Not sure what 2009 will bring beyond the ski trip to Tignes, but everything and I do mean EVERYTHING will be archived here.
Sunday 31st May 2009
While I am keen to start this blog on Saturday morning,
with twenty four hours prior to my 10k run, I am actually
going to turn the clock back a little further and start
on Friday. I had a relatively easy day. Well perhaps 'easy'
is the wrong adjective to use, a relaxed and stress less
day. This was mainly because I had been working so hard
in the previous three days (yes I know it sounds crazy but
I have to confess that this was the most productive period
for me. Something just clicked and I was focused. However,
I was looking forward to leaving at 4pm and kicking the
weekend off. I had loads to get done and it would be a long
evening, well night really. It has been a while since my
last mission weekend, so I consider myself a little out
of practice. As I walked away from the office, I realised
I had my book with me and this was mildly inconvenient.
As I walked past the barbers, it was very busy. I headed
home, I would drop the book off and then perhaps go to a
different hairdressers in town. As I actually thought this
decision through I realised I was going to be wasting too
much time by going back to my flat later, to shower and
change, then only to head back into town to the train station.
Therefore I decided to go back to my now usual barbers and
wait in line, there was only on person ahead of me as I
took a seat and decided to read The Sun. Much speculation
about the Britain's Got Talent Final. Thankfully I got served
by the lady (I think her name is Sue) and she did a grand
job on the hair, plus she was quick. Kick FM was playing
in the background as usual but no mention of the run for
the few brief minutes you did hear the DJ. I headed back
to the flat, had a very quick shower, got ready, grabbed
my Zen and headed out the door. I checked the time on the
Boom as I left my bedroom. It was 17:20. Plenty of time
before my train.
I was at the station, fifteen minutes later and waiting for my train, which
would not arrive for another twenty one minutes but that
was not a problem. I had my music with me and I was looking
forward to my first visit to the big city since February.
Ironically looking back at that post, I talk enthusiastically
about having just set up my donation page and also considering buying some new running shoes from Nike Town (I stuck with my old Pumas in the end!) My feeling for this visit, almost three months later were very different.
The train was direct and relatively empty and I took a window seat, put the volume up on my Zen and feel asleep (well only briefly). When I woke up we were near Southhall and not too far from Paddington. As I walked onto the concourse, there were no barriers, I could have got away with just buying a single. I was hungry and needed a quick snack, I knew I was not going to be eat again until I got home even then it would not be something too appealing. I went for the Bagel Factory got a quick snack, sat down in the busy shopping area and quickly had my food. It had just gone 18:58, there was no time to relax though, next thing I knew it was heading down to the Underground station and into the West End.
We had planned to meet up at the Orchid Bar (on Coventry Street, almost opposite
TGI Fridays). However, it was closed. Well the lights were
on but nobody was home. I tried the door but it was locked.
It was at this time I text my friend but within a minute,
I had a flood of texts directing me to the new venue, around
the corner. Onanon
on Shaftsbury Avenue. A fancy bar come club, but I went
upstairs and then hunted around for my friend. I found them,
snuck around the corner strategically placed by the toilets.
However, the main reason was so that there was no blaring
speaker above our table.
Of course, now having been playing the game (for the lack of a better phrase)
for several years I have been at this stage (and no further)
on a regular basis. However, this time it felt different
but I was to be proved wrong again. Although with now
greater experience, which comes with age, I struggled off
the rejection quite well. I did not really see it coming
but as usual in these circumstances, more so now than at
any time before I will clearly state that I was not given
the complete chance to shine. I would be lying if I said
I was not disappointed but I was not going to let the moment
spoil my week or my weekend.
The journey home was not going to be easy but I was keen to not look too deep into the events of the past few hours. Instead, I took comfort in the songs on my Zen and enjoyed the busy life of the tube and then Paddington station. It was very different now, very quiet. I can summarize my feelings as being upset but upbeat. I caught the 22:12 heading for Oxford but without an idea of when the next train to Newbury would be, I text Bhavna to let her know how it went and for her to check the timetable online. She explained that the next train was at 11pm. It was going to be tight but thanks to her SMS, I did not stand around on the platform, I rushed straight down to platform one to the waiting train. It was a matter of a minute before the doors closed and I was on the final leg of my journey home. I got home around 11.30pm, got a drink and then spent a little time online. It was only then the reality hit me that my run was now only a matter of a day away (or two sleeps).
Saturday morning I got up around 8.30am and after a hearty breakfast I got on with cleaning my flat and then called my Mum. She was the only one awake, my sisters were asleep and my Dad was at work. I spent most of the morning online but it would be a waste of a day to spent it indoors. I started to formulate a plan, I would get ready and then go into the park to read my book. Then I would come back in for a late lunch and watch the Cup Final on TV.
It took me longer to get away from the computer than I expected but I eventually got into the park around 1.30pm and found a spot on the grass to read my book. During which my sister Natalie called, to confirm they were still coming and if there was anything else I needed for the flat or for my race in the morning. Nothing I had not already sent through on e-mail. I looked forward to their arrival around 8pm that evening and got back into my book. Checking the time, as it started to approach closer to 3pm, I headed back inside around 2.45pm to get the pizza in the oven and watch the cup final.
After the football, I was back on the computer, catching up with my old work colleague, Chris. He had tried to call me at midday, I had missed his call, called him back left a voicemail but also called him at home in Henley only to discover from his Dad that he was out shopping in Reading. I thought he had wanted to meet up to watch the match but it was in fact just a catch up call. We spoke at length on MSN before I decided to get off the computer to watch the final of Britain's Got Talent. This was the first time I was watching the final and I had only really started watching this series from the first semi final (but then missed most of the rest later in the week). Although I am getting very tired of this so called reality television format.
It was this point in the evening, that I checked my phone. It was around 8pm but my sister had tried to call me at 7.27pm. The news was not good. My family were not coming over and would instead head over first thing in the morning. I was gutted because I had not had dinner yet but more importantly I was hoping to have a double movie bill as inspiration for my run the next day. My immediate concern was food, so I headed into town to grab something, even though I had thought about jumping in the car and driving to Tescos. I had my food, while watching the result of BGT. Thankfully Susan did not win and Diversity took the crown and well deserved.
This was the point I would have put on my second movie of the night (I will return to the first movie a bit later) but I had seen the trail for Mumbai Calling and I thought I would give it ago. It started well but it was not really that funny. There was the odd moment when I was laughing out loud but perhaps because I am Asian and have been to Indian and parts just work. I will give it a good chance, I am hoping it gets better. It was at this point in the evening, around 10:30pm, I jumped back onto the computer to sort out the music on my Coby mp3 player. I needed to have a motivating soundtrack to my run.
My friend Savita was on, as was Nush. Savita became DJ
Sav offering some fantastic songs to include onto my mp3
player. I need to actually consult the Chat Log to make
sure I mention all the fantastic songs she suggested. (Do
you not just love MSN
Plus!). When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going
by Billy Ocean, which I quickly copied over. I already had
a few songs on my list, Eye Of The Tiger, Energy (by the
lovely Keri Hilson) and the album version of Live Your Life
by TI featuring Rihanna. Savita like me is a big fan of
80s music and asked, "Have you got any 80s?". Her next suggestion
was Mikey - Beat It. At first I thought she was referring
to Mickey by Toni Basil but then I understood and copied
the song over. The next suggestion was We Are The Champions
but I felt that was too premature, so we went with another
Queen track - Don't Stop Me Now. The pressure was no on
Sav and she felt it. However that did not stop her, the
next track, Burn Baby Burn by Ash and I duly did the deed
of copying the track across. I was going to watch Run
Fat Boy Run straight after but the allocated time of
11pm, was slowly being eroded away as I tried to stuff the
best tracks onto my mp3 player. Sav's suggestion from the
movie was The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger but I was not feeling
it and even was not blown over by the next suggestion. Girls
Aloud - Something
Kinda Oooooh. I was not that keen and in any case did
not have the song, so had to download it, but in any case
it was confirmed as one hundred percent certified by Savita
so it had to go on the play list. I had to have some Britney,
but selected Stronger rather than Toxic.
I have uploaded the complete track
listing for you to view, although it is in a random
order and not in the order played during the run. Nush (with
whom I was having a simultaneous MSN chat) also made some
suggestions. Two of which made it to the final cut. Her
first selection was R. Kelly - The
World's Greatest. A fantastic choice and I was perplexed
as to why it was not already included in my world famous
mp3 collection. Within a few minutes it had landed and was
on my mp3 player. The next choice was to provide something
bang up to date and give some much needed dance input into
the track list. Put
Your Hands Up For Detroit by Fedde
Le Grand. Switching back to the chat window with Savita,
I mentioned the suggestions from Nush and then came up with
one of my own. The Best Thing by Savage Garden. Probably
not a well known track from the Australian duo's second
album
Affirmation, but an excellent driving song and even better
when running. By now I had all the songs queued in Winamp,
was listening to a selection and totaling up the time. I
wanted to enough material to cover the time I would spend
on the run. Basically an hour but I went over by four minutes.
Could it have been some declaration that I would complete
the race in sixty four minutes? In the end, I would somehow
forget to copy across R. Kelly but nevermind. At 23:35 I
said goodbye to Savita and Nush and went to the lounge to
watch my movie. I was over half an hour behind schedule
but it did not matter at all. This was the film that was
going to inspire me across that finish line, although there
had been another movie I had wanted to see before the weekend
was out.
Run Fatboy Run was very funny. Simon Pegg was very convincing and Thandie Newton was as beautiful and angelic as you would expect. Some famous faces come in with cameos including Stephen Merchant but in the end it is all about one man's mission to prove he could stick it out at something and cross that finish line. My training was never as intense but then I do consider myself at a rather good level of fitness. Perhaps I did need two friends following me on bikes or scooters giving me encourage (or worse). In the end you feel so much sympathy for Pegg's character, the man on the street running his first marathon. It was very good, complete madness in many scenes and there were many moments which had me laughing out loud. Some of the advice though was true enough, Chris had told me on MSN earlier that the night before the London Marathon he eaten two big meals to build up on carbohydrates. I felt I should have taken his advice but it was now too later to eat. I had done one thing though and taken on as much water as I could all day. I drank constantly, switching between water and Ribena.
I finally went to bed around 1am and set my alarm for the morning, I was very
tired and wondered what tomorrow would bring. I got up at
7.30am, to beautiful sunshine outside, blue skies across
Victoria Park. I had a lazy breakfast watching BBC News
and kept giving myself more time before I jumped in the
shower. Then around 8.30am, I noticed a car outside and
went to the kitchen to see my family had arrived, much earlier
than I had anticipated. I opened the door and was greeted
by them all. It was time I got ready. I jumped in the shower,
put on my running gear (including shorts for the first time)
and put on my charity XL t-shirt on top, then pinned on
my race number. We then went into the garden to take some
photographs before we headed into the town for the kick
off.
The waiting around was actually getting to me, I wanted the race to start and just wanted it to get it out of the way. We headed over to the Market Square around twenty past nine and the heat hit me, it was going to be a tough race in these conditions. I kept drinking water, as I had done since my family had arrived. Then it was the long wait, we saw a few people jogging to warm up, a few doing stretches by the Waterside Youth Centre (the official Race HQ). We headed down the canal and into town and into the Market Square. My family starting taking pictures and I looked up to the bright blue sky. My favourite colour but today I would have been happy with cloudy skies.
It was a long wait, well just under thirty minutes but I did try and do some stretches and looked out for people I knew from work. There were fifty six runners from Bayer but I only knew a handful (James, Jo, Fran, Caroline, Belinda and Natalie). Somehow I spotted James and Caroline the other side of the road (near Lloyds TSB) and wandered over to say hello. They were all set but James was in need of comfort break but I insisted he follow me to meet my family, which he duly did before dissappearing in search of the toliets. It would be the last I would see of him until the end of the race. It was time to get ready and I took off my glasses, which perhaps with hindsight was a mistake. I did not want them to distract me and wanted to remove the additional weight (yes I know very little but it still counts). However, the knock on effect of this was that my earphone would not fit or rather sit snuggly on my right ear and I would have to battle with it throughout the race. As the other runners made their way to the starting line, I followed and put on my mp3 player. It was going to play Girls Aloud but I skipped ahead to Energy. Waiting in line, the song finished and was followed by Beat It. I was all set. The horn sounded and we were off, although it took a while for my section to finally move along. This was it.
There was a great deal of traffic and I did my best to keep to my pace and cut to the left as we made our way down Northbrook Street, the 'works' and then down West Street and up Strawberry Hill. The highest incline and then down the A4 up to Speen and then down back into the town. Rather than bore you with a text commentary of the route, you can just view and download the PDF from the official race site. My target was the hour, so I needed to keep a pace of a kilometre every six minutes which I kept up for the first three. Following that milestone my pace dropped, to what speed I cannot tell you but it was hard work in the heat. At one stage I almost tripped over a concrete slap as we entered a field and a single file track. However I got my balance just in time and then mainted the slower pace as we were stuck in traffic. At the half way mark, I grabbed two cups of water and then was down to a brisk walking pace as I downed the H2O. Although I declined the opportunity to splash the water in my face, infact I actually waited and put it in the big that a steward was carrying a little down the road. It was then back to the road back to the pace and the next milestone was 6k and getting back into Newbury and Northbrook Street. When I was a few minutes from that point, Keri Hilson blasted onto my mp3 player and it was the boost I needed. I speed up, getting the energy from somewhere. As I took the corner the spectators clapped (as they had been throughout the race). It was at this point, I saw my sisters, Natalie and Samantha further down on the right cheering me on but before them my sister Natalie had a bottle of water, which I grabbed and then I disappeared around the corner down the road by the canal. This was the final part of the race, the second circuit as James and I would refer to it. It was hard work, my legs were really tired now and having to be tred on the gravel road next to the canal was hard work. Overtaking was difficult too, with so many runners coming up from behind. I was happy with my progress as each subsequent km marker appeared but knew my pace had dropped so much that I would be lucky to beat my target of sixty minutes. I did feel a little despondent when the sixty minute mark clicked through on my Adidas Sports Watch. I tried my best not to let it get me down and just kept on pushing harder. The best moment was the corner and bridge which takes you back into the town centre. It was here I put the pace up steadily and then sprinted from the 400m mark. Where I got that sudden busrt of energy from I cannot tell you. Perhaps it was Britney? I was listening to Stronger as I crossed the finish line. My official time was 01:05:40 placing me 438th in a field of 513 runners (that completed the race). 650 officially registered but I am unsure how many of them actually started. You can view the full results plus there are photographs on the Newbury Weekly News gallery. I picked up my medal, Bayer goodie bag and t-shirt (I asked for medium but perhaps should have gone for small). It was then I found my family and got the cheers and more photographs that had made all the training and day so worthwhile.
After catching up with all my colleagues, getting stories and times and getting some free Lucozade Energy Bars from the van next to the town hall, it was time for the obligatory group photograph (although Jo is absent!). We then headed to the Youth Centre for the presentations by the Major (the first Sikh major for Newbury). After the awards had been given out (ironically the winner was David Fry but not the same guy I went to school with although they both do share baby face features) we headed back to the flat for lunch. My Mum had brought loads of food and we ate, while my sisters sunbathed in the garden and my Dad watched The Politics Show on BBC1. I had to jump on the computer to update my Twitter and Facebook status but refrain from coming online on MSN (although I did change my personal message!).
What did I do with the rest of my day? Well it was quite busy actually. After lunch I headed to Homebase with my Dad to get some shelving. We got back to the flat and then headed out again with my Mum. We went to do the weekly shop at Tesco Extra (I had not been shopping for a while). Afterwards we got back to the flat and put everything away before my sister Samantha was eager to get going home but my sisters Natalie and even Julie wanted to stay. In the end, Natalie decided to stay and Samantha would come back to collect her later in the evening. I did a little web browsing before we sat down to watch the movie which had been planned for the previous night.
Whoever Wins Is The Hero (or Conquerer apparently but I prefer to use the word Hero) is a famous 1992 Bollywood movie. It was a watershed moment for me, when I watched it all those seventeen years ago. I remember our neighbours popping around with the VHS tape and me being told by my sisters to stop watching whatever was on television to watch the movie, which I did. It would be the last time I would watch the genre with any real care. Soon my head would be turned by the lure of Hollywood, action, explosions, superheroes and escapism. Watching the movie now as an adult, I began to truly appreciate why it had been such a big hit at the time and more so, why it had lasted the test of time. It was to be my second dose of inspiration for my race but watching it now, after the event, it felt more like the reward. Pelha Nasha remains (and most likely will do forever) my favourite Hindi film song of all time and there are few who would disagree.
I was hoping to watch the whole movie but after the first part (first 1 hour and fifteen minutes) Samantha and her friend Liz arrived, so it was time to switch off the XBox and order some food and the after party could begin in earnest.
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Friday 29th May 2009
Been a crazy week, a very busy week but somehow we got to the end. Perhaps because there were only four working days and I had so much to do (that by the end of the week, I was actually running out of things to do). So much to cover but as my previous blog post took so long to write I feel I need to make this one "snappy".
On Tuesday afternoon, as I was leaving the office I got a headache. Not good, I had wanted to go for a run but there was little chance of that happening. So instead I took a tablet and decided to watch GREEK. It was perhaps the best episode yet. Dale just killed me and I wish I had had him with me at DMU, during our all night sessions to revise for exams or for coursework that had to be handed in the next day. This has to go up there as one of the classic all time quotes. If you do not watch GREEK, I seriously consider you catch it. I am sure BBC Three will start screening episodes soon (although I think I am still as season (or half at least) ahead. I am trying to get my friend Bhavna back into the show, so I can then send over series two and the latest episodes for her to enjoy. Looks like I got my work cut out!
On Wednesday, I was heading back to the flat after a very busy day in the office but then I realised I needed to go to Tesco to get some essentials. Well bananas, bagels, milk and water. So I turned around and headed to the store. Of course, I had to forget something and it ended up being the fruit. Never mind, I would cope. Back at the flat, I started to prepare myself for the big game, I was looking forward to it. Of course it is not the same when your team is not playing but finals regardless of the teams playing always provide magic. A case in point has to be Liverpool four years ago. Just prior to the build up, I updated both my Facebook and Twitter statuses. On Facebook there was a hive of activity, as the comments on my status clearly show. Eddie Johnson wanted a pep talk to the Barcelona boys before they headed out. I put something together that Mr. Johnson described as "perfect". You be the judge but for me the motivation is clearly visible the moment you step onto the pitch. You walk past the trophy. Then again, you also have the walk of shame, just like God, French hero of Zidane walking past the World Cup trophy, in Berlin in 2006 after being sent off.
When history is against you then there is little chance
but after such a great start the failure to respond with
any of the fight they have shown week in, week out in the
EPL. There is no point me going into detail analysis, so
many days after the event. I am sure you watched the game
(or did you opt for The Apprentice) and have read the match
report. I enjoyed watching Barcelona just outplay Manchester
United and the crowning moment, when Xavi crossed in for
Messi to score was just a football moment that dreams are
made of. All the talk earlier, had been how Christian Ronaldo
was a complete player as he scored more headers (or was
that headers in general) than Messi. Seems like the little
Argentine got is final word in with the ball in the back
of the net. I was very happy for Henry to finally get his
hands on the European Cup, although yes I would have preferred
him to be wearing Arsenal colours.
On Thursday straight after work I got around to doing a practice run, the last before my the real deal on Sunday morning. I had originally hoped to complete the full route but with the heat and my tired legs, I decided to stop once I got back into town at 6k. Not bad, as it took me thirty-seven minutes. The first 3k are the most difficult as the terrain is uphill, a steep Strawberry Hill and then a gradual incline (which is worse) up to the A43. I was glad to get the practice in and also acclimatize to the weather conditions, it is going to be hot on Sunday.
What have I got planned for the weekend? Well apart from my run there is not that much going on. I am off to London to meet a friend in the evening. The lures of the bright lights of the city can never keep me away for long. Saturday will be a cleaning and organising day followed by perhaps a walk in the park and a chance to read my book. Then the FA Cup followed by Britain's Got Talent final (yes I started watching in parts last weekend) and then my family should arrive at some point in the evening for food and then an early night before my run.
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Monday 25th May 2009
It is 16:25 as I begin writing, I mean typing this post. The Spring Bank Holiday Weekend is slowly drawing to a close! I have quite a few things to mention and for a change do not have any blog notes prepared to jog my memory. Overall a very good weekend, got a few jobs done, met up with friends, had fun, got a heavy session in on the gym and finally started the book I have been wanting to read for some five years.
Saturday morning and the comfort surroundings of home. It was great to be in
Wycombe but it was a short stay, on Sunday afternoon I would
be heading back to Newbury. I got up around 8.30am and then
enjoyed being able to channel hop from 350 up to 370-something.
I spent a little time on the computer and actually went
through all my mail before sitting down to watch Football
Focus. It was the last weekend of the EPL. Then I got the
call from Ryan that we would meet at 3pm in Hurricanes.
So I decided to get ready and then head into town to go
for a bit of a walk around before meeting my old school
friends.
While waiting for 100 bus on Cressex Link, I noticed a dark blue Honda Civic drive up very slowly and then park in the bus stop. I could see the lady was lost and offered her some directions. I tried to explain that as it was a restricted junction she would have to go straight across at the lights and then right. She drove off but within minutes was back and then I had to give her directions again but for the opposite route. That was my deed of the day.
Wycombe has not changed that much in the time I have been away, but as Ryan said later, I make it sound like I have emigrated abroad, when the reality is I have not actually moved more than an hour drive away. I went into the Sony Centre to see how much a screen guard was and memory. I think the teenage sales assistant was a bit shocked when I would not let him touch my camera and just explained that it was the CyberShot DSC-T77 and I was also looking for 4gb or 8gb memory. £29.99 and £59.99 respectively. It was that point I walked out of the store, to the shock of the assistant who was still pushing buttons on the computer. How can Sony justify £9.99 for a screen guard when you can get the same piece of sticky back plastic for £1.49 on eBay.
I checked prices elsewhere in town (SanDisk were slightly cheaper) but am just
going to get the Memory Stick Duo using my Sony Pulse Points.
I even went to check at Argos before then finally going
to meet up with Trev and Ryan at Hurricanes. This was the
first time I was going to the pool club. I had never been
to the establishment when it was under the guise of Fast
Eddies. Well I only actually went in around 3.15pm as I
had been waiting for Ryan to turn up but it was only when
Trev rang me to explain he was inside already that I went
up. I met up with Trev and said hello, only to then be accosted
by the owner, manager or grey haired guy in charge to be
given a telling off. Yes, I was not following the house
rules and I needed to sign in and pay my guest fee. Just
as I was about to sign the book, Buckle turned up and flashed
his membership card. Buckle being in the generous mood he
was, got the drinks and the pool table in and we then headed
to table ten.
I am rubbish at pool and have been for as long as I can remember. Although I suppose with practice I could improve ever so slightly. It all goes back to the days at secondary school. My friend Richard and I would cover lunchtime duty in the Youth Centre (which was right next door to the school). Once a week we were not behind the till serving food so we would either play basketball in the court or more often play pool. I was so rubbish that a crowd would rather to see how badly I could play this week.
It was a whitewash, Ryan won all four games and then we
decided what to do with the rest of the afternoon and subsequent
evening. Ryan suggested going to the park in Marlow, although
I would have been happy to stick in Wycombe and go down
the Rye for old times sakes. So we headed to the car, which
was parked the other side of town. However, first we had
to stop by WHSmith so Mr. B could buy a photo album. We
then got to the car which was park in the car park by Kings
Church opposite Second Hand City (which is no more). Now
Ryan does not drive direct, he has to take the back route,
it would have been easier and quicker to go down the by-pass
but no, he had to take the back route. Never mind, we parked
up and headed down to the park. Trev bought a football from
the Toy Shop on the High Street and we then walked into
the blazing sunshine to the park and started to have a kick
around. It was around 5pm if I remember correctly.
So after kicking a ball around for an hour or so, we headed back into Marlow. Straight to the Slug and Lettuce. It was here we spent most of the evening from 7pm until about 9pm. I got texts from Kev and Pav that they were going out in Reading and they needed my company. However, I was busy and would not be able to make it. There will be plenty of nights out in the future. It was nice to just chill out and catch up with my old school mates. Trev I had not seen since August last year and he had not been able to make it to the other nights out we had arranged more recently. Then around 8.30pm, Trev made the announement that we had to leave and meet his friend Wayne in The Prince Of Wales and off we went. The night was drawing in now and I felt very tired (I am getting old). Around 9.30pm, we finally decided to leave and head back home. Ryan gave me a lift. He still has only the trusty classic cassette player in his Punto. He had a tape with *NSYNC on and I requested Bye Bye Bye, which took him so long to find (skip to) that we were almost at John Hall Way by the time it came on. I was home and shattered, even though it was relatively early on Saturday evening. I had some food and went on the computer for a short time but after fifteen minutes, there was no way I could keep my eyes open and went straight to bed.
Sunday was a productive day, I set out to get plenty done and did! In the morning around midday, after writing some letters and clearing loads of paper work I got to washing the car. It did not take that long, as it had only been three weeks since the last wash but it was satisfying to get it done. Around 2pm, or perhaps a little later I finally came in to get some food and watch some television. I was annoyed that I had missed Transformers on Sky Movies. Well missed the main chunk of the movie and it was now the climatic last act. Friends will have noticed my status update to both Facebook and Twitter. My friend Bhavna had only recently seen the movie (in the past few days) and I was commenting that my favourite character was Sector 7 chief Reggie Symmons. His line still has me in stitches some two years after I saw the movie (and then again at IMAX). I cannot wait for the second installment in the franchise. The Revenge Of The Fallen looks even better than the first outing. Roll on June!
Then I watched the start of the Newcastle Villa game on
Survival Sunday. The wonderful sunshine in Birmingham reminded
me of the same day three years earlier in North London.
The final salute to Highbury. But there was no time for
sentimental nostalgia. I was going to be headed back to
Newbury very soon. I had originally planned to leave at
4pm but it was coming up to 5pm before I actually left.
My sisters had just arrived, so I saw them briefly. I got
to Newbury, unpacked the car and put a few new mp3s onto
my Coby MP3 player and then headed directly to the gym.
The weather was awesome and it was the first this year I
was wearing shorts (yes I really thought I should share
that with the world).
The gym was dead, as I expected. Everyone was outside enjoying the weather but it meant I had practically free roam of the free weights area. I decided to not do my complete programme as I had the Gym Xchange the next day and could get some more exercises done then. It was a steady session before I came back to the flat and then planned the rest of my evening. I was contemplating a movie but instead got watching the first semi-final of Britain's Got Talent and then spent the rest of the night online chatting to friends on MSN and Facebook.
On Monday AKA today, I got up early but really should not have bothered as Pav was late. Originally I had wanted him to get over to Newbury for 8am, so we could hit the gym as soon as it opened but he insisted on a lay in (what a poor excuse!). So we agreed on 9am, however he did not arrive until 9:32am precisely (the moment he called me). While I was waiting, although I had been tempted to go on the desktop, I resisted and went onto the laptop. I have loaded on Puppy Linux but the boot was not working, so I just used the live distro CD which was still in the drive. All I wanted to do was quickly check my e-mail and update both my Facebook and Twitter statuses.
Unfortunately this was a very different affair in comparison
to earlier this month. No protein
shakes, no crazy concoctions to eat. It was on my patch,
so it was my rules (well kind of). I was not bouncing off
the ceiling and it would tell later on during the session.
It was just nice for The Beast to see the gym where I work
out. He was very impressed and gave it a big thumbs up!
:) On the drive down to Nuffield, Pav passed over his new
regime as provided by the legend that is flexsingh. It was
the standard three day affair, heavy weights and five sets
of ten on average. It was only a little later that I noticed
an extra box at the bottom of the page. There was the extra
"4th" day. This was called Tabata (although I stupidly would
refer to it as Tambata). Well unfortunately there is surprisingly
no Wikipedia entry on this subject (or the creator Dr. Izumi
Tabata) but Google does always provide an answer.
We would get to that later. First, we had arrived at the
gym and had to sign in, then go and pack our things away
before heading up the stairs to the fitness suite. Pav was
very impressed, it reminded him of Rivermead (but with a
good free weight area). We then did a quick ten minute warm
up on the cross trainers before then hitting the bench press.
I really do not want to bore everyone with the programme but it was good fun.
Pav was pushing me hard, even though I did not do that well
on the bench press. If anything towards the end, I was helping
Pav with the dumbbells rather than doing any crazy exercise
of my own. For desert, we had a bit of tabata. We jumped
onto the rowing machines and set them up for twenty seconds
of rowing and then a ten second break and then twenty seconds
of rowing again and so on. We aimed for eight sets. Pav
told me to fill up my now empty Powerade bottle with water,
I was going to need it. I did but only had one opportunity
to drink it during the ten second break. I kept up with
Pav and was only a metre behind on average. It was a great
way to end the second gym exchange. I really enjoy cardio
workouts and this tabata was fantastic. I am thinking of
fitting it in alternatively into my cardio sessions but
on a Thursday morning I do not have that much time before
I have to rush back to the flat and into the office.
Before we left, I introduced Pav to my personal trainer, Adam, who had been
hiding in the consultation room most of the morning as he
was hung over! He looked at Pav's programme was was duly
impressed and of course the results speak for themselves
when you see Pav now and compare it with a photograph from
even a year ago. Pav then went into a lecture on how I do
not push myself and that I am never going to bulk up if
I keep within weights I can manage. My only defense was
that I was trying to hone the technique before pushing up
the weights. My technique just goes to pot the moment I
push the weight up, even if only a little. It was at that
moment I booked in my next review with Adam, for Friday
5th June. That brought the gym exchange part deux to a close
and we headed to the changing rooms to review the day. No
celebrity lookalikes this time around I am afraid.
I was hoping to fit in a 10k run during the afternoon but ended up opting out. James went for a run after his spin class was canceled due to the Bank Holiday. I had lunch, spent a little time online, decided to not going food shopping and instead around 3pm headed into Victoria Park. It was an amazing day and too silly to spend it inside. I had finished my book by Gordon Brown earlier than afternoon and began in earnest, reading Dreams From My Father. I have been wanting to read this book for a while but feel this has to be most appropriate moment in my life. From the first page, I could tell that this was going to be an enjoyable journey. I only read seventeen pages of the actual main book (there are two introductions) and can only say Barrack Obama has a very touching writing style, very poignant choice of words and phrases. I could tell that this book is going to be difficult to put down. Plus it is refreshing to read the journey a man can make from the days before his birth to finally making it to the White House. Around 4pm or so I headed back to the flat, I had to tidy up a little and then settled on the computer for a few hours. It was at that point I decided it was time to watch a movie.
I chose Crank
because I wanted some mindless action and explosions. I
got that, plus a whole lot more. It was completely unbelievable.
I mean a car stuck on an escalator? Please? Surely the blue
screen or computer graphics can be used to make it look
more realistic. Jason Statham gives another fantastic performance,
as usually performing all his own stunts. It was just entertaining
violence, drugs and rock and roll for nearly ninety minutes.
A film you can watch with your brain left somewhere out
in the garden. Perhaps not the ideal way to end a long Bank
Holiday weekend but a good way to relax before the busy
working week ahead. The only consolation is there are only
four days instead of the usual five.
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Friday 22nd May 2009
It is sixteen minutes into Saturday when I begin writing this blog post and I have quite a lot to mention but if I am honest, I cannot put my finger exactly on 'what' that 'lot' is! Funny that you go through the week, making observations and having episodes which you feel I should include in the blog roundup at the end of the week but when the time comes to write them up, you cannot recall any.
Busy week at work but I was looking forward to the long weekend and the trip back to Wycombe. On Tuesday after work I went for a three mile run (okay only 2.92m) with James. I had wanted to do the complete route again but my legs and my body in general was just not up for it. Although I did feel much better once I had done the second 'flat' part of the Newbury race. The time was just over thirty minutes which is not too bad and I know I can go much faster. My plan is to try and do the full route on Monday afternoon but this could be weather permitting. Not long to go now, so if you have not donated yet, please do.
Apart from getting back into the swing of my early morning gym sessions (6.30am) on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday there has not been much to report. I got up late on Thursday (6:18am) but still managed to be in the bike at the gym within twenty minutes of leaping out of bed, which must be some record. Obviously the gym xchange from last Sunday had to be rescheduled, so we have penciled it in for Sunday afternoon. Pav will be heading over to Newbury and working on the latest programme provided by flexsingh. Should be good and I am sure that Pav will be impressed with the Nuffield Fitness & Wellbeing Centre.
I am very close to finishing my book by Gordon Brown. Courage: Eight Portraits has been a fascinating read and very well written considering the bland personality of the author. It is also very strange to be reading about Aung San Suu Kyi and then seeing her name flash up on the BBC News ticker. However this was the chalk before the cheese (rather a silly analogy to use for books). I am going to finally read Dreams From My Father by President Obama. Yes, the book does have high expectations to realise but I am just looking forward to getting back into a meaty book after reading rather light weight books in recent months. It has only taken me nearly six months to get around to reading the book by the first Black president. My sister, Natalie got it for Christmas but I was too busy reading other books to get around to picking it up until now. Although I have to confess that I find it much harder to read in the evening, in bed before drifting off to sleep. Perhaps because my body is so tired and I hit the gym so early in the morning. My reading time is now at lunchtimes. I get some food and head down to the canal and ready while watching the world passing me by. A very peaceful way to spend forty odd minutes. Plus it gives my eyes a break from the computer screen. Unlike many people, after spending nearly seven hours on the computer at work, I go and spend at least another three if not more on the computer back at home.
On Tuesday, I made the decision to go back to the flat at lunchtime. This was only the second time I have come back to the flat at lunchtime. The last occurrence being on Thursday 30th April. It is not something I want to make a habit out of, but it made sense on this occassion. I bought some milk from Tesco Metro, then headed back to the flat, put on the desktop, started GREEK downloading and then made lunch of bagel (yes I actually toasted it this time!) I caught a little News on BBC One but was constantly clock watching before eventually heading back out the door back to work. Yes, there are numerous benefits of living so close to work but going back at lunchtime can be a slippery slope. I can imagine one day, getting ingrossed in some television or music or something, losing track of time and not bothering to go back.
What are the rest of my plans for the weekend? Well not much really. I am meeting Ryan and Trevor in town tomorrow sometime in the afternoon. However apart from that not much planned. I tried to call Jennifer this evening but there was no answer from her landline, so she might be away this weekend enjoying the sunshine. I am going to enjoy the sunshine as well, give the car a wash tomorrow morning and then perhaps clear up my old room a little. I have tended to just dump things in the past when coming back and forth from Newbury.
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Wednesday 20th May 2009
It is a major challenge to blog about the weekend when it feels such a distant memory. Here I am midweek, trying to frame together events from several days again into words that people will understand. Friday night I had planned to watch a movie but in the end, spent too much time chatting to my friends online via MSN and then was too tired around 1.30am to be bothered with another ninety minutes of starring at a bright screen in a dimly lit room, so I headed to bed. Looking forward to what the weekend had to offer. On Saturday I got up around 8am and made some breakfast while watching BBC Weekend Breakfast. Then it was start of the clear up which has become the standard affair on a Saturday morning. Taking out the trash (as they would say across the pond). Cleaning the kitchen after another disaster Friday evening cooking attempt. Then I got the call from Preeti that she was already at Reading and was going to be in Newbury within a few minutes, so I headed out into town to the train station. Just as I got into the Market Square it started to rain but not that heavily, it would be okay. I had left my umbrella back at the flat.
When we did meet up, Preeti had to go all desi on with a purple shaul. Come on please! Thankfully the rain subsided, so she took it off. First stop Tescos for some ice and drinks then back to the flat. Just in time for Football Focus. How convenient! As much as I knew that Man United were going to clinch the title later that afternoon, I did enjoy the montage from the Beeb. Featuring the career of Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson alongside the triumphs of Liverpool FC. This was all played out against the soundtrack of my favourite David Bowie song - Life On Mars? I have longed believed that Sky did the best montages particularly for sport but the Beeb does deliver when it counts (usually when England have just gone out again on penalties in the World Cup).
Then at 1pm sharp, it was time to start get cooking. We were much better prepared than last time, thanks to a visit to Wikinsons. First on the menu was Quorn Saussage Casserole followed by a desert of Cheesecake Brownies. The evening entertainment was going to be provided by Eurovision.
In between cooking we realised that we were missing the baking dish for the cake, so headed to down to get something suitable. We looked in Camp Hopson and M&S (a tiny home section upstairs, it was the first time I had ventures upstairs in the store). In the end we found the perfect dish at a great price in Robert Dyas. I am surprised I did not think of the store before hand. Then, it was a trip up to Waitrose (another first for me, I had never been to the store, even though it is technically the closest store to my office) until then. So it had already become a weekend of world first's. Then we were heading back to the flat and making preparations for the desert. Timing had fallen a little behind. The crucial part was to be sitting by the television to watch Eurovision around 7:50pm. Unlike last year when it had been a mission to get to St. John's Hill with the remote control with seconds remaining before 8pm.
The cake did eventually go into the oven and begin to set and meanwhile we watched Back To The Future Part II on ITV2. It had just started and we watched the fantastic hoverboard chase sequence (which I am sure nobody could ever tire of) and the rest of the movie until it was time for Eurovision.
Obviously last year there was a party as a house warming for Pav and Em and I would have loved a similar event this year. However it was not to be, as Pav was busy detailing and as the weekend had come around earlier than expected it had kind of caught us all unaware. I enjoyed the show and it was good to have scorecards to keep track of our favourite performances of the evening. My favourite song had to be Malta but best performance was Turkey and Moldova! Yet, the favourite won with a record breaking haul of points. I can understand why it worked so well with the European voters. My piano teacher would comment the following day that the British entry, although coming out with a very admirable 5th place was far to repetitive. Plus Andrew Lloyd-Webber should not have been on the stage with Jade, practically upstaging her. Hopefully this is turning point for the UK. We start to take it seriously and next year we bring it home? Emily text me during the performances and gave her own critique on a few and promised that if the UK entry won she would be at the show, I agreed. I am afraid we will have to hold onto those dreams for another year.
It was at the midway point during the scoring that I started to feel unwell. An upset stomach, I think the genius idea of picking up Peanut M&Ms from Tesco was coming back to bite me in the behind! I had to get to bed soon but wanted to see the evening out for now and see Norway crowned champions. I drank some water and it helped and by 23:30 was in bed. I was determined not to let Sunday drift away into obivilion like last weekend.
Sure enough, somehow I managed to rescue Sunday into a day of some action. Getting up at 9am, after a heart breakfast I headed to the gym. It was a good hour long session in there, it was very busy but I felt better for it. I got back to the flat around 11.30am and got ready, collected my things and headed out the door again. It was off to Thame for my piano lesson. I got there a little later than planned (it had originally been pencilled in for 12pm). However, before we even got to the lesson, we had a catch up and then plan of action. The first task was to replace the rear brake bulb on my car. Once we got the housing open we realised I had bought the wrong bulb (well in terms of contact type.) The bulb I needed was with single contact and you can guess it, I had double contact. I had stopped Clive a microsecond before he was about to open the case and we would have to go to Halfords and get a refund or buy the correct bulb locally and I would then have to get a refund from Halfords later in the week. The store in Thame was closed (it closed at lunchtime on Sundays apparently). So there was little choice, over to Aylesbury. We drove to the Broomfields Retail Park and managed to convince the sales assistant at the till that with no receipt we could exchange the bulb. I was going from 380 to 382. It worked and we had the correct bulbs and headed back to Thame. Stopping at The Bugle Horn at Hartwell for a spot of late lunch. Nearly two hours clocked by and no start of the piano lesson. The bulb change was actually very straight forward. I think Audi try to scare you off from working on the car yourself so that you go to a stealer and fill their pockets. No such stupidity ever again. In fact I am going to get a whole bulb kit and keep it in the car for future use. We got down to a piano lesson eventually but towards the end the weekend was catching up with me and we were falling asleep and the keys. Heading home, I forgot my piano music book and had to turn around, thankfully I had only got down to the first roundabout.
When I got back to Newbury I actually had loads of work to do and it must have been coming up to 6pm. I put my shirts in the washing machine and then made a start on all the washing up. Thankfully there was not that much as Preeti had spent a great deal of timing cleaning up before she left. Then I bombed around online for a while before eventually deciding to get some food. I watched The Car Show. This documentary covered the rise and popularity of the car show on television. It was very interesting to watch and see how Top Gear came about and became the show to copy. Later that evening the car theme continued, as I watched Fast & Furious. It was very disappointing, I expected much better, particularly from Walker and Diesel. I would even go as far as to say that is it the fourth worst in the series. My personal favourite has to be the second (first sequel) as the chemitry between Walker and Tyrese is electric, plus there is the glamour of Eva Mendes alongside the callous evil villan. (I am sure he had rats bite a corrupt policeman's stomach!). Here the plot is almost non-existent, while Vin Diesel and Paul Walker might as well have been shooting different movies. There are no comic moments which also make the previous films entertaining. I cannot believe they are going to milk these for not just another but other another two, yes two movies. Okay there is a sense of revenge but it all seems rather pointless and the ending is just rather pathetic. At least at the end of the first movie there was a message, an understanding between cop and criminal.
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Friday 15th May 2009
Back in 2005, on Sunday August 7th (to be precise)
I finally went to Cardiff and completed the trophy of all
major cities across the United Kingdom. During the drive
in the early hours of Sunday morning, on the M4, I drove
passed a hotel. I did not note the name of the hotel but
you could not miss it by junction twenty four (Newport).
As I drove back home, dejected from the defeat, I thought
to myself that one day I would like to go to that hotel.
Then, two years later (almost to the day)
as I drove in on the same stretch of motorway heading to
Rhossili Bay, near Swansea I had the same thought. Well
on Wednesday morning, that dream (if you can call it that)
came true. I was going to a work conference at Celtic
Manor. If it will be good enough for Tiger, next year,
then I am sure it will do nicely for me. Even though this
was just a day trip, I would not be spending an evening
in one of the two presidential suites.
I seem to have started some crazy over on Facebook and both Pav and his colleague Barry Tuck have been excited to unveil my very on fan page on the social network. However, I find it very difficult to join because technically I cannot be seen to be a fan of myself. Particularly when the title is Terry "The Feather" T.E.G.A.L.A. (not exactly sure what the abbreviation of the letters of my surname means but I will let that go). To date, I have twenty eight fans, but most of those I are people I know and have at least met. While this perhaps should bother me, it does not. Facebook is a closed network and anyone of any significance in my life have been placed on a limited profile ever since the weekend. However, as much as I can control my privacy settings I just have to hope that Mr. Khural has strict policies in place. The more pressing issue is these videos landing on YouTube and opening me up to exposure on a world wide scale. Some people love the limelight and actively court the fame (and sometimes fortune). For others, like myself find it completely alien and actually detest being the centre of attention. I would much rather someone else took centre stage (Foxy) and I can then just melt into the background. The only thing on my side is that all fads come to an end. This is just a phase and people will eventually bore of it. Until then, they can do their worst but sticking a camera in my face at every social gathering will also very soon become tiring!
Watch the series finale of Fringe
on Thursday night. It was very good but as left more questions
than answers, particularly with the clever ending, which
I hope will lead to series two being commissioned. Many
US shows are ending (if they have not already) so I may
find that I will be filling my evenings with piano practice
rather than television shows from across the pond. Fringe
for me was excellent because it was a mixture of The X-Files
and CSI (in it's many carnations) but the best aspect was
the relationship between Peter and his dad, Dr. Walter Bishop.
You did not know what was going to happen every week, even
though there were common elements, the so called Pattern
thread across the series. It is a typical JJ
Abrams affair with the specter of a big corporation
behind everything. Give the person that came up with the
name Massive
Dynamic a medal please! I must hand it to the Americans
they do pull of a very professional looking site for their
fictional organisations and better job then their counterparts
at the BBC for shows such as Doctor Who and Torchwood!
Training for the Bayer 10k went up a level this week
when I went out for a full run of the circuit with some
colleagues on Tuesday evening. I had planned to leave work
at 4.45pm but did not leave until 5.20pm as I had some reports
to run so then had to rush out of the office back to my
flat to get changed, leaving my colleagues waiting in the
courtyard. Not a great start but when we did meet up, outside
LA Fitness we headed onto the route. James had just purchased
a Garmin GPS Running Watch, the Forerunner
405 and was keen to test it out. It was hard work and
Caroline quickly built up an impressive lead with the rest
of us struggling behind. At the halfway point (in town,
some of my colleagues headed home) so it was down to the
final three, Caroline, James and myself. The route goes
back into town, then down the canal around a new(ish) housing
estate and then back into town. This was a part of Newbury
I had never been to before. Although the actually finish
point is the Market Square, we carried on running to McDonalds.
The total distance was 6.4 miles (which just for the record
is exactly 10.2998016 kilometres) and the all important
time was 1 hour and six minutes, so I can easily get into
the sixty minute zone. Although it was a tough slog I know
I am capable of clocking a better time. The real hard work
starts here, there are only fifteen days to go until the
big day.
As I had a long day on Wednesday, I was given some time off in lieu by my manager.
I decided to leave early on Friday (now who would not?).
The originally plan was to leave at 2pm but I eventually
left thirty minutes later after speaking to my manager on
the phone and confirming that everything that needed to
be done had been. My afternoon was action packed (well,
busy with tasks, that I would normally do on over the weekend).
Firstly I went to the bank to pay in my first offline donation
for the Bayer 10K run. Then it was a brisk walk back to
the flat, grab my shopping list and Tesco Green bags and
head to erm Halfords. Yes I had to get a brake bulb for
my car but needed some help from the parts supervisor whom
was busy dealing with another customer. So after a fifteen
minute wait I got the item I was looking for. I am going
to try and install it myself and should be okay. Much better
than paying Audi stealers nearly £30 for the privilege.
What are my plans for the weekend? Well after the success of The Gym Xchange, we have the second leg at my gym on Sunday morning. Obviously now Pav will be away and visiting my home turf, the rules will be changed and in my favour. No protein shakes, no magic tablets. It will be very simple, some Jordan's Porridge Oats, followed by a banana and if he is lucky a Powerade in the gym (even though I tend to stick with H2O). Following that I have a piano lesson in Thame in the afternoon. Even though I have done zero practice since my last practice and all but given up on the instrument this year. I expect some heavy words from my teacher but will he be able to inspire me to pick up the ebony and ivory keys again?
Tomorrow night is Eurovision and as I confessed to the world last year, I am
a fan! Although there is no big fancy dress party like
last year. It has
come along a week early this year (it is usually over the
second May Bank Holiday weekend). So watching at home will
be good, I will have a scorecard and some good company to
compare notes with.
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Monday 11th May 2009
Sometimes, even I surprise myself but then sometimes it is difficult to meet the expectations of your friends, not matter how much peer pressure they lay at your door. If I could describe my life at the moment, it could easily be summarised with the latest television advert from Virgin Trains (I am sure you will have seen it over the weekend).
All you need to do is replace Ed with Teg (or Terry more likely) and the theme is pretty much the same. Although I have yet to learn how to play The Final Countdown by Europe on the keyboard.
Some people hate having their photograph taken, and I was the same when I was younger. However, as you grow up, you realise they are relatively harmless. Although, this was the time before Facebook and FlickR and Twitpic, camera phones and even digital cameras. In any case, I have never really been that bothered by photographs, even though have been some shocking photographs posted online in the past. My real problem is video. I do not come across very well in footage and I find that my voice is terrible, it sounds so different from what I speak like in person. (Although I am sure many people will disagree).
How was your weekend? Mine was action packed but not until late into Saturday
evening. It began as a rather tame affair. I got up at around
8am and after breakfast, got started on a few jobs. The
flat needed a major clear out and clear up. Football Focus
was on half an hour earlier, so I watched that before then
finishing the clear up in the kitchen. I had to clear up
after fajitas on Friday night. I watched a double episode
of Dolls House during the day because I had not watched
last week's episode yet. It was the season finale, like
many US shows and everything was rapped up well enough for
a second series but will it happen? I do not think so. Good
conception for a show but it was never going to go the distance.
Then it was a case of getting myself ready for the night
ahead.
4Music are having a US of MAY theme for this month and on Saturday evening (not for the first time) they played Jackson's Saturday Night Anthems. Now this has to be the perfect way to get yourself ready for a night out. If The Way You Make Me Feel does not want to make you want to get up and dance there is something seriously wrong with you. It was not the first time the world famous Michael Jackson back catalogue was being used as the build up to Saturday night but once again I only caught a handful of songs towards the end of the slot (5pm to 7pm if I remember correctly). There is some chronological order to proceedings as they ended with You Rock My World. But as expected they use the shorter music video version so you miss the classic line from Billy Drago, "I think he wants to die!" (2:06 in the YouTube video link)
Nige and Div came around to pick me up, but just like Pav and Em a few months ago, they drove to Chestnut Crescent and not Chestnut Court. Never mind, I was able to wait at the top of London Road and wait for them to find me (which they did, not helped by my poor directions over the phone! They found me and we were on our way, it took a little longer than I expected but never mind. Like Nige said there is no point rushing there and burning all that extra fuel. We stopped at the services on the M27 and Nige got us some snacks. I shared a Kit Kat Chunky with Div, while discussing plans for their forthcoming wedding. All this talk of marriages does make me feel old and very much single!
Nige had estimated an ETA of around twenty to nine, and was pretty much spot on. It was a strange moment when we pulled off the dual carriageway (which leads to Bournemouth), we were in the countryside with a wonderful view across the New Forest. The sun was just about to start setting in the distance and there were horses roaming free on the road. It really was a surreal experience but we were less than a mile away from the Burley Manor Hotel. We drove through to the Charcoal Suite, parked up and the party could begin.
Div was a bit anxious to go in first, so I obliged and saw Deun and Kev in the corner but looking across towards the bar, I heard a roar of "Terry". That was quite a reception and I was just a nobody making his rather pathetic entrance. Talk about perfect timing, the happy couple were just about to have their first dance. The wonderfully romantic Can't Help Falling In Love With You. Obviously the 1993 UB40 version, not the 1961 King Of Rock and Roll rendition. So before I could even really say hello to my friends and respond to the warm welcome, I had to get the camera out and start clicking away (as did everyone else around me). Rather than go into all the details of the night, I can refer you to my latest FlickR set.
It was a great night, those of you on Facebook will have been entertained by not just more photographs but three very exclusive videoes, which I am well informed have also found their way onto YouTube. Pav was hoping I would embed them on this blog but there is no such chance. I will all those shannigans to the facebook world and not let it interfer with the business of my blog.
The only problem with a good night out is the morning after. I was in a very bad state. I got up around 9.30am and managed to get out of bed and crash on the sofa, but it was no use, I had to lie down. After a few minutes I realise that there was little chance of making the gym this morning and better to get back into bed and rest. My dream was very strange and actually felt real in the sense I woke up and it was gone 4pm and now the all the supermarkets were closed. It was only when I actually came around that I realised that it was only midday and I had not completely wasted the day. I got up about thirty minutes later, had some Start and then tried planned to make the most of the day, even in my rather sorry state. I had a quick shower, which helped and then headed to Tesco. On the dual carriage way up to the retail park, I was overtaken by a black mark two Toyota MR2. It was going at least 70, if not faster perhaps even pushing 90. (The limit on the road itself is 50). Then as I came up to the roundabout, I noticed the MR2 on the roundabout, facing the wrong way. The fool had driving so far around the roundabout but lost control and was now the wrong way around and facing traffic. For a split second I thought I was dreaming but it had happened and then without a care in the world, the driver did a quick wheelspin, turns the car around and shot off back into Newbury. Things like this can only happen in West Berkshire on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The supermarket was busy but I had a defined list of things to get and I got everything I wanted and was in and out within the hour. Then back to the flat, I tried to find something productive to fill my time and even had dreams of heading to the gym (although that was not to happen). I jumped on the computer after putting all my food shopping away and then realised that I had not eaten anything and was just drinking tropical juice. So I raided the cupboards and made a peanut butter bagel, that filled the hole I have to say!
In the evening I watched Valkyrie. I had hoped to catch the movie at the cinema, back in February but the theatrical run had come to a close (the day before infact) and we had to watch Benjamin Button instead which was perhaps more suited to the occassion. It was very good and all the cast (mainly British actors) provide a great performance. There is not a lot for Tom to do, but when he is called upon he delivers as you expect but this is no Jerry Maguire. The concept of the film is to re-tell the story of the 20th July Plot and prove that even within the brutal regime, there were men (and women) willing to stand up to the might of Nazism. The resemblence between Cruise and von Stauffenberg is uncanny and he does protray the character very well, particularly in the final scenes. There is a cold chilling atmosphere to the film from beginning to end and perhaps the greatest point when Adolf has to sign the new Operation Valkyrie plans. I would highly recommend this movie, sure there is a little bit of Hollywood gloss to proceedings but it is generally true to real story and proves just how close they were to completing the coup. I remember reading a text book at school, during GCSE History about this subject and my teacher almost laughing at the fact that Hitler had the traitors hung by piano wire. It was true and the film does deal with this element very well.
I have a very busy week this week, not just at work. Tomorrow I am going to hit the road for the full Bayer 10k route with the girls from the 7th Floor. (Well actually that is not technically true as my office does not have a seventh floor, well not even a third). Some of my colleagues from Med Info will be running the whole route and James decided to add me to the group. That should be good and I will be glad to see what time I clock up, so I have something to beat for the event, which is just under three weeks away.
On Wednesday I am out office all day in Newport carrying out a software upgrade, which should be fun. Nice to have a day out of the office and get away from Newbury (sometimes I feel rather trapped by the small market town). Even if that means an early start and no gym in the morning and a potentially very late finish. I know I am going to be busy for the rest of the week, so will not get another opportunity to blog until Friday, with a preview to the weekend.
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Friday 8th May 2009
My weekend officially started around 4.20pm this afternoon when I was sitting in my local barbers, getting my haircut and Africa by Toto came on the radio. Not exactly the banging club track I would have liked to listen to but remember this is Newbury, in deepest West Berkshire and having a radio on at all in such an establishment should be considering a big bonus. Ocean Drive by The Lighthouse Family was played next on Kick FM. Probably the most stupid question I have been asked by a hairdresser ever. Do you have it with a mohican at the back? Erm no, I leave that to the demigods of fashion such as David Beckham but I do no think he got the joke or cared. It has to go down in history as perhaps the worst haircut experience ever for me. Although the haircut itself was not that bad, the lack of communication was pitiful, I could have got more conversation out of a brick.
After my haircut, I headed back to the flat, a quick shower and then at 5pm, I left to go on a run with James. He has kindly got me going out with a group of female colleagues (from upstairs) for the full ten kilometres on Tuesday. So in some kind of preparation we aimed to do the first six this evening before the weekend. As we ran past the office, a banner had been put up advertising the race but also confirming all the places had sold out! I could only laugh as we made it up Strawberry Hill. It was a pleasant spring evening for a run, although the wind did get quite heavy as we approached the A43. The rest of the run was downhill then flat into Newbury town centre, we took a detour back towards the office and then West Street. Total time taken 39 minutes 10 seconds. Distance covered, 4.1 miles according to James' iPod Nike Runner thingy! I felt very tired and my calves ached but I felt a lot better that my weekend could now begin in earnest.
On Monday, I finally purchased I had been waiting several months for. Although the album itself had been many years in the making after several delays and leaks. I have been trying to look back and where this journey began for me and although I thought the initial kick off was 8th June (well actually the day before) when I heard Energy for the first time on KISS. However, the first time I became aware of Keri was four years earlier in 2004 when she appeared on Xzibit's single Hey Now (Mean Muggin). I did not hear from her again until Timbaland's Shock Value and the release of the single The Way I Are in May 2007. The song eventually peaked at number one spot some three months later.
Everything Keri has released (or has been leaked online) I have really enjoyed.
In particular the song, Promise In The Dark (which unfortunately
did not make the cut). So rather than order online I went
to HMV on Monday and bought the album. It was my first album
purchase since Thriller 25 back in February
last year. I have listened to the album and it is very good,
even though unofficial copies were leaked online months
ago. I was originally going to purchase the US version on
import but HMV have since deleted the item and only the
UK version is available for sale. Never mind, the UK version
has three extra bonus tracks. I really do hope that this
is the start of a long and successful career for Keri as
a solo artist. She has already done amazing work as a song
writer and this is naturally the next step. You can see
that she truly is living the dream and it feels an honour,
almost a privilege to be able to listen to her the result
of all those years of hard work. I am a strong believer
that you should support the artists your truly like and
for once I am putting my money where my mouth is. There
is however, as always some bad news. Keri will be supporting
Neyo on his UK tour. I bought tickets for my sister Natalie
for 8th July so she will get to see Keri live before me.
Then again, do I want to see Keri as a supporting artist
or a headline act in her own right? I know what I would
choose. On Sunday afternoon driving back from Bedford, we
listened to the Top 40 countdown on BBC Radio 1. Reggie
Yates did a wonderful interview with Miss Hilson. On the
inlay card, Keri makes many thank yous but specifically
to her fans for 'saying nice things about her on their blogs'.
I take it I am one of those fans. You can read a review
over at Toya's
World (although I do not agree with it that much, many
sound arguments are made!)
What have I been up to the for the past week? Well I suppose I should recap
the weekend first. On Saturday evening, during half time
of the football, Reena dropped by to collect her laptops.
She gave me a nice bottle of Hugo Boss eau du toilet as
a thank you gift which was very nice and totally unexpected.
I will wear it for the wedding tomorrow evening. Sunday
we were in Bedford seeing my cousins, spending a little
bit of time window shopping around town while my second
cousin had an eye test at Specsavers. It was quick stop
off, we headed back to Wycombe around 4.30pm. On Monday,
I had to get up and pack and after lunch headed back to
Newbury. Although originally I had wanted to go to the gym,
I was not feeling that great and instead decided to sort
out a few things and watch some television I had missed.
Back at work on Tuesday and although I had quite a lot
on, I breezed through most of the work load. At lunchtimes
I have been popping to the little park by the canal and
reading my book while having my lunch. It is a nice way
to break up the day and good to get away from the computer
screen. After work at 5pm, I went for the standard five
mile run and clocked up a time for forty-five minutes. This
was perhaps more due to the fact that it was my first run
in almost two weeks. It was good to get the run under my
belt before the football. The less said about that the better,
although if you really must, ArseBlog
does a well balanced Post
Mortem. It is very true that the best team won, but
I just would have preferred a little more battle from the
Gunners. Not just to lay down and die and in such gutless
fashion. Then twenty four hours later, you see Chelsea lose
in the cruel fashion of the away goals rule.
Weekend plans revolve around Kev's wedding, which takes place tomorrow in the New Forest. I am looking forward to the evening, it should be entertaining, even if Mr. Fox has been unable to attend due to his father's birthday. Sunday will be gym day, food shop and television catch up. I have plenty of television shows and movies that need to be watched on the wonder that is XBMC. Even my dear old friend from Uni, Sibtain has been raving about it, although I doubt he is using an original Xbox has his operating platform.
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Saturday 2nd May 2009
The Gym Xchange: Part Uno
It is 12:21pm on Friday 1st May, as I start this blog post, I am back from what I can only call a legendary session at Pav's gym. (We were there from 9.30am until nearly midday and I was pushed to the limits of my capabilities.) Not only that but we saw a famous look alike and when I got back and switched on my mobile phone, I had a text from Nuffield. My own gym was closed due to an 'overnight incident' in the spa! You could not make this up if you tried.
I heard Em leave the house around 7am and I got up and switched on my phone, it was 7:58am precisely, we were on schedule, plus the sun was shining brightly through the window. Time to get up and get ready. I went next door to wake up Pav, giving him a time check. He commented too on how wonderful the weather was and it was time to get up.
I went downstairs, jumped on the laptop and put on the television. Meanwhile
Pav was busy preparing breakfast. This was going to be very
different from my usual bowl of Kellogg'sStart.
We had a PHd Whey Chocolate Shake, followed by Jordan's
Porridge Oats with honey and brown sugar. It was not as
bad as I thought it was going to be. The shake was very
sweet and not that thick and went down the hatch pretty
well. The porridge was quite thick but still very sweet
and edible. I was buzzing a little and ready to hit the
gym. Pav meanwhile had to go the extra mile with his BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids)
tablets, mixed into a Lucozade Hydro Active drink.
I of course had to get online and update the status on both Facebook and Twitter,
before visiting my regular blog haunts (for a double hit,
as I had not read any from Thursday either!). It felt strange
being on MSN on a week day and not being at work. However,
eventually I dragged myself away from the screen, got my
stuff together and we were off to Caversham. I was really
buzzing (even before having a single drop of any of the
shakes!). Originally the idea of a gym exchange had been
a bit of a chore but now I was looking forward to it so
much that it was going to become the highlight of the weekend.
I was raring to go, punching the air in front of me and
making manly grunting noises as you do (in the company of
other men). I had played "Gonna
Fly Now" several times from my blog to set the mood.
I was all set.
The gym is in Caversham, a mile or so down the road. We
parked in the blazing sunshine of the Waitrose car park
and then took the stairs to the gym. (Why do all gyms have
stairs somewhere in the equation?). Pav asked about the
guest past and we went through to do the bureaucracy There
is always form filling but not too much beyond the standard
health questionnaire and address identification. Then I
was issued with a seven day pass and we were off. Pav gave
me a quick preview of the free weights room (we just walked
passed it on the way to the changing room). I already had
on my gear, so just dumped my holdall into a locker, grabbed
my gloves, towel and programme card and we were off. First
thing is first, the warm up.
We headed into the cardio room, which was quite small.
Time for the weigh in. Ladies and gentlemen, the challenger,
Terry "The Feather" Tegala weighs in at 64.5 kilograms.
Meanwhile the current champion, undisputed lighter weight
champion of the world, Pav, "The Beast" Khural weights in
at 75.6kg (A 10.1kg difference) Then we headed up the tight
steel grey spiral staircase up to the bikes and cross trainers.
There were only two spin bikes free but as Pav walked around
the corner, he noticed a cross trainer free with the bike
next door free also. I jumped on the cross trainer and Pav
jumped on the bike, however, I did a full ten minute work
out while Pav did just five minutes but then he was going
to be pumping some proper iron in a few minutes times. While
Pav did some stretches, I finished off and then the real
work could begin.
We headed through the door, down the stairs in the main corridor to the free
weights room. It was completely dead. Even though it was
legs, shoulders and abdominals day for me, I had to go on
the bench press and show my true ten pound credentials.
Rather than go into the details of the actual exercises
and weights covered, I will just get those that are really
interested to head over to Gyminee.
Both of our respective locker rooms will have the details
of the work outs completed on that day.
As we moved onto our second exercise (squats using the barbell) a big guy walked in. I noticed him and then Pav commented to me quietly, "Terry, Rocky is here". Sure enough, he did look Rocky Balboa (although perhaps a little younger than the man himself from this most recent movie (Rocky VI). It made my day and all I had in my head was the Rocky theme and Eye Of The Tiger. A little while later Pav needed to use the bar and asked, "Have you finished with the bar mate?" His reply was, "No mate, but I think it's finished with me!" We both broke out into fits of laughter. He had killed me officially and it was the highlight of the weekend so far.
A little Google search and I found a picture which perhaps closely resembles the Rocky look-alike we met in the gym. Although he was wider than he was tall and was loaded with some big guns (well cannons really).
That got me thinking, what did Stallone look like in his heyday. Could there have been a better action hero in the late 1970s to mid 1980s?
We completely lost track of time, it was 11:45am by the time we left the gym, we were well over schedule. Way over two hours in the gym when we had just scheduled an hour into the original master plan. We got back to the flat, showered and then I jumped online while Pav got the healthy lunch meal prepared. While Pav had been putting his new residents parking permit in the Rover, I received a text message. It was from my gym. It was closed due to an 'overnight incident'. It was once again that time to update status on both Facebook and Twitter. Reena was online on MSN and surprised to see me appear online on the IM client (now that I am no longer able to access it during the working day). It was good to speak to her and confirm that she would be over late on Saturday evening to collect her laptops. However, the chat was brief, we were behind schedule, I had to have pasta and then hit the road. There was not much time left. So the gym exchange was over and I enjoyed every millisecond. Probably the best gym session I have undertaken in the eighteen month period I have been attending a fitness centre (of some description).
It was around 2pm by the time we left the house and walked into town. Clear blue skies and golden sunshine, this is the way that days off work should be and the perfect way to start the extended Bank Holiday Weekend. Pav called Em and she was on the train and would be arriving in around 2.35pm, so we decided to go The Three Guineas. (Although Pav had originally suggested The Oakford (our regular haunt) but it was a longer work (now we were in the station) and there were better seating options outside the Guineas. Eventually Em arrived and then we headed down to River's Meadow.
Rather than go into the details of events at the Beer Festival. I will firstly take you back to my blog post from last year, I eventually got around to writing about the day albeit very briefly on Sunday 4th May. Or for a rather better photographic reminder you can check out the set over on FlickR. (Believe it or not I have uploaded some twenty albums since last May!). This year I left my camera at home, but Pav had his camera and took some great photographs and a very surprising video (taken at 8.30pm). To enjoy those delights you need to be either my friend or Pav's on Facebook.
We got there around 3pm and with no queue walked straight in, the place was mobbed. Obviously with the weather so good, many people may have thrown a sickie, although that would have been a bit suspect so close to a long weekend and of course I could not condone such behaviour. We eventually bumped into Ben and Charlie, then saw the rest of the group and met up with them. It was good to see Foxy and as usual he was on form again.
We got back to the house sometime after midnight, and I
remember finally going to bed around 1:44am, switching off
the laptop and content in the thought that the weekend still
had three full days to provide. However, as I left the house,
looking forward to being back in Wycombe within the hour,
my morning was literally smashed to little pieces. I opened
the boot to put in my bag and then heard the sound of glass
fragments hitting the pavement. Yes, my car had been broken
into but nothing stolen, there was nothing worth stealing.
The glove box was open but apart from that no real damage.
I went back to the house and reluctantly knocked on the
door to Pav and Em's. I would have to disturb their Saturday
morning lie in.
Obviously I did not exactly look streetwise cool driving back to Wycombe with a cardboard box taped to where my glass window should be, but I got back in one piece. I had to stop by at the BP Connect up the road, as I was driving on fumes as I usually do. It was around 3pm by the time the glass guy arrived and it was only with the help of a colleague and me providing a drill they got the job done. Then I spent the next two hours (from 4pm) washing the car and getting it clean. It was the first time she was being wash properly for a while. At 6pm, I came in exhausted and it was thirty minutes until the football. My weekend was about to get better, I just did not know what a football feast I was about to witness.
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Thursday 30th April 2009
My weekend started early, so while most other people have just a three day weekend, I have given myself an extra day off to make it a super four days off. I left work around 4.30pm and headed back to the flat. I had everything ready packed, so it was just a case of getting changed, doing the dishes and then finally packing the car. It was 16:59 as I got into the car ready to drive to Reading. However, I had to stop by to the BP garage to check my tyre pressures. Then I was on the road, but I was running out of fuel. The computer gave me a range of twenty five miles. The TomTom gave me twenty three miles to Pav's house. I would make it only just. I was waiting outside the house at 17:52, eight minutes ahead of schedule. Pav was not in and had had to make an unscheduled stop to Tesco to pick up some supplies. He arrived and the weekend could begin.
Pav cooked dinner as we caught up on the week, protein shakes, the plan for the gym in the morning and the rest of the activities for Friday. That is the key comment there, it did feel like a Friday today and maybe not just for me. Em arrived at 7pm and it was good to catch up and find out how her new job was going. We settled down in the lounge for Eastenders and ate our food before heading out as agreed at 19:40 for the cinema. Would we make it in time for Pearl & Dean.
X-Men have never been one of my favourite comic book hero franchises, however, I was forever a fan of the television cartoon series in my younger day and have seen all the movies. Only the third, X-Men: The Last Stand, did I catch on the big screen. I was therefore looking forward to the latest installment, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While in the hotel in Brighton a few weekends ago, the trailer had come on and Siy had commented that they were truly "milking the franchise". The only other pre-viewing comment I had received was from Pav's work colleague, Barry Tuck. "If you wanna see a hairy ripped man running around, it might just be right up your alley". The film in a nutshell there but after watching the trailer in full at the gym this morning, I was looking forward to the full cinematic experience and not the leaked workprint version. If you ask any X-Men fan, I am sure Wolverine would come out on top as the favourite character. Jackman played the role well in the original trilogy but is given the time to excel here on screen. However, I feel that he could have given more depth to the character, aside from the muscle and anger. Do not get me wrong the movie is very good and Jackman fills the lead role well but I wanted that little bit extra, to find out more about the character. A true test if you will. For a lead role, he does not have a great amoung of dialogue, so there is not the chance to explore the character in the way I would have hoped that the whole notion behind the origins concept. Nevertheless, great fun, loads of explosions, gunfights, chases and escapes. We guys just love that stuff but the story is very good as well, there is a start middle and end and the established link to the first movie. Although there are special effects they are used only when neccessary, the film at the end of the day is about Logan not the blue screen. Sure they has to be a love story and we understand that and many of the questions from the original movies are answered here but then there are many more questions that come to mind. Personally I would have prefered a little more to the backstory of how Wolverine grew up learning to live with his ability, his 'gift' and still follow the courageous path. The relationship with Victor is crucial and I would have wanted a better ending, rather than an open ending with no questions answered. If there is no reconcillation, is there truly no place for forgiveness?
Taking a step back in time to Wednesday lunchtime, as the weather was once again so good, I headed to the small garden by the canal. While walking down, I noticed a beautiful car in the car park. Newbury being such an affluent part of the country, I tend to see some glamorous cars about town but this was perhaps the best yet. I had to grab a photograph in the spring sunshine but my E65 does it little justice. I am surprised I have not mentioned this before but in the ABC series GREEK which I watch, the car (purchased by Evan with his inheritance) is refered to as the Iron Man car and not the Audi R8. I never thought it would be so difficult for the American public to refer to a European vehicle by it's model number and not the movie that it featured in. Although I suppose Paramount do not mind at all and neither will Audi.
After we got back from the cinema, we watched a few episodes of Family Guy (after Em had finished watching Brothers and Sisters). While Pav made the tea, I settled down onto the laptop and started writing up notes and part posts for the blog. I was really looking forward to the gym exchange. I cannot remember the exact time I actually went off to bed but Em had gone up ages and go and Pav wanted to watch the latest episode of LOST, so while he did that I got as much written up for the blog as humanly possible before I could no longer stare at the laptop screen and headed for bed. Tomorrow was going to be a great day. Oh before I forget, I should mention that there was no P&D music at the cinema screening. They went straight into the trailers, the latest Orange Ad starring a very old looking Emilio Estevez. Then it was straight into the movie! Perhaps because it was a Thursday night and the screen was half full.
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Sunday 26th April 2009
Sometimes it is a great to have a weekend to yourself. No major plans, things to do but being so minor, they can wait and there is no rush. Do not get me wrong, I love my crazy weekends when I am rushing around and hardly have time to breathe but having nothing on the agenda is a great feeling. Yesterday I got a few things done, I got up around 7:30am (even though I must have only fallen asleep around 2:30am), had some breakfast, started the clear out and then headed into town around 10am. I had to drop my suit off at the dry cleaners and then just pop into Tesco. When I got back I had a continue the clear up process and realised that I could the remainder today. It was only then I noticed from the EPG on Freeview that Football Focus was not on until 13:15, so I headed onto the computer for a bit and downloaded this week's Dollshouse (it was on break last week). I then decided to sit down and watch the previous two episodes because I had not watched them properly. Okay, in the first instance I had fallen asleep and the second time, I had decided to stop watching the show on the television back home in Wycombe. Then it was time for Football Focus. I did not have a proper lunch (just poppadoms and mango chutney that were leftover from Friday night) and then spent much of the rest of the afternoon on the computer (after putting the washing on). I sorted out my friend Reena's laptops and then thought I would get my media PC up and running. However, although the AGP card does have DVI output it did not, so I will need to grab my VGA monitor cable from back home next weekend and try that with the onboard graphics card first before installing Windows Media Centre and getting this baby up and running. The plan is that the media PC will host all my files and serve them to my Squeezebox Boom and XBox Media Centre (or hopefully directly to the television) if I can get it working. We shall see, we are nearly there, hopefully next Monday everything will be up and running.
I ironed my shirts while watching the tail end of Robin
Hood. I stopped watching the show a few episodes into the
first series as I soon realised it was just going to be
a cat and mouse game with the Sheriff every week. Shame
really but I suppose I should appreciate that I am not the
target demographic for the Saturday evening show. Afterwards,
I watched John Barrowman's Tonight's The Night. Not a bad
Saturday night show, is Barrowman the new Noel Edmonds (who
can additionally sing and dance)? It was at this point in
the evening I decided that I would go to the Tesco Extra
on the edge of town now rather than on Sunday morning. It
would be quieter, I could get everything I needed and not
have to wait until after my crazy gym session. So just after
8pm, I headed into the car and up the road. The place was
relatively quiet (compared to New Year's Eve) and I filled
my trolley with all the food I wanted, and a bit more. The problem of being at Tesco and not Sainsburys is that the store is so much bigger and I have to remember where everything is kept. I am more familiar with Sainsburys and can get around there within twenty minutes. I was looking for shoe polish (which I did not find) but instead I found a gym and fitness eisle, with several shelves dedicated to protein shakes. FlexSingh and Pav would have been very proud. They would have been over the moon if I had actually taken a £40 tub into my trolley!
My only mistake had been not to eat anything before I set
out which meant I was rather hungry by the time I got back to
the flat. I loaded the car and sat down, the dash time read
20:59. Perfect, I had wanted to be about an hour and was
on schedule. I put on the radio. The opening to one my current
favourite songs filled the car, I put the volume up. I was
listening to Westwood
simulcast on BBC
Radio 1 and 1Xtra.
There is just something magical about hearing a song you
like on the radio. The fact that other people will be listening
to it (manly for the first time) but also the fact that
the DJ appreciates the song too and feels the need to share
it with his audience. Plus using it as the opening to your
Saturday night show is a sign of intend and a ringing endorsement.
The song I am talking about is Knock
You Down by the beautifully talented Keri Hilson. I
have decided to wait for the UK edition of her album to
drop, mainly because it features three more songs (although
only one new) and possibly two bonus tracks.
As I walked into the flat with my shopping, I could hear a voice in the lounge, I knew I had not left the television on and when I walked in, I realised it was my sister, Julie leaving a voicemail. I had missed her call by a matter of seconds. She said goodbye and hung up. I called back home. I then put on a pizza (mainly forced into that decision because it was too big to fit into the freezer). I then went to see what was on television, not much, it was 9.30pm and my options were limited. Casualty, The Greatest TV Adverts of the 21st Century, the movie Anti-Trust (which I would have liked to have watched from the beginning) and The Mitchell & Webb Look on Dave. I decided to stick with the television adverts for a while before jumping back on the computer.
While talking to Preeti earlier in the evening on MSN,
I had decided to download American
Desi. I came to this conclusion after discussions revolving
around Hindu music, movies and comedy. Somehow, I was sent
the link to Aap
Jaisa Koi. I instantly recognised the song and the artist,
it was Penn
Masala. The American based Indian accapella group that
my sister Natalie had introduced to me on July
2007. The video I was watching for the first time, was
actually just clips from the movie American Desi and I realised
that I had not seen the movie even though it had been released
for over eight years. I recall stopping by a friend's student
house in Leicester around 2002 and she had the DVD on in
the background on the television. So around 11pm, I decided
to finally sit down and watch the movie. Preeti words were
I would 'relate' to the story and the predicament of the
main character. So what is my verdict? It was good and had
some very funny moments. Kal Penn gives a standout performance
which had me in stitches. There were a few laugh out loud
moments and the story was convincing and believable. Did
I relate to it? Well a little perhaps! But even though I
have an angalised name (which is only used at work and in
professional capacity, I rarely get called Andrew outside of
work) I think the main character Krishna has lost respect
for his roots which is different from my situation when
I prefer to believe I just have a different point of view
which is slightly radical and liberal. Plus my knowledge
of Hindi movies and music is adequate (particularly from
the 1980s action era which in my opinion was the best) I
would struggle with most movies after 1992 onwards (when
I gave up on Indian cinema and switched to Western cinema
predominately). I can speak broken Punjabi which would get
be enough to get me by a few days on the subcontinent and
I understand Hindi (although not word for word, I can understand
the gist of what is being said). I still stand by the comment
that Hindi is the most romantic language in the world, when
sun. Of course there is no question that French is the most
beautiful spoken language on the planet. While I may not
be the biggest fan of cricket in the universe, I know how
to play and used to play every weekend with my neighbour
Craig, in the early 1990s. Supporting England is just a
passive past time, I pay little attention to the sport.
My view on sport is that your allegiances should lie with
the country of your birth, not the country of your parents
/ grandparents birth. It is quite a liberal point of view
but then again, it is just a matter of complete coincidence
of where you happen to be born.
This morning I got up around 7:15am and headed to the gym straight after breakfast. It was the first Sunday of my new gym programme. This session on the legs and shoulders is the longest and hence the movement from Thursday morning to Sunday (with cardio moving in the opposite direction). The gym was busy as they had a charity run in conjunction with the marathon taking place. Selective machines were not available and this was indicated by a balloon stuck on the treadmill or bike.
Talking of India, the last time I was in the motherland, was ironically the same year that American Desi was released. I hope there is no connection there but on her recently visit, I requested Preeti to obtained a photograph of some men's perfume by Raymond. The closest she got was this photograph. Park Avenue had a really nice refreshing scent and I think I finished all the cans I had imported from my sisters' visit several years ago.
I hit the ground running with my programme, but when it
came to doing my bent over lateral raises with the dumbbells
(2kg) I was not doing them right, so a guy using the cable
machine in front of him came over and helped. He showed
me how to do the lifts correctly and advised me also on
my next exercise the lateral raise (4kg). I struggled but
got there in the end. Meanwhile the guy who had just given me some advice, we can call him The Muscle, then brought two bench presses together, put a 45lb weight on his groin area and was dropping his body quite low to the ground and lifting it up again. Sorry I do not know what the actual exercise is called but I am sure Pav does and will correct me. I was just very impressed because I found it hard picking up the 45lb weight a little later when moving onto the calf raise and my tiny weight of 30lb. I must say the Plank Hold is very
difficult and kills but at least you can feel it working.
I skipped on two exercises, mainly due to tiredness, the
leg pull ins and crunches on the Swiss Ball. I will do my
best to get around to them next time but as the saying goes,
steady step by step progress. Judgment Day comes on Friday
morning. I finally meet my nemesis, a young pretender called
Mr. Pavneet Singh Khural. The only problem is that it is
on his turf, so I am a bit out of my comfort zone but we
shall see how we roll.
|
Friday 24th April 2009
Do you sometimes just take a gamble, a punt? Well I have done that a few times
recently with limited success, until last night. More on
the success a bit later but let me first focus on the failures.
As if I do not already have enough US television to watch,
I thought I would watch a few more shows. On Tuesday I downloaded
a new animated show, Sit
Down, Shut Up. I thought it would be up in the humour
level of Family Guy or American Dad. I was so wrong, and
you could tell from the way the characters are introduced
in the opening episode. I lost interest after a few minutes
and the story line was just completely pointless and foolish,
even for a cartoon. I gave up, switched it off and deleted
the AVI file. Next? Well a few weeks ago I had heard about
this new show Party
Down. This looked quite promising and I committed myself
to three episodes (God I sound like some TV commissioning
executive). I watched episode one on Wednesday and although
the mock documentary style worked a little, the comedy was
just not there for me. It was far too repetitive, based
on a handful of lines or situations. I could see where it
was going but it was not going to be getting anywhere fast,
so I saved a good deal of hard drive space by deleting all
three episodes. I suppose I should stick with word of mouth,
when someone recommends a television show you just know
it will be good. Or just start watching the moment it is
imported into the UK (situations such as Chuck and GREEK)
where I noticed it would be appearing on Virgin1 and BBC3
respectively and then let a BitTorrent client magic guide
me.
I tend to browse the music video torrents on The
Pirate Bay (TPB) and noticed a new video on there. It
had only been uploaded fifty two minutes when I checked
the site yesterday early evening. The only part of note,
was the fact that the artist, some band called "The Lonely
Island" had featuring T-Pain. The song title was not familiar
to me. When the video started a little while later, I recognised
one of the face instantly. (No, not T-Pain) but it was Andy
Samberg. He features in the Saturday Night Live skit
with Justin Timberlake, Paul Rudd and Beyoncé Knowles. I
mentioned it in a blog post last
month. From the opening few seconds I knew this video
was going to kill me. It is just the outrageous almost pointless
use of explicit language which has me on the floor with
laughter. T-Pain just adds extra effect to the deal. Those
of you of a weak disposition, be warned there is heavy swearing
in this video from almost the outset. You have been warned.
Enjoy.
So there you go, three cases of trying out new unknown pieces of music or television shows and only one being able to impress. I then had to dig further and read up about the band, The Lonely Island and get hold of their album, Incredibad. Not too bad, particularly with all the A list artists they were able to get to feature on some of the tracks. I will try and have a proper listen over the course of the weekend.
What have I been up to this week? Well it was the first full week of the new morning gym routine. Yes it is a bit of a pain to drag myself out of bed so early and be outside the gym before 6.30am but the benefit is that I have the evenings to myself. Sure an hour may not mean much but it does allow me to fit in a thirty minute television show and actually relax. It is surprising how long an evening can feel when there is no rushing into the car to drive a few miles up the road to the Racecourse. There are added benefits too, the gym is less crowded and generally there is less traffic on the road that time in the morning. I will see how it goes, I am hoping I can keep it up, particularly in these summer months.
On Tuesday Sonia
Deol finally added me as a friend on Facebook (although
we have not met yet). Is she the real deal? Well we all
know she is on Facebook from the fact she mentioned it during
BBC Breakfast several weekends ago but is this the real
Sonia? Time will tell. Perhaps Facebook should have a celebrity
certification option to confirm that someone is who they
really say they are? Meanwhile, talking of celebrities,
I have refrained from following Rochelle Wiseman on Twitter.
Mainly because she does not appear to have many useful things
to say and I want to get away from these stalker like tendencies
with technology.
What are my super plans for the weekend? Well nothing really. After the craziness
of last weekend, the pace slows to a gentle walk. I have
to clean the flat, do some clothes washing, food shopping.
I will of course be at the gym for a solid hour working
the legs and abs on Sunday. I have a friend popping over
on Sunday evening which will be good, as I have not seen
them for almost two months. If there is anything else I
have forgotten to add I will come back and revise this post
over the course of the weekend.
|
Sunday 19th April 2009
Weekends jam packed with so much entertainment are great. Most people leave with some very fond memories, a memory card stashed full of photographs and usually a much lighter wallet. While I am no different, I also carry the burden, the heavy heart of expectation that I will provide a written write up of all the key points from the past few days. Not easy but it is a challenge I face on a regular basis and when the status of the weekend was set as high as the 'Ultimate Lads Weekend' there is no escape.
Where do I start, well I did not actually pack my stuff together until around
1.30am, after I written up the last blog post. It was not
until around an hour later I eventually went to bed. I thought
a little sleep may be good as it was unlikely I would be
getting any quality sleep again until Sunday evening. I
got up at 6:36am precisely, this is significant because
Pav had mentioned in his e-mail at work on Friday that he
would be at Terry's pad at precisely 7:36am. I had an hour
to get ready, get some breakfast and catch a little television.
Pav text me to ask for me to note down the post code of
the camp. I was just about to jump into the shower, so stopped
and then noted down the details on a piece of paper. I replied
to his text that I did not have a printer and had noted
down all the information we needed. In the end, Pav was
only fifteen minutes late which by his standards is very
good. Foxy got out the car as I put my luggage in the boot
and jumped in the back to crash out. He was out of the count
as we drove out of Newbury. We stopped at the local Shell
garage for fuel after Pav had initially headed in the opposite
direction. We then were on our way with an initial ETA of
9:39am. We had to be at the farm for 9:30am sharp to ensure
the course finished on time. The route was all A roads then
country roads which took us to the middle of nowhere in
West Sussex. However we found the location without any problems.
Mainly because Kev's Dad had beaten us to it and was waiting
by his car when we got there. It was just gone 9.30am. We
were on time, Pav had made up the time in the trusty, Rover
of Dreams. We drove past the entrance to the estate, turn
the car around and parked up. Literally a minute later Jez
arrived in his beautiful blue SLK Mercedes and followed
by Si's silver BMW. We were all set. We got out of the cars,
did the meet and great and then met our hosts for the day.
Richard and Kevin. We then had the long muddy walk down
to base camp. It was a long walk, at least fifteen minutes
through slushy mud, my boots were taking most of the pain
but only Pav had been organised with Wellies!
At base camp, we had a nice cup of tea. I had brought along my Superman mug! As we sat down on the log with our drinks we were briefed on the plan of the day. Quite simply what would we do if we were stuck out in the woods all alone. We would need to get shelter, make a fire to keep warm, get water and find some food to eat. So we were given a few directions and shown shelters still standing from previous courses and then set to to work. We had to find the right place that the whole group agreed would make a good place and then begin construction.
Rather than go into the details, you can check out my latest FlickR
set, which charts the construction from start to finish,
plus the other adventures we got up to. Once the shelter
was complete (well not officially as it needed to have one
arms length worth of leaves for padding to ensure the heat
stays inside) we had a group photograph taken inside. We
handed a few cameras to Richard. While he tried to get to
grips with the Sony CyberShot, Foxy's comment was, "Country
boys and technology". He had warmed up fine and was now
on fire. I was laughing hysterically.
It was around 11.30am when we went through the fire aspect of our course, which would take up the majority of the day. The six ways are starting a fire are: Spark, Electrical, Chemical, Sunlight, Compression and finally Friction. We would go through all these types of ignition, firstly demonstrated by Kevin. I was impressed he got the fire going with the friction option which he demonstrated at the end. We had a little go before we headed to the pub for lunch. Jeremy had booked ahead and arranged everything for us.
It was only a five minute drive around the corner, in Pulborough, with an excellent setting by the river. There was a beer garden opposite, with some great cars parked outside. A vintage Alfa Romeo Spider and DB9 soft top I mean Volante. When we ordered drinks, Si had to ask the questions, "Do you do any cocktails?". The reply from the barman, after a long laugh was, "I can do a Bloody Mary for you and that is about it!". A no then, so it had to be something else instead. Lunch was good, but perhaps not as filling as I had wanted. Si had ordered diet coke but with the intention of leaving room for desert. A big fat chocolate fudge cake, which he demolished in less than a few minutes. Then it was back to the reality of the camp.
Back at the camp, it was all hands on for the fire making.
Quite manly stuff. I had a go at a few of the options but
had a bit of a disaster with the wire wool with nine volt
battery. While trying to break a small piece off I inadvertently
set alight the big piece of wool, then I panicked and just
threw the lot into the fire and walked away. Kev noticed
and just laughed that I could not have picked a bigger piece.
I decided after that bad move to take a back seat and try
the sunlight option with Jeremy. After we had all had a
go at everything, it was time for another drink before we
headed for a little walk. First to the stream and to find
out how we would purify the water, then on a walk around
the grounds to find food. There were a number of edible
plants the details of which I have forgotten now but I am
sure someone else from the group does. The draw drew to
a close, it had been very useful. We had learnt that it
was nearly impossible to start a fire using friction. Best
to stick with electrical, chemical or a flint spark. By
now it was coming close to 4pm and we about to head back
to the cars and down off to Brighton.
It was a beautiful spring day as we drove down to the coast. I was very envious
of Kev and Jez in their bright blue (Atlantis Blue?) SLK
top down. Although the Rover 216i does have a sunroof, so
that is something! It took us an hour and we got into the
town just after 5pm. We found the hotel but the 'garage'
was closed, so we had to use the public underground car
park. Well, it was full but Si in his wisdom moved the sign
and we took all our cars in. To the frank annoyance of the
parking attendant. He was jolly about it and said he would
give us some spaces reserved for the hotel (60 apparently).
Meanwhile Pav in a urge to get onto the beach, just grabbed
his stuff out the car and walked out of the car park. I
had to grab his keys and tell him I would park the car for
him. I found a space soon enough. Then spend a good few
minutes trying to work out how to close the sunroof!
I headed back to the hotel and was rooming with Si! Room 508 which I eventually found (the hotel - The Old Ship, is split over two levels so one section only goes up to level three) I had to check if the television in the room picked up FiveLive. Just my luck it did not, even though there was a Radio 5 channel on the menu, it was just dead silence. I would have to find out the latest score from Wembley by other means. We got ready as we were on a tight schedule. We had to get to the restaurant for 6.30pm (having been moved half an hour early due to another party). Not a problem, everything was within walking distance and Jez had provided us all with a map with the areas marked with clear time windows plus a list of all the boys and their mobile number. Excellent work, I hope my best man is as organised as this.
Some of Kev's school friends had come up from Southampton,
so it was a big crowd of fourteen of us now. The restaurant,
The
Blue Man was around the corner and some of us noticed
the sign and went the right way (the short route) while
the rest, by rest I mean, Foxy, Pav, José and stag Kev headed
around the corner but eventually got some bearings. We headed
in and had a table downstairs. I sat next to José and opposite
Julian at the end of the table. It was a good meal, and
as we had to leave at 8.30pm sharp the service was relatively
quick. We decided to opt for the banquet which made life
easier for the staff and easier for us. It was very good,
my first time having North African cuisine and I would definitely
come back again. After the meal we then headed out into
the night and what an evening it would be.
Being a such a big group of lads we would have difficultly getting into certain places, as we found with the first pub we decided to venture into around the corner. So when we walked back to the Seven Stars we spilt up into smaller groups. Although it was a very nice pub, well more a trendy wine bar, it was far too quiet for us. We then headed to Yates for something a little more lively and the party could really get started.
We walked across to the bar and queued up as you do. Everyone
else went in, but when they asked Si for ID he did not have
any. So, I thought I would go in and speak to Jez but I
was stopped from going in. Even though I had identification
to proof that I was some nine years over the legal limit.
(A problem with two Asian guys was it Mr. Bouncer?). So
I called Jez and he then came outside to help us. The head
bouncer explained that everyone was asked for proof of age
due to licensing restrictions. However we had spotted that
many people ahead of us had just walked in, so it was not
being enforced across the board. In the end, to appease
the chap, Jez had to hand over his driving licence and confirm
that he would vouch for Si! What a joke! You would think
on a Saturday night they would be letting you in with open
arms. Never mind, we were in and now the party could officially
begin. The main thing was we were all in one piece, we still
had Kev with us and everyone was in the mood to celebrate
the momentous occasion.
Rather than go into the details of what happened and what we got up I believe it is better for the pictures to tell the story. However, here is the problem, I did not take my camera out in the evening. There was no point it was too bulky plus everyone else would have a camera. Well, I am afraid that the only photographs from the evening are on Facebook, so if you are one of my friends (and have not been put on the limited profile or worse still removed completely).
I pick up the story around midnight, when I take a very nervous Kev (now in red dress and flats) down to the water front. He believes we are about to throw him into the sea, when in fact we are just in the queue to get into Digital night club on the waterfront. After a fair word with the head bouncer we are allowed in and the night continues. The club was just outrageous! There was a bouncy castle outside (but only two people allowed on at a time due to health and safety apparently). In the back room there were Space Hoppers, dominoes, Connect Four. There was the atmosphere more of a playground than a nightclub but it was all good fun. I really enjoyed the night. I really would like to go to Brighton again, it has a different vibe to it. Being are much more friendlier and pleasant than some of the other places I have been to. Pav is already trying to organise our next trip down to the South Coast, perhaps as early as June. We left the club around 3am and were back in the hotel room around 3.30am, after getting some food from the local chippy (which was packed out).
At 8.30am, I was half awake and switched on my mobile, I had a text message,
"Could you please get Pav to call me urgently". Looks like
someone either left their mobile in the hotel before the
night's festivities began or the battery died. Still half
asleep I replied and then eventually got up and got ready.
It was a lovely sunny day and it felt a shame to be heading
back to West Berkshire so soon. We headed down to breakfast
and joined Jez. The rest of the gang were still asleep and
would be for a while. Pav and Foxy only got up with twenty
minutes to kill before check out at 11am. As we were already
ready to roll, Si, Julian and I went for a walk down the
beach. The sun had disappeared behind some clouds and the
wind picked up. It was very cold and my coat was still in
the back of Pav's car. When we got back to the hotel, Kev
and José were just about to check out and then get some
breakfast before we finally would leave. Kev's school mates
were the worse for wear. They had been playing Poker until
6am and even had to stop by the 24 hour off licence at 4am
to refill on supplies. Rob perhaps looked the worse and
the other guys were taking full advantage, throwing his
shoes and holdall over a barrier to some street works. Lucky
for them, they just had a short drive over to Southampton.
We in the other hand were driving to Reading, then off to
Newbury (the final destination). I feel I have rambled on
far too much in this post and should just quit while I am
ahead. In conclusion, a great night out, good laugh, Kev
enjoyed himself and arrived back to his fiancé in one piece
which I am sure she is most grateful. I am sure there are
many moments I have forgotten to disclosure, one liners
from Foxy or José. Too late now.
Pav dropped me off around 2pm. I got a few little things done, like check my e-mail and then sorted myself out before heading to the gym. I completed my cardio programme as it had been so long since I had been on the equipment, plus I made the decision to switch cardio back to Thursday mornings so Sunday could be spent on the legs and abdominal programme which takes the most amount of my time. The rest of the day was spent resting, it had been a heavy weekend and I was not really ready for the working week. Well I have actually got to clean my shoes from all the mud and watch the second FA Cup Semi Final, now that Arsenal are out I hope Everton win!
|
Friday 17th April 2009
What a week, even it if was only four working days. I now
found myself very late on a Friday with 167 things to do
before I go to bed. However I feel I should write a quick
blog roundup mainly because there is so much going on this
weekend I doubt I will find another window. So where do
I start, I better consult the few notes I made on Wednesday
night. Tuesday was very busy in the office and I ended up
staying until 8pm to get some work done. The domino effect
being that I missed out on the start of the Chelsea Liverpool
match on ITV1. Not to worry but I was just a little annoyed
as it meant my TV viewing schedule took a little hit but
never mind, I made up for it over the course of the week.
So late on Tuesday night I made some food and watched The
Big Bang Theory and then Chuck, followed by highlights from
the Champions League matches on ITV1. Then just time for
some Newsnight before going to bed. I read my book a little
before drifting off to sleep at midnight. Wednesday was
a new day and a new dawn. The start of my new weight training
regime and gym sessions in the morning.
I pulled into the gym car park at quarter past six in the am. I reflected on
having to drag myself out of bed around 5.35am to get some
breakfast, get ready before heading down. There were quite
a few people here already and a queue had formed inside
the main entrance. About six people eager to get in, I was
pleasantly surprised and it filled up quickly over the half
hour I was there. There was only one person on the free
weights so I had free roam over most of the kit and got
my back and triceps programme completed before heading for
a shower and then driving back to the flat. It was a good
feeling that I was able to get the gym session in first
thing in the morning. More so today, as in the evening I
was heading straight over to Bournemouth to catch the second
leg of Arsenal versus Villareal with Steve.
I was in a meeting and clock watching. I got out around
twenty to six and headed out the door as soon as I could.
I got a text from Steve that he had lost his phone. No wonder
he had not replied to my last two text messages. I tried
to called but it went through to Tesco Mobile voicemail,
so instead I decided to call him at his flat. He was there
but by the time we spoke I was back at my flat and just
checking it was okay to head down to the south coast.It
was his girlfriend's birthday (which typically he had totally
forgotten) but he was still going to watch the match. Initially
I was going to just stay in Newbury but he convinced me
to head down and I did. It was after I had been driving
for about fifteen minutes that I got some text messages.
He had changed his mind and was going to go out for a meal
with Toni instead. I called Steve back but got voicemail
again, left a message to explain I was going to turn around
and head back to Newbury. The next exit was about six miles
away according to TomTom and I was already planning in my
head to get some food before heading down to the Hogshead.
Then about a mile down the road Steve called and just told
me to head down. I wanted to double check this time and
he was totally fine with it and I put my foot on the gas.
I had left my flat at 18:21 and got into the Richmond Gardens
multistory car park at 19:22. Not bad going for a Wednesday
night, the traffic had been moderate. The journey itself
is not that bad, A43 to M3 then M27 before an A road which
takes you right into Bournemouth. I parked in the perfect
place and headed into town. I slowly got my bearings, after
all, I had been here over the August Bank Holiday Weekend.
It felt strange being back and seeing Steve again. We headed
to the pub, firstly to Yates (this is where I had watched
the Arsenal Newcastle game back in August but it was now
closed for refurbishment. So we headed up the road to Bar
Vin. They were showing the Arsenal game but on a small screen.
The main screen was showing the FC Port ManYoo match. I
got the drinks in and Steve found us a spot right underneath
the television. Match reports can be read at the Cannon
or even the Beeb.
Great match and good atmosphere in the pub, it made a good
change to be somewhere new to watch the match. Excellent
performance and brilliant result. Bring on the Red Devils.
However, now it is all eyes on Wembley for the semi final
against local rivals Chelsea. Hopefully I will find time
to watch the match in between activities tomorrow. I dropped
Steve off back to his flat and then drove back home to Newbury,
it took about fifty minutes with me arriving around 23:11.
Although I should have gone straight to sleep, I could not
resist a little time on the computer, just to check my e-mail.
My friend Kev gets married on the 8th May and tomorrow is the Stag do. It has taken some organising, most of it last minute by the best man Jez. He called me on Wednesday lunchtime to just say hello and confirm that it was still planned for the weekend even though dropouts had meant the original venue of Digger Land had changed. We are now going on Bushcraft Survival Course during the day and then out in Brighton in the evening. The logistics mean that Pav is picking me up in about seven hours time (the time is 0:25 as I type this), so I should really be in bed already. However, I have not packed anything or sorted anything out yet, so I feel it will be another early wake up call or I may just not bother going to sleep at all.
My weekend had two distinct start points, the first was when I put on my mp3 player on, as I started to run out of my cul-de-sac. With a burst of energy I headed into Victoria Park. The song I was listened to was Release Me by Agnes. I had heard it before on Scott Mills on Thursday 9th April, as I was driving out of the gym car park for my drive back to Wycombe but only caught the last few verses. A great dance song and ideal for my run. I wanted to cover around five miles but only managed 4.5 (according to Google Maps) but it was in a steady 41 minutes 34 seconds. Not bad and I did not feel that at the end, I even thought I could go faster. I need to go out again next week and actually start pushing myself much much harder. I need to complete six miles within the hour which is possible but it will not be easy. The second start of my weekend was when TMF played Lose By Breathe by Destiny's Child. I knew my weekend had started but I just do not know what is in store for the next forty eight hours or so.
I watched GREEK on Thursday night and as usual Dale got a classic line but I have to say with my current predicament I do feel that there is a lot of truth behind what Rusty says. It is with that dialogue I leave you on his Friday night (now Saturday morning). Hope you have a great weekend. Hopefully try and post again on Sunday. I will also try and send mobile tweets, so just follow me on Twitter.
Rusty: "I just don't get how easy it is for some guys, like all they have to do is exist and they get the girl!"
Dale: "It's a gift but heavy is the crown too!"
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Monday 13th April 2009
So how was your long Easter Bank Holiday weekend? Mine very good, even considering the weather was absolutely rubbish. Perhaps I should have stayed in Newbury but I hear that apart from today the weather was not that great either. So let me quickly sum up what I have been up to the for the past seventy-two hours or so.
Saturday morning, I got up around 8.30am, watched some
television. My main aim was to catch a glimpse of David
Tennant on BBC Breakfast, as he was interviewed by Sonia
Deol (and Chris) about his forthcoming Easter Special (The
Planet Of The Dead) which was screened later that evening.
He was very tight lipped about any future plots and in particular
the regeneration. After breakfast (tea with nutella on toast)
I headed to my room to get ready and go online for a bit.
I got distracted by reading various blogs and queuing up
Sarah Connor season finale as well as episode nine of Dollhouse
torrents. I missed Click, as I was in the shower and returned
to the lounge just in time to catch Football Focus, which
I watched with my cousin-in-law, Anis. It was a special
programme live from Anfield on the 25th anniversary of the
Hillsborough disaster. At 12:44pm, we switched over to Sky
Sports 1 to watch the Liverpool versus Blackburn game and
watched as the minutes silence was impeccably respected. The match was pretty much a one way traffic from start to finish but good to watch. I have forgotten the last time I enjoyed a match with four goals from the comfort of the sofa at home.
At 3pm we headed off into town. I did not have anything to buy but it was nice to get out of the house for an hour or so even if it was still raining a little. My cousin bought some hip hop albums from HMV, as they had a sale on. (They seem to permanently have a sale on, particularly the store in Newbury). We then headed back home on the 100 Park & Ride bus. When we got back in, it must have been around 4.30pm and I wanted to check on the Arsenal score. We were winning two one against Wigan and the boy Walcott had scored!! I decided to watch the season finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on the television, my cousin watched as well but as there was a lot of background noise from my family, I did not make out all the dialogue and will watch it again over the weekend. It was a great episode and everything we had hoped for and more. A link to Terminator Salvation? Well maybe a subtle hint but nothing concrete. The main question is though, where did John Henry go? To the past, or back to the future?
After the show, I spent a bit of time on the computer before
we had dinner. Well actually before dinner we watched the
Easter special of Doctor Who, which I must review. Michelle
Ryan was fantastic as the one off companion, picking up
from where she left off on the Bionic Woman (although of
course I would have preferred a bit more girl on girl (fighting
action) but then I realise that this is a family show!).
I was really surprised that The Doctor refused her as his
next traveling buddy but then still aided her escape from
the police. It was good fun and enjoyable, mainly good to
see the big man back for the first time since Christmas
but also the fact that his next episode will not be for
a while. After dinner I had to rush off to town to meet
up with Ryan and Trev. Well unfortunately Trev could not
make it as he was not well, but it was good to spend a few
hours catching up with Ryan in The Falcon. Just after 11pm,
my Mum came to pick me up as Samantha (who had originally
dropped me off) was already asleep. Everyone was waiting
for me to get back so we could watch Hancock. My cousin,
Anis had wanted to see it but we had a bit of trouble understanding
each other. I thought he was talking about I Am Legend,
the film we had seen back at Christmas
2007. However, when he described throwing the fish,
I got it (with a little help from my sisters). So it was
a Will Smith weekend at our house. We watched Hancock on
Saturday night (even though I had seen it on the big screen
back on Independence Day
last year). I did not stay to watch for long, I must have
watched barely twenty minutes before I decided I was tired
and headed not to bed, but the computer of course. I was
online for a good few hours before finally crashing out
around sometime after 1am.
Sunday was a lazy day but as I had missed Match Of The
Day and got up after the repeat, I decided to watch Football
First on Sky instead. Fantastic service to be able to watch
what they refer to as a 'super cut' of the match. Sorry
Beeb on this case Rupert wins hands down, particularly when
I found out later that the Wigan Arsenal highlights were
squeezed into the end of Match Of The Day. I had pretty
much a lazy day in the house on Sunday, not really doing
much. I had wanted to wash the car but the weather was just
too bad and although it did eventually stop raining, it
was too wet over ground to get the vacuum out. That is my
excuse and I'm sticking to it. I did though get some exercise
in, because as you know Sunday is my gym day and I was failing
to make it to. We had got my Mum a exercise bike for Mother's
Day. However, the model my sisters had chosen from Argos
had broken. Well the right pedal came off and we were unable
to screw it back in (thread busted) so we returned it and
I suggested we upgraded to York Fitness bike. The lady at
Argos in the town centre was very helpful and reserved the
bike at the retail park and explained we could take the
old bike there to be have a refund and get the new bike.
Fantastic, excellent customer service. Particularly when
she was doing the difficult annoying job of updating the
in store catalogues with price updates. I wanted to show
my Mum how it was done, so jumped onto the bike around 2.45pm
and hit it. The rest of the family were watching the Eastenders
omnibus while I pedaled away. I hit 100 rpm and after fifteen
minutes had burnt nearly 200 calories. I told my Mum that
she had to do a similar run of consistent speed. She said
she would, I will have to see if she kept her word when
I am next back in my home town.
The rest of Sunday evening was uneventful, a little time on the computer, watching the end of the City Fulham match on Sky. Trying to watch Dollhouse but losing track and stopping the episode so the family could watch something else on television. Back To The Future was on Sky Movies and we watched this for a while just for old times sake. Then when my cousin Anis came down we put on Seven Pounds. My sisters had already seen the movie but I had not and was looking forward to it. I had heard tiny elements of the plot from Radio FiveLive just before Christmas but decided to ignore it. A very good movie, moving story and complicated plot but you understand everything in the end. Will Smith gives a great performance but not as good as his leading role in The Pursuit Of Happyness. Rosario Dawson perhaps gives the best performance of her career to date. Great movie but the ending I thought as good as it was lacked some edge. I wanted to know more about the story of perhaps the selfish Tim Thomas before the accident. You want to see the process of change, not just the new person at the end of the line. Well worth seeing, so when it does eventually come on DVD, I highly recommend it.
This morning, I got up packed my things, sorted a few things
out and headed out of the door at 11.16am. It was a beautiful
day, I got into Newbury around 12:30pm and unpacked the
car, headed into town to get some milk and Creme Eggs. I
then got back to the flat, had some food before then getting
ready and heading to the gym. I had my review with Adam
at 2pm. When I got into the fitness suite, Adam was not
there. He was downstairs, life guarding (is that word) by
the pool. The moment he walked through the door, he asked,
"Where is my egg then?" I produced the Creme Egg from my
pocket to his amazement and we hit the final day of my programme,
legs and abs. I have updated Gyminee
with my new programme(s). It is hard work, particularly
some of the ab work on the mat and Swiss Ball. I then went
ahead and did my chest programme. I was very nervous going
on the barbell to bench press a mere 10lb (yes ten pounds,
around 4.53 kilograms) but I managed that and the rest of
my weights before heading back to the flat. As I got into
the car, Pav had text me, he wanted to come over to use
my gym facilities as his gym closed at 4pm which was no
good for him. My gym is open 8 to 8 on Bank Holidays and
weekends. I had to decline his offer of the gym exchange
but was happy for him to come over to Newbury, perhaps go
for a stroll or kick about in the park. Make use of the
wonderful sunshine before it dies away forever.
When I got back to the flat, I was disciplined enough to
just spend a few short minutes on the computer before heading
out to read my book for a while out on bench in Victoria
Park. After about forty minutes or so I came back to the
flat, jumped online for a while before then having some
food. I was on the computer for a while, chatting to mates,
trying to write this blog post and archive a few media files
to DVD. I then had to choose how to spend the last part
of my evening. I had an old movie outstanding. Well Charlie
had given me the DVD
a while back but the audio had been too loud (yes, not the
complaint you normally hear from a 27 year old) but I opted
to download another copy and have had it sitting on my media
drive for months. I thought I should finally pop the cherry.
I had very high expectations, as everyone has been saying
how funny it is. It has become an overnight instant classic.
I put it on around 10pm. It was good and in places very
funny but I would not call it all that. Perhaps because
four years have passed since it was originally released
and in that time we have had many films by the same production
company and have got acclimatized to the humour. The Indian
sales guy at Smart Tech did crack me up though, I have to
say. Not too sure about the end song and dance number.
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Friday 10th April 2009
Those of you lucky enough not to be working today, I am sure you will agree
that today feels like a Saturday. It does for me and I have
just got back from town, had quite a few little jobs to
get done before getting back home around 1pm for some food.
Let me first go back to significant moments to mention from
earlier on in the week.
On Tuesday evening, straight after work I went for a run with James. It would
be our last run together for a while, as he is off to China
tomorrow for two week break. We improved out time every
so slightly, clocking up four miles in less than forty minutes.
The pace was very good and for the first time in ages, my
legs did not feel too bad after the run, I know I can go
faster and for a greater distance. I just need to start
proving I can now. After the run I had only a few minutes
to check a few things online before heading out the door
again. Charman was on his way up from Bournemouth and we
were going to grab some food at the Hogshead and watch the
game. It was only when he text to say he would be a bit
late (7:15pm) that I realised that perhaps the Hogshead
might be showing the Manchester United versus FC Porto match
and I would have to find a different venue. A few Google
searches did not help, we would just have to take a punt
at it. Worse case scenario, get some food and came back
to the flat, it was on ITV4. As I walked up to the top of
my road, I heard the roar of the BMW as Steve pulled in
to park. It was good to see him again after over a month
or so. He looked very well. We walked through Victoria Park
to the pub. Before we ordered food and drinks, we had to
check if they were showing the game, the signs looked good,
ITV4 was on all the main screens. However, it was a new
girl at the bar, Emily and she had to check with her manager
who came over to explain the situation. Man U were being
shown on the main screen and Arsenal just on the smaller
screen at the back of the pub by the pool table. Not good
at all. However, it would do us and we only had some twenty
odd minutes before kick off. We opted to stay, ordered some
drinks and food. It was a bit of a palaver to choose a table.
Emily wanted to give us a different table number and I think
in the end we just sat down where we wanted to and the food
found us. I was looking forward to the game and was confident.
Fabregas was back, we got nick a win or hold them to a draw
and then beat at the Emirates. They replayed some of the
highlights from the away leg of the semi-final in 2006 and
it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Kick
off was just around the corner.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable match, with end to end action, particularly in the second half when Arsenal were on top of things. I explained to Steve that the "goal was coming". The next second, after they had replayed some action, we saw Adebayor score a peach of a scissor kick goal. Sweet! We were back in the gap and after Marco Sienna's wonder strike we had returned with a thunderbolt of our own. You can read the match reports over at East Lower or The Cannon or even the Arseblog which I read on a daily basis! It was a great feeling leaving the pub on Tuesday evening, we had got the all important away goal and par a major disaster through to the next round. It is just a shame we picked up so many injuries to our defence at a key point in the season. Steve had joked minutes after the goal that it had put the Togo striker's price up to £30 million, I responded with a higher bid of £35 million, then Steve put the icing on the cake, "We'll throw in Eboue as well!" :)
Been a strange week, with only four working days and spent quite a bit of time on Wednesday evening packing and getting bits ready for the trip back to Wycombe. I was able to squeeze in watching Chuck and then Heroes on Wednesday evening but only by leaving the office at 4pm and heading to the gym earlier than I usually would. With regards to the gym I have decided to not start my new programme until I have completed my review with Adam. Therefore I stuck to my current programme on Monday and Wednesday and blitz the cardio programme on Thursday night before heading straight from Nuffield Wellbeing Centre to Wycombe. I have booked the second part of my review for Monday afternoon at 2pm. I am also seriously considering hitting the gym in the mornings before work. The main reason is so I can get onto the free weights outside the peak time. I am also very weary of the other gym users. There are usually a big group of well built guys using the area and I can imagine them just falling to the fall in stitches seeing me struggling with 10lb on the bench. I would feel as intimidated as I would coming face to face with a T800 model. Would I be able to manage to get to the gym at 6.30am three mornings each week? Time will tell.
I got back to Wycombe at 7pm, with the drive along the M4 motorway taking about fifty minutes. The traffic was all in the opposite direction. It has been great to be back in my hometown, particularly as my last visit was over a month ago. What have I got planned for the remainder of the long Easter weekend? Well my cousins are over so will spend some time with them. Tomorrow I am meeting up with Ryan and Trev in town, hoping that perhaps Steve and Tim can make it too but it may be a trip too far from Bournemouth. Sunday, weather permitting I want to give the car a good clean and sort out a few things in my old room. Well the study come bedroom now that I nolonger live here on a permament basis. Back in Newbury midday on Monday.
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Sunday 5th April 2009
I am actually writing this post late on Thursday 9th (boy hasn't today felt like a Friday!) but feel instead of trying to pump all the events of the past weeks into a mega blog post, I should space them out under the dates of when they actually occurred. Everyone knows that if there is a long gap between entries it must mean that Teg has been very busy on his adventures.
On Friday night I decided to watch The Bank Job. Even though for a moment, I thought I might catch up on The Apprentice. I had missed episode two as I had been watching the England World Cup Qualifier on the other side! However, Sir Alan and his band of potential apprentices could wait. I wanted to have some escapism and this was just what I was looking for. Pav had already told me that it was a very good movie. It had been sitting on my hard drive for several months, obtained sometime in November I believe. What Pav failed to tell me was that the lead character (played by action man Jason Statham) is called Terry. Fantastic! The film got going from the word go and had me on the edge of my seat but the first half was over too quickly and the job itself seemed too easy, but then this is just the build up for the second half. It does get a little gruesome in places (although nothing graphic on screen) but the mindless violence goes with the territory I suppose. Every little subplot was intertwined in the ending, with the ending you would have hoped for. It was great fun with some great performances and the fact that it was based on a true story? I would highly recommend it, it has a bit of everything, action, twists and turns, a love story (in parts).
What did I do on Saturday? Well I got up at 9am which is late by my standards for a Saturday morning, had breakfast, cleared the flat and then spent a bit of time on the computer. I then watched Football Focus before deciding how to spend the afternoon, it was a glorious day. I went to the library with the mission of getting my West Berkshire discount card but as I walked in the posters informed me the launched was delayed by five days to Monday 6th. Rather than head back out of the door, I decided to see if I could get a book to read. I know I am already currently reading The Invisible Man but wanted something else, plus it is a short book, I should have it finished soon. As you know I want to read Dreams Of My Father by President Barrack Obama but it is still on loan, so while browsing the biography section, I found a book by Gordon Brown. For a while I wondered which author had the same name as our Prime Minister, then I realised that it was by our former Chancellor. So I had come in to the building hoping to pick up a book by one of the most charismatic leaders of a generation, only to leave with a book my perhaps one our most dull grey but effective politicians. The title, 'Courage' appealled to me instantly, courage is something I lack. Perhaps the best way to develop such a characteristic is to read about special people from the past who had great courage and learn from them, all the way to contemporaries still having to face the struggle. I took the book out, using the fancy new check out machines and headed back to the flat. The sunshine had meant Victoria Park was packed, it was after all the first day of the Easter holidays for the children, families were making the most of it. The one thought in my head was to vacuum my flat when I got back.
As the vacuums bag had arrived on Friday, I had no excuses, so cleaned all the rooms and then decided to get some food. It was around 3pm, I watched a little of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports News and then decided it was time to watch Sarah Connor Chronicles, closely followed by Dollhouse. During Dollhouse, I fell asleep on the sofa and the last fifteen minutes or so of the episode are a complete blur, so I may need to get a recap at some point before this Saturday's episode. Meanwhile, during most of the day I had been backing up and rebuilding my friend Reena's laptop. It was nearly finished on Saturday afternoon, just need to install Office 2003 and then copy back all the personal files, photos and mp3s. I left that job for later on Sunday but I would not find a slot.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, I spent a bit of time on the computer, going through quite a lot of admin and making a big pile of receipts to shred. Then I watched the last in the series of TV Burp before getting some food. Then it was back on the computer for a while before catching Match Of The Day. I watched the highlights of the Arsenal match but was struggling to keep my eyes open, so I got into bed and then felt awake again for some strange reason and read the introduction to Courage: Eight Portraits. Brown is surprisingly good writer and his personal passion for the subject matter and these people from all walks of life is touching. I will let you know how I get on.
Today I had an extremely busy day. It did not help that I got up later than I wanted. I got to the gym for around 9am, when I had wanted to get there for opening at 8am, complete my weights programme before my scheduled review with Adam at 9.30am. As I was there so later than I had hoped for, I did only a few exercises before meeting up with Adam and hitting the free weights. This is my first ever adventure into the realm of free weights, to date I have avoided them mainly due to the fact that I was just not ready. Matt, the personal trainer at my previous gym was going to give me a free weights programme, but obviously I left Castle Royle before that could happen. Adam here took me through the various exercises, they do not look easy. If I thought my last programme was hard, this was going to be insane. We started with the bench press and barbell, only 10lbs in weights but I think the barbell weights 10kg alone. Four sets of ten on most of the apparatus now. We then moved over to the incline bench for dumbbell lifts 8kg but I may drop down to 7kg, see how it goes. I will not bore you with the full extent of the programme, that you can find over on my profile page on Gyminee. I was aiming to start my programme tomorrow but we ran out of time. At 11am, Adam had to go to see his next client and I had to rush back. I had a very busy Sunday so I could not wait around or start on any of the new exercises. I would try and complete my programme review on Tuesday evening, late at 9pm.
I drove over to the station to pick up Preeti, she had come over to help me do some cooking before we headed over to Iver to see the TV show. The day would not work out exactly as planned but then what does? We went back to the flat first, to drop of some bits before the heading over to the big Tesco Extra at the edge of town, it was midday as we got to the store and we left some fifty minutes later. It was a big shop, loads of items to get, including weighing scales and a baking tray. We then headed back to the flat and got cooking. The menu had changed, we were not making mango lassi now. It was just the white chocolate and mango cake with coconut icing to start, then mushrooms filled with chives and herbs, jacket potatoes and humous! The cooking went well, all things considered. Preeti supervised and showed me how to make a start on a few things. Due to my lack of bowls, we had to build up the cake mixture in two batches but we got there in the end.
While we had our food, we watched Burn After Reading which has to be one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Preeti had brought some horror DVDs (still in their plastic packaging) but I turned them down, you know how squimish I can get, even if they are more borderline on suspence than gore. I had seen the opening few minutes before but given up several months ago, so it was good to get another movie off the 'watch' list. A great cast and some excellent acting but it all seemed quite pointless. Then again perhaps that is the whole point of a black comedy, there is no point. I mean, come on would a gym really be called Hard Bodies?
At 5.30pm, we headed straight out of the door and onto the road to Pinewood Studios. It took about an hour to get to Iver, Buckinghamshire from Newbury. The backlot has changed a great deal since I was last here in April two years ago. A new roundabout and new entrance, plus an extensive car park. We drove in, were directed to the marshall and told to park right up next to the red Toyota (ignoring the parking lines completely). There was already a big queue but we were here in plenty of time, doors did not open until 7pm with filming starting at 7.15pm sharp. Plus there had been a similar queue for The IT Crowd filming, so was not concerned. How wrong I was to be. We had been in the queue less then two minutes when a member of staff came up to us and about four people ahead, said that no body from that point would be getting in, the studio would be full. SRO Audiences always oversubscribe their events and rightly so, many people do not turn up or with less people than on their e-mail confirmation and nobody wants to film a show infront of half an audience. I was gutted as this was to have been the highlight of the weekend.
Before we even confirmed my name on the list, we decided to head to the cinema. I wanted to see The Damned United but knew it would not get a look in so was happy to see whatever was available. The man with the clipboard came to us in the queue, I confirmed my name and number of tickets and he took note of the details and said he would e-mail us tomorrow. As we headed back to the car, we tried to decide which cinema to go to. The Odeon at Uxbridge was closer but for Vue, it was either tracking back to Reading (not an option) but also Acton. Although initially I was keen on Acton, I realised how much further away it was and having to negiotate around the A40 into the Park Royal retail park, so opted for Uxbridge. It made sense, it was closer. It was coming up to 7pm, and I thought we may have to wait for the 8pm showing it being a Sunday. However we were in luck, Monsters versus Aliens was showing at 7pm and it was in 3D! My first ever 3D experience. No people, not those old fangled cardboard red and blue glasses, I am talking about Real 3D. Yes, you have to wear glasses but the effect is so much better than the old fashioned technology. The film was generally very good and fun. No, it was no Toy Story but it had good elements and it was more of a extra long trailer for 3D animation. At the beginning of the film, there is a moment when a guy is using a padal with ball on string and it appears to be flying towards you. Difficult to explain but well worth going to see.
I got back to Newbury around 9.30pm and then felt a really bad pain in my stomach, I drank some water and went straight to bed. I had wanted to watch MOTD2 and jump on the computer quickly but it was too late. I had to sleep and knew that with a very busy week ahead (albeit a short one) I better get some rest. It had been a great weekend, regardless of a few things not coming together as planned.
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Friday 3rd April 2009
Friday is finally here and I have a weekend of two halves. More on that later,
for now let me focus on the weekend that is slowly drawing
to a close. Work wise been extremely busy not making it
to the gym until nearly 6.30pm on both Monday and Wednesday
evening. You know how I am, any change to the routine is
a difficult pill to swallow but I face the challenges as
they come. As usual I come to Friday evening and have
to think hard about noteworthy events to mention.
Pav has generally been very annoyed that my online presence this week has been
non-existent, even to the point of updating his Facebook
status yesterday evening at at 20:24 with, "wondering where
the hell "terry" is...". I was of course watching (like
several million other UK residents) the last few minutes
of an hour long Eastenders special. It was a great episode
but even I, a harden Eastenders fan was disappointed with
the ending. While I was browsing the Beeb blogs (as I do
most lunchtime in the office) I hoped over to the BBC
iPlayer message boards and found not one
but two
threads about last night's episode. Looks like the Beeb's
flagship show will be losing some viewers. Totally the wrong
outlet to vent your spleen though, these type of threads
are best placed on the Points
Of View message board or alternatively on Digital
Spy. I appreciate that the writers of soaps have a great
deal of power and this may have been one of those power
trips gone a step too far. I agree that soaps have to be
gritty and real (to a certain degree) but they must reflect
the good times, the happiness as well as the sadness.
Greek was back on the television, well on the other side of the pond on Monday night. Watching it last night (I had no time on Tuesday evening after Chuck and Heroes and then there was World Cup Qualifying on Wednesday evening, so even The Apprentice had to take a hike too). It was like a family member who has been on holiday for an extended period coming back and telling you what they got up to. It really is a great show and I can only see things getting better now in this series. Singer Jesse McCartney guest stars as high school football ace Andy but for me it is always has been about Dale. His problems with his new Canadian flatmate had me in stitches! Even though the ice hockey loving man never gets any screen time!
Fitness wise I have had a rubbish time this week. On Tuesday I went out for a run straight after work at 5pm, however I suggested to my colleague James that we should do the run in the opposite direction, therefore to have an uphill start and re-create the start of the actual 10K run itself. This was just a stupid mistake on my part. The first two miles were all up hill and hard work. Our time dropped to ten minute miles only coming back to nine minute miles on the flat. My legs were giving up at this time and when we got into town, I had to stop. While working through town we were spotted by a colleague. He happened to be on the phone so just waved. The rumour would get through the office that Andrew was just "walking" on his Tuesday evening run. I have no problem taking the stick, as long as those dishing it out are going to get their running shows and join me on the last Sunday of May. Yesterday, I lasted only six minutes on the treadmill before I had to slow down to a jog. Today was even worse, I lasted about three miles before my legs just packed in and I had to stop and walk the rest of the way back to the flat. I may go out again tomorrow evening, depends how I feel.
What are the master plans for the weekend? Well not a lot on tomorrow. Need
to give the flat a good tidy. Now that my vacuum bags arrived
this morning, I have no excuses. I also have quite a lot
of admin to do and also going to pop over to library to
get my West Berkshire discount card. I also have to look
at my friends laptop, help a friend join eBay and put a
few things up for auction for them. Sunday is the busy part
of the weekend. First there is the early morning gym session,
after which I will be having my programme reviewed and also
starting my first ever free weight programme. Then during
the day I'm having a cooking day (with some help from a
friend of course). After which I am off to Pinewood
Studios to see a new comedy panel show being recorded.
Would
I Lie To You? will feature new host Rob
Brydon (taking over the host seat from Angus
Deayton) and team captains - Lee
Mack and David
Mitchell. I wonder who the guests on each team will
be? Larry Lamb anyone? I am really looking forward to my
return to Pinewood, my last visit was also thankful to SRO
Audiences back in April
just under two years ago. Sure it means a very late night
on Sunday (the recording ends at 9.50pm) but it is well
worth it and best of all the tickets are free!
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Sunday 29th March 2009
My weekend began at precisely 18:55 on Friday evening. I had started to watch the Knock You Down video on XBMC. It had been a long tiring day in the office and on top of that I had gone for a 4.2 mile run at 5pm with my colleague James. I am slowly getting faster, last week it was ten minute miles, I have now cut thirty seconds off that time per a mile. An improvement even if only slightly. I was now waiting for my family to arrive and hoped they would get here before Eastenders, so I could order pizza just before the final trip of the week to Albert Square.
They did not arrive until gone nearly 10.30pm and at around
8.40pm, there was discussions of me jumping in the car and
heading in the opposite direction. I ordered pizza online,
or at least tried to. The Pizza Hut at Newbury Retail Park
was closed, so I had to use the closer PHQ
outlet. I placed my order but it failed, when I rang the
store, I found out why. They had zero tomatoes for my custom
pizza topping. Now come on, surely tomatoes are the basic
ingredients and they have a shed load in their store. I
amended my order over the phone and placed it. It arrived
within twenty-five minutes or so, with a guy rushing around
on a scooter (with L-plates). Then again, he did not have
far to travel, just over Robin Hood roundabout (one day
I will find out why it is named after the outlaw). My family
did eventually arrive and we tucked into pizza while watching
Jonathan Ross on BBC1. It was good to see everyone again
and then the cake did come out for my sister Samantha's
26th birthday. Although she preferred not to have the fuss
and feel she would have preferred to have just gone straight
to bed. It was not one of my usual Friday nights staying
up until 2am watching movies. Around 11.30pm, everyone wanted
to sleep and the heavy week finally caught up with me.
I had a slight lie in on Saturday, getting up just before 9am. I organised
some breakfast while my sister Julie made tea for everyone.
Eventually everyone got up and I arranged with my Dad to
do some jobs. We popped over to Homebase at the Newbury
Retail Park to pick up some light bulbs for my desk light,
handles for my chest of drawers and vacuum bag. While in
Argos Extra, hunting for said vacuum bag, I noticed someone
very familiar across the way, browsing the catalogue in
the stall opposite. They were so familiar (because I see
them most days) that I was a little shocked. What were they
doing in Newbury. A tweet
will explain all. If there was any doubt, as I walked through
the car park back to our car, I noticed a black 1-Series
BMW. The registration ended with HAM. Bingo, it definitely
was her. What was she doing all the way in Newbury when
she lives in Southampton (or somewhere on the South coast).
When I got back to my flat, my sisters were watching the
re-run of the Dancing On Ice final on ITV2 and refused to
let me watch Football Focus, so I had to watch it on my
PC. Then, we decided to go into down and my Mum came along,
I had to return an XBOX 360 game to Currys Digital and then
we popped into Poundland for a few things. There was still
no sign of a vacuum bag, so I may have just order it online.
My family departed around 2pm and then the rest of the weekend was mine alone.
It felt strange to go from the noise and madness of being
surrounded by your loved ones to the calm silence of being
all alone. I tried not to dwell on it for too long and tried
to occupy myself. I had loads to look forward to. Firstly
there was Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse to watch
on television and then perhaps a movie later. I watched
the shows and had a little bit of food. Then at 5pm, went
back on the PC to blog (mainly last weekends activities).
I wanted to listen to the England game but could not do
so on my Squeezebox (even the Windows Media stream was not
connecting) so I had to download RealPlayer and use good
old fashioned web page. Eventually England got going to
beat Slovakia
comfortably. It was a game I could have gone to see but
opted against it. As for the new England top, I understand
the desire to go back to tradition but it is very white
and plain, too plain in my opinion. Feels as if Umbro have
gone through al the design changes every few years and run
out of ideas (I suppose there are only a limited number
of ways you can show a red or white cross on a shirt) and
gone back to old school. I do like the opponent country
name being shown underneath the new crest, that is a nice
touch and much better than just text (which was usually
in the middle of the shirt in the upper chest region. I
would watch the highlights later on ITV1.
I had missed the Clough
documentary on ITV1 on Wednesday evening as I had been too
busy watch The Apprentice. This was the first time I was
watching the show from the start since 2005. The main draw
for me was the fact that they were washing cars and this
is one of my few passions. Well ever since I started learning
the 'trade' from Crystal
Detail. I was shocked that the girls could not work
out how to put together a pressure washer and actually needed
help from the customer. Plus over charging for the Hummer
limousines was just stupid. I was glad Asha was fired, she
deserved to go although Mona was very lucky to not have
been chopped. Anyway, I have gone off on a tangent, I downloaded
the Clough documentary and decided to watch this before
the England highlights at 22:20. It was very good, but as
usual with these things too short and shallow. I may pop
to the cinema to watch The Damned United. I also feel I
should go up and see the statue next time I am in Nottingham
(not a regular occurrence) but perhaps when I am next in
Leicester I will jump on the train and head across to the
city. It is a shame I did not get into football earlier
in my life to appreciate the final few years of Clough's
time at Forest. It was perhaps a year or two too late. It
was only in the last year or so I discovered that Brian
had managed Leeds United but for only forty-four days. The
documentary explained the background and the fact that as
a big television personality Clough and berated the tactics
and gamesmanship of Don Revie and his team. Only then to
be given the job when Revie left for the top national job
and told, "shows us that you can do better". Of course,
he could not but it perhaps shows that every genius has
a flaw.
The highlights package on ITV1 was poor and felt cheap. Football on ITV, particularly England games have always felt cheap. With Champions League games the analysis has generally been okay (but still not as good as the Beeb) but for England matches it appears that nobody cares. Steve Ryder looked bored and had to work hard on Townsend and Sherringham in the studio. The fact that everything is broken up by regular ad breaks does not help. I just hope the channel are in a better frame of mind for the real deal on Wednesday night. Perhaps a World Cup Qualifier will be given the time it deserves. I am generally very disappointed with the way football, particularly England games have been shown this season. The FA in a pure money making exercise, sold the rights to Setanta Sports for away games and home friendlies with ITV picking up the remaining home qualifiers and away friendlies. While it was not ideal in the past but games on Sky Sports was fine, yes we had to pay but it was worth it for the quality product you got. Hours of build up coverage over an international weekend and not just a forty minute highlights programme late on a Saturday night. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts, when the FA start to open up the television rights to international broadcasters, it will be fun having to pay £30 a match pay-per-view on ESPN. Do not believe me? Well do not think the game forty-nine was just an idea to export our game. Think again, this is a business, not a sport!
You know it is serious if I make a list, and I had to make a list late on Saturday evening before I went to bed. By 4.30pm I had ticked many but not all things off the list. Everything was going to schedule, even if I got up a bit later than I had wanted (7.36am BST rather than 7am BST). I got to the office at 8:40am and as expected left at 11am. I had an appointment at midday at my gym for my Vi1 Health Assessment. I was looking forward to it to see how much progress I had made in the past year. I felt better but now would come the evidence in black and white. I will publish some of the results later but the overall results was excellent, I have a clean bill of health. I have also booked my programme review for next Sunday. Finally at last getting onto the free weights. The advice was to improve my diet, more carbohydrates and protein plus drinking more water during the day. Note taken.
Since leaving home and moving to Newbury I have come to the realisation that
I will be spending a lot more time in. So I decided back
in mid November that I should start to watch all the classic
movies that I may have missed the firs time around (generally
not been around then or too busy with other past times).
The first movie I thought I would watch was Doctor
Strangelove. There were two reasons to watch this, firstly
the fact that Peter Sellers plays three roles but secondly
because I had seen perhaps ten minutes back in 1998. Our
History teacher at my comprehensive used to treat us at
the end of lessons with a relevant show, music or film.
I cannot recall the exact segment that was played but it
related to a lesson on the Cold War and nuclear weapons.
I therefore decided on Sunday evening, with little else
on the television that I would sit down, with a nice cup
of tea in my Superman mug, some cookies and watch the movie
via the XBox. It was very good, excellent in fact. My favourite
character, was not Sellers as I thought it would have been
but General Buck
Turgidson. He was just totally insane and stole the show.
Probably not the ideal film for a Sunday afternoon late
matinee but well worth seeing and very funny. It had been
sitting on my hard drive since early December (2nd actually)
so it has taken me almost four months to get around to watching
it. You can forgive me for quoting one of the most famous
lines from the film - "Gentlemen you can't fight in here,
this is the War
Room."
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Friday 27th March 2009
I really want to preview the weekend but it has been so
long since I last posted an entry that I need to go into
all the details of last weekend first. To begin with, Friday
night, I watched Role Models. The
avi file had been lying around on my hard drive for a while
and in fact I think it may have even initially been on my
laptop before I transferred it over. It was great to have
my Friday night movie slot back where it belonged. Although
of course, it would be the last time I would have the desktop
as the only option. It was not what I expected, it was good
fun but different, particularly the ending. Dave had said
that the little black kid (translation - African American
boy) was the star of the show and he was in parts. I think
however, the movie is fantastic based on Paul
Kudd's performance alone. He outshines his co-star Sean
William Scott by a mile. He really has moved from supporting
actor you might kind of remember to now taking centre stage.
The role playing game at the centre of the game (LAIRE)
was interesting to say the least. So you can imagine my
surprise when I spotted a similar dressed bloke walking
into Reading town centre last Saturday night. My comment
to Pav was, "I didn't know there were super heroes in Reading?!".
Now, this was some ultra size came as it was dragging along
the road. It would not be the first time I would see super
heroes that evening (although I wished one had been good
enough to just fly me away from the evening).
We met up in Monks in Reading, although the original time
had been around 7.30pm, we did not get there until near
8pm. I was shocked to discover that Pav, Em and even little
old me were checked for identification to verify we were
over the age of eighteen. As you can imagine this did not
go down well with Miss 25th birthday Poole. Mainly because
she had no form of identification on her and started to
complain that she would have to ask all her friends inside
waiting for her to leave. I could tell the bouncer was not
in the mood for an argument, so early onto his shift on
a Saturday night, so just let us in. I mean I know I have
baby face features but there is no where on this universe
that I look seventeen! Come on people! Or was it just a
case that the police are having a crack down on under-age
drinking and therefore the door staff, I mean 'security'
have to just check everybody for peace of mind. I do not
know about that. If Ryan Buckle had been out with me, he
would have said, "Take it as a compliment!". I beg to differ.
As usual with these kind of nights out (not much planned and practically everything played by ear) we had to wait a while for the party to get started. Em was not happy that many people were out to celebrate her birthday but as usual it was just negative thoughts on her part. Em arrived soon after with Pete and then Sarah arrived with James. A little while later there was Kev with housemate José and finally but never the least important, Div and Nige. We then decided what to do with our night. We decided to head to Revolutions as we had not been there a while. I think it was sometime before Christmas I was last there. It was a decision that would haunt us for the rest of the evening.
Sarah and James were waiting for other friends and we said
our goodbyes before heading out of Monks down the road.
Nige was not feeling too good and headed home. While in
the queue for Revolutions (well that is a bit of a strange
statement because there was no queue when we got there but
we were held outside by the bouncer letting a lot of people
back out to have a smoke. In the window, Pav was first to
notice the chocolate fountain. Div and Emily's eyes both
lit up and they were not on a mission for some chocolate
covered strawberries. It looked like a private party from
where I was standing but as usual I thought I better just
keep quiet. Do not get in the way of ladies and their chocolate
(particularly theses ladies). So we eventually got in and
paid for the privilege, Div and Emily, as expected headed
straight for the fountain, by passing a rope partition (although
there was no security on hand as perhaps there should have
been). As if breaking into a private party was not bad enough,
Div then went and smashed the fountain, so the chocolate
flew everywhere (covering both their dresses, among the
table and window). Girls as they do when such disaster strikes,
disappeared into into the toilets giggling. Although I did
not see the next part of the story, it has been reported
that the moment they came out of the toilets, the head bouncer
was waiting with a girl. It had been her engagement party
which Div and Em had just gate crashed. There was no time
for debate, they were being thrown out and in my opinion
rightly so. I did not see them marshaled out by the doorman
but heard Mel tell me a bit later that Div and Em had been
thrown out. Perfect, we had just ordered a round of drinks.
Emily being a tough negotiator that she is, arranged to
have us all refunded our entrance fees and we were out.
Not the start to my Saturday night I had in mind and I was
thankful that the next night out is not for some time.
Re-grouping outside, we decided to head to Saruka. As we
left I noticed the staff inside hurriedly cleaning the table
and resetting the chocolate fountain. I suppose I felt more
sorry for the couple who were celebrating their engagement.
So we headed to Sakura
(the same location for our Christmas night out back on Saturday
20th December). The main
draw here is the dance floor which lights up. It was busy
as you would expect but even though I had thought Pete would
be the life and soul of the party. It was for the most part
at Monks but in the club, José came out with the killer
lines. You just need to read some of these lines with a
strong Portuguese accent. There is now a pole on the side
of the dance floor and as you can imagine, the girls were
trying to get us guys to have a little go, Div even pushing
me in the direction of the thing and have to grab onto it
for balance. When some young blonde girls did arrive, the
words from Kev's housemate were, "Oh very nice...". We finally
got back to Pav and Em's place at around 2.30am and I crashed
out to sleep soon afterwards.
On Monday morning, I got an e-mail with the subject, "Chocolate anyone?" and when I looked at the contents, it was just a link to our intranet page. This was the screenshot I took and subsequently sent to Pav on GMail with the subject "This will 100% officially kill YOU!". He in turn forwarded to both the party gatecrashers and I only got a one line response from Div: "I never want to see a chocolate fountain again in my life!" The lack of response from Emily should say it all really.
On Sunday I left Reading around 8.30am and needed to wash my car first. It
was a top priority the car was very filthy, even by my high
standards. I stopped at the BP garage, Swanbridge in Newbury
and got the car washed, although it was not a great job.
I then came back to the flat, dropped off my things and
then headed back out, it was gym time. I booked my Vi1 Health
Assessment for next Sunday (i.e. tomorrow at midday). It
will be exactly a year since I first
joined a gym and I never thought a year on
I would have kept the discipline of going four times a week
without fail. The only times I have not been able to go
are holidays. After a good session in the gym, I headed
to Sainsbury's to get a few bits and bobs before headed
back to the flat. I then had a good few hours to myself
before my family would arrive at around 5pm.
I had a really good Mother's Day. My family spent a few hours at the flat, providing me with food and sorting out a few things around the flat. Then just before 7pm, we headed down the road to the Gurkha Chef. It had been recommended by two colleagues at work and as they spoke so highly of it, I thought I would take a look. It was well worth going for. Do not let the cosy, almost home like surroundings fool you. The service is first class and the food was just delicious. By the time we got back to my flat it was gone 9pm and everyone was in a rush to get back to Wycombe. However, my sister Samantha decided to stay for the night and we watched MOTD2 together before finally bringing to a close a very hectic weekend.
That brings my update from last weekend to an end and it took much longer than I expected to write up. So now I can concentrate on this week, the final full weekend of March. Tuesdays and Fridays have become important days for me. Both being non-gym days they give me the extra hour or so of the evening to myself. It may not sound like much but it gives me an extra sense of freedom. Tuesday this week was a productive evening on many levels. I got the Powerline kit I had ordered from eBay and was ready to get my network sorted. Although it has taken me until Saturday evening to actually sort out the setup so there is no more switching or moving bits and pieces around. We are all set.
I have seen the need for a media centre in the lounge for sometime and although back home in Wycombe this purpose is served by the XBox, I did not want to remove it from the lounge and bring it to Newbury. I wanted to setup my own media centre, preferably with a PC backbone rather than the gaming console. While at Div and Nige's engagement party on 14th March, I happened to discover that birthday boy Rav had been given a XBOX 360 and now had a redundant limited edition crystal XBOX. I was more than willing to take it off his hands. I collected it last Saturday but it was not until Tuesday I was able to ftp in and upload the latest T3CH build of XBMC (code name Atlantis). The XBox still has the original hard drive but has been modded with the EvoxM 1.6 chip. It includes a host of applications, emulators and games trainers. However, I was only interested in the XBox Media Centre. In fact it contained the original version 1.0, which I remember loading onto my XBOX way back in August 2004 (modded in late August but due to time constraints, not 'blogged' until September) when it was first modded with a lot of help from MightyMouse.
I downloaded and loaded on the BBC iPlayer script and also the latest version
of the YouTube script (3.4). Both worked straight away and
I have kept the original XBMC (before it was rebranded XBMC)
on there for nostalgic reasons. There was only one music
video (or file) for that matter on the drive. Come
Into My World by Kylie. I had to throw a music video
in there myself and choice something I had recently downloaded.
Can't
Get Over by September. The beauty of being able to watch
both Chuck and Heroes in the lounge was fantastic. Watching
television shows on the PC is great and does have numerous
benefits, but recently I have always found myself distracted
or re-sizing the window down from full screen to check Facebook,
or read a blog, or check my e-mail or check who is online
on MSN. Then I lose the story in the show and have to either
go back a few minutes or just meddle through regardless.
This would not be a problem if I was watching a show that
does not require a brain to follow the plot, e.g. Desperate
Housewives, but all the shows I watch are filled with subplots
and intrigued, but then I would not have it any other way.
Plus, having television shows on the television (the place
they were designed to be seen) makes senses and gives me
a break from the computer screen. As if it was not bad enough
that I spend eight hours a day looking at two of them.
Normally I would not be in the car 9.15am on a Wednesday
morning but I was and so made the decommission to listen
to The Chris Moyles Breakfast (I had originally typed that
as Breakfats by mistake but thought I should leave it in
for affect) Show. As usual there was more chat than music
although I do recall hearing Jai Ho by A.R. Rahman featuring
The Pussycat Dolls (I would hear the song again on my drive
home). There was a segment on music from Noway so there
was only one band they could feature. A-ha, of course but
they played The Living Daylights, Touchy and Cry Wolf. There
was no room for their greatest hit, Take On Me. I was surprised
they did not even play The Sun Always Shines On TV which
had been used for the television trailers of Slumdog
Millionaire.
On Thursday lunch time at approximately 12:30pm, I headed into Newbury town
centre (well Northbrook Street, the de facto High Street)
and instead of going straight to the Tesco Metro store (as
I usually do) I walk into HMV. What song is being played?
Only Beat It by MJ and I notice the King Of Pop album for
sale for £8.99. I was actually looking for Keri Hilson's
In A Perfect World album, which was released on 24th but
could not find it anywhere. Perhaps it will have to be an
import job from hmv.com
or Amazon.co.uk.
One of the reviews on the HMV web site is quite open to
admit that he or she downloaded the album when it leaked
late last year, rather than bother to support the artist
financially. Thought that would be a bit cheeky but seems
like HMV are happy to get a customer review, regardless
of the channel the reviewer used to obtain their copy.
Preparations for Ski 2010 began in earnest on Saturday evening actually (when Sarah, James and Pav started to discuss the idea of a big group holiday for January while we were in Monks). I of course have made it quite clear that I am not going. I am sure the reasons have been mentioned on this blog before but just to make sure there is no confusion. After two winter holidays on the bounce, I am making sure I have a big long relaxing summer holiday next year. This just happens to coincide with the World Cup making it's first visit to the continent of Afrika.
While at work the other day, I wrote down a list of television shows I watch on a regular basis. (Shows that are currently airing) The total was seven (eight if you include the recently completed Knight Rider). However, as one show goes another show begins. Greek is back on Monday and I am really looking forward to seeing all my favourite characters once again, after the five month break. (The last show as a Halloween based episode called Hell Week). Series Two was generally very good and I am really hoping that Dale keeps his role as Rusty's sometime sidekick. I have two problems though, my media drive is desperately running out of space (4gb as I write) plus finding a slot to fit it all in.
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Friday 20th March 2009
My weekend started around 4:40pm, I had come back to the flat and changed into
my running gear and was putting on my trainers. I had 1Xtra
on the Boom and it started to play a song. Dave had recommended
it to me on Wednesday night. My friend Nikki from Leicester
was crazy about this artists debut release. I found it repetitive
and overall a little boring and unoriginal. You cannot describe
his new song in the same way, it is great. I am of course,
referring to Crank
That (Soulja Boy) by Soulja
Boy. That song was just a waste, but his new song, Kiss
Me Thru The Phone. Go check it out on YouTube, although
of course, the official music video will be missing
if you are based in the UK like me!
My run was arranged for 5pm and I was keen to get my weekend off to a good
start with another solid three mile run, following the same
route I had covered on Sunday mid morning. However, I have
received a text from my colleague to confirm we actually
covered four miles, with a time of forty minutes. Ten minute
miles, a good pace but I know I can do better. It was the
perfect weather to be out for a run, the sun setting in
the distance and the cool air breeze in my ears. Once I
got back to the flat, I had a nice long shower and was glad
that the weekend was finally here. Quite a lot planned once
again but I will get to the preview a bit later.
How has my week been? Very busy as you would expect but also very tiring. On
Monday night you may have noticed I was on MSN all night,
while transferring my high-res, non-compressed photographs
from the engagement party over to Pav. I went into the lounge
to watch Newsnight and feel asleep on the sofa, it would
not be the first time I would do that in the week. I had
got a new book out from the newly opened Newbury Library
(now with self service checkout desks, using exactly the
same software that High Wycombe Library have had for nearly
a year. I was looking for Dreams Of My Father but it was
still out, I even asked a someone whom looked official but
he was just a contractor for the council overlooking the
new computer terminals. On the PC search it came back that
the one copy was out and I had the option to reserve but
decided against it. I then tried to remember what other
books were on my list, as I had left the list at my flat.
Bear in mind this was lunch time and I did not have a lot
of time to browse, as I still had to fly past Tesco Metro
to get some food. I opted to get The Invisible Man by HG
Wells. I thought it would be inspiring, particularly as
there have been many times in recent weeks when I wish I
could disappear completely from view.
It has been a strange week, mainly because both Chuck and
Heroes, stable television diet for Terry have been on break,
so I only had The Big Bang Theory to watch this week. Add
to this that I have not been feeling too great. My severe
migraines have returned, one occasion it was induced by
me. On Wednesday I felt it come on at work but reacted quickly
enough to counter act it but on Thursday night it was a
different story. My vision started to become impaired while
watching Eastenders. I should have listened to the voice
in my head not to go on the computer but I just had to check
my e-mail and that was it, it sent me over the edge and
subsequently I had to just shut the computer down and get
into bed around 9.30pm. Extremely early for me, I listened
to Manchester City in the UEFA Cup, they were through to
the quarter finals if they could keep a clean sheet for
some sixteen minutes. Could they? Could they hell. I was
awake as they entered extra time but fell asleep soon afterwards.
The full nights sleep did me well but the headache returned
mid morning in the office and it was only a long walk at
lunch time and some fluids that shifted it by the time the
afternoon came along.
You can imagine my sheer frustration to receive the following
Tweet
reply in my thread on Monday evening. I was so annoyed,
that I just had to called Aniya up and say, "Sister, I do
not have tickets...yet!". What made it worse, was the content
of the message, how careful she had been with her phrase,
"This Is It residency at the O2". Like as if an MJ fan I
did not know he was doing fifty dates at the concert arena
in Greenwich. However, it was a tweet by one of the more
well known people I follow that actually really made me
chuckle.
It was not the tweet itself but the comments left on the
TwitPic.
Out of pure curiosity, I had been searching for a picture
of Mrs. Rebecca Bacon but found very few and those were
not very close up and I had to pay for the privilege of
seeing the wedding photographs. I am a fan of the former
Blue Peter presenter but not that big a fan! I love the
fact that someone will always say what you are thinking,
the internet is a liberating place: "Pulled out of your
skin there, Richard. Mind you Konnie Huq was way out of
your league as well." Maybe there is hope for me yet, although
I am sure I will need to be more original in my birthday
present ideas.
What are my plans for the weekend or rather 'maneuvers'
as Pav always asks me on a Friday? (Although of course he
has been AWOL from Wednesday to Friday and I have only heard
from him on SMS a few times. Well tomorrow is a big clear
out day and I have my land lady making an appearance at
10am, after her no-show last Saturday morning. I now do
not need to get my haircut as I went straight after work
this afternoon at 4pm. A shopping trip is on the menu for
early afternoon (after Football Focus) but I have yet to
decide if I want to venture further up the road to Tesco
Extra. A decision for tomorrow. Afterwards, I will need
to get ready and head over to Reading. We are hitting the
town for a few for Em's birthday. I have been told that
quite a big crowd have confirmed attendance via Facebook.
Sunday will be sent as a day of cleaning, a heavy weight
session at the gym in the morning, a run in the afternoon
and perhaps a nice meal out in the evening. However, I cannot
reveal too much just yet. Although my Mum does not read
my blog, or know of it's existence, it would be bad of me
to reveal all surprises in a such a public fashion.
I am in fact looking forward to next weekend a great deal more. Why? Well it will be the first weekend in ages when I have absolutely nothing on the agenda and I can actually treat myself to a lie in on Saturday morning. I should hopefully have a few more toys up and running which I can mention nearer the time but for the time being I hope you all have a great weekend and I promise I will try and update again before the weekend is out.
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Wednesday 18th March 2009
What a weekend, I know I was going to be busy before hand but it turned out to be completely rammed from start to finish. So much so, that my ironing had to wait until Monday evening after I got back from the gym. (I had provisionally booked a domestic chores slot for Sunday afternoon.) I got up early on Saturday, had a hearty breakfast of Nutella on toast and then started on a few jobs. I was waiting for my landlady to arrive at 10am but she was a no show. Never mind, I got some washing done and vacuumed the flat, in between downloading Dollhouse and Sarah Connor on the PC. After Football Focus, I wanted to just relax on the sofa and even fall asleep but there was so much to do before I headed out at 6pm.I popped into town around 3:40pm to get some gifts before coming back and watching some television.
It was a little after 6pm I actually hit the motorway towards Reading. I was looking forward to the evening, mainly because it was first gathering of with Em, Pav and Foxy since the ski holiday. I got to Reading just after 6.30pm and found a parking space on St. John's Hill. For the first time ever, I arrived late and everyone else (Pav, Em and Mel) were ready and waiting. Pav put together the visitor pass for my car and then booked a taxi. We were on our way to Caversham and more specifically York Road. We had to come and collect Foxy. The last time I was walking down this road, it was the first few hours of 2009.
We entered the house to find Ben scrolling through the Sky+ and the house generally
quite bare. They were moving out the next day (Sunday 15th).
Foxy was going back home, for various reasons which I do
not really need to make public on this blog. Having seen
both myself and Pav in ties, Foxy headed back upstairs to
put on his cravat. We then headed back out towards the Island
Bar. We stopped first at the Moderation,
which had recently undergone a complete refurbishment. We
all looked rather over dressed for a trip to the local but
found a table and then caught up on things. Foxy had been
warming up in the house and now was on fine form. We then
headed over to the Island Bar, Nige had called and not many
other guests had arrived yet and we were needed to just
make up the numbers. We headed over and I was looking forward
to the night.
It was good fun and the band were very good. Rav turned thirteen on the same day, so had a Stig birthday cake cut. You can check out the other 172 photos over on my FlickR set which I finally uploaded last night. It was an early night by my standards and we left around midnight back to Pav's for the after party. Although it was rather short lived as the host went to sleep early because the room was spinning. In the end it was just Em, Mel, Foxy and myself chewing the fat in the lounge for about an hour before we all decided to call it a night.
Sunday was even busier than Saturday. I woke up around 6.47am (I had to switch
on my Zen to check!) and found it hard to get back to sleep,
so an hour or so of being awake, I decided to get ready
and head back to Newbury. I got back to the flat, dumped
my things and headed straight to the gym. After a good hour
session on the weights, I feel a little better. I then popped
across into Sainsbury's to pick up a few things. It was
9:51 when my colleague text me to ask if I wanted to go
for a run. This would have been scheduled for around 2pm
in the afternoon, but my evening plans had changed. I text
back to meet up around 11.30am for a run in the sunshine
before heading out for my Sunday afternoon adventure. It
was before 10:30am as I left Sainsbury's but I thought I
would check my tire pressures. However, doing so put me
in the queue for fuel and it was a while before I eventually
got out of the queue and back onto the road. Eating into
more precious time. I got back, packed away my things, set
a few things to download on the computer before heading
back out to for my run.
My friend Preeti had wanted to see Watchmen
and although I love all things super heroes, I felt it was
not the cuddly good beating evil affair that I am used to.
Even so, I thought a trip to the cinema would be good, so
booked tickets for 2pm at Reading. Although originally it
was going to be Odeon in Uxbridge but it was quite a trek
to head all the way towards North West London. I left Newbury
at 1pm and parked up in the Oracle just before 1:30pm and
then got the tickets and met up with Preeti. We went to
take our seats just a few minutes before Pearl & Dean
titles. (Although some theme park ride based on some gory
film ruined the second run of the world famous Asteroid.
What did I think? Firstly the film was long, too long and
at times you lose interest because the plot is so difficult
to follow. This would not matter if the ending was somewhat
coherent but it is not but then this is not your usual run
of the mill super hero film. It is supposed to be dark,
different and at times completely twisted. The gore level
was perhaps at my threshold just. I doubt I could have taken
much more without closing my eyes. (Yes, if you did not
know I am very squeamish. Blood is fine, but I hate all
the gory bits!). There was several strands to the story, which was fine because I am used to that with Heroes and other US television shows but it did not really seemed to be going anywhere fast. Sure, I understand, bringing such a famous comic book to a wider audience takes not just several years (decades) in time but time to establish the characters and the ideas. The lives of superheroes behind the camera, when the story has been reported and filed by the Daily Planet, what does our caped crusader get up to. Did I enjoy it? No, it was a good movie to watch and I suppose in terms of style was very true to the comic book due to the direction having the edge and gritty harsh realities of darkness. Was it a complete was of time, no because a cinema trip is never a waste, it is an experience, sometimes good, sometimes indifferent. I am sure there are many people out there that found the story difficult to follow, even with the great build up in the title scenes. Where was the big final battle between the heroes and villains at the end? Well the answer is that for the Watchmen, they are both the same.
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Friday 13th March 2009
Sometimes the gods are just working against you and there is little you can
do as a mere mortal. I, like millions of other MJ fans were
online at the Ticket
Master web site waiting for the official sale to begin
at 7am this morning. I had dragged myself out of bed at
6.30am and logged onto the computer first thing. I could
see some of my other MJ fans had been online and awake much
longer (from Facebook status updates or tweets over at Twitter).
In the end it was all for nothing. I had been here before,
October 2006 for MJ with the adulation of winning two free
tickets, only to be told a little while later that the password
had been given out in error and to wait for the real draw
later. When that came around a week or so later, I was unsuccessful.
It has been a similar story with Arsenal, I have failed
to get tickets against Reading last season, as they all
sold out in a matter of minutes when the Red member sales
started on the site one morning.
The site crashed several time as we approached 7am, but it was not until 7.15am,
that I found myself actually in the queue and making some
progress. The wait was fifteen minutes or more (according
to this screen shot)
Over forty five minutes later, in which time I had brushed my teeth, had a shave and shower, there was no progress. (I had even taken the precaution of not switching on my Squeezebox in case the little bandwidth it uses would have affected my web browsing! I listen to FiveLive in the morning as I get ready before heading into work) Then the site crashed again, or at least my page did. My friends on MSN were having little luck themselves.
Rewind to Wednesday, the date of the presale I discover that I have not received
the first patch off codes sent out and instead am in the
queue for additional codes as more dates because available.
To begin with, I liked the idea of 10 dates at the O2, a
number of shows that I believe Michael would be able to
perform at his best and give the world what they have been
waiting over twelve years for. However, since then dates
have continued to be added and now stack up to fifty (yes
fifty) dates concluding on 24th February 2010. In any case,
Pavneet and his colleague Barry were able to get the code
and book their tickets for early August. I did not receive
a code until 7:38pm on Wednesday evening and by then it
was too late, unless I wanted to see Michael in 2010. I
could not wait almost a year to see my idol. Pav did his
best to rub it in throughout Wednesday, texting me and also
forwarding on confirmation of his booking and his seat allocation.
The highlight of the week, apart from Michael Jackson tickets going on sale was the second leg of the knock out stage of the Champions League. It now I appreciate the beauty of Sky Sports News. I can see the goals a few minutes after they are scored. With the game level and heading for a penalty shoot out, I went from the computer back into the lounge. Normally I would have listened to FiveLive and I did listen to the extra time on FiveLive on the computer but just had to switch over to the Freeview channel when it went to pens. The Philips digibox is easily the best purchase I have made in the past six months.
Falling asleep during the last segment of Newsnight, being woken up by the booming theme music and going off to bed. Listening to Richard Bacon but never being able to stay up long enough for SHH (Secret / Special Half Hour). In fact I have only stayed awake to listen to one special half hour in 2009, sometime in late January. It was the night that Olympic rower was on. Matthew Pinsent I think. Been overall a very tiring week, with Tuesday spent out ont he road with a colleague over in Essex and Hertfordshire. A nice change of scenary and time out of the office. Made quite a bit of progress at work this week and overall I left with a satisfying feeling this afternoon way past 5pm.
I have been given Pav's Grandad's old PC, full spec to follow but it is my mission to convert it from a useless black box into a full fledged media centre. TV card will be transfered from my current desktop (since the rebuild, the drivers and software load but the picture is highly pixelated). Linux and then MythTV installation perhaps? Throw in a wireless card and we are all set. Since having my desktop back, this is my first Friday night with my desktop back in action, I have been distracted by other online activities and usually MSN so not fully concentrated on the television show I am watching. This will of course change when I can enjoy all my US TV from the comfort of the lounge.
A very busy weekend, but also next weekend too. This weekend we have Div and Nige's engagement do in Caversham tomorrow night. Before all that I have the usual chores to do back at the flat and get things sorted out plus watch Sarah Connor and Dollshouse before I head down the M4. I have been listeneing to Knock Me Down regularly for the past week (just check out my Last.fm). Kanye West is the described as the 'icing on the cake' by my dear friend Bhavna The song has been confirmed as next single and video is currently in production phase, I just cannot wait and the album release is just a few weeks away (eleven days to be exact). Did I mention to you that Keri Hilson once said in an interview on TRL that she has two professional ambitions in life, to write the come back song for Lauren Hill and another little known artist. Michael Jackson.
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Friday 6th March 2009
It is coming up to 9.30pm, as I begin typing this post. It is late into a Friday evening and many of you will be out on the town or getting ready to head out of the door. I, however am quite happy to be at home. Yes, I am back in Wycombe. It is my sister's Natalie's 25th birthday today. However that is not the only cause for celebration she passed her driving test this morning! It is nice to be home and it has been a very busy tiring week as usual but today a day which has drained me emotionally.
I heard the news, or rather read the news flash up on the BBC ticker on Tuesday. A few minutes later at 17:48, Kish called me. He was the first person I was going to call once I had read the BBC News article. He of course, along with many other diehard fans was heading to the hotel the following day (Wednesday) and then going to get down early for the press conference on Thursday. Unfortunately I would never have been able to take the time off at such short notice. Perhaps one of the few disadvantages of the corporate world. I asked my friend to take photos and I would do a big update to his website in the coming week or so.
I have been waiting for this moment all my life. It has been one of my biggest regrets not to have seen Michael perform live. I should have gone during the HIStory tour but at that time concerts were quite alien to me. Plus I did not have the friend connections I have now. Well if you consider it, it took me almost a decade after MJ's last tours to get around to going to my first concert. Well I am looking forward to it, it will make 2009 a year to remember before it has even truly begun. Some doubt whether the King Of Pop has still got the energy to perform ten dates at a venue that will sell out in minutes. It was on Thursday as I got into the gym and onto the bike for the first part of my cardio programme that I saw Michael live on BBC News. I rushed to plug my ear phones into the socket, but yes, you have guessed it the sound did not work. So, I had to make do with Beat It on my Coby MP3 player, well there was nothing else I could listen to, could I?
Does this look familiar?
Well what would I do? I would be pulling my hair out and smashing up any article in the room (apart from the computer!). For a dose of a funny chicken every weekday, just bookmark Savage Chickens.
I try and read The Celebrity Network every few days, as you might know. Two new Keri Hilson songs have leaked onto YouTube. The most recent is a classic already. It is not just the inclusion of both Neyo and Kanye West but from the opening words to the closing chorus, Keri baby just carries the song off like a truly powerful singer. I am really looking forward to her album, "In A Perfect World" dropping at the end of this month and hope it is not another false dawn.
What have I got planned for the weekend? Well weather permitting I will wash the car and then go into town for a bit. I also need to pop over to Dave's house to sort out his computer problems. He has been bugging me via text message this week and wanted me to come over several weeks ago. Hopefully I can get him sorted. Off for my first piano lesson of 2009 on Sunday lunchtime. My last lesson was way back on Sunday 14th December. then back to Newbury. I want to get straight down to the gym then if there is time and it is still light, a quick run (aiming for around three miles), before getting all those odd jobs done around the flat in the evening. Then the circle starts all over again of a busy week in the office.
So You Gotta Take The Good With The Bad, The Happy And The Sad
Or Will You Bring The Better Future Than I Had In The Past
Cause I Don't Want To Make The Same Mistakes I Did
I Don't Wanna Fall Back On My Face Again
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Sunday 1st March 2009
A very busy Sunday for me but let me give a quick recap
on what happened last night. We watched Let's Dance for
Comic Relief while getting some pizza. I have to say Hollyoaks
performance was very good and I am surprised they did not
go through to the final. Afterwards we watched Casualty
(both my sisters Natalie and Samantha have been fans for
as long as I can remember). Then by 10pm it was time to
get ready for bed. I went to my room and after several MSN
chats I got around to watching the end of the movie I started
on Friday night. It was okay but I really think the teen
comedy genre has hit the bottom of the barrel. It was around
midnight at this point and although I would have liked to
have watched Underworld 3, I will save it for when my desktop
is back online. I watched episode three of Dollshouse. An
excellent episode and the show is growing on me over time.
It makes me think I should really bring my Firefly box set
(which I bought back in January
2007 and only watched ten minutes of episode one).
Who do you prefer, Britney or Christina? It is a very difficult question to
answer. Christina has the better more powerful voice but
Britney has had the better material. I was watching the
countdown of their videos on TMF this lunchtime. My favourite
Britney songs are listed??? on the Top
Ten list page, although it has not been updated for
a while (several years). When I heard Born
To Make You Happy (which was at number thirteen) it
brought back memories of 1999. The time at which I was listening
to the song. I have mentioned it regularly but 1999 was
my favourite year for countless reasons. It has taken me
a decade to find that same sense of happiness and well being
again. Perhaps this weekend has been a moment to appreciate
what I have but also how far I have come since those heady
days at college and my second A-Level year. Onwards and
upwards as the saying goes.
Been a very productive Sunday. I got up at 7.30am, got ready and headed for the gym and was through the door at 8am sharp. After my weights workout, I went onto the rower and hit 2069 metres in ten minutes. I was shattered. By the time I got back to my flat, Samantha was awake, Julie was getting up. After a shower we had some breakfast and then got ready to head for some food shopping. Before we left, I had to show them both the SNL parody of Single Ladies. Go check it out for yourself. Paul Rudd is fantastic as the music video director and what can I say about JT. Just watch and enjoy! We went to Sainsburys got a big load of shopping done, then came back to the flat to have some food. It was 12:20pm when they left. It had been great to have them here for weekend and the time has gone too quickly.
Finally after over two months I am back on my desktop. Well there are still
a few bits of software to install but I am glad to have
my machine up and running a after over eight weeks out in
the cold and having to spend most of them on my aging laptop.
I actually last used my desktop (to backup some files) on
Monday 5th January. The following evening I packed everything
away. I did not know how long it would be before I would
use my beloved desktop again. It is not the same watching
Heroes on a 14" screen with tinny speakers and not having
access to your world famous mp3 collection. The laptop is
slow, takes an age to boot up and is not happy browsing
and watching video at the same time. I have had to update
the blog via Notepad (hence the spelling errors) but it
is great to finally be back and in my comfort zone.
What have I been up to for the past week? Well a busy week as usual, but similar in content to the previous week. There was football, gym and visits to Albert Square. There have been major discussions with Amarjot AKA Flexsingh about changing my routine for something more advanced and also starting to drink protein shakes. I been sent my programme now but it will be a month or so before I give it a go. I will be trying it for six weeks to see how it goes and then make a decision to stick or switch. We shall see what happens. I have pushed up the cardio a level now, I really push myself hard on the bike and treadmill and by doing the rowing machine too, I am getting right into shape for the 10K run.
Talking of the run, I went for my first run this afternoon just after 2pm with
a work colleague. He had organised a route, so we headed
through Victoria Park, down the canal, across past Northcroft
Leisure Centre and then up to the Old Bath Road. From here
we went down to the office, down Strawberry Hill and back
to LA Fitness. It was not at a fast pace, I wanted to take
it easy. We covered 2.2 miles in around 20 minutes (I thought
it would have taken me longer) so just over three kilometres.
I think I will keep up the weekly runs and then step it
up to running twice a week in as the end of May comes around.
I am determined to get within the hour mark if I can.
Did you see the first ever Mexican wave television advert on Saturday evening?
Well if you are registered to the Last
Minute dot com you would have received an e-mail billing
it as a television first. They were going to show their
add on ITV1, then Channel 4, then finally Five. There was
a question running to, guess the number of thumbs shown
on the advert to win some fantastic prizes. So at 9.51pm,
I made sure were tuned into watch it. What did you think?
It was a bit repetitive but clever none the less, surprised
it taken them over ten years to get on television!
So it is now around 11pm, when I am finally back on my desktop and slowly getting
to grips with installing all my software and data back onto
my machine. The lesson learned on this occasion, as we do
on every go, is not to used custom installation discs unless
you have built (and tested) them yourself. Pav believes
that my system will die before May, and has actually given
a 71% chance of that happening. I of course am hoping that
a system failure does not occur again, well at least not
again this calendar year. However, I am not going to just leave it to chance, I'm going to get a NAS and also rebuild the Toshiba laptop so I have a back up option.
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Saturday 28th February 2009
I got slightly ahead of myself and started drafting my Friday night post on Thursday evening. Wishful thinking beyond belief and you can imagine what happened. Never tempt fate like me, it is just not worth the heartache. I finally got my desktop back together at 18:05 and after a final check of files began the rebuild process. Everything was going swimmingly. However, when I began to install the motherboard and graphics card drivers, this just hit the buffers. The PC would not boot up, freezing at the Windows XP start up screen, then starting to give me various blue screens of death. I then opted to do a repair install and this worked to a certain degree and all the customisation scripts ran at the end. The version I had downloaded over Christmas was Windows XP Pro SP3 Black Edition. It included IE7 WMP11 and a vast number of add ons and patches, all automated into the installation. These neat streamlined CDs are worth their weight in gold, when they work. I was impressed with the desktop background.
I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be having my desktop up and running on Friday night. It must have been sometime around 11.30pm. I opted to get into bed and watch the movie I had downloaded a few nights before. When back in Wrexham during the first weekend in November, I had noticed the poster at the cinema. It was as we walked out of Quantum of Solace that I saw the big cut out of Clark Duke. At the time I had been watching him in GREEK and he was close to my favourite character. (In this movie his character is the complete opposite of Dale from GREEK). I thought I would catch the movie when it was released in January but as usual it came and went from the cinema and I was more focused on my ski trip. So as a DVD rip was available online, I happily obliged. It was not what I was expecting but by 2am, I was too tired and with over thirty minutes of the movie left, I went to bed. I will try and watch the final part over the course of what remains of the weekend.
While the movie was playing I opted to download another 'custom' homebrew CD
and try again in the morning. I got up around 7:45am
and with a spring in my step, to face the day. After
a hearty breakfast of Nutella on toast and catching
up with BBC News (no Sonia Deol covering on Weekend
Breakfast). I burnt the ISO image onto a fresh CD and
then rebooted the computer and away we went. I also
had quite a few little jobs to do around the house,
take out the rubbish, drop a suit at the dry cleaners.
Get things in order for my sisters. They left around
11.45am and got here at 12:30pm on the dot. I had been
watching Football Focus but this duly had to be changed
as my sister Samantha wanted to find something more
interesting to watch. Yes, I finally had Freeview and
had not 'taken' their set top box from home to get the
extra channels. It was time for lunch, prepared by my
Mum, so one of the first things we did was eat.
After pasta, I had a stack of mail to check and go through and then plan the weekend. We were going to get all the jobs done around the flat, then head into town. We were originally then going to also get the food shop done but thought we would postpone it until Sunday morning. There was quite a lot to be done and all the while I kept checking back on my PC to make sure the Windows XP install was going through. My sister Samantha and I finally put the rear cover on my chest of drawers which have been in the flat since Boxing Day. I gave a demo of the Squeezebox Boom. Tuning into an urban station across the pond which was playing, T-Pain - "Chopped & Skrewed" closely followed by Cassie - "Me & U" which really showed off the quality of the tiny speakers. We then did a little re-arranging of the room before I went through my post and sorted out what could be thrown away and kept. We had a massive clear out of boxes and things that could be moved around. It really has opened the space in the flat particularly the lounge. It was just before 3pm we finally headed into town.
We walked through Victoria Park into town, firstly going to the Pound Shop
to get a few cleaning bits before heading to TKMaxx,
my sister wanted to get some clothes. However in the
end we walked out with some picture frames for my flat.
The walls have been quite bare and I did need to personalise
my space. In my lounge I now have a black and white
photograph of The Palaces of Westminster opposite a
canvas painting of New York City. In my bedroom I now
look across up at the tranquil island of the Maldives
(a gift passed on from my sister Natalie, whom was unable
to make the weekend as she had a driving lesson this
afternoon). We headed back and then had a much needed
cup of tea. I decided to see if I could make any progress
with the PC. I had tried my own nLite deployed installation
CDs from the past few years but they both were no good.
So I had opted to download a Corporate edition of Windows
XP SP3. It took less than an hour to come down the line
and although the installation went through fine the
moment I installed any graphics drivers it went belly
up. Even rolling back to older version of the driver
had little affect. I did a reinstall and this got me
working and I was quite content to use this for a while
and then perhaps do a full old fashioned attended install
later in month. I wanted to watch Sarah Connor but as
the graphics drivers were not loaded the video and audio
were not in sync, the video itself was of an extremely
poor grainy quality. Not worth the hassle, so I switched
off the desktop for the day and went back to my laptop.
I have already arranged for my dearest friend Pav, whom
as always is enjoying my computer nightmare, to bring
over a Windows XP SP2 OEM CD so I can install everything
from scratch. Looks like tomorrow night is going to
be a long one. It is a shame because midmorning on Saturday
I was there. I had WinAmp installed, I had MSN Messenger
Live downloading, DivX codec had been installed and
Office was next to go on. I had got so confident, that
I had even downloaded Jennifer Hudson's performance
of If This Isn't Love on Oprah from The
Celebrity Network. Being a fool I am, I left the
avi file on my desktop. When I rebooted the PC and it
failed to load Windows, I went for the full reinstall
option, wiping the file in the process. Never mind.
All I can say, is wish me luck for tomorrow.
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Monday 23rd February 2009
We interrupt your usual Monday evening to bring you some breaking news fresh off the press. Pav was at the gym yesterday and spotted the future me! He mentioned a while back that, while he and Emily were at their gym (Rivermead Sports Centre) they spotted a guy and had to take a triple look because they thought it was me. Emily was even close to going up to the stranger and saying, "Teg, what are you doing here?". The reality of course, is that it is not me but could be a clear vision of me in less than nine years time. Pav described him as skinny, looking lost and greying on top. Tonight we finally got some photographic evidence and I was shocked by the blurry image.
Make your own conclusions but the resemblance is there. Pav has explained to
me that it is a sign from God. That I must take on protein
shakes and scrap my current programme in favour of a
programme designed by the legend flexsingh. I am unconvinced
and feel that my own programme will help me get to where
I am going. There is only one problem, do I really know
where I am going?
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Sunday 22nd February 2009
For a while now (by while I mean a few years) Sunday has been the busiest day
of my weekend. I suppose heading to the gym at opening
time perhaps means anything else done during the day
is an after thought. Today I had loads to get done before
heading into London. I got to the gym at 7:56am and
finished my programme exactly an hour later at 8:56am,
I then headed to the BP garage to jet wash my car. It
was only a quick one to get rid of a little dirt, overall
the car is quiet clean after three weeks. Then rather
than heading back to the flat I drove to Sainsburys
and waited for it to open at 10am. In the end I could
not be bothered to wait and just went in a few minutes
before opening and was surprised that so many other
members of the public were allowed in. Having a list
meant I quickly got the bits I needed and then headed
back to the flat, got ready and headed out the door
quite soon afterwards. However plans to catch the 11am
train were short lived. I left the flat around ten minutes
past the hour, I would have to catch the next train,
at least it was direct.
I got to Newbury station six minutes before the train arrived to whisk me off
to Paddington. You will not believe this but the service
was actually early. Not just arriving into Reading (the
one stop) but also London by twenty minutes ahead of
schedule. We had to wait a minute while a platform became
free. I picked up a timetable (something tells me these
adhoc trips will become a regular occurrence over the
next few months). Then, it was directly to the Underground
and Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus. It was 12:42, I
was in one of the most famous shopping districts on
the planet and my friend was late. I headed to Nike
Town and upstairs to the Running Shoes department. I
will need to equip myself with a pair before the end
of May. By the way, I have set up my fund raising page
over on Just
Giving. I love being in London, the buzz, the fast
pace of life. Could I work there again now? For sure!
Could I deal with a two hour commute again? No. I look
forward to my next adventure in our capital. It will
never be a moment too soon.
A rather political flavour to the movies I watched this weekend. First there was the Oliver Stone movie about George W. Bush entitled simply, 'W.'. It was not what I expected, I thought it would just assassinate the president and his ill thought 'War on Terror' but it shows how much of a waster he was at college and his first few jobs afterwards (which Daddy all set up for him). He never lasted long and was pretty much a bum, a drunk and would not amount to much. Until the day he discovered God. This was a life changing moment which took him all the way to the White House. There was also a classic moment when he nearly choked on a cheesy puff while watching a football match on television. Only by falling on the floor did the puff dislodge itself. Was this true or just a fictional joke by the writers? Overall it was a great movie and the casting was fantastic, Thandie Newton as Condi Rice. The British actor that played Karl Rove was a spitting image of the real White House advisor. Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney was an amazing choice too. Everyone at the top just worked. The only let down was Welshman Ioan Gruffud playing Scottish born British Prime Minister Tony Blair. No wonder his scenes were cut short but then it is an American film and a very American story about how anyone and I mean absolutely any bum can become President of the Free World, with a few good connections. Or a bankable family name. I would highly recommend perhaps for a lazy Sunday afternoon when you have a few hours spare. Do not go and watch it late on a Friday night like I did.
The second movie I saw on Saturday night (skipping
on Match Of The Day after Arsenal's failure to beat
Sunderland at home). It was Frost / Nixon, a movie I
had planned to see at the cinema but due to many reasons
I did not get around to it. Michael Sheen just pins
David Frost's voice and mannerisms to a t. Frank Langella
is perfect as Nixon and the film is a tour de force
by Ron Howard. Frost is shown as a playboy which I felt
destroyed his image in my eyes as a British institution.
I suppose I would have to check with my Dad about his
reputation in the media back in the mid to late 1970s.
It feels strange that such a ground breaking interview
took place before I was born. Maybe that sounds a bit
naive but when you see Paxman grilling politician after
politician without a care in the world, you forget that
it had to start somewhere. Towards the end you feel
sorry for the former President but at least he did finally
admit some of the mistakes he made to the American people.
The whole time in American history fascinates me (perhaps
just a little bit less than the Revolution) and I would
love to read up more about it when I have the time.
Back to the movie, it is excellent and well worth watching.
Tonight I watched Super Ex Girlfriend on Channel 4. The main draw for me is Luke
Wilson, personally I think he is a better comedian than
his brother Owen (and better looking). It was very funny,
particularly the scene in the gym that reminds me I
need to organise the gym exchange with Pav very soon.
Uma Thurman pulls off the super hero and psychotic ex-girlfriend
role very well. Of course the whole plot is very far
fetched but it does come together well at the end and
it is good see Eddie Izzard put in a bit part slightly
bigger than a cameo. This is a movie I had tried to
watch a few times on Sky Movies but only ever got to
see a few opening minutes or a few minutes in the middle
while channel hopping.
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Friday 20th February 2009
It has just gone past 10pm, on Tuesday evening as I begin writing this episode. Been quite a busy week already and I am glad the weekend is in touching distance. I did not watch the Brit Awards (as I do every year) as I was watching this week's episode of Heroes. Long story but more on that a bit later. I was in perfect time to see the Pet Shop Boys presented with a Lifetime Achievement, sorry Outstanding Contribution to Music Award and performed a medley of their greatest hits, including What Have I Done To Deserve This? with Lady Gaga taking place of the late great Dusty Springfield. (In a PDB (pre-blogging days) moment to share, I was outside the church in Henley for her funeral back in 1999).
Went to the Hogshead to watch the FA Cup Fourth Round
replay on Sentanta. On the way from my flat, my friend
Steve told me that Eduardo was starting as he had heard
on the radio on his way up from Bournemouth. I was surprised,
but looking forward to the game. We got to the pub with
7:49 on the clock and a lack of seats in the main area
opposite the big projector screen. We ordered some food
and drink and then took a table by one of the smaller
LCD screens. Steve actually moved the table to the side,
so we had a better view of the match. It was relatively
quiet but the bar staff were overwhelmed and could not
deal with the food orders. Luckily I cut in and beat
another guy that had been queuing a while but as he
had disappeared away, I placed my order. It was great
to see Eduardo back and for me too, it was amazing to
consider how much has happened in a year. I watched
that Birmingham match on the sofa back at home. Although
I felt I not in a position to mention it on the blog.
The one picture which sticks in my mind from the Sky
Sports coverage was a black guy with tread locks holding
up the home shirt with Eduardo's name and number, in
almost respect to him during the course of the match.
He was back and Arsenal looked like a different team.
We were direct and our passing game was on song, we
did not even slip out of third gear, we were that confident.
It was just a matter of time before the first goal and
then the floodgates did opened.
There was a major delay to my television viewing on Tuesday night, in fact there was no TV that night. One show was on break (The Big Bang Theory) and both Chuck and Heroes were miles away from completing. In the end, I had to pause the torrents and switch to a RapidShare file download (a two part rar file) and the show landed around 9.30pm but too late to watch. I switched the Chuck torrent back on and it downloaded in no time but once again, it only completed around 10pm and once again I could not watch it and left it for Wednesday evening after my gym session. Chuck is outrageous as ever and good to see some regular guest appearances but hasn't Jenny McCarthy aged! I can remember her presenting the US version of MTV's Singled Out as if it was only yesterday. (It was actually over fourteen years ago). Heroes is slowly picking up and I am looking forward to next week already. UK viewers will start seeing the latest episodes from Monday night, 9pm on BBC2. Therefore I am three weeks already.
Not much planned for the weekend. Tomorrow is going to be a day to get various jobs done. Sunday I will go to the gym and get the food shopping done (undecided as to whether to go to Sainsbury's or the big Tesco Extra store). Then I may head into London to meet up with a friend but that is still to be decided. Hoping that it is much more chilled out than last weekend when I was doing a lot of rushing around, particularly last Friday night when I got back to the flat at 2am.
What else has been happening this week? Not much really, work itself as been quite busy but slowly calming down, particularly towards the end of the week. I am looking forward to the long waited upgrade but perhaps should post more on that on the work log. I have decided to push my work in the gym up a level, in particular my cardio programme and I am keen to get back onto the rowing machine. I actually was back on the machine on Sunday morning after my weights. I thought I should just test the water and set the time for ten minutes and completed 1054m, not bad and I felt much much stronger than my last attempt, which would have been Thursday 24th September 2008. How do I remember? Because that was the last cardio session I did at my old gym, just outside Reading. I have signed up for the Bayer 10K Run, so there is no getting away from it. Hopefully more on that before the weekend is out.
I am off to go watch Frost/Nixon and then perhaps the Oliver Stone movie "W."
but maybe not in that order. So a political start to
the weekend movie wise. Not sure what I will watch tomorrow
night. Might save Cameron and Echo for the evening shift.
Knowing my luck with the torrent sites and seeders it
may be well into the night before they both land.
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Saturday 14th February 2009
Generally the rule is not to post a blog entry on this date but I did two years ago and it looks like history repeats itself. Back then, it was a mid week post because my weekend was so rock and roll I would not time to blog on the Friday night. This year, Friday night was blacked out. I finished work at 4.30pm, got home and thirty minutes later was in the car to Oxford. I would return just before 2am.
Friendship is a very strange entity, over time with people you have known a long time you can begin finishing each others sentences or even know what they were thinking. Other times there are moments in a friendship when you realised how true a friendship is. For me, this occurred twice in recent weeks with my friend Bhav. Firstly on Sunday 18th January, I had just returned back to my flat in Newbury and during our first 'catchup' MSN conversation she had revealed that she had not bothered signing in on MSN as I had been out of the country. Touching but more was to come later. On Monday evening, she sent across an mp3 file. An 'exclusive' if you will. Now regular readers will know I'm not a big fan of Bhangra slash desi flavours but willing to give anything ago. The song was called Slip n Fall by Lomaticc featuring Sunny Brown, you can listen to the lyric based music video over on YouTube (no actually music video that I know of). The moment I heard the opening five seconds of the song I knew I would instantly love it. Strange how someone else can know my music tastes down to a t. As I read on another friend's favourite quotation section on their FaceBook profile, "What is a friend? I will tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself." A fantastic quote from Frank Crane.
Went to see The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button last night at Vue Oxford. Although a colleague on the phone earlier yesterday afternoon had told me it appeared to him too much of a chick flick. Well he is a diehard sci-fi fan, so perhaps that is a little biased opinion. The original plan had been to see Valkyrie. I am a big big fan of Tom Cruise but the World War II theatrical movie run ended on Thursday evening. The other World War II option had been Defiance but my friend only revealled earlier in the evening that they seen the film on Wednesday last week. There were few options remaining, so I opted to choose the Oscar nominated film starring Brad Pitt. Having seen the other picture up for best film a few weeks ago in Wycombe, I thought it would be good to see the competition. It was well worth the trip to the multiplex and my colleague on the phone was wrong, it was not a chick flick. In fact it was a deeper journey through the human condition. Yes it was a bit too long and perhaps at times a little too Hollywood in simplicity but overall it worked. I did not realise that it is based on a short story by F. Scott Fritzgerald but at the end it did make sense. Of course the director Finch has to make major changes from the text but it does work, even if it takes sometime to establish the character, set the scene and build everything together. My favourite part was the short quick fire edited sequence refering to the chance of coincidences which play a part in a major incident. Well worth going to see and although I am not a big fan of Pitt he does put in a stellar performance but not quite worthy of gongs. Cate Blanchett, who drives the story has a much bigger role than you would think and perhaps has to put in a bigger performance to out do the title character. Overall great fun and a good way to really get a sense of who we are, where we are going and what life has to offer. If anything the movie is full of Carpe Diem moments which perhaps only become significant when you think about them, days after the movie has finished. There were elements that reminded me of Forrest Gump, the strong Southern accent, the rather naiive main character retelling his story. If you recall the feather from the opening credits from Zemeckis movie, you will note there is a similar 'connection' seen throughout this movie.
What else have I been up to this weekend? well this morning I got up at 7.30am, after only going to sleep around 3.30am. I was tired but wanted to get up, get some breakfast and start some jobs before my friend came to pick me up. I cleared up the rubbish and put some washing on, then I spent a little time online. My friend arrived at 10:42 and we headed back to Twyford to fix up his computer. I set up Vista Home Premium, installed some software, set everything up and then we headed over for a curry in the village before being dropped off back to Newbury.
It was 3pm when I got back home. I had a few jobs to do but instead of getting on with them, I put on Sky Sports News and jump on the laptop. Although I decided to continue blogging rather than watch Sarah Connor Chronicles. I saved that for 6pm before Harry Hill's TV Burp. Good to have my favourite TV show back (yes it has over taken Heroes now!) just needed a bit more action from Cameron but never mind the tension builds up slowly.
My sisters and several other friends are at the O2 Arena this evening to see Canadian born desi comedian Russell Peters. These anglicised names will never catch on!
With a few to really prove to myself how far my fitness has come and to raise money for charity, I have decided to run my local 10K run. Sponsored by my employer and a course which runs through the local town is an ideal opportunity to test myself and push myself. I would really like to get under the hour mark and hit one kilometer every six metres.
The results are in from the jury of one. Yes Pav gave me the following scores for my ski holiday. I have been sitting on this document. Obviously I completely disput the figures but the reality is it was a holiday and my second one at that. If I was a more accomplished skier and had the same "daredevil" attitude as the boarders (plus Geoff) I would have done better but I am not at that comfortable place yet. However, that does not mean I will not get there, even if I have to skip next year's trip for a little minor event in the southern hemisphere in some four hundred and eighty odd days.
What else have I got planned for the weekend? Well a heavy gym session tomorrow morning. I want to get into the gym by 8am as soon as it opens. Then when I get home, I will have another big breakfast and then get on with some shirt ironing and other domestic greats such as cleaning and vacuuming. I am looking forward to watching Mission Impossible III on Channel 4 at 9pm. I also need to finish my book by DH Lawrence. Mainly because I am keen to start reading my next book, Dreams Of My Father. I think it may be the little inspiration I need.
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Sunday 8th February 2009
It was the week when Britain came to a standstill due to a little snow flurry. I suppose on the international stage we lived up to our obbessive nature towards the weather. For me there was no escape, I had to go to work, as I live a short ten minute walk away and apart from avoiding the odd icy step, I was fine. Even when most of my colleagues had abandoned ship early into the afternoon, I remained in the office until 4pm, when I finished. I decided to pass on the gym, somewhat relunctantly on Monday evening. I knew I could have driven there but I was worried about being hit buy another car. I got a text message around 6pm to confirm that the gym would be closing at 9pm sharp due to lack of staff. Maybe it was a good reason to enjoy the evening in at the flat.
On 27th January I received an e-mail from YouTube. I had received this e-mail twice before but this time, it was too late. My original account (andyteg) had been permanently disabled after the third case of copyright violation. Although I do wonder why it took so long. The offending video had been online since October 2006, so well over two years. In any case, after I realised that I could not get my old account back, I have created a new account and am in the process of uploading all my videos again (those I own the full copyright too, I might add). You can look me up over on andyt3g but it will take a while for me to get back to speed.
I saw Slumdog Millionaire last weekend, it was very good. I would highly recommend you go and catch it at the cinema before it gets shelved. Although success in tonight's BAFTAs may extend that theaterical run. I liked the style, it was shot in retrospect with clever cut backs to his time on the quiz show. I was disappointed with Anil Kapoor's character for his arrogrance and downright disgust for his winning contestant. The way he said Millionare also got quite annoying over the course of the movie. Why not just use the Hindi 'chorepatti'? I was annoyed with the song and dance number at the end. However, I appreciate that this was the only way the film could be re-sold back to the Indian market. To end of a happy Bollywood number. You can tell this is an Indian story retold by a Western (English) director. I know many people find the subject matter uneasy but it is something that has to be considered. I view it differently, I have been there, seen the slums, seen the children begging on the streets. Seen the harsh realities for myself and it is not something you can just ignore and block out.
Watched The Love Guru last night which was a complete waste of nearly two hours of my life. Mike Myers has run out of ideas and apart from perhaps two laugh out loud moments which I have already forgotten, it was completely missable. I am not sure why I wanted to watch it apart from the inclusion of Jessica Alba but even that was not enough. Avoid people at all costs.
Did make it to the gym this morning, although it took me about fifteen minutes to clear the snow off my car. My gym visits have been poor this week, owing to the weather but 2009 has not started well. I only made nine, yes nine visits to the gym in January. For February, eight days in I have only made three visits. An extremely poor state of affairs. However, I am keen to raise the bar and push myself this year. My new programme is hard work but I have found a new motivation factor. My Coby MP3 player, which I now use for all my weight training sessions. I have mainly loaded on dance music as I find that quite good to work out to but had to add the classic, Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor. Some people do say it is now quite cheesy but I still find it very motivating and love it when the intro kicks in. However, I am still keen to hear what other people suggest are ideal songs to listen to. So leave a comment if you have anything worth listening to.
What have I been up to this weekend? Not much really, after my busy weekend back in Wycombe last week. I wanted a quiet one. Saturday I went to see a friend and setup his new computer but did not get very far, so will have to go back next weekend. Went shopping at Tesco Extra on Saturday night to get some food shopping done, just in case the weather situation deteriotes and I do not get to Sainsburys. Apart from getting the epic ski holiday post finished (a little rushed at the end but I may revisit it in the near future). Today I got some chores done but decided to just chill out, listen to the football on the radio and just veg out. Nice to have a weekend with not much on the agenda. I have a busy week at work ahead but hopefully things will calm down from half term week onwards.
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Friday 30th January 2009
It was very tempting to switch lanes and head onto the fly over (A339) that connects the Robin Hood roundabout with the A34. However, even though it was not even 4.30pm, my weekend had begun but I had to go to the gym. Having been such a disjointed week, I was not going to let my fitness suffer. Wycombe could wait for another hour or so. A very busy week but nothing can truly prepare me for next week.
Weekend at home and plenty planned. Tomorrow I am getting my eye test, then my haircut. When I get home will watch Football Focus and then get on with cleaning the car. It really is very filthy, even more so after my drive over to Streatley-on-Thames on Wednesday. In the evening I am off for a meal with my family before catching Slumdog Millionaire at the local Cineworld complex. My plan is to get up early on Sunday and leave around midday so I can still get a few things done back in Newbury. Well get to the gym, get some food shopping done and return to clean the flat. Then sit down to some serious blogging because I know Pav will be on my case come Monday morning.
Day 4 - Tuesday 13th January
It was the morning after the night before. It was a late start but for various reasons we did not leave the chalet until gone 11am. (In fact, even though I got up around 10.30am, Em was impressed at how quickly I had breakfast and was ready to hit the slopes.) The plan was to spend the day with Ben and do some gentle blue runs. However, while we he was getting his kit on, he had left his gloves in the chalet. The key was with Em and they were now on the main gondola heading up. Ben headed to see if he could catch them but it was too late. I called Pav and Emily said she would wait at the top for Ben to come and collect it. This killed at least half an hour if not more and I recall checking my mobile. It was midday and I had not got on the slopes yet. I felt someone annoyed by this but took the moment to take some photographs of the chalet.
We did eventually get going and did three runs down the blue back to Les Brieveres before then grabbing a small tea break (time for a Lion Bar, I know I should have got Snickers or Mars!) and a hot chocolate. We then headed back up and completed three more runs down. While on the slopes, Ben got a phone call from Foxy. Geoff had hurt himself and they were both heading down and would join us at the top of the chairlift. When we got up and came down, at one point I was ahead of t_chien because the slope was designed for skiers and not boarders. He was pushing with one foot like mad, similar to Marty McFly in the Back To The Future movies but not actually moving anywhere fast. It was a comic moment and somehow I wish Paul had been there to capture it on his video camera. Foxy and Geoff headed back to the chalet when they got down to the bottom, but Ben and I headed up for one final run before the end of the day.
My confidence was up sky high once again having been crumpled the previous day on Bluet red run. I was enjoying my holiday and this was the time of day I had enjoyed. Or rather afternoon. Funny how your confidence can go up and down in such leaps and bounds of the course of a holiday. I had zero crashes on this fourth day and Ben only had a few minor stumbles. Plus, carrying out a run that you are familiar with does do alot for your ability, you can push yourself that little bit harder and faster with each subsequent run.
Back at the chalet, just before 4pm, I showered and got chained and join the rest of the gang in the lounge slash Geoff's bedroom. We watched a movie starting Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin. To try and help with the translation we put on the subtitles. Believe it or not teletext 888 must be some kind of EU standard. The film (I discover now is called Suburban Girl and was only realised a year ago). We were still to plan the evening, although as the others slowly arrived and got ready, it looked like a quiet night in. After a delicious meal of spag bol, we had the desert option, provided by t_chien, of chocolate lollies. Yes, once again, Grand Jury coming to the rescue to provide cheap imitations of the magnificent Walls Feast. Then it was time for more Uno, Paul was really in the mood and ever so keen to play. He then in perfect sporting fashion lost the first game. The second game was much more intense and a big battle between Ben and Paul. Paul had a very bad hand of green cards but got himself out of that hole in great fashion and threw in a sucker punch to Ben whom then lost the game. The snowballing forfeit worked better for Ben than Paul. I got Ben with my second attempt but only on his leg. We came back in and that was the evening entertainment in the form of a card game. We decided to put on the box and watched Le Havre versus Nice in the French League Cup. The French love their strange camera angles and the presenters (at half time) were based in an outside location (perhaps outside the stadium but it was difficult to tell). I do not think Gary or both Alans have anything to worry about. We all headed to bed early, I was in bed by 11pm. I listened to my Zen, well watched the ski video I had converted from the DVD I got for my birthday back in November two years ago. I then listened to some songs but inadvertedly left my Zen running all night (and did not switch it off when I woke up around 4.34am). (That would kill my chances of listening to the Zen on the way home back to England). Tomorrow was going to be a big big day!
Day 5 - Wednesday 14th January
We had agreed to get up and out early and make the most of the day. In fact I got an early morning wake up call from t_chien at approximately 8.15am, when he just burst into our our room. I got up, got ready, and had some tea at 9am. Paul was asleep and not going. He did not feel good and was suffering form a bad neck. It was a shame because it would have been the one and only time the whole group were out together on the slopes. My original plan had been to head over to the Ski de Tranquile just above Val D'sere. However instead we were going up to the top of Grand Motte, via a train which had been bored through the mountain. An "engineering marvel" as Pav kept reminding me during the morning. However, getting there was going to be challenge. The route we took was quite simple in the end. The main gondola, Sache, then the shorter chair lift, Aiguille Rouge up to half way to the top of the mountain. From here it is a short red run (I had completed it on Monday) down to another chairlift (Chaudannes). From here we headed left onto the blue run all the way into Tignes. As you would expect, Ben and I were the slowest of the party but it was actually me holding the gang up more. When we got down the last steep part, from which you can clearly see the resort of Le Lac in the distance there was an incident. Geoff had been keeping ahead and Ben was following close behind him, but suddenley over took him. The rest I did not see as I was trying to make my own way down, in the most unelegent fashion. However reports state that Ben, completely lost control, was heading at high speed and could not stop, until he hit the edge and feel backwards over the edge. Thankfully there was no big two mile drop. It was just one step down in the soft powder. Unfortunately no one caught the action on camera but the main thing was Ben was okay. He had hurt his foot and when we got down to Le Lac, he got a taxi back to the chalet. The mountain had taken his first victim. Who would be next?
We regrouped and then headed for the next part of our journey. To get to the Paquis chairlift involved a little trek. We went through a tunnel, over the bus station and then skiied down to join a green run, then through another tunnel up to the chairlift. Geoff and I had the ability to ski all the way down but Em, Foxy and Pav had to take off their boards or attempt to shuffle their way down to an incline. Fun to watch, but plenty of hard work. This took us to the slope which leads you into Val Claret. As we were about to come off the chairlift, we had a little bit of an incident. Em was to the right of me on the outside and Geoff on the left on the inside. As I got up to get off, I crossed my skis and this put Poole off balance and she hit the deck. I some how managed to untangle my legs and skis and gain my composure just in time. Pav went over to look after Em. The rest of us, attempt to hit the snow. Piste H was quite a steep blue run but it was very wide, so I had plenty of space. Although bear in mind it was peak time in the morning before lunch and the place was rammed. A mixture of lessons and experienced boarders and skiers making their way down into the village. I made it down eventually but it took a few stops, mainly to avoid getting stuck into traffic. On the route down, I took the right option, while the others took the left slope, which took them directly to the bottom of the train station (can I really call it that?). My route took me right back into the village. I saw the same Bear Bar we had been to on Monday night. From here, I could ski through a tunnel, down a little narrow lane and across to the bottom of the ski lift and met up with the rest of the gang. It was time for a well earned break.
While Foxy, Em and Pav hunting for a pharmacy to get Em some tablets, Geoff and I ordered a hot chocolate at the restaurant. When they got back some fifteen minutes later, they ordered some drinks too and then we planned to head over to the Funicular up to the top of Grande Motte. We headed over but Em got lost on the way and Pav had to rush back to get her as she could not see us throwing our arms and poles into the air to attract her attention. We had been told that train could carry three hundred people but I was not too sure if that was an exaggeration. We got on and it was rather strange to get into a carriage that was facing up hill. The journey took ten minutes and the engine made a great deal of noise but when we got onto the top, I noticed the temperature drop a heap. I think I remember noticed minus seven on the screen next to the station entrance. I was now some 3082 metres above sea level, the time was 12:48pm. It was a clock stopping moment in our holiday. I was near the top of the French Alps, looking out across at the most beautiful mountain range in Europe (if not the world!) and the sky was bright clear and blue. I got my camera out and starting snapping those pictures.
The rest of the group headed down the blue run but I decided to wait and meet them when they came back up and grab some lunch in the restaurant. I spent the time taking photographs and taking in the scene. It was amazing, cold but still amazing. Check out the rest of the photographs in my FlickR set. I was just not confident I could make it down the blue run but was told later that I would have been okay. The guys went down and came back up at around 2.15pm. We checked out the restaurant but there was not much on worth eating. We decided we would get something back in Val Claret before heading back to Le Lac. We caught the train down. As I got off, I was held up the waiting commuters, because of the wind tunnel that had built up at the bottom made it very difficult for my suple frame to make it down the steps. From here, we headed back to the same restaurant as before and everyone had mulled wine (apart from myself) as I had taken so long to get there. I had been unable to climb over a heap of snow so opted to walk the long way around into the village. It was at this point the group split up. Geoff and Pav headed back up Grande Motte to do the red run down, while Em, Foxy and myself headed for the bus stop. We were going to catch the bus back to Le Lac. From here we broke up again. I caught the bus to Les Bossies while Foxy and Em boarded back down to the chalet. It was a good fifteen minute wait for the bus. I did the typical, Englishman abroad moment when I responded to a French man with "I don't speak English". Obviously I had meant I do not speak French but I had got my tongue all mixed up. This went down very well with an English woman also standing by the bus stop and within listening distance. As I waited on board the bus, Geoff and Pav joined me. In the time it had taken me to wait, they had gone up the mountain, skiied down the red and then caught the bus across. We then skied down to the chalet, on a pleasantly sunny afternoon. We arrived to some breaking news from Mr. Stevens.
He had managed to secure a minor gig for both himself and Pav up at the top of the mountain. At the top of the Chaudannes chairlift to be precise. He was now a man on a mission and I was to be his sidekick. He had to burn some music from his iPod onto CD. I explained that Sherpa sold blank CDRs. I had noticed them while hunting for batteries on Sunday. He had the media, he just now needed a laptop to burn the music. He somehow, do not ask me how, managed to borrow a brand new laptop from the chef at La Bouida restaurant. for the night. Although he forgot to get the password and had to call up the owner for it. The spec of this Acer machine was awesome. Vista Premium edition, blu-ray player, surround sound and HD graphics. If I had half a brain cell, there was no way I was going to lend this laptop over to some English guy on holiday. With or without a credit card as a deposit. Then was the next problem, changing the language from French to English and using the French keyboard as if it was English. That was only the start of the problems, we then had to transfer the music from the iPod onto the laptop and then eventually burn the CD. It was not going to be easy, but we would get there I was confident. We watched some quiz shows. Wheel Of Fortune or as translated La Roue de la Fortune and Deal or No Deal on TFI. The Wheel had changed a great deal since I had watched it back in the early 1990s, with Nicky Campbell presenting and Jenny Powell on the letters. the 2006 French revival had supermodel Victoria Silvesdt. We then headed over to the bar. While using the wireless facility in Vincents, I finally went online for the first time of our holiday and updated my Twitter status. I even showed Pav the very short pre-blog entry I had written and the photograph uploaded to fill the gap. Back to the task at hand, a bit of Googling revealed how we could get access to the music on the iPod directly from the device rather than using iTunes. Paul meanwhile downloaded some of his music from online sources and put them ready on the laptop to burn later. We left him on his own at Vincents while we went to a local restaurant to get some food. It was a quiet cosy local restaurant which felt perfectly part of the village. The food was very good and afterwards we went back to Vincents to see how Paul was getting on. They were showing the FA Cup replay between Southend and Chelsea (final score 1 - 4) while Paul completed his work. After a drink we headed back to the chalet, when Paul started burning the CDs. I thought the job was done and dusted but it was not.
Day 6 - Thursday 15th January
I woke up at 9am sharp, Paul was already awake and still worried about his set. He got onto the loan laptop straight away and using the Google tip, to view the data on the device. To this you have to amend the Explorer settings for viewing system and hidden files, not easy to do in French. I got the data off both iPods and onto the laptop, to a chorus of thanks from Paul. The iPod uses a folder based storage system, with each folder containing only a few tracks. They were labelled F00 all the way up to F49 on one music device. Thankfully you could view the genre and artist to make it easy to search and pick the correct song. The CDs was being burnt as I went to jump in the shower and get ready. We were heading out with Em, Foxy, Geoff and Pav. Ben's holiday was over and I think he returned his equipment at somepoint during the day. We took the main gondola up, I remember noting the time, it was exactly 11am. I was in Tignes-Le-Lac some fifty minutes later. By the time I got to the village, my friends had already made tracks. I text Pav to explain I had decided to stay and do the green and blue runs in the beginner area, to build up my confidence. That is what I spent the majority of the time doing, although I never got a chance to practice or actually begin to learn a parrellel technique due to the sheer amount of traffic on the slope. At one point there was a long group of skateboarders just idly sitting on their backsides on the snow.
Em was going to come down and join me for lunch at 2.15pm, so I waited by the bus stop a few minutes before hand. We went back to grab some food at the same restaurant we had been to on Monday. The boys joined us a few minutes later but there was not really enough time to get food and drink. We had to make tracks up the mountain for the set. I skied down to the lift but the boarders all decided to walk around. Not sure why, skiing or boarding was easily the best and fastest option. In the end we had to wait for Emily to make her way down and eventually made our way up (Foxy and Paul going ahead). We made our way up the lift and watched a great crash. A skier went and hit the edge of a boarder who had been just standing chatting to his friend. The skier did not look hurt but had just taken a minor tumble, he was back up on his skis, in what seemed just like a few seconds. Then as we went up higher, I saw once again the death trap that was the bluet red run, I still could not believe I had made it down such a steep incline in one piece.
By the time we got to the restaurant, Stevens was already on the set and his music was the sound track for skiers and snowboarders alike, streaming down the slopes. It was an amazing scene, even if it was bitterly cold. How cold I dare you ask? Well Foxy's beer started freezing, the froth on top that is, seconds after pouring it into his large glass.
After talking a look around and taking quite a few photos, I was going to head down to the main gondola. I knew it was going to be a bit of a trek for me skiing and did not want to miss the last lift down. I was going to go but Pav offered drinks, so I took him up on what I thought would be just a quick hot chocolate. It turned out to be cream with a side order of hot chocolate.
Afterwards I headed down to the slopes, but was soon followed by everyone else about ten minutes later. In fact they beat me to the gondola and got into the next carriage along. I had to make room for some experienced French skiers. Geoff had hurt himself earlier in the afternoon and headed back to the chalet, he and Ben were now in Vicents. Geoff pursuing Sophie no doubt. They had been there since 3pm and we were going to join them from 5pm for some Apres ski. This was the first time I was actually taking part in this past-time. Although as Pav quickly pointed out to me, it was hardly apres ski, as I did not have my boots or ski gear still on! The draw at Vincents was George the one man band! Sophie had recommended him the previous night and told us how riotous the bar gets later in the evening. Some of the songs I remember being played are, Stairway to Heaven, Country Roads, Wonderwall and some 1950s classic which I could not name, way before my time you see. Overall it was a great night, the place was packed and it really did turn into a party. Sophie got the colour wigs out and inflatable instruments and handed them out. Unfortunately there are no photographs from me, as I left my camera back at the chalet, but Geoff and Pav took some great photographs of me in the purple wig (which I wore most of the time we were in there) which you will find now on Facebook. After a light snack for dinnerm we headed to The Underground, which was in terms of proximaty, our 'local'. It was rammed, mainly with students from Manchester who were actually staying over in Val d'Isere. It is always tragic to hear about a death while on holiday but a young student to die down the road, came as bit of shock, when I read the newspaper the previous morning. Her colleage friends were now being bused in and out anywhere and being escorted in big groups. After a few in The Underground, Paul and I decided to call it a night. Pav, Foxy and Ben meanwhile stayed a little while longer and got into a little bit of bother with a guy in the bar. Even though he did talk a great deal about going back in there and giving him a piece of his mind he did not. No need for you to come down to their level Foxy. Plus, perhaps just sometimes you should act your twenty five years and not your shoe size.
I remember getting into bed around midnight. I know by my standards that must sound early but we had been out for some seven hours non-stop. Before I could actually get any sleep, I was interrupted by t_chien, not once but twice. What he did, I perhaps will never be able to explain.
Day 7 - Friday 16th January
It was a very late start, if a start at all this morning. I was semi-conscious from around 9am, but did not get myself out of bed until 10.35am. This is perhaps the perfect moment to describe the sound. We had a grandfather clock in our chalet, right up the television in the lounge. It tolls at the hour every hour but also at every half hour. Also, we have the church bells tolling at the hour (during the day until early evening). So as you can imagine, a great deal of noise and difficult to sleep, particularly if you intend to sleep most of the day. I did not feel good but somehow, got ready and had breakfast. It was 11am. We sat watching television while deciding what to do. Pav had already gone out with Emily. Hold on let me rephrase that, Emily had kicked Pav out onto the slopes first thing, there was no where for him to escape. . Ben had gone back to bed after breakfast, Geoff was working through his Sunday Times Sudoku book, while Foxy and I watched television. There was not much on this late in the morning as you can imagine and I had to settle for an entertainment show. The celebrity show on M6 was co-presented by Karin Kerri. Followed by the comedy show Star In The Family starring Megan Fox. I was still not feeling that great, so decided to crash out for a while. My plan was to get up in an hour, see how I felt and then perhaps just hit the local blue run for a few hours. Paul decided to do pretty much the same.
It did not happen, I woke up at 3pm with a text from Pav, "Mountain 1, Terry 0". True for the battle on that day but not for the war. Looking back now, I coped with most of what the French Alps through at me and it was nice to have a break from the action. Yes, most people will consider this to be a waste, to not make the most of the time out on the white stuff but I disagree. It is above everything else, a holiday, a time for rest and relaxtion. It is not fun to be rushing around all over the place and trying to keep up with your friends whom are far more experienced at winter sports. Do not get me wrong, I hope to one day reach an ability where I can view the piste map as a challenge to be conquered and not just a major obstacle in my holiday enjoyment.
What few hours remained before the others got back, I decided to put to good use. I packed most of my bits and pieces and arranged what I needed to keep for the last day of skiing. It was a shame that we had to check out some eleven hours before our flight departs Chambéry. In the end we were allowed to keep our luggage in the boot room during the day, which helped. At 4pm, I was all alone in the chalet, writing my blog notes. I decided to get a few pictures. I put on the television while I waited for my friends to arrive. When they did eventually turn up, Emily and I watched Deal Or No Dea. The contestent, Sibone, exchanged her box right at the death. Going from €250,000 down to €100,000. What a complete fool, particularly as she had played headstrong for the whole game up to that point refusing to budge. We then got together and headed out for our last evening meal in the village. It was going to be an entertaining finally evening for various reasons.
We headed to Vincents first for a drink and then headed to the local French restaurant, which was in fact, directly behind (or infront - depending on your perspective) our chalet. We walked past the terrace everyday when heading to the slopes. It was called the Le Sachette and was dead. Funnily enough, the waiter / barman asked if we had a booking (there being so many of us). We were taking up the stairs to the table area at the back. A group of three French people were just finishing their meal and made a swift exit. (Oh no, the English are here!). We went ahead and ordered some drinks (regretably) but found the menu uninpiring. The boys (not the girl I might hasten to triple underline) were hitting the red wine tonight. I better qualify those boys to be, Ben, Geoff, Paul and t_chien. Stupidly they ordered two bottles of the same red when they should have just ordered one, or a white. By all accounts it was rank. It was quite obvious we were not going to be staying here for food. However, being the democractic friends that we are, it was put to the vote and I think it was five to two for leaving. We had to finish the wine and leave, it was just how we were going to make our exit. When the waitress appeared to take our order, Emily just explained (in English) we were not ordering food. I felt very uncomfortable in the restaurant and just wanted to get out of there. We were only there for a few more minutes, only perhaps as much as ten, but the time took forever to pass. We then left and I felt much better being out on the street. It was a really bad restaurant and perhaps the place the locals and French people go to. They did not make us feel very welcoming. We headed back down the road, in search of a new place to eat.
Les Brieveres being such a small village does not have a big variety of eating establishments. We were therefore in a choice between two. La Bouida or the L' Almarry opposite. We chose the later, perhaps because there was more choice on the menu and the prices were more reasonable. We went in, it was very busy but somehow they found us a table at the back. We looked at the menu and were impressed. Foxy had to ask the waiter, the standard, "Is it good?" in a mixed French come Dutch accent. The waiter spoke fantastic English and replied, "It's ALL good". We thought it was just the standard line but a little later we were talking it all back. I do not think I have ever been to a restaurant and the people I am with have gone on about the food from the moment it was served until we land back at Gatwick some twenty four hours later. Yes the restaurant was good, service was quick, the staff courtieous but there was no debate about a any Michelin stars. What people fail to appreciate is that these gradings are giving for attention to detail. We had to ask three times for water to be provided and our glasses were allowed to go empty. These are the aspects which take a restaurant from great to exceptional. Nevertheless, a gem of a place and I would highly recommend. However, t_chien was right. It was a good thing we discovered the place on the last night and not on the first. Otherwise it would have been €30 per a head meals every night!
I cannot remember the rest of the night very well. We headed back to the chalet, Geoff headed over to Vincents to say goodbye to Sophie. Foxy estimated that he would be back around 11pm and on queue, he appeared just after the clock had chimed. I remember we were watching television for a while but all opted for an early night. It was the last day on the slopes. Well only for five of us and I was the last skier standing. I was keen to make the most of my last day on the slopes, particularly after the waste of Friday.
Day 8 - Saturday 17th January
It was the earliest start of the holiday and rightly so. At 8.15am I was out of bed, getting ready and had breakfast and was pretty much ready to go. I perhaps selfishly took my suitcase, put it in the boot room, got my gear on and waited outside the chalet. Meanwhile everyone else was rushing around cleaning the place before the prompt inspection at 10am. Em had a go at me for standing outside loitering when there was still cleaning to be done. However, as I began to take my boots off, Ben said that most of it had been done and not to bother. Geoff came out with my Arsenal wooly hat, which I had left on the sofa the previous evening. I was pretty sure I had not left anything else, so much so I did not bother going back in to the chalet to check. At 10am sharp, the inspection began military style. The chalet owner went around each room and checked everything opened windows. She was not happy with all the foam in the dish washer but apart from that, we all got our deposits back! Pav came around with the euros. I was €70 back in the black. It was the last day so we were going off to do our own thing. I headed into Tignes-Le-Lac. I was with the others, until we got up to the chairlift and I took the blue run and they took the red run down. I would not seen them again until they returned to the chalet just before 4pm. I must describe my ski run into Tignes.
It was going very well until I got to the last major incline. The rest of the run is easy as it is flat around the mountain and then into the village. However, I was struggling and came to a stop. When I started to go again, I felt I was going fine but then heard a snowmobile behind me and then lost my concentration, followed closely by my balance and then both my skis. It was quite a funny crash really. A couple of Spanish guys had been skiing behind me and one of them came to my assistance. He grabbed my pole, which had gone down the slope and retrieve my ski and helped me get back locked in. However it was near impossible at such a steep and awkward spot. So in the end I had to thank the stranger for his help but decided to slide down to the clearing before putting on my skis. Then I carried on to the village. It had been a difficult trip.
I headed up the Aero Ski lift up to the top of the mountain that over looks Val D'Isere. Pav and Em had recommended I take the blue run down to the town but I chickened out by the time I got to the top. It was extremely busy and with time not on my side I decieded to just take some snaps before heading back down. A cop out I know but I just did not want to take a leap into the unknown on my last day. I wanted to play it safe and I wanted to make sure I got back before the others to change, sort out my gear before the long journey back to the airport. I then went across to the bus stop to get the bus back to Les Boisses, from there I would ski down to Les Brevieres. However, it was a Saturday. The importance of the day did not dawn on me until a bit later. A young French guy was at the bus stop waiting talking to some skiers. When they disappeared he approached me to inform me that the next bus was not until 1.15pm, an hour and forty-five minutes wait away. The reason? The bus service was heavily reduced on the weekend. Perhaps because this is the day that most people get to the resort and there is not the demand as there is later in the week. I looked at my options, I could try and ski down (I had done it before) or get a taxi or just wait. I waited for a while. Then an English girl, who had just arrived the previous night got talking to me. As we realised it was going to be a long wait, (it was just coming up to midday) we looked at the option of getting a taxi. There were none at stand, so we asked one of the reps and they advised us to go inside the tourist centre and order one. When we went inside, but the kiosk was closed (for lunch?) so Sarah-Jane went to the other desk and was just given a pamphlet and a list of phone numbers. I did not feel comfortable calling up for a taxi, so just decided to wait. Sarah-Jane then went to meet up with her friends for lunch. I decided to go out to the bus stop around quarter past one. A few minutes later the bus arrived and on I hoped with two other people. I was heading back, just one more run before I could go.
It was quite busy on the slopes as I made it down. It was a good final run and I think I must have hit a personal best. I met up with Ben, they were in the same restaurant we had been to last night. I called him and he came out to give me key to the store room. I headed over, got changed, took off my gear. I then had to return it to the rental shop and see what the damage was. Afterwards I headed back to the restaurant and caught up with Ben and Geoff. They had had a lazy Saturday morning, pretty similar to a weekend back home in England, just with the backdrop of the French Alps out of the window. I ordered a pizza and afterwards read the paper to catch up on the latest football news, particularly transfers.. Afterwards, we headed to Vincents. Ben wanted to go on the net and as the second machine in there still had ten minutes, I went online to update my Twitter status but bear in mind the time of the update is GMT, so it was in fact 3:45pm local time. We left Ben online, as we headed back to the chalet to wait for the others. They arrived eventually but were cutting it very fine. It was just about to hit 4pm. While they gathered their luggage, we headed back down the main road in the village to see if Jack, our taxi driver had arrived with our ride. He had already driven his Mercedes down to La Bouida and turned around and parked up just opposite the church when he recognised us coming down the road with our luggage. He stopped and parked up. We loaded our luggage on board, as the rest of the gang turned up. We had to put the boards in the rack box. Even though we took them out of the bag, it was not neccesary as it would have fitted in the box as it was. Never mind, we got on board. Geoff, Foxy, Ben sat in the back row. It was Pav, me and Paul in the second eisle with Em upfront. Jack, was a big Tracy Chapman playing a selection from her greatest hits on the stereo. He also played some Radiohead, John Lennon and even randomly Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Doughlas. I feel asleep as soon as we hit the motorway and woke up while we were about twenty minutes from the airport. I was so glad to be back and prayed that it would be an simple unevent flight back home.
Foxy went into the terminal to check which desks we had to use. There was a big queue at the new checkin desks leading right out of the main door. However, our desks were one to four at the back. Thankfully we could go in through the other double doors and queue when our flight was called. We got into the queue just in time, as behind us a big queue joined right up to the main entrance. As we were in the queue, I scribbled down my final blog notes of the holiday. Looking back at them, they are such a message because I had nothing but my own thighs to lean on. When we got to the desk, Emily was taken to a side room and her luggage inspected. As you can imagine, she was not a happy bunny after this. Foxy of course, thought it should have been him if he had moved ahead of Emily in the queue to check in. We then had a few hours to kill before we would have to go through immigration, customs security and then finally onto the plane.
We firstly went to the sourvenir shop and I bought some chocolates before heading up to the restaurant. The place was rammed with many people just sitting on the floor. We found a table on the terrace. (Yes, strange concept but a terrace bar at an airport!) From here we could see the planes heading for the runway and some landing in the background. As we had time to kill we played Queenie. A shredding card game, but I cannot remember who lost. It could have been Foxy or I could be gravely mistaken. After chilling out for a while, our flight was called and we joined the long queue to passport control. Being such a small regional airport, they just had two people in the both checking documents. Then we were through to security. My bag was checked in detail and then we took a seat in the chairs, waiting for our flight to be called and to board the coach that would take us there. The group of us gathered together, some buying food and drinks for the next leg of the journey. We boarded the coaches when they arrive and were taking to the plane, we walked outside in the cold French air for the last time and boarded the plane from the rear stairs. We found our seats and sat down. With my Zen dead, I was looking forward to perhaps drifting off and getting some rest. The weather was not going to be so kind.
The flight left on time and we were on schedule for our arrival in Gatwick. It was a landing that was a bit hairy. Now I was sitting next to Paul, who is not a great flyer. However, after a few red wines, he was content. I ordered a tea, to wake me up a little, knowing I had a long drive ahead of me before I could get back to Wycombe. The weather in England was just terrible but I would find that out later. As we came into the land, the plane was all over the place with the wings tilting up and down. Just as we came in for the final approach the captain levelled her off and we made a perfect landing. To much applause from many of the passengers. It had been a turbulent ride but we had made it. It was 8pm local time, I was looking forward to getting home.
We had a long wait for our luggage and as usual my suitcase was the last off the carrousel. We then had to catch the coach back to APH and finally get into my car. I grabbed the car and brought it to the front of the car park. We loaded the car and then I said my sentimental goodbyes to Ben, Geoff and Foxy. Then we hit the road. It was raining quite heavily and windy but I did not realise how badly until I hit the motorway. It was crazy, I could only see metres ahead and the wind and rain made for storm like conditions. I battled through, even though I had expected a nice relaxing drive back to Slough, Reading and then eventually back home to Wycombe. The most difficult part was the conditions on the M25 when I hit a maximum speed of 50mph and even with wipers on full load, could hardly see much ahead of me for all the spray. If I had not been a super hero on the slope, I was making up for it now. I headed over to Slough first, dropped off Paul, then Reading to drop off Pav and Em. I then drove to the BP garage to deflate my tyres (in the rain) and then headed home. I got in around midnight, to see the warm and glowing faces of my family. It was a great feeling to be home, the adventure was over. However, I suddenley realised that I have to write every moment up for my blog. That could wait until tomorrow.
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Sunday 25th January 2009
A break from the holiday posts to give you a quick update on everything that has been going on since I have returned to
good old England. Returning back to work on the gloomiest day of the year. Believe me it was not planned like that but it just happened.
If I had a choice I would not have wanted to come back on this day but it was out of my control. Work has been busy but to
compensate I have been going in early and then have the option to go home at 4pm or stay a bit later if I need to. I have
slowly switched back into work mode and glad to be back.
On Monday evening, after Eastenders I went over to the Tesco Extra store on yet another impulse buy. I picked up a Philips
DTR to go beyond the basic five channels I had on my television in the lounge. I know I have a Freeview card in my PC, but
with my desktop out of action I thought this the ideal moment to get the piece of kit. After all, there was no chance of me
bagging my sisters' box, plus I could never get all the channels on my PC in any case. Rather an impulse purchase but well
worth it, now that I have sixty five channels but only twenty-four which are favourites! Nice to have some music channels
(TMF & 4Music) to put on at the weekend and have as background entertainment. Overall very happy with my purchase even though there
are some negative reviews over on Amazon based on the box packing up over time. I am hoping I am not so unlucky. Time
will tell. Even if I am, hopefully by the time it stops working I will have either a media centre with Freeview up and running or be back on my desktop! (Hopefully both!)
Weekend has been rather chilled, just as I wanted. Yesterday I got up late (by my standards) at 9am and got on with all
those jobs like cleaning the flat and sorting out bits and pieces. I had made a list at work during Friday lunchtime but
still not done much. To be honest I doubt I could actually tick anything off the list really. Oh well, there is always time
in the evening to get a few things done.
I must take you back to the first weekend of 2009. The Saturday evening to be precise. Although I think it may have already clicked forty minutes past the witching hour, so the early hours of Sunday 4th January. I was looking at my Twitter feed and noticed a reply. It was from my dearest friend and old housemate Sippy. He used to run a very popular blog but he neglected it some years ago and pretty much disappeared online. It was a shame because he was one of my best friends and I would speak to him almost every day on MSN. This was the first time I had been in touch with him in almost two years. I had been thinking about him on the drive home from the gym back in December, wondering if I would ever get in touch with him again. I am not sure why but he does not use IM any more. I knew he was never going to join a social network site, he does not agree with them. However Twitter is a step in the right direction. Although, his feed has dried up in recent weeks. If you remember Sippy and his blog from the good old days, go ahead and follow him!
Today has been a really good day. Went to the gym at 8.30am, but as my left shoulder was aching I did not really push
myself that far. I had wanted to really get the programme done but it was just too painful. Hopefully I will better tomorrow.
I have started taking my little Coby MP3 player to the gym but need suggestions for gym tunes. Some dance tracks would do but
I am willing to consider anything. Any suggestions, just leave a message in the comments. I have also taken the step to invest in some decent weight training gloves by the famous Golds. After several months of using £2 pair from eBay, I thought I should take the leap to quality. Plus, during my ski trip, I had lost one of old gloves somewhere at home. The search continues.
After the gym, went for a breakfast at local cafe with Steve, then into town to get a few bits before heading back to the
flat. After half an hour of chilling (and me checking my e-mail) we headed back out again to the Hogshead to catch the FA Cup
match. The less said about the goalless draw the better. Another replay!
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Day 3 - Monday 12th January
Was rather over optimistic with the alarm time once again. It was set for 8:18am but I did not get up until 8:50am. My
postcards were ready to be sent so I headed to the post office and bought some stamps for La Poste afer breakfast. When I returned to the
chalet, everyone was ready to head up to the slopes. Ben was having a lie in before his lesson at 2pm. The plan was to head to
Tignes-Le-Lac, the main part of the resort and I was hoping to tackle some of the green runs and beginner zone there. The
boarders and Geoff were going to hit some of the red runs the other side of the mountain. We took a similar route up like the
previous day, up the main gondola, Sache up to the extra long chairlift, Marais. From here we took the difficult blue run,
Corniche down. The plan after my misadventure on Sunday afternoon was for me to head off and the boarders to follow close
behind so they kept tabs on me. This lasted for the blue run, until we got up to the red. I should have known better than to
follow my friends but I was under this foolish notion that Bluet was actually "Blue A" and a simple blue all the way down to
Le Lac. There was a blue run to Le Lac but it was the other way around. I quickly came to the realisation that I was majorly
out of my depth. The piste was rammed and in the end after at least two crashes I gave up, took off my skis and walked down
to a clearing on the left (directly underneath the Chaudannes chairlift). From here I gained the confidence to put my skis
back on and make my way down. It took me over two hours. In fact Paul and t_chien made it down to Le Lac (they had split off
from the others and come back up on the chairlift). I thought it was a bit strange when I heard two people shouting “Teg”. At
this time I was collapsed in a heap on the right hand side of the slope. Eventually I got up and slid down to the flat before
eventually skiing down to Le Lac. It was midday by the time I got to the resort and took off my skis. The rest of my friends
had already gone up one side of the mountain and come back down the red run.
The others headed off to do a red run while I had lunch with Emily at the restaurant close by. It was not as expensive as
you would expect. We then decided to plan the afternoon together. We went on the green run a few times, where Poole advised
me to practice my parallel turns but to no joy. I just was too busy concentrating on my snowplough turns and looking out for
other beginners that I just did not give it a go. We went up again and did the green run one more time before deciding to
head back. There was a good deal of sking to be done down to Sache. I enjoyed the ski down to the Chaudannes, the chairlift
that takes up back up to the top of the mountain. Mainly because it was a green run but it also went down through a tunnel
and I felt a little like a spy on a mission, albeit with far too many English tourists around. we made our way up and agreed
to get to the gondola and catch it back down. Although I quite easily could have skied all the way back down to the bottom.
However, by the time we got there, I took the easy option out. Even though Em thought I was going to ski down. Remember the
day before it had taken me an hour to get down the step slope, this time it took me fifteen minutes. I was improving although
I did not feel I was making enough progress. We made our way down and then went to the restaurant next to the gondola and
waited for Ben's lesson to finish.
I had a nice hot chocolate with cream and it was very good, just what the doctor ordered. Em, as she did throughout the
holiday, ordered a mulled wine. We had noticed Ben struggling on the nursery slope but he seemed to get down okay. Then on his
next run he had a mega crash. Emily got the key for chalet but he was going to head back with us. It was Pav's birthday and
we had quite a night planned ahead of us. We went back to the chalet and got changed and waited for the others.
Once they arrived and were ready, Pav blew out the candles on a bakewell tart. Then the plans for the evening began. We
wanted to head over to Val d' Isère, have a nice meal and then go out clubbing. The birthday boy was 27 after all. Our plans
changed. We headed down into the village and bumped into the owner of the La Bouida, who just happened to be both English and
getting out of a taxi. We then asked the driver, Jack to take us out. The owner recommended we head to Val Claret to avoid
the high prices in Val d 'Isere. He would take us to a nice place to eat and then point out some of the lively night spots. We
had a drink in La Bouida while waiting for the driver. It was not for the first time but the music channel NRG played the end
of Alesha Dixon - The Boy Does Nothing. It
was a song I would hear on a regular basis over the resort. This was closely followed by Womanizer by Britney Spears. Jack
drove us the thirty minutes up the road to Val Claret and dropped us off outside the @ Bar. This was a trendy little bar
which also had three desktop computers for internet access. Ben jumped on to check some important e-mails but I resisted the
temptation. The bar was very nice, cosy. Plus t_chien had a major crush on the barmaid, particularly when she came over to
our table to drop of the snack tray. It was getting late now, around 9pm and we were all hungry, so could not stomach walking
around the village, trying to find somewhere to eat, so we just popped next door. It was a rather simple restaurant but the
service was quick and prices reasonable. We all had various pizzas and everyone put in to cover the cost of Pav's meal which
was a nice touch. Although later t_chien stated that if it had been his birthday, the meal would have been in the most
expensive restaurant available and he would have gone for something more exotic than pizza.
While eating we planned the night out. We were going to go to some bars and then head to the discothèque next door, the
imaginatively titled, "Melting Pot". We headed back into the resort and first went to a quaint little pub called The Cavern
with a restaurant at the rear. We all stood at the bar and made the place look busy. The barmaid was a tall blonde who gave
us some advice on the places to go, her English was very good. We headed next door to the Grizzly Bar (so called due to the
bears on display everywhere). We were not allowed to take photographs but did not notice the sign until t_chien pointed it
out, by then the damage was done and we had all taken various photographs of the group. (Most of which are on Facebook now
and I am sure you will have seen!). Foxy fell over outside actually and it was rather amusing picture, particularly when I
pushed him further down into the snow. He then had a mini tantrum and accused me of doctoring the photograph to make it look
like I had pushed him over (hardly!). The next stop was a lively bar with live music a few bars down. As we walked in they
were playing Hotel California by The Eagles. They played a mixture of music, including some reggae. I recall them playing Al
Green - Let's Stay Together at some point during the evening. It was good fun but the place was rammed. We stood by a table
right at the middle of the bar, by the entrance to the back and toilets upstairs. This is where we spent most of the night,
the music was good and the crowd were in the mood for a party. Afterwards we thought we should at least check out the Melting
Pot. Foxy took over (as he usually does) and became the leader of our group. He sent Paul into the Melting Pot to confirm
whether we should go in. It was dead. We then walked down the icy road past Le Studio to the Blue Girl club, which was built
into the car park. Once again, completely dead. We decided to go back to the @ Cafe. It was much busier now and they were
playing dance music. We stayed here for a few before calling Jack and heading back to the chalet. It was a good night but the
more eventful night would come later in the week.
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Friday 23rd January 2009
Day 1 - Saturday 10th January
You would think that I would be asleep, three to four hours before I head off on holiday but I was actually updating this
blog, believe it or not. I had to get a last pre-trip entry posted even though it does not actually account for much. I slept for a few hours and had originally intended to leave at 3.30am. I actually left at 4:01am
precisely and still recall the time on the dashboard on my car. At 4:34am I called Pav while on the M4 motorway, he thought I
was outside his house in Reading. I had picked up Paul from slough and we were just coming up to the Bracknell junction (10
or A329(M) for you keen drivers! Instead of going directly to Pav's I stopped at the BP garage and inflated my tyres (due to
the additional load). I then raced the car around back into town and pulled outside Pav's house. Geoff's brand new Seat Ibiza
was already parked outside and ahead of me. I think this is the point to note that I think it was foolish for the guys with
the three door hatchbacks to drive to the airport. Particularly when we have t_dogg and Pav with a Ford Focus and Rover 200
respectively.
Oh well, never mind. Somehow we managed to get the luggage into my car. Although it took a little moving around as I was
carrying the additional passenger of Paul this year. One less member of our party this year, down to seven meant one less
car, you do that math. We headed out onto the motorway just before 5am, we had an hour to get to Gatwick and made excellent
time on the motorway. Pulling up outside APH car park just before 6am. We were on schedule but perhaps for the only moment on
this holiday but obviously I did not know it at the time. Geoff beat me by about ten minutes as he took the Bracknell, down
to M3 route rather than M4 direct onto M25 before M23 route like myself. I went to sort out the car while the guys loaded the
coach, well they gave our luggage to the coach driver who loaded the hold. Pav came up to me, "Yours the blue suitcase mate?"
"Yes", I replied. "Well, your carriage awaits...". I rushed to my car, and put the key on the driver seat and then headed onto
the bus. There was a major sense of déjà vu. We had to wait on the bus for a few minutes while other holiday makers came on
board but eventually we headed off to the airport. However this time, we were disembarking at the North Terminal. As we
grabbed a trolley and headed upstairs, we lost Pav. He had taken the lift while we had taken the stairs. We were directed
outside to a queue. It was long. Pav was about two lengths ahead of us. The reality of having to wait in line came as a bit
of a shock. Particularly as last year, we had gone through to check-in with only a few people at the other desks. This time
around, the place was packed and I do mean packed. The queue outside, continued inside, right before we were shown to a
check-in desk for our flight. TOM4561. We checked in separately, so first six of us, then Ben as he had booked his flight
separately (he was the plus one, I was supposed to fill!) Once we had checked in all our baggage we headed through to
security, there was a shorter queue here and the process was quite straight forward. We were 'airside', Em wanted a drink and
we walked around most of the concourse to find a place to get a cup of tea. Everywhere had long queues, so in the end the
group opted to get a snack from Costa. I just could not be bothered to queue anymore, so headed off to the departure gate 112.
A good fifteen minute walk away. Emily was slightly annoyed that I would abandon the group so early into the holiday (after a
mere two hours). I was feeling anxious for some reason and am never really settled until we are up in the air and on the way.
I had no idea how the day was going to plan out and even if I had, there was nothing I could do about it, even as a
superhero.
While I waited for the others, I did feel it strange we were kept waiting for so long before we were allow to board the
flight. My seat was 27D (an aisle seat) next to Geoff and Foxy (who had the lucky window seat). We were the last group of
people to get on, due to Foxy's insistence to sit around in the lounge area by the gate and look out the window, "boys". The
departure time for our flight was 8:40am, please take note of that. There will be a test later. Firstly there was a two hour
delay, due to a lack of deicer. Yes, I did just type "deicer". There was a lack of available deicer trucks at Gatwick, so we
had to wait for our wings to be cleared before we could take off. This was not a major issue for me, I could live with it.
However by the time we were up in the air, it was 10.30am, we were on our way. Or so we thought
Forty five minutes into our flight we were informed by the captain that the landing gear could not be retracted so had
to turn around and head back to Gatwick. Although he did state we could continue the flight to Chambéry, it was not recommended due to the
amount of fuel it uses. So we landed sometime around midday and ended up on the tarmac at Gatwick. There was no indication of
how long the wait would last. The captain did try and keep us informed but I suspect he was told only minutes before relaying
information back. Firstly the aircraft was checked by engineers and then a part found and brought back to the plane. However
it could not be fitted and the plane would not be serviceable for the next twenty four hours. I condense in a few sentences
the events of several hours. We were given our breakfast soon after landing, which was very strange. The vegetarian meal had
the meat substitutes and the meat option was actually meat free. Now, how does that work? Our party were coming to the end of
their patience, particulary Em. Geoff and t_dogg headed to the front of the plane to the open door to get some hair. I was
quite happy to just sit in my seat and listen to my Zen. I was annoyed but tried my best to not let the situation get the
better of me and all that time I thought how wonderful it will be write this all down on the electronic page. It was just
before 3pm when a member of the crew came and spoke to people individually. We were told that we were going to get taken to a
holding area while a new plane was arranged. It could be next door, it could be in Manchester or Glasgow. We would then be
boarded back onto the plane, no change or reprinting of boarding cards, along with all our luggage and on our way. However
there was information given about our destination airport. Apparently after 4.30pm it closes off one runway and reduces
capacity greatly due to night fall. We had to make sure we got onto that flight. Plus, our pilots were on shift until 8pm,
after that we were going nowhere fast. It took a while for the coaches to collect us to arrive at our plane. Perhaps they
were stuck. While in the holding area, I called home and to the shock of my Mum and sister, they found me still in England,
when I should have been on the slopes. There was a wait of thirty minutes but it felt less than that because we could roam
around free and not be kept like cattle on an aircraft. The new plane just outside the window was being prepared, we were
going to be on our way before night fell on Gatwick. I was able to sneak into the window seat (27F) on the new plane, but got
permission from t_dogg before hand. As we took off for the second time in the day, albeit only six hours later, my Dad was
calling me on my mobile. I had to hang up and switch off my mobile. He was most likely concerned if I had got to Tignes. Not
quite but we were finally on our way.
We landed at 18:50 (CET) only a mere seven hours later than we planned. We bagged a transfer via Crystal Ski slash Thomspon Airways and then waited to collect our
luggage. This was a small airport with the baggage carrossel just a few metres away from the main entrance and exit. We got
our kit and then headed out to the cold car park looking for our coach to Tignes. It took us a while to find and in fact we
had to ask a few people. The staff were great, particularly a guy with long blonde hair (do not recall his name) who raced
around and found our coach for us. We then arranged to be dropped off in our village. Chris was the new rep looking after us.
It was his first week with Crystal Ski. While we were waiting I called home to let my sister Julie know I had arrived safe
and sound. We then boarded the coach, the first people on and waited for the rest of the passengers from subsequent flights
to board. We ended up waiting over an hour for the Boswell family to board. They did not arrive and we left around 9.30pm.
Almost three hours since we had touched down, but I was just glad to be on my way. It was a two hour transfer, so I plugged
in my Zen and slowly fell asleep in my seat. I had been sitting next to Pav but he moved to sit next to Emily, so I took the
window seat. It was a long and dangerous drive. The coach driving was throwing the vehicle around the corners of the mountain
roads. Believe me, I preferred to just close my eyes and not look out the front windscreen as the coach hit insane speeds
travelling in the pitch black. Obviously the driver (who looked a lot like Doctor Eggman) had the experience to handle the big
long vehicle along these dangerous roads. I was quite glad to get off the coach just after midnight when we arrived in Les
Brieveres. We had a little tour first though, the driver taking us right down to the end of the village, with a view of the
flood light gondola. We quickly turned around and were dropped off in the centre of town. We thanked Chris for all he had
done and headed to find our chalet. This was the start of yet another new mini adventure.
Pav had printed off the driving directions to the chalet from the website. We strolled up the main road in the village
hunting for the local nightspots mentioned in the directions. We actually were heading out of the village, but we then
spotted Hotel Genope and realised we were turned back on ourselves. Pav and Emily headed down the small road down to some
chalets and it was then we realised we were in the right place but just not there yet. The area behind the chalets had some
garages but we had to walk further down to th eed of the road to find our chalet, La Brizzole. We waited for the owner, an
elderly French lady that spoke no English. She was rather annoyed to be woken up at midnight but we had called the owner (her
husband) regularly on our landing and given an accurate ETA when on the coach. However, he was not getting some Zs while the
rest of us were waiting in the bitter cold night to get into our accommodation. Pav tried to explain (by making childish
airplane movements with his hand) that our flight had been delayed. The only word from the French woman we could understand
was "Fin" as she drew a line in the air with her hands, much like a conductor would kill his orchestra. Eventually she left
and disappeared into the opposite chalet and we decided to unpack and get some food. I was hungry. I do not think any of the
others had eaten anything either. We headed to Vincent's Bar (a Dutch bar but frequented mainly by English tourists). It was
time for a snack before we crashed out. Yes a complete day (and then some) had been wasted on getting here but we were
determined to look on the good side. We had made it to Tignes, we had got to our chalet and we had got ourselves a free
transfer from the airport. Not a bad day, just tiring and mildly annoying. Particularly when I generally have no problems
with my journeys be they for business or pleasure.
While at the bar, the barmaid, Sophie, from Norwich told us some of the places to go in terms of food and drink. It was
nice to be given some local advice. After the food we headed back to the chalet, I was shattered, as were my friends. I
recall falling asleep at 2am. Tomorrow our holiday could finally begin, I was gutted that I had not got onto the slopes on
the first day, but it had been the day of travel, now rest. Tomorrow the true esscence of the holiday could be born.
Day 2 - Sunday 11th January
It was rather a major act of wishful thinking to set my alarm for 7:25am (my Nokia E65 which for the record I never use as
an alarm clock back at home). I was in a very deep sleep but remember picking up the mobile from the floor at 7:43am to
switch it off. Everyone else was already awake by the time I got out of bed, Ben was in the shower. I had corn flakes for
breakfast for first time in years. Well it was not proper official Kelloggs Corn Flakes but some cheap French Grand Jury
homebrand. It did not taste that great but it was food and I was hungry. I had some toast too, even though Emily offered me
yoghurt. I turned it down when in reality I should not of. I did not know how long I would be spending up on the slopes.
After getting ready, puting on my ski gear, we headed up to the rental shop, which was directly opposite Vincent's. Most of
the holiday makers were either out on the slopes or heading out already. The group in the chalet opposite us, headed out at
9.30am. The Intersport was a lot more primitive than in
Kitzbuhel but you have to compare like for like. That particular winter sports rental establishment was opposite the bottom
of the world famous down hill race. Here I was in the smallest village of the resort. After Foxy, Geoff and Ben got their
gear, I was next to try on some boots and then get my skis and poles. We made use of our fifteen percent discount sent by our
accommodation agent, based no less than the Netherlands. I took the option of insurance, plus was surprised that my credit
card scanned with a changed name of Mr. Andre Tegala. Will it change to Andres if I go to Espana? Once we had our gear we
headed back to the chalet to change and then headed out to the piste. It was this time I bumped into the chalet owner and he
directed me to the shortcut to the slopes. I explained (in English) that we were meeting friends opposite Vincents and hence
going in the opposite direction.
Before I continue, I need to explain my camera situation. The original plan had been for me to take my sister's camera, as
I did last year. However, when I text her on Thursday afternoon, Natalie explained she was out at the weekend and taking the
camera with her. I did not really want to take my bulky camera out onto the slopes, so on Friday (yes the day before my
holiday was due to start) I went on an impulse crusade to get a cheap compact camera. Pav recommended the CyberShotU from
Sony but I eventually went for the Casio Exilim. I had wanted the Fuji but it did not take SD memory. It was a big fat
mistake because the camera did not charge when I bought it home, even after six hours, so I returned it for a refund.
However, instead I took the family Kodak camera. An extremely basic and plastic 3.2 megapixel piece of junk, however it would
mean photographs from my holiday, something I could just not do without. However, my batteries were dead, so I had to go to
the convenience store and buy four AA Grand Jury branded batteries. To my surprise I did not think they would last the week
but they did! So, here is one of my first photographs from the holiday, when it should have been at least the twenty
third.
Sorry about the bright yellow date stamps but I just am not that familiar with the device and it goes without saying I
will not be using it again. We were waiting while Ben went to book his private ski lesson and Pav went back to the chalet to
get his gloves (or was it camera?). Ben's lesson was booked for 2pm and we headed to the main gondola and bought our passes.
I got the pass for the whole area (Espace Killy - named after the former Olympic Champion, or so I'm informed.) We then headed up
the gondola to the ski area. I was looking forward to getting onto the snow and my confidence was quite high. It was picture
postcard material all the way up to the top and when we got off and everyone got their kit on we headed down the slopes. Ben
was struggling and it soon appeared it was going to take some time to get down. If at all.
One of my few crashes on holiday came as I was trying to circle around part of the red run, I lost my balance, one ski
went up in the air, closely followed by another. It was quite dramatic and must have looked great but Pav did not get the
picture in time. I got back on my feet (or do I mean skis) and then headed straight for the edge and Paul. He was looking
worried as I got closer and closer but eventually came to an impressive stop and turn just in time. The view was magnificent
but I was glad to be heading off the red onto the blue.
There is heated debate, as to whether the person on the deck in this photograph is Ben or myself. I think it might be Ben
but I could be wrong. You will need to click on the above image and view the full resolution (1024x368) image to get a better
look and even then you might still be none the wiser.
Back to the actual action on the piste, the rest of the gang (i.e. all the boarders, took the red run down, meanwhile
Geoff led, with myself and Ben following behind. It was very much a case of throwing Ben onto the mountain far too early and
he could not cope. We made slow progress down the adjoining blue run. We made it down to the end of the road and a steep
turning to the left and it was here that took Ben a little time to make his way around. Geoff and myself tried to coach him.
I should have left it all down to Geoff, he was the experienced skier, I was just trying to give some encouragement. There
was no way I was going to just leave the guy in a heap, even though I did not know him that well. This was our second
meeting, since the Eurovision house party back in May. We made our way down to the next bit
and Geoff took the lead and I followed Ben, my confidence was very high and I felt I could take on any run over the whole
resort. It was slow progress down the piste but we had a problem. Ben's lesson was at 2pm and we were cutting it fine. After
the step u-turn we headed down a relatively low incline. We got there and I did enjoy the humps on the way to the straight
before we got around the corner, a clearing after the trees. Then it was another sharp turn and a steep run down to the
chairlift (which looked like it was closed, we would find out later due to the day of the week!). Ben was really struggling
now. Geoff tried his best to help and improve his stance but I am not sure it helped. I headed down to the bottom of the run
and waited. A few minutes later, Ben had taken off his skis and was walking down the run off to the side (technically off
piste). Geoff came down and explained Ben had hurt his ankle and was going to get a taxi back to the chalet. I was an eager
beaver and just wanted to ski all the way back down but I had to show solidatry with my fallen comrade. For I was that fallen
comrade last year. We walked back up to the village of Les Boisses. We were looking for a taxi and headed towards the
direction of a bar and bumped into an English girl, Jess. (This would not be the first time such a scenario would occur for
me). It was then the suggestion of catching a chairlift down came to mind but there was no way of walking up to the lift we
could see plus there was doubt that Ben would make it. So he headed into the bar and got the taxi driver. We headed down to
the parked Ford Transit Minibus and loaded our gear in. The driver asked why we did not ski down. Our friend had hurt his
foot we explained in English. He understood. (He reminded me of a younger Lt. Columbo). We were dropped off by Vincents and
Ben headed back to the gondola to try and re-arrange his lesson, while Geoff and I headed back to the gondola! I said goodbye
to Jess and wished each other a happy and injury free holiday.
We met up with the others by the main gondola and headed back up to the top. Ben cancelled his lesson and headed back to
the chalet. We headed up back the main gondola and then took the chairlift up to the top of a red run. The chairlift (Marais)
seemed to go on forever but gave some fantastic views of the mountain range. It must have been about 2:20pm local time and I
had long three hours ahead of me. I just did not know it yet.
As it was only the first day and we only had a few hours to go before the lifts closed, we decided to stay local and just
ski and board down to Les Brieveres. I lost everyone, including Geoff at the top of one of the runs which splits in two. On
the left a red run, on the right, a blue run which I took down. It was hard work and it was getting late. My mission was to
get to the gondola before it closed at 4.15pm. As I got to the top of the run, I could see it was open but by the time I made
it down (took me well over an hour) it was closed. There was no option, I had to go down. My confidence had gone after a few
stumbles and the heavy incline was just too much for me, plus remember, my technique is very basic. Actually that is another
subject I want to talk about.
Towards the end of my lessons last year, I remember a woman in my group discussing her lessons, with a different tutor.
"You are not actually skiing" was the phrase that stuck in my mind. She was explaining that although she was able to get down
the mountain she was not actually skiing. Snowplough turn, traversing across (but not quite in parallel). Just as Emily
would say to me a few days later, when attempting the snowplough turn, as you have zero grip and move so fast downhill before
you come out of the turn and then traverse across again. This was my technique for the holiday. Perhaps with hindsight I
should have given myself a two hour private lesson to hone my technique and master the parallel turns. Miss Poole's verdict
was that once I could do that I could take on my red run. Even though I did attempt to practice on the green zone in Le Lac,
there was just not the time or commitment from myself. However, I promise not to give up and more on that in the final
day.
So let me put you into my shoes (or rather ski boots). I am stuck high up on a mountain. My friends are nowhere to be see
and most likely heading towards the chalet if they are not already there and the main gondola, my get out of jail card if you
will had closed. I had no option, I had to ski all the way down. Once I got to the main gondola (Sache) and was skiing past
it, I felt a little better, for I had completed part of this run only three hours or so earlier. I made it down but it was
slow progress and the sun was setting behind the Alps. I made it down to Les Boisses but it must have taken me around thirty
minutes if not a bit longer. Here I had a choice, I could get the taxi with Columbo down back to Les Brievieres or just ski
down all the way by myself. The thought sat a while in my mind, eventually the ski option one and I did not like the thought
of shelling out €20 for a journey. I made it down to the beginning of the blue run and was surprised at how busy the piste
still once. These were the experienced skiers and snowboarders, the extreme guys and girls coming back after some epic runs
over in Le Lac, Val Claret and beyond. I on the other hand was nervous but keen to get down to the bottom. It must have been
around 4.50pm by now and speed was of the esscence. It was getting dark, I had to get back to the chalet. I did not have a
phone with me and did not know where the others were and Pav had text me. However, although I had perhaps lost all the
arrogant confidence I had at the beginning of the day, I felt assured in my ability to get down to the village. I did and at
5.20pm, I opened the door to the hall way. Almost at the same time Foxy opened the door the other side and gave a loud,
"Hey!". Emily had just put her coat on to go and raise the alarm. with my safe arrival there was no need. My ears should have
been burning as they had spent most of the last hour wondering on my location and well being.
The evening was spent
in, although Ben & t_chien (t_dawg translated to French) did pop over to Vincents to watch Man United versus Chelsea. We
popped to the shop and then came back to prepare dinner. Or rather Em and Pav did the hard work preparing a delicious lasagne
and apple crumble desert. Foxy, AKA t_chien, check up entertained while we waited. Firstly he did some over analysis of
various songs including Papa Can You Here Me? by N-Dubz and
played a few songs from the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge album, mainly the Dizzie Rascal version of That's Not My Name. "They call me blud, they call me rude boy". It did have me
in stitches but it was the analysis from my friend. He really had listened to this songs in detail and knew the lyrics
backwards. It was almost like a re-run from May 2007 when we went down to the South West
Coast. Back then the artists under the microscope were Lady Sov and Bill Bailey.
After dinner it was time for the first game of Uno.
We had played the game back in Kitzbuhel as we had found a pack of cards in the bar at our hotel. We got a good few games
going but Paul lost closely followed by Ben in the next game. The forfeit which was decided by the group was for the loser to
face the firing squad. The snow ball firing squad that is. The winner had three shots, the rest of us two each. Foxy was so
keen that he went out before the end of the game to build some snowballs. The best moment in the game, was when I was out and
there was a quick fire moment of +2 cards. First from Geoff, then Em, then Paul. So I thought Foxy would have to pick up six
but he came out with a +2 card himself, to give Ben the awful task of picking up eight! It was no wonder he lost that
round.
Felt very strange it was Sunday evening, the village was quiet and we were heading out tomorrow for a full day skiing in
the morning. We all wanted an early night. I feel asleep around midnight, almost on the dot. We had started to watch Dragon Rouge on French TV but given up.
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Sunday 18th January 2009
I am back! Yes, returned home (well to my parents in Wycombe) just after midnight in the early hours of this morning. Completely shattered, I should have gone straight to sleep after some food. But you know me, I had to go online for a few hours and finally went to sleep around 3am!
So much to mention and I suppose I have plenty of time but just like last year, I will give a day by day account of the adventure. For the time being it is 17:22 and I am back in Newbury watching The Krypton Factor on ITV1. (Just not the same as I caught the end of the Christmas 1987 edition on Virgin+1 earlier today!). I am going to catch up on some television shows and perhaps then make the start on the epic blog post.
Bear with me, I may be some time but I assure you that it will be worth the wait. The main thing is I have not broken anything and suffered zero injuries. Can I say the same for the rest of my party?
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Friday 9th January 2009
Sometimes even I find it hard to believe that everything happens for a reason. Not only this but trivial items are placed in your path for you to notice.
If are reading this anytime on Saturday morning (a decent time of day after you have had a lie in) then the countdown will be over.
Back on 17th January with hopefully plenty of photographs and plenty of stories. Then second mountain to climb, the blog entries can begin.
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Thursday 1st January 2009
So how did 2009 start for you? Did you head off to bed at 1am with your pipe and slippers? Well if you are living life in the slow lane these days, the rest of this post is not for you. I pick up the story, a few minutes into this new year. Pav said we would stick around for an hour or so before heading over to Plug n Play. He played a few songs on the decks at York Road as a warm up before Poole wanted to have another go. We left around 1am, but said we would pop back when the club closed.
I did not realise how close Plug n Play was to Foxy's house. It was difficult to judge because the club is in the middle of an industrial park. York Road is quite a long residential street in a residential area, but you walk up the road, take a left and then a right and the houses disappear and are replaced by big industrial units. In the end we did not need directions from Poole, we just followed the other people heading in that direction. In fact someone that was speaking to Emily as we walked down (she was a few yards behind us) actually knew Pav and had been looking after the night the last time Pav played there over five years ago.
We got to the entrance and I had to check my name off and show my e-ticket to be give. I was also given a 'Love' stamp so I could come and go as I pleased over the night. In the end, I did not leave the premises until the place closed at 4am. It was around 1.30am by the time we got there and Sam was on the decks. I prefered her set but was looking forward to Tina Martin who was playing just before Pav! Her set was not as good as the launch night but still was good enough to dance to. Then at the stroke of 3am, Pav came on and the dancefloor was packed. However, as I was dancing with Emily I noticed she did not look too bright. She was drifting and after I asked she was okay, she said she was heading over to Foxy's. She told Pav and Melanie and disappeared into the early hours of the first morning of 2009. It had not got to 3.30am yet.
Something stranged happened at the half way point, a big crowd of people just disappeared. It was like an instant change, on minute there were loads of people on the dancefloor, then next there were mostly gone. I kept up the stamina from somewhere and was there dancing at the infront of the DJ booth with Mel. I could not believe I lasted up until 4am. However way before the closing time of the set, the main lights came on outside, which ruined the atmosphere rather a great deal. However, Pav being the professional that he is, kept the show on the road for as long as he could. The licence has a strict closing time of 4am. So the manager came over twice to tell Pav to cut the music. He explained that this was the last song and it had a few more minutes to run. He ended on the chill out classic - Cafe Del Mar by Energy 52, the Out Of Office Remix with a running time of 7:42. And so the show was over, we headed back to the house to find the party was well and truly over.
Everyone was in the lounge watching The Office: An American Workplace on ITV2. Alan and Ben were asleep but looked rather uncomfortable on the chairs. Meanwhile, Foxy, Geoff and the others were all on the lounge with Mel lying on Foxy (she had left the club a few mintues before me, while I had waited for Pav). Foxy then trolled through the hard drive of the Sky+ box and decided to watch The Mighty Boosh. This lasted a few minutes before The Office came back on. Meanwhile, Emily had crashed out on Foxy's bed upstairs and the t_dogg was now in the need of sleep, so requested Pav remove her from his sleeping quarters. This was much easier said than done. Pav ordered a taxi while we got together and Emily finally came downstairs. I remember checking the time on the Sky EPG as I left (they were still channel hopping and deciding what to watch). It was 4:25am, I was actually not that tired, not hungry and actually up for a bit more of a party. We got back to Pav's place around 4:45am and I had to sent a tweet from my phone while Pav auto-inflated the airbed. I was in the basement lair for the first time. It was tempting to jump on the computer and update both my Facebook and Twitter statuses. Mel was sleeping in the spare room, which I would normally take. It was coming up to 5am as I finally fell to sleep. Oh what a night!
Late that morning I got up at 11am on the dot. I found myself half sunk in the mattress as it had deinflated during the night. Thankfully not fully, so I was not asleep on a sheet on the floor. It was a strange experience though, having to crawl out to grab my mobile, switch it on and then fall back into the airbed. I eventually got up, packed it away, got ready and then started on something very important. I had to start writing the blog notes. I took a seat on the comfy chair, grabbed some blank sheets of A4. There was an open pad on the decks, I am sure Pav does not mind. I then had a little stool to lean on as I made my notes. These notes had to capture, not just the events of New Year's Eve but also the big gap between Christmas. Before now, my blog had not been updated since Christmas Eve. I had a lot to write about. I began by writing actual sentences (which would appear on the blog) but as I got to the fourth side, I had to switch to note form, just as time was running out. Melanie left and wished me well for my ski holiday around 11.45am and then Pav came down to cook some breakfast. Meanwhile I sat on the dining table and completed my notes. After breakfast we went downstairs to the basement and Pav burnt me a DVD with goodies. The first two series of the IT Crowd plus American Dad. We then headed to town to see The Spirit at the Vue. Poole had been ill since she got up and was in a bad way. She even remarked to me, "Why aren't you ill Teg?" Because I controlled myself love! Her final words to me were, "Enjoy your rubbish movie!".
Yes, it was a bit cheesy but enjoyable and entertaining. Not as good as Sin City but with Eva Mendes and Samuel L. Jackson, it had enough to keep me going. It was shot similar to Sin City but was noway near as gruesome. The character was great and reminded me of The Shadow a little. I feel the story could be have been better but perhaps it was about establishing the character rather than anything else.
It was 5pm by the time I got home and I came to the realisation that tomorrow I was back at work. Just a shame I had no hot water.
