of the journey. Sharing a coke with him at the The Shire Horse pub on the A4, I explained I was looking forward to a quiet evening, X Factor and perhaps a movie later. I just had no idea what was about to happen.

I got back to Newbury around 6pm, You've Been Framed had just started and I was looking forward to TV Burp. I put the PC on and went into the kitchen while it booted. This meant I did not see the error message and first and just wondered why it was still showing the splash screen. Of course, now I realise the PC had rebooted itself and attempt to load Windows a second time and failed. It was then I realised that something was up, I noticed the error message at the top of the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) and noted it down on a scrap of paper by my keyboard. I then successfully got into Safe Mode (with Networking) and was online, googling the error message. It seemed like something I could resolve, although there was no way I was going to attempt a reinstall. Not after the last incident.

Regular readers will be well aware that this blog post may sound familiar as I went through exact same scenario, albeit slightly different error message exactly eighty four days ago. Back then I had little option but to attempt a reinstall the following day. On this occassion, I was going to be much more stubborn and fight! Bear in mind that I gave up initially. I opted to sit in the lounge, have my pizza and watch the X Factor. However, there was a burning desire in me to fix the problem and I knew it could be fixed, just from the few pages I had scanned online, plus the fact I was in Safe Mode at all, meant the machine was far from the scrap heap. When I did jump on the computer again, at the conclusion of the live final, I had major problems. I could not get into Safe Mode at all. I tried a few other options and eventually gave up. I called my friend Bhavna to let her know my absence from MSN was for computer failure. While on the phone to her, I had a brainwave, Knoppix. (She probably wondered what the hell I was talking about, but it was the bright spark I needed after a few hours of doom!) To those of you unaware, Knoppix is a Live CD distribution (distro) of the Linux operating system. To put it simply it is a bootable operating system on a CD (or USB key) which you can load up, even if your hard drive is fried. Great! I connected up and I was online but this was the start of my adventure with Linux.

Due to the limitation of how Knoppix is configured and for my own safety, I only have read access to my hard drives (and all NTFS partitions in fact). However that was not the problem, the main reason for using Knoppix, was to get online, chat to my friends, check my e-mails and more importantly research my problem. I have been using delicious ever since my dearest friend Hussein recommended the site to me, way back in 2005 or even 2004. (Glad they secured the dot com domain name though, the original domain was funky but difficult to remember!) Social bookmarking has many advantages but at that particular moment, it was an ideal place to save websites which I could pick up later on, partcularly important for blogging purpose. I forgot to mention the big disadvantage of Knoppix. The whole environment is loaded into a RAM disk (virtual memory) and therefore, even though you have the option to save passwords, bookmarks and downloads, they are all lost the moment you log out and reboot. (I know there are ways to build home directories and create locations to save files to permanently but I did not have the time or the patience to go through these instructions). It was quite a comforting moment, to discover that someone else, somewhere in the world was having the exact same problem as me, even if his encounter was a few hours earlier.

I came to the quick hypothesis that the problem related to my memory, so ran a memory test, from the Hiren BootCD. I am so glad I spent the time to burn these life saving boot CDs in years gone by. They really become essential the moment your working PC goes dead. I just do not know why I am having such bad luck these days. I let the memory test run, it was going to take a while and went to the lounge to watch some more television. There was not a lot on from what I can remember. I came back to check my PC periodically over the next hour or so and sure enough I had two errors (one on each memory stick). I tried to confirm this by booting with just 512MB and the problem persisted. I had to order some memory. Here was were I made one of my crucial mistakes. (No pun intended). I headed to the Crucial website and was about to place my order when at the virtual checkout I was told they could only deliver to the credit card holder's address. There was no point memory arriving in Wycombe, when my desktop is in Newbury. Therefore I cancelled the order and searched for other sites. Dabs did not have any in stock and so I went ahead with Mr. Memory.

Hindsight is an exact science, or so I am told. I should have taken the advice of Pav. Whom, after hearing my predicatment and sending what seemed like a zillion 'laugh out loud' messages on MSN, told me I should have ordered from Novatech and collected from their Reading store, it was open Sundays. Obviously looking back, that was the right decision, but I was not to know that the memory would not arrive by today. Sometimes I feel I am just the butt of the jokes, particularly considering all the badluck I have had recently with my computer. I would not mind, but it is just the timing, it always happens when you least expect it. I would always prefer there to be a prewarning of some kind, so I could at least make some plans and factor in the day or two days to rebuild the computer. I am not going to let this scenario repeat itself with the same result. I will keep my family laptop with me and use it from time to time. It is well overdue a rebuild and as I was not able to load on a version of Lunix, I am going to put on a stripped down version of XP and use the machine purely as a netbook. For this it would be more than adequate. However, I am getting ahead of myself here. I was still in a very bad place, I had no working operating system and had to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest for my memory to arrive. It was at this juncture that I finally decided to let the world know what I was doing.

It did not take me a while to come to the realistic understanding that Knoppix would be my friend for the next few days and perhaps until I got home tonight. That was the way it was to be. However, it was not all that bad. I could use Web MSN, I could listen to my mp3s thanks to the build in media player (very similar looking to WinAmp). Then there is the Kaffeine Media Player to watch my DivX files. It was not bad as it seemed. I settled down to forget all my troubles and watch Tropic Thunder. I had obtained the movie a while back but not had a free evening to sit down and watch it until now.

Tropic Thunder was fantastic, very funny and also very clever. It did not take itself very seriously but there was also the element of a film within a film, if that makes sense, from the opening trailers before the 'feature presentation'. It was hilarious pretty much from start to finish, but it was a surprise character that just blew me away. Tom Cruise as the film boss Les Grossman just had me in stitches. Particularly the part when he tries to convince Ben Stiller's agent with a G5 payoff. Watching him bump and grind to Flo Rida's "Low" and "Get Back" by Ludacris are moments I will never forget and will just have to see again! Just try some searches on YouTube if you cannot sit down and watch the whole movie!

After the movie, I went off to sleep. Sunday was quiet day, I did not really do much after my gym session at 8am. There was no need to do any washing as I was heading home at the end of the week, so I spent a bit of time just organising the flat, writing notes for this blog posting and confirming plans for the Christmas break. I had a piano lesson at 1pm, but my tutor arrived later at 1.36pm. While I was waiting, I watched another episode of Life On Mars US. After my lesson, we headed over to the Tom Carvery Pub just over the Robin Hood Roundabout, it was about 4pm, but we had a good thirty minute wait for a table. After a nice meal we headed back to my flat and my piano teacher headed back to Oxfordshire. I returned to my flat just in time to kill an hour before watching the Sports Persoanlity Of The Year Awards show from Liverpool. All you need to know is that without my computer functioning propertly it was a painful evening, spent once again on Knoppix. However, I held out hope that by Tuesday I would have my memory, the issue would be resolved and I would be able to watch my all important US TV imports. Little did I know how badly the week was going to pan out for me in this regard.

On Tuesday when I got back from work on my non-gym day, I got onto the computer with a mission. To catch my US shows via the streaming method. No problem there I hear you cry, well yes there would be no problem if Flash Player was included as part of the package. It is not. Oh well, not a big issue to download the latest version (10) from the Adobe website and install onto Knoppix. Wrong again, version 10 does not work with Knoppix or the actual webbrowser that is included. (A rebranded version of Mozilla Firefox imaginately entitled - Iceweasel). I therefore had to Google my options, there were not many. In the end I was able to find a site which had version 9 of the Flash Player runtimes for Linux which I downloaded. Then I had to work out how to install them. You would think it would be easy, double click an executable. No, I had to go into the terminal window (command prompt) and run the script from there and answer various option questions. In the end I got it to work, but it was very frustrating, when the option to install missing plugins via Iceweasel, appeared to download but not work. Finding sites was not the problem, finding links for the most recent episode that worked was. Eventually a site lend me to Megavideoupload and I watched two shows on there (The Big Bang Theory and Sarah Connor) however as I was watching the opening few minutes of Heroes, I was informed I had over gone my limit of 54 minutes and would have to wait another 72 hours before I could watch the remainder of the video. No thanks, a quick remedy would have been to reboot my router, but I did not know how that would affect Knoppix, so I just found an alternative source. Yes the quality was not great, and there was a bit of a delay for buffering and delays while the video downloaded but overall I got to watch my shows and it was better than nothing. I can always watch the episodes again at a later date over the Christmas break, as most are now off the air until mid January or early February. Why is it that I get to see them all with no glitches until the week before christmas?

On Tuesday night after reading up about BartPE online, I opted to create a bootable CD as this would give me access to my NTFS partitions. However, I forgot to download and add in my network drivers, so therefore there was no network support and I had to switch back to Knoppix. Although on Thursday evening, this did enable me to copy across various files from the media drive onto my portable 320gb hard drive, so I could come home with some new music videos and movies to throw onto the XBox to watch with the family over Christmas.

What else is there worth mentioning? Well I am back in Wycombe and not back in Newbury until the 28th December, but may pop over for a day visit with my family to show them the flat and just check up on a few things. Weekend plans? Well quite lot on actually! I got a phone call on my mobile on Thursday mid-morning, it appeared to be from my Dad but it was actually m sister Natalie on the phone. She asked if I had entered a competition in the Daily Mail. Yes I had, but only yesterday afternoon. Well, she had news for me, I had won! I got the number of the contact at the paper, Sarah and gave her a call. She explained I had won a pair of tickets for the big weekend fixture! Fantastic! I was over the moon, now the dilemma of who to take with me?

There were plenty of options but in the end I knew I had to ask Steve. Afterall, it was his birthday on the same day and I had a feeling he might be in London clubbing. However, I could not get hold of him, his mobile was diverting straight to voicemail and this was not the kind of news I could wait on. After trying on the way to and from the gym and a few times after Eastenders, I called the second person on my list. Old school friend and long time Liverpool fan, Ryan. He was a bit annoyed to be second choice but understood why and accepted the invitation on the spot.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my weekend has been upgraded to platinum status. Tomorrow, will be a lazy day for the most part, off to town to get my haircut, sort out a few things out at home. In the evening I will be out for my social Christmas party with friends, although I am not going to make it a late one, if I can help it. Sunday morning I am at the Christening of Aiden Medford, which should be an experience. Then it will be back home for a quick change before jumping on the train to London. Could my weekend get any better? Well, there is Christmas shopping in Milton Keynes on Monday!

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Friday 12th December 2008

A strange Friday and as my previous post clearly indicates a strange disjointed week. So much so, that I went to the gym this evening to complete my cardio programme. As I could not go on Wednesday, even though I had every intention, if I had got back to my flat by 9pm, instead of 10pm. Yesterday I opted to do my weights programme and end the week with a good session on the bike, cross-trainer and treadmill. Not sure if there is anything worth mentioning then I recall some of the events at the beginning of the week.

My expectations were raised but it was difficult on this occasion not to have false hope. I expected much better results but something is better than nothing. Well is it? It is worth nothing if the person does not even have the courtesy to reply. I had considered what I would do in such circumstances and it was very much a suck it and see approach. I have spent too long explore quite ridged avenues and I agree that I must widen my search but no necessary make any change to the criteria. I suppose I have to confess that this set back, coming so soon after the setback on my birthday is a bitter pill to swallow. The most difficult thing to take on board is the lack of progress. I may not be where I want to be but I do not feel I have actually moved anywhere along the road on this journey. I agree that I spend too much time thinking about this subject but it is difficult as with his passing disappointment, you effectively have to go back to the drawing board and start again.

While I was at the gym, I watch Chart Show TV (as I usually do, unless there is some worthwhile breaking news on Sky) and noticed a new video come on from Shontelle. A great song and fantastic video. I really get the feeling that talented female singers are bred in Barbados. The chorus is so infectious, and a trip over to Wikipedia reveals that she wrote the dance hall classic "Roll It Gal" for British born Alison Hinds. While on the treadmill I saw the video for One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks. The lyrics or a line in particular got me thinking, even though the main verses are complete contradictions. "There's no need to rush, It's like learning to fly, Or falling in love". I am trying not to be in such a hurry but it is difficult to just sit around and wait.

Weekend plans? Away from The X Factor, not much! JLS to win and if not them (unlikely) I would like Alexandra to take the title. I have a piano lesson on Sunday but as usual I have done zero practice and will get a telling off from my tutor no doubt. I am actually looking forward to a weekend of nothingness. After three weekends on the bounce of having to be somewhere at some specific time. Next weekend I will be back in Wycombe and I am actually still debating whether to go to Reading for my Christmas party (among friends) as I have Aiden's Christening first thing on Sunday morning. Only one more week, yes five more days of work to go.

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Wednesday 10th December 2008

In a strange twist of fate, I found myself in a team of skiers. However, I would not be a skier if it were not for my relationship with Pav. That long term friendship in term is based on my decision to go to Henley College and not stick around at my secondary school. All of that is perhaps something worth mentioning when I am much older and have many different situations of pure coincidence to consider. For now, I need to let you know about not just a successful but an outstanding day.

An earlier start than usual and perhaps it was not until I received a text message from Pav at approximately 8:41am that I realised my day was going to be very different from the norm. My friend wondered why he had not received an e-mail from me yet, I usually try and send an e-mail across before the 9am deadline. He had realised why I was not in the office and hoped for a further update later that afternoon. I was heading to Milton Keynes. I was nervous but perhaps not as nervous as I would have been if I had not ventured onto a slope of some description in late November. My greatest fear was being told I was not up to Level Three standard and being dismissed from the slopes. Not just majorly embarrassing but also financially crippling. I might as well just open the window and throw out several five pound notes. As usual I was looking for something that was not there. I do not think I will ever come across a sport that is so heavily based on confidence. By the time we were suited and booted, it was only 11am and we had a good half an hour wait before our lesson began. They were playing UB40 greatest hits over the PA system, "Rat In My Kitchen". Later I would hear the classic cover of Can't Help Falling In Love and the song from Speed 2: Cruise Control, Tell Me Is It True while on the slopes that that afternoon.

Our instructor was Carl and there was a group of seven of us in total. Quite a big group considering my last time on the slopes there had been only two! We headed out onto the lesson slope. The last time I had been here was October 2007. If you had told me then that I would be skiing down from the top of the main slope just over a year later, I would have bitten your hand off and given it to big T to eat! I should be more self assure of myself than I am, because I do have the ability. Well perhaps it did not feel like to begin with. I had difficulty getting off the travelator and almost started skiing down backwards to wards it. Eventually I got my balance and my co-ordination to stand firmly at the edge of the slope and ski down. After a few runs I got going and then we switched quite quickly to the middle lift but coming off half way up onto some black mats. This is when the real hard work began, slowly staggering up the hill and then skiing down. I got the hang of it and my confidence slowly but surely went up.

A few runs later and it was now to a new adventure, as we hit the main slope but not from the top but two thirds up. I was nervous but there was no time to wait and listen out for instruction. It was a case of getting up there and then bombing down. I was quite apprehensive, even though I had tackled steeper and more difficult runs in January. I made it down but did have to steady myself a little, although loved the rush of going quite fast in the middle. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I had managed to make it through the whole day without a single crash. More so than this, it was just a few 'issues' getting myself off the travelator. Was I ready for some freestyle? Was I hell!

My free ski session started from 12:30pm until 1:30pm (although we would say on a bit longer than that). I actually really enjoyed it and can confirm to both Pavneet Singh Khural and the rest of the world that I am looking forward to my holiday in Tignes next month. Ironically, exactly a month today I will be out on the slopes. Or as Pav has put it, "Off coach, dump luggage, rent skis, hit slope!". Funny how three and a half hours on the slopes (both dry and real snow) have taken me to someone not looking forward to their holiday (please see post on . Enough about the past and what is to come in the future, let me continue with my mini-ski adventure. I was apprehensive about going straight to the top on the main lift on the far left of the slope and opted to instead go up to the middle point again on the main slope and go down. It was at this point my colleagues saw me go down and saw my poor technique. Once I got down to the bottom, I had to prepare for the post-mortem. Then it was time for the daddy. We headed over to the lift and if you were close enough you would have heard the cartoon 'gulp' from me as I got onto the lift. Was I read for the slope? Or was the slope ready for me? As they had toboggan runs taking place to the side, part of the slope was cut off, so I had to go down part way of one slope, then cut across back onto the middle slope. I made it and was once again pleasantly surprised. I can actually ski, it is all in my head. It is now all about honing my technique and then parallel turns, then jumps and some off piste action. Hold on, let us not get ahead of ourselves Teg. There is confidence and arrogance I know I am still nowhere near the accomplished skier I should be, but I am hoping that will change by the time 17th January 2009 comes along.

I lost count of the number of runs I made down, but it must have almost got to double figures. We stayed on beyond our time by nearly twenty minutes and I remember checking the time on my mobile as we left. Exactly 2pm. A very successful day, I should have text Pav there and then, but I wanted to enjoy the moment on my own for the moment. I wish I could say that for a brief moment I felt like a superhero but I did not. I did feel different, I felt better. Ready, prepared. Up for the challenge. Let us just hope, when I go to sleep back in Wycombe on Friday 9th January 2009, I do not get cold feet (literally!)

Are you easily star struck? I confess that I am and being in the vicinity of famous people (even if they only read the news) is something that has always appealed to me. While having breakfast in Costa in Xscape, I noticed a gentleman walk in. He was not some nobody, Joe Bloggs walking off the street. It was in fact Jake Humphrey. You might not recognise the name but you will recognise the face / voice from BBC Sport and Sportsround. I was under the impression that he had just been to the gym (Virgin Active) and after a heavy workout was having a cup of coffee and reading the sports pages. I was wrong. A little while later, I would see him hitting the slope on a snow board. Although I must confess I did not see him actually active on the slope, only queuing for the lift and towards the end of his 'time' waiting behind the barrier watching other boarders on the nursery slope.

Talking of slopes and powdery stuff, only until I go!

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Sunday 7th December 2008

It is 18:42 as I begin writing this blog post. My sisters left about forty minutes ago and it was really good to see them, even it was a rather fleeting visit. They provided me with loads of food, cooked by my Mum and Julie made tea and did the vacuum around the flat. It was nice to see them, particularly as Samantha and Natalie had not been to Newbury to see my flat. Samantha, had just got back from Saturday in Leicester, so fell asleep on the sofa, pretty much as soon as she walked through the door.

Overall been a good weekend, without being too busy or hectic. Although I did not get back to my flat until 1am last night on the train. More on that in a second. Firstly a quick round up from today. Somehow, I dragged myself out of bed before 7.30am, had some breakfast and caught the start of Match Of The Day on BBC1 before headed out to the gym. Although I had to de-ice the car first! I got to the gym a few minutes after 8am. It was closed, there were five people waiting outside in the cold, plus a few other people not brave enough to face the elements sitting in their warm cars (like me). Eventually the manager arrived and opened up, but we had to wait in reception for the facilities to be in operating order before we were allowed to the changing rooms. I completed my programme and left a few minutes after 9am. I headed to BP garage to check my tire pressures, they were a little low but well worth checking them, particularly as I have a long journey next Saturday. I got back home and then became my guise as domestic dreamboat. I finished the ironing and put another load of washing done. I usually have my curtains drawn during the day (no point having them open, as I'm at work during the day and it is dark by the time I get home) but it was a nice change to be able to look out of the window, at the sun beaming through such a classic winter scene.

After the ironing, I jumped on the computer to kill the time before my sisters arrived. I expected them to be here around midday but when they had not arrived by 2pm, I called my sister Natalie and left a voicemail on her mobile. She called back half an hour later to explain they were just leaving in a little while. So I watched episode three of Life On Mars (US version) before going into the lounge to watch the X Factor results show. I knew who had gone out, the left hand of Diana Vicker's is no more! I wanted to see the results and some of the judges comments and Eoghan's tears. I had downloaded the performances of both JLS and Alexandra from the X Factor News web site earlier in the day. The rendition of Umbrella was fantastic and I think it will be a close call between these two artists. I am looking forward to Beyoncé on the show next week, particularly her duet of Irreplaceable with Alexandra.

Yesterday was quite a busy day, I got up around 9.30am, which for me is a lie in. I had a big breakfast and then set to work. I was on the computer for a while, trying to get my TV card loaded again but it is pointless. Looks like the hardware has failed and is no longer being recognised by Windows. Fantastic! Just as I fix a problem, a new one comes along. I have e-mailed Hauppauge but not sure what the response will be from the support team. That was perhaps the only negative aspect of my weekend. After the time on my computer (to charge up my Zen mainly) I started on the ironing of my shirts for work but as I was on a tight schedule for my train to London, I had to stop after just two. I had a quick bite to eat and then got ready and headed out the door around 2.15pm. I could have spent a few more minutes at home but I wanted to be waiting at the station in plenty of time for my train. As I waited on platform two, I took a photograph with my phone.

The 14:54 got into Paddington late, as there were trespasses on the line at Southall. I then caught the tube to Edgware Road and then the Circle Line train to Liverpool Street, although there was an eight minute wait, which seemed to last forever. At Liverpool Street I topped up my Oyster Card (it was running quite low) and then just waited for Ricki to arrive.

There was a different vibe since last time almost exactly six months ago. I felt different and I knew it was going to be different atmosphere because it was the climax of the weekend and not the low of midweek. At around 9.30pm, I said my goodbyes around Austin Friars and as I walked past an icon of the City Of London, I could not pass without taking a photograph.

The journey home was a battle in itself. At Liverpool Street I caught the tube back to Paddington but on the Hammersmith & City Line. I got to Paddington at 22:10, ten minutes before the next train left for Reading. However, it stopped at every stop out to the west, so I thought I had missed the last train to Newbury (which according to my pocket timetable, left at 23:11). I could have got off at Maidenhead or even Slough and called up my Dad to pick me up and go home but I did not want to use that option. I texted my friend Savita, assuming she would be in and could check online but she was out in Enfield. I would just have to weight up my luck at Reading. Worse case scenario I could crash at Pav's place if I really was in trouble. As I got off the train and looked at the computer screen, I was glad to see that the next and last train to Newbury was at 00:15. The annoying thing was the forty odd minute wait I had. I was surprised to find the station so busy and there were at least thirty people heading out in the direction of West Berkshire. I noted the time as I got off the train at Newbury (which was a bit disorientating as we got off at Platform 2, when I am used to getting off at Platform 3 and walking over the footbridge. It was 00:52am, I would be back at my flat at 1am. I listened to Five Live on my Zen, Dotun Adebayo was about to present Up All Night. I was cold and very tired but glad to have been out and done this, it was very important. If nothing else I got to meet up with my friend and go for a nice meal which is always good fun. Anything else is always a bonus, a by-product if you will. We shall see what happens.

Rolling back to Monday evening, I heard the new song by Lily Allen on Radio One as I drove to the gym. The Fear is fantastic, particularly the clever satrically lyrics but what I like more is the sound. I look forward to the release of the album early next year. It is very good when an artist that you do not really like that much comes along and surprises you.

A very busy week ahead but only two weeks to go until holidays, I am looking forward to being at home in two weeks time and be in the warm surroundings of home. Before then, there is plenty of work to be done and I think I will start by getting into bed and reading my book.

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Friday 5th December 2008

You would think that writing a blog would become easier over time. Particularly as I have been at this game for well over six years now. I think the contrary is true, it actually gets harder with every passing month, every changing year. You build up a readership with high expectations and keep coming back for more. However, I do not blog for them. It has never really been about getting a popular blog, that was just a by-product of the original aim. To have a place to 'record' all the important events of my life and then be able to look back, as many people do to photographs or videos, and read exactly what I was feeling, thinking and listening to.

Finally at the weekend, been a long week. Tired but looking forward to the weekend, in particularly Sunday when all three of my sisters will be coming around to the flat. Samantha and Natalie have not actually been here yet. Then, just two more weeks of work until the Christmas holidays. I am looking forward to the rest but most importantly of all, I am looking forward to being at home and the familiar surroundings of High Wycombe.

What else I have got planned for the weekend? Well away from the domestic chores of washing, ironing and cleaning I am meeting up with my friend Ricki in London. Sunday will be once again a productive day to get all those odd jobs done. I will also try and get down to the gym and maybe go into town with my sisters, the weather report does look promising.

My first post of December would not be complete without a photograph of my advent calendar. In time honour tradition, my Dad handed me my chocolated filled calendar over my birthday weekend. Last year he got me Doctor Who, in 2006 it was a Disney Pixar mixed calender and three years ago it was the The Simpsons. Well they make a return this year, well only one family member - Bart.

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Sunday 30th November 2008

Been an extremely hectic weekend and it is only now coming up to 3pm on Sunday afternoon that I am in a position to put everything onto the blog. Had a great time, there was curry followed by clubbing on Friday and then a trip into North West London to see a friend yesterday afternoon (which went well into the evening) and then today has been a domestic chore day after a good hard session at the gym.

I left work about 4:15pm on Friday, rushed back to my flat, got changed, grabbed my bag and headed back towards the office car park. A colleague kindly gave me a lift into Reading and saved me having to catch the train (which would have been packed). However, I was dropped off on the Bath Road close to the town centre and then had to make my own way to Pav and Em's. My sense of direction let me down a little. I should have gone under the main road using the subway but instead heading straight and then as I saw the Skoda and Audi garages, I knew I was heading in the wrong direction. (The road actually leads to junction 11 of the M4!) I turned around and headed back the way I had come, it must have been a few hundred yards but enough distance to make it annoying. Pav had been texting me and had even offered to pick me up but then decided that I would get to the house quicker than he would get there from Emmer Green. By going under the subway and around, I came out to river running through the Oracle. Strange how when you are so used to getting from places in a car, you find it difficult to get anywhere using the old good old fashioned legs. Now, I knew where I was, I headed through the shopping centre, over the bridge and then at the Grosvenor Casino, I headed to the house. I was about ten minutes or so behind schedule. (It was something that would repeat itself over the course of the weekend). It was after 6pm but not quite 6.30pm (the Simpsons were still on Channel 4) and my weekend could begin. Eventually Em did get ready and Pav had to burn a few copies of his set for the evening. I got the first copy, straight off the press. I was loving the chair in the basement. It is one of those chairs you could rule the world from. Tonight, Reading in the Royal County of Berkshire, tomorrow the world!

Our taxi arrived just before 7pm and we headed to the Spice Oven. Have you seen the Goodfella's adverts on ITV during Saturday evenings? Well that was all I could think of when I got into the taxi, as the driver was playing a Barry White album. I thought it was the radio to begin with, until the second and third Barry White track filled the Vectra. We got dropped off at the Tesco Express slash Esso garage and then walked around to the restaurant. Everyone else was already there. This was my first time at the Spice Oven even though I have driven past it on numerous occasions on my way into Reading. Very nice restaurant, service was good but the food did take an age to arrive. Pav was testing me, he thought I would go for a mild one but it was the jalfrezi I went for and took for the team. I don't mind medium spicy food from time to time. Anything laden with chillies that just burns your tongue and ruins all the flavour. Foxy was on fire, the moment we arrived. He was killing me and I am glad I doubt I will see him again before the ski holiday in January. Although he might come out for Christmas night out on 21st. After the meal, we headed to the pub across the road for a drink before walking back over to Plug n Play. It was in the heart of the industrial state opposite Rivermead. It was quite foggy now and bitterly cold. Pav had not been there for four years but eventually got us there, "Just follow the sound of the bass..." Andy said! We got there and as it was free entry, I had to fill in a little slip with my details. I rushed down my details but I doubt anyone could read them.

The club was much smaller than I expected, when Pav had said underground, I thought he had meant literally underground. As you walked in, you had a bar and the main room on the left, with a raised dance floor at the back. Then walking down the corridor you have two rooms, on the left a small second room (which was empty at the time, DJ playing to nobody). The room adjacent to this was the chill out room with chairs and tables. Pav was not on for a while, so we had a little time to get a drink and chill out before his set. The place was slowly getting busier and busier. A great set from Pav, particularly because he threw in some vocal tracks (I doubt just for me, but I like to think I am special). It was a really good night. Kev and Duen arrived a little later and by then the party was really kicking off. I had found out about the opening night of this new night, Raw Filth, several months back and it had been slowly building up via Facebook. (Pav had sent me an invite to the event back in September I think!) The night is a new venture between Simon and Russell, both friends with Pav. Russell has in fact played at a few of the other venues I have been to earlier this year.

While dance music is hardly my specialist subject, I have been well informed about the individual sets the DJs played. Pav's was more uplifting progressive house and electro, Russell, who played after Pav was more progressive house with some electro too! Tina was more techno with cheese and I really enjoyed her set! Sam, who played before Pav was more progressive house and techno. Now that may not make much sense to you, but I may not know the styles very well, but I know what I like and I know what works. Will I give up on commericial dance music? No, I think it still is very important to me, particularly for something to listen to in the car. However on a night out, you want something a bit stronger, or as Pav would say, a little bit 'dirtier' and this was the perfect night for it! I am actually looking forward to my next big clubbing night out, although that may not be for a while. Hopefully soon after we get back from ski trip. I can see my next night out in Reading being quite cheesy, it being five days before Christmas.

We left around 3am, and headed back to the house. Although there was a bit stop at The Perfect Fryer in town (we had the munchies) before getting back to the house around 4am. Before I went to bed, I put on my Zen and they were playing Take On Me on 2Ten FM. (Have you seen the advert for Lips on XBox 360?) I got up around 9am, or was awake and just stayed in bed. Eventually I got up and ready. I left Pav and Em's before 10am. I headed straight to the station. Now using the direct route, rather than heading past the casino. It is funny how the character of a place can change based on the time of day. When I was last at the Reading station, it was 10.30pm on Tuesday night, everything was closed and there was the odd passenger waiting for a train. Now, the place was rammed with queues for the machines and the ticket desks. I joined what I thought was the smallest queue for a machine and bought my ticket. Strange but a single is only twenty pence cheaper than a return to Newbury. I then headed to the platform, platform one, and the train was at 10:11am to Newbury. There were many people heading to the racing, The Hennessy Cup. I do not believe in gambling and only ever been to the races once (Newmarket back in 2002). Therefore, it is rather wasted on me but it was interesting to see everyone rush to the train, with copy of Racing Post in hand. The journey took thirty odd minutes, but it did stop at every station on the way to the final destination. As I got off the train, I realised I had loads to do before I could come back to the station and head back in the same direction. I walked back to the flat and could see the barbers was very busy, but wanted to make sure I got my haircut. Back at the flat, I had shower, got changed, cleared up a few things and had to go on the computer for a bit. Before midday, I was out the door and waiting for my haircut, it was a fifteen minute wait but I was done in ten minutes and headed back to the flat. Then it was very much a race against time. I wanted to get on the train as quickly as possible and had arranged to meet up with Hema at 2pm. Although I knew I would running a bit later than originally planned.

I headed out of the flat minutes after 1pm and caught the 1.29pm train to London Paddington. From here, I went straight over down to the Bakerloo Line, I checked my watch, it was 2.29pm, the journey had taken just less than an hour and it would be another thirty minutes before I met up with my friend at Kenton station. I had used the Bakerloo Line because of engineering works on the other lines I would have used (Metropolitan and Jubilee). I know I could have caught the replacement bus service, but I would have just been left stuck in traffic. I had to stop at Queens Park and changed trains but eventually got to Kenton. It was a bit of a strange moment at North Wembley. An Asian lady approached me and asked if this train was going into the city. Even though she could clearly see I had a music player plugged into my ears. However, rather than be impolite, I explained it was heading to Harrow & Wealdstone and she thanked me and headed to the other platform to the correct train.

The original plan was to to Flirtease. Birthday desserts, but as we drove past it was closed. We stopped in the street down the road and got the number to call them but there was no answer phone message. I was gutted, I had been looking forward to the desserts for a while. Never mind, the other option was Tinsel Town but it was all the way over in Hampstead, a good twenty-thirty minute drive. Hema wanted to check it out and so we headed in that direction. We could find a parking space, so in the end, turned around and went to a local pub instead for food and deserts. Of course, it was not the same as going to Flirtease, but I enjoyed the company. Had not seen Hema for over two years I think! We left just before 7pm, and I got the tube from Kenton back over to Paddington. My train was not until 8.06pm, so I had a good thirty minutes to kill. I went to the toilet and had to find thirty pence to put into the turnstile. Suppose they got to get the money back on the Dyson Air Blades.

My train was actually heading all the way west to Plymouth and would not make it's final destination until around 1am. I was thankful to be getting off at the second stop. I was tired but opted not to fall asleep, just in case. Thankfully quite a few people got off the train at Newbury. Then it was the walk through the busy town centre back to the flat, through Victoria Park. The town was busy with many people out after the racing. There were several uniformed police officers around. I got in around 9pm and just saw the recap of The X Factor performances. It was great to be finally home and be able to relax. It had been a long day and I was actually looking forward to a quiet Sunday getting everything done. I watched The X Factor results, caught up on my online activities and then watched both Chuck and The IT Crowd. Eastenders could wait until late on Sunday afternoon.

Sometimes a song comes out and you feel it was written just for yourself. It happens from time to time and in this case it was on Thursday night, I picked up a new tune from Keri Hilson via The Celebrity Network. Promise In The Dark is produced by those fantastic Norwegian masters, Stargate and it just an amazing song and you can tell from the moment you hear the opening bar. It doesn't sound like Keri to begin with but you do realise it is her after a few listens. How does it relate to me? Well suffice to say, how can someone go so cold so quickly?

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Wednesday 26th November 2008

What are my inspirations to blog? I suppose another question that would closely follow that one would be, how do I keep the motivation to blog for over six years? (Coming into my seventh year as of 2009) well the answer is quite simple. It is clear that music, television and events make up the bulk of entries. However another big inspiration is my dearest friend Pav. He lives his life through my blog but also provides insightful comments, quotes and photographs that deserve to be included. He is also my biggest critic. If I were to give my blog posts titles (which I do very occasionally), then this entry would be called, "Revenge Of The Ski Pole".

After my post from earlier this month, Pav was determined to get me looking forward to the holiday but also coming back having enjoyed myself. So last week we arranged to head over to the dry ski slope in Bracknell. The only 'non-gym' days for us both are Tuesday. (Otherwise I have Friday free but Pav has Thursday free and goes to the gym on Fridays). Plus we could not do this Friday as it is opening of Raw Filth at Plug an Play. (More on the build up to that shortly). Originally I was going to drive directly over to Bracknell after work on Tuesday but opted for the train to Reading option. It made sense to go to the ski slope in one car and then drive back to Reading and catch the train back to Newbury.

My feelings towards my second ski holiday have changed. I am now slightly looking forward to the adventure. Why the sudden change in heart? Well, on Tuesday night I had a choice. The options were the usual night in with all my US imports (television programmes, not goods of a questionable description or source) or head over to Pav and Em's, get some food and then head off to Bracknell Dry Ski Slope. Pav was willing to switch back from the dark side (not the end of the Star Wars puns, just the beginning) onto skis and give me a few pointers.

I was not looking forward to the prospect of putting on skis again. Pav had calculated exactly from the last day Terry was on the piste which was 16:34 GMT on Friday 11th January 2008. It had been 319 days or 10 months and 14 days. Was I ready? Not quite but the purpose of the trip was to boost my confidence and prepare me for what the mountains of the French Alps will bring.

I left work at 5pm sharp, heading home and quickly changed. My ski bits were already in my gym bag, so after shutting down my PC, grabbing a banana, I headed out the door to the train station. Yes, the original plan had been for me to drive and meet the guys at the ski slope, but I decided it would be better to catch the train from Reading and drive down in one car. It did make sense. I caught the 17:54 train from Newbury heading to Paddington. It felt strange catching a train with so many commuters heading home, when my day had finished a while ago and I was actually off duty and on a social trip. While on the train, the Arab Revenue Protection Officer from First Great Western had a bit of an argument with a college kid, wearing silver Nike jogging bottoms and giving bucket loads of attitude. He had been unable to buy a ticket at the station, so our Middle Eastern friend had to get out a box of tricks to issue the young man with a ticket. The irony was he paid his fair but jumped off the train at Thatcham, seconds before the ticket was issued from the machine and disappeared into the night. Now there is a thankless moment in a thankless job if there ever was one. The train got mobbed at Theale station but thankfully Reading was the next stop. I got off the train with what seemed like everybody else and heading straight for the exit. I had to get some bearings before heading through town to Pav and Em's house. I got there around, 18:40. Hollyoaks was on in the lounge. Em was busy playing some snow boarding game on the newly occurred PSP.

After a nice dinner of lasagne, we got ready to head over firstly to Kev's. Not before I had a chance to visit the basement lair and see for myself the improvements made since my last visit (back in mid September). I was loving the lounge chair and felt quite at home. Bring on Tuesday Night TV Fests (starting Q1 2009). We headed over to Kev's first, to wish Deun and him well on their recent engagement. (Flashed up, as this kind of news always does on Facebook.) After a brief chat and sketched wedding plans, we headed off onto the A329(M) to Bracknell. As we approached the slope, you go past the Copper Beach Hotel. It has been designed to look like a ski resort hotel and would not be a miss somewhere in Austria. A very strange setting for such a building. We parked up and then headed upstairs to the slope. We had to sign in and confirm we were both competent skiers. Well, I just answered "Yes" to the question that I had skied before. I had. Was I up to level four standard, probably not. We got changed into our gear and then grabbed our ski boots and skis. We were about to hit the slopes.

As predicted by Pav earlier in the day via MSN Live Mail, Em got a hot chocolate and began to take a spot to watch behind the main barrier. We headed to the baby slope. There was a snow board lesson going on already. We went up the button lift to come down halfway on the main slope. This was perhaps a bad decision on my part, I should have stuck with the beginners slope until my confidence was up. I felt my legs go to jelly as I managed to get off the button lift and onto the main slope. It took me a while (perhaps an age for Pav who was waiting for me) to get into my stride. It must have taken nearly twenty minutes to come down the slope. I kept stopping at the edge and putting off my turns. Eventually I got going and Pav was surprised that I just wanted to ski straight down towards the end. It was at this moment, I began to recall the exhilarating moments from my ski holiday, some good eleven months before. The rush of coming down at high speed and being only thirty percent in control was back! Em signaled that we should go on the baby slope, now it was clear. There was a group ski lesson going on for beginners with about five people. There were about two other 'free-riders' so to speak using the main slope. Going on the beginners slope was just what I needed. I followed Pav at at first it was a stage my stage, stop-start process of getting down the slope. Eventually by the forth run, I was going down in a single motion. On the next attempt, Pav got me to lead and he was following me like a KGB assassin would follow James Bond. Towards the end of the slope, I gave up on turns and just skied down. I was getting there, I felt so much better and in the cold night in Bracknell, I looked forward to the sunshine days in Tignes.

A couple of runs later and Pav thought I should move back onto the main slope, so we did. First time to the middle section again and I skied down very well. The final run of the night, we went almost to the top (but not quite) and came down again. This time, my tutor was trying to show me how to get into parallel turns. The lesson did not last that long, towards the middle section, I once again gave up on turns and turned on the gas! I flew down the bottom and almost back up to the top, a meter away from Em before coming to a stop and then start to flow backwards. Although I did stop myself, get myself onto the green walkway and then with the help of Em get my skis off. A very successful and product evening. If in ninety minutes my confidence can be regained, imagine what can be achieved in two hundred and seventy minutes.

Over recent months I have become a big fan of Twitter. It is a great platform for me to try and condense my blog posts into 140 characters or less. As most regular readers will know, my blog can go on a bit, so giving quick updates while out in the field so to speak is excellent. I follow only a handful of people, three in fact. Rory Cellan-Jones (from BBC News fame and odd economic journalist), Diamond Geezer, the world famous London based daily blogger and then finally Jon Masters, a friend of Mighty Mouse. All famous to a certain degree in their own right. I noticed a reply on ruskin147's twitter to Stephen Fry and was surprised to find the big man on Twitter. I went ahead to follow him, having scanned his recent tweets and found a few witty comical remarks. (Just read the bio description!) So you can imagine my surprise on Tuesday morning at 7:24am (when I jump onto the PC first thing to queue up some 'files' on uTorrent) to have an e-mail to alert me that, "Stephen Fry is now following you on Twitter". While it is a bit, tit for tat and I know my tweets will get lost in the ocean of other users that Stephen followers but it nice to have a celebrity following me. Particularly after seeing them give such a great entertaining journey across America over the past few Sunday evenings.

I watched episode five, "Power Hungry" of Fringe on Monday night (as I did not have anything else to watch). In the opening few minutes it featured the REO Speedwagon hit, "Can't Fight This Feeling". It got me into a 1980s power ballad vibe. Before I start singing, I better get back to all the shows that I missed last night. Starting with a bit of time with my favourite cyborg, Cameron! Bring it on!

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Sunday 23rd November 2008

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Saturday 22nd November 2008

My weekend started minutes after I got out of my car and was heading out of Newbury. In fact, I had yet to the hit the infamous (and now under further construction) Robin Hood Roundabout. I switched over to Radio One. Scott Mills had already kicked off the Wonder Years and the next track was absolute classic. I put the volume up, my weekend was bang on. Later as I got onto the M4, Scott played Brimful of Asha by Cornershop, and I knew my birthday weekend had arrived.

Been a busy week, with the main 'line in the sand' of Thursday evening. I was heading back home, but only for a pit stop. I had to collect some home cooked samosas and onion bhajis to bring into work for my birthday. Some people had suggested it would have been more appropriate on Monday but I was adamant, that you do not celebrate something after the event. It meant a bit of a mission for Friday morning, I left at 8am, but did not head directly to Newbury as you would expect. I headed to Slough, to Krispy Kreme store before then heading back down the M4 to West Berkshire. However, as I approached the exit off the A34, I found the road closed. I would later find out that someone had thrown themselves off the bridge. I was stuck in stop-start traffic for a while, so called my manager to let him know. I got off at the next exit, as did most people. It is times like this I am so glad that I have TomTom on my E65. I was able to plot a course for my office and take a short cut out of the busy traffic and then rush to my final destination. Not the office, as you might expect but home. I wanted to setup my PC and queue a few torrents before leaving for the day.

My working week has not been too bad, life is settling into some kind of routine. The gym takes up a chunk of my time, keeps me busy and gives me something to do. Hussein (AKA MightyMouse) spammed my wall on Facebook with two links. The second was a link to download the latest version of Xbox Media Centre Atlantis. I loaded that onto the XBox last night and can confirm the latest BBC iPlayer scripts works a treat! It is fantastic that there are a gang of geeks out there that have been working night and day (well almost) to bring RTMP streaming to the original Microsoft console. However, it is the first link he spammed me with earlier in the week that was much more interesting. I have been wondering for a way of placing my gym programmes online in a Web 2.0 approach. So people could comment, make suggestions and monitor my progress. Someone has answered this call with the well named, Gyminee. You can view my Public Profile. If you are an gym addict (like I am slowly becoming) or just starting out, it is a great web site to track your progress and find friends on similar programmes or even going to your gym. I have asked Pav to join up but doubt he will. I have put on my programmes but just need to get into the habit of updating them every night I get back from the gym. Plus on Thursday night I need to remember to note down distance traveled and calories burned.

Home for my birthday and been rather lazy if I am honest. I watched Football Focus, and then realised that I had missed the first episode of series three of The IT Crowd. So, I downloaded it on my laptop and watched it after the BBC flagship football show. I had burnt myself my very own care package (Pav would be extremely proud) on Friday evening, before I left Newbury. The DVD contained music videos, music for my sister plus Knight Rider episode eight. I watched that with my sister Julie on Friday night after Eastenders. I also have Tropical Thunder and The Dark Knight loaded onto the XBox to watch but doubt I will have time today or tomorrow.

I had a feeling they would be in the bottom two and for sure, they are. JLS, my tip to win had a shaking performance with A Million Love Songs. While I had been listening to The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio One yesterday morning, Louis Walsh had confirmed that the song for the group was Back For Good. Easy pass through to next week I thought. However, when they appeared on this evenings show and performed a different song, I was shocked and disappointed. Particularly with their performance, but somehow I knew from the opening bar they were in trouble. Shame really because they should have breezed through the "Take That" boyband week. Having said that, they have performed a fantastic mix of Stand By Me into Beautiful Girl. Fantastic! I think they have done enough but how will the judges play their cards? Or will it go to deadlock? JLS were safe in the end, it was the right decision in my opinion. I am sure that most of the X Factor viewing public agree.

My birthday tomorrow, the big 27! Will upload some photographs from the day. Aim to be back in Newbury early evening and then sort out, all my luggage and food. I also have to put up a shelving unit, my sister used to have in her room.

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Sunday 16th November 2008

When do you officially start to feel old? I do not ask this question, today just because I turn 27 next Sunday. I ask because I feel I have come to one of those milestone moments in my life. I have been invited to the christening of my good school friend Jenny's second son, Aiden at the end of December. There is no question on my attendance, I will be there. However, the invitation, which I received over a month ago and has been sitting on my table, was a bit of a bombshell. I really am getting old. I thought the first waves of weddings (which thank God, have come to a slowdown recently) was one thing but to be invited to a christening to not their first son (Aaron, who is already three, I think!). It is moments like this, when you think about what you truly have achieved and where live is taking you.

A quick weekend roundup, what have I been up to? Well Saturday I got up at just before 9am and while I was about to make breakfast, the buzzer went. I was not expecting anyone. It was the postman (wearing shorts in mid November!). I had a package, I was not expecting anything but then realised it might be an early birthday present. As tempting as it was to open the box, I resisted temptation and left it under the table. Not decided whether to take it home and open with family next week or wait until I return to the flat, quite late in the evening.

After breakfast, I jumped on the computer and started to go through my head my plans for the day. Bicester Village was off the menu, as I had not heard from Ricki. I settled down to Click and then Football Focus before finally getting into action mode. I put on some washing and then tidied the flat and went to the bins with all my recyclable rubbish. I then decided to catch up on some of the 'additional' television shows, which I had downloaded but not seen. I have a confession to make, although Life On Mars is my favourite David Bowie song (ever since it was used for a 3 mobile television advert). However, I have never seen any of the BBC TV show with the same name, although I did see the end credits when the song plays again in modern 2008. Having said all of that, I hard a US version was being made and I got hold of the first seven episodes and watched the first one yesterday afternoon. Excellent stuff but I have nothing to compare it against which is a good thing in a way. I may take the final step and download the original BBC version but for the moment, I am enjoying the 1973 New York.

I then watched Fringe, if you can recall, Pav missed out episode three from my care packages, so I had to wait until I had broadband to obtain this myself and then watch the shows. Today I watched episode four, the show is very good but you feel it is just X-Files with a slightly different team of people doing the investigating. Although the relationship between Peter and Walter is perhaps the second biggest draw, after finding out more about The Pattern. You will notice that Peter never calls his Dad or Father, he refers to him by his first name. Nobody can hate their parent that much, that they would recreate such a distance between themselves even in conversation. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series, I may even watch another episode in a few minutes when this blog post is updated.

After watching Final Score, I was disappointed with the result from North London, so put the TV off and decide to tidy up my room for a while before getting ready for with pizza (sorry turning into a staple diet) and then TV Burp, closely followed by The X Factor. I was rather disappointed with the choice of songs. There are so many fantastic British artists and songs in the back catalogue, but the second half of the show, were poor songs in my opinion. As I predicted, Daniel went out and rightly so. I skipped on MOTD, I would catch the Arsenal defeat first thing this morning before I headed to the gym. I then went to my room to watch Step Brothers. It was good with some very funny moments but it was very gross, but I expect nothing more from the same producers of Knocked Up and Super Bad. I feel asleep around 2am.

I got up at 7.30am, had a quick breakfast, saw the Arsenal Villa match on MOTD repeat on BBC1 and then headed out to the gym. A good work out, although it was still quite busy for a Sunday morning. I got into my car at exactly 9am and headed back to the flat. Time to get some chores done.

My second ski trip takes place in January. The 10th January to be precise, for seven days. How do I feel? Excited? Actually I am very apprehensive, more so than this time last year? Why? Well because this time last year, I had no idea of what to actually expect. Apart from my few days on the Snowdome at Milton Keynes it was all a new experience. I was sheltered from the true reality by having lessons for the four days and only spending the final day with my friends. However, this time around I am extremely nervous. We are going to France, to the resort of Tignes and have rented a chalet for the week between seven of us. I do have a ski buddy, in the form of Ben (friend of Geoff, who went on the last trip) but that is not enough. I am very conscious of not repeating the same performance of last year. Making my friends wait and ruining the last day, or at least last few hours of skiing. Is this truly the sport for me? Perhaps it is just all talk, the moment you come off the slopes and suddenly feel, now that you are save on solid ground, you could be an Olympic champion. I have not made any confirmed plans, but I have an inkling that I am just going to get a few more lessons first to get my confidence up, improve my technique before I hit the slopes. I just do not feel it would be worthwhile going to Bracknell at the moment. Even though Pav keeps bugging me. I feel it is really easy for people like him to take these kinds of extreme, "Pepsi-Max" sports. He has no fear. People like me (generally everybody else) take a considerable amount of time to get our confidence levels to a point where we feel comfortable to hit the slopes. If I am truly honest, I wish I was not going. If I could sell my place on eBay, I would. The trip has started to become a little bit of annoyance rather than something to look forward to as it was a year ago. Hopefully things will be different by the time I get to the strange in between time before Christmas and New Year's Eve. I am hoping that things are different. I am sure Pav and the rest of my friends are hoping the same. For those of you, who would like to know about my adventures from this January (feels like a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away), you can go and read the epic blog posts which start on 12th January. Pav wanted a countdown timer, I do not feel it is required. I might change my mind, but I only count down to things I (along with perhaps a collective of people) are looking forward to! Am I truly looking forward to the ski trip? Well, yes the social side, the journey, the scenery, the laughs with big T. It's just a shame the days have to be filled with the past time of skiing.

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Friday 14th November 2008

As I was getting changed in the gym, the iconic world famous theme tune came on. Any One Can Fall In Love (can they?). I was missing my favourite soap and would have to catch it on BBC3 at 10pm. The reason I was at the gym so late in the evening? Well I did not leave work until 6pm, as I had quite a bit of work to get done and then didn't get to the gym until way after 6.30pm and just finished my workout a few minutes before the magic time of 7.30pm. Oh and yes there is a small television in the changing rooms. It usually has The Weakest Link on as I arrive to get changed at my usual time of around 5.30pm.

Well you know your gym programme is designed for weaklings when your best mate, sends you an e-mail with the following.

Now there was the Square Of Death, from late last July part of my circuit training with Chris and his football team. But that seems rather play school in comparison to "The Skull Crusher". To explain in detail, I had a direct quote from Pav, sent yesterday afternoon: "The Skull Crusher is basically lying on your back on a bench and using a barbell bar and doing slow movements back and forth from your arms to your forehead". I will try and get down to Pav's gym or get him over to Cannon's (soon to be Nuffield Wellbeing Centre) and put a video of the Skull Crusher in action on YouTube. My gym resistance programme is rather tame in comparison but you have to compare athlete with athlete. I am starting from a very very very very very very low starting point, where as Pav is already in good shape already. I would say his general fitness is quite good already, so he is just topping up on the muscles. Where as I need to double (if not treble) my calorie intake to get anywhere near the amount of bulk to then shape into the right place!

I filled up my car with diesel for the first time since I moved in, yesterday evening after work. Yes, over a month since my last visit to a petrol station and in that time I have done two trips back home to Wycombe and one trip to Thame for a piano lesson. Those that do not know, I tend to drive around until I am running on fumes. I am not exaggerating, I have even been known to drive around for miles and miles with the fuel warning light on. Ironically, the price of diesel back in September 2005, is still cheaper than it is now, even though only by a few pence. I even joined a dedicated Group on Facebook for those people like me, who "Regularly drive around with the fuel gauge on red!". Personally I believe it is a macho man thing, you rarely see girls taking part in such stupidity. However, the way I see it, you've made for the fuel, might as well make use of every last drop. Plus, with modern motors with so much computer technology on board, it gives you the range you have left. Even when that goes down to 0, you are running on reserve and have at least twenty, even thirty miles you can get away with. When I drove to Portsmouth from Wycombe with my sisters in January this year, I used my TomTom to find the nearest petrol station, even though my sister Natalie was getting very panicky at the time. Come on, it is all part of the fun, the drive would not be exciting if you did not have to search for a BP garage to get the fuel.

What else have I been up to this week? Well Tuesday, my non-gym night, I had a TV marathon (having left the PC on all day to get all the shows for me). I watch The Big Bang Theory, followed closely by Chuck. Then after a break for dinner and Eastenders, it was full steam ahead for The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was the best episode to date and my second favourite character after Cameron is now former FBI Agent, James Ellison. A great episode and then Heroes came along to match it. Why are the flash back episodes, always the best? A perfect evening in front of the PC! Apart from that I have not been up to much really, been going to the gym as per normal and work has been good, although quite hectic at the start of the week.

Both Dave and Bhavna have become addicted to the DVDs they were sent through the post and received on Tuesday morning. Dave cleared Thursday, his day off to watch the show. It must have looked great on his television. Dave text me to say he was loving Heroes and it was another 'thing' I have got him into after Facebook in July 2007 and then BBC 1Xtra in November of the same year. Bhavna, meanwhile on the other hand has been watching episodes like they were crack cocaine! She is on episode seven already and there are no signs of her slowly down. I may have to post up series two before the end of next week.

Plan for the weekend, well I was hoping to go to Bicester Village with a friend but have not heard from them yet. Although for the record I have left them a voicemail over an hour ago. Not much else planned really, I am having a quiet weekend again. Next weekend I am back home for my birthday (actually going home on Thursday night) before coming back to work and then turning around and heading back to Wycombe). I am watching Children In Need on BBC1 at the moment. Unlike last year, I have resisted the urge to go on Digital Spy forum and watch the performances of the presenters (particularly Tel) get slated. The show has not been as good as in previous years but there is still the BBC News readers to come.

All guys need a place to escape. For some it is the shed, for others it is the golf course or even gym. For Pav, it is his precious basement. Somewhere he can go, listen to his music, play his latest set before burning a CD for a night out and go online on the PC. There is only one rule.

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Sunday 9th November 2008

A very productive day and overall a very successful weekend. I got everything done, I set out to do. So here I am on Sunday evening, coming up to 10pm watching Stephen Fry On America on BBC1. Quite a lot to mention and cover and many things which I think most readers will be both surprised and proud that I actually got around to completing.

Saturday meant an early start, I was out of bed around 8am (or just after) and after breakfast, I watched a bit of television before heading out at 9am. I went to get my haircut at the barbershop down the road. It was quite busy at that time of day but I did not have to wait. While I was getting my haircut, in almost complete silence (an alien environment even for quiet old me) I got thinking. Hairdressing is a profession dominated by women, however the best hair stylists are all men! The same can also be said about cooking. Do you not agree? Women generally do the cooking, but the best chefs are male? Am I wrong? If so please correct me, it is just an observation and no evidence to feed reports that I am an prehistoric male chauvinist. After my haircut, I was heading back to the flat but decided to head over to into town. I wanted to pick up some padded envelopes from Poundland. Then I headed back to my flat in the rain and was at the base of the mountain of work I had to do.

I got in, had a shower, sorted out my clothes and put on a load of washing. I also then sat down to watch a bit of television on the computer while also reading my daily blogs, checking Facebook and updating my Twitter feed. My plan for the day was much like this, to watch Click and then Football Focus before getting on with the rest of the chores. I would listen to Five Live on the computer and then start vacuuming the flat. I had the vacuum on in the lounge, so I missed the first goal, but was on my PC to hear the second and jumped around for joy! By then I had switched from Digital TV Radio feed to Five Live online (but I had to download Real Player 10 Gold first!). Sounded like a great game and I was really looking forward to catching the highlights on Match Of The Day. The rest of the afternoon was a bit strange, I got clothes out of the washing machine and put them out (on my stand) to dry and then was a bit at odds with what to do. I had some soup for lunch around 2pm and then had a few bits and pieces to do. I put together the packages for Dave and Bhav. Dave had given me four DVD's on Sunday but only two of them had been empty, so I had to use a couple of my own but never mind. Once I had completed the production, it was quite late into the afternoon, so I decided I was tired of having spent so long on the computer and retired to the lounge. I watched Final Score on BBC1 before drifting off into a very light sleep.

When I got up, I decided to jump back on the computer for a short while before Harry Hill's TV Burp. As the show was coming to an end, I put a pizza in the oven for dinner and then sat down for The X Factor. Where you as shocked by the result as me? From my news feed on Facebook, so were many of my friends! Then after MOTD, I recorded the highlights of Arsenal versus Manchester United, I put on the movie I had been trying to watch all week.

I saw the trailer at the cinema months ago and wondered whether it would be a just a modern day spy spoof (in the style of Austin Powers). It was actually a lot worse toilet humour than that. I am referring to Don't Mess With The Zohan starring Adam Sandler. The plot was not the main draw, it was the comic performance of Sandler and also the clever way of bringing the Middle East conflict to downtown New York. Would I have gone to the cinema to see it? No, it was not that good. It made you laugh out loud every ten minutes or so. The ironic moment was that Zohan is a big fan of Mariah Carey, the theme for The X Factor show this week. She also has a minor cameo towards the end of the movie (even singing the first few lines of the national anthem). It was funny and at times very funny but in the end, totally forgettable stuff. Not the type of movie that you would discuss with a work colleague around the water cooler. (Coincidently, our water cooler is not working and we are still waiting for an engineer to arrive).

Sunday turned out to be even busier than Saturday. I got up just before 8am and pretty much after a quick breakfast headed straight for the gym. I left the gym at before 9.20am and back at my flat, it was domestic chore number three. Ironing, I'm not a big fan, I was told during my Uni days that I was too slow. I just like taking my time. I ironed all my shirts just before the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. During the two minutes silence, I grabbed my grandfather's medals frame from the wall and stood reflecting on what could have been, if he had lived a few years longer.

Second load of washing loading into the machine and I finished off ironing my shirts, then I had to get ready and head over to Thame for my piano lesson. I listened to Radio One part of the journey on the A43, and listened to Aled's weekend anthem, which was the fantastic "Live Your Life" by T.I. featuring Barbados babe, Rihanna. They sample O Zone's Dragostea din Tei, although a slight change to the chorus, due to failure to get copyright clearance. Some of you may not remember the Euro pop hit from the summer of 2004, so I have taken the liberty of providing you with a screen shot. If that does not help, (it most likely may not for most) then a pop over to You Tube, and you too will be singing the infectious chorus all day at work tomorrow!

I got over to Thame, a few minutes after 1pm. A good lesson and I promise that I will actually do some practice this week. After a quick lunch down the road in Hartwell, I headed back to Newbury. I got here for 6pm and after lounging around for a bit, watched the news and then Top Gear, now MOTD2 on BBC2. I am very tired and most likely will be off to bed when the show finishes. There you have it, you would have never thought a quiet weekend could be so exhausting. No wonder, Mum's are heroes!

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Friday 7th November 2008

My first Friday evening in Newbury, where I can blog live! (I know I did type an entry on Friday 24th October but that was not uploaded until four days later). Quite a few things to mention and cover, this post will be a round up of sorts. I apologise it is a bit disjointed but I just have a few notes written on Post-It pads with key topics I must mention.

Finally got Windows Live Messenger (the software program formerly known as MSN Messenger) onto my E65 on Thursday evening. That had been my original problem, I had been searching for "MSN on E65" and not getting very far. I tried two applications, Nimbuzz and then Fring, with different results. Nimbuzz just refused to load up and connect. With Fring, I created an account but then could not get into MSN. It was annoying, but then when I changed my search key words, I stumbled up on the application I needed but unfortunately it is currently not available in the United Kingdom. Did that stop me? No, a few additional searches, I was able to download the files I needed and install the application onto my mobile phone. Fantastic and after a synchronization which took a few minutes, I was up and running. The application is fast and you can quickly switch from IM window, MSN contact list, mobile phone with no time delays. Great! However, I must admit the problems I had getting connected to my Wireless network. In the end, I had to manually configure the IP address, subnet mask and DNS servers (I do not use Tiscali's own, but Open DNS). Only after adding the DNS servers did internet access work on my phone but never mind, at least it is working now. I did not have the same problem with my Sky broadband at home, once the device was enabled in the MAC filtered list, it was plain sailing. So now, when I am about and about, I should be able to go on MSN, plus also update Twitter from my mobile, rather than SMS.

Talking about Twitter, I noticed that MC Hammer, yes the MC Hammer has a Twitter account. I am considering buzzing him a tweet to find out what he thinks about the Utah Saints - Something Good '08 music video, where he has a semi cameo appearance! Doubt I will get a response like this from the king of baggy trousers. Oh yes, I was just wondering like you dear reader, which other celebrities use Twitter. Fret not, someone also had that same brain wave and now there is a site you can go to. The site only started last month, so there are only a handful of celebrities, some minor some notorious. Give it time, I am sure it will balloon to a major site, particularly when one of the big sites or media outlets find out about it.

What do you have for breakfast? I bet many people even skip on breakfast or just drink a coffee. Well as long as I can remember I have had cereal of some description. One of my earliest memories involves my breakfast. Back in the mid 1980s, at my house in Lane End, I was about to tuck into some Weetabix. My Mum was on the phone and I was waiting for her to get off the line, so that she could pour the milk in. (I was too young to handle the pint bottles, you will understand). In a moment of madness and frustration, I picked up the tea (not mine) and poured that on my Weetabix instead and started eating. Strange taste, I can assure you that. I then got a telling off when my Mum returned to the room. My cereal history has been a rather basic if I am honest. I had mainly Kellogg's Corn Flakes when I was younger, then switching to Frosties for several years. I had times when I switch to new cereals for a small time, usually just a box (or two). These included Shreddies, Weetabix, Shredded Wheat and then Corn Pops (which I remember at the time had some link with Baywatch). I then switched in my mid teens to Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and never looked back. Until now. I am dropping the Kellogg's favourite in place of Start. The cereal is not found at every store but I saw it in Sainsbury's a while back and thought my new healthy eating plan needs a mighty push and this was a good place to begin. Although ultimately I would like to move onto some kind of porridge, but I will need some guidance oh and will power!

We have to talk about the major events across the pond, I cannot avoid them. I am glad Americans made the right decision and the decent man won. I was reading my Twitter feed and it was almost a one man campaign from Jon Masters and although he is based in the US, he does not yet have the right to vote, so I thought it rather rich of him to preaching to others when he himself has yet to earn the democratic right. Having said that, I admire him and am very envious that he has taken the 20th January 2009 off to go down to DC and watch the inauguration. He won't be the only one making the trip. For me, it is one achievement of many I look forward to in my lifetime. The next? Well it is slightly closer to home and perhaps not as significant as Mr. Obama taking up residency at the White House. I look forward to the day, when I go to Wembley to see a player of Asian heritage (any would do, but from the subcontinent would make it extra special) take the field for England. It has happened in cricket already, do we really have much longer to wait for the national sport to follow suit? Oh sorry, back on track. I would have liked to have stay up and watch the election unfold on BBC News but was too tired, so I opted to listen on my portable DAB radio. I started listening around midnight. Richard Bacon was in some bar in Chicago and you also had political correspondent John Pienaar in Washington I think. I listened for a while but fell asleep. Usually my batteries are not charged up so the radio dies a death soon afterwards but they were fully charged and at 3:41am (I remember the time clearly as I check the radio screen, with blurry eyes), it was quite clear that Mr. Obama had crossed the finish line and taken a clear lead in terms of electoral college votes. I smiled and wondered for a while how different tomorrow would be. Bhav text me in the morning on her way to work, to confirm what I already knew, but for a while I wondered if it had all been a dream, and in fact McCain and Palin had won instead. Then I switched on BBC Breakfast.

So what have I been up to since I landed from Wrexham / Wycombe on Sunday evening. Well I went to the gym, which meant I missed Hamilton clinch the F1 World Championship but never mind. Hopefully he won't leave it to the last corner of the last lap, of the last race of the season next time around. Well done to the chap, I had a feeling he would choke, just like last year but although he kept us waiting, he pulled through at the last minute. A billion pound sportsman to rival the likes of Beckham and Woods. Just please do not sign up for any cheesy Gillette Fusion adverts!

I have been making the most of my unlimited internet connection and downloaded a few of my staple diet of US TV shows. Many of the programmes remain on break though, but I accidentally downloaded the HD version (1.08gb) of Sarah Connor Chronicles. I left my PC running all day on Tuesday so it could download all the movies, music videos and television shows, so I could enjoy in the evening on my 'day off' from the gym. I realised my mistake, when I noticed that the Terminator show was the only torrent still running. Oops. The file format was MKV, so I had to download the codec, however small problem. Window Media Player would play the video and some background sound, but not the dialogue. So, I had to load up Window Player Classic and use this as it had the dialogue. It took a minute for me to get the video and audio in sync but when I did, it was fantastic. The quality in both the image and audio was amazing. I could really feel those punches that Cameron threw. However, I will be switching back to the 350mb SD version from next week.

While in the gym on Wednesday evening, I was approached by James. A new member of the team, brought in by Nuffield, who have taken over Cannon's Health Club. So as you can imagine from January they will be pushing their ProActive Health assessments and nutrition plans. Personally I am not interested unless they are free. In the changing room, while I was getting changed, a man putting on a leotard, said that he had finally made it to the gym and his had to be the most expensive gym membership in history.

My original plan for this weekend was to head into London to meet up with a friend but that has been postponed. Therefore, I am going to be spending a weekend in Newbury predominately (I have a piano lesson in Thame on Sunday). I am going to get my haircut, perhaps go to some shops as well. The main thing on the agenda is a big clear up, tidy, vacuum, clean, also get some laundry done. I actually made a long list of things I wanted to get done by the close of the weekend (during my lunch hour on Wednesday). So far, I have only ticked off two items, so plenty to get done tomorrow. I am looking forward to a clear weekend, to get as much done as I can. What is a bet I get nothing done at all?

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Tuesday 4th November 2008

My weekend began on Thursday evening. The plan came together very well and just as I had envisaged. All my luggage (quite a bit considering) was stacked in the lounge, I had some food while watching 'that' episode of Eastenders (it was 30th October). I was set and planned to leave as soon as my favourite soap came to a close. It was a few trips to pack the car and then finally I was on the way home, but my final destination was not High Wycombe, it was Wrexham, North Wales.

All weekends need a soundtrack and my officially kicked off at 20:57, I had been skipping around on the CD in my car and it started on Disturbia by Rihanna. My weekend could begin and it was a great feeling. I was looking forward to seeing Dave and Lisa again and just kicking back for a few days. But as all plans go, there was a few issues. My original time of departure had been first thing on the first train (10:17am) but I had to take my car over to Amersham Audi, to get the brake light system looked at, so I had to catch the next service, some three hours later. Which gave me a landing time of 17:28 in Wrexham and not 14:28 as I had originally hoped. Never mind, a minor complaint and mainly due to the fact that the stealer, I mean dealer could not fit me in on Saturday morning (then my Dad would have taken it in for me!) I was not going to let it get in the way of what was going to be a fantastic weekend. So on Friday morning (Halloween, my Alpine stereo has a screen saver for four days and this is one, so a witch flies across the screen whenever you switch on the device) in the glorious sunshine I headed over to Amersham. Rather than sit in the waiting area and watch Sky News, I took a browse around and headed straight for the R8.

A great opportunity to wind up Dave, so I sent him the above picture as an MMS, with the text, "While I was waiting, I put in an order for my next car. Black or silver? What you think?". I was surprised to get a reply so quickly, I thought DJ would have been asleep. He had taken the day off as well. The car was ready around 8.30am and I headed back home. I forgot that it was half term (no wonder the roads were so clear) and found my sister on the sofa, watching various shows on the Disney Channel. I attempted to move the Sky broadband router from the lounge back into my old room but forgot that I had all the spare adsl filters back at my flat, so that plan hit the buffers almost before it started. I packed up my bag, sorted out a few things and then decided it better to head off to town. It would mean I would have a wait (of nearly an hour) at Marylebone but I wanted to be there and relax rather than rush there. I took the bus into town and as I had time on my side headed to WHSmith. I needed to get some stamps but thought I would also pick up a computer magazine to read for the journey. I opted for Personal Computer World for the cover and cover alone. It had a feature on how to install Linux. (MightyMouse must be cheering in the aisle as he reads this). My family laptop is dying and to extend the life I was already planning to install a brew of Linux, so this magazine feature had been a bit of a godsend (although I am sure I could have coped without it). So the next time I am back in Wycombe (in three weeks or so, my weekend job will include two things - install Linux on laptop and upgrade XBox to be able to handle the latest iPlayer script / plugin). I need to get back on track, sorry. I then walked up to Wycombe station, bought a ticket from the machine and went straight to platform one, there was a train waiting and it was leaving in a few minutes. It was 11:02am, I was on my way.

I suspect you are wondering why I took a train into London rather than to Banbury and then onward to Wrexham. Well I wanted to take the most direct route and I had agreed with Dave that we would try out the service as soon as it went live (earlier this year). I did not want to be changing multiple trains, I wanted to get on a train, sit back, plug in my Zen and relax. Sure, driving would have taken less time but the cost of diesel and wear on my car, plus the tiredness of the journey would take their toll. I just liked the idea of taking the back seat for a change and letting someone else drive. Plus, the station is next door and I mean right next door to Dave's apartment. There is no big trek or taxi to jump into. I walk around the corner and I am there.

While I was waiting, I stepped outside and for a moment considering walking to Piccadilly Circus to see my friend Ricki and perhaps even grab some lunch. Instead, I opted to just take a seat in the station concourse and wait. I had started sending texts to Twitter from late last night and thought I would continue for the rest of my journey. I left Dave know about the site, so he could read my updates too. It was easier to text a tweet rather than text individual friends. My first text from Friday morning is the start of the marathon, several other messages to read from that point across the weekend. I spotted Dennis Wise on the concourse, he had a chat with some people and a photograph with a Chiltern Railways employee. He went into WHSmith before disappearing to catch his train. He made a donation into the Breast Cancer Awareness bucket and one of the two girls went crazy. Calm down dear, he's is not that famous! Just after 1pm, when I had been waiting for over an hour, we were given the platform number and I headed to the barrier. My ticket was scanned (a printed barcode) and I was allowed through. I found a good seat, put my bag on the rack by the door and got comfortable. I text Dave and then settled down to enjoy music on my Zen.

This was my first long train journey since April last year, (Sunday 15th April to be exact!). Back then I had my work laptop and was blogging my weekend 'offline' and the entry was pretty much ready to upload by the time I got home. This time around, there was no laptop. I had bought along my A5 Pukka Pad but forgotten a pen, so had to just make mental notes. I would write everything up or as much as I could remember when I got to Dave's apartment. I sent a tweet whenever we stopped at a station and although I tried to have a little sleep, I could not really drift off. I was excited to see my friend again. Rather than bore you with the details, those really interested in my journey, can go and read the tweets over on my Twitter page.

It was dark as we approached Wrexham General, I had got up early, grabbed my bag and headed for the door. However, I had chosen to stand by the wrong door, the opposite side to the platform. Never mind. As I got out of the train, I was looking out for Dave but could not see him. Then he appeared from the other side of the pillar and with a warm smile, came over and gave me a big hug! He grabbed my bag and we headed for the exit. No barriers, no ticket inspectors, we walked up the stairs across over the track and then down to the other platform, where Lisa was waiting. It was bitterly cold.

We walked back to their apartment, it is literally next door and then we took the lift up to the second floor. Last time around, they lived in flat 127, they had now moved all the way to flat 128. A very nice flat, sorry I mean apartment Dave. Much bigger than their old one bedroom flat. I was shown my living quarters for the weekend, where I dumped my bags before heading to crash out on the living room. I had arrived, it was coming up to 6pm and I was completely shattered. However, the night was young and we had plenty to catch up.

Lisa is a big soap fan, so we watched Home & Away on FiveR, then Emmerdale followed by Coronation Street on ITV1. At 8pm it was time for Eastenders which is the one soap I watch now (since dropping Hollyoaks from my viewing schedule back in June this year). After a nice dinner, we got down to business. I had to get my collection of music videos working on the glorious 50" plasma screen. I thought it would be a case of streaming directly from the Compaq laptop to the TV but Dave does not have the necessary leads, so we had to go down the wireless route via the XBox 360. Please note that I have never done this before but a little help from Google, I got something sorted (but not until much later in the evening). I let Dave struggle for a least twenty minutes before I took over and sorted it out. Without Windows Media Centre on the laptop the option is to enable media streaming in Windows Media Player 11. I got this working eventually but I had to fight with Norton 360. I was quite proud of myself when I eventually got it working and could watch Keri Hilson's new video, "Return The Favour" featuring music maestro producer, Timbaland. However that was not the end of my tasks, I also had to teach Dave how to burn a DVD using his recently purchased Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator package. The software had already been installed without any problems but just would not work. Or rather more accurately, Dave could not make it work but I got it going. We got registered it and enabled the software and away we went. The test burn was The Spiderwick Chronicles and it worked a treat. Next job people? Oh that would wait until tomorrow.

Dave had borrowed Casino Royale DVD from a friend and I was keen for us to watch before going to see the sequel at the cinema on Saturday evening. However with all these jobs being undertaken by yours truly, it was not until 11.40pm that we put the movie on. It looked fabulous on the Samsung television and with the lights off, it did feel like we were in our own private cinema. Lisa, with work tomorrow, had gone to bed, so it was just the boys awake. It was perhaps the worse time to watch a Bond film and at a low volume, it was easy to get lost and not fully understand the plot. We gave up early, around 1.20am and promised to pick it up early afternoon before we headed over to the Odeon at Plas Coch Retail Park. I went to bed (or rather my air mattress and drifted off within minutes).

My alarm went off at some point in the morning but I switched it off and went back to sleep. I got up around 10am and Dave was already awake, on the sofa, uploading photographs to Facebook. He had asked me to bring up my media card reader and that then he would finally be able to upload photographs from the mini reunion. Yes people, the reunion which took place exactly a year ago (on the date of this blog post). He had done this and I took a look over breakfast. I also decided to take some photographs, particularly the view from the window of the Wrexham skyline.

This was an opportunity to play some of the music videos, loud. By loud I mean knocking up the surround sound. We listened to T-Pain - Buy You A Drank and then Lollipop by Lil' Wayne. While we had been watching Soccer Am on Sky 1 earlier, I had just asked Dave out of curiosity which family this Samsung belonged to. I expected him to have the name at his fingertips, he did not, so had to check on Amazon. It was there he discovered that the television had FreeView built in. (Well it was clear to see from the box itself, it had a small DVB logo on the bottom left. We switched through the sources, found DTV and tuned it in. Not all the channels were picked up but it was good to have come through with successfully completed job for the weekend. While Dave was getting ready, I put on the Return The Favour video again and snapped some pictures. (Little did I know that these would make up the bulk images from my weekend!). We then headed into town, to take a look around, mainly at the new shopping centre, Eagles Meadow. The main purpose of the trip was to get Dave his birthday present. But more on that later. The town had changed a considerable amount since my last visit back in July last year.

Many of the shops had closed and moved to the new shopping complex but it was still not even half full. To get there you walk to the end of the main street, take a left and there is the entrance. Via a bridge, you go through to the main complex. We went for a walk around upstairs into the ten pin bowling alley and just to have a look around. It was surprisingly busy, very busy in fact. They had performers and people dressed up, it was the opening weekend after all, it had only just opened the previous day. It had slowly started to rain as we headed back to into town, we stopped by at Covent Garden flower shop (where Lisa works). Then we decided to find somewhere to grab some lunch. Walking past the bus station, one option was The Big Fat Cat Cafe. After walking around past a few other pubs I decided it best to head back to the Fat Cat. The football was on, Everton versus Fulham (a goalless draw anyone?). Dave got the drinks in and I got some food and it was a pleasant way to waste away an hour in the early afternoon. We planned the rest of the day and evening.

Back to the flat, watch the final part of Casino Royale, head out to the Odeon to catch Quantum Of Solace, then back to the flat for some grub and The X Factor before heading into town. Not a bad Saturday night if you ask me. It pretty much went to plan. We headed over to the cinema at 4.30pm. I had a craving for Peanut M&Ms, so we had to stop at Sainsbury's so I got get a back. They were on offer, so I bought a bag for Dave too! We then headed to the cinema. As Dave bought the popcorn we were informed by the server that Arsenal had lost to Stoke 2-1, it had been 1-0 on Sky Sports News as we left the house. The only dampener on my weekend but a big blow to our title challenge. More on that later. It had just struck 5pm by the time we were shown to our seats. The trailers were about to start. I was looking forward to the main feature.

I left the cinema disappointed. The story lacked substance, there was no big twist, nothing to keep you on the edge of your seat. The action sequences were great, particularly the chase scene at the opening but the story was just poor. I wanted a crazy megalomaniac, hell bent on world domination. I wanted more typical Bond girls and not admin girls from the Foreign Office. Casino Royale was much better, but Quantum is more of the same but a few levels down on the movie richter scale. It is only for the die hard Bond fans and I am sure even those will feel rather short changed by this episode.

We walked back to the flat and then were given the surprise news. The twins (Paul's daughters) were coming over as Paul and Wendy were off out. Lisa had quite happily offered to baby sit, (fifth weekend in a row?). Lisa's friend Sadie was ove and we just about to see the first performance of the night on The X Factor. It was Austin, his journey would come to an end, a few short hours later. We had a nice dinner, prepared by Lisa and then after watching The X Factor decided to head into town. Paul and Wendy arrived with the twins, Priya and Essence. They were both scared of me, so around 9.30pm, we headed into town.

On Dave's advice we headed firstly to the Nag's Head, there was a TV in the corner, so we sat down on the comfy sofas and saw the result from The X Factor. I then wanted to check out a bar up the road but by the time we got there it was closed (it was gone 11pm). We had limited options now in terms of late licence, so we opted for Bar Barracuda. It was rammed and eventually we made it to the bar. We sat in the backroom watching the TV. The DJ was only playing that he had the video for. One video to appear reminds me of Dave's Dad. The song is Something Good '08 by Utah Saints. You can guess which of the two men at the bar I am referring to. The video is a classic, I particularly like the end when you see MC Hammer appear to 'claim' the rights to The Running Man. Pure genius. The last song to play before we left was Disturbia. The song that started my weekend, would also bring it to a close.

We had to stop at Dave's favourite kebab takeaway for a bite to eat before heading back to the flat. Sadie was just leaving as we got there and the twins were asleep in the lounge. A was tired and went to my room, it was going to be a tiring journey back to Wycombe and eventually Newbury tomorrow. I got up just before 9am and wanted Dave to check the Wrexham & Shropshire website and confirm my train time. My apprehenshions had been proved right, due to rail works my train was at 9.55am and no the 10:35am, I had originally thought. I rushed to get ready, had a shower, got changed and was ready to go. Dave took a while but thankfully as the station is only next door we did not have far to go. I was nervous that we may have missed it but, no worry. On the platform stood, the InterCity train, named after David J. Lloyd. I got on the train a few minutes before it departed. Although there had been a group of people waiting to be let on board. In my bag I found Lisa's Harrod's pen she had lent me and showed it to Dave through the window. I got out my pad and began writing up notes from the weekend that would eventually end up on this blog. I gave a salute to Dave as the train finally started rolling. It was a few minutes after 10am and it would be over four hours before I was back in London, five before I was back in Wycombe and over eight before I was back in my flat in Newbury. It quite early on in the journey, I realised something was missing. We had not decided upon our weekend track. Last year it had been Buy U A Drank by T-Pain. (On a side note, just discovered a smooth lounge cover by Jesse McCarthy. I know it sounds insane, but it is actually very good, head over YouTube!) So this year, what was the song going to be? Well it was an easy decision for me, but I had to text Dave and get confirmation. He was thinking exactly the same. Lollipop by Lil Wayne. We had blasted the song on the TV on Saturday morning, plus I had heard it several times and even watched the music video on my Zen on the journey up and down the line. It was set then, the weekend anthem perhaps is a little over extravagant. We hardly did any crazy clubbing (there are no urban clubs in Wrexham) and remember we are both nearly 27 now. Old men whom both prefer to be home in time for Match Of The Day and nice cup of tea! (Two sugars please...)

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Thursday 30th October 2008

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Wednesday 29th October 2008

The total amount of time out in the wilderness was 6 days 20 hours 10 minutes and 54 seconds. (I was only 9 seconds out on my prediction with the same digits, just the wrong way around (45)) I got the e-mail confirmation at precisely 10am yesterday and sent an over ecstatic e-mail to Pav minutes later. I was back on line, all I had to do was wait for my router to arrive, which it did today.

I am back online and it is a great feeling. I am sure there are a number of my friends out there that are glad to see me return to MSN, I bet "Teg (Offline)" got rather boring after a while and I cannot even remember what my last Facebook status update was! I have sent the occasion tweet via my mobile phone but apart from some heavy duty offline blog posts (a thousand thank you's to Mr. Pavneet Singh Khural for uploading them yesterday morning) I have been pretty much cold turkey! What has kept me going?

Well I only get onto the computer around 8pm in the evening. There is no time to bum around on the computer like I used to do at home, particularly if it is a gym night (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday for the record). I have tried to space out the "Terwie Care Package: Volume Four" from Saturday and it would have lasted well into this week (well maybe Thursday night at a push!) I have still to watch The Big Bang Theory and three episodes (4, 5 & 6) of Fringe (but as I have got to get hold of episode three first, they are a bit dormant at the moment).

I am trying to get into some routine and see Friday afternoon after work being my clean up the flat time. After watching Newsnight, I go to my room, get changed, read my book for a while, then listen to my portable DAB radio for a while before finally drifting off to sleep. I get up around 7am (or rather my alarm AKA mobile phone goes off then). I get out of bed, have some breakfast while watching BBC Breakfast (something I would only do at weekends back at home). Then get ready for work and usually head out the door sometime just after 8am. I get to the office ten minutes later. I generally leave the office around 5pm, walk home and after checking my mail, eating a banana, grab my gym bag and head to the gym. On Monday evenings it will be a trip to the Sainsbury's in town straight after my workout to get the weekly shop in. Then it is home, make some food, watch TV and then pick up the cycle again.

Right, I better dash off, I have six days of blogs to read, torrents to queue up, mp3s to get hold of and friends on MSN to catch up with and troll through the news feed on Facebook. Talk amongst yourselves I may be some time.

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Sunday 26th October 2008

I begin as I must while I am officially in offline mode, with an update of my time in prison. The time clocked up so far, is 2 days, 22 hours, 11 minutes and 29 seconds. I am writing at around 9.43pm on Saturday evening but it will take a while to get everything written and I want to capture all the events of the weekend, so this post will not be uploaded until Monday.

Being offline does have it's benefits. I can get on with tasks and complete a blog post in record time. There are no distractions on MSN, or the latest scores to check on BBC Football or just dive over to Radio Times to find out what is on television in the next hour or so. Of course, I wish I was online, I feel disconnected, off the grid but I will be able to check my e-mails on Monday at work and hopefully it will only be a few more days before I am up and running. I survived twenty-days last year (with the help of Pav, whom introduced me to a little known US TV show called Heroes), I am confident that I will not be breaking into double figures with my counter this year.

Had a good day today. Got up just before 9am, had a quick breakfast, watched some BBC News and then got ready. The rest of the morning was spent on the computer waiting for my parents and sister to arrive. With the morning to myself, the care package (volume 4) had arrived and I was spoilt for choice in terms of what to watch. So, I opted to watch Sarah Connor before then switching to Freeview. I watched Click and then was close to the end of Football Focus before they arrived. It was a good afternoon. My family had brought over quite a few bits and pieces I had needed and we had a big lunch of home cooked food, which was lovely. We then went into town to show them around Newbury and my new office before heading back to the flat. We then headed over to the retail park to go to Pound Stretcher and Comet. The TV booster we got from Comet didn't work :( so my Dad and I headed quickly to Robert Dyas to get another booster (which was much cheaper) and it did the job. Although I need to download the latest software for my TV card to get it working fully, some of the channels are a bit juddery.

My parents left at 6pm and I decided to go on the computer for a while before settling down in front of the box for a few hours. I watched the start of Strictly Come Dancing before switching over to the other side to watch Harry Hill's TV Burp and then The X Factor. Swing is not my favourite style of music, it is okay but not my cup of tea. Having said that, the standard was extremely high and the right person went home, in my opinion. Just his body language as the results were read out, you could tell he knew he had not done enough. Then during the sing off he just went through the motions and the judges had no choice. Still JLS to win in my opinion. What is the theme for next week?

What did I watch on Friday night? Well there was Knight Rider, then Big Bang Theory and then Fringe but I'm missing episode three, so stuck at the moment, I have episodes four and five knocking around. Episode two was good but it is a typical JJ Abrams affair. Just like LOST (not that I ever seen an episode) there is a sinister big corporation behind or involved with this "Pattern". Interesting stuff, but very much X Files meets another show, (perhaps CSI) but I will give it time, it deserves my patience. Plus, I have little else to do before my net is up!

Joined the library on Monday, then on Tuesday after work headed down to see if I could get a book I had been looking to read. They did not have in stock in the West Berkshire Network. It would be a £2 fee to see if they could source book from another library network but it is perhaps easier for me to buy the book from Amazon. I wanted to read a book of my own choosing but also have my friend's twenty-five "Books to Read before you Depart" list. On Friday, as I was allowed out early, I headed to the library and opted to loan out The Hound Of The Baskervilles. I had enjoyed The Sign Of Four which I had read earlier in the year and there is just something appearing about the detective Holmes as seen through the eyes of Doctor Watson.

What did I do today? Well I got up before 8am (GMT) and after a quick breakfast was in the car around 8:14am and headed to the gym for a quick workout. When I got home, there was an answer phone message (my first!) from Chris. His football match had been cancelled and he was happy to pop over later on in the day. Great, so two gym sessions in one day! Not bad, plus I have to make use of the free guest passes I have, they expire tomorrow! Will be good to see Chris and catch up, plus we can hopefully grab some food and catch the early afternoon kick off down in town. It went slightly different from that plan. Chris wanted a lie in for a few hours and came over later in the afternoon. He got here around 1.30pm and after a quick tour of the flat headed over to Cannon's Health Club. I had to sign Chris in with my guest pass but after filling in the paperwork we were free to get changed and head up. We went for a 15 minute run as a warm up, then got on with my weights programme. I could feel that I had already gone through this programme, only six hours previously. However it was well worth it, just to get the advice from Chris and a second opinion on my programme. After completing everything, Chris introduced me to two new machines which I will start phasing into my work outs. We then headed home and Chris decided it had to head back to Henley which was a shame. I was hoping we could have gone into town and at least caught the first half of the football (soccer or NFL) depending on which pub we decided to go to.

Instead, as soon as I was dropped off, I came in, made some food, watched some television and then jumped onto the computer. I wanted to tape, the national anthems from Wembley before the NFL International Series match between the San Diego Chargers and New Orlean Saints. The Star Spangled Banner was performed by NeYo (minus his trademark hat) and God Save The Queen by the shoeless Joss Stone. Quite clearly to see, just like on the end of May when the US football team came to play England, that the American National Anthem is just a class above that of my own country. It does pain me to say it but it is true. What do you think?

It is Sunday evening, eight minutes until 6pm and my count down timer has reached 3 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 5 seconds. I am listening to the closing minutes of the West Ham versus Arsenal match on Radio Five Live. The Gunners lead two goals to nil. Not sure how to spend the rest of my evening. I have already ticked off quite a few things off the list I made late last night for today. Burn all the best music videos onto four DVDs to take up to Wrexham with me on Friday. I still need to back my bags and print off my e-tickets. Plenty to keep me busy for the rest of this week then, on top of everything else.

A quick update, I tried to upload this blog post today (Monday 27th) at work but unfortunately I only have read only access to FTP sites. So therefore, I am going to e-mail the HTML files to Pav and get him to upload from his end. It is like having contraband, smuggling it across enemy lines and finally releasing to a public that are eager for news!

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Friday 24th October 2008

It was rather ironic, that I got my welcome pack for Tiscali on the first day I was without broadband internet access from my flat. I could, however see the funny side, many others would not. So it is now just a waiting game. ISPs have become a bit more switched on, rather than send you your broadband router weeks before you are switched on, they hold onto the crown jewels until just before (or perhaps) even after you are connected. I suppose this stops all the calls from those impatient people wondering why they have not been switched on yet. Much like my housemates and I, back in October 2003. (Another strange coincidence, but I blogged about those events, the day after I moved into this flat, albeit, five years previously) I think I actually posted a blog entry the moment our house in Leicester went life with Griffin broadband. I recall Paul called up their technical support team to find out when we would be 'switched on' and put the phone on loudspeaker. The technical support guy was quite irritated. Basically we would be switched on some time today and he could give us no further information. It was not until later that evening we got connected. I had a extra long network cable running from the spare room and down into my room at the front of the house. Cannot remember the logic of it being there but it was a ZOOM ADSL router and we had it connected up to a NetGear switch. Enough about yesteryear, let me focus on the present and the here and now. Right, where do I begin?

My counter has just hit 1 day, 21 hours, 44 minutes and 59 seconds as I begin this blog post, on Friday evening. Being without the internet is a strange experience but I know I am just a few days away from being connected. Just need to wait for those wonderful people at Tiscali to flip the switch. I have not received my wireless router yet but hope it will arrive sometime in the next few days. My first weekend in Newbury will be with no internet access. I am really bothered? It is a minor inconvenience, after all I can check my e-mail at work and anything important, someone can always ring me. I think perhaps by Sunday evening I will be climbing the walls. Yesterday, I read an article on BBC News web site that most people did not know their broadband service was limited and some faced disconnection due to regularly exceeding their bandwidth allowances. The quote (which I did forward to Pav) was along the lines of, "for some people it has the exact same effect of having your electricity cut off. Broadband internet access has become an essential utility, just like water and gas". Then late last night I was listening to Five Live on my portable DAB radio and Richard Bacon interviewed a student who has given up all technology built post 1978 to see if he is able to survive a month without modern technology. It had got to twenty three days (albeit, a slight relapse and checking his Facebook status). He still keeps a blog (although now has to handwrite up his posts and post them (old snail mail style) to MSN and then they are uploaded to the blog. I would put a link, if I had internet access but of course I do, so will have to update this when I can. I salute the boy for doing this, he deserves a wedding. I could not last forty eight hours without some form of access to the outside world electronically.

I do not drink coffee (perhaps the only thing I have in common with Welsh classical singer Katherine Jenkins). I do not drink any fluids during the day really apart from an orange juice (very occasionally Oasis Summer Fruits) with lunch, however I am trying to right this wrong. Before a big important meeting with my managers last Thursday (16th) I went to the drinks machine in our canteen and rather dazed and confused by this unfamiliar machine, I selected Kenco coffee instead of tea. Oh no, first cup of coffee I have drunk in at least 16 years (if not more). I know I could have thrown it away and got tea but I had to take the plunge. I can remember my last cup (and only other cup from memory, it too was from a machine. In the Rank Xerox office at Globe Park, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. circa 1990. It reminded me exactly why I do not drink coffee. I have slowly being getting into the habit of getting a cup of tea from the machine every morning a few minutes after I arrive. The next stage is the "pick me up" in the afternoon to stop me dosing off, although I have been buying hot chocolate from the coffee counter downstairs. I have yet to taste the mixture the machine creates.

My telephone arrived on Tuesday from Amazon. An extremely swift service, considering I requested standard delivery and only placed the order on last Thursday (16th) afternoon. So I now have a active land line at home. Thankfully my number is quite easy to remember. Dave was the first person to call, on Tuesday evening and we made final arrangements for our weekend, (next weekend). My train leaves at 10:17am from Marylebone direct to Wrexham General, pulling in at 2:28pm. Remind me to print off my e-ticket at work in the next few days. Not sure if Rory Cellan-Jones used the same service but he was heavily delayed on his way back from Wrexham a few weekends ago, I hope I have better luck. I am really looking forward to the weekend and seeing my old school friend. The last time I saw him was back in early November last year, during "The Dave Jones Weekender" which included a mini-reunion with our friends from middle school and also go-karting on Sunday in Aylesbury. In a strange twist, I could have been in Wrexham tonight and it would have worked out well because with no internet in Newbury there would be few reasons to stay in the flat over the weekend. However, I could not book the date off work, so had to switch to the following weekend, which makes sense as it is closer to Dave's Birthday (Remember Remember the 5th November!).

The care package volume four has not arrived, although I was expecting it in the post this morning. Never mind, I still have plenty of television shows to keep me entertained (well for this evening at least). I watched Knight Rider episode four a few hours ago, before having some dinner and watching Eastenders. On the agenda tonight is the The Big Bang Theory episode four and then perhaps a few episodes of Fringe, after watching the pilot episode last weekend. However let me tell you about some of the other shows I have watched for the past few days. Heroes is slowly getting back on track after a slow start. I am back on track and a week ahead of UK BBC2 viewers and on the same pace as BBC3 viewers (if that makes sense!). However, I prefer Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for action and GREEK for sheer craziness. Knight Rider is good fun but I am convinced that the producers / directors are just in competition to see how much flesh they can get away with showing. The first three episodes you see all the main characters in some sort level of undress, with beach parties, overheating cars (yes KITT) and surfing. It is no match for the original series, it has just gone too high tech and too serious (in terms of missions). At least Hasslehoff had an air of the maverick about him! GREEK has been very good, with some mushy storylines, which I can get through but my favourite character is Dale and he does not have enough air time. Whenever he is on screen though, he gets some classic lines which always have me in fits of laughter.

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Thursday 23rd October 2008

When I switched off my work laptop around 11.30pm yesterday evening, it was a big wave goodbye to internet access from my flat. I had to return my cousin's Vodafone 3G dongle to him today and dropped it off on the way to the gym. I am trying to be positive but having chosen Tiscali as both my phone and broadband provider I think this may be a case of poor judgment on my part. I am hoping to be proved wrong. In any case, although access via Vodafone was limited (no web versions of MSN or Yahoo! Messenger) it was useful and I could have the odd intermittent chat with friends on Facebook. I will be back soon, I just do not know exactly when.

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Sunday 19th October 2008

It is Sunday evening and the Strictly Come Dancing results show has just started as I begin this blog entry. What a weekend! Considering I did not have much planned, I have somehow managed to pack in plenty. I got up around 9am on Saturday and headed into town on the 10.32 100 service. I got my haircut at Jerry's Street Styles and then came straight back home. The mission was the car, it had to be cleaned. However, as I came off the bus and walked down my road, it had started to rain but only a light drizzle. I was confident it would not last. After a shower and changing into workman clothes, I got out there and got to work. Although I had to watch Football Focus first of course. First job was to clean the inside but as usual it was not that bad. I was looking forward to using the heavy duty foam lance. It is such a great feeling when a black car is covering completely in white foam. I took a few photographs for Pav but have forgotten my camera at home, so have asked my sister to send the Compact Flash card to me, so I can upload the images later in the week. After the car was washed, it was nearly 3pm. I came in, got some food and sat down to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (episode five). Arsenal were losing to Everton before I put on the show but had turn it around to 3-1 by the time I switched back to Final Score on BBC1.

The remainder of the afternoon is a bit of a blur, I fell asleep on the sofa in the lounge and could hear the Hollyoaks Omnibus in the background. You know how it feels, as you drift in and out of sleep you catch bits and pieces of the dialogue. My friend Nikki had messaged me via MSN on Friday and asked if I could still pick up Hollyoaks in my new area. I did not get the chance to respond and explain that I have stopped watching the soap for the past three months. Her comment had been that it had gone crazy, shame I do not watch it anymore. Although my sisters did have to tel me some of the storylines. The only other shows I watched from my care package over the weekend was Chuck and The Big Bang Theory. It had gone midnight and I was really tired and could not keep my eyes open and even though perhaps could have watched another episode, I would hardly have been paying attention.

I then went to my room (or old room as it were) and decided to head to Staples to get some letters printed and photocopied. It closed at 7pm, so I had to rush. When we got back, we watched the end of Harry Hill's TV Burp before watching The X Factor. It was Michael Jackson Week! I was really looking forward to this episode, particularly as I missed last weekend. I went online to check the songs (which are now published on the official web site, so no need to scrape around Digital Spy forums as I used to). I was disappointed that there were not more upbeat performances. Come on people, it is Saturday Night and MJ has a great back catalogue. No need to plug just the mushy ballads (even if they are great!). I was disappointed that my two favourite songs had not been chosen by any of the acts. They are Beat It and Human Nature (both from the album Thriller). I was looking forward to JLS's performance of The Way You Make Me Feel and Austin's Billie Jean. However, I would have to wait for the repeat on Sunday afternoon to watch both performances. I did not like Austin's version of the song, it was not very good. JSL on the other hand, they smashed up the joint. Easily the best performance of the night. I have downloaded the video and mp3 from The X Factor News Forum. Well worth joining if you want to see videos of the show and discuss the acts.

I wonder what the man himself would have thought about a talent show in the UK using is back catalogue? Does he know? Does he care? I still hold out hope for a new album and final world tour. I know it is a lot to ask for but unlike Toya, of Toya's World fame, I feel that the King of Pop has got one last swan song left. There is a generation that have grown up (my younger sister's age) whom know little about him. They only know him from the videos and memories. It has been a long wait (almost as long as the wait for Keri Hilson's album to drop!) but I feel it is worth waiting because I still believe that we will all witness the greatest comeback in entertainment history.

Saturday evening we surprised my Mum with a meal out at our local Indian restaurant. My Dad even ordered a cake and had to dropped off, so while my Mum though we were waiting for the bill, we were actually waiting for the cake to be brought out. Again, I have photographs that I need to upload to FlickR but will have to wait for the memory card to arrive in the post. It should arrive in the next few days and I will upload the best photographs online. Hopefully it will be using my own broadband connection. I got an e-mail from Tiscali late on Friday evening to confirm my broadband order had been placed. I should receive my router later this week and all being good, I will be online by the weekend. At the very latest it will be the middle of next week but I can hold onto my cousin's 3G dongle until then.

Today, I dragged myself out of bed way after 9am, not what I had planned. After a quick breakfast I got on with the packing. It took a while as I had stuff all over the place to collect but I still forgot my camera and few extra bits I had wanted to bring over to the flat. Oh well never mind, I can get the stuff another time. I got onto the road at midday and was in the flat just after half past. Clear Sunday afternoon traffic. I unpacked my stuff and then sat down to watch the X Factor performances I had missed. Just as JLS were getting into TWYMMF, the buzzer went. Clive was here for my piano lesson.

The lesson went well considering I had hardly practiced since my last lesson back in the end of August. Afterwards we went into town to grab some food. We opted for the Hog's Head, although it was quite busy with football fans. The Stoke Spurs match was just about to kick off. It is nice to see the rivals doing so badly and propping up the bottom of the league table. Right, Stephen Fry in America has started on BBC1, I better go watch it and have some late dinner after my late lunch.

I have to include one picture though before I go. Hussein was telling me he had put together a network diagram for his kit at home. It has the kind of devices I can only dream of. If I were to draw the diagram for my network back in Wycombe it would be pathetic! Oh well, I suppose we all need something to aspire to. I also need to think up some funky names for my new wireless network and devices. Workstation and Terry's WiFi just do not seem creative enough! Come on, any suggestions greatly received!

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Friday 17th October 2008

It is Thursday evening as I begin writing this post. My first day out in the wilderness with no internet access. Well that is not strictly true, I went to return my cousin's house key (and dongle) to him at 7pm after my cardio session in the gym and he has let me hold onto to it until Thursday next week (when my own broadband should be connected). However, I have made the executive decision not to install the Vodafone 3G dongle on my desktop, plus I left my laptop in the office.(Pav would be proud of me for going cold turkey!). So much to cover and with the time currently 20:38, I am sure it will take me a while to put everything up here and will complete the entry late tomorrow night when I am back in the more familiar surroundings of home.

How has my first week been, fending for myself? It has not been too bad actually, I have coped and managed to get everything done I needed. Although there are a few minor issues, I will get to them later. It was very strange getting up on Monday morning and wondering where the hell I was! You know that early morning moment when you are stretching to either switch of the alarm on your mobile phone but not quite fully awake. I am trying to get into a routine. Although I must say it has actually got worse as the week has gone by, with me arriving later and later into the office. I got in at 8:15am on Monday and I think 8:45am today. My plan is to get in by 8am and then work until 5pm but always have the option to leave earlier if there is a need. Obviously the ultimate aim is to get up at 6am, get over to the gym for opening at 6.30am and after the work out, shower, change into suit and then either drive direct to the office or drop off the car at the flat and walk into work. There is such a thing as wishful thinking.

Monday evening has become my designated food shopping day, with a trip to Sainsbury's which is next door to the racecourse (almost). It is a medium sized town centre store and with the help of the list I made over Sunday I got everything I needed. I think I need to make a full list and then go to ALDI for the bulk stuff and Sainsbury's for the day to day stuff. We shall see how it goes. However I am glad I have not fully stocked the fridge as it has actually been freezing my drinks and food. Not sure if it is a fault or because the freezer compartment will not close but I will have to take it up with the landlord.

Without the internet (or rather limited access) I have tried to fill my time with television shows. I have in fact caught up with Greek and should my third care package arrive in the post tomorrow, I can get fully up to speed with US viewers. Pav has been unable to send me anything as he was on holiday in Maldives and only got back yesterday. He is off on holiday again tomorrow (UK based this time though, no ten hour flight back!) but did confirm he was just off to the Post Office, late this morning to post me something. Greek has been very good, I did not think they could keep it going but the introduction of new characters and schemes has made it enjoyable viewing. I highly recommend it, particularly to those people out there like me, whom wish they had had a chance of an American College Experience.

Might be going into slightly more detail with my routine here but after Newsnight I tend to read my book (less than fifty pages from the end) and then listen to FiveLive on DAB (if my batteries last!). I am missing my audio system and need to get something in my room ASAP. MightyMouse recommended the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, which looks incredible but is a tad expensive. I have my heart set on an Internet Radio device of some description preferably with either DAB, FM or both. Maybe I can get something for my birthday or Christmas. It is strange not having music to listen to in the morning or evening when I get home from work and get changed in my room. I suppose I should be realistic, it has only been four complete days in the flat, I have plenty of time to put my signature on it.

I actually look forward to my cardio programme at the gym on Thursday evenings. It was the reverse at my old gym, when I detested them. I got onto the bike and at first tuned into Channel One (Sky News) but opted to switch to Channel 3 (Chart Show TV). After a few songs, they played Britney Spears - Womanizer. I had the opportunity to view the song online over the weekend but was too busy to got distracted by something else. In any case, what can I say? The Pop Princess is back and good for her! We expect big things from her album Circus when it is released in December. The song is infectious and I am sure it will be killed by radio play before the month is out.

It has just gone 9pm and I cannot think of anything more to write for the moment. I am sure I will think of a dozen things by tomorrow night but for now I am going to watch Fringe. The series I have saved just in case of an emergency scenario like this when I have no feasible internet access.

It is four minutes to 9pm as I pick up this blog post. I am now back in Wycombe and it does feel strange being back. I know I was here exactly a week ago but my room feels rather bare with my computer gone. I suppose it is something I will get used to over time as my visits home become more infrequent. I finished work at 5pm (the day dragged big time, particularly the afternoon) and had my car packed and was on my way out of Newbury just after 5.30pm. Considering it was a Friday night and busy with traffic (a hold up on west bound) I made excellent time and came off the slip road at junction 8/9 at precisely 6pm. I got home, unpacked the car and waited for my family to arrive back from Slough.

I have been listening to a song by Jennifer Hudson, almost non-stop on the mp3 player, the PC and now this evening the car. No, it is not her debut single, "Spotlight". (You know the rule, I rarely like the debut single by any artist). It was recommended by the fantastic RnB music blog Toya's World. I agree that the song does share many similarities with Energy but I still prefer the song by Keri Hilson, it is more edgy and raw. If This Isn't Love is very much the traditional radio friendly pop ballad. I particularly like the vocal during the bridge. It is very infectious but perhaps not ideal driving song. My weekend truly began when I was half way between junction thirteen and twelve on the M4 and had the new MP3 CD I had created on mix, the next song played was Numb (Encore) by Linkin' Park featuring Jay Z. My weekend could finally begin.

Plans for the weekend, well quite a lot to cram in actually. Haircut in town (yes my hair is quite long but also a shabby unmaintainable mess). Then I need to rush back home and wash the car before then doing some domestic chores. Such as moving the computer from the lounge into my room and then perhaps even moving the router in the process. Then I have a few boxes of things to clear, so I can sort out what else to take with me to Newbury. Factor on top of all this that my cousin is coming over and that we most likely will be having takeaway tomorrow night.

If all that was not enough I also have a care package from Pav, which arrived perfectly on queue this morning in the post. So I have several episodes of my favourite television shows to watch. To mention just a few there is, Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Knight Rider. So, without any further "ado" I better get on with watching Fringe. I watched the first half of the pilot episode last night but only twenty minutes in did I realise that it was a eighty minute feature length pilot episode. Won't look as great on my laptop screen but never mind. I will try and post an update again on Sunday evening when I am back at my flat.

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Sunday 12th October 2008

It is 17:26 as I begin writing this post and I have officially landed in Newbury! I am in my flat and have just spent the last three hours getting everything unpacked and sorted. I have sent the odd tweet via my mobile, so you can read a few updates. As usual, so much to mention and so little time to blog. I am actually writing this offline on my desktop machine in my 'study' (very small second bedroom). However my work laptop is by my side and online via Vodafone 3G+ so I will upload as soon as I am done. My broadband should be live before the month is out at the very latest (ensuring there are no problems).

On Saturday I got up around 8am and one of the first things I had to do was go into town. A few final essentials to pick up and as I knew I would have considerable bulky luggage, I drove in and parked in George Street. I was done pretty much by 10:30am and headed back home. No one was in, my Mum and youngest sister Julie had both gone into town themselves. I got ready, put on my England shirt and grabbed my Zen before heading to ASDA. I had to get some cash out from the cash point before heading to into town again on the bus. I opted to take the 32, as I would catch the evening service back as the 100 Park & Ride finishes at 6pm on a Saturday. However, in hindsight it was a mistake, as I would have to call my Dad to pick me up from town as it was a good hour wait for the next 32 when I pulled up back into Wycombe at 8.40pm. I am trying to keep a track of time but it is difficult but please bear with me. I wanted to enjoy the moment, my journey to South Africa 2010 starts here. On an Arriva Bus service from ASDA, Holmers Farm Way, Cressex, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. I am not sure where this road is going to take me but I am looking forward to both the highs and lows on the way. I was leaving early because I was meeting a friend for lunch in East London before heading back across London to Wembley for the match. Due to this I bought a single to London Marylebone and on arrival bought a single for the 'home run' from the stadium back to Wycombe. I was not looking forward to the journey home but that was several hours away and at the back of my mind. I caught the 12:36 from Wycombe from Platform One and it got to Marylebone. I took the tube to Oxford Circus and then changed for the Central line which took me to Bethnal Green. As I came off the tube train I looked up at the digital clock, it was 14:00 precisely. In my Facebook message, I had said I would meet up for 2pm and I was pretty much dead on time. I got above ground and called my friend outside Nico's Cafe / Diner. My friend had had a large night and was not fit to drive so asked me walk down to his flat. As I started heading in the direction directed, he called again and asked me to get a cab to Broadway Market and he would meet me there with his girlfriend. I have never ventured into this part of London before really. Although my friend lives in Manor Park that is a little further down the line and slightly further south (if that makes sense). In any case, it was great to meet up with my friend and have a lazy cup of tea at the local French restaurant while we waited for another friend. In the end we decided to move on as it was gone 3pm and their famous breakfast was off the menu from 1pm. Instead we went to Patrice around the corner and he made up some great food for us. We then headed to the football, it was getting late and we were going to cut it fine, how fine I did not realise until much later.

We were originally going to grab a cab to Bethnal Green but opted for the wiser option, we grabbed the bus all the way to Liverpool Street, from here we would get one tube train all the way to the stadium. The bus journey gave us a chance to have the great food but we finished it at Liverpool Street. However there are just no bins due to security reasons and we had to leave the rubbish on a ledge by the bench we had sat on. I felt bad about it but if Transport for London or Network Rail are not going to provide adequate facilities, they leave joe public with no choice. We then rushed for the tube but N had to top up his Oyster Card (he was down to fifty pence). We then headed in the direction of the Metropolitan Line. We could have taken the Circle line and opted to change at Baker Street but I thought it was to go direct. The platform slowly filled up with other England fans, some more rowdy (and drunk) than others. We were lucky to grab some seats, the train was packed and the singing soon started.

As we came out of Wembley Park station, I noticed a group of guys dressed up as Borat. I had heard poor Borat imitations on BBC Radio Five Live, throughout the morning. Although no signs of the mankini anywhere, obviously no one was brave enough! We walked down Wembley Way up to the stadium and the sun was just started to set over in the distance. We had a bit of a walk around to Entrance B. We eventually got in and N went to the toilet while I rushed around to get a programme. The Kazakhstan national anthem was being played as I paid, I had to rush, I made it down the steps as our National Anthem started and was able to get to our seats, just before the end. We had fantastic seats, nine rows from the touch line and perfectly central opposite the dugout. My seat was the first seat in the away half of the pitch if it makes sense (photos will explain when I get sent some!). Timing could not have been better, the game was about to kick off.

I had predicted six goals but all of them to England but I was satisfied with the second half performance after a stuttering start in the first. The goal fest I had hoped for did eventually happen. Just a shame the performance was so disjointed in the first half. I left pretty much a happy customer, said goodbye to my friend as he headed towards Wembley Park and I joined the queues for the Chiltern Railways northbound services. Not sure why but it felt like it took much longer to get onto a train than in previous visits. Although when I eventually boarded, it was not as busy as I had expected and got two seats all to myself. I got into Wycombe at 8:40pm and walked back up to the station but then saw on the display that the next bus home was not until 21:40, meaning I would not get home until 10pm, so headed towards the library and called home to get my Dad to pick me up. The fun part of the weekend was over, I had to start packing for the big move today.

I watched an episode of GREEK and then went to bed around midnight ish (early by my standards) and had only packed one box and even that was minor (audio CDs). I convinced myself that I would get up early and get everything done before Charlie arrived at midday. Although originally the master plan had been to just pack up the computer and that everything else would have been done the night before. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that. I got up just before 8am and for some reason had left my radio running during the night. (I had heard the start of the Japanese Grand Prix) but switched it off (or at least put the volume down a few minutes into the start of the race). I had loads to do and after a quick breakfast of toast and tea, I started. I packed my clothes to begin with and then decided to shower and get ready before packing the car and getting some diesel. The hunt for a working air machine took me to Morrison's in town. I parked up my car up the road and then began to dismantle my computer before boxing everything up and putting in the lounge. Not that much really, all things considered. I could have taken a lot more but what is the point of just having more junk in my flat. I would rather have just what I need and spend the odd weekend I am home to sort things out. Charlie surprised me with a call at 10:37am and informed me he was on his way. About an hour earlier than expected but I was pretty much ready. He pulled in around 11am and reversed his big van onto my drive. I call it a van but it is really a mobile showroom with two baths on display. My boxes, chairs and bits were placed around everything to securely pin all my worldy goods down. Charlie offered me his old television, now that he had upgraded to HD! Fantastic, gives me something to watch in the lounge and means I can put off the TV purchase for a while, even though there is a model I have my eye on. We then drove back to Charlie's flat in Woodley. On the by-pass I over took him from the Handycross Roundabout and he did eventually catch up but with a Aston Martin convertible on his backside! We came to pick up Annie but also now throw the television into the van and head off. It was midday.

We got to my flat around thirty minutes later and began the unloading process. Or rather Charlie did the bulk of the work and Annie and me just supervised. Everything was dumped in the lounge and then I just sorted out a few things in the bedroom and study. We then decided to head into town (it was Annie's first time in the town). We opted for a cup of tea and sandwich at Costa. Before we left, Jenny called me on my mobile. She thought she might have caught me before I left but she had not. She had a gift for me and left it by the pot plant outside my (now parents) front door. As we walked into town, I got out my E65 to text Pav and let him know I had officially landed in Newbury. While we started talking about phones, Charlie noticed a phone on the floor. We were going to hand it in at the police station but in the end I kept it waiting for someone to call (and they did while we were in Costa). "Hi, it's not John, he's lost his phone! I found it!" Not the best way I've started a conversation (plus it had a rather loud Hawaii-Five-O theme tune!). A little later John called me to collect the phone from my flat an hour or so later. He was very thankful, he was very lucky. He let slip that he was a referee for a game at Victoria Park (just behind my flat) first thing in the morning and had dropped the car when walking back to his car. My deed of the day, much like last Sunday!

We had a light lunch at Costa and then Annie and Charlie dropped me off at my cousin's house. I quickly gathered my things and headed back to my flat. The mission was big, but first I had to get all my clothes out of the car which was a few trips. Then I started systematically one room at a time, starting with my bedroom and the bed. Then it was time to setup the computer in the study before moving onto the lounge. It did not take that long and then my landlady arrived to go over a final few things before I headed out to M&S at BP Connect to get some food, the full food shop will have to wait until tomorrow night after my visit to the gym. I am annoyed I did not get down there today but it would have been a push to squeeze everything in. Right, it is 20:38 as I come to close this blog entry. Looking forward to Stephen Fry in America then will watch an episode of GREEK, then read a chapter of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Thin (getting quite close to the end now) and then sleep. Another busy week in the office ahead. I will try and blog again before the week is out and try and upload some photographs as well to FlickR.

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Friday 10th October 2008

It is 21:43 as I finally get the chance to begin this blog post, although I did make notes throughout the week while at my cousin's house. Here I am, at the bottom of the mountain with a thousand things in my mind that I know I should mention because I do not know when the next opportunity I will have to blog. I am seriously all over place, I have so much to do this weekend and have just gone through my mail and I have a few more 'tasks' added to that already long list. Oh well, sometime on Sunday evening, the stress may have died down a little. Finding it very hard to find a subject to start with, as I have so many things noted down on this page, plus the scattered notes in my head.

An extremely busy week in the office plus gettined used to the new gym routine, plus fending for myself in the evenings all on my own. It has been a little easier this week, I have settled into a routine (of sorts). However, I was still looking forward to Friday afternoon when I would leave the office and head in the direction of home. It is quite a nice feeling to be heading back to Wycombe. The journey back took an hour due to traffic on the M4. A Land Rover towing a boat had overturned (the boat was on the hard shoulder as I drove past) so there were long queues westbound between junction twelve and thirteen. This was the event I had been waiting for. I was hoping that there were be some action but more in the style of The Matrix: Reloaded but never mind, it was an event and as the traffic presenter on BBC Berkshire described it, a lot of "rubbernecking" taking place on my side of carriageway. Although of course, I was too busy concentrating on my driving to bother with any of that. It was a bit difficult to find a Friday night tune but eventually I picked up a random unlabelled CD and played Hall & Oates - Out Of Touch, my weekend could begin. Well sort of, I was stop starting in heavy traffic a mile away from junction eight/nine.

Received my E65 on Tuesday at work and then received my case the following day. I have to confess I am proud of myself for not opening even the outer plastic wrap packaging to my phone during the course of the day. Yep, unlike last April when I had ripped the package open and was already uploading applications by 9am. I held firm and opened the phone when I got home but even then it was just to check it out and put it on charge. I could not do anything with it. Firstly I did not have the case and secondly I needed my PC to backup my contacts, messages and notes from my N73 and then restore back to the fresh E65. I have actually just done that this evening (one of the first jobs after checking my e-mail). All I need to do now is step up Skype and also install the MSN Messenger app!

I have an announcement to make, my O2 number is now officially dead. It took a while but I have been planning to get rid of the Pay & Go number for a while. I got my second phone back in mid December 2000. At the time Genie (the online arm of BT Cellnet at the time, before it re branded to O2) was offering unlimited text messages and unlimited WAP. Along with two Uni friends I took up the offer and got the fantastic Nokia 7110. Many of you will consider it a brick by modern standards but trust me it was cutting edge technology at the turn of the decade. In any case, I had a good time with my 7110 and it was hacked to death and I even used it to check my e-mail (on my desktop) via infra-red and the internal 9600bps modem. However ultimately the unlimited texts were dropped to three hundred at some point in part of the change to O2 (or just before) and it just became my second phone. People having two personal mobiles is not unusual. However, when I was given a work on top of this, having three phones was just plain stupid. So I used to just leave my O2 at home and use it in the evenings and at weekends. Although it does get stupid to top up a phone you hardly use and I had to let go and have done. I am happy to publish the number for the world to see because the line is dead and will not be used ever again. Please contact me on my Vodafone number, which you should already have and if you do not, just drop me a line (there are numerous e-mail addresses, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MSN or even MySpace.) My O2 number was 0775 1695 480.

I have been off the grid a little bit more today than usual. I kept my personal phone off and in my car and did not check any of my personal web-based e-mail accounts during the course of the day (just Hotmail and Yahoo!). It was hard, and I thought I would relapse around 9.30am, when I had a few minutes of down time waiting for my desktop PC to do a job (I have two machines believe it or, a number crunching HP Compaq desktop and an admin and e-mail Dell D610). I was surprised I managed it, because generally I check my e-mail throughout the day, now that MSN Messenger has gone! It is something about remaining connected and picking up the odd bit of news or gossip to get your through the day. Now that Facebook is a no go area during the working day, it is another channel in order to get bits and pieces of information. I was proud that I was able stay off the grid for a whole day and not feel too left out.

The England match tomorrow would under normal circumstances be the highlight of a my weekend (and month in fact). However, my move to Newbury on Sunday overtakes everything in the big news stakes. Charlie is popping over in his van with Annie in the afternoon and I hope to have everything ready and packed to just dump into the back of the van and head off. I have ordered my broadband and it may be until the end of the month before it is switched on. I went with Tiscali in the end for their local broadband and phone deal. I had limited options as cable is not available in my area but I am quite close to my exchange so should get near the eight megabit per second connection. Speed tests will indeed follow. I have a long list of other things to sort out, utility bills and council tax. I think it will take me most of next week to get everything in place and make sure everything is in order.

My plans for the weekend are as follows (all subject to change). I will be heading to town to pick a few things up and then jumping on a train into London. Meeting up with my friend in East London, most likely a late lunch around 2pm before treking over to Wembley for the game. Really looking forward to the game, it should be a goal fest! Then I hope to be back home in time to catch up on some reality television before beginning the packing process. In between all of that I want to catch up on a few television shows. Obviously no care package this week as Mr. Khural was over snorkling in the Maldives but I should get a bumper package next week. Plus, it will give me things to watch the evening while I go internet less! (Even more so from Wednesday when I have to hand my cousin's Vodafone 3G dongle back!). Looks like I might need to start a few more count down timers on my blog! So much to do, so little time. I am off to catch a few episodes of GREEK and The Big Bang Theory.

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Saturday 4th October 2008

My weekend had two distinct start points, the first kick off was Friday evening around 5.30pm. I was back at the house, doing some washing up but had put on VH1. They were doing some countdown of All American Artists and the next song to play was This Love by Maroon 5. Less than four hours later, the second kick start was as I stopped at the lights at Robin Hood Roundabout waiting to get onto the A43, I put on the Freemasons Remix of Work by Kelly Rowland. I was on my own back to Wycombe and it was a great feeling.

What a week, so much to cover and so little time. Before I know it, I will be back in Newbury and the working week will kick start again. The last few days at my cousin's house I have been longing for the weekend to come along. I will try and pick up the pieces from Tuesday night (my last blog post). Wednesday I was back in the office and very busy, after work I walked home and jumped in the car and headed to the gym, it was not as busy as Monday evening and I got around the weights machines quite well. Although had to wait a few minutes for the shoulder press at the end. When I got back from the gym, it was the usual routine back at home. I made a curry and then sat down to watch the Liverpool game on Sky Sports 2. Evenings can be quite lonely and after Newsnight I generally just go up to my room, read my book and then drift off to sleep. Thursday was a day I looked forward to as Clive was coming over in the evening plus I had my first cardio session in the gym. The day itself was quite busy but I finished at 5pm and then headed home, jumped in the car and drove to the gym. My card had still not been printed (ink still not arrived) so I would collect it next week. The place was relatively quiet and I chose to do my kit in the following order, bike, cross trainer and then the treadmill. They were all hard work, the cross trainer in particular was tougher than the one at Castle Royle. News had just broken about Sir Ian Blair resigning at the Met, so I watched screen number one (Sky News) ahead of me, although when I moved from the bike to the other apparatus I could tune into the TV stations but had just a view of the racecourse through the window, with the remainders of the autumn sunshine. The cardio programme is enough of a challenge for me, I broke out in quite a big sweat and my calves were hurting a great deal as I walked to my car later that evening. Clive arrived around 7.45pm, I took him on a mini-tour of the place before we headed out down the road to grab some food at The Swan. After this, we dropped the car back off and walked into town. Clive's final words were that it was a much bigger town than he had expected (based on types of retailers, not on overall size). We walked back to the flat and after a catch up, of half an hour or so, it was getting late, Clive headed back to Thame and I went to sleep, I was very tired but at least Friday was very close.

Friday tends to be a chilled out day in the office, not just because of the dress down code but people tend to be in a more high spirited mood and most tend to disappear early into the afternoon. For me, it was great to have my colleagues there, as I had spent the majority of the week on my own. Not the ideal way to spend your fourth week in a company but I had plenty to keep me busy so it was just the banter I missed, if I am honest. We went out for a impromptu team lunch at the Hogs Head. Then it was just a case of counting down the hours until the end of the day. I got back to the house around 5.30pm, and after putting on the television, packed my things and moved them to the ground floor bedroom. Then I did some washing up and sorted out a few things before heading out the door (packing the car before hand of course).

However, I did not drive directly to Wycombe as you might expect. I went to the train station, met up with a friend, got fish and chips from the local chippy before heading to their flat and having some food. Obviously the plan was to watch Eastenders and Little Britain USA but they are not fans of either show, so I would have to wait for iPlayer on the later and BBC3 on Albert Square. It was nice to catch up for a few hours and not just rush home as I would have normally done. Plus it was great to have some company in the evening rather than just the television as I currently have. I left around 9pm and went first to the BP Connect garage.

Yes, I must tell you about my attempts to check the air pressure in my tires. I tried to go to the same garage for the past few nights. On Wednesday they were having a fuel delivery, so I thought I would pop over on Thursday evening after the gym and try then. I pulled up. The first air machine was broken, the air nozzle had been cut off. "Welcome to Newbury, Teg!". There was a car parked in the slot of the working air machine but they had gone in to the shop! Rather stupid considering there are a bay of parking slots just to the right. I waited patiently in line but a Volvo four by four of some description (XC90?) pulled up and took the slot and then proceeded to jump the queue with no disregard that I had been waiting in line. It was getting late and I had limited time before my friend arrived, so I just decided to try again tomorrow (Friday). My first attempt around 6pm was again unsuccessfully, there was a BMW ahead of me and he seemed to be taking an age to do his four corners, so I opted to drive into town to meet my friends. I would come back again later before I finally left West Berkshire for Wycombe. Again there was a car in the slot but he soon finished checking his tires and I finally got a chance to check my tires I suppose the bonus, even if it took four attempts is that it is free. The Esso garage here would charge me fifty pence a go. On another point my parallel parking on Friday night was perfect, both in town (in a very tight spot) and then outside my friend's flat. I am sure even Pav would have been impressed. He has seen some of my poor attempts at parking.

I got home minutes before 10pm and watched the Friday edition of Eastenders, although I missed Thursday as well. Well it was on but I was not listening to what the characters were saying because I was talking to Clive. I opened my post during the opening credits and indeed there was care package volume number two from Pav. I had quite a lot of things to watch. Once I sorted myself out around midnight, I only had time to watch Sarah Connor Chronicles and the first ten minutes of Chuck (Season Two). I must say the package is packed and even better than last week with GREEK, Big Bang Theory and the first two episodes of Knight Rider. However, it was gone one in the AM and I needed some rest. I was tired from a really heavy week and went to bed. I would pick up the rest of the shows today.

When I jumped on my computer, I got a warning. The CMOS battery had drained (but not completely gone out) and reset the date back to factory settings. I thought the BIOS had been reset to the original version but it had just set itself back to factory settings (version 1016). Looks like I need to begin a new project to build the next computer. Or rather the next computer project which will involve the creation of a server and perhaps a laptop as my every day machine. Just ideas at the moment but I am sure I will bounce them off both Pav and Mighty Mouse. I have plenty of plans in my head, just need the time (and money, unfortunately) to make them a reality.

Not sure if it is because I am sleeping in a new unknown environment but I have been remembering my dreams this week. Generally, I do not remember dreams and wake up with no recollection whatsoever. However, this week I recall a few dreams but the one that was most vivid was on Tuesday or Wednesday. I dreamt I was in the Big Brother house and meeting new house mates as they walked through the door. In the dream, I had told people that I was knew I was going to be called into the show. That is all I remember but it was very strange, considering I am not a fan of the show and do not watch it at all really. I am aware of the characters that go in and who is evicted via other news sources, including blogs.

Today has been a successful day if I must say so myself. In the morning I headed to the outskirts of Maidenhead to help someone with an e-mail issue. Then I came home, watched Football Focus, had some lunch, watched the first episode of Knight Rider (more on that later) and then went into town. Is there a credit crunch on? Try and tell that to the people of Wycombe. The place was rammed, generally with plenty of traffic on the bus into town. I then realised why I avoid town slash city centres on Saturdays. I always pop in first thing in the morning, get my business done and head home before most of the weekend shoppers have rolled out of bed. I got off at Eden and walked down to HSBC, then Agros (just to take a look at a few things in the catalogue). Then I took a deep breath and headed into Primark (or rather Primani.) The store had only opened on Wednesday and was completely packed out. The store has taken over from the original M&S store which has moved to Eden. Apparently the opening was deleted for several months but I knew little about it. There was even a campaign on Face Book. I got the few things I had planned to get and then joined the queue (which was nearly to the front door). I was told by a supervisor that it was seven minutes from that point to the tills. I joked with him that it was like a ride at Alton Towers, with those markers to tell you how long before you would get onto the Obilivion. Afterwards I headed into the Vodafone store to check out the new phones, the E51 looked neat but I opted for the E65 for my upgrade. WiFi will be a great feature and I can dust out my Skype account to good use!

I quite enjoyed the TV movie for the reboot of Knight Rider (all the way back in late February), however the first episode was a little too much for me. I bet I sound like an old man now, but far too much flesh on show in the first few minutes and adult discussion. However putting this to one side, it was action packed with plenty of twists and turns. I will catch the second episode later tonight. Although bear in mind, I have to watch Heroes, then Chuck, then GREEK (at least two episodes, perhaps three) before I get around to it. So, it is nearly 7pm. Time for some dinner, catch The X Factor and then the US television marathon may commence. Where is the popcorn?

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Tuesday 30th September 2008

It is 6.30pm as I begin writing the final blog post of my favourite month. I was just about to eat a Cadbury's Wispa bar but thought it best I actually write something before I open the wrapper. A very busy day and I am both physically and mentally drained. I am glad that I am not going over to the gym tonight. Instead I can get some food and watch the Arsenal match on TV. Right, time to recap on the past few days and what is planned for the next few, including the weekend. (Yes, it is bad to be mentioning the weekend so soon, but I am not sure when I will get to blog again and I may drive home on Friday rather than Saturday morning, still all undecided).

It was great to be able to walk into work on Monday morning, it took about fifteen minutes as I cut through West Street. A very busy day, at lunchtime I popped over to Tesco, got a sandwich and then walked down to the river and took a seat at a bench in Victoria Park. I had wanted to join the library but on my way over, I discovered it was closed for stock take. Will have to wait until next time. I was also hoping to spot my flat but did not have the time to walk over to that side of the park. I headed back to the office. I finished work early at 4.30pm, and drove over to my landlady's farm, so I could sign the contract and hand in my deposit. Job done, I will get the keys a few days before 12th. There had been another couple that had been keen to get the flat but as I had got in there first, their application was declined. Not even sure if they got past the initial query stage. It felt good that I had it all sorted out. I am popping over on Tuesday evening next week to meet the current tentants and be shown around and finalise details such as bills and broadband.

It was about 5.30pm but the time I got in my car and headed back to Newbury? Back to my cousin's house? No, straight to Cannons! The car park was packed out and there was a steady stream of cars heading in the direction of the Racecourse. I went to check if my card was ready but they were still waiting for ink to arrive. I will pick it up tomorrow night. Once they checked my details and home address, I was allowed through and went to the changing room. I got changed and headed upstairs. The gym was packed, most pieces of kit were in use. I grabbed my programme card from the drawer, said hello to Adam, before he headed off to start his spin class. I went over and started on my weights. It was hard work, very hard but as there are fewer machines from my previous programme, I finished within half an hour or so. The only machine I had to wait for was the Leg Press. Maybe I should reconsider my gym days and miss out the first working day of the week?

Once I got home to my temporary residence, I made some tomato soup, spoke to my Mum (very briefly) and watched Eastenders. After this, while I was online, I thought I would give a few people a call just for a quick catch up. I called Chris and then Clive. Clive is popping over on Thursday evening and we are going to go into town to grab something to eat. Chris will hopefully pop over once I am settled into my new flat and is going to give me a second opinion on my new gym programme. As I had an early start today, I went to sleep around 11.30pm, which may sound quite late to you but I usually don't go to sleep until midnight. I was too tired to even read my book, but will try and pick it up tonight.

I got up a bit later than I wanted to but was out of the door around 7.30am, on my way to Kegworth for a meeting with work. It was quite a journey, about 230 miles round trip, across three motorways (M40, M69 & M1). I got stuck in a bit of traffic on the A46 just outside Coventry. I must confess that I am officially but slowly turning into my Dad. I listened to Radio 2, throughout my drive up and down. Although I was flipping between my own CD, and Radio One also! Wogan started by playing Miss Independent by Neyo as I tuned in and also played the classic Take My Breath Away by Berlin. On the journey back home I did the same and listened to Mark Ratcliff and Emma Forbes. They played Manchild by Neneh Cherry and A New England by Kirsty MacColl.

Now onto to a subject I have been trying to blog for a few weeks. I had actually planned to mention it on Saturday 20th but of course my PC died and I spent the rest of the weekend trying to put things back together. I had finally got to watch the live rendition of the charity single, Just Stand Up for the Stand Up For Cancer charity foundation. (You can watch the video yourself over on YouTube.) What do you think? Sure it is your standard charity single affair but I was very impressed with the line up. Potentially you have the finest line up of female artists on the planet. The only let down his Miley Cyrus, who sings like a school girl (My friend Bhav was quick to point out, "Teg, but she is a school girl!) and clashes with Rihanna's sweet voice. I just do not like her voice and cannot believe that 7 Things is Record Of The Week on Radio One! Although I have also discovered by stumbling upon her Wikipedia page is that she shares my birthday and is in fact some eleven years my junior. Anyway, back to the song, Just Stand Up. I really like it and am glad that so many female artists offered their support, even Natasha Bedingfield comes out strong (and as you may know I'm not a big fan).

Weekend plans, I am heading back to Wycombe. Mainly to see my sister Natalie, who got got back from Zante late this Sunday by which time I had settled myself here in Newbury. I have not decided if I will drive over late on Friday night or at the crack of dawn on Saturday. It will be good to have "proper" internet access rather than this limited 3G dongle. Which although it is very useful, I cannot access certain sites such as Web Messenger or Web Yahoo Messenger as they are both deemed adult content by Vodafone. The only way to restrict this is to contact Vodafone but as it is not my contract there is nothing I can do. Installing the MSN client is just not an option. I also cannot listen to FiveLive in the evenings because Real Player is not working. Not sure why but I just do not have the time to sit night after night to trouble shoot. The important point for me is to be able to pick up my e-mail, update my Facebook status, read my daily blogs and chat to the odd friend on Facebook (when it actually works which is 60% of the time). I will not be doing much at home, apart from beginning some of the packing process and arranging things in terms of what comes to Newbury, what stays in Wycombe and most importantly what goes in the bin. You may not know but I am a hoarder, I much prefer to keep hold of things, sometimes just for sentimental reasons rather than throwing them away. I know some people can easily let things go, but for me it is very hard, sometimes something as simple as piece of paper I will just hold on to because it is so difficult to throw away. Okay, sure I have problems!

My plan is to get back to Newbury early Sunday afternoon, get down the gym and sort myself out before the week begins. Although knowing what I am like I know that I will end up rushing back much later than that. Next week, I believe I am in the office all week so it should be a much more settled week in terms of my movements. I will also try and write a blog over the weekend but doubt I will have time. If I am honest, I will spent most of my free time catching up on the television shows I will have missed this week in my world famous care package from the Mr. Khural. There will be Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles, GREEK, Fringe (three episodes, not seen the first two yet) plus Knight Rider. Do you really think there is time for blogging in between all of that?

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Sunday 28th September 2008

It is quarter past five as I begin writing this post. I am in Newbury, sitting on my cousin's leather sofa, online via his Vodafone 3G usb dongle (7.2Mbps, but not carried out a proper speed test yet) watching Wigan Athletic play Manchester City on Sky Sports (current score 2-1, 57 minutes on the clock). Had quite a busy weekend and a very busy Sunday before I left Wycombe just after 3pm to head over here. I suppose I should start with a round up on what I got up to yesterday.

Got up around 7.30am, there was no bread or milk (for tea) so I drove over to ASDA in the thick fog to get these items. When I got back my Mum made some toast and tea before I got changed and headed into town around 9.15am. I got into town in fifteen minutes or so and went straight to Jerry's. However it was busy and they had a screaming toddling in there having (I suspect) his first haircut, so I opted to turn around and head back down the road to Chaps. I had been to this hairdresser last time around (three weeks ago, on Saturday 6th) and I was happy to go back. I could not wait around for a long for Jerry or Eddie, as much as I had wanted to use them for my last haircut before leaving Wycombe.

After my haircut I headed home and decided to get a few things sorted. I did some shredding and then went out and hoovered the car. I was going to wash it but could not get the new plastic connector attached to the lance. Well that is technically not true, I could not get the metal (iron?) original connector off. Pav had suggested fixing it into a vice to them remove it but we have no vice in our garage. I tried a few spanners from my Dad's tool kit but could not get anywhere, so decided to stop. I went in, got some food and put on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, episodes two and three via my XBMC. It was great to watch, even though I only watched one episode on the television and episode three on my PC later in the afternoon. Summer Glau is just perfectly cast as reprogrammed Terminator Cameron. Some of her lines just have me in stitches, "This is the exact centre of the house and it is moving 0.195mm every year! We will need to repaint!". While I am here talking about television shows I need to mention Heroes. I watched both opening epidoes on Friday night and it was great fun to be back watching the show. Particularly as the last series ended on such a whimper due to the screenwriters strike. However, I think it would have been too much for a newbie to take in. It just seems as if they were eager to fill in as much as they could and jump around each story strand that it never truly got going. I hope the show settles in the next few episodes. It is tempting to reveal more but I must respect that many UK fans will not see the show until Wednesday this week when it is screened on BBC2. All I can say is expect some surprises from start to finish but also try to stay awake, it does at times drop to a painfully slow pace.

I had a power nap, while listening to FiveLive commentary on Arsenal versus Hull. The less said on that the better but I am hoping this is the final wake up call (after Fulham) that we need to start closing men down and defending set pieces better. When I got up, I decided to jump on the computer for a bit before watching Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor. I watched Rachel Steven's performance and then retired to the lounge to watch the flagship reality music show on ITV1 with my sisters. Boot camp was interesting, although I have one thing to say. I find the Snow Patrol song, "Chasing Cars" very depressing. I just hate it. It was sung several times by contestants and also played a few times during the show. Do not get me wrong they are a very talent band and I think one of my sisters (most likely Natalie) have seen them in concert. It is just not my type of music, I do not like sad, melancholy music. I generally like music that gets me into a good mood. In any case, I am looking forward to a better girlband to get through this year (after Hope's rather poor show last year). Plus there is the boy group, JSL. As for the other categories, we shall see. I will be in the gym when the second part of bootcamp is screened at 7pm this evening and doubt I will get a chance to watch (I am going through my induction and new programme).

Saturday night was completely different from last Saturday. My computer was working, so I could actually get online, talk to my friends and do things. I wanted to watch Greek. However there was a problem, Episode Two of Series Three was only 14 minutes long, although according to Windows Explorer, the file size was still the 350mb you would expect. Not good, I then checked the file for Episode Three. Worse. Here the file played for just a second before cutting out. It too was 350mb in size. So I went ahead and obtained them myself, and in the meanwhile spoke to my friends and caught up on the news on BBC News channel. Pav sent me a text message exactly 11pm, with one of his cryptic web addresses, http://hasterrycompletedthebacklog.net. The reply was no because GREEK files had been incomplete. Now there is an SLA on delivery but there is never an SLA on quality, it is just one of those things. In the end I watched both episodes, they were good but I must admit I'm just trying to relive my lost youth via the show, nothing more, nothing less.

Sunday morning brought with it an early start, I was in the gym around 8.30am, and after a light breakfast of tea and toast, I handed in my card and TechnoGym key and headed off into the distance. I got home and then at 11am, went into town to fax some important documents and get some photocopies. I then came home, picked up my sister's 308 and drove to Kwikk Fit to get a nail removed from the back tyre. This was free, because there was no puncture and no repair required. Afterwards, I headed home, on the drive I must say that Edith Boyman played some cracking songs today. First there was the late 1980s classic by Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now (yes I know it is a cover!), then as I got back into the car after being in Staples it was Birdhouse In Your Soul by They Might Be Giants. Then as that ended a caller on the Shuffle chose Snap! The Power, I put the volume up on the stereo and was even tempted to crank up the subwoofer (but decided against it!). Now that is a tune that just has to be listened to at an insane volume to be enjoyed. The great thing is, the radio reception was crystal clear and you would have thought I was listening to the CD. There was another great song that was played but I have forgotten it now. I suppose I could go to BBC iPlayer and listen again. Actually I remember now, Edith finished with Wake Up Boo! by the Boo Radleys, a fantastic feel good song! The ideal song for me to drive home to before I pack up and begin a new chapter in my life in West Berkshire.

I got home around quarter past one and I had loads to do before I was heading off. I had originally planned to leave at 2pm but that time slot had gone. I got my holdall, packed my clothes and then got all the other bits sorted out. I then went on the computer to sort out a few things before finally getting out the door after 3pm. I think I have still left a few things (clothes, nothing major) at home. I got to my cousin's house around 4pm and unpacked. Then I had a just over ninety minutes to kill before I had to go to my gym induction.

It is 20:48 as I pick up this blog post. A successful induction at the Cannon's Gym. I got their at 6pm, but my induction was not until 7pm, apparently it was going to take an hour to sort out the paperwork? It actually took less than ten minutes, as I just had to sign a few forms. I then had my mug shot taken, with a Creative WebCam of some kind before being allowed upstairs. I Waited for the gym staff to appear, he was downstairs covering the pool, a sign informed me. Adam, appeared a few minutes later and I asked if I could start my induction early and gave him a print out of my existing programme. He had a look and we almost started a detail conversation on what I wanted to achieve but I asked if I could go downstairs, get changed and then set up my programme. I did just that and we started off. Sure, this is a step back to the prehistoric era with pen and paper for keeping track of my programme, but I am committed to trying to make it work. Overall the programme is now weighted (no pun intended) towards my weights, with three sessions on the machines and just one cardio session. Even the cardio session itself is quite simple (in comparions to my last programme). Out goes the rowing machine, and in come just the cross-trainer, treadmill and bike. My weights programme has become more intense, although the number of machines has dropped. I now have to do three sets of twelve repetitions. I was dying after just one set of twelve this evening. Adam was a very nice guy and very helpful. His final words to me, as I left was that I would find the programme far too easy and that I would be coming back to him for an "upgrade" within the month. I am not too sure, I feel I will struggle with the programme, particularly with the new environment. We shall see, I will of course keep you posted.

Observations so far are few and far between. I noticed a bright blue Ford Fiesta drive past me with a blue neon night on underneath. At the BP Connect garage down the road, (I had to pick up some milk, bread, bananas and juice!) there was a group of lads, one had Fast Car magazine in his hand. Suppose it has to be better than Wycombe. A girl spat on me (but missed) as I walked past her on Thursday evening in Eden as I headed towards the library. All I could say to myself was I was glad I was leaving Wycombe. So, we are at the start of a new era in my life. Tomorrow is the first day in the rest of your life as someone would say to me. Right, I'm watching Hitch on five (to kill some time) and waiting for MOTD2 on BBC2 in fifteen minutes or so. Better get on with some washing up.

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Friday 26th September 2008

It had to happen at some point and personally I'm surprised it took as long as nineteen working days into my job. On Thursday morning, as I drove up the A404 (when it magically transforms from being just a normal A-road into a dual carriage motorway), the A404(M), I saw the following message displayed on the Matrix sign (M4 West Slip Closed). Oh no, not good, so I had to make a decision and I made it quite quickly, I opted to get off at the next exit, Cox Green and turn around, head back up the A404(M) to the next exit (junction 9b) for Reading. Drive towards Reading and catch the A329(M) and join the M4 at junction 10. That was the plan but the reality was to be very different. I put the TA function on the stereo and listened out for any updates. Sure enough, while on the A4 Bath Road heading into Reading I got an traffic alert from BBC Three Counties Radio. There had been two accidents on the M4 (one West bound at junction 10, the other east bound just before 8/9). To make matters worse a lorry had blocked the slip road onto the M4 West bound at 8/9 (where I usually join the motorway). I was going to listen out for further information but my stereo switched back to the CD while the announcer was in midflow. Never mind, another bulletin would appear shortly. From what I had gathered from the radio, it was pointless trying the A329(M) as that was backed up with traffic as well, so my decision at first was to use junction 11 of the M4. However, just before I got to the main Oracle Roundabout I decided to follow the signposts for M4 West - Newbury & Oxford. This worked out to be a better plan as it would take me all the way on the outskirts of Reading to junction 12 (Theale) and onto a clear Motorway so I got get to work. Normally I stroll into the car park just before 8am, on this occassion, I got there about twenty minutes to 9am. Not bad considering those stuck on the motorway, role up into the office an hour later than me. They explained that a transit van had hit the central reservation and over turned. Well as of next week, the motorway? Marty, where we going, we don't need roads! While we are on the subject of travel and motorways, I must complain about the journey between junction twelve and thirteen of the M4. It is one of those journeys that seems to last forever. On motorway journeys, particularly long ones you get used to seeing a junction (or at least services) every so often but the break between Theale and Newbury is strange feels at times like an abandoned no man's land. You get to the top of a hill and think you are nearly there but you are still several miles away from the exit slip road. In anycase, I just thought I would share that with you, although I will only have this frustration when I come home every so often.

Had my review at the gym yesterday evening at 7pm. Matt had to change shifts, was supposed to call me on Tuesday to inform me but did not. Never mind, I did not have the luxury to reschedule, so I just went ahead and had a review with Lee. A good check was my weight and body mass index. I had lost almost a pound (which I am sure most people would be happy with but I'm trying to gain weight). Plus I had lost three percent body fat, going from 14% to 11% which apparently is a better indication that you have lost excess body fat and converted it to muscle. We then reviewed my programme and tweaked it for my new gym, which I actually went on a tour of this evening. I know many of you will be disappointed in me for not actually carrying out my full CV programme last night but, it was getting late, so for old times sake, I opted for a ten minute run on the rowing machine. I managed 2146m which is a good score for me and I sustained an average rpm of around 38. Six months ago, on my first attempt, I was lucky to get up to 25, so a big improvement.

As I drove to work this morning, I had a good feeling inside. Do not ask me why but I just felt today was my day. Perhaps it was the sun shining as I got onto the M4 Westbound. A great feeling, having your sunglasses on and driving relatively free flowing traffic to work. Perhaps it was that Friday feeling, perhaps it was a little of lady luck shining down on me once again! In any case, I was looking forward to my flat viewing in the afternoon. It was three minutes past eight in the morning, and I pulled up to the barrier, my phone rang. It was a mobile number. I answered the phone (I had not had my handsfree kit on and it would have taken too long to switch it all on). It was my new landlady, just confirming the viewing for this afternoon at 5.15pm. She had called me and left a message Thursday afternoon and 3pm to confirm it all before hand. In any case, I answered the phone, explained I was all set for the viewing and looked forward to meeting her then. I hate to think what my colleagues in the car behind thought of this nutter answering his phone while trying to drive into the car park and find a spot. In any case, the conversation was a mere thirty seconds (if that) and the phone was off and I found a spot on the second floor, parked up and headed into the office. I wasn't really looking forward to being the only person in my department but had plenty to keep me busy (well at least until lunch time). At 5pm sharp, I left the building and headed straight to my car and the flat. It was about two minutes drive from my workplace. Result. I got there a few minutes early and waited for the landlady to arrive, she did and showed me in. It does not take long for you to get a feel for a place and it was pretty much a done deal the moment I walked in. Sure, it might not be the perfect flat but the location, the quiet tranquil setting over looking a park with complete privacy in a town centre location. The main priority had always been to find a place within walking distance of the office, that had been achieved and although it will take a while to settle in, I feel I have made the right decision.

Afterwards, I did not head back home as you might expect, I drove over to the gym. The Cannon's Health Club is based on the grounds of the Racecourse, although I had to get some bearings. I drove up to the entrance for the race ground but had expected a sign or seperate entrance, so I drove back out and asked two teenage girls who were walking by where the gym was, they told me it was just over there, through the Racecourse. So that is what I did and sure enough there were some signs at the main roundabout I came to, but as my colleague had told me it was quite a walk up to the gym. It had a large carpark, so no problems finding a space, I parked up and checked my watch, it was dead on 6pm. Perfect timing. I had originally arranged to meet up with Richard but spoke to Roger. He filled in my details and showed me around. It will be a pain to go back to prehistoric pen and paper after having a Technogym key system at Castle Royle, but I must remain dedicated. The main gym floor is quite big with a block of four television screen up ahead. The big main window over looks the racecourse, which is a great setting and a notch up from the golf course. I was shown the resistance machines and the new free weights area with double full length mirror wall. I was then shown the changing rooms downstairs, the pool (slightly smaller than Castle Royle) and the sauna and spa room. There is also a mixed use gym room downstairs with a karate session taking place. It is used for squash and badminton, which I am also keen to look at. The alternative option is to go to join LA Fitness which is around the corner from my flat but there is no pool and limited facilities (it is a converted cinema after all) so I opted for the Cannon's option. I want to learn to swim next year and it will be good to have a journey to to gym (no matter how small) to give me that time to switch from work mode to fitness mode. I join up fully on Sunday evening with my induction and programme building at 7pm. Well there is no point letting it drift and putting it onto the list of "things" to do, knowing me I would never get around to it. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I am going to have a final session at my current gym on Sunday morning, a final sign off if you will. Will also try and get some tea and toast in after my workout.

Thursday turned out to be a very good day based on Royal Mail, I received several very important packages. Perhaps the most important one actually arrived today. In any case, for some people the journey to South Africa 2010 started in Barcelona back on Saturday 6th September. For others, it truly began four days later in Zagreb. For me, it will start in a few weeks time on Saturday 11th October. (In a twist of fate now the day before I move to my own flat in Newbury). All journeys begin with small steps and it just so happens these first steps are against the weakest team in the group. Bring it on!

Has Pav ever let me down? The answer is no! Sure he has been late (very late) for nights out and arranged meets ups but generally the boy always delivers the goods. In this case literally. I now have a bumper pack of US television shows to watch this evening. As it is alreaday near 11pm, it will be a while before I upload this post and get around to putting on the DVD. My plan of action is to warm up with Sarah Connor Chronicles episode two of series two, although just browsing the DVD, I discover that Pav has given me episode three but not two. Oh no. I will have to make a change to my plan, obtain episode two and in the meanwhile watch Heroes double bill (which the rest of you might catch on BBC2 on Wednesday, if you haven't seen them already). Then I might save Greek and Fringe (both double bills) until tomorrow sometime. Although my weekend is already quite packed. Going into town tomorrow, then back home, wash car (with new heavy duty foam lance) and then start the packing process. Sunday will be a crazy day and I doubt I will have the time to blog again until sometime next week. I will have internet access during the evenings, thanks to a Vodafone 3G dongle, but might not get onto MSN. This was the wonderful package that was sitting on my desk when I got home. As much as I hate the name Terry, the thought did put a smile on my face. The reward after a long week and a difficult few days.

My final thought before I go and catch Heroes, is as follows. It is the little things that happen that make you realise you are becoming like your Dad. For me it was Thursday morning, in the extended drive to the office across Reading, I switched between my CD, Radio One and believe it or not Radio 2. Terry Wogan was on and he played Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox just after 8am. It was nice to hear a classic for a change. I am getting that feeling that I am starting to get old.

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Sunday 21st September 2008

Believe it or not, I had actually written up some notes yesterday early afternoon to make sure I did not leave out anything important from the blog update to wrap up the weekend. However, all that will have to take a backseat and may not even feature this evening. Why? Well let me put it like this, I am currently writing this post in Windows Notepad. Enough said?

It started so well, I got up around 9.30am yesterday and with the sunshining, thought it was a day to get things done. After Football Focus, I was outside, cleaning the car. I actually spend a substantial amount of time polishing the interior. The exterior was not that bad (considering a late night trip into London a week ago, plus over five hundred M4 miles). So I just did a wash and rinse, dry and touch up. In any case, I had misplaced my wash mitt (it had been placed on the garden fence to dry and was still wet by the time my Mum pointed it out to be mid afternoon!). I bought Pav's old heavy duty foam gun but have not been able to use it yet, as it does not connect to my Karacher Pressure Washer. I mentioned this to him on Saturday, and he has ordered me a replacement fitting tube and it should arrive in the next few days. I am also trying out some new foam, which is much better. As soon as it hits the body work, you can see it start to work. After completing my car, I headed inside to grab some food and catch Soccer Saturday (it had just clicked past 3pm). Then, it was on to car two, I vacuumed the interior as it was extremely dirty but did not go the full distance of washing the car, although I did think about it. I wanted to get back in and sort out all the paperwork and hit the rest of the tasks on my weekend list. Little did I know that I was hours away from having to having my weekend turned upside down. Perhaps I just tempted fate too much with a fresh tweet (almost exactly 24 hours ago) and it was all down hill from there. I watched the opening of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1, while downloading music videos (more on those later). It was around 7.45pm, when I went to get some food and switched on my computer. This was my big mistake, I do not remember if Windows XP actually completely shut down (it could have been applying an update). However, it would be just over an hour before I would realise that my quiet night in was about to disappear out of the window for good.

I got back to my room at 9pm, after dinner and with a smile on my face, put on my computer. Looking forward to downloading a few more mp3s and burning a new CD for the car. Not tonight, I'm afraid, after the BIOS screens, no Windows XP Splash screen. Okay, let me reboot, it might just be an odd glitch. Okay, maybe not, how about a complete cold boot. No. Okay, safe mode? Not working either, "Last Known Configuration That worked". Nope, it was at this point I realised that I was in trouble and it was time for evasive maneouvers. I went and got the family Toshiba laptop (a four year old Satelite Pro) and got myself online and Googled everything and anything. I also came on MSN and checked my Facebook but that was in the background, I was determined to get my machine back up and running and not have to reinstall the OS.

I discovered that the file which loads the Windows XP splash screen had become corrupt and needed replacing. Okay, not a problem, but all my setup discs for Windows XP (several SP2 slipstreamed plus an SP3 version I built at the end of June). Yes, you make recall, that I only recently rebuilt my PC, therefore the only data I needed to back up were some documents and web files (such as this blog) everything else I had already backed up, or been backing up every few weeks onto my portable hard drive. Yes, I have become quite paranoid since my disaster back in March last year (why does it always have to happen around the 2x of the month?!). However, I still concerned, my hard drive could have failed and my data may not be recovery. All the multimedia is safely stored on a seperate drive, plus I make DVD backups on a regular process as well (you can never be too careful now, can you Pav?). Back to my point, deployed installation CDs are great for saving time and space and you can then build unattended setups, tailored just the way you like them. However they have a big drawback, which I did not discover until late last night. Many safety features are thrown overboard in the hunt to keep the size of that iso file down. This meant that I could not have the option to either access the Recovery Console or run a repair installation of the top (I had selected the option for a Full deployed installation only). I had a few options, and I sent out an SOS to Pav on MSN to explain the issue. He said I could pop over on Sunday and get a full version of the CD but I did not really want to use that option (even though it was good to have it there as a backup and fourth option). I cannot actually remember exactly what I did last night, three and half hours fly by when you are constantly looking for answers and trying to fix your personal computer. I have a Knoppix Live CD, plus the world famous Hiren Boot CD, but these were little help really. They proved my hard drive had not failed and that it was a corrupt file I needed to replace. Then I had to download a 7mb ISO file, burn the CD (what a waste, looking back with hindsight) boot up, get into the recovery console and then replace the file. I thought that would work but nope, it failed. I tried to repair the boot.ini file, using once again the recovery console. However, all this did was give me the boot option of not one but two Windows XP Professional systems (both of which did not work). So, around midnight thirty, I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to reinstall XP and then login, recover what I could and then completely wipe the drive and do a reinstall. In fact, a repeat of my adventure back in November 2006, when I decided that I could install Internet Explorer 7 upgrade on lazy quiet Monday evening. No. Naive. Fool. In any case, I was really disappointed on two counts, I had really wanted to watch Keri's interview after her performance of Energy on BET 106 & Park and also tape highlights of Arsenal beating Bolton 3-1 at the Reebok. Nevermind, I would fix it (as always do with these things) before the weekend was out.

When I woke up this morning, just after 7am, I thought it all had been a dream, until I gained full consciousness and realised I had to get out of bed and head to the gym. I was in the car by 7.33am (accidently calling someone at the top of my mobile book (sorry Alison!) but thankfully it went straight through to voicemail before I hungup! The gym was quiet, as I expected but for the first time I really did not want to be there, I just was not in the mood. Perhaps just because my Saturday evening had been ruined by technical error. However, things were startng to look up, I jumped on the bike, just in time to watch the highlights of West Ham versus Newcastle before seeing the Arsenal match. Perfect timing, I then completed my weights programme before heading home. Once I got home around 9.15am, I got hte laptop out again and downloaded an image with Service Pack 3. My plan now was to do a quick install to access my drive under Windows, copy across anything I needed and then begin the rebuilding process. It was going to take just under two hours before the torrent was downloaded, so I left it running with a note to ensure my sister, Julie did not use the laptop. (It was unlikley as she would be asleep well after midday). I then, headed over to see my friend in Thame. It was nice to catch up in the sunshine while in one their patio. It was a pleasant way to spend the morning and a nice break away from the computer. At 1pm, I headed back home and got in just before the teams came out for the big crunch match. In a parrallel universe, I had planned to sit down and enjoy the match on television. It was not to be. I started the big process to rebuild my PC. I will not bore you with the process, but will instead, give you some images from my afternoon.

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Friday 19th September 2008

When it comes to a Friday evening and writing my blog post to review the week, I usually already have everything or at least something prepared in my head to write about. However tonight, I am in situation where I am reporting news hot off the press. I will save the good news to the end, and start very much as most working weeks do on Monday. I got to work dead on time at 9am (which is an hour late for me as I try and get into the office at 8am most days if I can). I did not drag myself out of bed until 7.10am (the time I'm usually leaving the house) so faced a bit of a battle to cut through the traffic on the M4 to Newbury. The sun had come out while on the motorway and I had a bright spark in my eyes. In my rush to get out of the house, I had left both my gym membership card and Nurofen meltlets, so had no choice but to stop at the services, just off junction thirteen. I knew I was about to get taken for a ride with the over inflated price for a bottle of water and tablets. There were only Nurofen standard tablets, so I bought them, wanting anything to stop the onset of a headache. I took a capsule while in the car before heading into town. I felt a little better by the time I got out of the car (parking up on level five!). I took a deep breath, my second week was about to begin. Nevertheless, I eventually made it through the day and to the gym in the evening. Following from my comment last week, I also found myself number eight in the top ten list of distant covered with a score of 368km. An official marathon is 42.195km, so I could have covered just over 8 of them! Although the distance is a great achievement, it does not feel that long because it combines my distance traveled from bike, cross trainer and treadmill. Personally I think the cross trainer should be excluded. Nevertheless it was some sense of achievement and surprise to find my name on the notice board, not once but twice. May as well get used to it, only five more sessions left in this gym before I switch.

The rest of the week was extremely busy but I actually manage to make it in by 8am and feel I should try and get into the routine. No matter how hard it is to get out of bed at 6am. I know there are a numerous benefits to leaving so early in the morning, less traffic, finding a parking space on the first floor, less hassle generally from other road users and of course, being able to leave at 5pm sharp. Most of my time is taking up with documentation and going through process and getting down and dirty with the detail. I know this is what I signed up for and am relishing the challenge, the only problem is there is so much to learn.

I am a big fan of Eastenders and watch the show religiously. On Friday I noted yet another fantastic line from Gary Hobbs, so taped the moment on BBC Three on the 10pm repeat. Gary (along with Minty) are my big draws to the show, sure the gripping storylines can be great and intriguing. However it is watching the everyday losers that makes me smile. Makes me realise that my life is not really all that bad and that if I'm having a bad day, Gary must be having one much worse over at the Arches.

As I drove out of the gym on Thursday evening, I gave Dave a call in Wrexham. I had a confession to make, I had to re-plan our weekend meeting in October from the 24th to the 31st. He gave the shock news that he had just bought a brand new 50" Samsung HD television and was waiting for the delivery van to arrive. It had taken him so long to answer the phone because he thought the delivery man was at the door. I was shocked and he buzzed across a few photographs on MSN last night but they were very blurry (and had Dave's ugly mug in them!) So, this evening I got him to try again and he got a great still shot of the MTV News logo. Roll on the first weekend in November. Looks like it is going to be a case of watching all my favourite music videos in 50" high definition glory.

On Sunday evening while I was typing my blog post, I had Bhav on MSN talking to me. Sure, no issue there but she was sending me links to YouTube music videos, which can actually be quite distracting. No wonder it took me a few hours to finally upload the post via FTP. She sent me a number of links to songs, most which I had not heard before. I downloaded a few but the best by far was New Kids On The Block featuring Neyo - Single. The video was okay, you standard night club scene affair. They even rip off the rap from Fergie's Glamorous (only the first line mind and do little to disguise the plagiarism). However, after listening to the song this week, I can confirm it is very catchy. The way I am justifying this to myself, is that the song is in fact by Neyo but has been "hijacked" by NKOTB in the sheer hope that some of the singer-song writers magic rubs off on the group. Unfortunately, as great as the bass line sounds, I think NKOTB, should never have bothered with a reunion. I walked past HMV on Tuesday and they were playing the song, a little while later (after having my lunch) when I walked back and went into the music store, they were still playing the song but just the master backing track, as if someone should have been singing along on some games console or something. I had actually gone in to find out if I could pre-order In A Perfect World by Keri Hilson but did not bother asking the staff, they would not have a clue. Plus there was no release schedule on the walls or behind the tills. I picked up a copy of Neyo's - The Year Of The Gentleman and confirmed that he did indeed have the track Single on his record. Shame on you New Kids On The Block. When I checked Toya's World (an excellent blog which I highly recommend by the way) I found another song from Miss Hilson's album had leaked but also the released date had been pushed back once again (3rd or 4th time?) to 4th November. How does the saying go? Good things come to those that wait?

I must come onto the subject of flat hunting. As usual several viewings got cancelled (some flats had just gone) earlier in the week, but I saw a few flats and one house. One does have some potential, even if it is relatively small as an apartment, you cannot beat the location. However that is secondary news. The main headline news is that from next Sunday (28th) I shall be moving to Newbury to stay at my cousin, Praag's house. Although it is only a temporary measure, I am hoping this will give me an opportunity to get a feel for the area as a resident (rather than in my current guise as a commuter) but also find a permanent abode before the middle of October. Wish me luck I suppose? I know it is going to be a big shock to the system to go from living at home with my parents to being out in the outside world all on my own. This weekend will be spent getting a short list of properties together, booking some viewings and getting in there. I am determined to sort a place out as a top priority, although the drive is not too bad, it is the fact that it is there that causes me so much concern. At the end of the day, it should be a pleasant walk home and then off to the gym, not a forty five minute drive on the motorway, then gym, then home. Let us hope I can somehow begin to realise that dream, sometime after this next week is out.

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Sunday 14th September 2008

So, here I am on Sunday afternoon at ten past four in the afternoon trying to put together the events of the weekend. Quite a lot to cover all things considered, so if you do not mind, I will dive straight in. Firstly, the return of Sarah Connor. The series two opener was fantastic, although I found the slow motion first scene rather annoying, but the significance of the song did not hit me until earlier this afternoon when I decided to watch the show again on my XBox in the lounge (although I only managed twenty minutes or so). The song was Samson & Delilah the same name of the episode but that was not important, it was performed by Garbage front woman Shirley Manson. Their lead singer would have a major role as a villain. Overall, it was great and so glad that the show is back. I have something to watch again.

Yesterday was relatively quiet during the day. I was annoyed that I had missed several editions of Football Focus, so I set my PC to record the show before I headed out to Slough. I went to ProTyre on the Bath Road to have the puncture on my nearside rear tyre repair. I had taken my CD case out of the car so had to cope with listening to the radio for my journey. Not a great idea! It was quite busy when I arrived and I was told it would be at least an hour wait as there were three more puncture repairs ahead of me. I settled down on the sofa chair with my Zen and listened to some tunes and began to text Pav about plans for the evening. By midday, I was on my way back but could not catch the last fifteen minutes as I did not want to disrupt the recording. Once it finished (a few extra minutes added to the end for contingency). I watched the Theo Walcott segment and then decided to get outside and wash the car.

While down in Bournemouth two weekends ago, we had been speaking to Charman and he had told us the following story. Well I say story but it was actually about a recent dream he had, but please stick with me. He had woken up in the middle of the night with a formation in his head. Not for Arsenal but for England. Walcott on the right and Joe Cole on the left. The amount of pace would just rip defences apart. So you can imagine my pleasant surprise to see Fabio Capello taking Steve's advice on Wednesday night against Croatia. Personally I thought England were going to get completely battered but they put together a convincing performance and Theo went from prodigy to star in the space of three goals. Yesterday afternoon I thought I would find out what was being send about the Arsenal striker on the e-grapevine. I carried out a search on Twitter and read some of the articles. Interesting reading, plus my Dad saved me an article from Friday's Telegraph. Still not had a chance to read it yet.

Around 4pm, I was on the computer but very tired and in two minds about heading into London. I decided to crash out for a while and see how I felt when I woke up. I dumped myself on the sofa on the lounge and told my sister Julie to wake me up at 5pm. She did and after fifteen minutes I eventually got up and decided to and crash at Pav's. I rushed to get everything ready and back my bag and have a shower and head over to Reading. I had been given an arrival window of 6.30pm, as they wanted to head into London early and flog some tickets in the some bars nearby. I wanted to wind up Pav and called him outside while just getting onto John Hall Way and say I was not going but it was a bit stupid to make it sound convincing with the diesel engine roaring and the noise of traffic going past on the opposite lane. I got there on top perfectly and found a spot next door and parked up. I even went as far as shutting the car down (clip in wing mirrors, take out stereo etc). Similar to what Michael Keaton does with the Batmobile in Batman Returns (albeit on a small scale). In the end, we took my car, even though it would have been far more comfortable in the Rover 200. Never mind, it was not a problem and I actually enjoyed the drive down (apart from the drive back at 4am, when I was extremely tired).We listened to a recording of the BBC Radio Essential Mix from 10th May 2008 featuring Sebastien Léger. Emily kept skipping back to track seven which was Daft Punk - Around The World.

We went to pick up Paul and Ian from Slough before heading into London. The original plan to head over to Farington was dropped, mainly due to time and we opted to check out some bars close by. I parked up and we headed to the Ruby Lounge. We got a drink in here while Paul tried to sell tickets but also speak to the resident DJ and find out where would be good places to go in the area. He advised him to head to The Big Chill. So taking his advise that is exactly what we did. The bar was very trendy and busy but there were no takers for any tickets. It was close to 10pm and I drove up to Egg and dropped off Paul and Ian. His set should have already started the moment we pulled outside the night spot. I drove back to Kings Cross and we waited for Joe to arrive. I had not seen Joe since I had left college so that was a good eight years (yes eight) years ago! I went to get some food with Emily while Pav and Joe headed to the Big Chill but as they were now charging £4 to get in so they headed back to the Ruby lounge to wait for Joe's friend Anton. He did arrive eventually and after a few drinks we headed back to the car and up to the club, parking right outside. We queued and after some tight security and searches we were allowed through. We met up with Mark and Eddie in the terrace bar and found out how lucky they had been with ticket sales. The place was relatively quite and it was just coming up to midnight or so. A fantastic night, even though there were fewer of us "groupies" around. Photographs will be added to Facebook shortly and I will try and replicate them across to my FlickR account.

We left around 3.30am and got back to Reading ten to five in the am! It was very tiring drive back and I was wondering how much of my week I had spent on the M4 motorway! I had to put on a temporary visitor pass to ensure my car did not get clamped. Although he likely hood of a warden being around at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning is unlikely, there is no point taking chances. It looks like a scratch card and you have to seal it yourself with the Reading Borough Council crest. I crashed out straight away and was out like a light. What a weekend but thankfully a relatively relaxing Sunday planned.

I got up around 8.20am and got after heading to the bathroom, I laid in bed and wondered whether to get up and go to the gym, to go home or just sleep for a little while longer. It must be because of the alien environment, I could not get back to sleep, even if I had tried, so I decided to get changed, grab my things and head to the gym. By 9am, I was one the road and heading to Castle Royle. It was not as busy as I expected as I pulled into the car park and headed in. Once into my kit, I checked into my weights programme and walked to the bikes at the far end. I was looking at the notice board, mainly to see what this month's challenge was. It was in fact a results table but more to my surprise was my name. Yes, believe it or not, my name was up there, in forth place for the number of workouts completed (51). Proves that by hitting the gym four times a week is slowly but surely delivering results. I was shocked as it was not something I expected. Particularly as I only concentrate on my programme, I never enter any of the challenges (such as the Olympic Games which was inter-club, Castle Royle came second but two clubs were disqualified). I wonder if my colleague (if he ever makes it into the gym will notice, I might have to prod him with a text). After my workout (which went very well) I decided to stick around at the bar, read a newspaper and get some breakfast. A nice strong cup of tea and two slices of toast with strawberry jam, went down a treat. While watching Sky News, I noticed an appearance of a news presenter. Could my morning get any better?

As I drove home from the gym in the glorious sunshine, I decided to take stock of my current situation. Life is good and for the first time in ages I feel not just great but important! Of course there are issues and obstacles but they are not anything I cannot handle and in time remove from my path. If "Success Is A Journey And Not A Destination", I think I just took the slip road onto the fast lane.

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Friday 12th September 2008

So there we have it, Monday morning was my third new start of my career so far. How did it go? Well in comparison to my previous two starts (which were almost exactly six months apart in 2004) the day progressed very well. In a way, it does not feel I have been away from the big corporate machinery for that long. I have been issued with my temporary pass and given a employee visitor badge to wear until I get my photo card sometime in the next few weeks. The organisation so far has been excellent and I even had my photograph taken within the first few hours, so should be issued with my photographic pass within a few weeks. What more can I say? Well I am really glad the weekend is here again, so I can take a load off before the adventure begins again on Monday morning. Talking of Monday morning, perhaps that is where I should begin.

As I pulled out of my drive, in the morning, it was perhaps around twenty past seven. A relatively early start, all things considered (but no that 6am start I had to endure when I traveled into the capital!) I put on a CD (the same CD I had been listened to last week. I have a habit of setting the play mode to "Mix" and then just keep hitting skip until I find a track I want to listen to. I did that just once as I pulled out my cul-de-sac and the song that came on, was the very same song I had been listened to four years as my Dad dropped me off to work that morning in mid December. (For the record, Father & Son (Ronan Keating featuring Yusif Islam version). How strange the world can be. I hit the motorway within a few minutes and although there were plenty of cars on the road, the traffic was moving and I made good progress. I just get into the fast lane and cruise at a steady speed. After Junction 10 for the A329(M) it is a clear run. However in the opposite direction it was pretty much standstill. I was lucky (as I would be for the rest of the week!). Overall the day went well, I met my manager first thing (I was not scheduled to start until between 9am - 9.30am). I then had to have all my documents cleared by HR before being taken upstairs for a Health & Safety debriefing. Then, it was a twenty minute presentation on the local on site facilities. After this I was escorted to my new desk and met my team. Then it was off into town for my first team lunch! Although it took ages to get served, mainly due to the fact the restaurant was so busy, as the second stage of the Tour Of Britain was scheduled to stop in the town centre. After lunch it was the formal company induction, with a introduction from the CEO for the UK. Then there was a quick introduction to corporate compliance, which nearly had me drifting off to sleep at that stage but it finished soon enough and I then was free to go back to my desk and start work. Well kind of.

When I got home, I checked my speedometer. It had done 96 miles, a few short of the magic 100 miles a day mark. Due bear in mind I did drive to the gym as well and put in a full session there. It was absolutely rammed as I got there at 6.30pm, the time I would normally be on my way out. However, I was determined to keep my regime. I know many people would have let me off, after all a started a new job can be quite bewildering and being able to get straight home would have been a comforting thought at the end of each day but I decided to keep going. As I pulling out of Newbury, I received a text from Pav. He must have been missing me, now I was not on MSN all day. His text made me laugh, "What's Terry's new e-mail address then? mynameisnotterry@vodafone.co.uk". For some reason he was under the false pretense that I worked for the largest mobile network provider in the world (based on turnover). There must be some sort of conspiracy. I would like to put the record straight, I do not work for Vodafone. Although I do have a Vodafone contract mobile phone, that is my only connection with the company. Oh, and my cousin Praag works for them.

On Wednesday, as I headed onto the M4, I decided to change to an old CD I had lying in my Case Logic case. I chose the CD with the Ultra album and put on the opening track. Thirty seconds into the song, the sun came up behind me. However I had left my sunglasses at home, having taken them out the night before. Never mind, the biggest coincidence was the title of the track (and album itself) The Sun Shines Brighter. I felt much better and put behind me the bad luck of Tuesday night and look forward to another great day, a fresh start. On Tuesday evening after work, due to a number of circumstances (some man made) all my three property viewings were cancelled. A complete waste of an evening. Never mind, no time to lament on the stupidity of others. Let us move on. After the weights session in the gym, I drove home but wanted to check my tire pressures before I got home. I went to my usual petrol station the Esso / Tesco Express but the machine was out of order, so I drove down the road to the ASDA. Here the machine was not working correctly, so I headed back down the road to Esso Turnpike but they had a fuel delivery so I had to drive all the way to the bottom of New Road to the Total garage. As usual with such small garages, the positioning of the air and water machine is an after thought, so I had to block in a car and the driver had to wait while I checked the pressure at all corners before driving back home. Just my luck that I have to go to four petrol stations before I can check my pressures. Hopefully the machine at my usual garage will be fixed on Sunday morning, before I head to the gym.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returned on television screens Stateside on Monday evening and if I had still been at my previous place of employment it would have been a case of connecting to Pav's FTP and downloading the avi file. However, under the new regime, I can only access Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail in my lunch hour. Anyways, I was hoping to be able to download the episode from the FTP site when I got home on Tuesday. However the FTP has not come back to live since the move into Reading town centre. Never mind, I could get the torrent but I did not have time to do this until Wednesday evening. However, on Thursday I received a package. I was not expecting anything but should have recognised the handwriting. When I opened the package (in bubble wrap) I realised that it was from Pav. However, I had already spend an hour or so the previous night to download the episode on uTorrent. Well at least if I ever have to go net less for a while I know I will still be able to catch up on Cameron. Although, did she survive the car bomb? I will find out in a little while, as I have promised myself the episode as a treat to making it to Friday night.

Although I think I need to start a web site and my own internet campaign. My name is not Terry dot co dot uk! Pav and his web domains (he bombards me with several every day on MSN or via SMS. I must mention the Savage Chicken cartoon on Monday. In a strange twist of fate the cartoon mirrored my first day in my new job! On Tuesday, morning I spotted a the number plate of the car ahead of me. It had a number plate that ended in SFE. The initials of my new department and part of my job title. Just another case of fate playing on me or is it more significant than that? I was trying to work out the probability of these three letters appearing on a car at that time of day on that road but soon gave up.

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Sunday 7th September 2008

There is no where else to start apart from England. European World Cup Qualifying kick off yesterday afternoon with all the home nations in action. It was very annoying not being able to watch the game on Sky or the Beeb. There was not even a highlights programme to look forward to later in the evening. I listened to FiveLive but had actually dozed off on my bed, a little before kick off. I therefore kept coming in and out of commentary as I drifted in and out of my deep sleep. By the end of the first half I gave up and got out of bed and went to watch the end of The X-Factor with my sisters Julie and Natalie in the lounge. It ended within a few minutes and we switched to BBC1 to watch The Eurovision Dance Contest live from Glasgow.

I actually received my englandfan+ membership pack a few weeks ago but have been far too busy to mention it or even take a photo until now. So there you go, my new card which runs from now until 11th July 2010 (the day after The World Cup Final). Will England be there? At this rate we will be lucky to gain third place in the group (and that is no exaggeration). I am actually very apprehensive about the game against Croatia on Wednesday. I have a feeling England are going to be punished and not for the first time.

Watched The Promotion on Friday night and then Forgetting Sarah Marshall late last night. The Promotion was very good, not what I expected at all. The humour was very subtle, I had expected an all our war between the main characters but it is actually very well done. I am going to recommend it to my friend Steve (from Bournemouth) as he is a store manager for Tesco and would appreciate the rivalry of going for the top job against another assistant manager to have your own store. It is good to finally see Seann William Scott in a semi-serious role.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was just something to watch which I had not seen and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Plus there was Russell Brand making his film debut even though I'm not a big fan of his. My friend Bhav had mentioned to look out for the "receptionist'. Rather cryptic I thought until that point in the film arrived. Then all was made clear. Mila Kunis was the name of the actress, who resembles Rihanna (a little) and is going out with child star Macaulay Culkin. The move itself has the full Judd Apatow signature all over it and you will notice that most of the cast are made up from previous Apatow pictures, such as Superbad or Knocked Up. Overall it was good fun, with extreme laugh out loud moments in places. However unlike Knocked Up, there is a genuine desire to tell a story rather than go for the laugh every few minutes. I would highly recommend it, if you are lost for a couple of hours on a wet Sunday afternoon.

Watched the classic teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You this afternoon with my sister Natalie. We stumbled onto the screening by mistake really. I was polishing my shoes and waiting for my sister to find something to watch. Coincidently she was watching E! with the True Hollywood Story on Heath Ledger, but as it went to a break, I gave my sister the channel for Sky Movies Premier (301) and then our PIN (which I had to enter after Natalie got it wrong twice). Low and behold, the movie had just started and was eight minutes old. We decided to watch it and as soon as I had finished polishing my shoes, I put the volume up and switched the surround sound to "Movie" mode and jumped onto the sofa. This was easily one of my favourite teen movies of all time. I saw it about eight years ago during my first year at Uni. In halls, we would go and rent a DVD from the Blockbuster Express store in Queens Road. Olivia would drive in her Honda Accord and take myself, Marwa and Sippy to get the movie. On the way back we would either get some food or put a pizza in the oven and watch the movie. Usually in Sippy's room as he had the biggest television. Oh, the memories. Before The Dark Knight, my memory of Heath will be his rendition of Can't Take My Eyes Off You at the school stadium and running away from the security guards, including a cheeky slap on the fat one! (Why do you always get a little and large in any kind of pairing). However there are two characters that absolutely kill me from the movie, first is nerdy loser, Michael Eckman (played by now Numb3rs regular David Krumholtz. Then there is the fantastic English Literature teacher Mr. Morgan, played exceptionally by Daryl Mitchell. A great way to pass away an hour plus on a lazy Sunday afternoon. An even better way to realise the bright talent whom offered so much that we have now lost forever. He will always be remembered by the world as the Joker but for me, it is bad boy gone good Peter Verona

Received an e-mail from the De Montfort Alumni association this week. It was an electronic newsletter with various links which included the new television advert. I went to have a look and then had a mad dash on YouTube to find the advert that was shown back in autumn 2003, while I was still a student there. A little help from a ten year old and I got it.

Get DMUsed It what a stupid tag line! I mentioned the ad back in November, almost four years ago. At the time I could only find a copy of the video on Visit4Info web site. My housemates and I discussed this at length and agreed it was rather stupid, particularly the part when one of the candidates just straightens his tie, nods to the receptionist and walks out the door. What do I think of the latest advert? I suppose it is better than previous attempts in terms of impact but I still feel it is rather silly and gimmicky.

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Friday 5th September 2008

I will start my post as I always do at this time of year. September is my favourite month, but perhaps this year for more reasons than most. So much to cover and the fact that my previous post took so long to write up meant I have only just had a chance to sit down and take stock. Today was my last day at work and I left with a proud feeling. Three years, eight months and twenty-one days and a great deal of achieved. I remember my first day very well. (So can you by going to have a read, and even I found myself amazed at all the memories that come flooding back in particular the Ronan Keating featuring Yusif Islam version of Father & Son as my Dad dropped me off after a long lunch break). So, here I was leaving the office but not actually for the last time as I will be back for meetings and will keep in touch with many of my ex-colleagues. One even commented that he will keep track of my antics via this blog. While I am very sad to be leaving, I am actually looking forward to a fresh challenge and a new start. Roll on Monday?

My last day meant bringing in my Mum's home made somasas that went down a treat but also a trip over to Slough to get Krispy Kremes from the doughnut factory underneath the Tesco Extra store. They were taken home by the Development Manager for his children, which I did not mind. Better them to be eaten than to be wasted. It was the end of the era in a sense as I doubt there will be anyone else that brings in such treats (or such strange combination) for their celebration. I would also like to add that I have a habit of leaving work on the day of the Big Brother final (not that I really watch the show or pay attention to what is happening). Back in 2000, when I left Shell Cressex to head up to Leicester for University, I was left doing the Friday nightshift (into Saturday morning) and was told by a customer that Craig had won! Coincidently the calendar eight years ago, is only out by ten days (e.g. worked 15th September, left for Leicester 18th). Fast forward eight years and I am leaving work on 5th September and starting my new job on 8th September). A little bit of history repeating itself perhaps? Just as I type this my friend Bhav on MSN had just told me Rachel won! Then I go and read a tweet from the London's Diamond Geezer.

September means a new registration, 58. I totally forgot about this until I was overtaken by a brand new bright orange S3 on the A414, into Harlow on Wednesday morning. I hadn't notice the car in my mirrors and it came out of nowhere to take me on the nearside, on the dual carriageway as you get off the M11. Since then I have seen one other new car (which was in fact in the office car park, so I bet that does not count!). Not seen many new cars, may have something to do with declining sales.

Received a postcard yesterday from Daniel (of DieHardX fame). He had mentioned several weeks ago, when he invited me to his wedding that he wanted to send me some postcards. I wonder if there will be any more. I am not a big fan of Formula One. However, I would love the experience to go to a Grand Prix, particularly a night race over in Asia. However, I think I am going to have to give it a miss, if it was happening next year there would have been a slim chance in getting my act together to sort myself out however, with less than a month to go, it is just mission impossible. Although I feel I should have attended my home grand prix at least once before venturing abroad. It can get rather tedious watching cars go around a circuit but I would be more than happy to be a spectator. Although if I am honest, I much prefer the buzz of Le Mans 24 (if I ever get to go, that is another story!). I just wanted to thank Daniel for the post card and hope preparations for his wedding are going well.

What are the plans for the weekend? Well quite a lot to pack in actually, I'm heading into town first thing to get my haircut. Then I have got to get back and when my sister is back, head over to Newbury for a few viewings. Then back home in the afternoon in time to listen to England start their World Cup Qualifying Campaign (I will be at Wembley when they kick off the qualifiers on home turf). Sunday will be another early start, down to the gym and then perhaps a bit of shopping on Sunday in preparation for the first day and the all important first week. It will be hard but I am also going to try and fit in the gym as well (even if it will drastically eat into my evening). I will try and put together a post for Sunday evening which can summarize my feelings much like that summer day over four years ago.

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Sunday 31st August 2008

I'm back and quite tired and it is after a quick two hour nap this afternoon I have got a chance to actually start writing this blog entry. It is 19:37 and the BBC News is on BBC One. What a weekend, very tiring but it did not go as expected, from the outset (before we even left Wycombe). I will try my best to put together everything I have been up to for the past three days but it may take me a while to write something worth reading. I have just uploaded 116 photographs to FlickR which takes my online photo stream collection to over three thousand.

I got over to Ryan's house in Castlefield minutes before 12pm as pre-arranged. He was just getting the last bits of his stuff packed but had some bad news. Trevor was not coming. He had decided he was not feeling up for it plus had forgotten (he does that regularly) that he had a party on Saturday night. I was very disappointed, it was not going to be a proper reunion without him. We got the car packed and Ryan bought along his big CD case with his full collection of music. I thought I was the only person to write down the track listings on little scraps of paper and place them with each CD. However, I only did this for the few official albums I had (many converted from CD audio to MP3 CD format) For example, taking the Best Of UK Garage from three CDs onto two. Although I would like to point out that I would just put down the track number of my favourite songs rather than the whole track listing. It would just take too long and if Mr. Buckle had access to the internet, he could just print lists from Amazon. He was in charge of the audio, as I punched in the post code for our hotel. (I had put down all the important postcodes on a PostIt note in my wallet, Tim & Charman's flat, plus the closest ASDA store, just in case we wanted to make use of Ryan's generous discount!). The ETA was 14:02, not too bad, just under two hours. We were all set, and headed off to Handycross and onto the M40, then M25 then M3. I decided to follow the directions of the TomTom and not do my own thing (as I can do sometimes). As we were leaving at lunchtime, we hoped to miss any traffic but as there was the air show, we expected to be stuff once we got onto the outskirts of the seaside resort.

The journey down was good, quite uneventful with clear roads until we got onto the M27. However, by then I was quite tired from the monotonous motorway driving and having to stop start and concentrate was actually a good thing. I didn't notice until later on during the day but Ryan did not film me at any point until we actually pulled into Bournemouth just after 2pm. We were listening to the disc one of The Very Best Of Drive Time and then Now That Is What I Call Music: Decades (disc one, we would listen to disc three on the return journey but that is on video tape and will be uploaded to YouTube!). We pulled up at the hotel at 14:20, not a bad journey time considering it was the last weekend in August and potentially a very busy weekend in the town. We checked in and then planned what to do for the afternoon. I was given a pass for my car (the car park had been completely full apart from a single spot that we had found and parked in just in time). We had room 207, got our key and headed around the corner to the lift. It was one of those old style lifts, with carpet on the three walls. (In the brochure, Ryan had, the lift and Senior Citizen discount were the two and only features of the hotel). Our room was basic but that is all we needed, with a small television (14") high up on the stand above the dressing table. The bathroom was slightly bigger than I had expected with a shower. Our window overlooked the Lower Gardens and we could see the Bournemouth Eye out of the window. (A big balloon which rises up above the town and from which you can see Needles off the Isle Of Wight (apparently). There was music booming from a small tent on the right, which was putting on a show for families and in particular the children. We were hungry, so I we headed straight out the door (the front not the back more on that later). We walked up to the waterfront, it was packed but it would get busier the following day. We went for a little walk around the pier to just take a look at the air show and decide where to go for food. We chose, or rather Ryan suggested Harry Ramsden's and we headed there. There was a short queue but most people wanted to eat outside on the terrace as it was quite muggy and hot. We opted to avoid this (we were both very hungry and had only had breakfast which at that point felt a long time ago). We got seated (although a family behind us took the first available seats inside). We got a seat by the window and just as we were about to order, I looked at my watch. It was dead on 3pm. The Red Arrows had started their displays outside. Talk about bad timing. Over lunch we decided what to do for the afternoon before meeting up with Tim (Charman was working until 10.30pm and would not be back to the flat before 11pm).

In a repeat of a similar event back on 18th February 2006 blogged the day after had a similar receipt from the Longwall just outside Oxford. Maybe it is a regular thing for waiting staff to add a personal touch by signing the receipt or in this case, leaving a message.

The plan was this, go back to the hotel, grab my camera, then head over to the pier to catch the remainder of the air show. After this, head into town, take a look around, then giving Tim a call around 6pm to meet up with him after work. That was the plan and very much what we did. We walked back through Lower Gardens and then walked through the Beau Monde Bistro Restaurant up into our hotel and to our room. I insisted on taking the stairs as the small lift made me feel claustrophobic. We then headed back to the pier and in the crowds, try and watch the last hour or so of the air show. We headed out onto the pier, Ryan generously spending the large sum of &1 to go through the barrier. It was busy but not too bad, we stop at various points so I could take some photos but with the heavy cloud it was difficult to get any great photos. The EuroFighter had appeared just as we had got back to the waterfront. It made a piercing sound across the sky as it flew past, breaking the sound barrier. The volume was so high that many people covered their ears or jumped at the first appearance of the latest combat aircraft. However, I did not get any photographs of it, it was just too fast and it was just so cloudy, it would come in and out of the fog in a flash and my finger was not quick enough on the trigger. However, a few pictures from the day, the beach and the eye!

After making a circuit of the pier, we decided against going on the Dorset Belle boat trip. We didn't know how much it cost but it did not seem to go that far our into the English Channel. Instead we headed into the amusements. I was not really in the mood for gambling but happy to have a game or two on the arcades. We however, went for the more traditional football related contest. Fusball (as it known internationally) or table football. However the result was to set the town for the rest of the competitions this weekend. It was a complete whitewash. I lost ten nil, including three goals I scored into my own net. Not a good performance at all. What can I say? My hand to eye co-ordination is just beyond useless. Ryan was victorious and the photograph was taken before the game, but perhaps the smug expression is over-confidence oozing through. We then went into the centre of the arcade and found the Deal Or No Deal. I have to confess, although I have never really watched the show and do not understand the addiction, I knew how the game works. (Completely useless information but I recall the crazy student Will from Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks watching a Deal or No Deal marathon early last year). I could not understand why Ryan turned down each of the deals, even when the points on offer were very tantalizing. In the end, he made the right choice. In front of an audience of thousands (no, about three people, maybe even five at a push). Mr. Buckle won 1,000,000 points! The ticket is below but this equates to either a box (small) of Cadbury's Heroes or a wireless headphone set. Not sure why but Ryan declined to pick up his prize until tomorrow.

We headed down the beach in the direction of Boscombe. There was a fair taking place, we could see the ferris wheel from the end of Bournemouth Pier. The air show was drawing to a close with the final fly past by some historical aircraft. Ryan wanted to catch the train but I insisted on walking and we walked about half a mile or so down the beach. (On the path, not on the actual beach itself). Various stalls were still open and trading, one which I should have made a comment about at the time, selling personalised belt buckles. However I do not think Ryan noticed. It must have been around 5.30pm when we decided to head back to the hotel. I wanted to drop off my camera before heading into town to meet up with Tim. I had text him earlier in the afternoon (around 14.30 when we arrived and I was sure that Charman would have mentioned we were coming down). The stop off at the hotel was a pit stop, we headed straight out again a few minutes later. Ryan wanted to go to Borders. We went downstairs to the DVD and music section while Ryan tried to pick up a DVD for his Dad. He eventually decided upon Stella Street 2 as there was not anything else worth purchasing. We then headed for a little walk around the town before calling Tim at 6.40pm. He was still at work and would be finished in a few minutes, we had been headed in the direction of his flat but he would meet up in town. We took a little walk around and then waited at The Square. I sat down on the wall and picked up a flyer for local radio station , Hope FM which I then picked up by accident when I grabbed the map of Bournemouth, Ryan had brought along from home. We waited for the phone call. It eventually came and I got up to try look out for Tim as he walked down Richmond Hill. I spotted him, as did Ryan, in his dark suit and navy tie. We had just been speaking before about whether he had changed or not, I expected his hair to be different, it always was and he had not let me down. It was great to see him again, it had been almost (but not quite) eight years. Tim as usual was very polite and asked us where we wanted to go for a drink but we told him it was his town and he should be directing us. We behind us to The Slug & Lettuce. It was quite busy with a mixture of tourists down for the air show among the local office workers out for a pint after a short four day week.

We took a seat outside on the balcony, so that Tim could smoke. He had not changed and apologised for being so hyperactive! We caught up for a while and then planned our evening. The minute I had found out that Steve was working late, I knew that Friday night was going to be a night in and hopefully we would make up for lost time on Saturday. Things never turn out as you plan them but more on that later. We walked back to the flat, taking a diversion by Tim's office block. We then went to Nisa Local convenience store. We got some pizza and drinks, much cheaper than ordering and waiting for a takeaway. We then walked through the park under the by-pass to the flat. As soon as we walked in, I was shocked by the size of the television. Sure it was not HD but it was a 52" screen that you might find at the back of a pub. We watched the Super Cup Final (Manchester United were losing one nil) while Tim took us on a mini-tour and put the oven on. It was a good evening, we chatted for ages and reminisced about old times at school and college. Tim put on PES 2008 on his PS2 and played Ryan. I had a go but as usual was useless and did not want to suffer another embarrassing defeat so passed the one controller back to Tim. (Yes, only one controller so we had taken it in turns to play a half each).

Around 11pm or just after a figure walked through the door. It was Steve, he smiled but looked very tired. It was great to see him again, I put out my hand to shake and then gave him a hug. It had been too long, particularly as Steve had been my best friend at school. He sat down and we chatted for a while but then after a smoke said he was too tired and off to bed. I wished him good night and turned to Ryan to say that I told him that Steve would do this and go straight to bed after work. He disappeared to his room. It must have been coming up to midnight. However a few minutes later, Tim shouted out for Charman to come out of his room and he appeared and spent the rest of the evening with us. I went outside to kick a ball around with him in the small garden area and catch up. The last time I had spoken to him he was working in finance but was now back in retail management. We chewed the fat for a few hours and next time I looked at my phone it was 1:40am! Could not believe it was that late. Charman was hungry and going to make some tuna mayonnaise sandwiches. We decided to make a move back to the hotel, it had been a very long day, I was very tired. Plus we had plenty in store for Saturday. So we said goodbye and made our way back. Tim was going to meet us in the morning just before the air show and told me to give him a call when we got up after breakfast. Steve had to work Sunday too so Saturday night was going to be a bit low key but we promised to make the most of it.

While we had been waiting for Charman, Tim had lent me his laptop and I had had a chance to update both my Facebook and Twitter. I also logged onto my blog and let Ryan read a few of the past entries to get a flavour of what to expect sometime later this week when I get to right up the weekend antics. We walked back to the hotel back the way we came (even though it would have been quicker and more direct to go via the subway down Richmond Hill). When we got back to the hotel, I had to take a photograph of the beds and television for some strange reason and then fell asleep quite quickly.

Ryan is an early riser, so was up and about by 7am. I on the other hand got up at 7.30am, as I'm not a morning person. I was pleasantly surprised by the beaming sunshine coming through our window. Looked like it was going to be a glorious hot day. We planned what to do over a cooked breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We were going to see if the Bournemouth Eye was going to be running and get on there, if not, go for a round of crazy golf before heading back up to the Pier to watch the air show. When we got back to the hotel room around 9am, I called Tim and woke him up. He answered the phone but took a while to actually speak. Later he said he had little recollection of the conversation. He said he would meet us in town in a few hours and give me a call. We headed out into the Lower Gardens and directly to the Eye. It was getting quite busy with many people headed in the opposite direction with their deck chairs and windbreakers for the beach to get a great view before midday kick off. There was activity at the Eye but no queue, so we took a seat on a beach next to the ticket office, which was still closed. When we walked back past, it said it was not flying due to the windy weather, so we headed to the Crazy Golf course. It had just opened and a big family had got in there first. We decided to sit and wait for them to make some progress before we went to pay and collect our clubs but two and three groups jumped ahead of us and we decided to walk back to the Eye. The ticket booth was open now but no tickets were being sold as the Eye was not flying due to the windy weather. We thought we might be able to buy tickets for the first trip but it was not the case. We headed into town and into the Bourne Gardens.

Here, Ryan started taking some film, while I took some shots of the War Memorial and St. Andrew's Richmond Hill Church. We headed in the direction of the Tennis Centre and found the older putting green. I got two puts, balls and score cards and we headed up to the course. It was flat but had three staggered greens. We had a little difficulty getting in as the top two gates were closed and we eventually got in via the first gate. Although Mr. Buckle was far too eager and just jumped over the gate and got in. We decided to play the holes by green rather than number (as holes one, two, seventeen and eighteen were on the same fairway). What more can I say than it was a complete failure on my attempt to pose any challenge for Ryan. He won, hands down and as I took my last hole, I did not think it could get any worse.

I do not mind having my photograph taken now (although did when I was younger). However, I still hate appearing on film but put up with it because this was Ryan's way of capturing the moment. We have a lot more in common that I originally thought. While I tend to write things down, he switches on his camera and gives short monologues to the viewer. He had filmed every hole but with a blatant disregard for the amount of tape left on his tape. In the end it ran out, so we switched to my digital still camera which has a video recording option. The face I make at the end of this clip makes me cringe!

Afterwards we headed over to the hotel to get some more tape before heading back out to the air show. Just in time to catch the Red Arrows. They were fantastic and below are a few of my favourite pictures, although it was really difficult to get pictures considering the bright sunshine and speed of the Hawk aircraft. They used to be the highlight for me at the Farnborough Air Show which I attended several years on the trot with my family. The last time I had seen the display team was back in late July last year at the Global Gathering music festival.

Time for some lunch, we were both hungry and decided to head upstairs in the Waterfront complex. There was a pub at the top but it was packed. I called Tim to find out where he was, he was going to leave the flat in twenty minutes and would meet us there. We decided to to go Key West the restaurant come cafe at the end of the Pier. This was to turn out to be a stupid decision with the power of hindsight. It was about 12:38pm as we headed across, trying to get past the crowds of families and young children. We got to the restaurant took a table ourselves with no help from any of the waiting staff. They were obviously too busy as we would come to appreciate shortly. We had to wait around forty minutes before we were seen and ordered our drinks and food, then it was over an hour before we got our meal. Even after pestering our waitress on three separate occasions. Tim eventually arrived just before 2pm. We got free drinks for enduring the long wait but other customers were not as easily pacified as us. An elderly gentleman told our waitress to cancel their order, they had run out of patience. A family of four at the table diagonally opposite us, waited for perhaps thirty to forty minutes before just getting up and leaving. We did eventually get our food and then planned what to do for the remainder of the day. At one point once I had finished eating, I was tempted to just walk out but Ryan reminded me that we needed to pay, so we asked for the bill.

We watched the remainder of the air show, although had missed the majority of the planes as we had been sitting inside. There had been no tables free outside, but Tim then pointed out the ridiculously cheap barbeque that was on offer. Never mind, you live and you learn. We headed to the amusements for a bit but Ryan kept away from the Deal Or No Deal machine but still did not cash in his ticket. Tim was on the fruit machines for a while before we headed back to Lower Gardens. Although the Eye was now flying we opted to get in the queue for the Crazy Mini Golf course (the newer and difficult version in comparison to the morning). Ryan wanted to film each shot and I am sure we annoyed the couple behind us by taking so long. A grandfather with his two son's made a cheeky dash from the first hole and got ahead of both us and the two guys in front of us. Perhaps they knew we were going to take a while and opted to get out of our way. It was a tighter contest than before but eventually Ryan screamed into the lead and Tim was not in a position to get it back, even with a whole in one strike early on. I was never in contention, so the less said about that the better. It was getting close to 5pm by the time we finished and Tim headed off to do some food shopping and get back to the flat while Ryan and I head back to the hotel to drop off the cameras and then go out and find a pub to watch the Arsenal Newcastle match. By the time we got to Yates, fifteen minutes into the match. We would have been in there earlier had the bouncer not wanted to see ID. Once again, I gave the completely shocked looked and response, "You must be joking!". There is no way I look under twenty-five or even younger, as Ryan had me down to twenty-two. We found a good pair of seats at table facing the big projector screen. I was nervous, we needed to put in a good performance and win comfortably. It was turning out to be a great weekend. Three goals and some irresistible football. Could my weekend get any better? Perhaps this was the peak, the climax of my weekend trip. I text Steve to let him know the score, as I knew he would be too busy to catch up unless he had FiveLive running behind the counter.

Ryan had been quite passive during the match, almost disinterested as it was not his beloved Liverpool. However he appreciated the second and even more so the third goal. All football fans love the beautiful game, the pass and move, flowing attacking football. No club on the planet plays in the same style as Arsenal. Even if there was a little bit of show boating towards the end and one two many fail back heels. At full time we decided to go grab some food before heading back to the hotel to change and get ready for the evening. We went back to the Waterfront and the Red Panda Chinese restaurant. It was very busy, so we had to wait at the bar for about fifteen minutes before being taken to a table. A very nice meal and the service was very good, considering how busy they were. Or maybe it was because we were so close to the t kitchen door. A wealthy group of four (a table down from us) had been waiting to pay for their meal. However the chip and pin machine had not made it to their table, so the irate middle aged man of the group, went red in the face with anger. He refused to pay for the meal if the waitress didn't arrive with the device within a minute or so. The next moment, I saw them leaving rather annoyed and disgruntled. After our meal, we headed back to the hotel, just in time to catch the trail of the news and start of Match Of The Day. Tim called, after I had got ready and was lying on the bed waiting for Ryan to decide which shirt of of six to wear with with the three pairs of trousers he had brought! (This boy hasn't changed much from when I knew him over ten years ago at school!). Charman had just walked through the door, they were watching the football and having a few beers. They were waiting for us to turn up. Eventually we got ready and got to the flat just as the highlights of Arsenal versus Newcastle were being shown. This was not how I had planned the evening out. Never the less, we planned to go out after the Beeb's flagship football programme. Steve took a few minutes to get ready while Tim, took what seemed like an age. He was listening to The Very Best Of UB40 in his room (mp3s on his laptop) while he got ready. Eventually he came out and as I had brought my camera, I got some group photographs before heading back to our hotel (as the bar was just around the corner).

So, we headed to Bar So, via our hotel. This was in hindsight a mistake as even before we got to our room both Tim and Charman were making a lot of noise. There were signs everywhere to warn residents to be quiet after 10pm as many fellow residents retire early. Tim was just in one of his crazy moods and even grabbed one of the hygiene bags from our bathroom to wear as a tie?! Eventually we got out of there and joined the long queue outside. Tim disappeared saying he would be back in a second. While we queued and eventually got in. Tim decided to be a superhero and jump through the trees into the terrace come garden area. Luckily he was not seen by any of the bouncers. We queued for a drink but stupidly I had decided to wait by the area where they collect empties, assuming we would get served quicker. In the end we headed for the bar downstairs and Steve put in the order. As both Tim and Charman wanted a smoke, we headed downstairs to the smoking area. It had to probably be the best smoking area I had ever been in. Leather chairs, gas headers and a ceiling (it was a balcony of some description, so I assume that is how they get around the restrictions. There was apparently a private party going on next door, in the adjacent bar but no bouncer had stopped us walking through. Tim had arranged to meet up with his friend Karl and his fiance and her sister. We pumped into them upstairs on the sofa next to the dance floor. I know at this point I need to describe the music policy but I can only say it was perhaps house on the commercial side? (That will never be enough for Pav, even if I got it spot on!). Charman was in the mood for a party, even though he had early told us at his flat that he was not going to be drinking and leaving at 1am to see his girlfriend. I watched as the clock ticked past 1am and then past 1.30am! Charman at this stage was on his four or fifth pint and up on the dance floor going crazy. Eventually I was on there too but Mr. Buckle would not budge. He told me that after his holiday to Ibiza he had made a vow to never dance again. Not sure why? What is wrong with having a boogie on the dance floor. No one cares what you look like. We were joined by Karl, his fiance, Jo and her sister Eva. Tim was there too now and again, dancing for a bit before going to have a smoke outside. At 2am, the music died and we were ushered outside by the bouncers. Charman at this stage was heading to his girlfriends and Tim was trying to convince Ryan and me to stay out for longer. To head to another bar and dance the night away. I really did not hold the same enthusiasm as him. I wanted to crash out. He did try hard to convince us, including his friends (after they had got some chips from the takeaway. However there was no point, we had both made up our minds that it was time to get back to the hotel and crash. We left saying our goodbyes and said we would Tim a call in the morning.

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Friday 29th August 2008

By the time you read this blog post, I should be by the sea in Bournemouth, although I have just found out from my friend Steve on MSN that he has to work until 10.30pm tonight and tomorrow so the party will start a little bit later than originally planned. I am really looking forward to the weekend for several reasons. Firstly it is the first time I have seen both Steve and Tim in eight years, yes eight years! Secondly it is the last party weekend before I go back to work for my final week which judging by OWA (which I accessed from time to time) will be extremely busy! Although I suppose I have hardly been burning down the house every night in the past few weeks. Not making it to Reading was a shame (rather than a disappointment) and it has been good to re-charge the batteries in preparation for the new role.

This is my first net free weekend for a long time and I could be suffering from the symptoms of discomgoogolation. Although I am sure I could pop into an internet cafe if the urge over took me, I think I will be too busy for even the thought to enter my mind. When I get back on Sunday afternoon, it will just be a pit stop home to grab my gym bag before heading straight back down the A404 to Castle Royle. Yes, that is what you call dedication or complete craziness.

What have I done for the past week? Well you could look at my tweets over on Twitter or if you are a friend on Facebook, check my status updates. In summary, gym, rest, sleep. A trip to Newbury on Tuesday evening to see my cousin Praag and get some advice / help with the big move. Flat hunting but also looking at house shares and getting a steady stream of e-mails and text messages. I really need to sort myself out next week and arrange some viewings. My start date is not too far away. Not sure when the next opportunity will come along to blog. I will try and upload my photographs onto FlickR as soon as I get back and put together a blog entry over the course of the week. There may even be some video uploaded to YouTube but know how slow the editing process takes or rather it takes Ryan to edit his videos, you might see it online this side of Christmas, you might not!

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Monday 25th August 2008

Bank Holidays for me, will always just be an extra lazy Sunday. I do not get involved in DIY, so find myself doing other odd jobs around the house. I got up late, around 10am and headed straight over to Slough, to the temple. When I got back, I lounged about for a bit but knew I had to fit in the dreaded cardio session at the gym at some point. Rather than go later in the evening, I left around quarter to two in the afternoon, taking my sister's car as she had just come home. By the time I got onto the bike, I knew I was going to face an uphill struggle. Instead of watching my usual thirty five minutes of Sky News, I switched to BBC1 to watch Cool Runnings. Yeah mon! I can see it now, the sequel, Cool Runnings 2: The Story of Bolt. It was great to watch the movie again, even though I have seen it at least eight times since 1993. However, when I switched to the treadmill, I had almost no reception on BBC1. The picture was graining, no colour but good enough sound. So I opted to switch to the stats screen and just listen to the dialogue. Just my luck it had to be at the most dramatic part for their second run when they sleigh falls apart. By the time I got home, my family were watching Team GB come off the British Airways Boeing 747 'Pride'.

People who know me, are well aware I am a very patriotic person. Putting my country of England and Great Britain before that of my parents and the beautiful India. My view on these matters is simple and clear cut. You loyalties should lie with the country of your birth and no where else. My Mum had got an Olympic t-shirt for my first cousin Ramzi. (Although it is a bit big for him at the moment). I took some photographs last night and actually quite like the lion emblem. This may sound a bit mushy but to see athletes put everything onto the line, the blood, the sweat and the tears to achieve the pinnacle of their career, an Olympic medal (regardless of colour). I well up a little and have a tear in my eye as they are on the podium and face the flag as the national anthem is played. Nineteen times over the past sixteen days. A great achievement but an inspiration to others.

Last night, as there was nothing really worth watching on TV (yet again) I watched Flight 93 (later renamed United 93. A great movie, very well put together to describe what happened on board that doomed flight on September 11th 2001. It was very quick, switching between the flight and loved ones on the ground as people in first class made calls home and also made plans to storm the cockpit. Well worth watching but make sure you are prepared for the emotional outpouring. It makes me think back to the events of the day and as I was watching on BBC1 here in Wycombe, the flight was in the air and the passengers planned to fight back.

It is 23:10 as I begin this part of the blog post. Just got in from dropping my cousins to Bedford. Traffic was very light as expected and apart from the roadworks on the M1, it was a breeze of a drive. Listened to KISS100 until it went out of range north of Luton. Disc jockey Dynamite MC was playing some heavy tracks. There was a new track from Brandy and Trey Songz but the highlight was a remix of Mario - Let Me Love You. Called, "Let Me Heal You" it featured a mix with Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing. On paper you would not think it would work but it did and sounded great on the drive home on the M25. Been trying to hunt the track online but no luck so far. Found it on YouTube a few weeks ago, it was not easy.

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Sunday 24th August 2008

Been trying since Friday afternoon to get around to posting a blog entry but one thing or another has stopped me. Mainly the fact I have little of note worthy of a mention and being distracted by other things (mainly the Olympics on television). A rather strange week for me, which flew by even though I have been off on holiday. I suppose if I had had something planned, the time would not have disappeared so quickly. Let me take you on a quick recap of my adventures this week.

On Tuesday morning, I headed over to Newbury. I parked by the British Legion and walked into town. There were two objectives, primary to do a little reconnaissance of the area. Secondary to get myself signed up to some estate / letting agents and get an idea of what types of property is available in my price range. The first thing that came to mind was how small the place is, with just a small shopping centre (Kennett) that reminds me of The Chilterns back in Wycombe. The Vue cinema is not due to be completed until December 2009, a long time to wait before you can see a blockbuster alongside the famous music from Pearl & Dean. There were a few pubs but I also noticed a nightclub hidden away around a back street, called Liquid. A night out there would make it a triple sweep, having been to clubs in Leicester and Wrexham in recent years! I also walked across to the train station, just to see the proximity to my new office. A few minutes walk in the morning, hardly difficult. I then met my future colleagues for lunch before heading back home. I will be back again, next Tuesday evening to meet my cousin Praag.

I have tried to keep at the gym, although the times of my visits have been erratic. Preferring to head over in the morning rather than later in the day, it has been generally busy but not too bad. I got back from a weights session this morning around 10am. Yes, a little bit later than usual but I had a lousy nights sleep and only got up at 8am this morning. The cardio programme is a killer and I am not looking forward to tomorrow's session.

As you might have guessed, I did not make it to Reading Festival. I did not even attempt to get tickets, let me explain the story. I was under the impression that tickets would go on sale on Wednesday evening. As I left the gym on Wednesday morning, I picked up an SMS from Pav which he had sent at 8:13am. "we are in the queue now..." I had too many other things going on to be able to rush over and queue with the rest of the gang. When I got home, I had to take my Mum and sister to the hairdressers. While they were there, I popped into town, returned a book to the library and got out a new book out (The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn). I went upstairs to read it for a while but there were a pair of older gentlemen talking at length about committee meetings, so I decided to call it a day and go and collect my sisters. When I got back home, I decided to wash the car. It was long overdue and the sun did come out as I was finishing the car off. I am due to apply a coat of wax this weekend, but the weather today is not ideal. Back to the race for tickets. Pav was texting me regularly to keep me posted on their progress. In the end they spent over thirteen hours in the queue (six before they could see the actual box office building) to secure their tickets. They gave me the option for a weekend ticket but I declined. I was looking at perhaps buying a ticket for Saturday and going along for the day but it would have meant a scramble in the morning and a long queue at the box office. I opted to give it a miss. Ultimately I would be going for the experience and to spend some quality time with my friends, the music was far far far below on the list of priorities. While I can appreciate Indie and Rock, it does not have the same affect on me as Pure Pop and Urban Flavas. As late as 14:24, I got a text from Pav offering me the wristband of his workmate Barry's wife's cousin but it was rather late in the day for me to dashing up over to Didcot to collect it.

Pav text me at 18:50 with an MMS. The images were very similar to last year but he added the note, "www.terrymissesout08.com" - the usual phrase website domains he gives me daily on MSN and occassionally via text.

Looking forward to next weekend in Bournemouth. After struggle to book a hotel for the past few weeks, I was quite surprised that Ryan was able to book a hotel almost straight away. So, we will be crashing over at The Lampeter on Friday and Saturday night next week. Right by the beach and town centre, it will be a bit of a trek to get over to Steve's and Tim's flat. More on the build up to that in my Thursday posting.

So with no festival attendance, I was left a bit exposed for Saturday night. I watched Hellboy on Five US and then watched What Happens In Vegas. The comic book hero movie was okay, nothing really special. I expect the sequel is better but doubt I will get around to seeing it and if I am honest I am not that bothered, never been a superhero that really appeals to me. As for the romantic comedy, I am not sure why I wanted to watch it but after Hellboy finished around 11pm, I was not in the mood to watch Match Of The Day. I wanted a little escape. It was terrible and at times rather predictable. Some scenes were funny but it was Kutcher saving this movie from complete oblivion not Diaz. I've never been a big fan, apart from her crazy dancing in both Charlie Angel's movies. I do not think it was worth wasting nearly two hours of my life on.

What have I done today? Once I got back from the gym, I had some breakfast and then watched the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics and am currently watching the London 2012 Party on The Mall. I applied for tickets but was not successful in the draw. Never mind, I have agreed with my cousin and immediate family that we will be there for the opening and closing ceremonies in Stratford. Apart from that not much else planned for the rest of the evening or tomorrow. I will just waste away for a few days. Although last night (in between movies) I made a list of actions before I start my new job. Something tells me most of them will remain unticked.

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Monday 18th August 2008

It is 13:20 as I begin writing this post and I am officially on holiday. Not any old holiday but the first ever consecutive two week holiday in my working life. Yes, I am sure most of you will be shocked to discover that I have never had two weeks off work back to back. My last time work work to this extent was back at the end of 2007 and early 2008. I was able to book off a full calendar month, with my last day on 14th December and my first day back 14th January. Something tells me I will not be so fortunate in my new position. However, the reality is none of this should come as a surprise (particularly to my work colleagues) as I still hold an unbreakable record. Taking only three days off (two one and a half days) over two years (2005 & 2006).

People will find it even stranger that I have taken off nine days (we all get next Monday off) to attend a three day music festival. My only response to that (when Pav put the question to me on MSN a few weeks back) was to get some pre and post blogging done. Although this is all on the basis that I actually get hold of a ticket (one day, weekend or otherwise) on Wednesday evening. If not, I will have to find something else to do over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Perhaps a month ago (or a bit longer) I was on the weights machine in the gym and heard a new song start on the internal radio system. I half recognised the lyrics but the actual song was one of those dance numbers. (You know the formula by now, you take an old classic hit from the 1970s or 80s and then hook it up to a fast electro beat. Then give it plenty of airplay and sure enough the kids will buy it. In fact, I remember talking about this very subject over five years ago, and even gave it the title of dance floor covering. It was just before the chorus kicked in that I realised that the song was a cover of Big Area by Then Jerico. A little searching on the net, put me in the direction of the band's my space page. To go and watch the original go over to YouTube.

After I got up, I decided that I must get to the gym if it is the only thing I achieve today. I got there around 10.30am and found the car park packed. I had to park over a ten minute walk away in the over flow car park. I had never seen the gym this busy. I was hoping most people were either on the golf course or in the pool. I was right, to a degree but the gym was still relatively busy. I suppose most people on holiday or with some time off had decided much like me to come in for a morning work out. The session was hard work, I had fifteen minutes on the gym at level seven. It was tempting to switch it down to six (or lower) but I fought the urge and battled on through the pain. Minutes later on the treadmill, I found myself hitting 10km/s for a total of three minutes and not feeling too bad. The rowing machine, although now reduced to five minutes from ten has increased in intensity. I really have to push myself the whole time to break the 1000 meters barrier. I am not looking forward to my next session on Thursday. Although one lesson has been learnt, I need to get to the gym earlier.

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Sunday 17th August 2008

Turned out to be quite a busy weekend in the end, even when I only had a few things planned. Caught the bus into town just before 9am, got my haircut, picked up a few things from the 99p store, then headed back home. Around 11am, I had to collect my sister from the train station. When we got back home, we did the Raksha Bandhan ceremony before having some settling down to the football. It was great to have the Premiership back and even better to have Arsenal's first match, the early kick off against West Brom. Read the match report from ArseBlog.

As the football came to an end, we had decided to go and get a pizza takeaway from Pizza Hut. My sister, Samantha placed the order and we were stuffing ourselves with pizza just minutes before the 100 meters final. How ironic, eating fast food, while watching athletics at the peak of physical perfection set a new Olympic World Record. My only question is, if Bolt had kept pushing himself right to the end, he would have smashed the record even further but who can blame him for celebrating as soon as he could see his competitors were out of sight!

At 3.30pm, I called Ryan and made arrangements for the barbeque at his place. He was going to pick up Trev from Marlow and meet me in ASDA. They had to get food and drink before heading back to his. I agreed to meet at 16.35 and got their early. As I waited by the entrance, I realised that the store was a black spot for phone reception, so if Ryan or Trev were to call me it would go direct to voicemail. As it happened, they tried to call and had to leave a message. I had seen them and their friend James and Matt waiting outside with a trolley by then. We met up and headed to get some food and drink and then Ryan offered to pay for everything as he could use his generous (ten percent) ASDA discount. We then all squeezed into the Punto and headed back to Ryan's. Before the barbeque, we were treated to some special videos. One which Ryan had spent, six hours editing the previous night. I was in stitches. However, I was actually looking forward to my own appearance from one of the first videos. I was informed by Mr. Buckle that the date of the trip to Chessington was 28th April 2000. I featured, with a very bad haircut, in the early segment filmed at my workplace (Shell Cressex) and then in Crennell's red Ford Orion Panache. We had decided to head back to the car early and wait for the rest of the gang. Minute later you see a frustrated Daniel return and rip it out of everyone. My final act is to close the manual drivers side window and say to Ryan, "Your going to have a great journey home(!)". So strange to see a movie that was over eight years old and from a time before I started working and before I had made a decision on which university to go to. After the film show by our resident Barry Norman, we headed out for the barbeque. Ryan tried but failed with the lighting the charcoal, so I offered to help. Although let Mr. B. take over the cooking duties. It was great to just chill out and catch up with my mates, particularly their friends James and Matt, whom were very entertaining. I could tell that James was butt of many of the jokes, but things had not changed. It did not take long for attacks to switch back to Trev. For a while it was just like being back at school or college. Around 9pm, I text my sister to come pick me up and left, I was tired and wanted to catch Match Of The Day back at home. It was good evening and I would see Ryan and Trev again in a few weeks time when we head down to Bournemouth.

Got to the gym at 7:41 this morning and checked out exactly an hour later. It was very quiet and it was good to get the session out of the way early in the day. By the time I got home, I sorted out all my paperwork and did some shredding. Then after lunch, watched the start of The X Factor before switching over to Sky Sports 1 to watch the football. Then my sisters wanted to watch the Olympics, so I had to give in. At some point in the afternoon, I feel asleep and when I woke up, Chelsea were winning 3-0 against Portsmouth. After watching the 100 metres women's final, I thought it would be good to put Batman Begins DVD on. I had been lent the disc by Clive and since watching The Dark Knight at the end of last night, had an urge to catch the first of the reboot series. My sister Samantha had not seen it and Natalie and I tried not to spoil it for her. It was good fun, I had forgotten how dark it was and how much of a great story there was. After the movie finished around 7.30pm, Natalie cooked up some nice fajitas and we watched an episode of The A-Team on Bravo(+1). Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening. Then, a few minutes later my parents and youngest sister arrived from their weekend away in Blackpool.

As I got out of the car on Friday night, I noticed a piece of paper in the cubby hole under the dash, where you would keep change. It was a receipt, but not one I recognised, not one of mine. It was three years old, from a time before I owned the car. I was really amazed it had survived that long, considering the amount of work I have had done to the car and garages it has been into. I know a little about my car history, it was registered initially in North West London but had a service in Preston and this receipt from an Esso filling station proves it spent some time up in the North West. I am the third owner and I know the last owner lives in Beaconsfield. Funny how a little old piece of paper can bring so much intrigue relating to a piece of metal.

I am really into the song by the imaginatively titled, The Saturdays, "If This Is Love" which I have been playing almost non-stop in the car all week and watching the music video. Putting aside the crush on 19 year old Rochelle Wiseman. I really like the sound and the girls harmonies really do work together, I just would like to hear a range of music. Plus it is a shame they have not had much media exposure, apart from supporting Girls Aloud on tour. I will keep an eye out for them regularly. They have been mentioned on PopJustice a few times but as usual, I just skipped past the text onto the photos.

Overall a great weekend without ever switching out of 2nd gear. Good times can be had without making too much of an effort and having to trek around the country or have mega plans for clubbing. In any case, the next two weekends are potentially very busy, so perhaps just what I needed, something low key.

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Friday 15th August 2008

Friday at last and a special Friday but more on that later. This is first time all week that I have been able to come onto the computer in a relaxed frame of mind and actually dedicate a few hours to this blog. There is plenty of news and although an official announcement is not to be made until after the weekend, I feel I should let my dedicated and loyal blog readership know. I have been offered a new job. The details will come later but I can confirm my final day for my current employer will be Friday 5th September. (Three weeks today). A full explanation will appear in due course over on my work log but the for the time being, all I can say is I'm very excited and also just a little apprehensive. At times, I feel I am dreaming and it is not really happening.

The news was confirmed in a phone call around 7.20pm on Tuesday 5th August (I had taken the day off to go to North London). However, I did not tell my family until Saturday (hoping that by then I would have the contract in my hand). Sure, it does sound rather silly for me to be telling my closest friends and select few work colleagues and even my personal trainer in the gym. That is how it panned out, never mind. The main thing is I am off to a new job, a fresh start, a clean slate and new challenge.

An extremely busy week in the office and quite a lot of things going on outside of work. I had my third fitness test this evening at the gym. However, instead of on the treadmill as my previous tests, I used the bike. As expected this adversely affected my result and I have gone from a Superb fitness rating back down to Good. (Exactly the same score when I had my first test back in April). However, my personal trainer, Matt, explained that changing machine would affect my score because you have to keep a steady speed of around 70-75 rpm, which is difficult. I was slightly disappointed but it has given me the big motivation to push myself harder on the cardio programme, in fact, I have improved my cardio programme now. From ten minutes to fifteen minutes on the bike and pushed up the speed on my run by one kilometre on each of the steps. The cost in time, goes to the rowing machine which is reduced down to five minutes with a target of one thousand metres.

What are my weekend plans? Not a lot really, until I got a text as I left work this evening and got a text from Ryan asking me to give him a call. I had completely forgotten that Ryan and invited me over to his house for a small barbeque with friends tomorrow night. I explained that I was off to the gym and would call him later to confirm the plans, he could pick me up at ten past four (yes I know very precise) and that I could crash over at his place. We also needed to confirm plans for the Bournemouth weekend. I thought I was going to have a quiet weekend at home, watching football, the Olympics and generally lounging about. That would soon change.

Of course there is the Sunday morning trip to the gym but I always want to get a few items in the garage onto eBay and also do some sorting out of junk I have gathered over the past few months. The best part is I have longer than everyone thinks to get these things sorted. More to be revealed before the weekend is out.

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Sunday 10th August 2008

A nice relaxing Sunday evening and although it is raining outside, I feel good. I am watched highlights from the Community Shield on ITV1 (even though I know the final outcome). In years gone by I would have watched it live on Sky but as Setanta have got the rights, I had to settle with FiveLive commentary and the text on the BBC sport web site. If you had paid for the privilege you would have felt very short changed. Talking of football, I finally watched The Cesc Fabregas Show on my XBox yesterday lunchtime. It was Terry mentioning that he had been to Nike Town last weekend to pick up his free away shirt courtesy of the show and main sponsors Nike that prompted me to download the programme. Only three months late, never mind. It was okay I suppose, but we hardly learnt anything new. It was a mini This Is Your Life (up to now) with his parents coming on and team mates. There was of course a little bit of comedy thrown in by Matt Lucas and Paul Kaye. Personally I thought it was not like Cesc to fall for this 'self-adulation'. There is no need to have a forty-nine minute television show to showcase your talent and outstanding ability. We can see for ourselves week in week out. Arsene Wenger's appearance was also a little strange as he is not one to shine in the spot light. Thankfully it was a one off and we will not see anything like it again. Until perhaps the end of Fabregas' career but then a This Is Your Life episode will be well worth watching.

Last night I watched Wall-E. It was very good, entertaining and funny. However the lack of dialogue in the first half makes it difficult for you to enjoy as much as other Pixar productions. Personally, Toy Story 2 (well until Toy Story 3 comes out) is my favourite animated movie of all time! Well worth going to see, and like Pav said to me last Saturday, it does give you a gooey warm glow inside. What if Earth became a big rubbish dump and the population were evacuated into big spaceships.

Even though I feel asleep rather early for a Saturday night, I got up at 7.50am. Usually by this time on a Sunday morning I would be in the gym. I rushed out of bed, had some breakfast and then got ready and headed out the door. I got to the gym around 8.40am and left an hour later. Then after a shower, I was off again to Thame for my next piano lesson. It went very well. I can now play the melody to Energy by Keri Hilson. I have also learnt the basic tune for both God Save The Queen and The Stars Spangled Banner, for the first ever, I feel I am really making great progress with the instrument and dare I say it, enjoying myself.

Talking of national anthems, I am just watching Nicole Cooke on the podium as the anthem of Great Britain plays. How must she feel? An Olympic Gold medal, something that no one can ever take away from her. In terms of achievements this must be the pinnacle for any athlete.

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Saturday 9th August 2008

A complete change of plan from the Friday I had planned. Had to drag myself out of bed at at 4am today. I lie. My alarm was set for 4am, I got up at 4.22am and rushed around to get ready. I had a really strange dream last night I think that was playing on my mind, hence the delay to get up. In any case, I was ready by 4.50am and waiting for my taxi to arrive. It was a brisk twenty minute ride down the motorway to Terminal One and I was dropped outside in the light rain. I walked through to the Air Lingus desk, inserted a credit card, tapped in my booking reference and my boarding passes were printed. Both, for my outward and return journey. I then headed to the security area. It was before 5.30am but there was already a big long queue of holiday makers and fellow business travelers. This was a new area, with eight points and new fancy cameras (one at adult eye level and another and kiddy eye level). It was a little like a post office or bank but you did not have the fancy female voice over, "Next customer please" or "Please go to point eight". Instead the members of staff had to shout and wave their arms to get your attention. When my boarding pass and passport was checked I had to stand on a marked square tile and look directly into the Creative web cam device. Then I was cleared to go through to the actual security check. Ahead of me was a Brummie who started to have a casual chat about the slow process. He then went onto to mention semtex and the IRA, in fact using the immortal line, "It never stopped the IRA" and I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole! One of the lines was closed but opened for us and we went through. Once I had cleared security I walked through to the airside (is that the technical term). There was a long queue for the Cafe Nero coffee shop, so I opted to forfeit my morning cup of tea. I noticed a stand by the duty free shop on the corner and had to take a photograph for Pav. I am not sure if this is something that has featured on Top Gear but it would be nice to say, "Yeah, I've got a Porsche... travel bag!".

I had a little sit down for ten minutes or so before heading up to my departure gate. It was 84 and a bit of a walk across to the other older part of the building. I had another security check before getting up to the gate. Here there was about a ten to fifteen minute wait before we finally boarded. I had changed my seat from the isle to the window and had the whole row to myself. The flight must have been half full, being so early in the morning. The flight itself was very pleasant and I feel asleep as I usually do. I gave up on the thought of a cup of tea on the flight and promised myself a cup once I got to the hotel before the training starts.

We landed promptly on time and by 8am, I was sitting on the AirCoach bound for the city centre. Thankfully it stops right out the Gresham Hotel, where I would be conducting training. Once I got there, I went up to to the first floor to find the meeting room empty. I then had a little mad panic, did I have the correct local time? I went back down to the lobby and actually went online to check and updated a tweet (is that the correct phrase?) to broadcast to the online world my stupidity. Then, after a few minutes checking my Yahoo! Mail and updated my Facebook status, I headed back up to the meeting.

It was about 2.30pm by the time I was back at Dublin Airport. Plenty of time before my flight home to Heathrow. So, first stop was the bar, Baileys Bar in fact. I wondered why the television was on so loud and why everyone seem ed to be peeled to the screens. It was the opening of the Olympics in China and the teams of participating countries were on parade. I got a drink and then sat down to write some blog notes and watch the rest of the ceremony. Well as much as I could before I had to go and call a colleague and then catch my flight.

It was about 3.15pm that the Great British team appeared. I was wondering how ironic it was I. I should have been in the office watching this but instead I was across the water. Not something I had planned but never mind, after watching a few more countries I opted that it was best to make a move. Or at least check the departure gate for my flight. It was B24, just around the corner. I bought some chocolates for my family and then headed back down the departure gate to wait. There was a big crowd, so I had to stand up. The flight departure time was 5pm and it clearly stated on my boarding pass that the gate would close at 16:35. It was gone that time before anyone from Air Lingus appeared. We were eventually allowed on around ten to the hour but someone over the tannoy had said that this would not affect the departure time, I was a bit more skeptical. When I got to my seat, I found someone already sitting it in, so had to explain I was in seat 10C, show my pass before he moved into 10D. My row on the left of the plane had a chap in his suit sitting by the window and looking outside at the ground crew but the seat next to me was empty and I hoped it would stay like that as more and more people walked passed me to their seat. I was lucky, the seat was going to be free for the journey. I had heard various stories from colleagues that Dublin airport was notorious on a Friday afternoon with so many people going away for the weekend, plus being the summer season many actually flying off on holiday. I should therefore consider myself lucky, the flight was only delayed by about five to ten minutes for take off and then had to be stacked in a queue in approach to Heathrow (which is to be expected) and I think I landed around 6.20pm and headed straight for arrivals, to see ABC taxi driver holding up my name on a board. I was nearly home and got there just after 7pm. My long long day had finally come to an end.

My weekend began around twenty past nine that evening. I was waiting for Ryan to pick me up and put on the TV for a bit to kill some time. I switched over to The Hits (yes I was browsing the music channels, they have switched from 340 to 350 but I will forever remember 440!). It was Pat Sharp's - House of Fun 100. We had got to number 35 on the countdown and it was a-ha, Take On Me. My weekend could finally begin. Ryan picked me up a few minute later and I walked up to the top of my road to meet him. I noticed the headlights, he was driving a Punto. We headed down to Marlow and parked up in the Dean Street car park and walked down to The Slug & Lettuce. While I queued at the bar, Ryan tried to find Trevor but he was not here. He was in fact in the The Ship up the road because he and his friends were wearing trainers and would not be let in. He called me a little later and I explained we would come over in about twenty minutes once we had finished our drinks. It was good to catch up with Ryan, he had been several years, perhaps as much as seven since I had last had a proper chat with him. It was great to reminisce about the old days and some of the crazy things we used to get up to. I was glad to hear that he was still videoing most of the antis. I remember during the later days at college that he had got a video camera and had been recording loads of rubbish but did not think it would carry on for long but it did. He also still uses cassette tapes. I noticed a big stack of cassettes under the ashtray. I explained to him that it was 2008, time had long gone for the analogue audio medium. He begged to disagree.

We headed over to The Ship around half eleven and had to wait outside in a small queue before we could be let in. Ryan got the drinks in and then we went to find Trevor. He was at the back of the pub with his friends. He looked pretty much the same from when I had last seen him (September 2003) the day before I went back to Leicester to start my final year. He had a more facial hair and a "little less on top" (a quote from Mr. Buckle) I would like to add. It was great to just sit back and talk about school as well as college and the things we got up to. I wish I had been blogging then so I could now go back and read those posts but it was not to be like that. The memories are to be in the few photographs we took but mainly in our memories. Not exactly a bad thing. Ryan and I left around twenty to one. I got Steve's number from Trev and arranged to have a mini reunion with Steve and Tim down in Bournemouth at the end of August. Steve got in touch via MSN today to confirm it all. Looks like I need to find a B&B or hotel in the seaside town for the 29th August.

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Tuesday 5th August 2008

Went to North London today, to attend my second ever Members Day (first at the Emirates). I got up quite early (considering it was a day off work) and caught the 7.41am 32 bus into town. The driver nearly ran out of bus stop space when he pulled over into the lay by on John Hall Way. I decided to take this earlier bus rather than wait for the 100 to ensure I got into town and to the train station early. With hindsight I think I made the right decision, even if we were delayed entering the bus station by a National Express which blocked the entrance. The Polish bus driver would not let me out early, so I had to wait until we parked up in a bay. Even though he did not speak any English and just communicated to me with hand signals. I then rushed across to the train station and took the 8.25am train from platform one into Marylebone. I sat back relaxed and put the volume up on my Zen. I noted it was 8.31am, as I we drove through Beaconsfield and that I hoped to be outside the stadium within an hour. A tall task but manageable. I rushed off the train and down onto the tube and went to Oxford Circus changed onto the Victoria Line to Finsbury Park. (For a split second, I thought I was on the wrong train but was stupidly looking at the opposite end of the line!). I was surprised that there were no other Gooners in the carriage. I then made my way up to the ground, walking past the new refurbished Arsenal store right next to the underground station.

It was lightly raining as I walked to the stadium. The Highbury complex, now luxury apartments nearly looked complete. After all, it has been nearly a year since I was last making this journey for the Man City game (my one and only attendance last season, if you exclude The Emirates Cup 2007). There were a big group of fellow fans making their way down to the stadium. I got to the right turnstile (M) eventually and went through. I was handed a leaflet by a cute girl, a big improvement from the completely lack of information at my last Member's Day in 2005. However, due to technical problems with my host at the time, I did not get a chance to mention the day or upload the photographs. I have corrected the photo issue by uploading a new set to FlickR.

I made my way directly to the lower tier and found a spot and sat down, there was a light drizzle. It was just gone 9.40am, not too bad for timing. There was quite a big crowd gathered, and more flooding in as I settled into my seat and got my camera out. Plenty of children and families, after all it was the summer holidays. Wet, dull, grey, overcast and cold. A typical British summer. From my leaflet I could see the training session was not due to start until 10.30am, so I had just under an hour to kill. However before long there was already some action. Eduardo appeared to a rapturous applause from the fans and did some light running around the pitch. It was great to see him back and after the incidents from February at St. Andrew's against Birmingham City. I still have the picture in my head of fans holding up Eduardo's shirt in respect for the injured striker whose season was written off in a moment of stupidity. Here he was running around the pitch and a few months away from first team action.

It was half an hour later before the first team finally did come up the tunnel and out onto the pitch. There was quite a subdued applause as the master of ceremonies read out the names of the players. There was a big roar when Arsene Wenger finally appeared and started directing the training session via Pat Rice and his other members of staff. The players first did a few laps of the pitch before splitting into groups for light jogging around small patches of the pitch, designated by cones. After this there was a practice match between the squad, red and white bibs. I lost track of the score, just like last year but Van Persie, Adebayor and the third choice keeper (who he is, I do not know) also got onto the score sheet with a cracking long range effort. It was 11.30am, I decided it was time to leave and head to the Armoury before the rush, buy the new away kit and then head over to Denham. All the photographs have been uploaded to a new set.

I was the first person to leave and had to ask for a steward to buzz me out, to my surprise there were still a few people coming in through the turnstiles. I made my way in the light rain over to the Armory and went to see if the old away shirt from last season was available. I thought I would buy this, as it would be much cheaper. However, it was a case of one extreme to another. They had baby sizes, practically newborn and then nothing but XXL. I asked the sales assistant if they would have any for sale on the club web site but his reply was a distinctly unconfident, "Maybe". I opted to buy then, the new away shirt, long sleeve and get a name and number printed on the back. At first I considered Nasri with eight but soon came around to one of my favourite players. The Spanish wonder kid, so got his name instead. I would rather not say how much everything cost, including two Premier League badges but all I can say, is that it is a good thing I only purchase a shirt once every two years. In fact, two of my Arsenal shirts (from 1999 and 2002 respectively) were actually gifts. So I have only purchased three myself, not that it makes it any easier to justify to anyone but myself.

After making my purchase and avoiding any of the other wonderful things on display, I headed back to Finsbury Park and my journey home began. Well not quite home, I went to Denham to meet an ex-colleague and friend for lunch. Although he had already had lunch with clients, so I ended up getting a sandwich at The Bellhouse Hotel. Kindly I was given a lift back home which was a bonus but it meant I could not do a few odd jobs in town but as they were not urgent it does not really matter. So much more to blog about but all that will just have to wait.

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Sunday 3rd August 2008

Yesterday was a rather lazy day, I did not do much really. Even though it started with so much promise. I got up very early and went to the Esso garage to check the pressure on my tires and then went over to ASDA to buy some toasties. I bumped into my old school friend Ryan on the George stand, putting out new stock of jeans. I had bumped into him a year ago and we had arranged to meet up but never got around to it. So I promised to text him when I got home and arrange something for the end of the week. When I got home, I watched TV for a while (Sonia Deol on BBC News) before jumping on my computer at around 10am. By midday I was tired and decided to have a little afternoon nap. I did not get up until 2.30pm and then in a mad panic, decided I had to get ready and actually make up for doing nothing for most of the day. I watched episode four of John Adams and then afterwards remembered that it was the weekend of the second ever Emirates Cup. I switched on the television to see Van Nistelrooy score the opening goal for Real Madrid but decided to come back later for he Arsenal match. The last match I had seen on the television of my beloved team was against Everton (the final home game) on the penultimate weekend of the season. It had been a long wait. You can read the match reports over on ArseBlog or Arsenal.con.

Before the game finished, I had to get ready and head out the door. I wanted to leave by 6pm and I was a few minutes past this deadline. I drove across to Reading and parked in The Oracle. I then walked across to the Hope Tap (when I eventually worked out where it was but was surprised to find no one in there). So I text Pav and decided to wait for him to arrive before headed up the road to Xen. He text me that their ETA was three minutes and twelve seconds, how more precise can you get than that? Everyone else was already there and had even ordered their meals and had been served their starter. We had the long table to the side of the restaurant and the only seat left for me was at the end. Next to Nicola's twin brother, Dan and opposite Toni. My first time in this triple header restaurant (they do Indian, Thai and Japanese food) and it was a very good experience. Prompt, attentive but discreet service, that is how a restaurant should be run. I hate to be over pestered. After the wonderful meal we headed downstairs to the bar. We had a few drinks here before headed over to Bar Mango. As we walked past Bar Risa, they tried to get us in with the temptation of free entry. Andy (quite drunk already at this point) said, "Sorry, on the guest list at Mango" and we all burst out laughing! There was a bit of confusion in the queue when we did get over there, we left Eddie to deal with the bouncer. We were on the guest list and pay only a fiver to get in. They could hardly turn us away, the place was dead. Eventually after a phone call, mobile phone with text message confirmation and explaining that we our birthday boy with us. Once this became clear, that we were a birthday party, we were allowed in. At the bar, Eddie was very generous, he bought two bottles of champagne and we headed to the side of the dancefloor. We were here for awhile before venturing outside onto the terrace bar area. I had never been here during the summer months and the area is quite restricted in window as the smoking area. However, now there was a bar and small dance area, with tables and chairs. Plus an area on the side for a barbeque. It was like I had come into a new club with a new room. It was here we spent the rest of the night. If I am honest, I was not hoping to make it too much of a late night, but the tunes just kept getting played. Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics was a particular highlight. Every moment I thought I would leave, another cracking tune was dropped by the DJ and I had to stick around for a little dance. I eventually left at around 1.30am and got home at 2.15am. Great night out, just a shame I had to rush off but I knew I had so much to do on Sunday.

Somehow I dragged myself out of bed and got to the gym around 7.40am, I was the third person through the doors and spoke to Matt briefly before starting my program. The issue with the dedicated news channel has changed once again back to Sky News. Not sure why they have done that but never mind, perhaps they just fancied a change for a week. My weight programme is hard but I am slowly getting used to it, particularly the new machines and the new routine in terms of the order, to make sure I do not work all my upper body muscles too quickly. My next review will be in about a month but I think I will just increase my cardio programme but leave my weights as they are and perhaps add in a free weight programme.

Have you seen the Sky Sports trail for the new football season featuring Britain's Got Talent semi-finalists eScalla? My friend Terry has a big crush on one of the blondes. Must say it is one of the better adverts in recent years, just consider the recent cast. Rachel Stevens, with "More More More", Elton John with "Are You Ready For Love" are the only two that come to mind instantly. Can you remember any others recently?

I watched Vantage Point tonight (I was not in the mood for Wall-E but perhaps made the wrong decision). It was a good movie but I expected more. It was similar to the movie Go, which I saw during my first year at Uni. Interesting and a good way to burn away my Sunday evening. The plot was clever to begin with but then eventually you realise what is going to happen and then you do not really care for the ending. In fact you do not really care about the characters that much either. Plus, it was annoying to have scenes in Spanish with no subtitles. Come on people, sort it out! I remember seeing the trailer at the cinema, earlier this year and although the action scenes looked impress the story was pretty pathetic. (They should not have revealed the main twist in the trailer, big no no Mr. Director and Mr. Producer!)

I got a lift back home with one of my colleagues in his black 55 plate, Mazda RX8. It was my first time in this type of vehicle with the unique rotary engine. I was extremely disappointed, yes it was quick but when my colleague put his foot down, it sound tinny electronic and fake (even worse than the V-Tec you find on Honda Civic Type-R. In fact, I was more impressed with the digital dashboard display, the LEDs shown the speed. I have something similar, but far less elegant with my Micro RoadPilot.

Development continues to bring streaming option to the iPlayer script on XBMC. RMTP support is available on XBMC on Linux and Windows but not yet the device the media centre was designed for. I keep a regular, almost daily check on this thread to find out the latest news. While I wait for that to be released, I found a Windows based application that enables you to download iPlayer video DRM free to watch at your leisure (beyond the thirty day limit). It can be found over on the fantastic blog Po-Ru. I have tested the software and it is quite reliable, you get the Programme ID from the iPlayer website, enter it into the dialog box and hit download, set the file location and job done. The files are saved as mov (QuickTime) and the quality is acceptable, after all the files are designed to be viewed on an iPod or iPhone. I think this will do nicely while the geeks and nerds sort out the script or plugin for the XBox.

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Friday 1st August 2008

As I left the gym and walked to the changing room, I heard a fresh song play on the gym sound system. It was Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. As I got changed I wondered if I had the song in my car, as I suddenly had the urge to listen to it on the drive home. I knew it was on my Drive Time album but it was a case of making sure I chose the correct disc (one of two). When I got back into the car I grabbed my CD case (always and only Case Logic) from the back seat and found I did have both discs. I chose disc two and it was pot luck. The Fleetwood Mac was track seven. There is something special about hearing one of your all time favourite songs which you have not heard in ages. I am sure I have mentioned this before but my drive time compilation album is my most complete. There were two concepts behind the burning of the two discs (although I could have gone onto a third). Songs ideal for listening to in the car but also, three tracks, (80s or earlier, 90s and 00s). The decade pattern was how the tracks were burnt, I am sure you are aware of how difficult it can be to justify a track order. I then stumbled upon Everybody Wants To The Rule The World by Tears For Fears, a quintessential driving song. Then the final track was Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind, which I timed perfectly to finish, just as I parked outside on my drive. Sometimes everything in life just clicks.

Pav was bugging me to come and catch The Dark Knight with him on Wednesday night, with the Poole, Sazzle and big Phil. I declined the invitation, even though I was keen to watch the movie again. On Tuesday, it came to close to begging but I still would not budge. I was surprised to see him online on Wednesday evening, the showing was for 8pm (meaning if I had wanted to go it would have been a rush from the gym over to the Oracle). The screening had been sold out and therefore there was no trip to Vue. Now this is why I always book online in advance, people laugh at me doing so but it is worth the booking fee to confirm your seats and not be left, like Pav and co in this situation with an evening with nothing to do. Or rather have to make alternative plans, like polish the M3 again!

Gym has been going well and I have started to get used to my new weight programme. However on Sunday they switched their dedicated news channel from Sky News to BBC News. Not sure why (perhaps people were complaining about the constant stream of adverts) but I found it a little strange to see Huw Edwards rather than Jeremy Thompson. A change but in any case, as much as I enjoy the quality of Sky News, over recent years I have grown a great fondness for BBC News and their team.

On the television horizon, I have plenty to watch. There is Wall-E (a telesync that a friend provided the other day), episodes four to seven of John Adams, plus another movie, Vantage Point. I hope to watch at least two out of the three but it more likely feels it will just be the one.

My blog was listed by Diamond Geezer on his blog yesterday. It was a great achievement although I have been featured in previous years. It is a blog I read every day and seven times out of ten, it always worth reading. So in a way to return the favour, please go and check out his blog, bookmark it and keep coming back for more, like I do!

My weekend plans are quite lame, if I am honest. Not a lot going on. Going to get onto the family computer tomorrow morning and see if I can sort a few bits out (even if it is just updated AVG) I know the TomTom needs to be updated and then I can attack my friend's computer and hopefully get that working. A motherboard transplant (if I can get the donor machine working). I am also hoping to catch the Emirates Cup on Sky Sports although it might be a tight window before I head out. Tomorrow night I am in Reading to go out for a meal for Andy's 30th birthday (all arranged by his devoted girlfriend Nicola). Not sure if I have been to the Xen before but should be a great evening but after the food, not sure what the plans are, the birthday boy is in charge! Sunday morning will be spent in the gym and then perhaps a visit to relatives in Bedford but not sure whether that has been confirmed or not yet. Whatever you get up to this weekend, enjoy! Can you believe that August is here already?

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Sunday 27th July 2008

I was the first person in the gym this morning, a few minutes after 7.30am. I wanted to get the workout out of the way early, so I could get home and get on with all the little jobs I had to do. The gym was completely dead and only had a handful of users by the time I checked out at 8.31am precisely. But by the time I got home, had a light breakfast, I had to get some rest, I was not feeling great.

Yesterday was the start of a catch up weekend and I did not have much of a window to watch both Eastenders (Friday episode) and part two of Burn Up, so I decided upon the trip to Albert Square. I was half dozing in my leather chair and remember waking up to see Jase with a face full of blood and collapse. I thought I missed the ruck! Watching part of the episode again on BBC1 this afternoon, I realised I had not missed any action.

Had a great time at Jennifer's barbeque yesterday evening. My sister dropped me off around 7pm in Downley. There was quite a bigger gathering than I expected, after Jenny had originally told me, "It's just a few close family and friends and I would like you to be there". They were celebrating their seven (yes seven!) year wedding anniversary. I finally got a chance to hold Aiden (photos to be uploaded by Anthea and Jen in due course) while he was asleep but did see him awake for part of the evening. I also finally got to have a proper conversation with Elvis and also met Nick, Anthea's boyfriend for the first time. The only other person I knew there was Philip Jeeves, whom was also in my form (x.2) at Ramsay. He was there with girlfriend and his parents. The last time I had seen him was in fact the very day of Jenny's wedding (Saturday 28th July 2001). Something about time flies when your having fun or avoiding ex-class mates you really do not want to keep in touch with. Although of course Facebook has put a stop to any of that business. It was a great evening, with the Caribbean music bumping (a bit of dance hall and reggae) and a lovely spread prepared by Jennifer herself (and not her Mum as I originally thought). I got my sister to pick me up around 10pm before I headed home. A very pleasant evening and nice to do something different and local for a change.

I am not a big fan of Twitter, both as a user and reader. The excellent search facility enables you find out what people are discussing right now. I have subscribed to a few tweet feeds. One person you may know, from the BBC News. Rory Cellan-Jones (double barrel names can be so annoying). He blogs regularly on the dot.life over at the Beeb but you may recognise him from technology or financial news bulletins on television. He took the following photograph, and boy did it made me chuckle. Although looking back it could refer to those Fathers 4 Justice super heroes!

In my searches via Summize (now purchased by Twitter to become Twitter Search) I found this great tweet from Hoodhype describing Keri Hilson in her Energy video! :) If you want to know what I am referring to, you can go over and check out the video on YouTube. I am sure I linked to it in my previous post.

Watched the final part of Burn Up lunchtime today. It was very good but I was slightly disappointed, I expected a little bit more but then as a political thriller, you can expect it to do no more than get bogged down in the politics. Literally seconds before Holly (Neve Campbell's character) was killed off, I thought it would be far too easy for her to just be eliminated by the powers that be and that the script writers would come up with a more sophsiticated way to have her compromised. I was wrong, she meet a deadly end in the football stadium in Calagry, Canada. A shame, because she is a fantastic actress and although not given a major part here was excellent throughout. Good work but with plenty of plot holes and unexplained aspects, it does provide you with an idea of what actually goes on behind the cameras at these world forums but also the deals cut between the big oil companies and international governments. Well, they will have to come up with some alternative fast, the oil is expected to run out around 2050, only forty-two years to go!

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Friday 25th July 2008

It is 00:47 as I begin writing this post. I am very excited to put down in words my cinematic experience this evening. First things are first though, I managed to keep Pav at bay all day. I got two texts from him, on yesterday evening and one today, "Terry Bruce Wayne is really Batman" which was just a big joke. I blocked him on MSN and did not log into Facebook all day. Not that difficult when you are really busy and have a meeting for a few hours in the afternoon and disappear out for a long lunch. I was really looking forward to the movie and actually got over to Thame about ten minutes early. Clive and Edwin were still finishing their dinner out on the patio in the back garden. It was a few minutes before we left to head over to Vue in Oxford. We got their around 7.35pm, as Clive drove cross country and avoided any traffic. However I was shocked at the queue of people waiting to get into screen six. There had already been a notice on the door outside that the 8pm screening was sold out. We hatched a plan. Clive went to the toilet, while Edwin and I got in the queue for snacks. Clive had given us our tickets and was going to sneak into the screen and save us some seats. We eventually got some popcorn and joined the back of the queue, almost by the far end wall of the cinema. However it was a few minutes before 8pm now and the queue was moving. I was hoping that Clive had saved us some seats. He did a great job, central seats as requested and we found him, waving like a crazy man in the middle. We sat down and it was just a moment to wait for the Pearl & Dean music to start.

Easily one of the greatest super hero movies of all time. I would go as far to say that it gives Superman II a run for it's money but perhaps due to the dark nature of the movie and subplots it just loses out. Okay, a few criticisms, perhaps it is a bit too long and the story is fairly complicated. However, that aside it is a great movie and I loved every second. Bale gives a towering performance as Batman and Heath Ledger steals the show as The Joker. A hero is only as good as his villain and in this case, Batman truly does meet his match. I cannot wait for the next installment and actually just watch this movie again. The set pieces are brilliant, all the cast give sterling performances. Personally I would have preferred to explored Harvey Dent's revenge in a separate movie (the Joker is plenty of a villain for one movie if not more). Nevertheless, it all works and the story does have you hooked at the edge of your seat. The story is the most important aspect of the movie, with only one gadget used during the climatic final battle scenes. What appeals to me most about Bruce Wayne, is the fact that by day he is a billionaire playboy without a care in the world. Flying in on helicopters with beautiful women, or driving around Gotham in his super fast car. However by night, he turns into the caped crusader, looking out for the innocent citizens of the city. Leading such a contrasting double life makes him the ultimate hero. However I feel Superman wins out because Clark Kent is so pathetic and you feel sorry for him and in a way can relate to the loser (every office has one). Enough comparisons, back to the movie. There is a great deal to take in so pay attention but most importantly sit back and enjoy the ride. Just consider that had to sit through two rather painful Batman movies (particularly Batman & Robin) to be able to finally enjoy the franchise as it should have always been realised on the big screen. There is not much more I can really tell you until you go and see it. The Joker is just truly insane and just does not care for anything, people, money or himself. Batman does find himself up against it but will he run forever? "Either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain!".

I can now never watch the 1960s camp, Batman series with Adam West (I think they are currently airing on BBC4). While I suppose there is an audience for this comic action, I think I will leave them for the young children and concentrate on the movies. I cannot wait for the next one. If you are really bored, you can find out why Revenge Of The Sith is apparently better than The Dark Knight.

Clive annotated the notes to Energy by Keri Hilson for me and gave them to me after we got back from the cinema. The video was released last week and I was able to download a copy, you can check it out on YouTube. I will try and find time to practice over the weekend but it already looks like it is going to be a busy one. I got a long list of jobs to do tomorrow. Go into town, get haircut, return library book, get another book from my reading list, buy some bits and bobs from Boots and then head home. Then I need to wash the car, before doing the television catchup. The weekend has become a time for catching up on television I have missed during the week. There is Friday's edition of Eastenders, plus part two of Burn Up. I also have five episodes of John Adams to get through and even a classic Bollywood movie from 1992. A personal favourite but doubt I will get a three hour window to sit down and enjoy (has to be watched via XBMC and not on my PC). I will let you know, how I get on. Tomorrow night I am off to Jenny's house for a barbeque to celebrate her wedding anniversary with her family. Sunday morning will be gym and major catch up time in terms of television but also a chance to clear my room and sort out all my paperwork. It is quite a mess at the moment.

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Tuesday 22nd July 2008

I have some unfortunate news. I have been dropped like a lead balloon by my dearest brother Pavneet Singh Khural. He dropped the bombshell via MSN last Wednesday, I was gutted. He is going to catch The Dark Knight with his workmates Barry and Scott this coming Thursday at Vue, Oxford early evening 5pm showing. I am really annoyed. Mainly because he is my cinema buddy but also because we went to see the first movie in the reboot of the franchise, Batman Begins back in June 2005. In fact it was a momentous occasion, as it was the first time we met up with each other to go to the cinema since our college days (we had met up for the first time in Maidenhead in May a month earlier). I remember it very well, as I had to get directed from his old flat to his new house in Emmer Green via his sister on the telephone. It became a trip down memory lane as I took a camera phone photograph of the old number plate of his Proton. In any case, there is an unwritten rule that if we see the first movie together we have to see the sequel. This has been the case with Fantastic Four and erm, I cannot think of any others at the moment. So to rub salt into the wound, Pav cut and pasted his e-mail confirmation from Vue into the MSN window last week and that annoyed me further. I feel I have no option to block him on Friday just in case he lets something slip.

Batman is perhaps my second favourite superhero of all time (after Superman) and a touch higher up the scale than Spiderman (he is a bit too much of a boy figure in my opinion). So you can imagine my joy that the franchise was to return with Christian Bale donning the cape of the saviour of Gotham City. I have thankfully been able to make plans to catch the movie on Friday evening at 8pm, at the same establishment with my friend Clive and his friend Edwin (over from France). I am really looking forward to this movie, from the moment we saw Batman pick up that Joker card on the top of some skyscraper on that night in June three years ago (can you believe it has been three years). I remember smiling with Pav and saying I could not wait for the sequel as a hero is only as good as his adversary. I am trying my best to avoid getting sucked into the reviews but it was unavoidable to hear that the late Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar for his performance. When the villian is stealing the show so well (similar to Hoffman in Mission Impossible III) you know you have a great cinematic experience on your hands. My only disappointment is that I will be sharing the experience with my dear friend Pav. Although we will be in the same multiplex, allbeit fifteen hours apart.

It is a bit early to be discussing the weekend but I have been invited to a barbeque at the Medfords' to celebrate Elvis and Jennifer's wedding anniversary (seven years) so will be there on Saturday evening. The rest of the weekend pans out as usual. Gym on Sunday morning and trying to sort out my friends computer as well as the family desktop if I have time.

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Sunday 20th July 2008

Today started quite well, I got myself out of bed just after 8am, got myself down the gym for 8.38am and left at 9.38am. (I struggled with the shoulder press but more on that in another post). I got home, changed and then headed for my piano lesson in Thame. Towards the end of my lesson I noticed bright blotches in my vision. I was getting a headache. I left and turned down the option of lunch and drove home. I called Ricki on the way but it was a brief conversation. I got home and went straight to sleep. It was about 1.15pm and I did not get up again until 6pm. After some food, I went back to sleep and got up at 8pm in time to watch Top Gear. A wasted Sunday afternoon which I am trying to make up for.

Last night at Egg was fantastic! It was perhaps a milestone in my clubbing experience, so I thought it would be an ideal moment to look back at my clubbing history. Particularly as the majority of the early days (1999-2002) are PB (pre-blogging days). My clubbing life seems to start with Pav. Back in 1999 we would go to Level One. A dingy club built into a car park to the west of the town centre. I went there three or four times but it was never anything special. We then moved up a level to Utopia, which was outside the town centre and actually just off Junction 12 off the M4. (It has recently reopened as J12). This was my first experience of a quality venue. The dance floor was massive and we got big group of us together and my Dad even hired a minibus for a few trips. One memorable trip was in Christmas 1999. I just remember as the club closed, to get everyone out the DJ played The Hamster Dance. I can remember quite well, the lights coming on soon after the song blasting out of the speakers and everyone darting for the exit. Oh the memories, in any case, that was one of handful of visits to Utopia.

In September 2000, the move up to Leicester meant many things but also a change in direction. While I still enjoyed going to the commercial dance venues, the new friends I made were into a different music scene. An urban and more street based music style. I got introduced to Garage for the first time and went to some amazing gigs. I remember Garage Nation at Zanzibar which was a sellout and absolutely crazy. I also recall my birthday night out in Mosquito Coast (what a fantastic name for a club) which was headlined by DJ Luck & MC Neat in November 2000. I am trying to remember the names of some of the clubs but many have been refurbished and changed (during and after) my time at university in the city. I refer to these as the lost years because I was completely lost touch with Pav. He was back at Henley College (re-sits) during my first year and then in Birmingham studying Engineering before dropping out to get a job in the real world.

We got back in touch in 2005 and I remember some of his first messages to me. He was 'really' into his dance music but also did some DJing from time to time. I was quite shocked. (This was the guy that had really liked Alice Deejay like me but perhaps he did not want me to post that admission on my blog). I remember the first few early mixes he had send me during the later days at college. He mixed A-ha Take On Me, with Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away. I might even have the mp3 file lying around on a archive CD somewhere. In three short years I have been introduced to a whole range of music and amazing venues. The super clubs across London and some more local venues such as Phatz Bar in Maidenhead. I also went to two music festivals and plan to go to many more.

Kev picked me up around 9.30pm and we headed down the M40 to London. There were road works just before Park Royal with the three lanes converging into two, so it was about half a mile tail back. Plenty of time for Pav's set, he was not due to take over the decks from Stevens until 11.30pm. We turned left after Kings Cross and dumped the car in the fist available spot and then worked up York Way. We noted that the number near by was thirty something and we had to get to two hundred. As we crossed the road, we saw two minibuses pull up. The free courtesy Egg taxi but we opted to walk rather than jump in. (We were under the illusion that the club was right the corner when it was about a mile (or at least three quarters of a mile away). We continued walking but the rows of shops and houses changed into industrial park land with their high silver gates. We were started to lose hope but Pav then noticed the bright sign up at the top of the hill (I saw it a few moments later). The Egg logo on a white lit board. We were here.

Outside there were more staff than actual customers. In fact we were the first customers and told to queue up in the paid queue. We then were let through, I had to empty my pockets and go through the scanner and we were in. The interior corridor was plush, all in white with an exotic almost Continental feel. I was looking forward to the night out. Kev misplaced his mobile phone, so went back to the car with his girlfriend Deun. (They caught the Egg shuttle bus to the car and then parked the car right outside the club. I went to check the place out. Walking through you went into the garden area which was under a marquee. Through the door and to the right you were in the basement, the Crescendo area with Paul already on the decks. I then got some drinks in and the evening could start (once Kev & Duen had got back by then). It was a great night, just took a while to get going. The place was practically empty when we arrived but by midnight the place was banging and Pav (using his new name for the first time (Breezy has official been dropped but I think the web site remains). A great night but after a while I went to explore, there were two rooms upstairs (the second I discovered later with Pav). They were playing more commercial / vocal based dance tunes and it was rammed! We stayed here for a while before heading back downstairs for the end of Pav's set and the beginning of Russell's. They had the ceiling lights on and there was a great atmosphere on the dance floor. Here are a few of my favourite pictures, (all courtesy of Pav, I opted to leave my camera in the car!)

You can view the rest over on FlickR. We left around 2.30am, and I remember getting home just before 3.30am, still buzzing from the fantastic night. I am looking forward to the next Crescendo night, whenever it may be. Plus I had missed the last event a few weeks back at Pascha so enjoyed being back out on a Saturday night having a good time (for a change).

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Saturday 19th July 2008

It is a lazy Saturday afternoon approaching 3pm and I feel somewhat empty with no football to speak off. (Although Arsenal play their traditional first pre-season friendly against Barnet). I was actually hoping to post an entry last night but did not have the motivation or material. I feel only slightly better prepared now. I am looking forward to Egg tonight in London. Kev is giving me a lift, so no problems with logistics. More on that later, for now let me quickly recap what I have been up to for the past few days.

A busy week in the office but I met my deadline (just) and also got a great deal off my chest. Time will tell if it will fall upon deaf ears. In the gym, I had my review with Matt on Thursday evening. My weights programme has been improved, with two new machines added and also weights on all previous machines increased. In two month's time, he will add a free weights programme so every time I get to the gym I will have the choice of three programmes (cardio, fixed weight or free weight). Although I have a confession to make, I have not been using the machines properly. I have been rushing through twenty four reps straight, when I should do twelve and then have a rest of up to a minute (bare minimum of thirty seconds) before doing the second set of twelve. I was wondering why all the machines 'beeped' at me constantly from reps thirteen to twenty-four and beyond. I will be giving my new programme a first run through tomorrow morning. I will of course let you know how I get on.

Tomorrow morning I also have a piano lesson but I am seriously considering dropping out. I have e-mailed my tutor but so far have had no reply, perhaps he is too shocked to even contemplate a response and will speak to me firmly at the lesson. I have to confess that I find it very difficult to find the time to sit down to practice. I am suppose to manage thirty minutes every day but that is nearly impossible. I think I squeezed in two sessions last week but one of those was doing my theory homework so should not count. When one has focus and discipline he can achieve, without these characteristics you found yourself lost, lacking motivation and actually deeply frustrated.

I happened to stumble upon Tasmin Lucia-Khan presenting E24 on BBC News on Thursday evening just after 9.30pm and was surprised to hear about the Emmy nominations. One show had received twenty-three nominations but at first I thought it was a movie but after seeing a clip we were informed it was eight hours long and then the penny dropped. It was a HBO miniseries, and the Emmy awards are for television! (D'oh!). Anyhow, I went and had a look on Wikipedia to read up about the drama and take a look myself. As you may know, American history fascinates me, particularly the American Revolution. (I always here the voice of Radio Five Live Up All Night presenter, Dotun Adebayo say, "The British Are Coming"). Therefore I got hold of the first few episodes and watched one last night and the second this morning. Absolutely fantastic, great acting and story telling. It is worthy of all those nominations and I would not be surprised if it did sweep the board at the ceremony. It is something reading about the great (but short) history of the American people on Wikipedia, it is something else seeing it played out in such dramatic fashion on the television screen. The casting also has been perfect - I am particularly impressed with George Washington. (Not easy for an actor to step into the shoes of the "Greatest Man On Earth"). I am looking for the next five installments which I will try and catch during the week. If you enjoy your period dramas or just like to learn about the birth of a new country, I highly recommend you catch the show (unsure when it will be aired in the UK).

Last night I also watched Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. It was good fun but somewhat predictable from the moment it started. It was good that they literally continued a week later from the previous film (which is four years old - the longest week of your life?). I felt the situations they found themselves in were quite hilarious but it was the deputy head of Homeland Security that stole the show. I do not think I have seen such a stupid character in a movie in my life. It was a nice way to waste away a couple of hours and leave my brain somewhere out in the garden. Would I have gone to the cinema to see it? No, this is not in the same category as American Pie (Kumar even rips it out of Euro Trip) but entertaining fun nevertheless. However it is not for everyone and if you did not enjoy the first movie, then you will not enjoy this second outing. I just home the story ends here (we all like happy endings after all).

Looking forward to my first clubbing trip to the capital since the end of May. As you know by now, I do not go to your average, run-of-the-mill club. I go to venues with character and soul. The Egg, with it's roof terrace and three big rooms will be impressive. You can tell just from the photos, I just hope the weather stays dry so we can enjoy the roof garden area. Pav's set is at 11.30pm - 12.15am while Paul Stevens kicks off the show at 10pm to 11.30pm. I need to charge the batteries on my camera to make sure I get some good photographs this time around, the ones from Club Aquarium were not even FlickR material.

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Wednesday 16th July 2008

For some jobs you have to be prepared. For some jobs, you know you are taking a step into the unknown. Pav is never scared of a challenge. I would have run away from the silver 52 plate VW Polo. Even a spec of dust on a carpet is untidy for my car. This car is in a different league and looks as if a nuclear bomb went off inside. Thankfully the Coca Cola bottle found a rightful place among the mess. How can any human being drive around in a vehicle in such a state?

Crystal Detail are the ultimate professionals and no job is too big, even if they should put on a radiation suit. The real question is how long will the car remain in A one tip top condition? I give it less than a week before it returns to car care hell.

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Sunday 13th July 2008

I had to get up early today and even though I went to bed earlier, I did not feel that fresh when I woke up and eventually dragged myself out of bed. I had left the radio on (a regular bad habit) and remember getting up around 2.30am to switch it off. When I got up, I quickly had some breakfast (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes not toast) and then jumped into the car to check the tyre pressures. As I reversed back onto my drive I heard my phone buzz in my pocket. It was a text message from Pav, he was on his way but had forgotten his photographic device and hoped I had charged up my batteries (62 quality photos uploaded to a fresh new FlickR set - two thousand seven hundred in total in just over two and a half years). The time was 8:01am. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day, so I took some photographs before Pav arrived. While I waited for him, I jumped on my laptop and did a quick update on Facebook and Twitter. Just as I was done, I heard an engine outside, it was the distinct sound of that Honda engine I knew. A Honda engine inside a 216i Rover. Pav pulled up and was pretty much ready to go, I got him to park up and helped him get his gear out. We were up and running and it was 8.39am or so (based on the first photograph I took). It took over an hour to polish all the panels. Pav did the hard work and I applied the wax. The bonnet took a few coats but overall the final results were very good.

We then hit the motorway, I was in the fast lane close to treble figures in a rush to get there as soon as possible. We got there for 10.47am and parked up in the Show & Shine slot, directed by Calvin. Four cars had arrived before us and had just started washing their cars (with collapsing buckets?). We opted to just buff up and finish off but when we saw the state of the front bumper, we could have done with a jet wash. There was a swarm of dead bugs that had landed there along with the windscreen. I started polishing the side windows and let Pav work his magic on the rest of the car. I felt most of the time I was just getting in the way and was actually glad when Pav gave me something to do. We had until noon to get the cars finished.

There was a lovely S3 next to be in black with black custom alloys and the owner, Andy was from Caversham (of all places). He spent a good hour washing and waxing his car and Pav got chatting to him, a potential client. I did something useful by cutting up some business cards for Pav as he finished off the car. I checked with Nick and Calvin what the timings were for the rest of the day and we headed inside to the cafe to get some food. We beat the mad rush before 1pm. After a leisurely lunch we decided to take a look around the mueseum. I of course, had been here before (but without camera) so there was nothing in particular I wanted to look at but Pav had a good look around, particularly the contemporary vehicles such as the Aston Martin and the JCB Dieselmax. We then headed outside to check out the how the Audi Meet was going and also the other car stands (there was a Ford event taking place with a range of vehicles including Transits). I looked at the competition and gave my verdict. The yellow TT, retro fitted with some RS parts and BBS alloys was light years ahead. The engine bay was so clean, it looked as if the car had just come off the production line. It was that insanely clean. I am obsessive about my car being clean but the owner was taking it to another level, I would be afraid of driving the car if I got it this level of godliness. We then had a look around at the Ford area, there were some modified (to the extreme) Cougars and Fiestas. A couple of great Mustangs (which I took photographs of) but apart from that not much to see. I spotted a great vehicle with the Transits (the Bat Van - ideally as The Dark Knight returns next week)

We had a sit down on the benches by the grass area outside the Centre main entrance and just chilled out for a while. The PA system was playing the greatest hits of The Beach Boys. However while Pav and I were chatting we missed the presentations. We rushed over but it was all over. As expected the TT had won and Caversham S3 man had won the raffle (free Parrot car kit installed by Ritcher - one of the event sponsors). It was around 3pm now and the show was starting to come to a close (a lot earlier than I had expected). The Revo team were packing up and I thought it best to call it a day. I thanked both Calvin and Nick for their time in organising the event and looked forward to the next meet as the winner had his photo shoot courtesy of Drive By Shooters. As I drove home on the M40, I saw some bright xenon lights in my rear view mirror. It was Andy, I let him pass and he tooted his horn (even that is more impressive than the one I have on my A3!) He was stuck behind a car for a while giving me a chance to keep up but the second the fast lane was clear he was away and gone. The acceleration was just breathtaking, particularly considering I knew the speed I was doing to begin with. It was too late the car was gone!

As soon as I got home (minutes before 4pm) I said goodbye to Pav (with a gift of some somasas) and then grabbed my gym bag and headed to Castle Royle. I just had to get down there before I got comfortable at home. To my surprise the gym was dead with only a handful of people there. I got out just after 5pm and finally settled down at home at 6pm. The evening was mine to enjoy but after Top Gear there was little to satisfy me on the television, I should have just read my book.

I watched Step Up 2 - The Streets last night, it was marginally better than the first movie. Mainly because the story was slightly more believable (but only just) and it featured Cassie Ventura! (Although her part was far too small and almost insignificant for my liking). The dance moves were better and the storyline was not as raw as before. However it still did not do everything for me. Sure it was good to see the little guy(s) (and girls) come out on top in the end but I just felt it meandered far too much in the beginning, although the opening was very clever. I will not be rushing out to see the third one, even if it is filmed in 3D? (Target audience of six year olds?)

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Saturday 12th July 2008

Timing is everything and after a rather lazy morning I decided to actually go and wash the car (or finish from where I left off yesterday). Just before 3pm, (14:39) I got up from my slumber on the sofa, had a shower and got outside. I wanted to wash the car and I knew my window of opportunity was small. I got everything done within an hour and just as I finished, it started to rain. Perfect timing. Typical, as I begin to the type this post the sun has come out and there is glorious sunshine across the garden and back of the house. Well I have done the best I can considering the weather report I received (sponsored by those lovely people at Crystal Detail)

I am hoping that tomorrow morning it is try to enable Pav to give all the main panels a hit with his polisher. I have even decided to postpone my morning visit to the gym and go in the evening instead. I am going to work on the interior in the morning while Pav works hard on the exterior before we then head over to the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon. Then, it will be micro fibre cloth and last touch detailer spray at the ready for the final touches. I am quite confident that my car will not win but it is more an opportunity for Pav to showcase his talent and make some all important contacts.

Sixty four days to go and September is going to be a bumper month. Not just the return of Heroes, but Big Bang Theory, Chuck and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. I asked Pav to take some photographs of the location that will be feeding the DivX files, so I have put up a few images (geek warning, nothing very exciting) onto a set over on FlickR but cannot give too much away. There is still a great deal of preparation work to be done, I have not been given the new FTP account details yet. I am looking forward to the 4 kbit/s download rate. There is a while to go yet and of course, I am actually really looking forward to tomorrow's Audi Meet.

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Friday 11th July 2008

It is 15:52 as I begin this posting and the heavens have opened outside. Out the window goes the plans for washing my car (I had made a start actually but more on that later.) A Friday off and a long weekend. A lot planned but as usual I got up later than I had anticipated, in fact it was 8.22am and I was hoping to be in my car on the way down to Nationwide by then but never mind, I left just after 9am and dropped my car off at Nationwide Autocentre in Desborough Avenue. However, as I walked down Desborough Road into town, having text Jen I got a phone call. It was from "Nationwide". I was confused and though the guy and got the wrong number but I had actually forgotten to give the key for my car, so rushed back to give it to them. Wish companies would have different names to save all the confusion. Then, I headed back into town and waited along with a handful of people for the library to open. It was opened just after 9.30am and I headed upstairs to level 2 (via the stairs, I could not be asked to wait for the lifts) and renewed my books, then asked one of the staff the location of the reading area. Although there were small chairs around, I opted to go to the study area upstairs. I sat down towards the back and continued reading The Catcher In The Rye. I stayed here until 11am and then rang Jen to see where she was. She was just feeding Aiden and would text me when she was coming into town. I decided to make the most of the thirty minutes I had to go and walk into town, go to the bank and have a look around a few of the shops. A suit is on the agenda, so I took a look at a few in M&S. As I came out of the department store I noticed I had a text, Jenny was downstairs. (or so said the one word SMS). I tapped her on the shoulder as she returned a big load of books and placed them in the shoot. We then headed over to Starbucks Coffee for Tazo Tea (Earl Grey). It was nice to catch up and it was the first time we had seen each other in over a year. Aiden was asleep in the buggy and looked very cute. I looked at a bunch of photos on the FinePix camera.

We then went over to La Tasca for lunch which was very nice. It became a bit of a names game with us bouncing old school friend names at each other. Some were a bit of a surprise and shock but most I could not put a face to the name (hence the need for Facebook). After lunch Jen gave me a lift back to Nationwide, even though I had been happy to walk. After I paid the damage, I got into my car and headed home. I wanted to wash my car before the weather turned and I knew it was a race against time. It was just gone 2pm. However I could not begin without watching Break The Ice music video on XBMC. Eventually I got out there and vacuumed the interior and decided I would give it a polish tomorrow. When I started to rinse the car down there were a few rain drops but nothing serious, so I continued and loaded it with the snow foam and left it to rinse. However as I went to take my Poor Boy's Shampoo and fill up a bucket but the rain started. I rushed back outside and rinsed my car down a little. Pointless with the rain water but I thought it better if I rinse off the snow foam with my clean water rather than the dirty rain water. I then had to scramble to get all the kit put away before I catch a cold. Then, typical, as I write, no type this, the sun is out and the rain clouds have disappeared. The wash will have to wait. So what is all this in preparation for? Well it it the 2nd ever Audi Meet on Sunday and I have Pav coming along in a professional capacity to help make sure my car gleams in the Show 'n' Shine competition. Although the weather does not look at that wonderful for Gaydon. I last went back in early March (Mother's Day in fact). Do you think I should warn my neighbours that on Sunday morning they will be woken by the amazing noise of a polisher?

I must mention a song. A song I could listen to non-stop (and frequently did in the early months of 2000). I heard for the first time in many months on Sunday morning. I had gone to fill my sister's car (a regular occurrence recently) and on the drive back it turned 10am, it was Sunday 6th July. Dick & Dom were about to start their show and their second song was this.

This was the moment when I stood up and took notice of All Saints. An absolutely amazing band and this is by far my favourite song. The lyrics and melody just take me to another place and I can never grow tired of listening to the vocals. The girls are not the best singers but something magical happens when their harmonies combine. Oh and no, I still have not see The Beach.

An extremely social week, with two meals out on Tuesday and Wednesday (Marlow and Cookham respectively) so yesterday was my first 'me' night for a while. Strange how much I miss the internet when I do get a chance to log on at home. So, the end of an era which I should really go and reflect upon over on the work log. I will do that at some point over the weekend but for now I am going to actually get around to enjoying what remains of my day off.

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Monday 7th July 2008

A early week entry to round up events from the weekend. I had a headache last night so could not begin writing my post until now. I really should not of been on the computer at all last night but wanted to burn a new CD for the car. Right, let me give a quick recap. On Friday night, after the cinema and a trip next door to the Ivory Lounge (I am sure it was called Bar 38, last time I was here) I went home. Well actually I did not. I dropped off Emily and Pav and then drove over to Charlie's in Woodley. He had some computer problems and I had no tools apart from my brain. I felt ready and after about fifteen to twenty minutes had resolved the problem. The issue was permissions and cascading them down from parent to child folders. All I had missed was ticking a box to allow this to happen. Easy when you know how. I knew that would fix it, but it was the train of thought to get to the correct window in Explorer. Charlie was happy and even though Annie was on her way and quite close by and it would have been great to meet her for the first time in ages, I opted to jump in the car and head home. I was tired and had a busy weekend ahead. Made a change for the Admiral calling on Terry Rescue Services.

I had quite a lot planned for Saturday but still did not get to bed until gone 2am. I got up around 9.30am and was in the town centre just over an hour later. I had to return a book to the library, it was my first time using the new self check system in the ground floor. Return book, get a receipt (optional - think of the trees) and then deposit book down the hatch. Job done and completely painless. Then I went over to get my haircut at Jerry's, it was not too busy considering the time of day and week. Once that job was done, I headed back through Eden to Tesco. I bought some milk and waffles (to toast). A very helpful lady directed me to the self service machines to make sure I was not stuck in the queue for long. I then headed back to the bus station, as I got around to stand F, I could see the time was 12:00 on the screens above. The next bus was around in a few minutes and I got on and headed home. Mission complete, well the first part in any case.

When I got home, I showered had some breakfast and then went to watch Eastenders (Friday's edition) on BBC iPlayer (version 2.0 now in beta) via IE7. After this I sent down to work, to complete the updates for a web site. It took me most of the afternoon and I did not finish until 6pm. Yes, these updates were quite involved and took up a lot of time and concentration. Then it was a case of preparing myself for the final episode of Doctor Who.

It is difficult to quantify how big a Doctor Who fan I am? As the saying goes, you always chose your favourite Doctor from your childhood and mine is Sylvester McCoy (but I also had a crazy crush on Ace at the time also). However people should note that mine was the generation to have the show cancelled by Michael Grade. The show was something I forgot about in my teens although it did make a muted return in 1996. I recall rushing back from a weekend in Paris with my parents to get home just in time to catch the movie on BBC1. I quite enjoyed it but shortly forgot about it (think Championship Manager was more higher up the priority list). It was not until four years ago, when the return of the show close that I got back into the show and watched endless shows on the BBC web site (the animated episodes featuring Richard E. Grant). I was hooked and looking forward to 2005 and the return of my childhood hero. It could not have been better.

Three years later, I sad to see the show take an extended break but in a way glad for the rest. The Beeb has gone into overkill at times (they cross promoted the show everywhere, even Eastenders). It will give the marketing machine a time to calm down. I still think Christopher Eccleston was a better Doctor than David Tennant. Onto the season finale then, it was okay I suppose. A good twist with the regeneration that was, then wasn't. Although several things annoyed me in the episode. The Doctor (be he in half human form or not) never ever gets into a relationship with an companion (past or present). It is just wrong! Okay, there had to be some closure but this was not it. We prefer these things a bit shady around the edges. Secondly there was too much time spent setting up series three of Torchwood at the end. Doctor Who saves the day once again but perhaps for the first time I did not want him to succeed. I am getting bored with the good guy winning all the time. Perhaps I am just showing my age and cynicism. Who will be the Doctor's next companion? Or will it be a rotating celebrity female?

While in John Lewis on Sunday my sister bought me a fantastic Quicksilver travel bag come case. It has wheels and is relatively big, the ideal weekend item I was looking for. The bags I have are on the end of two extremes of being too small (e.g. my gym bag) or two big, (e.g. my suitcase on wheels). Now I have the right case for those weekend trips away but typically at the moment there is nothing planned.

I also wanted to mention the few movies I watched over the remainder of the weekend. On Saturday night (while eating ice cream) I watched the Disney movie College Road Trip (not due out here until August). Good wholesome family fun which made me laugh out loud about twice. Then yesterday morning I watched Step Up. It was good but I expected more and the storyline was predictable, plus the secondary story lines (which were more important in terms of a human story) should have had great prominence. I will watch the sequel next weekend. Although it was great to finally get the name of the model (whom is actually an actress and singer and not just dancer) in bright yellow from the Give It Up To Me music video. I also watched Just Friends in the evening which was a complete waste of my life. It was so bad, that I got a headache during the closing credits and had to go to sleep. It was 6pm. I got up at 8.30pm and the tennis was still being played!

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Friday 4th July 2008

It could have been very different. It could have been the usual Friday night at the movies. We could even have gone to Maidenhead (to Trance Planet at Phatz Bar) afterwards. But we were overruled, but enough about that, let me bring it all back to the present day. So the plan was to go and watch Wanted at the new local multiplex in town on Friday night. However my sister was not feeling well, so I postponed for 24 hours, looking at the 21:15 screening on Saturday evening. However she went out with friends so I postponed until later in the week. Wednesday was the day chosen, I confirmed with my sister, Samantha that I would book tickets for the last showing while I was at work. I called her as I pulled out of the gym cark park before 7pm. She had e-mailed me earlier that evening but at 17:26, eleven minutes after I leave the office. She recommended I take my other sister Natalie, whom I then called. She was out with friends not happy to be 'forced' to be treated to the cinema. I hung up and headed home. By the time I got there, I called both sisters again but this time around my Mum spoke to them. Both of them were heading home and landed a few minutes apart. Samantha did not want go, so Natalie took her place. What a mess for a simple trip to the cinema. I had some food, while watching Murray crash out of Wimbledon. We left soon afterwards and parked up in the Eden car park, it was deserted. Headed across down to the cinema, there was a long queue for the ATM outside M&S. Schools have not even broken up but there is already a display for Back to School in the window? It is July? Are you going to put up your Christmas display in September?

We made our way up the escalator to the foyer, around the corner behind the box office were the pre-booking machines. However the signs were not good, I put in my credit card but nothing happened. In fact on the first machine I tried I got a Switch To or Retry message appear. Cannot remember what they look like? Let this be a reminder.

I tried another machine but it just did not accept my card, so I headed over to the box office and got them to clear my card (it had to be checked first, so the guy on the test called a colleague upstairs to check my card number. Then our tickets were printed. I checked the display stand behind the employees (very scruffy uniforms and lopsided name tags, by the way). The time was still on GMT, it was 19:44 according to the display, when in fact it was actually 20:44. Surely someone could have got that fixed by now, it is over three months since the clocks changed. Plus shouldn't that be an automated process? We headed up another shorter escalator to the main area. There was a long queue for popcorn. A supervisor did arrive to get another member of staff onto the till. However, just as we got to the front of the queue, our server, Leah had disappeared. She had gone to the little girls room but a little message to say she was off would have been nice. Once we got our popcorn and drinks we headed to the screen. Screen 3, but it was closed for cleaning so we waited and looked at the movie posters of up coming posters. I had already decided in my mind that I would never be coming to Cineworld again. We were let in eventually and took seats on Row E but I soon discovered my arm rest was missing so we moved up to Row F. The screen was relatively empty with half a dozen people inside (a few more came as the ads rolled). It was perhaps the smallest screen at the twelve screen venue, although being closer to a smaller screen did help with a action movie like this. Carlton Screen Advertising, oh how I miss Pearl & Dean. The first advert was for Radio One (believe it or not!) Jon blogs about it over here and if you want to take a look for yourself, the UToob link! Personally I think the advert is too long and a total waste of licence payers money. It could have ended after a minute or two after all the DJs have described the types of music they play on their shows but going into all the introductions was a waste of time. Thankfully I do not listen to Radio One after 7pm for their new music slot and the only DJ I liked from the line up was Trevor Nelson, whom I've listened to on the odd Saturday night in the car. Although, I have to admit the line from Annie Mac was great though: “You know when you are in line waiting to get into a club, and you can feel the rumble of the beat and then you know you're in for a great night”. The one benefit of coming to my local cinema was the fact that it was local, it took less than five minutes to get home and we did get a fifty pence rebate on the parking to make the charge one pound.

Wanted was very good, I would give it seven point five out of ten overall. The action set pieces are just breathtaking, particularly when Wesley meets Fox for the first time. Personally I did not think James would be able to pull off an action like this but he does well. Perhaps because he is so believable as the office loser that anything beyond this mundane role is extraordinary. The main draw for me in the movie were the action scenes, particularly from the trailer. It was similar to the Matrix and the story itself is on similar lines. I enjoyed it, it was good fun. Perhaps a bit gory to get the 18 rating but there was just enough that I could handle. However there were some major flaws. The story was not that great and my sister worked out the twist a while before I did, although it was quite obvious when you actually thought about it. The way targets are selected was a bit far fetched for my liking but I suppose it was original. The supporting cast was very good, but I wish Jolie's role had been bigger, she deserved to have more of an input into the action and perhaps ending. Overall, great action at times mindless violence, but well worth seeing at the cinema, if only for the crazy set pieces. The story was not brilliant, could have been much better but never the less enjoyable and it does keep you guessing for a short while. Only hard core fans of this genre would really take the step of going to catch it at the multiplex. I am sure, other wise a great DVD to rent one lazy weekend.

Right, onto my next movie review. I had wanted to see Hancock and originally it was going to be just myself and Pav for the 8pm showing at Vue Reading (in the biggest screen 4). However by Thursday evening, Poole had invited herself along (no problems at all). Then on Friday morning, Phil and Sazzle also wanted to come along. I had to check with Pav if there was anyone else, and yes, there was the small possibility of his cousin coming along too, but eventually we learned she was busy. I was going to check if the homeless guy on the bench had time in his schedule (away from the Super Brew) to come along too! I booked tickets around lunchtime at work and was glad it was all confirmed. I had my dinner early and was out on the road before 7pm. My weekend officially began as I was at junction 8/9 of the M4, waiting at the lights to get around the roundabout to the westbound slip road. My CD player was set to random and had selected Work (Freemasons Remix) by Kelly Rowland and I hit the gas and screamed around onto the motorway. The weekend was officially here.

I went to pick up Pav and Emily and then headed over to the Oracle. (If felt a bit strange to be taking a different journey to the shopping centre but never mind). Parking up, we all noticed some idiots tooting their horns as they went up the ramps to the various floors of the multistorey. Strange! We made our way over to the cinema and found Phil and Sarah at the cash point and went inside to get our tickets. There was a bit of a queue but eventually the five tickets were dispensed, then we headed up the escalator to the food area. Pav was in the queue for a while and I watched on the screens up above as the time ticked by. It was 20:01 by the time we headed in and I thought we may have missed the famous music. I was wrong, we got to our seats and sat down, just as Asteroid was played. Perfect timing once again! It was not the best place to sit, so far up but at least I was quite central. Then the movie experience could begin.

Hancock was great, it did everything you expected and a bit more. Will Smith was his usual self, enjoying being a loser and transforming himself eventually into the superhero. However I was not expecting the twist in the middle but from then on, I wondered where the story would go. It was a shame the end was rather more emotional than I would have wanted. Come on people, I'm a bloke, I want guns and bombs going off and some serious action sequences. Well worth going to see at the cinema, it was great fun and very very funny. Was it a good superhero movie? No because the only think that makes a hero great is a worthy villain and no such person exists in this movie, apart from Hancock himself. I would not be surprised to see a sequel in a few years, but then again, considering it has taken over twelve years to get this movie produced, who knows what will happen.

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Monday 30th June 2008

Just an ordinary Monday? Nothing new, nothing different? But didn't I say the same about a Monday in mid-June some three years ago? If I were to predict such a thing, today was a day that could change my life forever. There is something about June? Is it a magical month or just a lucky month for me? However, that alone is not the subject of this impromptu blog post.

When I get home on one of my gym evenings (Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays - regular readers will already know my routine to the 't') I dump all my gear in the lounge and then get changed and jump in the shower. My next task after praying and grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl and then jumping on my PC. (If it it Thursday and close to 7.30pm, I usually head straight to the lounge to catch up on events at Albert Square). Since the rebuild and the latest version of MSN Live (8.5) signs me in Online as soon as it detects an internet connection. Annoying and I will try and found a way around it shortly. However it turned into a blessing as my friend Kish buzzed me with a question, "U want Akon & MJ new track?". Was I really going to decline the offer? From the title, I could tell that this was going to be a slow number but perhaps just what I needed. I listened to the track and instantly feel in love with it. Perhaps it is the opening line (just after a tranquil violin solo) by the King Of Pop, "This Life Don't Last Forever, So Tell Me What We're Waiting For...". Want a listen? Go and judge for yourself over on You Tube. Once again, a song comes a long to not just inspire but completely reflect how I feel at this moment in time in my life. I am just hoping that this can be the moment when I can kick start the second half of my year.

So If You Just Hold My Hand, Baby I Promise That Ill Do All I Can
Things 'll Get Better If You Just Hold My Hand
Nothin' Can Come Between Us If You Just Hold My Hand

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Sunday 29th June 2008

Reinstalls always take longer than you think. I scheduled in a few hours bit it took most of the afternoon. Starting at midday and being back up and running around 4pm. (You can read my updates via Twitter). I had hoped to wash my car in the sunshine but opted to just go and vacuum the interior at 5pm before jumping back on the computer. Plans to go and see Wanted at the new Cineworld at Eden also went out the window as my sister went out to see a friend. During my installation I came over several hurdles. Firstly my Product ID was rejected, so I went back and reformatted the drive and used my XP SP2 nlite deployed install CD from November last year (I had made a CD for a colleague and opted to keep a copy for myself). This failed as well, so I had no choice but to go back to one of my first XP SP2 CDs which I had slipstreamed the service pack myself manually following instructions online. Once I finally got up and running I manually upgraded to Service Pack 3 which took a while. Then I had to begin reloading software drivers before switching over to my notepad which had a list of all my applications. I have decided to install items on as I need them basis.

So therefore I was a bit a miss on Saturday evening on what to do. I have moved most of my movies onto my portable hard drive, to save space on my media drive. The options were Planet Terror or watching High School U.S.A. (again) I decided to watch Planet Terror, hoping it would be better than Death Proof. I was disappointed, just another slasher movie, so I gave up after sixty minutes. Then I went through the CD spindles I have on my desk. My uni friend, Darren had sent me a collection of movies spanning several discs three years ago but I had only watched handful, so I decided to watch one of them. The Butterfly Effect starring Aston Kutcher. I remember seeing the trailers but never got around to watching the movie, even when it appeared on Sky. I was slightly apprehensive. I recalled a scene from the trailer and hoped this was not be a horror movie. It is a genre I dislike the most. Time travel is one of my favourite themes for movies and I really enjoyed the various twists and turns on this fantasy adventure. Kutcher was surprising good in his first true 'acting' role rather than the teen comedies I have seen him in the past. I would highly recommend the movie to you. There was a direct to DVD sequel but it is unrelated to the original. However, only worth watching if you are in the mood for a thinking / emotional film rather than one where you can dump your brain outside. A rather poor performing at the box office when released it has over recent years become a cult classic as more and more people have watched it on DVD.

Until now at 16:51, I have been very much on the go. Gym this morning at 7.40am, then piano lesson at 11am. I got home at 2pm and decided to wash my car. However, as I got outside, it was overcast and the signs were there. It was going to rain. So I went back inside and decided to get some food, as I finished I looked outside and the sun was out. I leaped off the sofa, I had to make the most of this window. I went out there and started. It was 14:45pm and I finished at 16:15pm. Getting slightly quicker but the car was not that dirty, but needed a clear. It now is sparkling in the afternoon sunshine!

Completed my third book of the reading revival middle of last week. Animal Farm by George Orwell is fantastic story based on Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. The imagery at the end of the short story is absolutely amazing and a true reflection in the phrase that power corrupts. I would highly recommend it to you, at sub-hundred pages you can easily read it in a few hours. I am not onto Catcher In The Rye, which has a distinctly different writing style with the first person narrative but I'm going to give it a good go. I should really start labeling the books I have read in my 1001 Books To Read Before You Die book (does that make sense?).

If I was ever to meet Arsene Wenger, we would have one disagreement. He believes that football in the Champions League is the best quality football played in the planet. I completely disagree - yes football in the CL is great and entertaining but you do not get the same emotion and buzz as international tournaments. Football for me, will always be about country and not club. Do not get me wrong, I love watching Arsenal and would love to go to Ashburton Grove every other week but international football just has, in my opinion that x-factor which club football cannot recreate. The honour, privilege and prestige to represent your country on the world stage is something only a handful of players ever get to achieve. Plus there is the time scales, the World Cup comes around once every four years, there is always another Champions League match the following season. Some people feel international football should be scraped altogether. I disagree, it should be the one thing our young players asipre to. As I watched the final this evening and saw the presentations I had a wonderful thought in my head, the next major final, I hope to be there, watching on as the winners are presented with their trophy.

Just noticed that The Fifth Element is being screened on Flim4 in about 10 minutes (22:50) so I think I'm going to watch it before I retire off to bed and another busy week in the office. July is just around the corner. Summer is rushing by and my plans are very much thin on the ground.

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Friday 27th June 2008

What a week! A last minute invitation to a sales meeting on Thursday met the end of my week turned into a mini adventure heading into the capital and this morning getting myself back into Wycombe and then getting myself in the office for a few hours. Quite a trek but it all worked out in the end and here I find myself at 9pm on a pleasant summer evening trying to reflect on my week and what the weekend has in store.

An extremely busy week in the office but the real fun only started midday on Thursday. I left the office headed to the gym to do my cardio work out and then went home to change, pack as little as I could into my rucksack and jump on the bus into town. Then it was the switch over to a train, the 15:44 to Marylebone. I then after buying a Snickers bar at the WHSmith at the station (I was hungry, a sandwich and drink are not exactly filling). Rushing down the escalator I realised that I was not in as much as a hurry as usual. I did not need to be at the hotel until 6pm. However I was conscious of getting their early and having a moment to chill out in my room before the evening festivities would begin. I got a call from my manager after a few minutes, they were in the lobby waiting for me. I rushed downstairs and away we went. The historic pub walk around London had been cancelled and instead we headed across to Dicken's Inn behind the hotel in the area known as St. Katherine's Dock. We enjoyed the last remaining flashes of sunshine in the beer garden before leaving and walking cross Tower Bridge to Butler's Wharf. This was a redeveloped area which had originally been a working dockyard with tea houses and other warehouses. We went to the Bar All One before going back on yourselves to the Chop House restaurant. A very good night, which ended around 3am in the morning. This was after drinks in the hotel bar (which closed at 1am) so we had to switch to the lounge and call on room service. A lovely Nigerian man came and took our order. I eventually fell asleep around 3.30am, watching Laura Topin present the weather on BBC News on the 24" HD wide screen in my Executive suite. A taste of, just for a day of how the other half live.

At some point over the weekend, my car will hit the 50k mileage mark. Quite a milestone, considering I have done some 19k over the past eighteen months. Apart from a few minor issues with exterior damage (let us just call it vandalism) the car is going very well. Hopefully the weather is good tomorrow and I will get a window to wash and wax it. Only three weekends until the Show 'n' Shine at Audi Meets.

On Tuesday my PC crashed, while I was watching a video of Shakira performing at Live Earth from last year in Hamburg. Nothing new there, my PC crashes on a regular basis, even with the dreaded BSOD. However when my PC rebooted there was a problem, it got stuck. It would hang at the system information screen (it has the blinking underscore on the screen) just before the Windows XP splash screen appears. So I have taken the executive decision to rebuild my PC this weekend. I have made a long list of files I need to back up and software I will need to reinstall. Thankfully most of the important things are already backed up twice. Once on DVD format, the second on my portable 320gb hard drive. Unlike November two years ago, when I was forced to reinstall Windows after trying to patch IE7 and in the process corrupting my installation of Windows (you can read more about that over here). Back then to get myself up and running I did a quick install of Windows with the basics to keep me going until the weekend and then created a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation CD using nlite. It was fully unattended and installed everything as I like it. I then spend a few hours getting all my software loaded and configured. The OS CD saved me hours of time, which I would have spent fiddling. However back to my current predicament. I know what the problem is. I have a stick of RAM in my machine which is slowing down the speed of the rest of the memory which I should remove. That is a long term issue (I think I upgraded the memory back in August, as Charlie did not need it for his machine). The boot issue now relates to the boot sector which I think is corrupt. However, if I hit F8 and loaded the Boot Menu, then select the primary SATA hard drive it loads fine. What could be the problem? My BIOS is up to date and I have made no changes to my knowledge. To be honest this clear out has been log over due and in away I am glad that this has prompted me to get things sorted out. My timetable is to back everything up tonight and create a new Windows XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed and take it from there. Everything important will be copied over to my I: (Media) drive which has 90gig free (at the moment). All I can say is wish me luck and I will hopefully be all sorted some point on Sunday afternoon (before the final of Euro 2008!). Thankfully I have my work laptop with me, so will have internet access for any last minute bits and pieces that may be required.

I should be headed back from Hyde Park right now, having been at the Nelson Mandela concert. However when I did not succeed in securing tickets a few months back. I missed out on registering by a few minutes, because I read about the concert on BBC News when I got home and then when I went over to the official web site, registration had closed. Tickets went on sale to registered users only a few days later. My chance had gone. It would have been wonderful to see this great man's potential last public appearance. I am watching on ITV1 and most likely will download a copy of the footage to watch again later over the weekend. So far highlights have been Sugababes, Leona Lewis and Eddie Grant.

Right I better get going on, it is going to be a long night ahead as I start the climb up the long mountain which is rebuilding my PC. All I can say is wish me luck, I will be back at some point over the weekend with an update (good bad or indifferent!). Fingers crossed.

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Sunday 22nd June 2008

Ultraviolet was good but it could have been so much better. It is by the same director who stun the world with Equilibrium. (I saw this movie in rather surreal setting of my university lecture theatre, during an overnight stay back in mid May 2004). I can talk about it freely now, as some long four years have past but preferred not to mention it at all on my blog then in case the hierarchy of the university were reading my blog. My house mate Nav had 24 hour overnight access to the labs inside the Hawthorne Building and we decided to go in one evening, for me to disappear at the precise moment the PhD student came around to check everyone's pass and get them to sign in. We had a bit of a cat and mouse game to play with security, as the master plan was to go into the main lecture theatre and put the DVD (rented from a shop on Narborough Road) onto the full screen protector. The sound could have been better (it is only decided for speech) but it was great fun!

Ultraviolet is much the same in look and feel but the plot is poor and at times it becomes difficult to follow. The action sequences paired with some fantastic CGI are amazing to watch but at times, too much is happening for your eyes to cope with. Milla Jovovich is perfectly cast as the heroine and gives a good solid performance. It is such a shame that there were no great actors to support her. There are parallels with another movie I saw recently AeonFlux both in terms of narrative and plot. Towards the end though you feel it has all been a blood bath for nothing and I cannot really recall seeing any gun-kata point two zero as promised by the director. Great action, so really would only recommend to the guys out there and make sure you get the Unrated version which features a few extra minutes not shown in the theatrical release.

A mild Saturday, I got up at 9am and after breakfast watched Click and then Football Focus. I then got ready and went to the temple with my family in Slough. We got some food there and then headed back home. As soon as I got home, I picked up my recommended reading list and walked to the bus stop. Caught the 15:17 bus into town and more precisely the new library. I was very impressed. The image of an old, smoking, dusty environment has been replaced with bright green walls, plenty of computer screens and clearly marked book shelves. I took the lift up to the first floor (yes I know, I'm very lazy) and took a look around. There were some self service machines to borrow and return your items. I looked for a few books from my list and in the end had to consult a member of staff. He was extremely helpful, firstly showing me the computer terminal to check for books, then directing me to the 'Classics' section. This was were I was going to find the meat of my list. I thanked him for his time and went ahead and picked up my second book. I had already found Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. I picked up Animal Farm by George Orwell. The book had been featured recently on the television series GREEK (UK viewers will see the episode in a few weeks). So hence I thought I would give it a read, both books are around 200 pages so should not take me that long. I then decided to look at the non-fiction section and picked a book from the musical score section. National Anthems from Around the World. Something to try on the piano perhaps. I then had to get my pin confirmed before trying the self service machines myself. You insert your card, enter you pin and just stack the books in the open shelf and it automatically reads the barcodes and away you go. Receipt printed with due date and I was off. I went to Clinton Cards and then after a short walk around Eden, decided to head home. I was home by 5pm.

My sister, Samantha called me on Saturday afternoon to let me know she had bought me a Turtle Wax cleaning kit. I was annoyed because I have everything I need and all my products need to cleared by Crystal Detail. I assumed she got me one of those Turtle Wax packs which includes sponge, clothes, shampoos and waxes. In fact it was a interior and exterior spray set. Useful but will see what Pav says on MSN tomorrow after reading this. To be honest apart from a quick vacuum, the interior gets little attention from me these days. Unlike in the days of my Punto when I would spend a good half an hour spraying and buffing every piece of trim.

I watched Death Proof after the football. I was extremely disappointed. Sure I had expected a different type of movie, it was a slow start but once it got going I thought it would improve. It did not, in fact it got worse. It was a cult slasher movie with Kurt Russell in one of his bad guy roles with a fantastic cast of female actresses refered to in the opening credits as "The Girls". The ending was rather pathetic and pointless. The action sequences and general special effects were very good but it was shot like an old movie from the 1960s. I was going to watch Planet Terror straight afterwards but instead decided to chat to a few friends online and then go to sleep.

Back in 1992, I was at my cousin, Anita's wedding. It was one of the main wedding receptions before the big day over in Gerrards Cross (later that summer). The party took place in Flackwell Heath, a few miles from home. My aunty drove me, my sister and Dad home that evening. I remember when we got in, I put on the TV and watched the climatic race of a movie. Thankfully it was on ITV so with the commercial break came the name of the movie. This was a time before digital television, electronic programme guides and time shift plus one hour channels. I really enjoyed the movie because it starred my childhood hero, Michael J. Fox. It had everything a young eleven year old boy would want in a television movie, a big car chase and the underdog winning in the end (or so I remember). The movie was called High School U.S.A. Obviously I completely forgot about the movie until recently when I was looking at Fox's filmography on Wikipedia and then took a punt with a search on BT Junkie and believe it or not, there it was. It has taken me several days to download at an average rate of 5kbit/s. I decided to transfer it across to the XBox and watch in the living room on the big screen. A perfect movie for a Sunday afternoon? It wasn't perhaps perfect but it was very good and enjoyable. Crispin Glover was great and I enjoyed the build up of the story up to the race. The last time I had seen the movie on television (some sixteen years ago!) I had seen it just from the start of the race. Great fun and well worth waiting for and very funny but obviously showed it's age (twenty five years no less)

I have made an executive decision. To drop Hollyoaks permanently from my viewing radar. I have watched it regularly to the point of the divine over the past three years or so, with many of my posts being inspired by the show. (Here are a few examples from the archives) However, with my new gym regime, I only get to watch four episodes (two on Tuesday and Friday respectively) during the week and never catch the Sunday omnibus edition. However, that is not my main reason for dropping it from my schedule. It is the storylines (which have gone from bizarre to downright ridiculous) no longer appeal plus all my favourite characters have either been killed off or left. There is little to inspire and at the age of twenty-six I feel perhaps I am out of the age bracket the show is looking for.

After two false starts in 2004 and 2005, Nav is back blogging. He was my housemate in my final year at Uni in Leicester. He was studying Masters with my other housemate Paul at De Montfort. He has started a work blog called Foobar Ramblings. Three posts already from the first day but expect a mixture of helpful posts along with techie commentary related to his work. He has moved to Wimbledon from Acton now and we are trying to arrange a weekend to meet up. Most likely when he gets back from holiday in mid July.

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Friday 20th June 2008

A very long and tiring week and even though it is Friday, I feel somewhat that the past five days have past me by. I have achieved very little but somehow, for a change do not feel that bothered by that indismissable fact. Quite a few things to mention, some more important than others, so I will kick off from the start of the week. As I pulled into the gym car park on Monday evening, I noticed a silver convertible parked on the side (family bay). It looked like a baby A4 but then I realised it was the new A3 convertible. Very nice but the size I just could not cope with, expect to see a few more on the road but in the States I think Audi US are pushing the TT so this A3 variant will not be sold (I could be wrong). However I do tend to get all my news from The German Car Blog which I read perhaps once or twice a month.

I have been trying to catch as much of Euro 2008 as possible but cannot replace the empty feeling watching games with no word on England (or any of the home nations for that matter). It just is not the same and during the group phase you always thought they would mention another group (Group E?) featuring England. However, I know this sacrifice is worthwhile in the long term to enable Capello to over turn our fortunes and qualify us for 2010. In terms of the coverage, the Beeb has been streets ahead (as always) of rivals ITV. Quite a heated debate over on the Guardian Organ Grinder blog. One thing is clear, many fans of Martin O'Neil and Gordon Strachan out there, including myself.

Another quiet weekend on the cards but I am going to do more than lounge about and watch movies (more on that later). I am going to have a clear out of rubbish but also give several things a spring clean of both my wallet, bank account and CV. I also want to get down into town to view the new library (it has been open over seventeen days and I still haven't had a chance to take a look). I need to get back on the saddle, only read two books this year so far since January.

I could and perhaps should be out in London at the legendary Pacha nightclub where Pav is djing tonight. However, as Friday drew closer I just did not feel up for a party. I just am not in the mood and do not think I would be good company for my friends. Plus there is always the issue of getting back from Central London to Wycombe in the early hours. Never mind, there will be other nights and I am sure the next big night is already in the planning and event invite will spring up on Facebook very soon.

This weekend is a movie bonanza. I am going to watch Ultraviolet tonight and then the Grindhouse double bill with Death Proof and Planet Terror tomorrow night. Plus hopefully I will be able to watch High School U.S.A., a TV movie made in 1983. Although there is still 24 meg left to go as I type this.

Not much else planned for the weekend, I am off to the gym on Sunday morning as usual. I was quite good this week, attending the gym on all my planned sessions, although due to time and logistical restraints I did not have time to hit the rowing machine on Thursday night. I am trying hard to stick to the regime of four times a week and three on difficult weekends when I am too busy for that Sunday morning session.

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Sunday 15th June 2008

A productive morning, if I must say so myself. I got myself down the gym for an hour session at 8am. Then when I got back, after spending a few hours lounging about in cyberspace, I went over to ASDA to collect my suit from the dry cleaners and purchase some bags of ice. Then as soon as I got back I started the mission to clean the car. If I am honest I could have cut corners and gone to directly applying the wax as the car was relatively clean. I prefer to start from scratch. Whenever it comes to a task such as this, you feel you have a big mountain to climb but once you get going it does not take that long. I started just after midday and finished before 2pm. (I did not apply the wax, prefer to wait for my next wash, next weekend when I have more time). When I finished, I packed up all my things and came inside. As I put on television, it was a few minutes until 2pm. I switched to Sky News, Air Force One had just landed at Heathrow and was taxing on the runway. At precision 14:00 hours it came to a standstill. (Literally as the Sky News clock ticked over to 14:00, the wheels came to a stop) If only my life could be so perfectly timed?

Not done a great deal this weekend, I was right to describe my weekend to Pav as "nothing dot com" on MSN on Friday afternoon. Yesterday I got up relatively late around 10.30am and then just lounged about for most of the day. I watched Van Wilder 2: The Rise Of Taj on Friday night and was very disappointed. Making a sequel without your main star is always a big risk, so this was your straight to DVD affair with a rather low key C-list cast. Even the idea was rather rubbish and Kal Penn is never the same draw as Ryan Reynolds. Therefore I had high hopes for Old School, particularly as it stars Luke, my favourite of the two Wilson brothers. I watched that on Saturday night after the football. It was good fun but almost immediately forgettable. The idea of creating a new fraternity in order to stay in the house was clever but slowly lost direction in place of complete comic stupidity. I then watched Accepted this morning to bring my college related movie count to three in total for the weekend. The movie this morning perhaps being the best of the three in terms of story and comedy. Plus the relatively unknown cast make watching much more enjoyable, you do not have a body of work to compare their performances to.

Football has been great this weekend so far. The Dutch demolished the old men of France in a thrilling game on Friday night. Then Spain overcame Sweden just about in a tight match yesterday afternoon. The Russian and Greek tie I only caught the second half of but it was rather flat in places. Tonight we have the start of the final group game phase with matches played at the same time. As I type this the Czech Republic lead Turkey by two goals, looks like my hopes for a penalty shootout are dead and buried. Hold on, what is this? The greatest come back in European Championship history? The best goal keeper in the world looking like a has been?

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Friday 13th June 2008

A very strange and disjointed week, with my first full day in the office not coming around until Thursday. Yes - Thursday, believe it or not! Wednesday, the first day back after my training course, I was only in the office until noon. Then the real mission began! Yes, another day midweek, another crazy challenge and once again the destination was London but not for automotive reasons. Just like last week, the first destination was the gym for a workout before driving back into Wycombe. Here I parked in Eden and went to get my haircut. I had considered dropping my car off at home and catching the bus, but it would have only delayed matters. Much easier to kill as many birds with one stone as possible. I parked in the new Eden car park, which is just an extension of the old Tesco car park (which has had a lick of paint and some minor reconstruction to the entrance and exit ramps). I found a space on level 2, in the orange zone and then rushed to the door. I headed down to the ground floor in the lift and rushed out of the main door into the shopping centre, then tried to get some bearings. Right it was, I headed in the direction of House Of Fraser and the bus station, on my way to Jerry's Street Styles. It was quiet, I got my haircut from Jerry and then headed back into Eden. First stop Clinton Cards, then Tesco to grab a quick bite to eat, I opted to eat on the go as I headed back to the car. I was surprised it cost just a £1 to park at that time in the day but perhaps because I had not taken that long on my errands. Part one complete, I was on my way home and the second part of my mission could begin.

As soon as I got home, I showered, changed and was out the door way past 3pm, perhaps a bit later than I had hoped. I opted to catch the bus to the train station, driving was an option but finding a parking space and actually paying was a big obstacle. I had everything I needed and took a deep breath as I stepped onto the driveway. What would the evening bring? I did not know at that moment in time, I was only interested in the music on my Zen and that my mobile had enough charge to take some photographs. The bus arrived at 15:17, there was some parents with their children waiting at the stop. Chepping View was letting out (is that the phrase?) So there were children all over the Cressex Link. I got onboard, paid my fare and settled down for the journey into the town centre. I could have got off further up the road but opted to get off at the old library and walk up to the station. The sun was shining, it had been a glorious day. I was looking forward to the evening, even if I was a little bit nervous.

I opted to catch the non-stop train from Wycombe to Marylebone at 15:57, it was quite busy for a weekday afternoon service. It got into Marylebone at 16:22 and I rushed down to the tube station. I had a plan for the afternoon before the evening could begin. I took the Bakerloo Line to Embankment here I grabbed a tube map from the display stand and ended onto the Hungerford Bridge crossing the Thames over to the South Bank. From here, I took a long walk down the river. It took me over half an hour but eventually I got to my destination. Tower Bridge, City Hall and most importantly The Telectroscope (which will be gone by Sunday afternoon). Here I took some photographs, then my phone rang.

I was late, very late considering I had at one time thought about walking from this point to Covent Garden which had now become an impossibility. I had to go by tube, but my Oyster Card was low. So the I had to top up before I jumped on the tube. I walked across Tower Bridge (something I was doing for the first time). Actually I think I may have only been driven across once in my childhood, but it was a lovely afternoon as the sun shine over the river. If I had more time I would have taken some more photographs, than the handful that have been uploaded to this set on FlickR.

I did not know exactly where I was going but found myself at Tower Hill tube station. I topped up my Oyster Card (once I found the correct terminal) then headed through down to the Circle and District Lines and waited for the next train. I got off at Embankment and took the stairs and escalator down to the Northern Line, north bound. There I got a tube to Leicester Square and then walked across to the Piccadilly Line, here I caught the tube up one station to Covent Garden. (I know I could have walked from Leicester Square but I did not have the time). When I got off the tube train, I ran up the 124 stairs rather than take the lift but found myself by the entrance barrier and had to ask a member of LU staff how to get out (a passage way between the lifts). I was out and made the phone call, I had a big apology to make. Before that, I had to find my final destination. My natural guiding instinct was gone. I headed first in the right direction but thought I was going the wrong way so turned back, only to realise I should have been where I was before. Eventually I got the phonecall and got on the right track and we made are way around to where we were supposed to be.

At a few minutes after 10pm, I said my goodbyes at the concourse of Charing Cross station. I was heading home and on quite a buzz. I raced up the escalator at Marylebone and climbed up to the train station with little trouble (the gym programme is showing it's benefits). The departure boards are being replaced, so there is good old fashioned pen and paper on this temporary area ahead of the ticket barriers. My train didn't leave until 22:40 and had not been assigned a platform number yet, so I bought myself a chocolate milkshake, bringing back memories of Friday evenings when I worked in London, almost exactly four years ago.

Although there are a long list of events on Facebook for this weekend, I am actually doing none of them. Perhaps in a parallel universe I would be camping out at Le Mans (two years missed now) however I am not. I am spending the weekend at home. I could also have been in Cornwall for the weekend but the group of us that were going, slowly lost enthusiasm as the weekends were changed from early May to mid June. A quiet Saturday in, will wash the car as the weather is good, watch the football, watch Doctor Who, perhaps catch a movie (or three) and then gym on Sunday. Oh and my Mum and sisters are running Race For Life on the Rye on Sunday.

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Sunday 8th June 2008

Collected my car from South London yesterday morning. It was quite a trek back, with me jumping on the first bus into town at 8:02am and catching the 8:38am train into Marylebone. I then caught the tube to Elephant & Castle here, I walked into the shopping centre and bought a ticket to Tooting. I waited a few minutes for the train and then walked around to the garage. The car was just being washed as I collected, it was 10:38am. Excellent job! I then had the mission to get back home. It took me a good few hours. There was a burst water main on the A4 Great West Road which meant the three lane dual carriageway was closed down to single file. Even in the hot sunshine, with the air conditioning on full blast I switched between my CD and the radio. I listened to KISS in patches. That was one of the benefits of being in the capital, crystal clear perfect reception. As I listened to Break The Ice by Britney Spears, it was as if I was listening to the CD you would not have been able to tell the difference. When I got home, after pondering about for an hour or so (going online for a bit and watching television) I headed outside and vacuumed the car. Washing it was a bridge too far and it was relatively clean from the garage. Plus my trip over to Kent today was going to pick up the motorway dirt. I left it and went inside to spend a few hours on the net before the big kick off to Euro 2008.

I watched Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (re-titled"Get The Munchies" for European markets) last night. I had decided to download it around midday on Friday. I had seen the trailers for the new movie and thought it would be worth watching. It finished quite late on Friday evening but instead of staying up until 4am on Saturday morning, I thought it best to wait until Saturday night after the football. It was very good, entertaining but generally a complete crazy mess. Good fun, with some hilarious moments. My personal favourite was singing along to cheesy ballads by Amy Grant and Wilson Philips in the truck they hijacked. I will hopefully catch the sequel on DVD or DivX very soon.

Was over in Bexleyheath this morning. Well, I got up around 7am and was down the gym for 8am. Matt was there, so I got him to adjust my chest press weight from 25kg to 15kg (much more manageable). At 8.55am, I checked out of the gym and headed home. After I changed, I grabbed all my things and headed to the car. Destination Kent - the garden of England (apparently). I left just before 10am and got to Ricki's house just after 11am. It didn't take long to get her old computer up and running once the new hard drive was installed. I threw on XP and then Office 2003. Job done, all within the hour or so. Then we headed off to Lakeside to have a look around and get some lunch. I had been over in this part of the world, just under a year ago. On that occasion we went to Bluewater. Little did I know we would go there again later. The reason I wanted to go to the shopping centre in Thurrock, Essex was because I had heard so much about it and it had almost mystical persona until now. It turned out to be quite an eventful afternoon. First we had to pay the £1 toll to be able to drive through the Dartford Tunnel. Then we got across to Lakeside and found a quick parking space which I spotted. We headed through some of the shops starting with Debenhams. We walked through some of the shops and I came to realise why the upmarket Bluewater on the right side of the Thames, I might add is the preferred shopping destination. Firstly it was much smaller than I expected. Plus, most of the shops were smaller too, with the exception of the department stores and Primark (which was one of the biggest I have ever walked into). We went up to the Food Court but there was not much in terms of decent sit down and eat food, so we made the executive decision to head back to Bluewater. It would take a while but there was much better choice. So we headed out and cross the bridge and paid the toll at the end (it was 13:58) as we went through the barrier. We got to Bluewater, found a quick parking spot and headed in to get some food. We went to La Tasca and it was very good (and relatively quiet). It was getting late and it was past 3pm by the time we finished our meal so I decided to take a quick look around and then head back as I had a long and tiring journey back home on the M25. We went to have a look in House of Frasier but there was not much on offer. We then headed back to Bexleyheath, I jumped in my car, put on my sunglasses and headed onto the long journey home. It had just gone 4pm and I got home just after 5pm. A nice afternoon spent with my friend, just a shame it was so much of a mission, could have gone to Bluewater in the first place and saved all the hassle (and two quid).

Talking of music, I burnt a new CD last night. I had heard a small snippet of a song on KISS in the car, on my way back from London and downloaded the track in full. Keri Hilson's debut single (she has written for many others and featured on Timbaland's Shock Value, as well as being the beautiful love interest in Usher's "Love In The Club" music video) will be Energy. I have listened to it regular today and it has grown on me, absolutely fantastic. Plus nice to have a RnB with a slower pace for a change.

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Friday 6th June 2008

It has been exactly a year since I switched over to Sky broadband and can report, with a beaming smile that I have had no problems whatsoever. They moved to Google as their mail provider a while back but I just purchased my own SMTP gateway service to get around this and have never looked back. I think I was wise to wait a few months and actually move across from Orange nearly six months after the service launched, as many people had teething problems as the rollout began.

Before I continue, let me qualify my situation. I am not a fan of Big Brother. I watched the first series loosely but paid more attention nine years ago than I have ever done before. However, this does not stop me watched the odd part here and there from the highlight show. It is unavoidable with both my sisters hooked on the show and watching live feeds on E4 in the lounge. In recent years I have only watched the first night to see the latest batch of freaks and celebrity wannabe's enter the house. I did so, last night more on behalf of my friend Savita, whom was on the other side watching (or rather drooling over) Peter Petrelli on Heroes, so I gave a running commentary on MSN. I also read the live blog over on the fantastic Organ Grinder by The Guardian.

As soon as I saw contestant number fourteen, I could see the resemblance with one of the movie world's greatest bully's. I did some Google searches but could not find a great photograph. However I have found the best I could and have uploaded to my FlickR. Judge for yourselves, but there is a close match. However will the producers of the Channel Four show pick up on this and use it to their advantage? Time will tell!

The weekend is here and I am actually looking forward to what I have in store. There is the return journey to Tooting to collect my car on Saturday morning. Then once I get home on Saturday afternoon, hopefully the sun is still shining so I can get the car washed and waxed. Then I will be glued to the opening match of Euro 2008 on the Beeb. I have been handed Switzerland in the Euro Sweepstake at work, so will have to be supporting the home nation. Then there is Doctor Who and the second match in the evening. Then I think I may watch Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. Sunday is very busy, gym first thing and then a trip over to Bexleyheath for some computer fixing before a little walk around Lakeside (I have never been before). A packed weekend you will agree but not too bad and then a very busy week at work when I take off Monday morning and do not land home until Thursday evening. I hope you have a great weekend whatever you get up to, I will try and keep you all posted with the latest with status changes on Facebook and Twitter.

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Wednesday 4th June 2008

Nothing is ever straight forward for me. You should know that by now. Even the most simple of tasks becomes a crazy mission. Take this afternoon, I booked a half day holiday to drop my car off at ARC Coachworks in Mitcham (South London) to have the passenger door repaired. I left work promptly at midday but did not head home first as you would assume. I went to the gym and got my weight session done before heading home. I got home around 1.30pm and quickly had a shower changed, grabbed my things (already organised from last night) and jumped into the car. It was 13:57 according to the clock on my dash, I was hitting the M4 into London. The journey was relatively quiet, all things considered. I hate driving in London, but had planned for the journey by also scouting out my journey on Google Maps. My previous route had been M25 and M3 which was just far too long winded. The M4 route is more direct and easier. Once I went over the Hammersmith flyover and saw for the first time the Hammersmith Apollo, it was onto the A roads down through Fulham and over a bridge (Wandsworth Bridge Road) and then through Tooting and arrived at my destination just after 3pm. I dropped the car off, handed over my keys then walked the mile or so to Tooting station, having plugged myself into my Zen. When I got to the station I bought my ticket to Elephant & Castle and headed down to Platform one. It was 15:31 by the station clock and literally ten seconds later my train arrived.

Going to head on a slight tangent here but bear with me, there is a method in my madness. Back in the mid 1990s, I was a regular listener to Capital FM. (How times have changed!) In any case I was such a big fan of the radio station I would listen non-stop some weekends and was able to name songs that were going to be played within seconds of hearing the opening beat. The used to be many memorable adverts played on the station at the time but one of my favourite was for Transport For London. The premise was some evangelical priests guiding a lost soul to his destination. "He was lost, among the heard of wondering souls in Trafalgar Square. If only he had know that all he had to do was dial 0171 222 1234 and get all the latest information on that last night bus home to Tooting." The chorus of followers would repeat loudly "Tooting".

Until today, I had never been to Tooting although obviously had fond memories of the name from the radio add from some ten years ago. So here I was, walking up past the main street to the main railway station. I got to Elephant & Castle within thirty minutes or so and then had a bit of a walk to the Tube station. I had to come out of the shopping centre (which is behind the train station) and out into the market area and then down a series of subways up to the Tube station. Then I got my Oyster Card out and it was automatically topped up ;) (Do you not just love modern technology!) I then decided to go down the 124 stairs rather than use the lift. As I got to the platform, there was a train waiting, so I jumped on and sat down. Two middle aged woman appeared and consulted the map. They then asked me if this train went to Tooting. I explained I had just come from that direction and gave them some basic instructions on how to get to the Southern line service just before the bell sounded and the doors closed. My deed of the day if you will.

Once I was on the Bakerloo Line train, my journey was pretty straightforward with no surprises. I got off at Marylebone, rushed up the stairs and escalator, found my Oyster Card in my bag and went through the barrier. Headed to the Time Machine, I mean Fast Ticket machine and bought a single to Wycombe and then waited for the platform number for the next train heading home to light up on the departure board. Platform six, for the Princes Risborough service at 16:38. I had estimated I would be hope at 6pm, as I had walked to Tooting station. I got into Wycombe at 17:20 and walked to the bus station, stopping at Tesco to get some chocolate. I had a major sugar rush and bought a Dairy Milk Double Chocolate and a Nestle Yorkie Bar (or cooking chocolate as my ex best friend used to call it at college). I really don't think I should have eaten both bars, one after the other as I walked to bay F to wait for my bus. I had missed the first Cressex Park & Ride (100) service by a few minutes and the next was along at 17:50, I bought my ticket and jumped on board. I took a deep breathe, finally the long journey was coming to an end.

There was a moment when I was walking towards Tooting station, that I realised I was in London. Two police cars parked on the street and a WPC arguing with an old woman on her doorstep. There was a feeling inside which said I was out of my comfort zone, please get me back to leafy Buckinghamshire and the familiar sights and sounds of my home town.

A busy few days, including the weekend and then a few more busy days out of the office. Life will not really return to some sense of normality until Thursday evening. Plus with The Big Bang Theory series one coming to an end tomorrow (I will catch the episode on E4 tonight as it has been pushed back to midnight tomorrow to make way for the Big Brother launch). Whatever happened to Big Brother launches on Fridays?

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Sunday 1st June 2008

An early start on this first day of June. I do find it a struggle to get out of bed so early, when most of my peers are most likely have only been asleep for a handful of hours. However, once I am up and about, the rest of the day becomes a breeze. I say that, but today was the start of a new regime in terms of my fitness programme. I would be hitting 'Workout Two'. I got to the gym before 8am and was actually carrying out my warm up on the bike at 7.48am (BBC News was on BBC1). It was very quiet with only a handful of other users with many more out on the green on this dull morning with their golf caddies. I must say that step-up machine is a strange device, it took me a while to get used to it and even then I do not think I was using it correctly. I kept letting my feet lower to the floor completely instead of pulling them up quick enough. Not much time to learn when my programme on there only lasts five minutes. However, I am going to persevere and not remove it from my programme as I thought I would do earlier. Then it was fifteen minutes on the cross trainer but only at level six (in my cardio programme is fluctuates up to eight!). Then it was over to the weight machines.

I asked for some help to ensure my results were recorded onto my TGS key and was given clear instructions on what to do. Plug in the key, set the seat level, the weight and away you go. The only piece of kit I struggled with was the chest press. My lack of upper body strength makes it a killer to press the 25kg, dropping down to 15kg did help but I still found it a heavy challenge. Apart from that, I whizzed through the rest of the machines and was out the door just after 8.30am. Job done. The time passes quickly as I only have to do two times twelve reps on each machine. An hour and a half later, as I type this blog post I feel good but no pain in my shoulders, arms or legs. Maybe that will come tomorrow morning.

Off for my next piano lesson at 11am this morning. I have to confess I have not been practicing at all really (once since my last lesson on 11th May). With so much else going on, I hardly find the time and just do not have the discipline to sit down and practice (although my teacher will not be able to here me say that). To be honest, I have always found it hard to make time, ever since I started lessons last year but somehow have strolled along making the most minor progress. The grade one exam feels a long long way away from where I am standing.

Euro 2008 starts next weekend and it is the first time in the history of this blog that England will not be at a major international tournament. It does feel rather strange, an almost empty feeling. Sure, the tournament will be great to watch as a football fan but it is not the same when your team is not taking part. Just look at the Champions League final a few weeks ago, great fun to watch but no real care as Arsenal did not make it. We are having a sweepstake at work and unlike two years ago, I know I will not get drawn England. I am hoping for Portugal or Spain but any of the power houses of the continent is fine, just a shame I will not be in the offices for the draw. I remember the afternoon in 2006 very well, I was stuck on the helpdesk on the phone to a client while the draw took place in the meeting room, next door. Chris told me who I had got, while I put the rep on hold for a second, I was happy and ultimately won my money back. Looking back thought he archives, this time exactly a year ago, I had taken the day off to go to see the first full international at the new Wembley Stadium. Funny how quickly time passes and things move on leaps and bounds. (I had a few days to wait before broadband was restored to my home at that time, it was eventually restored on 6th June I believe).

Three more episodes of Greek to watch to catchup on the season so far and be in sync with the States viewing schedule. I must say the show has grown on me considerably over the past week or so I have been watching. Part of me even wants to watch it on BBC3 tonight as the quality and sound will be of much better quality. In fact I may watch them on my Xbox in the lounge, as the rest of the family are out of town today.

It is 8.40pm as I write the final part of this blog post. A busy Sunday morning but a very lazy afternoon. After my piano lesson I looked at a friend's PC and did some research online on the hardware. Then while having a late lunch I watched the final three episodes of Greek via the XBMC. The quality was very good, perhaps it just looks bad when scaled up on my PC to wide screen mode. Just two more to go until the end of season one. (I may be sad and watch episode two on BBC3 with the rest of the UK viewing public) Feels rather strange but looking forward to England match later tonight. I fell asleep around 5pm for a few hours, after a very tiring day although I thought the weights would have taken a lot more out of me. It is going to be a bit of a split week at work but I'm most looking forward to getting back home on Saturday afternoon then I can look forward to watching the opening match of Euro 2008!

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Saturday 31st May 2008

It is a quite a surreal experience to leave home just as the night falls and to return home a handful of hours later as the sunrises. I had been waiting since 8.30pm for Pav to come and pick me up and watched as the sunset in the distance behind The Cressex Link Road. I did get picked up at 10.30pm and we got into London and more specifically Shoreditch around an hour or so later. After the rest of the gang got some food, we headed to the club, down the road. There was a moderate queue but once Pav explained he was DJing and his CD case (what no vinyl?) we were ushered in straight away. I found my name on the guest list (as Andrew not Teg) and got my concession entry ticket. Div wanted to change her footwear and go to the cash point a few minutes later and we had to buy 're-admission' wristbands at the cost of £1 each. Another little money maker for the club! When we returned it was quite busy and the main room had an Indie slash electronic band from Newcastle - Viva City playing live. They were quite good, judging from the small crowd who were going mad! There were a couple of Asian guys who would not have looked out of place at an Asian wedding with their mesmerising dance moves! Unfortunately I did not get any photographs here and those I did take with my N73 were really poor quality so will not be uploaded to FlickR. However I am sure there will be plenty of stills and motion loaded up onto Facebook very very soon. Had a really good night, the Crescendo room at the back was packed and really buzzing, particularly during Pav's set from 2am until 3am! The set was very uplifting and apart from perhaps the last fifteen minutes or so I really enjoyed it. However my opinion counts for nothing, the rest of the clubbers were really living off the vibe! I did not actually go into the pool room (strange description) it was next door but came with a heavy smell of chlorine by the door. There was a big mixed crowd, many foreigners including some ladies from the Far East, Europeans (Spanish I think) but you always get a cosmopolitan feel when you go into London. We left around 3.40am and I got through my front door at 4.30am. Updated my Twitter and then went to sleep.

A rather lazy Saturday by my standards. I did not get up until 11am and then just lounged about for most of the day. I watched Click during breakfast and then Football Focus in my room while checking my e-mail. I then thought about washing my car well, well at least giving the interior a clean but opted against it? Why? Well I can give it a proper good clean next weekend :). Instead I cleared my room up, carried out some shredding and organised my gym bag for tomorrow morning. I then went and gave the shower room a much needed clean, before settling down to watch a double helping of Greek.

Hopefully before the weekend is out, I will have caught up with the Stateside pace of the show, while UK viewers will only have seen episode two on BBC3 on Sunday night. I must say the show has grown on me but it is not as outrageously funny as I thought it would be. It is more about the relationships between the main characters. I particularly enjoyed episode fifteen, "Freshman Daze" which flashes back to two years previously when the current presidents of the houses were freshmen. Gives you a chance to understand the journey these characters have been on. I'm finding it difficult to find a personal favourite, sure I like Cappie for his outlandish ways but his heart appears to be in the right place. Then there is Rusty, the hero if you will, of our tale but there is not enough substance. Dale just kills me every moment he is on the screen but he is there as pure comic relief. Calvin? Maybe, but perhaps I will not know my favourite until way into the second season. I am going to watch another couple of episodes tonight (after the results of Britain's Got Talent) and then a few more tomorrow afternoon.

I stumbled upon Jon Masters blog following a link from Mighty Mouse. He now lives in the States, but moved quite recently. I have been reading several posts from over the past year. I am not sure what the catalyst was for this change in lifestyle (end of a relationship?) but he seems to totally transformed his life. Not just a diet, but every 'fault' as he calls it and slowly but surely turn into a new person, under the banner of Brand New Jon. While I confess such a drastic change (even over a sustained period of time) is alien to me, the sentiment is so true. I feel some sympathy as I too am on a similar (if not as dramatic) drive for improvement. Mine starts and ends at the gym really, although of course I am also tweaking with elements around the edges and have been doing so for over a year. I wish him luck but I don't think he needs it as a very determined and intelligent individual almost at the peak of the mountain. Me on the other hand, I am at the foot of the mountain looking up and can only see a very steep incline. The journey begins tomorrow morning bright and early!

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Thursday 29th May 2008

Over a month ago (46 days to be exact) I had my first fitness test and scored a reasonable "Fair". Not bad considering my complete lack of exercise until I joined the gym. However this evening, I was hoping for a review with Matt, our personal trainer but instead was given my second fitness test. I did not expect to be a big improvement. You can imagine my surprise when after my jog, Matt put my TechnoGym key into the computer to reveal the result. "Superb". Not only that a 58% improvement on my previous test. Okay sure, even accounting for the margin of error considering I was placed nine kilos overweight. I was well chuffed but my excitement was short lived. Matt then built up my second "weights" programme. It does not look much fun, in fact I can see it being a bigger struggle than my cardio programme. However, luckily I now have the benefit of being able to alternate between the two programmes.

One of my friends, Y has the following message on her MSN - "Motivation is what gets you started...Habit is the skill to keep you going...". I have to admit that phrase or saying really rings true in my ears. I knew starting at the gym was going to be hard work but I really wondered if I could seriously change my routine to accommodate. But my friend is right, it is motivation that gets you started but habit keeps you going and I am slowly edging into that category. I have missed a handful of sessions and am really making an effort to ensure I go to the gym four times a week. However, the last two months have been a walk in the park considering my new weights programme. I know it is going to be hard and in a way I am going to look forward to my cardiovascular workout which will in fact be a 'rest' from all the weights machines.

Watched England play the USA last night on BBC1. I could have been there, even if I had decided to go yesterday lunchtime as the FA were so keen to get rid of tickets they e-mailed me at least three times to let me know that tickets would be on sale on the "door". I have had enough of friendlies and am happy to wait for the real deal World Cup Qualifiers come the autumn. Which fixtures I will be going to I am not sure but would like to go to the rematch against Croatia in September 2009. Although I have asked Hussein to tape the match for me on MythTV, I also recorded on my own PC (albeit after two forced reboots). However the only reason I wanted to record Match Of The Day was for the national anthems. My favourite and my own. To see them played back to back truly made me understand why I do not like God Save The Queen so much. The American national anthem is a stirring patriotic song with story telling as the centre piece, the focal point a flag! I had read online that All Angels were going to sing both anthems so you can imagine my surprise to hear the PA announcer say "Kelly Rowland". Not sure if it was the mic or the Wembley PA system but there were technical problems on the high notes. This however did not deter my enjoyment of the piece. Then, straight afterwards we had the bland and somewhat boring National Anthem of the United Kingdom. A shame because although I do still feel something when I hear it played it is not the same as other national anthems. I am sure there are many people out there annoyed that The Apprentice had to move to Tuesday night to make way for a pointless friendly but just take it from the view of an American in London (fantastic mock blog entry over at The Daily Mail) well worth a read!

My experience with government agencies has been exceptional in recent years. Back in February last year the DVLA were super quick to send me back the documentation to transfer my cherish plate from my Punto to my A3. A surprise to say the least. You have may noticed on my Twitter feed that I quickly text in on Tuesday evening when arriving home to discover my shinny new biometric passport. Once again, a swift response from the Passport Office taking less than two weeks to turn around (but unfortunately not sure when I will be using it this year, it might be gathering dust in a drawer until January 2009!) However not all experiences have been that great, when I went to renew my car tax in late December last year, a record of my insurance could not be found on the computer so I had to go back to 19th century standard of taking paper copies to the Post Office (in the town center) Oh well, no one is perfect but I hope it works at the end of this year!

A very quick preview to the weekend, it is nearly 9pm and I want to watch one more episode of Greek (up to #11 now, the start of part two after the Christmas break?). I am off clubbing with the gang tomorrow night in London. Pav and the rest of the collective are playing at Club Aquarium in Shoreditch. Why is it called that? Well there is a big swimming pool (not sure if Olympic size) in da club. Yes I am not kidding you! Do I ever go to the same old bland locations on a night out? Of course not, I go to the places you never forget. Pav's set is not until 2am I think until 3am (or was it 3am until 4am) I cannot remember exactly but it is going to be a big night! Expect photographs and a review of sorts here sometime over the weekend. Then a quiet Saturday, Sunday I will be hitting the gym for the first time to give my weight programme a run, then a piano lesson. Not a lot planned but quite busy and I am sure if the weather is good I will give the car a wash. For now, I hope you have a fantastic Friday and I am sure I will be hearing from you all very soon. Keep posted on my movements via Twitter!

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Sunday 25th May 2008

I am back from my first ever Eurovision Party Experience! It was fantastic, I had a great time and most of my friends made a good effort to dress up and get into the mood. However, before I get to the party I should fill you in on my Saturday. After getting back quite late from the cinema (we went over to the Riverside bar and restaurant for a drink afterwards) I slept in until gone 10am and eventually got my act together at 2pm to go and wash my car. Well I vacuumed it first and then was in two minds as to weather or not to wash it. There was a slight drizzle but I thought I would bite the bullet and get it done. It took me just under two hours and it was a job well done. I used the new de-greaser that Pav gave me on Friday on the wheels and the dirty just flew off. Good product recommendation once again from Crystal Detail. Talking of CD, they now have an official web site.

I made my first attempts to apply the Victoria Concours Wax which I purchased from Clean Your Car last week. I only tested it out on the bonnet and rear boot, just to get an idea of how to apply it and buff it to a beautiful shine in the sunlight. Overall I was impressed with the wax and Pav told me later that it only needed to be applied once every six weeks or so as the beading lasts for a long time.

After washing the car, I spent the few hours I had left before the party to watch episode four of Greek. It has been getting better and there was memorably laugh out moments on the show but it was more of a filler slash character development episode. Then, I noticed that Superman II was being shown on five, so watched for a few moments before jumping in the shower and getting ready. I could not find a tunic, so my Mum got my cousin Anita to bring one along with her, so I had to wait for them to get to Wycombe. It was 7pm as I got into my car but they were around the corner in Asda getting some last minute bits and pieces for the weekend. Eventually I got the top and headed over to Reading.

I think I should clarify where I stand on Eurovision. I'm not a big fan but have liked some of the UK entrants of yesteryear (anyone remember Precious?). However, I do not need much of an excuse for a party, so was really glad when I heard Em was organising one and the Event got posted up on Facebook. I suppose you could call me a bit of a closet fan as I have watched most years at home with my family. Last year being the exception when I listened instead. In 2006, I watched the UK performance and then opted to watch National Treasure on Sky movies instead (the sequel I only watched a few weeks ago). However it is something I have always enjoyed watching and even downloaded the odd song. However, the ideal opportunity of a party meant we could all get in the mood and have some fun! It was a good reason to dress up and learn about a different country, particularly as I did not agree with Andy being there, it should have been Michelle Gayle, her song was much more Eurovision than the jazz club number, "Even If".

I parked at the old house in Emmer Green and then Pav's Mum gave me a lift to the house in central Reading. As I was let in by Pav, I handed him the important package I had brought along - the remote control. Could we tune into BBC1 and get decent reception. Andy (Sweden) and Nicola (Greece) were already there and Em (France) was in the kitchen preparing the snacks. I will put the country assigned in brackets but it will be quite easy to work out from the photographs (nearly 200) that are being uploaded to FlickR as I type. The lounge had been decorated with flags of several of the countries participating on bunting but the only furniture to speak of were some cushions, so I had brought along my inflatable football chair (which I had got as a leaving present from my placement at Hillier's back in July 2003. I had only used it once, during Christmas that same year). It was quite a mission to inflate the thing, and even with Andy and Nicola helping, I only half inflated the beast in time to be seated for the start of the show. At 8pm sharp, the show began and here I was, my first Eurovision Song Contest Party could begin.

Rather than go into all the details of what happened during the course of the night, I think I will let my photographs tell the story. Sazzle (Russia) was the eventual champion but there were good shouts by Greece (Nicola) and Ukraine (Annie). So what are you waiting for there are 192 photographs over on this fresh new FlickR set.

Song wise I really liked the ballad from Israel. Performance wise, Ukraine was right up there along side Greece (whose song Secret Combination would not have been out place at a Britney Spears concert earlier this decade). Then there were the crazy performance, particularly Spain which put together a comic show with even one dancer (in pink) falling on the floor. Russia won and deserved their victory. I have seen Dima live, he performed at the World Music Awards in Earls Court two years ago and was very good even if he has more than a passing resemblance for Pop Idol flop Darius Dinesh. Off to Moscow next year then but will the man that keeps us all going through the evening, Sir Tell be there with us?

Joined up to Twitter so I can upload quick blitz updates to this blog when I am out and about. (I will get around to putting a twitter box somewhere but at the moment my side bar looks far too busy and needs a spring clean, something (or several things) will just have to bite the dust! Also considering the amount of time I am on the road these days, thought it would be useful. Just one more day of the Bank Holiday Weekend left. I was going to into London to meet up with a friend and look at The Telectroscope. However having just watched the weather (with Laura Tobin) I have decided to abandon those plans to visit the capital. It is going to be raining all day, so apart from a morning trip to the gym, a duvet day (of sorts). Hope you all have had a good weekend and make the most of tomorrow!

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Saturday 24th May 2008

When you have been waiting nineteen years for a sequel you can expect two things. Firstly a major marketing blitz from National Lottery scratch cards to cereal box tie ins. Thankfully I am at an age when I can see through all of that. Secondly a desire for everyone to try and associate themselves with the great adventurer, even the Beeb whom screen the trilogy over the past three Sunday evenings. What can I say after having seen the movie with Pav yesterday evening in Reading? Overall disappointing but there are plenty of moments which make it worthwhile to watch but it does not have the same touch or tone as the previous three movies. Time has moved on and perhaps 1957 is the ideal last year for an outing for a man that keeps a whip by his side and is afraid of snakes but relies on no modern technology whatsoever. A few later and the country (if not the planet) was interested in the space race and the place for an archeologist would have disappeared for good. For me, the outstanding part of the film is Cate Blanchet's performance as the Soviet Union Doctor Irina Spalko. She was absolutely convincing as the villain and a great match for Indiana. However I felt that Jones needed more than one villain to make this movie worthwhile. A hero is only as good as the villain he is pitted against but this is just a small flaw (of many in the film). Visually there is a desire to make the film look the same as the previous three so you cannot realise that nearly twenty years have past since the last adventure. This is fine and for me, a great break from all the flashy CGI that I see in the majority of the movies I watch (predominately of the super hero genre). The ending is extremely disappointing which is a great shame because the rest of the movie stands up as a glowing tribute to the previous three movies but also being an Indy film in it's own right. However, perhaps with the gap between the last installment, I have grown up (I was only seven when the Last Crusade was released this day in 1989) and my expectations have grown following a diet of summer Hollywood blockbusters - some good, some very bad. Even having said that I am sure some of the kids in the audience would have felt the movie must have let them down after all the hype and months of build up. Or perhaps they just go home, go to sleep and forget about it and look forward to their next trip to the cinema. Watch out for a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Back To The Future trilogy in there too. The time machine was originally going to be a fridge which had to be within the range of an atomic bomb to enable the occupant to travel through time. However Lucas and Spielberg decided against this because they felt too many children which try and hide inside the them, so the DeLorean was chosen instead (not a bad choice in retrospect).

I would still recommend you go to the cinema to watch this movie, it is worth that at least, mainly because I did not get the chance to do so the first (three) time. The action scenes are fantastic and there are various twists in the plot which leave it open for the fifth (and final?) installment but we shall see. It was fun but there was the classic lines that I could quote from the top of my head as there is with Last Crusade. I was disappointed that Jim Broadbent did not have a bigger role as Marcus Brody was my favourite character from the previous adventure. There are nods to him, in a framed photograph on Henry Jones' desk and the sculpture at the University. (Although there was no barber shop as shown on the Wikipedia page). In summary then, good but could have been much better. A shame because I had great hopes that this would be a hidden gem for the summer movie season. Do not just take my word for it, read a few other reviews! But there good sides to every tale, during the trailer spot I saw a spot for Wanted. It looks amazing and I look forward to it's release at the end of June. Angelina Jolie, fast cars and guns - what more could you ask for?

This evening sees me attend my first ever Eurovision Party! I have been assigned a country and organised my outfit yesterday. All set for the festivities to begin this evening at 8pm with the legend that is Terry Wogan. I do not think the UK will do well, it should have been ex-Eastender Michelle Gayle there not Andy "bin man" Abraham! I have joined the Beeb's Eurovision Group over on FlickR so hope to post some of my best photographs there but the full story will be revealed over the course of the Bank Holiday Weekend. All I can say is stay tuned and hope you too have a great night whatever you get up to.

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Thursday 22nd May 2008

I am sure like me you had seen the trailers, at the end of (or before) Eastenders. While perhaps the title was rather ambiguous, the trail was enough. I was definitely going to watch the show but it would not air until Sunday (25th) on BBC Three. Could I wait that long? Of course not! So, a green friend in the form of utorrent came to the rescue. However before I go into the details of discussion the show (I saw episode one, "Pilot" on Tuesday evening and have ten other episodes fresh and waiting to be viewed on my media drive) I need to give an explanation.

High school and even to a certain extent University life in England is rather dull. Or perhaps that is me just talking from my own personal experience. Even if you are the most outrageous person in the country, I am quite sure that your life at University (if you got there) or even high school can not compare to life in those comparable institutions across the pond. Perhaps because I have been brought up on a diet of US imports (some good, some very bad) from my early teens on Nickelodeon to movies such as Van Wilder: Party Liason, I have a distorted rose tinted spectacle picture. In any case, I will try and give my reasons. I would love to have gone to high school, learnt how to play that game their call football and more importantly gone to a prom and had some sort of graduation ceremony at seventeen. Then, we come to college. This would have been an amazing experience, joining a fraternity (if they had let me) and just enjoying all the fun the social side of life at college would bring. I am sure the studying would have been hard but I feel the group of friends I would have surely made almost instantly would have seen me through. Snap out of this day dream Teg! You are not living in this parallel universe Stateside, in fact you are a 26 year old grown man living in a rat race (of some description). This is where television becomes the avenue of escapism.

As usual, the Beeb use up all the best scenes for the trailer, which is a shame but I suppose they need a draw for the rest of the population that are not in love with America and American culture like me! Great fun overall, some fantastic characters that you really want to see develop. Sure, some of the stereotypes in college - the popular girl, the nerd, the muscular jock, the new girl and the token negro (who has a secret to keep under wraps). The main character, Rusty, our hero (if he could ever be called that his highly questionable) is the biggest draw? Why, because I think I would be very similar to him (although perhaps not as naive) heading over to college as a fresh faced eighteen year old. (I doubt any of my Uni friends that remember me from 2000 are reading this to leave their own comments and comparisons.). In fact, Calvin does have a passing resemblance to my old housemate Paul from my final year. However, I must confess it is not just the television shows that make me wish I had gone to college Stateside. It is also the music - I refer to it as college rock!

Taking my gym sessions seriously up a level this week. I had noticed I was getting blisters on my hands from the rowing machine. Not pleasant but bearable, but I needed a long term solution. My colleague described me as having office hands, not used to the rugged torture of the gym. I had noticed other gym users, wrapping a towel around the handles or alternatively using gloves. I went to Argos and found a nice pair of black Golds Gym fitness gloves for £8.99 which I thought was quite good value. However this was on Monday evening and I needed them by Wednesday morning at the very latest for my next session. The high street retailer had a two day delivery window (if the item was in stock). Therefore I thought I have a look at eBay expecting to pay about the same. However I stumbled upon a pair of Julong Wrist Wrap Fitness Gloves for the fantastic cost of £2, yes only two quid! I placed an order almost immediately and asked the seller if he could post to my work address the following morning. Sure enough, on Wednesday morning they arrived. I used them for my first session and it does feel much better on the rowing machine. I feel now I am kitted out for the gym, particularly when I move onto the weight machines next week. Yes sir, my review is scheduled for 28th May. How much improvement have I made in two months?

Nine years ago it was all the rage, burning all my own CDs. For a while I had to rely on Pav as I did not get my own PC with CD-writer until March 1999. Then, I was off, burning complications, backups, photographs, video files. You name it, I dropped it onto a shiny plastic disc. Usually branded TDK in my case. We got to a peak level of production in my first year at University when everyone was exchanging mp3 files and DivX rips to watch during the relatives quiet weekends. (At my halls of residence, most of my friends would disappear home Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. They were lucky, they had a thirty minute trip down the road and not the two hundred mile round trip I did!). However today, some eight years after my 'freshman' year at DMU, I find the same media a pain. I have dropped back down to burning one CD every two to three weeks. Considering I was at the peak of my powers back in 2002-3 when I would burn two CDs a week (minimum) to keep me company on my two hour journey to work. However back then I had options, I had a mp3 CD head unit but also a ten disc conventional CD player. Today, the wheels have changed but I am limited to just the mp3 CD head unit. The overall sound system has improved in leaps and bounds but we are stuck with the same old problem. The format. I see the future being either with a hard drive based player, much like the Empeg or a USB port to enable portable devices to be plugged in. There is also another killer feature that the Empeg has that no other conventional standard head unit manufacturer has come up with. Pure random. Once you hear a song, you are guaranteed not to hear it again until ALL, yes I mean ALL songs in that directory, folder, drive or location have been played. It can get rather annoying when you have such a basic algorithm on my Alpine.

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Saturday 17th May 2008

A lazy overcast Saturday afternoon. The FA Cup Final is on TV but I am only watching for the ex-Arsenal contingent. Portsmouth currently lead one nil at half time. To be honest, I have not done much to day. I went into town to return my library book and get a few bits and then came straight home. The weather is not inspiring for a washing my car (my Dad has taken it now in any case). An opportunity to have a sort out of things in my room, plus I have been given a PC to fix but not sure if I will get around to it until tomorrow.

Last night I watched National Treasure: The Book Of Secrets. I did not catch it at the cinema earlier in the year but in a way was glad to watch it on my PC rather than on the big screen. (I may watch it again when it gets onto Sky towards the end of the year). American History is fascinating, particularly The Civil War (which is the main focus here). It was good fun but of course at times rather over stretching the story to a point it was almost stupid. However, Cage and company appear to have a great time globe trotting around the world. The car chase through Central London is one of the highlights in terms of action sequences. (How cage was not arrested for causing such havoc and jumping a red light I will never know!) While I am a self confessed geek and love boys toys, I have to say in the context of this movie, I do not like the gadgetry used, it is just not necessary. However I suppose it will enable me to appreciate fully, a true action hero on Friday night, whom has no need for electronics, just a trusty whip! Indiana uses his wit and intelligence to get himself out of sticking situations, he has no need for a sidekick who is a computer genius. Aside from this, it was a good yawn, perhaps a bit too long but with an all star cast (including Helen Mirren) not a bad way to spend a Friday evening. (Although of course Pav will suggest I could have been in London at some latino club getting my groove on!)

Not much planned this weekend I'm afraid, well nothing exciting. I am going to get over to the gym tomorrow morning at 8am again and try and make it a habit. This will take my sessions from three to four times a week and I am sure I will feel the benefit over time. The main problem is getting out of bed on a Sunday morning around 7am, anything after that is quite straight forward. I still do not understand why the gym is so busy at that ungodly hour at the weekend.

I finished reading The Day Of The Jackal on Wednesday evening. An excellent book and I would highly recommend but mainly for the boys that like a bit of action slash adventure. It started slowly but once the plot builds up some pace it really is quite gripping. I just need to get around to watching the film when it is next screened on the telly. However after reading two books back to back, I am not on a short break. There was no point getting another book this afternoon when I got into town at midday. There is just a mobile lorry with a limited selection of books and even queuing can make you feel claustrophobic! I am going to wait for the new library to open in sixteen days and in the meanwhile move my focus back onto the piano.Yes I am still trying to learn the instrument, albeit struggling! (Mainly because I find it difficult to have the discipline to sit down and practice, particularly with the lure of the inter web in the evening.) Having said that my sister Samantha has just handed me Jeffery Archer's Prison Diary to read. Personally would prefer the work of pure fiction, but will have a read and see what I think.

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Sunday 11th May 2008

What a great weekend! The weather was fantastic so I had to make the most of it! An action packed weekend with so many highlights I am struggling on where to begin and where to begin from. As our Chinese meal had been replaced with a barbeque at Kev's I had a bit of a dilemma. Turn up early or watch Doctor Who and get over to Reading for around 8pm. I was actually later than that but never mind. I swung by Emmer Green, picked up Pav and Em and then headed over to Kev's. Andy, Helen, Andy, Nicola and Kev's house mate José were already there out in the back garden with a stack of food. The barbeque had been on for a few minutes, Kev was just about to serve up! Perfect timing. After a few burgers and drinks, we just relaxed and talked as the sun set in the background. A quite pleasant civilized way to spend a Saturday evening. I must say Poole was bang on form. I had hoped to leave around 11pm, and remember checking my mobile and it was about quarter past eleven. Next time we checked, as we were about to leave it was nearly quarter to one. Where had the time gone? José and Kev demolished a packet of Jaffa Cakes which now come in orange packaging instead of transparent. It was then Poole came along with the teacher impression, her one reason for ever going into the profession (if she ever did, no chance now). "Full Moon... Half Moon... Total Eclipse!" UK readers will remember the advert but I have not been able to find the original on You Tube. Only really poor mobile phone quality imitations, not worthy to even be discussed. I was in stitches as I drove back home. It was long gone 2am before I got to sleep. I wondered if I would have the will power to get up at 7am to go to the gym.

My alarm went off (my mobile phone) but I just switched it off again and put it back on the window sill. A little while later I eventually dragged myself out of bed. I had some breakfast and then got ready and was in my car just after 7.30am, I was proud of myself to be heading for an early morning work out. I checked in at exactly 8am and completed my program at 8.55am. One task off the list for Sunday, plenty more to go. I got home, got ready and was out the door at 10am on the dot. Piano lesson, I cannot remember which number it is but it has been a full month since my last one. At 12:10pm, I had to rush off from my lesson back onto the M40. TomTom device stated an ETA of 13:00 on the dot. Perfect. I hit the motorway in no time and wondered how bad the car looked, even though I had washed it yesterday.

When I got to Hussein's house, I parked up and thought he would be itching to get out of the door. When I knocked on the door it was not answered by Hussein but his sister. He was still getting ready so I waited a few minutes before we headed on our way. I hit the motorway and headed down the M40, then A404 before M4 then A429(M) and finally Reading. I parked up in the Oracle and we went to get some food. We decided upon Nando's in the end, it was very busy but we opted for a table inside rather than out. I text Pav while Hussein ordered and he said the car would be ready in forty-five minutes. Great timing once again, we could head over once we had eaten. Hussein needed to go to the cash point so we headed across to the other side of the Riverside. While he fought with the Natwest ATM, I saw a golden opportunity. There were two Passport photo booths, but did I have enough time? After my friend had tried all four wholes in the wall, he decided to call his bank. I opted to get my passport photos done ready for the renewal. (It has been on my list of things to do for a while but I am glad I got it done). Next door was a memory vending machine. No, I have not been taking the happy pills, it truly was a memory vending machine. From Kingston, I can understand that it is a good idea, you always run out of digital media at the most inconvient time. However, even with the relatively competitive prices, I did not exactly see a queue and the items flying out of the machine. I got my photograph, Hussein finished speaking to the useless call centre staff and we headed back to Pav's. As we arrived, Pav was finishing off the last few touch ups.

Pav took a few final pictures but we thought it best to find a venue for a photoshoot which made the most of the bright hot sunshine. Pav recommended going over towards Oxford. He knew an old pub in the woods. He wanted to give his M3 a run out so we drove in a convey of two. I was in the Mazda with Hussein. He had put on Number Ones on his Empeg. He had started by playing one of my favourites Human Nature. (I am listening to it now on WinAmp but it does not sounds the same as it did some six hours ago, in Emmer Green in the afternoon heat.) We drove off eventually (after Pav had changed) heading onto the A4070 but took a right down a country road. Then up into woodland area, we passed a single track road which was sign posted as a dead end but Pav continued up to the pub. However it was closed and boarded up. We turned around and headed back on ourselves and into the pub car park. Not idea location for photographs but I took a few. Hussein then took the lead and headed down the single track lane. I was a bit apprenhensive, particularly as the lane headed for a sharp dip and incline. As we got to the end of the road, we found some cottages and a further road which perhaps just took you to the farmer's barn. We turned around and opted to stop and take some photos. We managed to take a few before having to stop, I have uploaded them over to FlickR. However a Jaguar XF appeared (from somewhere) and we had to move on before perhaps been escorted off the land by the authorities. It was a shame because the environment was perfect for some car shots. The sun light dripping through the breaks in the trees. Never mind, I suppose we just need to find a more convenient location that is not someone's extended drive way.

We then made a swift exit and although we did stop around the corner, Hussein decided to head back home, it was gone 16:30. I jumped in Pav's M3 and he drove me back to his place. I promised him a big blog update, so here it is. I then got into the A3, put on my sunglasses, put the climate control up and switched over to 909 on the medium wave to find out who had been relegated and if Chelsea had defined all the odds and pipped Manchester United to the title. Sure, I know as a football fan I should have been listening since 3pm sharp but with Arsenal out of the running there was nothing to really listen out for. It was exciting to listen to the last few minutes, particularly when Reading scored their fifth goal against Derby but it was a done deal at the top, even before Bolton equalised at the Bridge. All I can say is roll on August. (It's the 9th the journey starts again?) No, actually that is the date the Football League returns, we have to wait another seven days for the Big Boys!

A really great weekend on two levels. Had a good time seeing my friends on both Saturday and Sunday but I also completed everything on my list. I got to the gym this morning, I got my photographs printed and I washed my car. Okay, so not many big tasks but as the Post Office says, it is the small things that make the big things happen! It was good to be able to pack so many events into the 3239 minutes (or rather 53 hours). Next weekend might be a little less busy but not any less exciting but for completely different reasons.

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Saturday 10th May 2008

Just finished, it took nearly two hours but I have just finished washing my car. It was not really that dirty but the trip into London this morning changed my mind. (More on that later). I started writing up this post last night but was too tired to complete it and felt it was rather empty. Now I have quite a few things to mention, so it will be worth putting it all together.

When the weekend comes around, I try to make a list. A list of things to be achieved, they hardly ever all get done (but there is the odd occasion when they do). However, before I put pen to paper, I discovered the first page in my old A4 notebook had some blog notes. It was a bit difficult to read the scribbles but I worked out vaguely the weekend it referred to and then hunted on the blog for some confirmation. I had found notes that were over two years. Yes, two years - Sunday 26th March 2006. Funny to find such a thing, as I usually dispose of my notes once the blog is updated and uploaded. Right, quite a few things to write up on my list so I better get on with that.

In the excitement of last weekend (too much going on, too little time to blog about it) I forgot to mention the fact that my new free Coby mp3 player arrived on Saturday. Do not be fooled by the packaging, it is not an MP4 player in reality. It is in fact a cheap iPod Nano clone but with multiple design flaws (including a poor imitation of the LG Chocolate touch pad). I have copied over a handful of tracks but am limited with the one gigabyte of memory. However, I should not really complain, it was free and only cost me the time to fill in some forms for a 30 day trial of MyStuff personal item insurance. I cancelled the policy after seven or ten days and was wondering if I would actually still receive my free gift but sure enough I did. I know what you are thinking? Why does Teg need two mp3 players, particularly when he has his 60 gig Creative Zen Vision:M? Well I thought it would be good to have an mp3 that I could take with me to the gym. If it gets damaged or even broken it does not matter. Plus the size makes it ideal for use in such an environment plus I will spend just about the right amount of time to listen to each track once and once only.

While I was at work yesterday afternoon, I decided I should watch Superbad. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision. The DivX avi file having sat on my hard drive for far too long, plus I had quite enjoyed Knocked Up so believed this comedy would be right up my street. It was good fun but not as sidesplittingly funny as the romantic comedy. It had quite a few good moments but most of the best ones had been used for the trailer (why do they always do that!) An enjoyable way to spend two hours with the characters getting into some totally insane situations. Plus it was nice to see an up coming actress in the form of Emma Stone. You cannot miss her, she is the red-head! Also the soundtrack to quote a phrase from the movie is "kick ass".

Plans for the weekend are mixed and have already changed. The original plan was to go for a Chinese for Kev's birthday in Reading tonight. Tomorrow is jam packed full. Firstly there is a gym session, then back home for a bit before heading for my piano lesson (not sure which number I have lost count). Then I am over to Harrow to pick up 'sein, lunch in Reading, most likely somewhere in the Oracle and then back to Emmer Green to pick up his shiny Mazda. Tomorrow evening I think there will be a need for some serious R&R. Might sit down to a movie or watch the first episode of Firefly which has been sitting on my shelf since January (2007).

I headed over to Mitcham this morning. I had hoped to leave at 9.30am (if not earlier) but I did not leave until 10am. Pav had recommended an alternative route to the one provided by Google maps. Effectively M40, M25, M3 and then the A308 across. However it took me over two hours to get over to my destination. Then I was only out of the car for a matter of minutes before heading back home. This time around I decided to follow the instructions from TomTom by the letter. This time around it took me through Tooting, towards Chelsea via Fulham and on the outskirts of Hammersmith before jumping onto the A4 / M4 home. I was behind a beautiful Ferrari F355 GTS. Even when it accelerated to only 40mph, it sounded ever so sweet. Just as I switched off TomTom Navigator and switched on my camera. Just as I did, the Ferrari pulled out of the the traffic (at a standstill onto the motorway and flew around onto the A4 and blasted away. Typical, I had been tailing it for a good thirty minutes and the moment I go to take a photograph it is gone! I did not get home until exactly 2pm. Four hours in my car, I was a little fed up. During my journey I had got a text from Kev. The plans for the evening had changed. Chinese had given way to a barbeque and why not it was the perfect weather for it. Heading over to his house for 7pm then, should be a good laugh. After having some food, I started washing my car, it took a while but it was worth getting it shining again. Right, I have a few hours to kill before I head over to Reading. Hopefully it won't be a late night, I want to get back early so I can get some rest in preparation for my gym session tomorrow.

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Monday 5th May 2008

It is 15:37 as I begin writing up my blog. I have not done as much as I anticipated today. Firstly I only got up at midday. I was hoping to get to the gym this morning but looks I will have to wait until Wednesday for my next session. Not to worry, I got a little exercise by washing my car, it was quite filthy but is shiny brightly now on the drive in the afternoon sunshine. I watched the opening few minutes of the Women's FA Cup Final (I happen to stumble upon it most years now but thought as Arsenal were going to win best to occupy myself with something else).

It is 0:18 as I complete the second half of this blog entry. Just got back from Reading, and more specifically the Vue cinema where myself and Pav watched Iron Man. If one of Pav's colleague's (Ian) comes into the office last Friday to declare, "This is one of the best superhero movies I have ever seen!" you have to sit up and take stock! It was great. I was not convinced when I discovered Robert Downey Junior in the lead role. Even in the trailers he pokes fun at himself, "I'm just not the superhero type!". However, he was excellent as Tony Stark and then his alter-ego. A substantial amount of time is spent building up the character which is good to see. There was not that instant change from mortal to superhero, Stark has to learn and develop his suit. It is not perfect first time around and there are many enhancements he makes during the course of the movie. Overall great fun, excellent action scenes and stunning special effects. However, I felt the villain could have been more worthy, even if the twist was unexpected. Paltrow as Pepper Potts (as PA and questionable love interest) goes through the motions. I feel she would have found it difficult to play such a stereotypical female role, with all the screaming and shouting. However, I believe she is intelligent enough to realise that to be part of such a project is too difficult to turn down. (Or was it just a case of convenience - the set was fifteen minutes from her house!) I enjoyed it but I think Pav enjoyed the movie more but also weigh in the fact that the last time I had been to the cinema was back in February to watch Jumper. (A big fat disappointment). If you do go the see the film and if you wanted to see it, I am sure most of you will have seen it this weekend, make sure you stay until after the end of the credits. Trust me, it will be worth the wait. In a way I am actually looking forward to Indiana Jones 4 even more now. It will be great to come back to a hero with nothing more than his whip and fists to keep him out of trouble.

What else? Not much really. Went to Havana in Windsor last night and did not get back home until 2am. It was a good night but it was very busy in there and we did not get a chance to get up and hit the dancefloor. I also had a bit of a headache so was glad to leave early. All in all, a really good bank holiday weekend. Just the bump back to reality tomorrow. Oh well, only four days to go.

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Sunday 4th May 2008

On this Bank Holiday Sunday, many of you will be planning a lazy day (can you really plan one of those, do they not just happen?). For me, it is very different. After watching Arsenal beat Everton for the last home game of the season, I am off to the gym for a good heavy workout session. Then, this evening I am off to Havana in Windsor. Should be a good night as a big bunch of us are going.

What have I been up to for the past few days? Well I have been quite busy, very busy in fact. My day off on Friday was packed. I dropped my sister and Mum at work and then drove back home, grabbed my things and caught the bus into town. I renewed my book at the library - now a mobile truck sitting behind the old building which is closed. The new library opens 3rd June. I then walked across town through Eden to Jerry's for a haircut. I then had about thirty minutes to kill before going to the Doctor's. I had a bit of a wait, so read my book while waiting in the waiting room. It has changed a great deal since I first used to go there. The GPs would not come out and call your name, they would just hit a buzzer in their surgeries and a coloured light on a display would light up. It was a device that would not have been out of place in a Wallace & Gromit movie. Afterwards I walked back into town, got my prescription from the closest pharmacy, then caught the bus home. Part one of my mission accomplished.

It is only now that I noticed the receipt from the Priory Pharmacy. I wondered why the boy that served me looked so young. It was really interesting for me, as the inhaler (now only required for emergencies) is made by one of my clients. It does feel a little strange to be on the other side of the fence for a change. In theory I could track the sale of the inhaler via our CRM system but that would be very sad.

I was in a rush, I had to get ready and meet up for lunch with friends in Reading around 1pm. I got into my car around 12:30pm and was pretty much on schedule. I got to Emmer Green just after 1pm and then walked down to the bus stop with Em to catch the next bus into town. We met up with Phil at the Oakford and ordered some food. Around 3.30pm we headed down to the festival, it was a short five minute walk around the corner. It was quite busy for a Friday afternoon and the sun came out in patches. We wondered around into the main tent, paid to get in and were given our pint glasses plus a programme. We headed to the bar area to go and explore.

Pav and Sarah did not arrive until much later, by then there was a long queue and it was one in one out policy. Nige and Div arrived shortly afterwards. It was a good night, I pumped into Matt (and his girlfriend) in the queue for food. I was surprised to see him there and promised I would make it into the gym over the weekend. It was a good night but we were told to leave just after 11pm. Photos have been uploaded to a new set over on FlickR. There will be more photos on Facebook at some point, Pav had his camera on him but do not think anyone else bothered, even with camera phone. Well maybe Phil with his N95.

Today has been a successful day. I watched the Arsenal match, had some food and then left for the gym. I noted the time on my dashboard. It was 15:45 as I got out of my car and exactly 17:00 as I got back in to drive home. The gym was relatively quiet with only a handful of users. The pool was packed with children and the golf course looked quite busy too. Back again tomorrow morning? What do you think?

I took this picture of the first generation Rav4 parked next to me in the car park of the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. I thought to myself that there are some jobs that even Crystal Detail would refuse. Some cars have just been so neglected that trying to do anything will not help.

Right, a quite few hours to chill before heading over to Windsor. Gym tomorrow morning and looks like Ironman might be moved three hours later. Pav is in the middle of a crazy detail. He was expecting a BMW Mini but instead a 323 E36 Touring arrived on his drive. It will take him most of tomorrow to finish off, as he has only done 37% of the detailing so far. So looks like it may be a 9pm screening instead of 6pm. It does not matter, as long as we stick to our double edged rule. (Must seem the movie over the opening weekend at a Vue cinema.)

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Thursday 1st May 2008

A strange few days, where I felt I have always been on the go. It is only this evening, four days into the working week, I feel I can actually sit back, relax and take stock. What have I been up to? I was over in Birmingham on Tuesday and Wednesday at a conference organised by one of our suppliers. Therefore just two days in the office this week, but only Monday counts as I had a two hour client meeting over in Ali G country (Langley) this afternoon.

However, before anything else I must start with a confession. I failed on Wednesday. I did not get onto any fitness equipment after work. Although I did make it to the gym itself but only upstairs in the restaurant. My colleague had persuaded me to drop the workout in place of a good meal before being the designated driver for the evening. I would pick him up and then another colleague and head into Maidenhead town centre to catch the second leg of the Champions League Semi-Final at The Bell. (A devout Liverpool supporting establishment - remember I went there back in February for the Arsenal AC Milan match). It was full with people with only a handful of patrons brave enough to don their blue shirts from London. It was difficult to find a good spot, with most views restricted. We headed up standing behind one of the pool tables (most had been covered up) and watching LCD screen which must have been around 28". However, as the pub got busier, our view got restricted so we moved to the side and watched a small television but it was at such a tight angle it was difficult to get a perspective on play. At half time, during a fag break (yes my colleague stick hasn't given up!) I recommended we try Chicago Rock Cafe down the road. It was perfect timing, fifteen minutes before we would have been charged. It was quieter and we could watch the big screen but only from the other side of the bar. Much better than in The Bell. Although my colleague kept asking me to confirm how much time had elapsed as he couldn't make out the details with his poor eyesight. It was perhaps the most distant I have felt while watching a game in my life. The atmosphere was rather dull, no one really seemed to care or be that bothered by it. When Drogba sealed the win, to make it 3-1, we left to go to the Ivory Lounge. This used to be Bar 38 (and my one and only previous visit was for my ill fated 21st birthday). It has been converted into a trent?? classy and sophisticated bar and restaurant. Completely out of place in Maidenhead. After one last drink for the road, we headed to my car and I dropped everyone home. To the corner of Cox Green, Boulters Lock and then Twyford before driving home to walk through the door at 11.30pm. I was completely shattered but still jumped on my laptop to check my e-mail and find out the latest on Facebook before finally going to sleep around midnight.

Pav put together my paint thickness report and sent across a jpeg on e-mail yesterday. The original hand written sheet had got quite grotty with footprint marks, oil marks. So I scanned it in at work and e-mailed it across and Mr. K provided me with a clean copy. However, unfortunately the results for the passenger door are out by quite a margin now. Oh well, it could be much worse. Talking about the car, I must mention yet again Carlack 68 Glass Sealant. On my drive back from Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon, it was a torrential downpour. However, I only used my wipers three times. At highspeed, the water droplets just fly off the windscreen. It is great to watch but you obviously get a few strange looks from other drivers wondering why this idiot in the black A3 has not put on his wipers. Now, just need to find the addicitve to add to the windscreen wash.

What are your plans for the Bank Holiday Weekend? Considering that this time last year I was looking forward to our trip down to Looe in Cornwall. This year the events are much less dramatic but nevertheless good wholesome fun. I have taken tomorrow off. In the morning I am going to get a few jobs done in town before heading into Reading. Lunch with a few friends and then heading to the Beer Festival. (A return of sorts for TFNTP) Crashing over at Pav's then Saturday I am going to get a few jobs done, clean the car and maybe even mow the lawn. I also need to give my room a good clear up (don't I say that every weekend?). Sunday afternoon we have quite a lot to pack in, the last home game at Ashburton Grove against the Toffees. Then off to the gym for an extensive workout. In the evening I'm heading over to Windsor and Havana. Should be a good night as a bunch of us are going and Mr. Stevens is on the decks! Monday will involve another gym session and going to watch Ironman at Vue, Reading at 6pm (because it is shown in my second home - screen 4) although that is yet to be confirmed as Crystal Detail are working on a Mini on Sunday.

Some of you out there must be watching the second season of Heroes on BBC2 tonight. Of course, there is no need to for me to watch, as I have seen the whole season already thanks to Pav and NBC. However, I have now discovered that season three will premier in September. So therefore the countdown starts here. I am not sure if Pav is looking forward more to seeing the continued adventures of Hiro and Peter Petrelli or Teg struggle to download the DivX file at 4Kbit/s!

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Monday 28th April 2008

Crimes Against Auto-Detailing
Casefile # 5234

"Your honour, on Saturday 15th September 2007, the accused defendant, Mr. Tegala purchased exhibit A wash pad from Asda, Holmers Farm Way, Cressex High Wycombe. He then proceeded to wash his vehicle, an 2004 Ebony A3 the following day with this offensive weapon. The result was perhaps the worse attempt to wash a car in the history of not just car valet but the production of the combustion engine. I can only come to the conclusion that Mr. Tegala is in need of urgent psychiatric examination. The prosecution calls for the jury to reach an unanimous verdict of guilty. Mr. Tegala should never be given access to a Karacher device (regardless of pressure outage) and we would even go as far as to call for a lifetime ban from washing any motorised vehicle. Further more, we would also call for the destruction of the wash pad to avoid such criminal acts in the future and full detailed investigation into the manufacturers Kent Car Care. Disposing in a fire would be high recommended."

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Sunday 27th April 2008

The day started with a major annoyance and I was very gutted. However by the end of the evening I was smiling to myself singing along to yet another new song I had just downloaded. Let me take you on this journey.

I recognised the face but the singer looked different, very different. It was only when the details flashed up on the screen did it click. This was Jesse McCartney. My youngest sister, Julie is quite the fan, however I am unsure if she will like his new hair. The long blonde hair has gone and been cut very short and dyed dark brown. There is also a dramatic shift in music style from radio friendly pop come soft rock to urban RnB. You can find out more over at this fan site. I played the mp3 continuously but was keen to get hold of the video. Even though it is in the musical genre that Solly4Life it was not on his site yet, although he is doing a lot of repacking into Xvid. I went to my second source for music videos. He is known only by his username Darkfib3r. His commitment is to provide us torrent users with the best quality music videos on the web. So far he has lived up to this expectation. In one case, his (I'm assuming he is a guy) version of the Freemasons remix of Work by Kelly Rowland replaced the copy I had downloaded weeks earlier from Solly. The video for Leavin' is very simple but it is a big departure for the artist. I have not been a follower to his work before now, but from what I have read (a quick skim on Wikipedia and a few other sites) I am looking forward to what else is in the pipeline. He co-wrote Bleeding Love (yes the number one smash by Leona Lewis) and has even performed his own version which you can watch over on You Tube. (Well you could a while back before "a copyright claim by Hollywood Records / Disney Co". The song is very catchy and Jesse's vocal delivery is almost perfect, not too over the top. I never thought I would be writing this about him but it is very early days.

I watched Next last night on Sky Premiere at 8pm after watching Doctor Who. It was a movie that had appealed to me (it was actually released exactly a year today) but I had not got the chance to watch it at the cinema. For a while I thought I had missed a big blockbuster but the reality was it was much better watching in my lounge on a lazy Saturday evening. I enjoyed the movie throughout and in places it reminded me of Groundhog Day. However, the ending was just so cruel. There was no real explanation of where Cage got his ability from. It was a real shame, because up to that point the movie had been very good, with a little suspense in place and some fantastic action set pieces. However the villains were just not good enough (or should that be evil enough). Not too sure about Jessica Biel as the love interest but Julian Moore was adequate as the FBI Agent on the trail of Cage. I think I need to see Deja Vu which has a similar plot device but this movie was a big disappointment. As much as I admire Cage as an actor (not seen many of his critical best pieces) he sleepwalked most of this part. However, I look forward to his return in the next installment of Ghost Rider! Talking of super hero movies, Iron Man is released on Friday and I am really looking forward to my customary trip to the pictures with Pav on Friday. Believe it or not it has been over two months since I last heard Asteroid (Pearl & Dean theme).

Not quite up to the same level of Doctor Emmett Brown in Twin Pine Mall parking lot back in October 1985. However, my next experiment will be to listen to a whole mp3 CD through without skipping any of the tracks. I will be allowed to switch over to listen to the radio for traffic alerts but apart from that I have to drive from Wycombe to Birmingham NEC without changing the song being played. This will be hard work for anyone that knows me, I am a complete control freak and once listened to the same song for a two hour journey from Bedford back home to Wycombe in the autumn of 2002.

A little bit of live blogging for a change. I just got back from dropping my Dad off in Maidenhead. I had taken out the CD from my head unit and left my case back in my room. I had no choice but to listen to the radio. As I hopped around my presets I landed onto Time 106.6 as I was driving out of the town. A song came on, I liked it, I put the volume up. However at the end, the DJ, a Phil James opted to tell me about his first barbeque of the summer rather than the name of the artist or title. Never mind, it was something I could easily lookup when I got home. Jumping on the laptop while in the lounge, I was pleased to find a play list. There it was listed number sixteen in play list A. I had a feeling it was Janet Jackson, as it had those signature high pitch melodies over the chorus. A really great up lifting pop record. I have to be honest, I have never been a fan of Janet Jackson always prefer her elder brother(s) musically. Maybe, just maybe the release of this single from her album Discipline is the moment for me to change my ways, sit up and listen.

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Saturday 26th April 2008

Quite a busy week at work, particularly with my trip over to MK on Wednesday and afternoon over at Newbury on Thursday. Add to the mix a night out with the directors on Thursday for a curry plus a meal with my friend last night in Wycombe. This morning, (as the sun shines brightly in the sky) is the first time I have had time to actual post an update. Quite a lot to mention so with no further-a-do, here I go.

It was raining quite heavily on Wednesday as I headed out at 7.30pm for the journey to the other side of the county. My mission was to drive to my destination (south of the town) without using my wipers at all. Am I insane? Well with Carlack 68 Glass Sealant (as I have mentioned in my recent post) the rain water just flies off the windscreen when the car is traveling at fifty miles per an hour (or beyond). It was great to drive and still see quite clearly ahead of me the traffic on the motorway.

My gym programme unfortunately taken an hit this week. I failed to make it back from Milton Keynes over to Castle Royle. Although I did stop over in Aylesbury to look at a friend of a friend's computer problems, I got home just before 8pm. After dinner, I just did not have the motivation to get over to the gym. I promised myself that I would push myself hard on Thursday after work. However, even though I got to the gym at 4.30pm I had to rush around and did not do my fifteen minute run. Why? Well I had to get back home and get changed as a taxi was picking me up at 6.30pm to take me out for a curry. To make up for this and also my poor show last weekend (when I had a headache on Sunday morning and opted not to get out of bed, let alone make it down the by-pass to the gym. I am going to try my best to get into the gym tomorrow and have a good work out. Will of course, keep you posted.

My Dad rushed into my room on Sunday evening to exclaim that Heroes had won a BAFTA. I switched over briefly to see the trail of the award presentation. My Dad then told me that series two starts on Thursday (24th) on BBC2. I disappointed him by saying I had already seen all of series two before Christmas. The Beeb had secured the rights to season two before even screening season one apart a year ago. I am looking forward to series three which starts in September Stateside. I think Pav will enjoy me downloading the video files from his FTP at a rate of 4kbit per second!

I went out in Eden with my friend Clive last night. He came over to pick me up at 8.30pm and we drove straight into town and parked in the new Eden Car Park (just a minor extension to the original Tesco car park) and then went to La Tasca. It was very busy, so we had a thirty minute wait before we got a table. Quite lively but we eventually got a table and had some very good food. Service was surprisingly good (for Wycombe) we left just after 11pm. A good night and somewhere I would definitely go again.

Plans for the weekend? Well I have to make the most of the good weather, so will be out washing my car after watching Football Focus (in about an hour) and then will spend the afternoon just sorting out a few bits and pieces. There is Doctor Who and I want to try and watch Next which has it's premiere on Sky Movies at 8pm. Will I get a chance to steal the Sky Remote away from my Mum and sisters? Not much else planned really, although with ITV screening Back To The Future Part II, I will try my best to get a few classic screen grabs, just for Pav! Hopefully none of the lawyers from Universal studio will be browsing my FlickR photo stream.

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Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Before I get bogged down with the results of the detail, I thought I would let you know my second experience of driving Pav's Rover (and my third Rover driving experience of all time). I had the drivers seat to tight up against the steering wheel but did not really notice. Sure the pedals were quite close together, but I still kept over revving the car to 3000rpm (and beyond) when pulling off at roundabouts. The Honda engine took a bit of a pounding, until I got onto the by-pass and was effectively on the home stretch, by then I had got used to the car a little. I was glad I would not be driving it anywhere over the weekend. Ultimately I drove it to the petrol station around the corner to get some fuel, into town centre when I picked up pizza with my sister and then back to Pav's house. I was hoping to get some photographs taken over the weekend but never got around to it.

The detail was once again excellent from Crystal Detail (link to be provided once site is online). You can look at all 137, yes 137 photographs in the write up over at Detailing World. Those of you on a slow connection, be warned, it will take a while for all those jpegs to come down the pipe. I have to say, I think Pav surpassed himself from the previous detail last year. Not just because he is a year wise and has a better polisher. I think it is just the attention for detail, plus I have been trying to wash the car a bit more regularly myself. He also has gone through quite a few products over that time so knows what is good and worth applying and what is not suitable. All the results you can clearly see from the photographs and this was not the perfect sunshine to be carrying out a full spring detail. I am most impressed with removing the bobbling from the driver's seat. It was really starting to annoy me. Secondly I must at the Carlack 68 sealant is just amazing. As I drove into work yesterday morning there was no need to use the wipers, accelerate up to 50mph and beyond the water just few off the screen and you could clearly see the road ahead. I am actually looking forward to washing the car but maybe this weekend will be too soon. I am going to order some Victoria Wax which will be applied to keep the car to this high standard. It will be hard and the car will not look perfect until the dents are removed from the passenger side door but it does look much better than Friday afternoon 5pm when I pulled up outside Pav's drive.

After I collected my car, I drove into Reading, parking in the Oracle. Everyone was in the Oakford, having had lunch and I said I would join them for a while. The T was there, along with his girlfriend Becky, Stu and Anika (whom I had never met before but heard of from the forum), Pav, Em, Phil, Kev and Anika's friend. We discussed many thing but mainly plans for next weekend. I am sure I mentioned before but we were hoping to pop down to Looe again on the South West coast. However as many people couldn't make that weekend it has been moved to mid May. Instead we are going to head over into Reading on Friday for the beer festival. My plan is to hopefully catch Ironman at Vue at lunchtime before grabbing some food in the Oracle and then heading across to the festival. Other events in the pipeline are a trip down to Brighton for a club night and a Eurovision night (to be honest at Pav's new pad, hopefully). This I am particularly looking forward to as I've always wanted to either host or go to a party on Eurovision night. Bring on the nil point!

Not that much going on at the moment, I managed to get myself to the gym yesterday after work but the rest of the week is going to be a struggle. I am over in Milton Keynes all day tomorrow, so may not get back to this side of the county. I know I could always go over to Castle Royle after dinner but will I have the motivation and the energy. Thursday is a much more likely prospect as I am over in Newbury seeing a client and should be done around 4pm and driving past the Bath Road exit around 5pm, so no excuses. I will of course let you know if I pass or fail these tests.

Plans for the weekend are nonexistent to be honest, I am hoping to make amends for last Sunday and get myself in the gym on Sunday morning if I can. Apart from that not much planned. I think I need the rest, May is going to be an extremely busy month. We may even see the return of the infamous Friday Night Terry Project.

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Sunday 20th April 2008

Seems there was yet another reason for me to have my car detailed this weekend. ITV are screening the Back To The Future trilogy from this Saturday afternoon over the next three weeks (they screened it on ITV2 a few months back late on Saturday nights). I only noticed this on the EPG this morning, while waiting for the football on Sky Sports 1. I thought I would check what was being shown in the afternoon across channels one to six (Sky One). I had to record a part of it and take some screen grabs for Pav. Something tells me that Pav does not have a green Adidas tracksuit in his wardrobe circa 1985 to wear like Biff when applying the second coat of wax (but not Turtle Wax) to my A3.

Talking of Pav, I received a text yesterday morning which he had sent at 01.10am. (yes way past midnight when he said he would usually finish work on the car for the day). The verdict was that the car had more swirls than last time. Nearly twelve hours later he had text me again (I picked up the message after the football) with a progress report in the form of two MMS. The scratch had practically been removed and all that remains are two small dents only noticeable at close range. He was cracking on. A further text later in the afternoon confirmed the final removal of the scratch but rain meant the interior had yet to be started. Fantastic job, I am looking forward to picking up the car later on this afternoon.

A bit of a bad show on my part today. I got up around 10am but with a stinging headache and just went back to bed. At midday I finally got out of bed to text my colleague and cancel our trip to the gym. I was just not up for it but hopefully will be back in tomorrow evening after work. I think once again, everything I had planned to get done today is pretty much shelved until next weekend. I will get ready, go collect my car and then when I return home think about working on a few bits and pieces before the weekend is out!

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Friday 18th April 2008

A low par session in the gym yesterday evening. I did not really push myself and struggled with just the warm up on the bike. My legs turned to solid stone with every pedal. I had to put the effort level down to cope, but did push it back up a few levels, when I felt I had the energy for the last three minutes or so. On the rowing machine I failed to break the 2km barrier, falling seven meters short of the finish line. Then onto the treadmill when I had to go for a brisk walk to warm up for a few minutes before tackling the rest of the programme at a gentle run speed. My plan it get a session under my belt on Sunday to somehow compensate. I am also considering changing my schedule (even at this relatively early stage) as my body is not yet able to cope with two days back to back. I may revert to Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

It is 21:03 as I type this blog post, and some seventeen miles away, in Emmer Green, Reading, Pav is hard at work in his garage. All the parts for his new kitchen arrived but they were not allowed to be placed in the garage. Instead they are in the doorway. Pav explained to his Dad that this weekend he was detailing Teg's A3. I have been waiting several months for this weekend but while you count on Crystal Detail, you can never count on the British weather. It was raining heavily when I lost made contact with Pav around 19:50 this evening. It is not an easy task and as you know I'm a man of high standards, so produced a long list of everything I wanted covered in the detail. However, last year, the detail took place in mid May (a month earlier this year, looking back into the archives ironically it was 18th May (exactly 11 months ago)) and Pav had a different polisher which meant some major elbow grease against the VAG paintwork (some of the hardest in the business). This time around, a more powerful polisher means the car could be (weather permitting) be ready by tomorrow evening but even so, I will wait until Sunday evening for collection. Plenty of photographs to come along with a full write up on Detailing World. Oh, hold on, Pav has just signed into MSN Live and has an update for me.

From the chat logs:
(21:25) Pav: right scheduled update
(21:25) Pav: she's been cleaned, arches cleaned, wheels cleaned and de-tarred
(21:26) Pav: and she's in the garage have clayed about 37% of her
(21:26) Pav: am gonna hit the scratch first
(21:26) Teg: thing in the morning?
(21:26) Pav: have just clayed it and all of the paint transfer has gone
(21:26) Pav: now mate now
(21:26) Pav: live n hit
(21:27) Pav: i should be able to quote you happy in about 40 mins
(21:27) Teg: this is going on the blog
(21:27) Teg: you are a legend!!!

What more can I say? Sometimes it is just a comforting thought to know your car is not only in the hands of a friend but a professional and someone with the same passion for motor vehicles that it doesn't matter whether they are detailing an A3 or a Porsche. The only challenge is to maintain the level of shine over the summer period. I need to order some Victoria Wax (yes, you guessed it, recommended by the one and only Crystal Detail)

You may have noticed the embedded flash player from my previous post. It is something I have noticed on the music blogs I regularly read and was hoping to incorporate onto my blog. (Maybe with a view to kick off pod casting again.) It was not an easy task, it took a while to firstly find the right plugin, the first three I tried were useless. Eventually I got there but getting the icon onto the html page was the easy part, getting to play even the test mp3 was hard work. Eventually I worked it out but did not have the time to customize the buttons and text. Never mind, perhaps next time. You will be glad to know that I have turned off the auto play feature now. I do not want my blog turning into a running commercial for Boots.

My weekend plans are limited with no car. Well I have the trusty less rusty Rover, which I over revved several times on my drive over from Reading. I am going to watch the football tomorrow lunchtime (Arsenal versus Reading at Ashburton Grove) and the rest of the day is relatively free. I must remember to appreciate the football as it may be one of the final times Arsenal are on television (live) this season. A good sort out of my room, clean up the paperwork all over the place and newspapers that have gathered up above my DVD stand. Yes, I am very much over due a spring clean. Sunday I am hoping to get to the gym around midday for about an hour before heading over to Emmer Green to collect my car. So, all in all a relaxing quiet weekend with not much on really. Oh, apart from my second cousin Ramzi making an appearance any time now. Whatever you get up to, hope you have a fantastic weekend.

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Wednesday 16th April 2008

Here Come The Girls

Sunday evening, after a disappointing afternoon, I decided to spend a good few hours updating my world famous music collection. I usually head over to Chart Singles to find out singles due for release in the next few weeks but opted to also go to Solly4Life site to see which new videos had been added recently. There was a female artist, Asia Cruise listed, so I thought I would download the track and have a listen. If I liked what I heard, I would go ahead and download the music video courtesy of RapidShare! I think young female RnB singers must be growing on trees at the moment Stateside. What can I say? Absolutely beautiful. For someone so young, she has an amazing pop princess voice. The video is also very good and in places rather funny plus I love her dance routine down the corridor of her high school.

I have been planning this for a while, but it has actually taken me a months to get around to it. However, right now seems the perfect moment. To release the girls.

Photo mosaics fascinate me and have for a long time. Until a few years ago, I did not know what they were called. I remember about four years ago, a MSN chat with my course mate John, (who actually lived in a house opposite mine) and he had rushed off to look at a photo mosaic of Yoda and confirm to me what they were actually called. I finally learned how to create them, thanks to FlickR. I got in contact with a guy called Jim (who was actually co-writing the FlickR Hacks book, which I would later received as a gift in March 2006). It was January 2006 and I was to learn how to create mosaics for the first time. My first few attempts I uploaded to a FlickR set a month later but after that did not go back to the process. Until now. A few weeks ago, I was keen to learn how to make some more. I had the vision in my head of creating some mosaics of my current favourite RnB starlets. Overall, I am quite happy with the results, although I know they all could be better. How would I make them better? I just need to increase the pool of images I use as the cells of the mosaic. Give me time.

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Sunday 13th April 2008

Apologises to use the overused pun but a Saturday of two halves. First half productive, second half relatively empty and meaningless. I got up a bit later than I wanted to but rushed to get ready and caught the bus at 9.32am. First stop, Jerry's Street Styles for a haircut, then to the library. This is perhaps the most inconvenient time to get back into reading, as my local library is moving from Victorian home to the new Eden complex. However this takes place alongside the installation of a new computer system, so do not expect things to go swimmingly. There is to be a temporary van in use from the end of April for a month which will be interesting and the use of the net / telephone line will be limited if not non-existing. I spent a bit of time trying to find Animal Farm by George Orwell but as I did not find it I opted for a novel from the Action & Adventure section. The story had appealed to me for a while and I have seen parts but not all the film, so I thought I would give it ago. Although of course it is not in the 1001 list or in my friend Clive's personal 25 list. Never mind, I will pick that up later. After the library I headed back into Eden, stopped by Waterstones and then waited for my bus. As usual, it was prompt at 11.15am, to get me home. This is when the laziness set in, after spending a few hours on the computer, I decided to go for an afternoon nap, which lasted until way past 6pm. Just in time to catch The Doctor. What is it with this television programme, that I have to constantly keep reminding myself that it is a kids show and to stop being overly critical. If you are in need of more Doctor Who material, you can always go and check out Time Lord from Hell (aka Tony Coburn). I am sure he will be able to satisfy any diehard fan's desires (he does have a tardis in his back garden after all!)

Completed watching season one (last night) of Chuck, it was great fun! Sure at times, they did try and pull on the emotional heart strings a bit too much but I did not mind as they have characters like Jeff, Lister and Morgan to lighten the mood, almost instantly in the next scene. The tension between Sarah and Charles is at times very painful to watch and I hope they bring it to some closure in the second season. UK readers watching the series on Virgin1 have plenty of fun to look forward to, but unfortunately I am just far too impatient to watch episodes on a weekly basis, particularly with my new routine. However, I now have a big gap in my television watching schedule, with both Torchwood and Chuck done with. I still catch The Big Bang Theory every Thursday on Channel 4 but apart from that, I do not think there is a series I am currently watching. Never mind, more time for reading.

Talking of new regimes, I had my first fitness test at the gym this afternoon. I was surprised by the results. Therefore I think I owe Christopher Williams a big thank you, as his fitness course last summer must have got me heading in the right direction. Plus I have changed my diet in many ways, such as cutting out crisps and carbonated drinks (mainly Coke) and need to just continue in this vain as my gym sessions become a matter of habit. My overall rating came out as Fair. Which is okay but plenty of work to do to get me up to Good or Very Good. The next fitness test will not be for at least two months, but I have already got Matt to notch my current programme up a few levels.

However, there is no weight training just yet. Matt believes we should improve our general fitness first before moving onto the weights and I tend to agree with him. I have increased my time on the bike, increased my levels on the cross training and added a gradual gradient onto the treadmill. The rowing machine remains as before but I have a target of 2000 meters within ten minutes. Manageable, as I got 2066m today! (The only part of my programme I attempted) Overall, a step up but I know I can push myself this little bit further already. Funny how just after two weeks I feel much more alive! I would what Mr. Williams view is on this? I bet he cannot believe I have managed to survive into my third week.

I believe now with the gym, I have bought balance to the force that is the weekend. A big Saturday night out, has to be followed with a workout in the gym, even if it only a fifteen minute run. I know I will feel better for it, it is just a case of dragging myself into the gym on the Sunday morning. Talking of weekends, I was able to dig out the few photographs I took of my A3 stuck in the mud at Emily's farm last weekend. There is another photograph over on FlickR.

Although I had the opportunity to wash my car this weekend, I opted against it. It goes in for the full professional detail with Crystal Detail this coming weekend (on Friday evening in fact) so I do not mind it looking a bit messy this week. I have a trip over to Guilford on Tuesday afternoon but apart from that my mileage will be minimal. Looking forward to the results and getting some wax, to ensure I keep it topped up and looking in great condition. Believe it or not, summer is just around the corner. Right, time to grab some food and sit down for the all important afternoon match. I hope it is not another thrashing, like in the FA Cup a few weeks ago!

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Wednesday 9th April 2008

I have been using the BBC iPlayer since launch on Christmas Day but had a request. A killer script for the XBMC (the product formerly known as Xbox Media Centre - great new web site) to enable the programmes to be downloaded (or streamed) to my television screen. I had a hunt around on the various forums and although there was a lively request thread (started on 28th June, during the beta testing) nothing had materialised. I thought I would check again today, during my lunch hour and low and behold, a genius has created the script and put it live for anyone to download. So, of course I downloaded the zip file and loaded it straight onto my machine when I got back from the gym tonight. It works a treat! Sure, you have to wait for the video files to download (4 odd minutes for a 15 minute episode of Torchwood Declassified) but it is worth the wait and the quality is not too bad (although nowhere as good as Apple Quicktime trailers.) The video quality from Albert Square is never something that will bother me, even when I watch catchup episodes streamed on my PC. The king is making sure you follow the plot, not the sparkle on Pat Butcher's earrings. Check out some screen shots a lovely chap has uploaded to FlickR. On a similar topic, the Nintendo Wii now can stream content from the iPlayer. I am sure it will only be a matter of time, the XBMC community work out a way to take a look under the hood of this avenue and port it over to the Xbox. Apart from the delay in waiting for programmes to download, this has to be one of the best scripts to have been released for XBMC. Now, when I miss a show, I can get my XBox to download it and watch it later.

What else have I been up to? Well it is week two in my new get fit routine. It is going well, not too bad. I feel a bit better but I believe the dramatic improvements will come over time. Particularly as my programme will be reviewed every two weeks. It was quite scary this evening to see a big bulky guy spend over thirty minutes on the rowing machine at level 10, while I was set to level five and struggled to complete my ten minutes (still a few meters short of breaking the 2000 barrier). Then, while on my final piece of equipment, the treadmill, I looked across at a guy wearing the Arsenal away shirt (very brave considering last night) and his time was ticking past fifty-five minutes. I just about manage fifteen minutes, I do not think I could stomach a whole hour of running (at quite a high speed). I am a long long way from reaching the physical peakness of these fellow gym users but I am on the right track. Just remember, making it to every session is a victory in itself. I have another session tomorrow night and then a fitness test Sunday lunchtime. Based on my performance, my programme will be adapted. Then I think I will have to spend a least a month building it up. Beyond that, I just do not know.

My weekend plans did involve Tazza coming over from East London and spending the day in Wycombe with him but he has to attend a TA weekend. It is a shame, as I have not seen him in over a year as we both have been really busy. No trouble, I think it will be a quiet weekend, I will get a few books from the library and also enjoy watching Doctor Who. Oh, and then I get back from the gym, there is the small matter of a football match in the North West.

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Sunday 6th April 2008

It is 17:24 as I begin writing this post and as the weekend draws to a close, I am trying to put words together to describe my weekend. An adventure of highs and lows, I can tell you that!

My Saturday was relatively lazy, very lazy even. I got up around 11am, had breakfast and then was just waiting for midday for the football. The result means we have thrown away the league title for good and the Champions League hope is hanging via a thread. We shall see what Tuesday brings. I watched the first leg of the European tie at the gym, well sort of. After our workout and before we ordered food, we asked the waitress to check she could switch from Sky News to Sky Sports 2. She called up her manager and was given permission, so changed the channel (no remote, so it was case of fiddling with a switch at the back). Typical, Sky Sports 1 and 3 could be shown but no signal was being received for Sky Sports 2. You could not make this up! We got our food and decided to eat up and head home. However, three minutes into the match, they switched to another channel and we were up and running. However this was not a great atmosphere to be watching such a crucial match. Firstly there was no sound and secondly the background noise of gym users, eating and chatting did not really help. So we headed out after finishing our food and I listened to FiveLive commentary on the drive home. As I passed under the Marlow bridge on the A404, Arsenal had scored! Three minutes later Liverpool had equalised. The rest has been debated at great length and the game on Saturday lunchtime was quite dire in comparison, you expected that but we should have got more than a point. Two points given away and the final hopes of capturing the title finally put to bed.

Time was pressing, I got off the sofa and headed into the computer and then decided to pack my things and head out onto the road. I had a brief chat with Kev on MSN. He wanted to jump in my tent, rather than put his up. I do not think there were many people camping as originally expected. All in all, I could have slept on the floor in the house but where would the fun been in that. I packed my things, dumped them in the car and headed off on the road. It was about 17.15 and my ETA according to TomTom was 18:09. As I pulled up at the Pond, John directed me to the back of the farm and Emily told me to drive as far to the back as I could. I turned left, I should not have done that. Never mind, I did not really think about it and got my gear out and got ready to setup camp! Pav helped me put the tent up, it took more than fifteen minutes, mainly because we used to the wrong pole and had to untangle the support cords and set them correctly. Once the tents were up (just two, Sazzle and Phil were the only others braving the weather). Then it was time to enjoy, my first ever Barn Dance.

The were loads of people around (maybe not the seventy as I mentioned in my previous post) most of whom had made a good effort and dressed up. I felt a bit of a poor show with just my checked shirt. After chatting to Nige and the arrival of Kev and Mel, we were dragged into the barn. It was good fun, once you got into it. Even though my co-ordination is very bad at the best of times! We had discussed the dance, "Stripping The Willow" via Facebook during the week. The way Melanie had described it, made it sound very difficult. Even the page over on Wikipedia does not really help. It was great fun and everyone was up for a laugh! I think it became difficult when we moved from groups of five to ten (split in the middle). There were regular breaks and quite a few dances before 11pm. I thought the party might last a bit longer but by 12:30am, we were heading to our tents. I feel asleep listening to my Zen but woke up around 4am, to hear the sound of snow hitting the tent. I quickly feel asleep again. Kev got up around 8am and when he opened the tent, I was shocked to see a thick blanket of the white stuff. Quite a nice scene first thing on a Sunday morning but April? Kev headed off home and I decided to get up and pack my stuff away.

It had been surprisingly warm in the tent (read into that what you will) but outside it was freezing cold as I packed up my tent. When I got into my car, the temperature gauge read 1.5 degrees celsius. However the weather was the least of my problems. It was the mud. My car was in a ditch and the offside wheel was dug in deep and my attempts to reverse had just made things worse. Phil & Sazzle tried to help but their tow rope did not have a hook. I got my hook out of my tool kit rack and attached it to the back of the car (after finally getting the plastic covering off). Then Ollie pulled up with the Land Rover to try and pull my car out. No joy, it was dug in quite deep and all four wheels of the Defender were spinning on the grass. A new tactic had to be adopted. Raise the front of the car, stick a plank of wood on underneath and then reverse it out. That was the theory but it would be a long and messy process before we got there. Ollie was literally 'rolling around in the mud', to clear it so he could put the jack underneath, raise the car and put a plank of wood underneath the wheel and eventually I was able to reverse out. I had got into the car around 9.13am, and it was about 10.20am, by the time I was eventually on the road home. But not before Pav snapped a photo on his N73.

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Friday 4th April 2008

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to an update. I have written up my entry from Monday so you can have a read of that if you like before getting stuck in below. Updates will be more erratic from now with this major shift in my evening routine. However, I intend to keep my Friday night slot to review the week and look forward to the weekend.

My first week at the gym, and I feel a little better but let me put it into context it has only been three sessions and a total of 138 minutes (2.3 hours). Most regular gym users cover that in a single session. The programme is just a warm up and I managed the three sessions without any major issues. It is all about getting into the routine for the first few months. Then building up the time from 46 minutes to an hour and beyond. The gym is not that busy during the three evenings I have attended straight after work. Monday it was perhaps the busiest with Wednesday the next most busy period and Thursday was relatively dead. However it is difficult to judge with Easter holidays at some (but not all) schools. My programme is very simple, I will admit that but remember I am a person that has had very little active exercise over the past ten years. Exclude last summer, I can most likely count on one hand how often I broke into a sweat since leaving school. The ultimate plan would be to fit in a session at the weekend as well to take me from three to four visits a week and I feel I would really feel the benefits.

Just watched the Torchwood season two finale on BBC2 (I know I could have watched it last week on BBC3, but opted not to). I feel quite disappointed, not just with the final episode but the series as a whole. I expected so much more and there was a great deal of character development but there was not enough to keep me hooked and towards the end, I watched just to see how it would end and if there would be any further cross over with Doctor Who. Do not get me wrong, there were a few fantastic stand out episodes, but I would even go as far to say it was worse than the first series. Maybe 'worse' is the wrong word to use. No match perhaps would be the better phrase. At times it was far too emotional and the big action set pieces did not live up to the expectation of the stories. Maybe I am being too harsh but I might not even bother with series three.

Chuck meanwhile is good fun and I have downloaded nearly all thirteen episodes (with about eighty percent remaining on the last one). However, I only watched the first three episodes last weekend. Great laugh, entertaining, completely unbelievable but you do not care because the action and comic moments come thick and fast. Plus the action scenes are fantastic, they have the signature McG stamp on them (he serves as Executive Producer). Sure, I could have waited for them to be shown on Virgin1, but why wait when you have Pav on MSN! However with my new routine, I do not have time to watch in the evenings and will prefer to watch a few episodes back to back at the weekend.

Talking about the weekend, it is finally here! I am off to a Barn Dance in Winchester tomorrow evening. It will be my first time, so I am quite apprehensive and not sure exactly what to expect (particularly with some seventy odd guests to mingle / dance with?) I will be camping onsite in the evening and then heading back home on Sunday, most likely around midday. I really need to find a window to wash my car, preferably before the Arsenal match. The dilemmas I face! Meanwhile Pav insists on me to keep the car as dirty as possible so I can see the most dramatic contrast after my detail which has been booked in for 18th April (two weeks today!). Being the self conscious person I am, I kick myself that it has been two weeks since I last washed it and the dust and dirt looks so bad.

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Monday 31st March 2008

It was tempting as I called my colleague at 17.25 to bail out and head home. I have to admit, while blasting back on the M4 from Newbury, the thought did cross my mind. However, I made up my mind quite quickly that I had to get down there. I had to get on with it on my own, as my colleague had gone in and started without me. It took me thirty minutes or so to get to the gym and as I got changed and walked out of the changing rooms, my colleague met me in the corridor. He had finished and was heading home and warned me it was quite busy.

Let me take you back to Sunday morning, the day of my induction. For some reason I was nervous, I am not sure why because this was not my first ever gym induction. I got to Castle Royle early and waited for my colleague. He was late and when I called him, he was in his car but heading back to his house to pick up his credit card. We eventually went through, changed and went up to the gym to meet Matt. We had to fill in a health questionnaire before being given our personal Techno Gym Wellness Key (more on that shortly). I then had my weight and body fat index taken before sitting down with Matt and setting up my programme. Nothing too drastic, just four machines and a total work out of 46 minutes. Something quite gentle to ease me in, after all remember I have done very little exercise since leaving school (nearly ten years ago) aside from the fitness course last year.

Being a Sunday afternoon, the gym was relatively quiet and we had relatively free roam of the machines. We completed our program and Matt showed us how to "checkout" our workout. There are some great features on the computer, you can check your performance, not just visually in graphs and indexes but also your progress on the New York Marathon and Tour de France. A long long way to go for me but it is a nice touch to be able to compare your progress with a tangible sporting event!

After our induction, I bid goodbye to my colleague and headed over to Thame for my piano lesson (#18) and promised myself that I would get down to some practice this week. So far, I have not had a chance to get on the keyboard but will do by the end of the week and definitely over the weekend.

Never tempt fate. Although for someone like me, it is a just downright impossible. This links into my comments about my internet addiction from my previous post. I was listening to the Arsenal match on Saturday and when we went 2-0 down, I decided to switch off the radio and concentrate on whatever I was doing (could not have been that interesting as I cannot recall exactly what). Around 4.30pm, I decided to try and refresh my BBC Sport Premiership Live Scores page online but it was taking ages to respond before timing out. The internet was down, my MSN had signed out. I had problems, serious problems. I went on a crazy rampage trying to reboot my router, refresh my router. As these failed, I went over to the lounge and inspected the router and made reset it a few times. Still no luck, so I text Pav an SOS to get the support number for Sky broadband. Before calling them, I did a little hunting online (yes I had internet access, thanks to my sister's dedicated line in her room and work laptop). However, there was no luck, I had to call Sky and spoken to a technician in India. He was very helpful but quite perplexed as to my problem. It was only when he recommended that I swap microfliters that it clicked. I headed upstairs. In my sister's room was the reason for my drop off from the grid. The old analogue phone had been plugged into the phone line but naked in the sense there was no micro filter. So I unplugged the phone, headed downstairs and the i light flashed on the router. I was back online. What had I missed? The greatest comeback in Premier League history? Typical!

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Friday 28th March 2008

I get plenty of invitations to add a variety of applications onto my Facebook profile, most which I ignore. However, Pav convinced me to add PetrolHead several months ago. I have not used to much really and have only carried out one upgrade. Pav on the other hand has just smashed a new record to smithereens and been given access to the lucrative fantasy garage. I will let the screen shot sent to me on Tuesday morning tell the rest of the tale.

Quite a busy weekend but unfortunately the first aspect has already crashed and burned by the roadside. I was scheduled in for my detail with Pav and planning to drop my car off in Emmer Green straight after work. However, on MSN this morning we decided to postpone until later in April. The weather was not looking good and even though Pav is a superhero, even he would have found it hard to give the car a good seeing to in the rain, particularly as the interior will need plenty of attention. Never mind, my drive of the Rover will just have to wait for a few more weeks. Let that not bring down the curtain on my weekend, it is just a small minor setback and with the British weather it is something I have come to expect, although in January when I booked the car in.

Not really sure what tomorrow night has in store, I may pop into town briefly but the rest of the day will be spent at home. I may be going out in London in the evening but am unsure and am quite tempted to just spend the night in, particularly as my Sunday is action packed. Two people will be on the floor with laughter as they read this. Charlie and Chris, yes you know who you are! I have taken the step and joined the gym and my induction is on Sunday morning with my colleague. It should be interesting to say the least. However, I feel after the fitness course I attended last summer (organised by Chris) I am ready to make the long term commitment and life change. What do I do in the hour or so "window" when I get home from work? Not much really, bomb around online, watch Simpsons and Hollyoaks (two episodes back to back in fact). Well for three nights in the week, I will be heading directly to the gym from work and trying to get fit. I will also try and fit in the odd session at the weekend as well but I really have an opportunity to feel better. Well that is all the 'sales patter', we will have to see how the reality matches up to my deluded expectations!

Richard Bacon featured an interesting discussion on his Five Live radio show on Bank Holiday Monday. The topic? Internet Addiction. Now, you all know that I am addicted to the web and freely admit this (and have done so for years). Therefore the subject was somewhere close to my heart and I listen intently. The IAT was mentioned, so I headed over and took this Internet Addiction Test. I expected to get a high score but some of the questions were a bit over the top in my opinion. I got a score of 49 with feedback comment, "You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage." I always saw myself as above average. I do not have a problem but find it hard to look back to a day I have not been online (broadband isp switchover downtime aside). However, I believe there will never be a time for me to logon to the Centre for Internet Recovery.

I would rather not discuss football, everything has already been said from every possible angle on various other blogs. No need for me to waste precious web space. Nothing really left for me to do but wish you all a great weekend. I am now off to watch the pilot episode of Chuck. You know I may like it and Pav may have wasted a whole morning downloading the thirteen episodes for me. Time will tell. The good news is that Terry has come out on top with the most recent wrestle match with Pav's FTP site. How long it will continue to obey is anyone's guess!

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Sunday 23rd March 2008

Easter Sunday, and according to the well researched Diamond Geezer the earliest we will ever experience. It is 11.06am precisely as I begin writing this and I have quite a few things to do before the football matches this afternoon. I will try and make this entry both concise and brief.

On Good Friday, I was surprised to wake up and see the sun shining outside, so made it a top priority to wash my car. I did not get out there until around 11.30am, but after a good solid two and a half hours I was done. Thirty minutes after coming in, the hail stones started. I had completed the job just in time. I was very glad to get this done, the car was not that dirty but just a in need of some tender loving care. Pav had reported on Friday afternoon that the weather conditions for the weekend did not look good for my postcode. I text him to say I had completed the job just before the change in the atmospheric climate and his reply was classic, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Terry".

I did not do much on Friday really, stayed in and opted not to head over to Phatz for Trance Planet with the rest of the gang. Around 4pm, I decided to watch Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, purely because it had been so long since I had seen the movie and I had seen the first three so many times in past (particularly on television). Perhaps it is only now when you are much older (and questionably wiser) you truly appreciate the movie for what it is. Unfinished as the producers ran out of money (or rather throw away on other productions).

Yesterday, I had quite a lazy day planned before heading out into Reading. Yes, I know the big plans of karaoke in London had to be abandoned due to a few people dropping out and the cost of minibus and booth going up. I will admit I was gutted and was really looking forward to a night out in Central. Never mind, it will happen again at some point soon. Worse case I can always go for my birthday in November? Anyway, back to yesterday. I watched Football Focus and then decided how to spend the rest of my afternoon. I got a few jobs done and then decided to give Jerry Street Styles a call, on the off chance they might be open. Jerry answered the phone and explained that they would be closing at 4pm. So I abandoned all my other plans, had a shower and caught the bus into town. There was a brief snow shower before I got out of the door and as usual (with my perfect timing) I got to the bus stop just as the 100 bus pulled up. After my haircut, I came straight home and it was around 4pm. I had only had breakfast by this stage of the day. While on the computer, I noticed my eyesight to be affected by those bright sparks that can mean only one thing. Migraine alert. So I took a Nurofen, got some food and decided to get into bed. I would get up in a couple of hours and if I felt better I would get ready and head into Reading.

My phone buzzed around 7.30pm, it was Pav but I did not read the text for another hour or so. By then, Pav had tried to call me a few times and Emily had left me a voicemail. I went into the lounge and watched some Bollywood movie with my Mum and sister for a moment, while contemplating whether or not to go out. At first I felt it was best to stay at home but I changed my mind. I got some food, get ready and head out. It was 9.30pm by the time I hit the M4 and it just before 10pm, I got to Monks. It was busy, as you would expect but it did not feel as busy as previous Saturday nights out. Perhaps many people had opted to either stay in or gone away for the long weekend. I gave Emily my card and there was no time to get any drinks in as we moved onto our next stop. We could not get into Revolutions as some people had trainers on! So we went across to Mango but it was quiet and £6 to get. However, on considerate, it was going to be very quiet and we did not want to be stuck there for the rest of the evening, so walked down to Sahara. I have never been in this small cocktail bar, it made a change of scenery to some of our regular haunts. It was busy but we got some seats as a big group of girls were just leaving.

Pav showed me some photographs of his last detail. He had not been able to get any during the detail itself due to the day quite quickly turning to night. The Porsche just looks amazing and even an old dear walking past could but admire the Crystal Detail workmanship. "Doesn't that look lovely!". We then discuss plans for the summer. There is quite a lot to look forward to really. My third festival experience, will notch it up a level as I venture to Reading (hopefully for the whole weekend). We are going to try and organise a group trip to a theme park, most likely Thorpe Park (where I have never been). There is of course the Audi Meet in July and I have entered myself (well got the entry form at least) for the Show & Shine competition!

After a few drinks we decided to head over to Revolutions (we had now lost all those people wearing trainers). Pav and myself decided to walk to Revolutions (the five minutes it would take) whereas Div and Em took a taxi! Please! In any case, the queue was quite long and at least a half an hour wait out in the arctic wind, so we decided to call it a night. Dropped by Subway for a light snack and then walked back to the Oracle. My bad luck with car parks continues. (I thought I had lost that omen, when Chris left my workplace). The pay machine on level three was out of order, as was the one on level two, so I had to rush down (via the stairs) to level one to pay for my ticket, then rush back and finally get out of the car park! Another food pit stop was required at Mo's Kebab van opposite the Tesco Express petrol station in Caversham. While Div and Em went to get their food, I pointed out a few marks and the odd stain in the car that Pav would need to attack next weekend. He was surprised, to him the car was pretty much spotless, it was but it could do with a little work to make it perfect.

Right I better go and get ready and get ready and watch to the watch the football. Most likely I will sit in the lounge with my laptop, football on in the background until the real crunch match at 4pm. Bring on Chelsea! Oh by the way, I think I have found the next series which can bring about another installment of Terry versus Pav's FTP site. American comedy Chuck, which will be screened shortly on Virgin 1. Why would I want the ease of watching the show on FreeView, when I can download it at less than 4kbit/s via Breezy's site? All I will say is watch this space!

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Thursday 20th March 2008

The Beeb have been doing a fantastic series charting the build up to the Iraq war in ten minute episodes on BBC2 over the past week. They take the view point of variety of different 'characters' with time running out before the actual invasion begins. After being screened, they are debated over on Newsnight with Paxo on excellent form! If you have missed any, you can catch them on the godsend that is the iPlayer. Right, where is this all going? Well the fact that it was five years ago this week that Tony Blair appeared on our television screens to inform us Allied troops had cross in from Kuwait, made me wonder. What was I doing five years ago? Well thanks to the magic power of this blog, I can easily find out. I can go back to this week, in 2003. So let us take a trip down memory lane and see what I was up do (did I even mention the war?).

I was in Milton Keynes on Tuesday, linking in to what I was doing five years ago (in a strange way) as I would commute to Bedford during my placement year. My journey back was cross country and tonight I redid that journey and relived all those memories. I was coming up to junction thirteen on the M1 but heard on the radio (thank you Traffic Announcement) that both the M25 and M1 were busy, so I opted to take my old drive home. It is quite a scenic route and I think I should pop over to Google Maps and actual detail the extent of my journey. As you can imagine, this will not something I can do very quickly. I have started, I just need to finish it off, please bear with me.

On Wednesday I tried to get tickets for Arsenal versus Reading (a match I went to last season). However, even though I logged into the box office a good hour before tickets went on sale at 9.30am, I was unable to secure any tickets. Even late last night, speaking to Terry via MSN, I was unable to purchase tickets via the TicketExchange service for Everton, Liverpool or Reading. Even though there were seats up for grabs. I give up. I suppose going back to being an arm chair fan is not such a bad thing. I suppose I will have to wait for next season, but even then I think Red membership has become far too oversubscribed and only a handful of members are getting access to tickets. It really is a sorry state of affairs when I cannot get a ticket against Reading (effectively my local Premiership team).

One of my colleagues had arranged to take a look around a local gym, sorry health club and asked if I wanted to come along. We had talked for the past few years about joining the gym and getting fit. (More so for him, as the alcohol and cigarettes are likely to send him to an early grave.) I need to get fit, particularly if I want to live to see seventy three when I can finally become a season ticket holder at Ashburton Grove. So after work we drove down the ten minutes to Castle Royle on the Bath Road. It is a place I drive past regularly when heading to Reading and have always been curious to take a look inside. We arrived a little early but were greeted by Becky and taken around to the cafe area. We were given some forms to fill in before our tour. We declined being shown inside the men's changing rooms and headed down the corridor, looking through the window at the pool. Then up some stairs to the entrance to the gym. Before we entered we were shown charts detailing the peak periods for each work day. A busy period was about thirty members using the gym, when my colleague and I had estimated it almost twice that at peak periods. As Becky continued to explain various benefits of memberships, an old man walked past me and Becky opened the door for him. I did not see his face, just he back of his head. When the door was closed, my colleague smirked that it was ITV Sport's one and only Jim Rosenthal. Although, as he was dropped from Champions League coverage earlier in the year, he will be spending plenty more time in the gym! Becky then went to explain the other celebrity members, Debbie McGee and Becca (local Windsor girl, Ali Bastian) from Hollyoaks. This truly was the hard sell from The Club Company rep, having to let us know the other members we were likely to bump into. After our tour we were taken back to the cafe seated and the negotiations began. I think my colleague worked Becky down to a good bargain, plus there are some relative good get out clauses in terms of any contract. As we left, my colleague could only do one thing. Light up some roll up tobacco! Classic! Talk about start as you mean to go on. We discussed the deal and I said I would get back to him tomorrow, after I had looked over the literature we had been given.

Pav was busy last weekend, very busy. Want to know what he got up to? With plenty of graphic detail and photograph evidence? Go ahead, knock yourself out! Yes, there is just over a week to go until I drop my car over for my detail. Preparations have been made and a full list has been made. The beauty this time is Pav has a year's experience under his belt but also better tools, particularly a new rotary polisher (I do not know the full details, but I am sure he will remind me). So expect another write up on Monday 31st March, including a full paint reading chart or print out!

What is your favourite super hero movie? I am sure I have asked the question before and given my own definitive answer. For me, there is no question, it is Superman II. However, until very recently I was unaware of all the controversy that surrounded the production of this first sequel. It was only a few years ago, perhaps one Christmas when I watched the DVD that I noticed a goof towards the end. In the Fortress of Solitude, it was clear it was not the actor Gene Hackman on the screen but a body double plus terrible voiceover. It when I was reading up online about the release of The Ultimate Superman Collection which would included, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. I did not get the collection for Christmas or my birthday and have never got around to buying it myself. Last year sometime, Pav mentioned he had downloaded a DivX rip and that it was a completely different movie to the theatrical release. He promised to past it on to me, but for some reason we never got around to it. It was on his FTP at one point but I think I was too busy leeching down Heroes or Bionic Woman to get around to it. So this week, I bit the bullet and decided to download a torrent myself. It took me most of this week, with the final 12% taking over eight hours with an average download rate of 0.4kbit/s (I kid you not!) However, I did eventually get the file and decided to watch the movie tonight, straight after Eastenders. (Although originally I had been hoping to save myself until tomorrow evening but the excitement was too much).

The Donner movie is far superior to the Lester version, even though it is a patch work piece using screen tests and archive footage. Sure, to complete the movie there is still twenty percent Lester footage in this cut but it is more true to the original director's vision. I do not want to give away too much, you will just have to get the DVD, watch for yourself and make up your own mind. If you are a true movie buff (like me) you might even go and read an essay of comparison. However, I cannot finish without mentioning my favourite moment. (A Donner scene which survived the cutting room floor to make it into the final theatrical cut).

Clark, now with his powers restored as Superman, goes to the diner and confronts Rocky, who is more than willing to pick a fight with him. Much to everyone's surprise, this strange, young man handles the bullying customer like a little child, eventually felling him across the counter and sending him crashing into the pinball machine, knocking him unconscious. Clark then offers to pay the owners of the diner for the damage. With those around wondering how the stranger was able to beat the bully, Clark simply replies: "Oh, I've been... working out."

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Sunday 16th March 2008

Finally watched Knocked Up last night, it has been sitting on my hard drive since 22nd February with my last attempt to watch it a few weekends ago, when the file would not play. I tracked this down last night to a dodgy codec file, so I downloaded the latest version and away I went. It was good fun and many parts had me in fits of laughter. This was the un-rated version, so it was quite vulgar and offensive in places but overall well worth watching. I would highly recommend it. Right, I just need to get Super Bad off Pav as well now!

Typical British weather this weekend, as I just finished vacuuming the car and was putting the mats back in place, it started to rain - heavily. So I had no choice but to abandon all plans to wash the car hoping that today would bring a turn in the conditions. No such luck, constant rain all day. The wash will have to wait for Good Friday. Thanks to the rain, it will not be too dirty by then but it will be the last chance to wash before it is handed over Crystal Detail for a full spring detail.

I must admit my weekends have been quite boring, with nothing really going on. This will change next week, I promise. Not just because it is the Easter weekend (and four days off work) but I actually have things going on. There is some hardcore karaoke action in Leicester Square and I am really looking forward to it. Mainly because this will be my first chance for a sing-a-along since that 18th birthday party back in February 1999. Still trying to think of which song to sing, so any suggestions are greatly received. I want to go for a party number, something ultimately fun!

This is not all, there are quite a few big weekends coming up and most of you on FaceBook will be able to see some of the Events listed but there is also plenty more to look forward. Got confirmation of the next Audi Meet for Sunday 13th July. Sure quite a while away but something to look forward to in the summer, plus there is a show and shine competition and I may just go ahead and enter. There are other things planned, further afield but waiting for confirmation before I can post them on my blog!

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Saturday 15th March 2008

It is 10:40am, as I begin writing this post. I have just got back from town and the new Eden Shopping Centre. More on that later but first there are a few other bits and bobs to mention.

Imagine if I worked for a big corporate machine, with silk ties, polished shoes and endless bureaucratic procedures. Certain things would not be possible. Football draws (predominately FA Cup and Champions League) have always been big events at our office. However two years ago, it was a case of one person logging into BBC News while another uses the faster ESPN Soccer Net site to get the details of the draw. Now, we can watch the draw live on Sky Sports News on a big 40" LCD screen in the main board room. You just have to wait for all the razzmatazz to finish before we get to the actual draw itself (after a compilation video featuring all the quarter finalists.) Our master of ceremonies was some Scotsman and the official ambassador of the 2008 final, Soviet keeper, Dasayev (yep, never heard of him either or even remember him from the 1988 European Championship final). When Arsenal got drawn first I knew it was a bad sign and sure enough we got Liverpool. Then Chelsea go and get one of the easiest teams left in the cup plus have the favoured option of playing at home in the second leg. I could start the conspiracy theories here but I will wait to see how the next round pans out. So you can imagine the cheers from all the Liverpool fans in our office (one outspoken and at least three closet) and I have to admit that Arsenal are underdogs but it will be a true test of how far Wenger has taken this team and their pedigree if this year is to be a league and cup double. However, I would happily lose to the Scousers if it meant we beat them in the League and won the championship. However, we shall see what transpires. There is a while to go before those crucial games and plenty of work in the league to be done before then.

I got up around 8.30am and was walking to the bus stop just before 9.15am. As I approached the stop, I looked over my shoulder and saw the 100 bus coming around the roundabout. Perfect timing. However my free return ticket was only valid on the 32 and 33 services, so I had to pay the £1.50 return on the 100 Park & Ride service. I was on my way into town, to see the new Eden Shopping Centre. I got off at the Library (due to move across to the new complex in June) only to find a big queue. It did not open until 9.30am, so it was a good five minute wait before the doors where opened. I returned my book and headed across town. I was looking forward to seeing how the old Bridge Street car park, where my Dad had parked his car and I had parked my car for many years before heading to town had been transformed into a so called shoppers "paradise". The Octagon is no more, the old sign has gone and been replaced by Eden. What can I say? It is okay I suppose and the scale that reflects the size of our town. Walking around and going into the some of the shops, I could not be have the feeling that there was something missing. A big final show piece, a big bang. Sure some of the retail units have yet to be opened but most of them are open and busy with shoppers. I can only compare it to the Oracle and that at least has a great open section by the river. Here at Eden we have a stupid silver waterfall pillar at the newly christen Eden Square. I went into House Of Fraser, to the first floor and as I came up the escalator noticed a clothes stand. I had to get out my camera and take a photograph.

This is Pav's number one brand at the moment and there is even a Superdry store in Reading, so I am quite sure he will not be rushing over to Wycombe anytime soon. I approached a member of staff and as he directed me to the accessories stand he asked, "Is this your first time in store?" What do you think buddy, you've only been open since Thursday (around forty-eight hours). I then headed across into the new flagship M&S store which was quite impressive but for the squeaky noise my shoes made on the new flooring. I took a walk back around and make a circuit around Tesco. It looks quite strange to see the old store surrounded by all the new shops. It makes me laugh to think they took the council to the High Court of the development and they had to in the end just build around them. I went up the escalator to the AMF Bowling and CineWorld complex. I am not sure why I even bothered to look at what movies were playing at the multiplex. I am never going to go there. Not unless they suddenly sign the contract with Pearl & Dean to do their screen advertising (which is highly unlikely but not impossible). I may be dragged kicking and screaming to see some Bollywood flick but I doubt it, the last one (on the big screen) I saw was Christmas two years ago. I will keep faithful to Vue, Reading at The Oracle and their impressive screen four. Something's are worth making the trek for, particularly when you know what you are getting, know which seats to book and the fact that you can always use your Nectar card when times get hard!

Someone who could really judge how much the town has changed would be my Dad as he has lived in here since he was five or so. (Those whom would have been truly able to reminisce about the old town, are unfortunately no longer with us.) Forty three odd years of change are bigger yard stick than the near twenty that I have spent, so far on this mortal coil. The weekend detail weather report sponsored by Crystal Detail (URL coming - watch this space), predicted rain for both today and tomorrow but it is quite dry at the moment, so I might brave the condition and wash my car. Detail is just two weekends away. Have a great weekend whatever you get up to and I will try my best to post again before the weekend is out and we are into another working week (be it a little shorter).

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Monday 10th March 2008

What a weekend! No, for once I am not referring to anything I got up to. Far from it, for me it was a very lazy and non-event of a weekend. However sporting wise, it was electric. I watched all of the FA Cup ties (although only fully concentrated on the Manchester and Chelsea ties) and Arsenal play away at Wigan. I was able to clamber away from the television and computer to fit in a piano lesson yesterday morning.

On Saturday morning, as I had my breakfast, my Dad handed me a copy of The Guardian Guide. On the front was a drawing of the DMC-12. It was an interesting article but the reason for it appearing on the front page of the entertainment guide (perhaps a slow news weekend) was to prompt the concept album by Neon Neon which centres around DeLorean, the man, the car and the company.

I watched the finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Friday night. As the conclusion was just two standard length episodes I watched them sandwiched between Eastenders. It was good, in places very good but not up to the jaw dropping marvelous moments of Heroes. However, the ending was very well done to leave it all open for series two. On Virgin 1 on Saturday night, they were showing the first two episodes back to back and I watched for a while and realised why the show perhaps is not as great as it could be. Worth watching if you like the franchise plus Summer Glau is just magnificent as a terminatrix. In a continuation of the theme, five screened Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines last night as well. Looks like there is a fourth installment with Christian Bale on the way and it will link into the series!

Finding music videos has not always been easy. It was only a few years ago that I discovered Solly4Life dot com and have never looked back. It is a great site with music videos added on a weekly basis. I e-mailed the chap, (Solly?) on Saturday and he responded the next day to confirm that he hoped to upload my requested video the next day. Sure enough, when I checked this afternoon, Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown had been uploaded. Fantastic. I downloaded the rar file (hosted over at RapidShare) and as the file slowly landed onto my machine, I sent a thank you message to Solly. He is a legend and I owe him a big debt. The majority of my music videos are from his collection and there are still plenty from his back catalogue I could do with downloading.

You must be bored of me constantly going on about Miss Sparks and this song but I think this story might be worth the read. During my last piano lesson on Sunday 17th February I had given my teacher, Clive an mp3 of the song. I wanted him to transcribe the notes from the chorus onto manuscript. As I arrived to my lesson yesterday morning (late for the first time at 11.11am) I could hear him playing the mp3 on Windows Media Player on his laptop and playing some notes on his piano and noting down a string of notes (excuse the pun). He had done it! The song does not lend it self to being played on the piano, it doesn't have a full melody. Instead there are just trails during the chorus. (In fact Jordin plays them briefly at the opening of the video). I must say that, I find this a true talent. To be able to hear a piece of music a few times and begin playing the notes on your piano / keyboard. I now have the notes (just two lines and sixteen notes) transcriped in my manuscript book. I tried to play them tonight but failed miserably. This is what lack of practice does to you, it knocks your confidence. However, I am determined to try and continue and for once to begin playing songs I love rather than just those from my teaching materials. However I think I am light years away from my grade one exam.

The Daily Mail gave away copies of Flight Of The Navigator on DVD on Saturday, so my Dad picked up a copy. A classic 1980s movie which I grew up with and ruined on VHS (I watch it too many times). It was the movie that introduced me to the music of The Beach Boys. I have not had a chance to watch the movie, I just put it on to check out the quality which is reasonably considering it is a freebie. I will try and watch it in full at some point, perhaps this coming weekend. Memories of my childhood!

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Wednesday 5th March 2008

It was a day Pav had been looking forward to. Tuesday 4th March (yesterday) will go down in the history books (or maybe rather the archives of this blog) as a significant milestone. I could go on with the story but perhaps the screen shot of the login from Pav's FTP site explains everything in far better fashion.

You will need to click on the image to be able to read the small print. Regular readers will know the background, new readers can read on to find out what this is all about. The finale for The Sarah Connor Chronicles was screened on Monday evening Stateside. This was in two parts, so I had to download two 350mb files from Pav's FTP site! To begin with the transfer rate was excellent and I hit the dizzy heights of 88kbit/s (a personal best for me as the fastest recorded download rate). However, it was short lived and I soon hit rock bottom of 4.4kbit/s. It was going to take over nine hours to get hold of part one at that rate. I was really busy so had little time to monitor progress on my FileZilla window, I just let the download continue in the background. Meanwhile, I am pretty sure that Pav was in stitches and on the floor with laughter watching me struggle with the download. Particularly when he sent me a screen shot of how quickly he got both DivX files on Utorrent.

It was painful but I eventually downloaded the first file and finished off the 30% of the second file on Thursday mid-morning (had to wait for Pav's Dad to get home around 10.30am to boot his PC up!). I have saved both episodes to watch back to back on Friday night, although Pav watched them both late yesterday evening. In fact, it could have been very different. My Mum asked for my shirt as she had a load of washing ready in the machine, so when I got changed this evening, I handed my over my white shirt and switched on the machine. It was only when I was on my computer and searching for my USB key (to copy over the final avi file) that I realised what I had done. I paused the machine and opened the door and got my 1 gigabyte LG Flash disk out. It was very wet, as you would expect, so I rushed upstairs to my sister's room, plugged in her hairdryer and blasted the silver piece of plastic. It was dry within a few seconds, I rushed back downstairs to try it on my PC. Ping! It was picked up fine and I transferred the file. A close shave, any minute longer, the fabric softener and detergent to be dispensed. You know by now, it is never simple with me. Why download the torrent myself when I can grabble with Pav's FTP every week! However, knowing my history with USB sticks, I would have not been surprised if was yet another one down the drain. I have lost count of the number I have lost over the years. I suppose they will always go missing, it is just a case of making the most of them, while you still have them in your possession.

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Monday 3rd March 2008

A strange weekend in the sense that Sunday was far busier than Saturday. (It is usually always the other way around!). I will however, start with Saturday, it will not take that long and we can move onto the excitement of Sunday. I went to sleep around 2.30am on Friday night as I had been working on a web site for a client. However, I still somehow managed to drag myself out of bed at 7.30am to get ready. I had to head over to Amersham to get my A3 fixed. Car was booked in for 8.30am, I got there and was waiting in the chair before the Service Manager arrived! (He was only a few minutes late!) Once my car was patched up, I had to go into town. It was a journey I could have avoided, after all, I had been in town on Wednesday afternoon. I needed to renew my book at the library. I should have made better use of my time and got a another book out but I did not. I found out that the library moves to the Eden complex in June, not as soon as March 13th when it opens. The trip into town gave me a chance to capture a photograph of the escalator in the Octagon shopping centre. (For completeness, I've added to my previous post as it fits in with the discussion there). I got home around 11am and for the first time in several weeks was able to sit down and watch Football Focus. Before it started I had a chance to plan my afternoon and my weekend. Clean the car, a bit of web design, Eurovision and then a bit more web design, maybe watch a movie or catch up on Torchwood. It didn't all go according to plan.

Promptly at 1pm, I headed outside to hoover and then wash the car. However, I came to a problem straight away. My foam lance was missing the tube which enables the solution to be sucked up into the spray chamber. So I went into the kitchen and dug out a few tubes from old spray bottles, the first one was too thick and lose. My second attempted worked a treat and fitted fine. Great, I was back in business, but only a little McGuyver trick had been required. I spent a good two hours or so cleaning the car. It was a better effort than last week, perhaps because the car was generally cleaner. Afterwards, I went in for a late lunch while watching Soccer Saturday. Arsenal went down to an own goal. Perhaps my weekend would not be as good as I had hoped.

Well the Gooners rescued the football but looks like we have thrown away Eurovision once again. Michelle Gayle's song was perfect but for some reason the British public chose the bin man! Woo (You Make Me) would have done very well (but I doubt it would have topped the board in Belgrade). Andy's song will be lucky to register any points! My Saturday evening was not very excited, I continued to work on the web sites and was in bed reading my book at midnight. Although I must have fallen asleep before 1am.

I got up later than I wanted to on Sunday. This meant a bit of a rush out of the door at 10.30am, in doing so I left my camera at home but only realised about half an hour into my journey, when I was half way up the M40. I think I was too distracted by the new MP3 CD I had burnt to be bothered with my camera but never mind, I could take some photos with my camera phone. I was the 6th person to arrive, so got a free ticket into the museum. The Heritage Motor Centre is just a stone's throw away from the M40 junction 12. There were bright neon signs, "Audi Meets" directing me to our car park spot. I met Calvin and Nick, the organised and slot my car in formation. I was given some paper notices, one which had put a smile on my face.

Thankfully there was a professional taking some photos. I chatted to Calvin and Nick for a short while, as more Audi vehicles arrived, mainly S4s, the odd classic and a couple of S3s. Calvin had borrowed a brand new A4 from his dealership which I had a look at. I then headed into the museum to take a look around. As I expected it was very much a British museum related to the history of British car manufacturing (but no DeLorean mind). I took my time looking around at all the exhibits. The Rover and Mini stands were of special interest. They also had modern cars like a Land Rover concept - Storm and Aston Marton Vanquish. After spending about an hour or so looking around, I went back outside to check out progress. I think there were around 30 cars by then, it was very busy with quite a few people around various vehicles taking photographs and chewing the fat. It was cold, so I headed back to the museum (my wristband enabled me free roaming privileges) and decided to take a quick look around some of the older exhibits before heading upstairs to the cafe for some lunch. The jacket potato and chocolate fudge cake went down very well, as I watched Sky News on the television at the back. It had just strike 1pm and I was planning how long before I left. There was not much really left to do, so I left around 2pm. I thanked Calvin and Nick for organising the event. It had been just a meet up really to chat and see a few cars no more. Calvin was trying to convince me to get a remap to 185bhp. Erm - maybe! (I am sure as Pav is reading this he is thinking, "Do it Terry!" (or words to that effect!)).

A small FlickR set with photos from my N73 but better professional photos to appear on the photos page at Audi Meets web site shortly. I will be going to their events in the future and the fourth is already at the planning stage. Same venue, but bigger and better with trade stands and more show cars. Hopefully in May the weather will have improved considerably as well.

As I drove back down to Wycombe, I really enjoyed the new CD I had created. So, perhaps this is the ideal moment to discuss music. On Saturday morning, just before I was to go and get ready after breakfast a new video appeared. I was going to skip to the next channel when I saw it was just a car pulling up to a big mansion. On the side of the car were the letters NERD, so I thought it might be a video for the band, N*E*R*D. However I was wrong. A geeky guy came out of the car and approached the door and it was opened by one and only Mariah Carey. It was her new video for Touch My Body. It was then I realised that above NERD on the car was also Compu, the company the IT support person worked for. It slowly started to make sense. I was already expecting something different from the video from the opening seconds and that is exactly what I got! Sure enough, with the lyrics as they are, Carey could have done the usual cliche staged scenes. It is just pure fun based on the dreamlike fantasy of the CompuNerd employee. Some great moments and it is good to see an artist able to make fun of themselves. It reminds me a little of Jessica Simpson in her video A Public Affair. Directed by Brett Ratner (the same guy that directs Touch My Body, but also the Rush Hour trilogy!). My favourite part is at the end, as the computer guy comes out of his day dream, Miss Carey says, "The download speed was killing me! PLEEEASE tell me you updated to 802.11n!". Fantastic! If you know nothing about wireless networks that comment will mean nothing to you. I need to do a shout out for my friend Nikki. Her musical tastes have recently been on fire! She sent me a link to a couple of You Tube videos and I subsequently downloaded the songs. Only one appealed to me - Cyclone by Baby Bash featuring T-Pain (the current collaboration king!). I only listened to the first few minutes on You Tube but got to listen to the song in full in the car on the way up and down to Gaydon. Fantastic! A great song! I have already recommended it to Dave but not sure if he has had the chance to get hold of it yet. Finally, from time to time to I go and check the Sadie Ama page over on Wikipedia. Mainly to massage my own ego, as I started the page early last year. I was surprised to discover it had been updated once again but this time with new of a new song. Deja Vu had leaked onto YouTube, so I went and did a search and had a listen. Fantastic! Go take listen yourself, one of the first upbeat songs she has done! Cannot wait for the album to drop, I'll be first in line at HMV for my copy to be signed!

Right, got to go and catch up on Torchwood as I did not get a chance to watch it over the weekend. Champions League football on ITV tomorrow night so will not get the chance to watch it otherwise. Oh and we have the final installment of our ongoing man versus machine saga. Will Terry defeat Pav's FTP site once and for all? Or will SkyNet gain control and begin the events which lead to our Judgment Day. We shall find out mid-morning tomorrow.

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Friday 29th February 2008

Friday again, but not just any old Friday. This day does not exist. So much to fill into this blog that I am sure I will leave something important out. I need to pick up from my last post at the weekend. Sunday proved to forfill it's title as 'Catchup Sunday'. I watched all my outstanding television shows, got some boring admin done and got all three items from the garage onto eBay (but so far no bids).

Around midday I decided to start watching my shows (having updated my blog with the most recent entry). First on the list was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I was looking forward to the episode. It was very good with quite a lot of back story, so we were constantly jumping between the future and the present. Great to see Brian Austin Green getting a major role in the television series. I have not seen him in anything else apart from Sabrina The Teenage Witch (many many years ago, could it be as many as ten? No, it is more, it is 12, that was back in 1996!) when he played the part of Chad Corey Dylan. A man made out of dough and brought to life as Sabrina's date for the school dance. (My memory is just too good or I have serious problems!) I loved his character name, so American (almost as fantastic as his real name) Anyways, enough of reminiscing, back to the present. My present. I am really enjoying Terminator television series but feel they may head the show prematurely. There is so much potential but as long as I get a second and third series I will be happy. My only request would be for more action, Summer Glau is so underused it is unreal.

It was time for a late lunch, so I headed over to the lounge but decided as there was nothing on television to watch KnightRider. No, not an episode from the 1980s television series but a new feature length movie pilot. It had screened last week Stateside to an audience of 12 million. I was keen to take a look but Pav had already messaged me on MSN (last Friday) to say it had some bad reviews and he was not going to bother watching. I thought I needed to take a look myself. This was the first time I would watch anything longer than a music video from my XBox. I must say it was a great experience, being able to put the volume up with incredible picture quality. The story was far fetched, even by vintage 1980s Knight Rider standards but I stuck with it. A big draw was Sydney (Sidney Poitier's daughter) as FBI agent Rivai. It was good fun but not that entertaining. Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT would never have worked if you saw it written on paper (or web page as I did on Wikipedia) but it does and Kilmer is perfect for the role. Adding the humour we have come accustomed to with the original pairing of KITT and Michael. However, there is little I else I can say. Yes, it was a good way to waste away a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Would I give the series a chance? Yes, if give us something credible to watch. It looks much like Knight Rider with a lick of new paint for 2008. We wanted something fresh, not a rehash of the original (and I must add classic). David Hasslehoff has a cameo appearance towards the end (as you would come to expect) but I feel he deserves to return in some form in the series (that is three episodes alone NBC!).

I have had a really busy week at work but somehow survived to Friday afternoon. Highlights including having to take Wednesday afternoon off to get new tyres fitted to my A3. However as colleagues were off sick I had to cover on the helpdesk all morning. Never mind. I headed over to ProTyre in Slough and got my tires changed straight away. They were an authorised Pirelli specialist, so there were advertisements for their tyres everywhere. "Power Is Nothing Without Control". I dropped the Italians (just like my car last year) and opted for the Germans. Something about insisting on German engineering! I had bought my Zen along to listen to music as I waited (thinking I would be there for as much as an hour.) I got my tires aligned as well. They use some fancy laser technology to get it perfect which looks quite impressive watching from the waiting room. I then headed home, got in, removed my tie, grabbed a few things and caught the bus into town. I had a few jobs to get done, mainly because I had not had the chance on Saturday. I got my haircut at Jerry's Street Styles and then headed into the town centre. The Eden is being rushed to completion. It opens on Thursday 13th March. Not sure why on a Thursday but I will pop down on the 15th to check it out with my family and report back my findings. The Octagon (which remains in name for a short time) is also having a facelift and expansion into the old bus station. As I walked past the escalator I noticed something different. Something was missing. Yes, the fountain and pound. It had gone. I called Dave (I know I never call him during office hours but I had to tell him). A piece of our childhood had gone forever. As a kid I would be given one pence and two pence pieces to throw into the water feature and make a wish. That would now be all but a memory. I headed into town, just to remember what the place looked like and ended into the Chilterns, through it and to Subway. Got myself a foot long sub and sat down to eat. It was around 3pm and there were school kids everywhere, so I headed across Frogmoor to the bus stop and waited a few minutes for the 100 bus to take me home.

When I got home, it was not a quiet night in. I am afraid not. At 6.30pm, I headed over to Cookham, to The Ferry. It was Alison's leaving do and we had arranged a little get together to see her off. Original it was just going to be drinks but during the course of the week it moved to a meal for eight. Niko also came down to meet us, so it was a semi-reunion for some as well. Those of you on FaceBook will have noticed I have been tagged in some rather embarrassing photographs but thankfully it is my colleague Romika who is the most amusing! We eventually left around 11.45pm to head home. I had missed Torchwood yet again and will have to catch up at some point over the weekend.

The other day I was wondering when the Beeb were going to take their new snazzy homepage out of beta. My questions were answered on Thursday morning at exactly 10am with this blog post. After several months, which felt much longer, the Been homepage was live. So I headed over to BBC dot co dot uk, customised the page, changed the colour and took the step to change my home from BBC News to the new BBC Homepage. It is getting some getting used to but I have the news and sport there, quite predominate at the top of my personalised page. The best options is having all my favourite Beeb blogs listed so I can see the latest three posts on each. There is the BBC Internet, dot.life, Pod & Blogs and occasionally The Editors. However, once again, great work by Aunty, the old style analogue clock is a good touch and everything does fit in with a nice snug fit. However, after having the News front page as my home page for the past five (if not more) years it will be a while before I become fully accustomed. In fact, I have only made the change on my work laptop, at home I have for the time being stuck with News being the first page to open with Firefox.

This is the usual point when I try and give a detailed preview of my weekend. Quite a lot going on, I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Saturday is relatively quiet, I have to head over to Amersham first thing and go to the library to get my book renewed. Then in for the rest of the day and evening. Will spend a chunk of that time washing my car and working on web sites. Sunday, it is a relatively early start over to Gaydon, to the Heritage Motor Museum for my first ever Audi Meet. That is a good point, I better get my batteries charged for my camera.

I cannot leave without discussing music. You go through periods which are dry, no real good new music out there. However, we are currently blessed. Bear with me on this one, it will be worth it. Remember Alice Deejay? The Dutch dance trio which burst onto the scene in 1999? (So much so that I had their one and only album imported from the States so I could have it before anyone else!) Well a rapper from Pittsburgh has gone and does this. Trust me, it will grow on you. The video to No Air was leaked onto YouTube on Sunday but I have yet to find a decent copy on any of the file sharing networks or torrents. I will of course keep you posted with my progress. The video does not miss the radar over at PopJustice. Mariah Carey is back with Touch My Body, a fantastic song, she has such an amazing voice which just appears to get better with age. (Or is that just my ears getting worse). The song is co-written by The Dream. He wrote the song Umbrella for Rihanna, whom features on his single, "Livin A Lie" currently get a great deal of airplay over on Kiss. A very slow RnB number, listen I am sure you will enjoy. I just know I will have to burn a CD before the weekend is out.

Right I better go and watch Sarah Connor and then perhaps work on some websites and read my book. I will try and post again sometime over the weekend but very much doubt I will have the time. As Pav always says, I may have to make the next one a MWU (Mid-Week Update)!

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Saturday 23rd February 2008

It is 17:34 as I begin to write this post. This is the first time I have got onto the computer today. I am not sure where to start really, there is so much that needs to be covered and I am off out into Henley for Chris' birthday later this evening. I will start, somewhere at the beginning.

My boss let me go early, everyone in the commercial area of the office was having that "Friday Feeling". My boss was heading out the door soon after me. However it was wasted really, even though I told everyone I was heading into Leicester Square. I had to head over to London Road (to the west of town) to collect my sister from work. She did not finish until 5.30pm, so I spent the time listening to Jordin Sparks's album while waiting in the car park. My plan had been also to get home, shower change and head out the door at catch the bus to the station. I could get my Dad to collect me on my return. It did not actually pan out like that at all. My Dad was asleep, I tried to wake him but he told me to take the car, so I did. I though the 100 Park & Ride service finished at 6pm on weekdays but it is actually 7pm and only 6pm on Saturdays. So you can imagine my surprise as I pulled out of my drive onto the main road to see the bright green 100 bus just behind me. Never mind. I find a spot in the Wycombe station car park, next to a red Porsche, paid for a ticket (£2.80 for five hours and twenty minutes!). I rushed to the FastTicket machine, got my return ticket to Marylebone and then consulted the departure boards. As I went through the barrier, there was a big group of commuters heading home after a long week in the workplace. Platform 3 was the next train, so I headed down, to the subway, plugging in my Zen. I was stopped by a security guard that asked if I had just got off the train, I explained I was just heading into London and show him my ticket although he did not want to see it, the verbal confirmation was enough. I checked the electronic departure board and it was a non-stop service to Marylebone. Fantastic. Time of departure was 18:56, it was 18:48 as I sat down on the bench. I skipped through a few tracks. The next song chosen was Beat It and my weekend had only just began.

The train was quite busy but I found myself a seat opposite a doctor engrossed in a book. "Trauma Life Support for Doctors" was a big give away. On the table opposite there was a woman busy making notes while reading a book, "Central Asia Republics". It was slowly turning into a MJ marathon with Billie Jean played on my Zen. I wanted to tap my foot, as I do with most MJ songs but more so with BJ and I accidentally kicked the doctor in the foot. I apologised and she smiled, "It is okay, no problem". She then went back to her book. I settled in my chair. I was looking forward to the night. It was only now I realised I had left Kish's birthday card at home. Fantastic!

The train pulled into Marylebone on time (as most Chiltern Railways services do) and I rushed onto the Tube. I had two things to do, which I should have done at Marylebone station. Get some cash out and buy some mints. I would regret that decision later. On the tube I got the Bakerloo Line down to Piccadilly Circus and walked towards Leicester Square. As I was opposite TGI Friday's, my phone buzzed. A text from Kish, they were late due to the trains. I replied that I was already here and all the work Pinky had gone to move the time late to accommodate me had been for nothing. Never mind. I headed into the Tracadero, hunting two things. An ATM and confectionary come newsagent establishment. I found neither and headed down to Leicester Square. I spotted a newsagent store next to a souvenir shop and would return there after my quest to find a cash point. Then I remembered there was a cash point around the corner from the Leicester Square tube station and headed in that direction. It was very busy, with loads of people coming out of the station for their night out. So I opted to dash onto the road and rush past. The queue for the Barclays Cash Point was quite long, heading up towards Chinatown. I waited patiently and got my cash eventually. I think the machine was running low on cash as it took ages to get my money dispensed. I headed back towards Coventry Street and outside the restaurant. I got some Trebor Extra Strong Mints and began the wait. It was exactly 20:00 hours as I took this photo on my N73.

Kish was on his way but would be delayed, by about twenty minutes according to his text. I called him a few times and he would call me back and explain he was on the train. I decided to kill some time by calling Dave. He had called me at home on Tuesday night but I had forgotten to call him back straight away. Then on Wednesday night I was out and it slipped my mind on Thursday evening. It was good to catch up and we chatted for a good thirty minutes or so. The bouncers were giving an hour wait for a table to other people as they arrived. It would be around 9pm when Kish and company got here. I headed towards Leicester Square, past the Odeon only to walk past them (somehow) and have to call back and head back on myself to McDonalds. They were waiting outside. I finally met after over two years, Kish and Pinky. Plus Pinky's friend, Jane. We headed over to the restaurant with Kish calling the rest of the guests. We could only book a table once all our party arrived so we went to bar and I got the first round in. It was very busy, so it took a while to get served. We took some bar stools that were free and it was very busy (both the bar and restaurant area). A drunken woman arrived, in her mid to late thirties. She was so wasted she grabbed the straws from the holder at the side of the bar and threw them on the floor, in the direction of Jane and Pinky. She was truly wasted and a few minutes later after getting another drink, she was dancing at the side of the bar. Her boyfriend / husband looked quite embarrassed and was trying to take control but failing. We were all quite hungry at this stage. I made the executive decision to book our table (even though not everyone had arrived yet). I did not have to give my name. I was handed a plastic device which was the size of a coaster. I was informed it would vibrate and flash when our table was ready. Interesting, but fantastic system. No need to call out our party name and number over the PA system. I handed the electronic coaster to Pinky to look after. We ordered some bar snacks to bide us over until we were seated. There was an hour to hour and fifteen minute wait for a table and I had booked the table around 9.40pm. We got called much later, must have been at least twenty minutes past eleven. Obi was starving and complaining that he never eats his late. I explained that I never do either, and had been waiting outside since 8pm, over three hours later we were finally ordering our food. We had birthday voucher which entitled everyone to a free cocktail with their mail meal. Not bad really, all things considered. (This is not exactly the cheapest eating establishment on the planet!) The food did arrival, eventually and we all tucked in. I had spoken to our waitress, given our special personalised birthday cake. While we were eating, different members of waiting staff came over and tied Kish's wrists to balloons. (They never did this in Wycombe for my 18th, way back in November 1999). I lost count, must have been four or five but there was more humiliation to come. A balloon hat! (Photos to come shortly, I only had my N73 but Pinky and Jane had cameras plus Kish had video camera. Well actually DVD-R camera!) I was clock watching now, it was coming up to midnight and I would have to dash to make my last train home (0:15). I had already asked our waitress to get the cake but I had run out of time. Kish was disappointed. So was I, I wanted to be there to sing happy birthday and have a bit of the cake. I suppose the photos will have to make up for it. I tried to leave at midnight but by the time I said good bye to everyone and gave them a hug I had killed valuable minutes. They were heading out clubbing, to Sound after the meal. I rushed out into the night and headed to Piccadilly Circus station. The next part of my weekend adventure was going to begin!)

As I stood on the platform waiting for the train, I knew the signs were not good. I plugged in my Zen and checked the time, it was already eight minutes past the witching hour. It would a mission to get to Marylebone on time but I was hoping by some miracle that my train would be delayed or a later train would be running as it was the weekend. I got off the train at Marylebone and ran up the stairs as fast I could and rushed up the escalator. I looked at the departure boards, it was not good. Trains for tomorrow morning at 5am. The time was 0:22. I was stranded. As I tried walked outside and looked at the empty taxi rank, I got a text. It was from Pav. His show had finished (DJ Yoda down at the Southbank) and they were now in Wagawama having food. It was a long shot but I thought I would give him a call. He was still in London (wooo hoo!). They were over in Chiswick and asked if I could get down to them and they could pick me up and give me a ride home. I rushed over to a tube map. I could rush down to Baker Street and take the Hammersmith & City Line to Hammersmith. Fantastic. I rushed down the road to the station, hoping the last tube train had not gone yet. Just before I got to the barrier I asked some London Underground staff what time the last train to Hammersmith was. Midnight forty five I was informed! Such a relief when they said, "You've got plenty of time!". I got the first train and text Pav to firstly thank him and explain I was about four stops away. He was waiting outside the tube station, "No probs mate all in aid of the FNTP!" (FNTP stands for?) Have you forgotten already? Perhaps an image here will remind you.

I had been rescued and I was so grateful. It was a case of timing. Within a few minutes, Pav would have been on the M4 heading to Reading and I would have had no option but a £60 taxi ride back to Wycombe train station to collect my car. Funnily enough timing would become an integral part of the weekend. More on that later. Back to my drive (in the Rover of Dreams Mark II) from Central London via the M4, M25 and M40 all the way to the station. I really appreciated the lift from Pav, thanked him and headed to my car. Inadvertently I left my mobile and Zen on the back seat but never mind. When I got home around 2am, I was shattered but instead of going to sleep I went online via the laptop. Guess who popped up a few minutes later. Yes, for sure, Pav! Once again, I thanked him for rescuing me! Then explained I would pop over tomorrow to collect my bits and also drop off his detail kit and give him half the Last Touch Detail solution we had gone halves on. I arranged to pop over at 11am, as I had some jobs to do in the morning and then had the lunchtime kick off to look forward to. The afternoon plan was to wash the car and it even took precedents over my haircut (which will have to done in the week sometime!).

My Mum woke me up around 6:30am, I had had less than four hours sleep but had to do my taxi duty. I then checked the tyre pressures on the A3 and came back home. A shower and change and I headed out the door over to Amersham. For some strange reason I was under the impression that their service department opened at 8am, when it was in fact 8.30am. No problem, I would listen to my music and wait. The time was 7:48am, not too long to wait. I had an urge to listen to Irreplaceable by Beyoncé Knowles. Why I cannot tell you, I just did. After I listened to that CD for a while, I switched over to the radio. Radio 1. Nihal was presenting and said that Mark Lawrenson would be on shortly, so I hoped to hear his views. (He had predicted a Birmingham victory over on his weekly predictions page). When he did not appear after a few songs I switched back to my CDs but after a while switched back to the radio. It was getting up to 8.30am, and some of the staff had arrived and were opening up. Nihal had a caller on the air, they had to select a song (from three) which most reflected their mood this Saturday morning. The first option was some heavy hardcore dance track, the second choice was a classic. Thriller by Michael Jackson. Can you guess what the caller chose? Yes, she chose MJ! So I put the volume up and listened to the song but could not listened to it in full as I really needed the guys to look at my car and did not want to kill my schedule for the rest of the day. While waiting in the showroom, they were had Heart FM and they played Don't Stop Until You Get Enough. It truly was turning into an MJ weekend.

We will pass over the football and leave that to the Arsenal blogs and other respected media outlets. Instead I will skip over that point (as if I had a DeLorean) and take you to 15:30 this afternoon. I got out there and started to wash my car. This time armed with the right tools. My Dad was saying I should just get other people to wash it and save myself the hassle expensive and loss of my time. I beg to disagree. It is satisfying to complete the job yourself. I gave the car a quick vacuum and then got the Karacher out and my gear. It was rinsed down, then snow foamed to pure white. Then time for some twin bucket technique action. Yes, using a one bucket and sponge is just criminal. I remember the days myself of cleaning my Mini and throwing the last drops of dirty water over the car! Stupid! I must say using a mitt instead of a sponge makes all the difference, it just feels better. After washing down, each panel in turn, it was time to give the car a rinse, dry and then use the Last Touch Detail spray. The car looks good, by no means perfect but a great improvement on my previous attempts. I think in time, I will just get better at it and if I clean the car next Saturday (which I intend to do before the Audi Meet over at Gaydon.) I text Pav to let him know I had spent a good few hours cleaning in the car. He was impressed but would cast a full inspection at my detail booked for the end of next month.

Tomorrow will be catch up Sunday. I have to watch Friday's edition of Eastenders, Sarah Connor Chronicles, KnightRider (TV Movie Pilot) and then I can get down to doing some eBay selling! Who said Sunday was the day of rest?

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Thursday 21st February 2008

Bit of a surprise spontaneous evening yesterday. I got a phone call from Chris. Peter was in Newbury (coincidentally so was I) and he finished at 4pm, just like me. I explained to Chris I would call him back when I left the client office. I tried to call Peter first on his personal mobile but it went straight to voicemail, so I called Chris once I was on the road. He gave me Peter's work number, which I quickly noted down on my N73 and called him once I was onto the M4. Chris had said Peter was going to head over to The Oracle but when I spoke to him, he was ahead of me perhaps as much as a couple of miles on the motorway, he was heading to Racks in Maidenhead. I would meet him there after I went home and changed. I know this was rather silly to go right past the Maidenhead exit but opted to go home and get out of my suit. (Even though for a split second I did consider going direct and avoiding all the traffic.) I got home, got changed, queued up my PC to record the Brit Awards and headed out of the door.

There was not really any traffic on the way down to Maidenhead and I parked at my usual, the multistory and walked through St. Nicholas Shopping Centre. Just outside McDonald's I saw Peter. It was good to see him again. We shook hands and headed up into Racks. Peter signed me in and got the first round in. We were waiting for Chris, he was stuck in traffic but on his way. I bought Peter up to date on the latest at work. The leavers, the movers and shakers. Not much had changed really apart from our move to the front of the barns. Then Peter pulled out a network diagram of the servers he was building today (all named after fruit). He then showed me his impressive package. The UMPC. The Gigabyte U60. (There is one from Sony as well) I will come back to that again shortly.

Chris did eventually arrive and then we moved over to one of the pool tables. There was no point in me playing, so I let Chris and Peter battle it out. It was a clear 4-0 whitewash to the baby face Williams. We then headed to watch the match and get some food. Peter asked one of the bar maids, Hannah where the best place would be to a good place to catch the match. She recommended The Bell or Chicagos. We headed past Chicago Rock Cafe first but they were showing the Manchester United match, so the barman directed us to The Bell. It was relatively quiet, so we tried to find a good place to sit with a few of the television screen. We walked around the back, to the side area for a small area with a TV directly in front of us, adjacent to the bar. It was a shrine to Liverpool.

Obviously this was painful for Chris, a Toffee surrounded by Red, but he managed a smile! We got some drinks and chose some food from the menu and placed our order. There was free wifi access, so Peter got out his tablet and we went onto Facebook, first Chris to show us a friend that has recently appeared in a British movie. I then logged in purely to update my status.

I suppose, I better qualify the term, "Dream Team". The members were Christopher W, Peter J and myself, Andrew T. We worked on the helpdesk together from July 2005 to February 2007 and it was perhaps the best team I was ever a part of. This is not the place for my trips down memory lane, you can do that over on my other log!

It was cool being online on such a tiny device. I was in geek heaven. I need to get me one of these! We got our food and waited Sky Sports News in the build up to the game. I felt sorry for Peter, he is not a football fan and he had to sit through this Champions League tie from the Emirates. To give him credit, he lasted the ninety-four odd minutes with little agitation. The first half was quite boring really but Arsenal improved a great deal in the second half just could not find the back of the net. I was impressed with Senderos finding his form once again. But the goal-less draw will not be enough to see us through, I fear.

After the match, we said our goodbyes and headed back to our cars and home. When I got home, just after 10pm, I had just missed the end of the Brits. My sister, Samantha had text me around 8.15pm, to tell me that Rihanna looked very good. I was looking forward to her performance of Umbrella with the Klaxons. It was different but other highlights including Wow by Kylie and the Mark Ronson Medley.

An extremely busy weekend from start to finish. Tomorrow I continue my guise as Friday Night Terry out in London (There is only one place for me to go really, TGI Fridays in Leicester Square!) I will avoid the temptation to turn the evening into a mission to get back and go out in Reading (no matter what The Admiral and Pav try!) Saturday is pretty much packed. I am up early over to Amersham Audi, haircut (if time allows) and catch the lunchtime kick off between Birmingham and Arsenal. Then off into Henley-on-Thames in the evening for Chris' birthday. Sunday will be a good opportunity to give the car a good clean. (Now I have all the quality Breezy certified gear). All weather permitting of course, but I will get my detail weather update from Pavneet mid-afternoon tomorrow. Sunday afternoon is a bit of a no-brainer, watch the League Cup Final, some piano practice and reading.

Yes, I am reading again. I got a book out from the library a few weeks ago and have been trying to read every night before I go to bed. It is a relatively light (and short) sci-fi story but I wanted something simple to get me back into the habit of reading. Then I can attempt to tackle the beast. My approach will be for some modern contemporary classics before heading for the greats, such as War & Peace.

Right, time to head over to the Beeb's fantastic iPlayer and catch up on Torchwood and then watch episode two of Big Bang Theory over on C4 at 10pm. Thursday nights are quite good all of a sudden.

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Saturday 16th February 2008

I went to see Jumper last night at the Vue, Reading. From the trailer, I was looking forward to the movie but the time of release (mid February) and lack of marketing spots (I saw well actually just noticed one on MTV) gave a clear indication that this was a B-Class (if not C-Class) movie. However, I was only going to make a decision as we left the cinema around 11pm. Pav had tried to tell me how bad the reviews were on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. I was not going to be swayed. Pav even cut and paste a small review (a few lines) into our MSN window on Friday window, I refused to read the paragraph, closing the window and reopening a fresh window. With a tag line, "Anywhere Is Possible", perhaps the movie was building itself up far too much. However, even so, potentially this could have been a fantastic cinematic experience. Yet, I left the cinema quite disappointed. There was no true ending and the plot was too much of a mismatch of ideas. There is no true explanation of how or why these chosen few can teleport to anywhere in the planet. I read somewhere that it a genetic disorder but this was not explored in the movie. Being able to teleport within a set geographical area (i.e. your own country) could be understood but being able to land on top of the Great Sphinx is a bit far fetched but I will let it go. The love story got in the way a little, in my opinion. Suppose that was needed to link the plot, beginning, middle and end. Being able to teleport moving vehicles and in the end part of Milly's flat took the whole concept too far, it was unconvincing. On the posters and television advertising you get the words, "From the producers of The Matrix and the Bourne Identity". Well I have not seen any of the Bourne trilogy (I know, I need to and I will at some point) but felt as if the movie was living off the association to these movie blockbusters. Looking back, it is a movie you watch if it was on Saturday night on the small screen. You wouldn't even bother renting the DVD, let alone going to the cinema like I did. Sure some of the set pieces were fantastic but I wanted more. The double decker bus teleporting into the desert (it sounds so stupid writing that) into Samuel L. Jackson was good to watch but could have been better. Jamie Bell (you will know him as Billy Elliot) was under used and deserved a more significant role, particularly at the end. In conclusion, a half baked idea with some great (but not quite stunning) special effects but let down by a poor plot more than anything else. To truly sum it up, I enjoyed the trailer for Indiana Jones 4 more than the movie, that really does tell the whole story.

Work has got busy, after a relatively quiet period after Christmas. In fact, the next six weeks or so will be crazy with all the projects that are lined up. I am not really looking forward to it but being so busy means the days or rather weeks fly past. I really need to go and update the work log.

I got a few bits and pieces done today but wanted to clean my car (just hoover it really) but as far as I got was parking it on my drive. It was bitterly cold and I had a slight headache. I opted to jump into bed and sleep it off. I got up in time for the FA Cup match but maybe I should have stayed in bed. Moving on, this evening, Nav was online via Google Mail and sent me a link to his housemates' blog. I have been in stitches reading today's post! I bet Nav wished he was back sharing student digs with Paul and myself back in Leicester. There are nightmare housemates, and then there is Mitch. Not many people would write up a note to both house mates at 1am as they could not sleep! Go have a read, it will have you tears I promise you.

It took me around two years but on Friday evening I finally placed an order for my car wash kit. Yes, over the years I have bought various bits and pieces for cleaning my Mini, Punto and now A3. However, on this occasion it was the real deal. Since Pav has been getting into the detailing world (and doing very well, I might add) he has been a constant source of advice and guidance. He has cleaned my car on at least two occasions (not five as he thinks) and carried out two full details (a marathon stretch on the Punto on a Bank Holiday Monday in August 2006) and then a full weekend in May last year (although due to my net behind down, I was not able to blog about it for a few weeks until 8th June.) At the time, Pav had given me a list of items to purchase and even links to sites to order them. Did I order them? Nope, as close as I got a few times, was filling in my basket but not taking the final commitment to buy. The basket was emptied and the Firefox window was closed. I promised myself that I would get everything when I got back from holiday and would start washing the car regularly but more importantly properly. On MSN on Friday afternoon, Pav joked that I would not go through with it, but I did. Particular as I had ordered him a few bits and bobs as well. We did a price comparison between Elite Car Care and Clean Your Car. Well actually it was all Pav, over at his end, before he sent me a screen shot of two baskets from both sites and Elite came out on top. I would place my order when I got home. The job was done. However, there is a comforting thought that if I do make a right mess of the car when I do go to wash it, I have already pre-booked it in with Crystal Detail for the last weekend in March.

Even the people you think you know very well can surprise you. Take for example Pav. I have known him for ten years, this September (when we both started Henley College and he would be consistently late for Business Studies). However I did know he liked Marmite. I hate the stuff but each to their own. For Valentine's Day he received a token gift as you do. Thought it was worth putting up after he sent me the photo via Hotmail.

A little bit of site admin. My old comments system which was powered by Enetation has been disabled. The main reason is the amount of spam I have been receiving on the account since the turn of the year. Secondly I just wanted to cut all ties and move on. There was no point having two comments systems running concurrently. So therefore, any messages left from May 2004 to July 2007 (over three years, a long time in the blogosphere) will no longer be accessible.

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Thursday 14th February 2008

It was a historic day yesterday that will go down in folklore for this blog. After holding a Nectar Card, almost since the day they landed in the second half of 2002, I redeemed my first ever points (2000) in exchange for tickets at Vue, Reading. The facilities to exchange points for tickets at my favourite cinema chain started around a year ago but it has taken me until now to make use of the service. However, you would think with all the technology, they would enable you to use your Nectar card online or at least over the phone (it is 2008 after all). No, I had to go in and get tickets in person. So I made the decision on Tuesday, that I would drive into Reading straight after work on Wednesday evening, get the tickets and head home. There was no other time I could realistically go. I left the office at 5.15pm (promptly as usual) and got into the Oracle car park at 5.55pm. I rushed down to the Riverside, got to the box office to only find them cashing up. The two members of staff in the booth made no attempt to interact with me, but we were directed by a sign to head upstairs to get tickets. I got in the long queue, there was only one till open. A middle aged group of ladies ahead of me were rather annoyed and one wanted to go down stairs and tell those in the booth how busy it was. As she walked passed me, I told her she was wasting her time but nevertheless, she headed downstairs. Within a minute, a second till was opened and half the queue headed in that direction, so I just moved up. I was nervous, with Nectar card in hand and post-it note with seat numbers, film name, date and time. All rather unnecessary but felt better having written everything down after consulting the Vue web site. Eventually I was served, ordered the tickets and gave my preference for seats. I had checked on the site, they were perfect for Screen 4 (the largest screen out of the ten in the complex). My card was scanned and within seconds, 2000 points had gone. Yes, that is the equivalent of £2000 of diesel. I wonder if Pav will appreciate the most expensive cinema tickets known to man!

Let me just put that into perspective for you. Last year, I spent £1,072.32 on diesel and covered approximately 10,790 miles. So as you can see, it would take two years to earn two tickets to the cinema. Not exactly a fantastic reward scheme. However I insist on traveling down to BP West End on the West Wycombe Road, rather than using four petrol stations which are within walking distance (one where I used to work). My naive dream was to one day save enough points to pay for a honeymoon. Sure, I can hear you all now. Andrew, snap out of it!

I am really looking forward to Jumper tomorrow night. It looks excellent and it will be nice to see Hayden post Star Wars (and even Samuel L. Jackson for that matter). The tickets are booked for 9pm, so it will be early dinner for me and out the door around 8pm. I can catch up on the goings on in Albert Square via the fantastic iPlayer. Please please no one disconnect the router!

A rather strange working week I have to say. On Monday, I was informed by my boss to head over to London for an exhibition. Not a problem, was I really going to say no? I booked myself in for the Tuesday. Earls Court, when was I last here? Oh yeah, November 2006 and the five hour wait to get into the World Music Awards. However, we will get to the MJ related items a bit later in this post. I got to the show at 10.30am, an hour after it kicked off. It was quiet busy but very few stands relating to my industry and job. I needed to make this a military operation, so at the back by the coffee shops, I decided to get out the official guide, go to the company guide at the back and head to a section that related. Eight companies, I looked at the stand locations and consulted the maps. I would go to each of them in turn and see if they had anything to offer, get any material and move onto the next. This worked for two hours and then I decided to make a move. It was not as if I did not have loads of work to do in my normal job. As I headed back, on the tube train (on the District Line) I considered calling Ricki and seeing if she wanted to meet up for lunch. However, I only had my work mobile with me, so it would be a case of calling 118118 and also trying to remember the name of the company she works for. I opted to leave that option, grab a sandwich from M&S at Marylebone and catch the next train home. From Wycombe bus station, I caught the 100 (Park & Ride service) back home. However, I had not taken my keys with me (under the stupid assumption that someone would be home). When no-one answered the phone when I called, I realised I would have to wait for my Mum. It was 2.35pm, I had a bit of a wait until 3pm. Never mind, plug in my Zen, take a seat on the small brick wall (most people forget it is there when reserving their cars onto our drive). A couple of hours of working from 'home' and catching up with my boss on the telephone. Then around 5pm, I decided to get ready. The taxi was picking me up at 6pm. Oh, did I forget to mention? Curry with clients. I know, on a school night but it is a hard life, trust me. This hospitality lark.

Well I know for next time. Not to pre-order any album from Amazon. But in their credit, the item was dispatched on Sunday (10th) and I was given an estimated delivery date of 16th February. This would not have been a major problem, but I had given my work address for delivery. So you can imagine my surprise this morning, when I was handed the now familiar cardboard packaging. Yes! I finally owned the biggest selling album of all time.

I would blast the new remixes and some of the original classics on the way home. However I was most looking forward to the Motown 25 performance of Billie Jean. All of them have now been ripped but need to sort out a further conversion so I can place onto my Zen but that is a problem for the weekend. I listened to the remixes and they are good but not awe inspiring like the original album. Just hearing Vincent Price on Thriller sent chills down my spine as I drove home with the volume quite high. I am glad I did not buy the 2001 remastered version or the original for that matter. It definitely has been worth the wait. Rumours are the album will be number one by the weekend after holding number four spot mid-week.

I get several e-mails from Arsenal Football Club every week: newsletter, match verdicts from the gaffer and ticket information. However the e-mail this afternoon was strange. A new Support Centre on the web site. So, I headed over to check it out. A glorified FAQ if you asked me but never the less an improvement of some description. I clicked on Membership and was curious about one question, "When can I expect my Season Ticket, I am on the waiting list?". I was re-directed to the Arsenal Membership Box Office. Here I was shocked to discover the due date for my season ticket. Do remember I am 33001 on the waiting list.

Yes, in the summer of 2054, I will be the very young age of 72. If I last that long or climate change doesn't get to us first. However, I cannot leave a blog post on such a negative dark thought. I am looking forward to a busy weekend, loads to get done and it all kicks off with Jumper tomorrow night. Before then, I am off to go and watch new comedy Big Bang Theory on Channel 4.

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Saturday 9th February 2008

Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through these missions. The mission itself is at times too crazy to put into words but then, soon after the event (in this case around twelve hours) I have to jump on the computer, upload the photos to my FlickR account and begin the difficult task of writing up my adventures for the world to read (enjoy or cringe, depending on your point of few). Let me pick up the story from my last post, yesterday lunchtime.

I had planned to leave home around 3pm but I left nearly half an hour earlier. In fact it was exactly 14:31 as I took these photos (above) of the sun shining across the Cressex Link. Whenever I normally go to London, it is always a mad rush, particularly to go to Arsenal matches so I was glad time was on my side for a change and I could relax. I got to High Wycombe station and got my ticket from the FastTicket machine and checked the train times on the computer screen. I had missed a train which had left literally a few seconds before. The next train was at 14:56, I had plenty of time. As I got across to platform three I realised it was the non-stop direct service to Marylebone. Result! Just as I boarded the train there was a buzzing coming from my bag. A work colleague calling, obviously not realising I was officially on holiday. I explained I would call them back when I got off the train. I settled down into my seat and put the volume up on the Zen. The sun was shinning through the windows, it was a beautiful winter afternoon. I smiled as we cross the M25 and saw the traffic at standstill heading clockwise. When we got into London around d 15:25 and I called my colleague and dealt with her query. Then rather than opted to jump on the tube, I decided to walk to Oxford Street and browse. I had plenty of time to kill. Rikki doesn't finish work until 6pm and was going to try and get out fifteen minutes. I went into HMV to take a look around and also tried a few phone shops to see if could get a case for my newly acquired work mobile (Nokia N70) No luck, but the phone is now three years old!

I walked down Regent Street, avoiding going into the Apple Store and made my way down to Piccadilly Circus. I looked back to my previous Friday night when had been stick here for nearly twenty minutes in the rush hour. I took a few photographs. On one of the neon signs was a rolling advert for the BBC iPlayer. Then I realised that I would need to login at some point over the weekend to catch up on the episode from 8pm on Friday. I wondered what to do, and thought I would head across the road to Leicester Square, from here I walked down to the National Gallery and down the steps onto Trafalgar Square. Here I sat down and put my Zen back on. I listened to No Air several times, while watching a Boeing 747 flying across in the distant blue sky. It was starting to get dark, with the sun quite close to kissing the horizon. Just like when I was last here, there was an incident. Somebody had collapsed and a paramedic on a bike (para biker?) came onto the square, closely followed by an ambulance. There was quite a crowd gathered but I was in a different world, listening to my music and letting the day pass me by.

It was getting dark and the clock was ticking, I decided to head back on myself. I was not in a rush, so walked at a slow place taking in as much as I could. The ambulance was pulling away as I made my up across and onto Leicester Square. I was going to Waterstones. I thought I could take a look at a few books while waiting for Rikki. Not sure why I headed for the Career advice section but at 17:46, Rikki called to say she was downstairs and we headed down to Bond Street. We would get something to eat when we got to the O2. IT was nice to catch up, considering the last time I had seen her was at the Mobo Awards back in September. The trip on the tube was relatively quiet for a Friday evening pushing 6pm. Once we got to North Greenwich, there was a strange sense of deja vu. Although we were in more casual clothes and there were far less people about. As we entered the dome, I noticed quite a lot of Asian people about, many ladies in bright saris. There was obviously some function going on. As we walked passed the closed arena we saw the venue, it was Indigo. (Some digging around the internet, thanks to Google reveals all. We headed down the main street (if you can call it that, it is actually called Millennium Way) pass the ice rink and tried to decide on which restaurant to go to. In the end we opted for Zizzi. Mainly because it was not too busy and we would get served in time before heading down to the show.

I had read some of the reviews but even so it is not until you see the show for yourself that you can make your own opinion. I can only describe the show has magnificent. Our seats were in block G, in the second row so we had a perfect view of the show circle, almost directly central. There was a band placed above the main curtain. The show started at 8pm and the first half lasted an hour. The acts came thick and fast and the time flew by without you really noticing. I was going to go into details of the acts but I cannot do them justice with words on a web page. To truly get an idea of the colour, magic and wonder of this unique circus you need to head over to the official web site and watch the short video clip on there. There were two highlights for me, in the first half the two human pyramids which collapse into each other. In the second half there was the the young woman who is so flexible she is able to twist herself around her own body. Does that make sense? It probably doesn't which makes it even more amazing. The show ending at 10.30pm exactly and how my mission to get to Maidenhead could begin. I said goodbye to Rikki at the top of the escalator and then headed down to platform three. I had my Zen on and was listening to, yes you've guessed it No Air. I checked the time on the platform clock, 22:42. There were many commuters at the platform, so I made way down to a quiet section and got on the train. I took a seat and looked up. I smiled at the advertising board and had to take a photograph, just for fun. Perhaps I can send it as a MMS to my friend later. Now it was a case of every second counts. I got to Baker Street, switched over to the Bakerloo line (for one stop only) to get to Marylebone. Here, like many times before I ran all the way back up to the station and checked the board. The next train didn't leave for a good fifteen minutes. It was 23:15. At this rate, I would most likely get to Wycombe after the witching hour and have to dash over to Maidenhead to catch the closing aspect of DJ Breezy's set. I was still keen to do this, to prove my friends wrong and more importantly improve my ranking (at least by two) with the Admiral. I took a window seat and relaxed a little. I listened to my Zen as the minutes ticked passed before the train departed. I text Pav, but rather than send the full detailed text I wanted to, I accidentally hit sent after only starting my SMS with "At Marylebone". I completed the text and decided to send it to Charlie because he would be there and actually check his phone, whereas Pav would be busy on the decks entertaining the crowd. (I would be proved wrong later!) After spending most of the day listening to music, I opted to watch some music videos instead. It was here I realised I had called the national anthem of the beloved US of A, as "Stars & Stripes" instead of "The Star Spangled Banner". In any case, due to the way mpeg recorded by my TV card is played back in Windows Media Player, the encoding to WMV was skipping, so I heard only one third of the song. :( Never mind, I would fix that wrong tomorrow. As we got to Gerrards Cross, I text my Dad to arrange for him to pick me up. He called me back a few minutes later, he was out in London and I would have to get a taxi home, however my car was still at home. The mission was still on but the journey via taxi would cost me time as well as money. As the train I was on was heading to Aylesbury it was stopping at every station and resulted in a journey time of forty-five minutes. I got to Wycombe at quarter past midnight, headed for a taxi and directed him the best way home. As he pulled into the bus stop on the Cressex Link, he struggled to change my £20 note, so I just got him to sort out change to the nearest pound. I did not have the time to wait and quibble over eighty-five pence. I got out the taxi and ran the way home, got through the door, dumped my bag in my room, grabbed my car keys and headed back out onto the radio.

The A404 was clear as I was able to make excellent time before getting into Maidenhead itself. There were road works on the main road and more around the corner but I got around and parked my car in the car park just up the road from Phatz Bar. I noted the time on my car park ticket, 0:44. Just over two hours ago I was leaving the O2 in Central London and here I was in Maidenhead ready (as much as I could be) for some Trance Planet. I went across and was stopped by the bouncer and asked for three pound entry fee. (I had always come before when it was free to get in). I headed upstairs (even downstairs was playing the urban, more suited to my music tastes. As I came through to the room, I saw it was quite busy. However I did not see all my friends I had expected. I headed straight for the DJ booth and looked at Pav while checking the time on my watch. His response was, "Terry - you made it!". I headed to the bar to get a drink and saw that Andy & Mel were at the front dancing and they gave me a wave. Mel left about fifteen minutes later and then Andy & I headed towards the front of the dance floor. Paul appeared, a little worse for wear with wine glass in hand, leather jacket on with very fashionable scarf. His brother was there also, along with Eddie. Pav was playing some great tunes and then shouted to me, that the next song was for me. We had discussed this late on Wednesday evening on MSN. He asked me to request a song to be played when I arrived. I had suggested something fitting like Love Inc. - Superstar but this was far too commercial and would wreck his set if played. It was too "dangerous" I was told and understood. He then responded with, "the most commercial im going is a remix of filo & peri anthem". I was happy with this choice as I had downloaded the song a while back and played it a few times in the car. This was the song he played now. Fantastic! It got the crowd going and the room filled up once again. However, after another half hour my energy levels were dropping and I really needed to head home to my bed.

I said goodbye to Pav and explained that I bet he didn't think I was going to make it. I said goodbye to Andy and Paul before heading out the door. There was a large police presence standing opposite Chicago's for some reason. I walked back to my car, put the car in the payment machine, even though there was no need as the car park is free after midnight, the barriers are open. I checked the time on my ticket and tried to take a photo with my N73 before leaving but the flash was over exposing the image. Never mind, I would take another when I was home over the weekend. This must be some record somewhere. Not just if you take into account all the events of the evening but the fact that I was out clubbing for less than an hour. The time stamps on my ticket do not lie.

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Friday 8th February 2008

My weekend started at midday, as I got into my car to go home. Instead of putting on a CD, I switched over to the radio, KISS100 were playing Good Life by Kanye West. I put on my sunglasses, reversed out of my spot and sped off out of the car park. Weekend here I come! However the radio reception started to deteriorate (I do work in the sticks) so I switched to the CD to find some ideal Friday tunes! As I pulled up on my street, I switched over to the radio again and thought I would just check out what stations were playing before packing away my things and heading into the house. I switched to Time106 (which is on memory slot 6) on my head unit. I recognised the voice, but needed the chorus to kick in. It was of course, Jordin Sparks with her current single, "Tattoo".

Rather strange and rare for me to be posting on a Friday lunchtime, rather than the usual early hours of Saturday morning. I took half day holiday today at quite short notice (only really decided on Monday) to take advantage of my friend's offer. Free tickets to Africa! Africa! at the O2, cannot be turned down, not under any circumstances. I am heading off into London village in two hours time, just a few errands to run at home before getting ready and jumping on the park and ride bus.

However my trip back into London tomorrow evening has been postponed for the time being at least. One of Harp's best friend's could not make it so, it has to be moved to another weekend. When I do not know but I have a feeling it will clash with something else in my social diary. Oh well, never mind. The big question everyone will be asking as they read this on Friday evening (after getting in from work) is will Terry be able to make it to Phatz Bar in Maidenhead later to continue in his new guise as Friday Night Terry?

I need to discuss the England match, very briefly. I know I could have been there, with Chris watching David Beckham get his 100th cap (the fireworks, the lap of honour at full time). However as I explained to Williams, it was not a certainty that the LA Galaxy midfielder would feature. I was proved right by Capello. (Even though Chris did enter a lottery at work (on Tuesday) to win two tickets but the likely hood of him winning was low as it was for every Pepiso employee.) Suppose there are some benefits of working for an official sponsor of Wembley. Right the match, England started very nervous and I was surprised by the starting eleven. Owen on the bench (an unused sub we would later discover). When did Jemain Jenas suddenly become World Class? There were great flashes of greatness but as a team, we did not play at well. Rooney up on his own just did not work! Not sure with the thinking here from the Italian but we were only playing the mighty Swiss on home soil. England could have been a little more adventurous in their formation which would have been more entertaining to watch. Hopefully Fabio is under no illusion of the hard work that lies ahead.

Finally in other news, my battle or rather war with Pav's FTP server continues.

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Wednesday 6th February 2008

Life is okay, all things considered. Sometimes I do not appreciate the way things are and how great things actually can be. So much has happened in the past few weeks but I am trying to remain positive and realising that those things I can change, I will and everything else can just wait. Things are going to be difficult, tough and hard but we shall see it through, like we always do.

An extremely packed weekend coming up. In fact my weekend starts from Thursday night. Clive comes over for a very early birthday meal. Friday I am off to the O2 to see Afrika!Afrika! with one of my friends who was able to blag a pair of free tickets. I may pop over to Maidenhead for Trance Planet at Phatz Bar to continue in my new guise as Friday Night Terry (depends on how tired I am). Then Saturday, big scary grown up meeting at midday and off back into London for my friend Harp's birthday party. Not seen her in nearly four years (since I left Uni) so it will be good to catch up. Doubt I will be staying up partying in the CC club until the small hours though. I am getting to old for this...

I have a love hate relationship with Pav's home FTP server. It has come to the point now that Pav finds the whole affair quite funny. So funny in fact that he has changed the prompt when I login with my account, under the name of "Terry".

With other people downloading off the server or his Dad surfing some graphics intensive web site the transfer rate dips to a low 9kbit/s. Yes, it is as if I was back in the good days of the 56k modem. At this rate a 350meg file would take over nine and half hours to download, longer than an average working day. Eventually Pav hits a switch or does something and the transfer rate jumps up ten times to over 90kbit/s, then the file can be downloaded within the hour. We go through this ritual every week, I think my account should get precedence but Pav is quite diplomatic about it, "Share and Share Alike!". Before I would just let my FTP client (FileZilla) just continue to crawl without breaking the transfer rate into double figures. However it was far too painful, particularly as it would take over eleven minutes to download just one percent. I would pause the download (even though it perhaps be quicker to start a fresh once all other users had logged off Pav's FTP and he had blocked port 80 on the Sky router to stop any of his users at home accessing the web. Of course, eventually I get up to full speed and download the file, it is just a struggle. As Pav put it on MSN yesterday, "Terry 1 FTP 0" but it is a score line that is bound to change over time.

I thought I would watch the Super Bowl for the first time in my life on Sunday evening. I got as far as watching the National Anthem (my favourite!) sung by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. A great rendition and I would go as far to say she did a better job than Miss B. Knowles four years ago at Super Bowl XXXVIII. (Which is more famous for a wardrobe malfunction!) We will get back to the wonderful Sparks later. Firstly the game that is American Football. I was too tired to stay up and watch on BBC2, but opted to listen to live commentary on Radio Five Live as I got into bed. As I tried to explain to Chris via e-mail on Monday, I think it is an organised sport that I will never learn to understand let alone love. I think I will stick to the beautiful game (soccer!) It was all going according to the script as I drifted off to sleep. The Patriots were in the lead, or so I could make out. Even with British voices doing the commentary, some of the play was difficult to comprehend. By the time I found out the final score (when I logged onto my laptop at work and opened Fire Fox on Monday morning!) Seems like I missed out on a dramatic final quarter. But then again, how can I feel so passionate about such a sport? I give the Americans credit where it is due. No other country on this rock, or in this universe for that matter could put on the 'greatest' show on Earth. Even I get dazed by all the razzmatazz.

We must return to Miss Sparks. She was fantastic and although my sisters watch American Idol, I have never caught the show. So the name, face and more importantly voice were all unfamiliar. After a fantastic retention to a worldwide audience into the billions, I thought it only fair to check out the back catalogue from this young lady. On her official web site, I caught the video to Tattoo. However switching over to Lime Wire, I just entered her name and downloaded a few tracks which appeared. The first to appear was a duet with Chris Brown, "No Air". What can I say? The amazing element of the song, is not the vocals (which are absolutely outstanding, Brown and Sparks combine fabulously) it is the piano in the background. Maybe one day I will be able to play that tune. Being British, I should really be supporting and fighting the cause of one of my own. Leona Lewis is fantastic and her album is great but you can see or at least feel that she has limits to her powers. However judging Miss Sparks on just this single track, I have to say that she is from a different planet. Excuse me while I go and 'obtain' some more of her music and amazing voice. Meanwhile, I will let you judge for yourself. The established superstar up against the reality television winner. Just eighteen days until the video to No Air will be released, I cannot wait!

Tell Me How I'm Supposed To Breathe With No Air
Can't Live, Can't Breathe With No Air
It's How I Feel Whenever You Ain't There
It's No Air, No Air
Got Me Out Here In The Water So Deep
Tell Me How You Gon' Be Without Me
If You Ain't Here, I Just Can't Breathe
It's No Air, No Air

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Saturday 2nd February 2008

Second month of 2008 and my second visit to a super club in London. If you recall, I went to Fabric back in late March (on the night we switched to British Summer Time, so we lost an hour of clubbing!). However, I have to report that Turnmills is a much better venue. It has more character and generally a better vibe. I suppose I better give the background. Back in mid September, Eddie, Paul and Pav played at the central London venue but I did not go. It was the week I had been to the Mobo awards and I was pretty much partied out. However, looking back I regret not going because everyone else that went (everybody apart from me!) had a great time. Charlie had made a last minute decision to drive (around 8pm on the night) and given a few people a lift. He could easily have swung by to pick me up. Never mind, I was eager to make up for this mistake and go at the next available opportunity. Particularly as the club closes at Easter to become offices. So effectively this was my first and last trip to Turnmills. The story begins as most of them do, with an Event posted on Facebook and then a thread (or rather group message) being sent around asking who was going and how they were getting down there. I was hoping to bag a lift from either Kev or Charlie but in the end I opted to drive myself. I only made the decision to go on Wednesday evening and booked my name onto the guest list with Paul on the night. We were going, it was just a case of persuading Pav to come out. Charlie and myself tried in a 3-way MSN conversation but Pav was completely silent. We later learned he had been in the garage at the time, polishing the M3. In the end, he decided to come, even though he had been there done it and got the t-shirt. I knew it would not have been the same experience without him there.

There is no point having nice things if you cannot share them with your friends. Tonight was a great opportunity to have a great and perhaps cosy (for those in the back) journey into London. Obviously in an ideal world I would have taken the 307 but my sisters were off to Nottingham for a birthday. So they were out the door straight after their swimming lesson at 7.30pm. I didn't mind going in my car, but originally it was just giving Charlie and Annie a lift. Fine no problems. I still had space in the car for another and we would ride comfortably but then Pav requested a lift on MSN and I was happy for him and Emily to come along but explained that I was already taking Charlie and Annie. No problems then, so it was just a case of making sure Pav was going to come. By Friday afternoon (after I came out my training session) the probability had risen to 83.5%. It was looking very positive.

I like having to rush around at home before going out, it is a bit of a buzz. Ironically I could have got home around 4pm, as my boss said I could go home early but as much as I wanted to take up the offer, I could not. My Dad was giving me a lift and would not be there until 5.15pm to collect me. I had the option to call but opted against it and get some bits and pieces cleared up before the end of the work. However as usual, the productivity on a Friday afternoon is relatively low in any case. On the way home I check the tyre pressures on the A3, they were low as it had been a few weeks since I had checked them last I think. Then my Dad asked if I could give my sisters a lift down the road to their swimming lesson and then check the tyre pressures on the 307. It was a good thing I did this, the pressures were very low. No wonder it has been drinking petrol in the last few days. Around 7pm, I jumped into the shower, got ready and then had some food, watched Eastenders and then grabbed my things and headed out the door. First stop Woodley, followed by Emmer Green, then the A329(M) -> M4 East bound to London Village. The journey was a great laugh.

Emily was in the passenger seat and in-charge of the audio. I only had my Ministry Of Sounds Anthems (1998 - 2008) album, but it was hard to find a song we all wanted to listen to. Em is like me, an album skipper and after the few seconds it takes for the Alpine unit to display the song and artist, she would hit the next button. There were quite a few crazy moments, the first was as we got to the main roundabout before getting onto the A329(M). A silver Vauxhall Meriva had been crawling ahead of me but got out of the way to go onto the A4 so I put my foot down and swung around the roundabout a high speed, just as we had decided to listen to Faithless - God Is A DJ. There were shouts at the back from Charlie, "Go Terry!".

We were on our way, it was around 9.30pm and our ETA (from TomTom) was around an hour or so. However, a call of nature stop at Hyde Park for Charlie and a few wrong turns meant it was more around 11pm that we parked up behind the club and walked down to The Castle to meet the rest of the gang. The other highlight of the drive had been driving past the Natural History Museum (Mr. Tull acting as the tour guide) and giving way to a beautiful silver Ferrari 599 GTB. You always see the best cars in London! We never got into the pub. We were in the long queue for the cash point and then thought it was best to head up and queue at Turnmills. It had taken nearly forty-five minutes to get in last time. We got into the guest queue and once we reached the man at the end of the gate, told him which list we were on and were handed playing cards with Portugal on the back. I was given the 2 of Clubs. We then went through, were padded down by security and got to the till, we had to hand over our playing card and money to get our ticket and our hand was stamped. We were in.

Once inside I could understand the appeal of the place. The decor was quite retro, there was bright lighting. We head down into the club and made our way to the back to the cloak room. There was a long queue. After handing in our jackets we headed to the bar before finding the room Paul would be playing at around 3am. Then we headed to the main room, it was slowly building up. I need to escape my dress sense for the evening, particularly if you head over to FlickR to look at the small FlickR set. Our friend Nige (London Nige, as he is more affectionately called as we already have another local friend called Nige) wears tank tops. So we thought one night out we would all turn up in tank tops just to rub him up the wrong way. Just as a choke I wore one last night but was aiming on leaving it in the car. However everyone else (mainly Annie) thought it looked quite good, so I kept it on. Just meant I got some rather funny looks in the club, particularly while queuing for cloak room but I did not care. Charlie then couldn't help himself and had to try it on, so did Pav and even Annie! It kept me warm but as the place got rammed, it was getting quite hot. We spent most of the evening in The Crescendo room (2) waiting for Paul's slot to start (which was 3am). The DJ before him was having to use some old skool tracks to resurrect his set. Paul had given Pav his camera and he took a few photos and video footage at the start of his set. We stayed for a while but then moved to the main room. Charlie and Annie were around the corner. It was really busy now with hardly any space to stand, let alone dance. A bouncer went by and bumped into Annie. Charlie went and tapped him on the shoulder and told him to watch it (I don't think Charlie realised he was part of security). For a split second I thought he was about to be thrown out but he just wanted a word with the Admiral and walked down to the main corridor just outside. He he gave some lecture on standing in the way and that he was not able to get past. We decided, perhaps this was the right time to call it a night. It was around 3.30am. Pav, Charlie and Annie went to get the jackets as I said goodbye to Andy a few other friends. We then got into the car and headed on the long drive home (well for me, as there were two drop offs in Emmer Green and Woodley, respectively). I pulled up onto my drive at 5.30am. Wooo hooo! Another rock and roll weekend and it was only just getting started.

I must talk about music. I was speaking to my best mate Dave on MSN the other day and he recommended an album to download. It was not just a casual recommendation. It was a fully fledged endorsement, "j holiday is the best r&b album i've heard in ages." A direct quote from the MSN chat log. So I took the plunge and obtain the full album and I must say on first listen it is very good. I had seen the video for Bed but never really heard the song in full. J does have a fantastic voice and I highly recommend you buy the album too, if you are a fan of smooth r'n'b numbers. Another song I have played to death recently is Walk Away by Paula DeAnda. I cannot believe the song is nearly two years old but I suppose the record label has now started the plans for global domination after success locally in the States. She has a great voice and her songs are very good. I have got the videos for Doing Too Much and Walk Away on my Zen now. I think with both albums, I need to put them onto an MP3 CD and listen to them in the car for the next few weeks and find the gems on the albums away from the songs released as lead singles.

I cannot end my discussion about music without talking about the King! His first single since November 2003 is released on Monday. Sure it is a reworking of a previous hit but it is something and the start of the comeback. I pre-ordered Thriller 25 on 16th January and it should be delivered week commencing 11th February at work! I have never owned the original album or the 2001 remaster. Even though I have placed them on my Christmas list for many years, it is one album from solo years that is missing from my CD collection. I am most looking forward to the DVD of the Billie Jean performance from Motown 25. There are so many rumours going around at the moment, there is quite a buzz in the fan community. Although as my main source, the MJ News Online forum has closed it's doors I am looking to find a new place to get all my MJ news and gossip. A residency at The O2? Performance at half time during the Super Bowl XLII tomorrow night and even a group performance of a classic track from Thriller at the Grammy's (which is presented by his former mentor Quincy Jones). So much to look forward to, oh and did I mention a new album to drop in the late Summer / early Autumn?

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Saturday 26th January 2008

It took a long time, over two weeks but I have written up the ski holiday blog. However, that does not mean my work ends. No. I have to write up a few other events that have happened since then. May I rewind the clock to Saturday 18th January. My first Saturday after my holiday and the annual dyno day with the great guys from E36 Coupe forum. Pav originally was going to get to mine for 8.45 but it was just after 9am he got here. He pulled up on my drive followed by 2 other M3 drivers. Great, my neighbours must of thought it was some joy riders out early for the weekend cruise. Just like the line at the end of my favourite movie trilogy, Pav said, "I need fuel!". More specifically, he wanted V-Power, so we headed to Shell Cressex, where I once use to work. We filled up or rather in Pav's case half a tank and headed back towards Aylesbury, with an ETA of 10am. Well we were on track of meeting this until Pav took a wrong turn on the penultimate roundabout (instead of turning right, he went straight on) and we headed up going through a housing estate. Eventually we got back on track and we told Rob and Matt that we were giving the car a good run. We arrived at DSA with the first car just coming off the rollers. We were late, as usual but it was by now expected. Particularly as it was my third year and Pav even missed the main road to the garage in the industrial park. Schoolboy error. We parked up and met up with the rest of the lads and booked our cars in. Then after watching for a little while we headed over to Aylesbury Tuck (the local greasy spoon) for breakfast. Then it was back to the action. Pav was quite late in the line up, moving from 8th to 10th but he did eventually get on. I am now a veteran of this fixture and there are the usual faces and plenty of new people with some great cars. I have to admit that as the lineup was not as large as previous years, my photographs are below par, but nevertheless they have been uploaded to FlickR.

This year I also recorded three videos (rather than just one last time around) and I have uploaded them all to YouTube. The best by far has to be Yat's M3 Evo. My video shows the computer screen but Pav has the corresponding video which shows the blue car.

The adventure begins during lunch at The Charter. It has had renovated since our last visit almost exactly a year ago. We got there after the rest of the gang, so they were on a big table at the back having a laugh. A good bunch of lad's but most of the jokes were at the expense of Yat. It was around 3pm, when we decided to make a move. I had got a phone call from Chris at Berkshire Car Sounds a little earlier. They were struggling and would not be able to drop the car off back to me in Wycombe. Pav had already offered to drop me off at their showroom, so I took up the offer and explained to Chris I would get over for 4pm. I was being over optimistic. We eventually left around 3.30pm and it was seriously a race against the clock! Only after Pav had taken a photograph of the Beemers parked together. He had in fact got out of the pub before we ordered food to move his M3 around with the rest of the gang, just for the photo opportunity. Some people would call that a bit sad and waste of petrol! As we left, Pav decided to switch from the fastest route to the shortest on his TomTom Navigator. The time difference between the two routes was marginal but we opted for the shorter route. It would take us cross country but meant I would be in Reading perhaps just in time. As we headed out of Aylesbury, we found ourselves being followed by a marked police car (Vauxhall Astra). Pav missed the turning off the roundabout and we headed up going around about half a mile to the next round about and going back on ourselves. Only then did we lose the local Thames Valley constabulary. Back on track we were heading for Reading and the ETA was being smashed. However, "Houston, we have a problem!". Pav needed to stop for a toilet break. He had tried hard to hold it but it was too late. He dumped the car on the verge of a country road. While he was outside, I called Chris at Berkshire Car Sounds to explain it would be tight for me to get there for 4pm. He was quite relaxed and asked if I could get there as close to 4.30pm as possible. They were still working on my car. I could relax a little but we still needed to get across to the other side of the county and then head to Reading.

As you can see from the map, selecting the shortest route on the TomTom, took us on the country roads up towards Great Missenden and then into Wycombe. I directed Pav around the town onto the A40 and back up towards Handy Cross and the by-pass. Here on the open road, Pav was able to open it up and pick up a good speed and the ETA came crashing down. Once onto the M4 our average speed increased further, I was going to make it just. Just after 4.30pm, Pav dropped me outside the shop. I walked in and waited for Chris to appear. They were just finishing my car off and would not be long. It was over an hour before I left. While I had been waiting Charlie had called, wondering what time I would over. I explained where I was and that I hoped to get home, get some food before heading back to his flat. This was rather silly considering I was only a few minutes away, so there was a change of plan. I would head straight over, grab some food with him and Annie and spend the evening filling in the stories from the ski holiday, all while browsing through my photos on FlickR. It made a change from a big evening and although I had been given the option to crash on the sofa, I did not really want to intrude so around 10pm headed back home. It was nice to catch up with them both. I was sent away with a gift. A DVD of 40 Year Old Virgin, which I tried to watch the following day, on Sunday evening but there was some problem with the audio levels with the soundtrack on a higher level than the film audio so it was not really watchable (although perhaps I am just showing my age).

My car is great now. I can listen to KISS, Radio 1, Five Live and when my Dad drives the car he can listen to his beloved Radio 2. The sub woofer has been replaced and I have put my old Pioneer Sub onto eBay. The boot build has been tided and hidden, so effectively the boot space can be used again, with no worry of damaging the amps. The difference in the sound, particularly the bass is amazing. The bottle neck now is the quality of the MP3s, as you can notice low bit rate songs and those that not been ripped directly from a CD. Oh well, at least I can do something about that I keep searching for only high quality files.

On the 16th January I got a message on my FlickR account. A company was requesting permission to use one of my photos. No problem there. It was for the Schmap Madrid Guide and the photograph in question was of the Chevy '59 Mash Up in the foyer of the Audoritium Hotel.

Ten days later on 26th, I received confirmation that my photograph was now displayed on their guide, including full credit with my name (and a link back to the FlickR page). There is the hotel or some widget that can be added to a blog if you are inclined to add such a thing.

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Wednesday 23rd January 2008

I hate losing, just like every football fan. Defeat against arch rivals Spurs leaves more of a bitter taste in the mouth than defeat against Middlesborough in the league. I am getting slightly ahead of myself. The story begins, as they all do at the beginning. I was looking forward to the evening. Particularly as we had agreed while in Kitzbühel, at the final whistle of the first leg to get together for the return leg. I had a nightmare journey into the office. If any of you are on my Face Book, you would have noticed my status change to "Andrew has just taken 40 minutes to travel less than quarter of a mile". I got into my car just after 7.30am. I was still stuck in traffic at 8.16am, when I took this photograph.

Traffic does not bother me, as long as I have my music, I am fine. I actually bumped (not literally) into an old school friend Imran in his Peugeot 306 on the roundabout. He had left his house earlier than me and had to be in Essex for 9am. I think the drivers around me must have been shocked or at least surprised to see me open my passenger side window and start having a casual conversation with another driver. We both agreed we had never seen it this bad and we had both been stuck in some crazy hell raisers (mainly on the rush hour open that before sunrise). I explained that as I only worked down the road, I could never really ever be late but called the office in any case to let them know where I was. Even though I do not have to be in until around 8.45am.

The day dragged a little but I expected that. I tried my best to not think about the match and focus on work. Of course around 4pm, my MD came over to discuss team news (from the Spurs web site) and I cross referenced this against the BBC Sports pages. He was sure Arsene would field a strong side and a few kids, but I could not see Fabregas listed in the squad. We would find out for sure in a few hours time. I got home, had some food, had a shower, got changed and was out the door around 6.30pm. The collection time for Mr. Fox was 7.15pm, although he text me at 6.56pm, "Ready anytime Teg! Let's Go!". I was at the BP petrol station around the corner, getting some cash and mints. Good I had left early, I parked up around the corner from his house and knocked on his door. I was greeted by his Dad. I had to remember to use his real name and not stupid nicknames now, "I'm here to pick up Thomas!". Foxy was at the top of the stairs putting on his shoes but seeing me in my Arsenal top decided to put on his vintage Spurs top, so I had to wait. We did eventually leave the house, once he had gone back upstairs to get his keys. I was glad that this pick up was a very rare occurrence. We jumped into the car and headed into town. It was now I was informed of the fringe benefits of rolling with the T. He had a pass for the Oracle car park so parking would be free of charge. Fantastic. Only a saving of £2.70 odd but a saving nonetheless. We parked the car and headed over to the Walkabout. Pav & Emily were waiting outside. Kev was on his way, as was Geoff with some friends. We found a nice spot underneath one of the screens to catch the game. On the adjacent screen they were showing Sudan versus Zambia from Group C. Geoff commented that one of the coaches looked like Danny Glover. I laughed in agreement. This was the build up to the game, some twenty, twenty five minutes to go. I had a feeling inside that this was not going to be my night. I just sensed something, call it a gut instinct if you will. When Spurs took the lead so early and unlocked our defence so well, I knew the writing was on the wall. Even at two nil, I thought Arsenal might get it together and claw it back and then finish them or in worse case scenario hold out for extra time and win on the away goals rule. It was not to be. It is difficult to describe what unfolded on the television screen in front of me and the humiliation I suffered in the Walkabout.

I was not to know that the place was over 90% Tottenham. They went crazy, particularly on the third goal. Arsenal were poor, extremely poor. Fabregas was ordinary, Adebayor and Eduardo came on too late and while we have chased games on a number of occasions this season, this was a bridge too far. I think their first goal came far too early. It knocked our confidence and the heads dropped. A good match review with some common sense perspective is over at The Cannon. I just wanted to get our of there but it was to get worse. The 5th killer goal at the death sent the pub into up roar, they were dancing around, many shouting and laughing in my face. The grin on the t_dogg's face was wider than the English Channel. He was loving it. At full time we headed back to the car, Foxy singing most of the way to the car. When we got back into the car, we were going to listen to Radio Five Live but t_dogg decided to put the Ministry Of Sound Anthems CD back on, Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness. As I got closer to his house, he was dancing making the score out of his hands and waving them in my direction. Thank you very much. I was looking forward to getting him out of my car. I drove home listening to music, preferring not to listen to Spurs fans calling the Beeb. Then I realised I had not received a text from my MD. This could only mean big humiliation for me tomorrow morning. Oh dear!

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Day 5 - Tuesday 8th January

I got up late, very late in fact and was eating breakfast with Geoff at ten past 9. I got ready and rushed across to ski school. I found Duncan and was moved (once again) to Tony's group (along with Heather). We walked down to the bus stop via back route behind the main ski school offices. Here we waited a few minutes for the 'Ring Bus' which would take us to the other side of town to the Kitzbühel Horn. The journey was about ten minutes and the bus was packed (as it is for all journeys most of the day). I took my gloves off to put my lift pass inside the my left jacket pocket (for ease of use when approaching the barriers). Tony noticed the plaster on my fingers and asked if I had cut them by man handling my skis. No I replied, thinking it was best not to explain the real reason. Once we got off the bus, it was a short walk around to the ski lift. Tony explained how to get on and off the gondola and where to place our skis. This was an experience for me, my first ever venture onto such a vehicle. It might sound like nothing, but remember I never even considered going skiing so to get to this stage and go up into the mountain for the first time, you can appreciate the big leap of faith. The views were spectacular, particularly with the bright sunshine. I also had my camera with me for the first time, so was hoping to get some good pictures, even if that was only during lunchtime.

At the end of the ski lift, we got off went upstairs to the exit and came to a chair lift. Another first for me. However, as we were beginners, it was too early for us to ski down the slope, so we took our skis in our arms and took the lift down one by one. Tony waited for us down at the bottom. I lost one of my poles coming off the lift but Tony retrieved it for me. We then went across to the nursery area and had a few runs down. Then it was time for something a little more challenging, so we had a few runs on blue run 15. We took it in stages before heading back up the chairlift for lunch. It was here I got a chance to get my camera out and take some photos.

It was packed on the balcony with skiers and snow boarders enjoying the sunshine and entertainment. Yes, Colin was here, the Entertainer, singing along to various song. Plus there was a very bad Elvis impersonator who came on to perform a few songs. I am trying to remember some of the songs he sang but I have forgotten them now. Always On My Mind perhaps? I did not really want lunch to end. Tony had warned us that after lunch we were going to work our way down the mountain (across a red run) all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. We took a course across the slope, skiing side to side, with the boarders and experienced skiers coming across us. It was a nerve racking experience for me, particularly as you can just look up see the steep slope and little kids, some aged as young as eight glide down without effort. I made it down with no crashes and then at the top of a small hill, it was a case of full blast or as Tony put it, "As the kids say, just bomb it!". I tried but I was nervous about going too fast so kept my speed down, this was a mistake. You seriously just had to blast it because when you get to the bottom, there is a small incline. I gave up and took off my skis and walked the last few yards. Putting my skis back on, we had to get the t-bar lift up to the top of 15, the blue run from this morning and we then made our way down the slope, at first in stage stopping every hundred yards or so before Tony guided on how to approach each section. Then at the bottom he would watch us come down one by one and give us direction to improve our technique. Then it was back up to the top and down again. Three more runs and it was time to call it a day. We headed back up the chair lift and then onto the lift all the way down. During our trip down (Tony was in the cable car with myself and Heather) he pointed out the track we would take down to the middle station tomorrow. I took a big gulp and tried not to think about it.

When we got back to the hotel, it was a big relief to get my boots off. It was here I bumped into Mel. She had had a bad day. Gone up to the top of the mountain, frozen and then cried all the way down the on the lift. Got back to the hotel and called her Mum. She was not enjoying the holiday, calling the sport a "modern form of torture". I tried to not let her bad karma affect me but it was not easy. I am trying to remember what we did that evening but it was not big. Emily and Pav wanted to go into town, find a quiet cafe for a drink. So Geoff, Paul, t_Dogg and myself joined them. We found a cosy little place opposite the Spar and had hot chocolate. The Austrians do like their cream. Everyone apart from myself and Paul shared an Apfelstudel (an Austrian specialty). Afterwards we settled the bill and headed back to the hotel. We stayed in the bar after dinner and played UNO as we found about three decks in the games cupboard. I had never played the game before but soon learn the rules. It is interesting reading the Wikipedia page about the different style images depending on the language. I almost won the second game but my failure to shout, "UNO" meant Emily took the game! I was gutted. After one more game we retired to our room for the evening. Paul had gone to bed straight after dinner, so we invited everyone back to our room for a bit. Pav played t_dogg in a battle of Abalone, he lost. So, I took on the winner and played him well for most of the game until some stupid mistakes cost me. There is a classic photograph of "Das Victor" which Geoff has uploaded to Face Book. It will be worth the wait, trust me! Then it was off to bed, I think it was around 10.30pm by the time I finally drifted off. Three days of lessons down, two more to go before I was free!

Day 6 - Wednesday 9th January

I am trying to remember exactly what happened on this day but it is difficult. My memory is not as good as it used to be. So, I apologise in advance if the posting for this day is patchy. My friends had a major plan for day. Pav & Geoff were going to hit the mountain as soon as the lifts opened and spend two and a half hours to get down to the bottom for lunch. Then everyone was going to get together and catch the bus over to the toboggan run (including Mel). I was actually quite jealous and wish I could have come along for a race or two. I got up early, had breakfast with Em and Geoff and headed out to the bus stop for 9.30am. However, Tony was late, delayed back the ski school office, so we did not get onto the Ring bus until gone 10am. We had a new member of our group, she had skied before but had lost confidence on the slope, so opted with some refresher lessons. He said he would make the time up at the end of the day. We headed back up to the horn for the day. We got up there, did some runs down blue 15 to get going, then went back up the chair lift to go down the zig zag path across the red slope. Then we broke up for lunch. Next was the big one, skiing down all the way to the middle cable car stop. However, there was a twist. We were to be filmed all the way down the by a cameraman. Fantastic! Just wanted I needed to improve my concentration, a big distraction. So to add to my nerves, I had a camera pointed in my face and was asked to wave as I skied along! Great(!) We made our path down the mountain, in stages. It was beautiful scenery but I did not have much time to enjoy it, I was too busy concentrating on my skiing and trying to improve. The paths were quite narrow and at times the edge far too close. The drop through the trees was not visible! We made our way down and I was quite proud of myself of getting this far. Then came the bomb shell, we were going to go up and do it again. Some people dropped out, preferring to head back to blue 15 for some practice, a small group of us continued. The cameraman, had, thank God, disappeared. But it was actually a shame because he missed two spectacular crashes, one which included some spilt blood. Once we got down to the bottom, we got onto the cable car and the destination was back to the hotel.

I over heard one of the ski instructors say that Flannigans was showing the Arsenal Tottenham match that evening, so thought I would let the t_dogg know once we got back to the hotel. So after dinner, we had a quick drink in the bar before heading down into town. The motley crew was Foxy, Paul and myself. We found a table, got the first round in and then waited for the match to start. Sky Sports coverage showed that kick off had been delayed by fifteen minutes due to problems at Finsbury Park, so it would be 9pm (CET) when things would get going. I saw my instructor Tony at the bar and offered him a drink but he was already struggling, so I wished him a good evening and would see him tomorrow. It felt strange watching this fixture because if I had not been out in Austria skiing I would have been at the game, much as I was last year in early February. Tottenham started well and has difficult as it is for me to say, deserved their lead. Arsenal came back into the match in the second half and when Theo scored it was a great relief. Foxy was the only Spurs fan in the pub and pinning his colours clearly on the flag pole! Arseblogger perhaps gives the best review of the match. Gunners were below par and Tottenham could have taken more from the match. However it was perfectly posed for the return leg in two weeks time. At full time, only the boys were left in the bar. The girls had gone back to the hotel. We decided (or rather the T decided for us) to make a night of it! All I can say is we got back to the hotel quite late, must have been around 2am. (Having to wake up Mel so we could get in, as Geoff had taken our only key).

Day 7 - Thursday 10th January

My last day of lessons and the holiday was drawing to a close. It was important to make the most of the final few days on the slopes. I had the joy of my last lesson. The race against the clock and then another few runs down the mountain again but the day would be over shadowed by my friends, I will get to that later. I had just accustomed myself to the routine now. Getting up on time, getting ready, being at the bus stop by a certain time, getting onto the bus and getting up to the top of the Horn. We made our way down the slope to the training area. A salom course had been setup and we were first allowed a practice run before suiting up with numbers. I was given 69. Make of that what you will. I was third to head down when it was our groups turn, I tried to go as fast as possible and it felt fast. (I couldn't make it to the award ceremony so will never find out what I clocked up). Then it was a quick warm up on the blue 15, we did about three runs before heading back up the chairlift. Although it was a while before lunch. We headed down to the middle lift station again to a restaurant around the corner. Heather and some of our group made their way down via the lift, while the brave among us, five in total skied down. As we were just around the corner, Tony stopped ahead of me. The reason? It was pure ice. I tried to stay on my feet but feel and then opted to slide down on my backside, down the hill to some flat snow when I could actually get up and walk around to the restaurant. The views from the patio were amazing and the food was very good, much better than the 'service station' quality you had at the top of the Horn, for the past two days.

After lunch we headed back to the Horn. This time we were in for a true test. Our first red run, under the guidance of Tony of course but still a nervous prospect. We took it slowly in stages but by the time we got to the bottom I was dehydrated. The heat and the amount of skiing I had done was getting to me, so I opted to head back up to the top of the Horn and get a drink. The rest of the group were going to hit the red run for a second time. I got a bottle of water and went out onto the balcony and took some photographs of my group going down, I walked around the corner and heard the distinguishable voice of the T. Everyone was there and it was good to see them. But then as I tried to get away, t_dogg said, "Right let's lf*** Teg up!". Great(!). So as I headed outside to wait for my group to gather, Adele, Emily, Geoff, Paul, Pav and of course the one and only t_dogg waited for me to head down the slope. We slowly made our descent and my friends waited until I was down far enough and then followed, skiing and boarding in between our group. Paul said he was going to film me but he did not (thank God) because I then had a crash. I heard Pav shout, "Woh, Terry!". I was laughing, as I got myself back up and skied the rest down to the rest of my group. It was when we started the next section that Pav came screaming down past me, hands in the air, shouting something like, "Wooo hoooo" but I only saw him briefly as he disappeared and the only other thing I heard was the sound of his board on the snow. They were heading for the black run down and spending the rest of the afternoon at the Horn. They had said I should come back up after my lesson but I did not really have the time. We made our way down to the cable car station. There was just three of us now and it was physically demanding, mainly because we were not stopping as frequently and there were was much more traffic around us. I just wanted to get to the bottom as quickly as I could and was glad when the final bend came along and you could see the station in the distance. That was it, lessons were over. I had had a rather mixed bag really. Moved three times but eventually found a really good instructor. I thanked him for his time and more importantly patience. We would meet up again later that evening for the showing of the DVD.

Back at the hotel, I changed out of my ski boots but did not go up to the room, heading straight back into town. The screening was to take place at the Mexican restaurant, La Fonda. I was the first to get there and it was a going to be at least thirty minutes before the viewing started, so I got a drink and waited for the others to arrive. They did eventually and headed upstairs to the dining area for a viewing???. I was expecting a bigger screen and playback from a DVD rather than the video camera but never mind. It was quite good considering but I do not like some of the Euro Pop tracks used as background music. One in particular, I have tried to find the name of the artist but no luck from Google. I bought a copy, mainly to have something to show my family and a souvenir to prove that I did actually ski on my holiday. Sure it was expensive (if you consider the € per the video minute ratio) but if I never ski ever again in my life, I will have a moment forever. I am ripping the DVD as I type this using the fantastic DVDFab Platinum software! I just need to edit it down to ten minutes or split it into two or maybe three parts. I have actually put a four minute video together which is the best bits from the 25 minute DVD.

After the viewing I went with Tony and his girlfriend Jessica (another instructor at the Red Devil Ski School) to Flannigans. I bought them a drink and thanked Tony for all his help, advice and generally putting up with me. Particularly my friends distracting me on our last run down. His final words to me as I left was to not do anything stupid. I replied that he knew me now after three days of lessons but he was referring to my second morning and my attempted heroics over on the nursery slope. We laughed, but then Jessica came in with some horror story of a guy breaking his ankle and having to be taken off in a stretcher. Just the confidence boost I needed for my last day.

Day 8 - Friday 11th January

This is where my holiday truly started. We had planned the night before to make the most of our last day on the slopes. We were going to opposite sides of the resort but agreed to meet up for lunch at the top of the Hannekham. Even Mel was gonna join us! First though I think I should explain Crazy Hat Day. This was the invention of Miss Emily Jane Poole. She had asked everyone to purchase a Crazy Hat which had to be worn by every member of our group on a designated day during the holiday. As I was in lessons all week, this day was to be today, the Friday. As always, I followed the procedure to the letter and had my Crazy Hat on all day. I was the only person to bother. I was extremely disappointed, particularly in the organiser of this group fashion activity as she herself firstly did not wear her home made Crazy Hat. Secondly she had the cheek to say my Crazy Hat was not 'crazy' enough. I think for someone who always plays it safe when it comes to clothes, ties, shoes and all the accessories, a pink hat which was a mixture between Deerstalker and Russian Ushanka was as wacky as you can get with me! In any case, I was not going to let other people's non participation get in the way. I was going to wear my hat with pride and smile!

This was my first trip in the gondola which can be seen through our hotel bedroom window. I was looking forward to hitting the slopes with Adele & Geoff. While my technique is not perfect it was enough for me to get around be it at a rather relaxed pace. I will try and upload a link to an interactive map so you can see which runs I completed. There are quite a few. Here we go.

From the top of the Hannekham, we took 36 down to the main area. From here it was straight down run 18. This was my far, my favourite run of the day. It was relatively wide and just a case of getting your feet parallel and putting on the gas. I was quite apprehensive to begin with but on my second and third run I was much faster. There were some igloos at the bottom (including a hotel) and a reindeer had been brought around which had Adele going all soft (as all cute animals do to girls). We headed back up but decided to have a tea break. Hot chocolate all around and Geoff helped himself to a pastry. There were deck chairs outside so we made ourselves comfortable while we planned the next couple of hours before lunch.

Right after the short tea break we did the following (I think!). We went down run 18 once more but drifted off to the left and completed run 16 around effectively back on ourselves and down. This turns into run 26. It was very steep and I had one spectacular crash but this was only the start. Once at the bottom, we caught a chair lift up and went down 26 again but from the top. My memory is patchy on this, even by consulting the map is not working. I may have to get Mr. Geoff to confirm! One our second run down 26 I had amazing crash which I loved. I was going faster than I had ever been before and knew I was not gonna be able to keep control for much longer and crashed to the side of the slope. I was laughing but I had ripped my jacket (unknown to me at the time, I would discover this when Em would notice it lunchtime). I had lost my poles but eventually two nice people pushed them down to me. I eventually got back onto my skis and skied down to the bottom to the waiting Geoff and Adele, I think Geoff was poised with camera but I've not seen the photo yet. (It will be over on his Face Book somewhere)

Now it was a case of getting back up to our start point for lunch. Back around and down 36, then a rope lift up at the top and a sheer drop at the top and we were back at the restaurant. We were early, the rest of the gang were on their way up. We found a table on the balcony eventually and sat there but moved to a bigger table once everyone appeared.

They did eventually and we ordered our food. There was a bit of a wait, they were quite busy but it was well worth it. The food was very good. I was more than full as we paid and left. Unfortunately, somehow I was left behind everyone else. Then as everyone made their way onto the snow, I had a call of nature. I could not wait. I put my skis down and went back upstairs to the toilet. By the time I got back outside, the only person waiting for me was Pav. The rest had made their way down. I saw Pav waving and rushed to get my skis on and caught up with him. Now the laugh about why I had been delayed. They all thought I had made a mistake and gone down a red run. (Maybe if I was feeling much more confident!). I eventually caught up with everyone and they had a good laugh at my expense. Particularly Emily who thought I was running scared and hiding from the mountain. Not quite but I was up for the challenge, or so I thought. Went we eventually got up there the wind was blowing hard and throwing the snow across the slope. Not as bad as the blizzard the rest of the gang had suffered on Tuesday. (Geoff has uploaded some video footage to Face Book, so you will need to take a look on there.) I made it down half way with Emily and Pav close behind. Then as I came down the corner (you could not see how steep the hill was) I saw how bad it was and just crashed. I tried to get back onto my ski but just crashed again. I think I got to a fourth attempt but by then the frustration was too high, so I took off my skis (yes a big big mistake - I know Pav!) Put them on my shoulder and slid on my backside down the mountain, with very little control on where I was going. Every so often someone would ask to see if I was okay, some offering to help me up. I would just say I was fine. I did not want to cause a fuss or create a scene. My friends waited down at the bottom but after fifteen minutes, the only person I could see was Adele. The rest had gone up the other chairlift to our right to go down the red run. (Numbers will be confirmed later when I speak to Geoff). It was a bit of a shock some ten minutes later when Geoff suddenly appeared to check I was okay. I was on my feet and skiing down but another crash and I gave up. Lady Poole appeared and asked for my poles and away she went. I then slowly made my way down the slope to the bottom. I had given up, I wanted to go back home. However it was not that easy I had to ski down. After our leisurely lunch I had lost track of time, it was gone 3pm and the lifts would close in just under an hour and a half. I was against the clock. We were coming down run 16 again but the part I had not skied earlier in the morning. The hill was quite steep and I crashed once again, took off my skis and made my way down. An Englishman advised that I should ski down on my edges and it would be easier and quicker than walking but I was being stubborn. By now the only person that had decided to stay was Geoff. He was annoyed. I got to the right hand side of the slope and then tried to put my skis back on, left foot no problems, right foot struggling. Then after the 34th attempt to clip in my boot, Geoff shouted, "Put the binding down!". He was right, all the time spent trying to put my ski on had been wasted because the binding was in the lock position. I put the binding down with my pole, got the ski on and skied down to Geoff. We then had to ski around to the lift. It was nearly closing time. We were the only two people on the piste. The snow plough had started and was heading in our direction, I avoided it, just and then headed around to the chair lift. It was an amazing feeling rushing down the slope at high speed, semi in control. We made it to the lift and I got an earful from Mr. Barlow. Rightly so too! "You've skied down more difficult steeper slopes than that today. You should not have taken off your skis". Rant over, he moved into his coaching role to get me back to the Hannekham gondola before it closed. The thought of having to do a red run all the way down to the bottom was my main motivation to ski as fast as I could back to the lift. It was a case of ripping down and around 36 all the way down and then taking the rope lift up to the top and voilà, I was home and dry. Getting there was not much of a problem. I kept on my skis, no crashes, well apart from a stumble when I got to the rope lift but I was home and dry. Pav was quite shocked to see me so soon, "Whatever Geoff said worked then!"

My excuse, as we made our way down back to the hotel? As Foxy had opted to go skating with Mel, I thought I would take over as the entertainment for the group for the afternoon. Pav has some great photos of me collapsed on the slope in a heap, which I am sure he has uploaded to Face Book. While some people may have decided that this was not the sport for them, the last hour or so and the mad dash back to the lift has made me eager to come back, hone my technique and finally take on the mountain. The best part was going really fast around a corner as we headed for the chairlift by the igloo village. I was going so fast that the adrenalin was just pumping through my body and I loved it. I want to apologise publicly to my friends for causing them such a nuisance on both the Saturday and Friday of our trip. However, even they will say that there was a vast improvement from me within a week. It is just a case of coming back again soon and hoping the Wycombe Snowdome is constructed as soon as possible. (The trek over to Milton Keynes will be a thing of the past)

We had our last evening meal later than usual as some of the group were busy packing. We eventually went into the dining area around 7.20pm, and planned our last night in Kitzbühel. We had our last drinks in the penthouse suite but there was also a little presentation. Card and medal (of the chocolate variety). After all, on our journey back the following day it was Pav's 26th birthday! I had returned my lift pass but t_dogg offered his pass so I could go on the night lift up to the top of the Hannekham. Geoff lent me his camera to take some photos and Adele, Em and Mel came up with me. However only every 25th lift was open for passengers so we had a little wait at the bottom station. We then headed up and opted to just not get off and come straight down. The views were impressive but the photos did not come out well, mainly due to the glass. When we got down to the bottom, Adele headed back to the hotel room, she was not feeling too good. The rest of us joined the boys in town. Well we actually got to Highways bar before them and got a round of drinks in. The guys did arrive eventually and I was given a story about Foxy banging a nail into a lump of wood. Highly entertaining, I am sure! In the music bar they had reggae playing, although the stage was setup for a band, they were not due to perform until 12am, so we left shortly afterwards. The options were Flannigans with the Elvis impersonator but I had already told the group he was rubbish. As we walked out the door, Geoff & t_dogg started talking to some local kids (they were 17 and did not get into the Highways Bar). I left them to it and joined Em, Mel, Paul & Pav around the corner. There was a bar on the main "High Street" but we were waiting for the Foxy and Geoff. Pav got a text, they were heading to the Londoner! Great. While waiting outside this bar, Em was approached by some European guys (one black, one white) enquiring about the local night life. The black guy was definitely from the hood, in white hoodie, worn with a baseball cap. He asked Pav if there were any hip hop clubs around, we didn't know of course and doubted that kind of musical taste would be catered for but pointed him in the direction of the bars and clubs further down.

We decided to call it a night, after all we were going to be picked up at 5.55am for collection to our coach. As I walked towards the hotel, I suddenly realised that I did not have a key so would have to go and grab it from the boys in the Londoner. As I walked around I noticed a black brand new R8 parked up on the side of the road. It already had quite a few admirers. This was the first time I had seen the car on the road. I had yet to see the car in London (although given the probability based on my rather short commute it is somewhat understandable). I wish I had my camera to take some photos but I hadn't brought it out. It was just a fantastic sight, to see it close up. Black looks extra sexy on this car for some reason! I headed around the corner, into the Londoner, grabbed the key of Geoff as they watched five large Stiegl beers being poured out. I would see them later and I headed back to the hotel. My last night in Austria went out with more of a whimper than a bang but never mind. I am quite sure I will be back!

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Sunday 20th January 2008

A break from the normal programming. I thought I would give a quick round out on what I have been getting up to since my return from holiday. The holiday blog posts will continue shortly. On Thursday 17th, I traveled up to Sheffield for my sister, Natalie's graduation ceremony. As she was only able to get two tickets (and a third which became available on the day), Samantha, Dips and I had to watch from the auditorium, in the basement the SU building. It was a relatively quick ceremony with quite a small group, which was taking place across campus in a big hall. After watching Natalie get up and collect her certificate, we went upstairs to Coffee Republic for a cup of tea and some chocolate cake. Then we had to go upstairs to the photography area and wait for the rest of the family to arrive. While waiting, we picked up the local student paper. There was an article about Hard Kaur who had performed recently at the union. Very clever name for an Asian artist, she looked a little like Preeti from Eastenders. My Mum, Dad, Natalie and Julie arrived and we went to have our photos taken. Then it was time for some lunch. Back to Las Iguanas. We had been there over a year ago, on my last trip to the city. After lunch, we took some photographs outside won of the grand buildings, before jumping in the car and heading to Leicester. My sister drove, with me directing with the help of TomTom (I had only loaded the latest software the previous night). We left Sheffield around 5pm and got stuck in a little traffic on the M1 southbound (animals in the road apparently but it was northbound suffering). We listened to Radio 1, as we had worn out the CD I had burnt for the trip. Scott Mills and Chappers were calling up local and regional newspapers with stupid celebrity sightings and gossip, seeing how long they could keep the newspaper employee on the phone for. We got into Leicester around 6pm, beating both my sister, Natalie and my parents. After a light snack, it was back onto the road around 8.30pm for the drive back home to Wycombe. Samantha was originally gonna drive but for some reason I found myself at the controls. We took the standard, M69, A46 and M40 route and made good time, the roads were relatively clear. My memory will be hearing the news about the crash landing at Heathrow that lunchtime and an airport worker commenting on the near disaster. Do you get medals the size of kitchen utensils?

On the journey up, I heard a song on Radio One played by Jo Whiley, it was quite funky. We had been switching between FM and CD so did not catch the full song, just the final trail but my sister, was quick to point out the artist and title. Work by Kelly Rowland she informed me. Is it the remix? I was pretty sure it was, but could not confirm until I got home. Sure enough, I download the original and it was atrocious! It is another case of the remix being far far far better than the original. I commented on such an occurrence toward the back end of December 2004. I downloaded the remix and then also the video and was playing it on continuous loop most of Friday. The song is so infectious and I love the desi style (tabla?) drums! It must be hard living in the shadow of a former band mate. How many people can name the any other of the Supremes apart from Diana Ross? However, I respect Kelly for continuing to produce music and perform, many lesser souls would have given up and let B, take the mantle all for herself. My favourite song prior to this was Can't Nobody but I also liked the slower ballad, "Train On The Track". The conclusion is indeed, very simple. If you are going to ever release a single, let Freemasons do the official remix. They will only make the song better and in this case, take dead wood and make it certified chart topping material! Can a dance band of producers really be the saviours of popular music?

Back in early September, I watched the pilot episode for a new spin of series based on the Terminator movies. It was recommended (and provided in a care package) by Pav and he informed me on MSN this week that they second episode had aired Stateside. On Wednesday night I downloaded the torrent, planning to watch it on Friday night, which I did. What can I say? Very good, enjoyable, entertaining stuff but not as much action as in the pilot but I am willing to be patient and wait for the story to unfold. Summer Glau is inspired casting and she pulls of the emotional demeanor of a cyborg effortlessly. I look forward to next week's episode. It is nice to have something to fill the gap while the Writer's strike continues. Oh, well there is also Torchwood back on Wednesday evenings but hardly anything in comparison to The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Last thing I must mention is my favourite soap. When we got back late on Thursday evening, it was gone half past ten, so the BBC Three option had gone. However, now I have the option of iPlayer. I wanted to watch the streamed version but for some reason it was not working in IE7, so I had download the software and then queue the episode to download too. It did not take that long, maybe twenty minutes but I was annoyed because I did not want to have that bloatware on my PC again, only to then uninstall after I have watched this episode. Anyway, that is not the reason I am writing this up on my blog. I have already mentioned the great ability of iPlayer. It was the content of the show. A new minor character, a bully called Tegs, terrorising the Square and abusing Dot Cotton. The funny thing is, I am usually the one receiving such an SMS rather than sending one!

It beats the appearence of my nickname on a cardboard box in Hollyoaks over two years ago.

Day 3 - Sunday 6th January

I got up later than I had intended and ended up rushing down to breakfast with Foxy and Geoff. I got changed, grabbed my skis, put my boots on and headed out to the adult ski school. I had to be there between 9.30-45am, but I was pushing it. Once I was directed to the right place, I met my instructor, Hans and joined his group. (The same name as local hero, Hans Hinterseer). There were eleven people in total and quite a mixed bunch. A Russian German speaking family of three, (Dad, Mum & daughter). Fifteen year old dare devil Frederick from South Africa, Sheila from Ireland and Marco from Romania. We began with the basics, many of the things I had learnt already at the Snowdome but it was important to pay attention and learn. Within a few minutes we were making short slides down the slope. Let me explain that the location is a small kind of bowl at the bottom of the nursery slope. It is relatively flat and the incline at the top section was not very steep at all. After successfully mastering the snowplough we move onto basic turns before heading to the nearby restaurant for lunch. It gave me a chance to speak to Freddy and Sheila and get to know a little more about them. After lunch, we headed back to the slope. Marco, Freddy and myself were keen to get a bit more practice in, so we trekked up the slope, to a midway point and sloped down a few times. Hans appeared with the rest of the group, we practiced our snowplough a couple of times and then headed over to the main learning area. It was quite a big slope, relatively steep sandwiched between the children area. We had to take the drag or rope lift up to top. This is the most difficult type of lift to use (although Marc did say later on our holiday that the t-bar lift was the main suspect). You put your skis parallel, put your poles in the left hand and grabbed the lift with your free right hand. Although on our first few attempts we did not have poles to worry about. Eventually I held on, with both hands mind and made it up to the top. Here we started to actually learn to ski. We traversed across the slope, going from snowplough into a turn, then traversing (skis parallel) diagonally across and then repeating the process at the other end. It was hard, but my confidence was quite high, so I made a good few attempts but always found myself heading towards the fence (with the children flying around on the side). In fact, Hans said on one occasion, "Andrew, you really like that fence!" after I had found myself almost stuck there for the third time. About three or four more runs down, it was the end of the lessons. I thanked Hans (in German) for his time and he recommended that I spend sometime improving my position. I had the tendency to lean back and hence crash. I needed to stand up straighter and lean forward. Of course, I completely ignored this advice by hanging around with Freddy. We went up on the t-bar lift (something Hans had said we were not ready for) and go up to the top. Once I got there, instead of heading down the main slope (where I had spent most of the previous afternoon on my behind) I followed Freddy underneath the bridge and then panicked at the sheer drop only to crash. I was laughing to myself, I picked myself up, got going again, only to crash again. Eventually I got around the corner and back onto the beginners area. I had stupidly thought that by going under the bridge, I would be taken to the top of the learner slope, and not a red run which linked the two together. Freddy was waiting for me and we made our way down together. I tried one more time to get onto the rope lift, but I crashed, so I decided that I had had enough and called it a day, it must have been approaching 4pm. However, I was confident. I felt good. I would tackle the slope again before my lesson at 9.30am. I got back to the hotel, got showered and changed and waited for the others. Minutes later they appeared and we then went down to the bar before grabbing dinner. My plan had been to go into town to get some postcards but had been told by the owner, that as it was a Sunday most of the shops would be closed. The postcards home and to the office would have to wait, for now. After dinner, we settled down for a quiet night in, most of which was spent in the bar. We took out a board game, Abalone. As the instructions were in German, we or rather Foxy asked the waitress to translate for us and explain the rules. Which she did very well, considering her English was not brilliant. The contestants were ready, Geoff versus t_dogg. During the match, additional rules were created to ensure the swift conclusion of any given game. (There was no point allowing moves to be constantly repeated) It was a closely fought contest but "das victor" was the Fox. As the game took so long, our champion decided to retire for the evening and not take on another challenger, even though we had all decided that the winner would say on. I suppose Foxy wanted to keep the undefeated mantle for the night. During the evening, I suffered a heart attack due to the level of entertainment and had to rush outside for some air. The T was on top form and I was suffering, badly. I do not know what would have happened if I had stayed in the bar with that animal. We went back up to our rooms and it must have been around 9.30pm or so. I put on the television, so we could watch something before drifting off to sleep. Foxy chose Spiderman 2 as it was the 'best of a bad bunch', however we only watched for a twenty minutes or so before deciding to switch the television off and go to sleep. I checked my N73 before switching it off. It was 10pm exactly. Early to bed and early to rise?

Day 4 - Monday 7th January

We had agreed to get up early and meet for breakfast at 8am and we did. The plan was to head out onto the slopes as soon as possible. Adele, Mel and myself were heading for the nursery slope as I wanted to get some practice in before my lesson and Mel wanted to conquer her new found fear of skiing. Not sure why, she had skiied ten years ago and according to her older sister, was more than capable at the dry slope in Bracknell. For some reason she had just frozen when at the top of the mountain on Sunday, so we decided it was good if she went on the nursery slope to gain some confidence. I however was on some strange trip. I was determined to get to the top and come down. However, I was deluded. I had convinced myself I was much better than I actual was. So here I was at the top, but as we set off I crashed. I got up and made a little more progress then crashed again. My last attempt was rather feeble, so I took off my skis and walked down, knowing I was late for my lesson now and keeping my group as well as Hans waiting. As I expected, I got a bit of telling off for attempting to ski down from there and keeping everyone waiting, which was fair enough. My confidence had taken a bit of a knock. We treked behind the restaurant, through a road and around the back to a quite little slope. A very easy blue run we were informed. We had a little practice at the bottom on our turns before taking the button lift up to the top. We made a few runs down in stages but it was clear I was not up to the pace and on our second run down the slope, Hans made it quite clear I was going to be moved groups. He spoke to another instructor, and I was subsequently moved to Duncan's group. English guy who supported Bolton. His group was also around eleven with three if not four South Africans and a few English and Irish people. After a few runs it was time for lunch, so we had to rush across back to our meeting point in the morning. This was interesting. Firstly we had to negiogiate the button lift and then it was just a long run across to the fence. There you take your skis off, cross the road, put them back on and ski up to the restaurant. For a few seconds, I began to appreciate the true feeling of freedom that skiing brings. I felt a bit of a rush skiing down the slope, but perhaps the best moment was seeing my new instructor, Duncan, take the downhill stance (I am unsure of the exact technical name) but you crouch forward and have your poles at your sides inbetween your arms, to reduce the amount of resistance and give maximum speed. He disappeared into the distance as I coulding down the hill at my own pace.

Lunch was interesting. I sat with my group and found myself surrounded by three South African ladies, telling me all about the difficult times ahead for their country. It made me realise that for all the problems back home in England, things were not as bad as in other parts of the world. I mean, having to make the decision to send your children away for the prospect of a better life must be a difficult decision. I did not really have much to say in response, so just listened intently.

Back to the same slope and button lift after lunch for more runs and practice. My confidence was restored a little but once again I through away a good opportunity. Heather and her sister, (Helen I believe) were going to stay and practice at the end of the lesson but I opted to go back to the hotel change. I wanted to head into town. (Post cards were required). So, back at the hotel, Adele, Mel, Paul and myself decided to go into town. I bought four post cards from the local souvenir shop along with some stamps. We then walked around to the Billa supermarket (although Pav would find a Spar the opposite side of time) to get some munchies and drinks. I was under strict instruction from the t_dogg and got him just what he wanted. We headed back to the hotel in time for dinner. The beauty of a cold climate is the balcony can become a very good fridge.

During dinner it was a agreed that we would put on our t-shirts. The t_dogg took a little persauding but did eventually fall into line. After supper we headed up to the penthouse suite (Mel, Adele & Paul's room - 32) as it was the biggest of the three. We had a few drinks while listening to the dance music from Paul's iPod.

We proposed a few rules. Firstly a kitty was created, with everyone giving €20 to Adele who was put in charge. A drinking rule was also proposed by the t_dogg and agreed by all. When the penulatimate drinker in the group finishes, the final drinker has ten seconds to down the drink. We headed into town but not before we asked one of the guests to grab a photo of us lined up against the main entrance. Pav has the picture on his Facebook profile.

We headed first to the bar we had been to in town on the Saturday night. I am trying to remember the name and scouting various websites with Kitzbuhel nightlife guides but have yet to find the bar. We got a punter at the bar to take a group photograph.

From here we moved over to Highways. However it was absolutely dead, the cloak room was free before 9pm. I forgot how early it was. Strange but skiing all day and then getting back to the hotel as it gets dark, you tend to lose all sense of time. We stayed here for a few drinks, including the legendary Jägermeister. We then headed to the other side of town to Flannigans. It was reasonably busy and we decided to spend the rest of the evening here. The music was quite good and the drinks were cheap. It was at this point in the night we were treated to a party trick from the T! (Footage courtesy of Pav's digicam, I apologise in advance that it is so dark.)

While most would think the story would end there, no it does not. We left Flanningans at 12am, closing time and treked back to the hotel. When we got inside, Pav went behind the bar to get a glass. A Coca-Cola glass, I tabbed him on the shoulder but as he turned around, glass in hand, I somehow smashed the the glass with my hand, cutting my finger in the process. To this day, I still do not know how I did it or for that matter why. I had to rush upstairs to get a plaster, when Geoff and Foxy found out what had happened, they rushed downstairs to help with the clean up operation. We popped into the penthouse suite for a few minutes but everyone was quite tired, so we decided to call it a night and headed off to sleep. I remember falling asleep listening to my Zen.

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Friday 18th January 2008

Day 2 - Saturday 5th January

As I had not been to sleep, (neither had Emily or Pav for that matter) it slipped my mind that it was actually Saturday now. Our coached dropped us right by the south terminal, Em grabbed a trolley and we dashed all our bags on and headed for the departure check-in area. Sure enough waiting around the corner were Adele, Mel and Paul. They had to the airport about half an hour earlier than us. Pav handed out the tags so we could label up our luggage. Only the girls carried pens. I think it is a bloke thing to never really carry a pen, particularly when you are in casual clothes. We headed to the empty check-in counter. At first we were going to check-in individually but we checked in together as a group. Em badgered everyone else to put on their t-shirts. While we waited, the queue behind us built up and continued to do so. Once we had our boarding passes we went around the corner and waited. Pav went and handed in the boards through to the ski gear. Emily was not feeling well, so she went out side for some air. Meanwhile we got in the queue for security. The queue was building up now and while we waited we noticed a guy walking around with a boarding pass. It belonged to Paul, he had dropped it a few minutes earlier. The reason for the long wait was only one guard was working on gate. Typical, after we passed through, a second guard was instated and the number of people being going through jumped up. Once everyone was through security and got their shoes back on, we headed around to get some breakfast. I was not hungry, but opted for a cup of tea. Most of the cafe places were closed and I would only go to McDonalds as a last resort. We took some seats at the coffee place. Geoff and Foxy went fell for the lure of the golden arch but the rest of us had tea and some light snacks. We had plenty of time on our side before boarding. We could eat and drink at our leisure. I was not really hungry, tea was enough and we would be served breakfast on our flight. Time to go out about and explore. We headed for the duty free stop downstairs. Pav was looking for some glasses. I went to the toilet and afterwards checked how much XD cards were in Dixons, sorry Currys Digital but the prices were not very good. I called home to let my Dad know I had got to the airport okay and that I would call back home once I got to Kitzbuhel. We then gathered by the entrance to all the departure gates, waiting for everyone to get together. Two people were missing, Geoff and the t_dogg. I watched them disappear upstairs. I went after them, in the direction they had headed but couldn't find them so headed back to our departure gate thirteen with everyone else. Foxy had text Pav, Geoff had lost his boarding past and gone to find it. Our flight was being called. We went through and found out that they could reprint the boarding pass at the desk, so the worry was over. We went through the tunnel and queued to get onto the plane. Just behind us, Geoff and Foxy finally joined the queue, they were the last to get on as far as I am aware. So we had a good little bit of banter winding up Geoff. Paul pretended to get out the misplaced boarding pass from his pocket.

I enjoy flying, perhaps because I was thrown onto an aeroplane at such a young age (two and a few months). We were sitting towards the front of the aircraft, I had seat 5F by the window, fantastic. Pav sat next to me in the middle seat but moved into the aisle seat once the air stewardess let us know we could move around into spare seats. I got my Zen out to listen to some music and watch some music videos but should not have really bothered. Moments are we were in the air they served a hot breakfast. I must say, the cup of tea did go down well. In the end, there was no point even having my Zen on the plane, as we were due to land quite soon after eating breakfast, so I packed it away and enjoyed the views out of my window with Pav. I must say the scenery was breathtaking. We dipped under a blanket