Not sure what 2008 will bring beyond the ski trip to Austria, but everything and I do mean EVERYTHING will be archived here.
Sunday 27th July 2008
I was the first person in the gym this morning, a few minutes after 7.30am. I wanted to get the workout out of the way early, so I could get home and get on with all the little jobs I had to do. The gym was completely dead and only had a handful of users by the time I checked out at 8.31am precisely. But by the time I got home, had a light breakfast, I had to get some rest, I was not feeling great.
Yesterday was the start of a catch up weekend and I did not have much of a window to watch both Eastenders (Friday episode) and part two of Burn Up, so I decided upon the trip to Albert Square. I was half dozing in my leather chair and remember waking up to see Jase with a face full of blood and collapse. I thought I missed the ruck! Watching part of the episode again on BBC1 this afternoon, I realised I had not missed any action.
Had a great time at Jennifer's barbeque yesterday evening.
My sister dropped me off around 7pm in Downley. There was
quite a bigger gathering than I expected, after Jenny had
originally told me, "It's just a few close family and friends
and I would like you to be there". They were celebrating
their seven (yes seven!) year wedding anniversary. I finally
got a chance to hold Aiden (photos to be uploaded by Anthea
and Jen in due course) while he was asleep but did see him
awake for part of the evening. I also finally got to have
a proper conversation with Elvis and also met Nick, Anthea's
boyfriend for the first time. The only other person I knew
there was Philip Jeeves, whom was also in my form (x.2)
at Ramsay. He was there with girlfriend and his parents.
The last time I had seen him was in fact the very day of
Jenny's wedding (Saturday 28th July 2001). Something about
time flies when your having fun or avoiding ex-class mates
you really do not want to keep in touch with. Although of
course Facebook has put a stop to any of that business.
It was a great evening, with the Caribbean music bumping
(a bit of dance hall and reggae) and a lovely spread prepared
by Jennifer herself (and not her Mum as I originally thought).
I got my sister to pick me up around 10pm before I headed
home. A very pleasant evening and nice to do something different
and local for a change.
I am not a big fan of Twitter, both as a user and reader. The excellent search facility enables you find out what people are discussing right now. I have subscribed to a few tweet feeds. One person you may know, from the BBC News. Rory Cellan-Jones (double barrel names can be so annoying). He blogs regularly on the dot.life over at the Beeb but you may recognise him from technology or financial news bulletins on television. He took the following photograph, and boy did it made me chuckle. Although looking back it could refer to those Fathers 4 Justice super heroes!
In my searches via Summize (now purchased by Twitter to become Twitter
Search) I found this great tweet
from Hoodhype describing Keri Hilson in her Energy video!
:) If you want to know what I am referring to, you can go
over and check out the video on YouTube.
I am sure I linked to it in my previous post.
Watched the final part of Burn Up lunchtime today. It was very good but I was slightly disappointed, I expected a little bit more but then as a political thriller, you can expect it to do no more than get bogged down in the politics. Literally seconds before Holly (Neve Campbell's character) was killed off, I thought it would be far too easy for her to just be eliminated by the powers that be and that the script writers would come up with a more sophsiticated way to have her compromised. I was wrong, she meet a deadly end in the football stadium in Calagry, Canada. A shame, because she is a fantastic actress and although not given a major part here was excellent throughout. Good work but with plenty of plot holes and unexplained aspects, it does provide you with an idea of what actually goes on behind the cameras at these world forums but also the deals cut between the big oil companies and international governments. Well, they will have to come up with some alternative fast, the oil is expected to run out around 2050, only forty-two years to go!
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Friday 25th July 2008
It is 00:47 as I begin writing this post. I am very excited
to put down in words my cinematic experience this evening.
First things are first though, I managed to keep Pav at
bay all day. I got two texts from him, on yesterday evening
and one today, "Terry Bruce Wayne is really Batman" which
was just a big joke. I blocked him on MSN and did not log
into Facebook
all day. Not that difficult when you are really busy and
have a meeting for a few hours in the afternoon and disappear
out for a long lunch. I was really looking forward to the
movie and actually got over to Thame about ten minutes early.
Clive and Edwin were still finishing their dinner out on
the patio in the back garden. It was a few minutes before
we left to head over to Vue in Oxford. We got their around
7.35pm, as Clive drove cross country and avoided any traffic.
However I was shocked at the queue of people waiting to
get into screen six. There had already been a notice on
the door outside that the 8pm screening was sold out. We
hatched a plan. Clive went to the toilet, while Edwin and
I got in the queue for snacks. Clive had given us our tickets
and was going to sneak into the screen and save us some
seats. We eventually got some popcorn and joined the back
of the queue, almost by the far end wall of the cinema.
However it was a few minutes before 8pm now and the queue
was moving. I was hoping that Clive had saved us some seats.
He did a great job, central seats as requested and we found
him, waving like a crazy man in the middle. We sat down
and it was just a moment to wait for the Pearl & Dean
music to start.
Easily one of the greatest super hero movies of all time.
I would go as far to say that it gives Superman II a run
for it's money but perhaps due to the dark nature of the
movie and subplots it just loses out. Okay, a few criticisms,
perhaps it is a bit too long and the story is fairly complicated.
However, that aside it is a great movie and I loved every
second. Bale gives a towering performance as Batman and
Heath Ledger steals the show as The Joker. A hero is only
as good as his villain and in this case, Batman truly does
meet his match. I cannot wait for the next installment and
actually just watch this movie again. The set pieces are
brilliant, all the cast give sterling performances. Personally
I would have preferred to explored Harvey Dent's revenge
in a separate movie (the Joker is plenty of a villain for
one movie if not more). Nevertheless, it all works and the
story does have you hooked at the edge of your seat. The
story is the most important aspect of the movie, with only
one gadget used during the climatic final battle scenes.
What appeals to me most about Bruce Wayne, is the fact that
by day he is a billionaire playboy without a care in the
world. Flying in on helicopters with beautiful women, or
driving around Gotham in his super fast car. However by
night, he turns into the caped crusader, looking out for
the innocent citizens of the city. Leading such a contrasting
double life makes him the ultimate hero. However I feel
Superman wins out because Clark Kent is so pathetic and
you feel sorry for him and in a way can relate to the loser
(every office has one). Enough comparisons, back to the
movie. There is a great deal to take in so pay attention
but most importantly sit back and enjoy the ride. Just consider
that had to sit through two rather painful Batman movies
(particularly Batman & Robin) to be able to finally
enjoy the franchise as it should have always been realised
on the big screen. There is not much more I can really tell
you until you go and see it. The Joker is just truly insane
and just does not care for anything, people, money or himself.
Batman does find himself up against it but will he run forever?
"Either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself
become the villain!".
I can now never watch the 1960s camp, Batman series with Adam West (I think they are currently airing on BBC4). While I suppose there is an audience for this comic action, I think I will leave them for the young children and concentrate on the movies. I cannot wait for the next one. If you are really bored, you can find out why Revenge Of The Sith is apparently better than The Dark Knight.
Clive annotated the notes to Energy by Keri Hilson for me and gave them to me after we got back from the cinema. The video was released last week and I was able to download a copy, you can check it out on YouTube. I will try and find time to practice over the weekend but it already looks like it is going to be a busy one. I got a long list of jobs to do tomorrow. Go into town, get haircut, return library book, get another book from my reading list, buy some bits and bobs from Boots and then head home. Then I need to wash the car, before doing the television catchup. The weekend has become a time for catching up on television I have missed during the week. There is Friday's edition of Eastenders, plus part two of Burn Up. I also have five episodes of John Adams to get through and even a classic Bollywood movie from 1992. A personal favourite but doubt I will get a three hour window to sit down and enjoy (has to be watched via XBMC and not on my PC). I will let you know, how I get on. Tomorrow night I am off to Jenny's house for a barbeque to celebrate her wedding anniversary with her family. Sunday morning will be gym and major catch up time in terms of television but also a change to clear my room and sort out all my paperwork. It is quite a mess at the moment.
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Tuesday 22nd July 2008
I have some unfortunate news. I have been dropped like
a lead balloon by my dearest brother Pavneet Singh Khural.
He dropped the bombshell via MSN last Wednesday, I was gutted.
He is going to catch The Dark Knight with his workmates
Barry and Scott this coming Thursday at Vue, Oxford
early evening 5pm showing. I am really annoyed. Mainly
because he is my cinema buddy but also because we went to
see the first movie in the reboot of the franchise, Batman
Begins back in June 2005.
In fact it was a momentous occasion, as it was the first
time we met up with each other to go to the cinema since
our college days (we had met up for the first time in Maidenhead
in May a month earlier). I remember it very well, as I had
to get directed from his old flat to his new house in Emmer
Green via his sister on the telephone. It became a trip
down memory lane as I took a camera phone photograph of
the old number plate of his Proton. In any case, there is
an unwritten rule that if we see the first movie together
we have to see the sequel. This has been the case with Fantastic
Four and erm, I cannot think of any others at the moment.
So to rub salt into the wound, Pav cut and pasted his e-mail
confirmation from Vue into the MSN window last week and
that annoyed me further. I feel I have no option to block
him on Friday just in case he lets something slip.
Batman is perhaps my second favourite superhero of all time (after Superman) and a touch higher up the scale than Spiderman (he is a bit too much of a boy figure in my opinion). So you can imagine my joy that the franchise was to return with Christian Bale donning the cape of the saviour of Gotham City. I have thankfully been able to make plans to catch the movie on Friday evening at 8pm, at the same establishment with my friend Clive and his friend Edwin (over from France). I am really looking forward to this movie, from the moment we saw Batman pick up that Joker card on the top of some skyscraper on that night in June three years ago (can you believe it has been three years). I remember smiling with Pav and saying I could not wait for the sequel as a hero is only as good as his adversary. I am trying my best to avoid getting sucked into the reviews but it was unavoidable to hear that the late Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar for his performance. When the villian is stealing the show so well (similar to Hoffman in Mission Impossible III) you know you have a great cinematic experience on your hands. My only disappointment is that I will be sharing the experience with my dear friend Pav. Although we will be in the same multiplex, allbeit fifteen hours apart.
It is a bit early to be discussing the weekend but I have been invited to a barbeque at the Medfords' to celebrate Elvis and Jennifer's wedding anniversary (seven years) so will be there on Saturday evening. The rest of the weekend pans out as usual. Gym on Sunday morning and trying to sort out my friends computer as well as the family desktop if I have time.
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Sunday 20th July 2008
Today started quite well, I got myself out of bed just after 8am, got myself down the gym for 8.38am and left at 9.38am. (I struggled with the shoulder press but more on that in another post). I got home, changed and then headed for my piano lesson in Thame. Towards the end of my lesson I noticed bright blotches in my vision. I was getting a headache. I left and turned down the option of lunch and drove home. I called Ricki on the way but it was a brief conversation. I got home and went straight to sleep. It was about 1.15pm and I did not get up again until 6pm. After some food, I went back to sleep and got up at 8pm in time to watch Top Gear. A wasted Sunday afternoon which I am trying to make up for.
Last night at Egg was fantastic! It was perhaps a milestone in my clubbing experience, so I thought it would be an ideal moment to look back at my clubbing history. Particularly as the majority of the early days (1999-2002) are PB (pre-blogging days). My clubbing life seems to start with Pav. Back in 1999 we would go to Level One. A dingy club built into a car park to the west of the town centre. I went there three or four times but it was never anything special. We then moved up a level to Utopia, which was outside the town centre and actually just off Junction 12 off the M4. (It has recently reopened as J12). This was my first experience of a quality venue. The dance floor was massive and we got big group of us together and my Dad even hired a minibus for a few trips. One memorable trip was in Christmas 1999. I just remember as the club closed, to get everyone out the DJ played The Hamster Dance. I can remember quite well, the lights coming on soon after the song blasting out of the speakers and everyone darting for the exit. Oh the memories, in any case, that was one of handful of visits to Utopia.
In September 2000, the move up to Leicester meant many
things but also a change in direction. While I still enjoyed
going to the commercial dance venues, the new friends I
made were into a different music scene. An urban and more
street based music style. I got introduced to Garage for
the first time and went to some amazing gigs. I remember
Garage Nation at Zanzibar which was a sellout and absolutely
crazy. I also recall my birthday night out in Mosquito Coast
(what a fantastic name for a club) which was headlined by
DJ Luck & MC Neat in November 2000. I am trying to remember
the names of some of the clubs but many have been refurbished
and changed (during and after) my time at university in
the city. I refer to these as the lost years because I was
completely lost touch with Pav. He was back at Henley College
(re-sits) during my first year and then in Birmingham studying
Engineering before dropping out to get a job in the real
world.
We got back in touch in 2005 and I remember some of his first messages to me.
He was 'really' into his dance music but also did some DJing
from time to time. I was quite shocked. (This was the guy
that had really liked Alice Deejay like me but perhaps he
did not want me to post that admission on my blog). I remember
the first few early mixes he had send me during the later
days at college. He mixed A-ha Take On Me, with Lenny Kravitz
- Fly Away. I might even have the mp3 file lying around
on a archive CD somewhere. In three short years I have been
introduced to a whole range of music and amazing venues.
The super clubs across London and some more local venues
such as Phatz Bar in Maidenhead. I also went to two music
festivals and plan to go to many more.
Kev picked me up around 9.30pm and we headed down the M40 to London. There were road works just before Park Royal with the three lanes converging into two, so it was about half a mile tail back. Plenty of time for Pav's set, he was not due to take over the decks from Stevens until 11.30pm. We turned left after Kings Cross and dumped the car in the fist available spot and then worked up York Way. We noted that the number near by was thirty something and we had to get to two hundred. As we crossed the road, we saw two minibuses pull up. The free courtesy Egg taxi but we opted to walk rather than jump in. (We were under the illusion that the club was right the corner when it was about a mile (or at least three quarters of a mile away). We continued walking but the rows of shops and houses changed into industrial park land with their high silver gates. We were started to lose hope but Pav then noticed the bright sign up at the top of the hill (I saw it a few moments later). The Egg logo on a white lit board. We were here.
Outside there were more staff than actual customers. In
fact we were the first customers and told to queue up in
the paid queue. We then were let through, I had to empty
my pockets and go through the scanner and we were in. The
interior corridor was plush, all in white with an exotic
almost Continental feel. I was looking forward to the night
out. Kev misplaced his mobile phone, so went back to the
car with his girlfriend Deun. (They caught the Egg shuttle
bus to the car and then parked the car right outside the
club. I went to check the place out. Walking through you
went into the garden area which was under a marquee. Through
the door and to the right you were in the basement, the
Crescendo area with Paul already on the decks. I then got
some drinks in and the evening could start (once Kev &
Duen had got back by then). It was a great night, just took
a while to get going. The place was practically empty when
we arrived but by midnight the place was banging and Pav
(using his new name for the first time (Breezy has official
been dropped but I think the web
site remains). A great night but after a while I went
to explore, there were two rooms upstairs (the second I
discovered later with Pav). They were playing more commercial
/ vocal based dance tunes and it was rammed! We stayed here
for a while before heading back downstairs for the end of
Pav's set and the beginning of Russell's. They had the ceiling
lights on and there was a great atmosphere on the dance
floor. Here are a few of my favourite pictures, (all courtesy
of Pav, I opted to leave my camera in the car!)
You can view the rest over on FlickR. We left around 2.30am, and I remember getting home just before 3.30am, still buzzing from the fantastic night. I am looking forward to the next Crescendo night, whenever it may be. Plus I had missed the last event a few weeks back at Pascha so enjoyed being back out on a Saturday night having a good time (for a change).
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Saturday 19th July 2008
It is a lazy Saturday afternoon approaching 3pm and I feel somewhat empty with no football to speak off. (Although Arsenal play their traditional first pre-season friendly against Barnet). I was actually hoping to post an entry last night but did not have the motivation or material. I feel only slightly better prepared now. I am looking forward to Egg tonight in London. Kev is giving me a lift, so no problems with logistics. More on that later, for now let me quickly recap what I have been up to for the past few days.
A busy week in the office but I met my deadline (just) and also got a great deal off my chest. Time will tell if it will fall upon deaf ears. In the gym, I had my review with Matt on Thursday evening. My weights programme has been improved, with two new machines added and also weights on all previous machines increased. In two month's time, he will add a free weights programme so every time I get to the gym I will have the choice of three programmes (cardio, fixed weight or free weight). Although I have a confession to make, I have not been using the machines properly. I have been rushing through twenty four reps straight, when I should do twelve and then have a rest of up to a minute (bare minimum of thirty seconds) before doing the second set of twelve. I was wondering why all the machines 'beeped' at me constantly from reps thirteen to twenty-four and beyond. I will be giving my new programme a first run through tomorrow morning. I will of course let you know how I get on.
Tomorrow morning I also have a piano lesson but I am seriously considering dropping out. I have e-mailed my tutor but so far have had no reply, perhaps he is too shocked to even contemplate a response and will speak to me firmly at the lesson. I have to confess that I find it very difficult to find the time to sit down to practice. I am suppose to manage thirty minutes every day but that is nearly impossible. I think I squeezed in two sessions last week but one of those was doing my theory homework so should not count. When one has focus and discipline he can achieve, without these characteristics you found yourself lost, lacking motivation and actually deeply frustrated.
I happened to stumble upon Tasmin Lucia-Khan presenting
E24 on BBC News on Thursday evening just after 9.30pm and
was surprised to hear about the Emmy nominations. One show
had received twenty-three nominations but at first I thought
it was a movie but after seeing a clip we were informed
it was eight hours long and then the penny dropped. It was
a HBO miniseries, and the Emmy awards are for television!
(D'oh!). Anyhow, I went and had a look on Wikipedia to read
up about the drama and take a look myself. As you may know,
American history fascinates me, particularly the American
Revolution. (I always here the voice of Radio Five Live
Up All Night presenter, Dotun Adebayo say, "The British
Are Coming"). Therefore I got hold of the first few episodes
and watched one last night and the second this morning.
Absolutely fantastic, great acting and story telling. It
is worthy of all those nominations and I would not be surprised
if it did sweep the board at the ceremony. It is something
reading about the great (but short) history of the American
people on Wikipedia, it is something else seeing it played
out in such dramatic fashion on the television screen. The
casting also has been perfect - I am particularly impressed
with George Washington. (Not easy for an actor to step into
the shoes of the "Greatest Man On Earth"). I am looking
for the next five installments which I will try and catch
during the week. If you enjoy your period dramas or just
like to learn about the birth of a new country, I highly
recommend you catch the show (unsure when it will be aired
in the UK).
Last night I also watched Harold
& Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. It was good
fun but somewhat predictable from the moment it started.
It was good that they literally continued a week later from
the previous film (which is four years old - the longest
week of your life?). I felt the situations they found themselves
in were quite hilarious but it was the deputy head of Homeland
Security that stole the show. I do not think I have seen
such a stupid character in a movie in my life. It was a
nice way to waste away a couple of hours and leave my brain
somewhere out in the garden. Would I have gone to the cinema
to see it? No, this is not in the same category as American
Pie (Kumar even rips it out of Euro Trip) but entertaining
fun nevertheless. However it is not for everyone and if
you did not enjoy the first movie, then you will not enjoy
this second outing. I just home the story ends here (we
all like happy endings after all).
Looking forward to my first clubbing trip to the capital since the end of May. As you know by now, I do not go to your average, run-of-the-mill club. I go to venues with character and soul. The Egg, with it's roof terrace and three big rooms will be impressive. You can tell just from the photos, I just hope the weather stays dry so we can enjoy the roof garden area. Pav's set is at 11.30pm - 12.15am while Paul Stevens kicks off the show at 10pm to 11.30pm. I need to charge the batteries on my camera to make sure I get some good photographs this time around, the ones from Club Aquarium were not even FlickR material.
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Wednesday 16th July 2008
For some jobs you have to be prepared. For some jobs, you know you are taking a step into the unknown. Pav is never scared of a challenge. I would have run away from the silver 52 plate VW Polo. Even a spec of dust on a carpet is untidy for my car. This car is in a different league and looks as if a nuclear bomb went off inside. Thankfully the Coca Cola bottle found a rightful place among the mess. How can any human being drive around in a vehicle in such a state?
Crystal Detail are the ultimate professionals and no job is too big, even if
they should put on a radiation
suit. The real question is how long will the car remain
in A one tip top condition? I give it less than a week before
it returns to car care hell.
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Sunday 13th July 2008
I had to get up early today and even though I went to bed earlier, I did not feel that fresh when I woke up and eventually dragged myself out of bed. I had left the radio on (a regular bad habit) and remember getting up around 2.30am to switch it off. When I got up, I quickly had some breakfast (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes not toast) and then jumped into the car to check the tyre pressures. As I reversed back onto my drive I heard my phone buzz in my pocket. It was a text message from Pav, he was on his way but had forgotten his photographic device and hoped I had charged up my batteries (62 quality photos uploaded to a fresh new FlickR set - two thousand seven hundred in total in just over two and a half years). The time was 8:01am. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day, so I took some photographs before Pav arrived. While I waited for him, I jumped on my laptop and did a quick update on Facebook and Twitter. Just as I was done, I heard an engine outside, it was the distinct sound of that Honda engine I knew. A Honda engine inside a 216i Rover. Pav pulled up and was pretty much ready to go, I got him to park up and helped him get his gear out. We were up and running and it was 8.39am or so (based on the first photograph I took). It took over an hour to polish all the panels. Pav did the hard work and I applied the wax. The bonnet took a few coats but overall the final results were very good.
We then hit the motorway, I was in the fast lane close to treble figures in a rush to get there as soon as possible. We got there for 10.47am and parked up in the Show & Shine slot, directed by Calvin. Four cars had arrived before us and had just started washing their cars (with collapsing buckets?). We opted to just buff up and finish off but when we saw the state of the front bumper, we could have done with a jet wash. There was a swarm of dead bugs that had landed there along with the windscreen. I started polishing the side windows and let Pav work his magic on the rest of the car. I felt most of the time I was just getting in the way and was actually glad when Pav gave me something to do. We had until noon to get the cars finished.
There was a lovely S3 next to be in black with black custom alloys and the
owner, Andy was from Caversham (of all places). He spent
a good hour washing and waxing his car and Pav got chatting
to him, a potential client. I did something useful by cutting
up some business cards for Pav as he finished off the car.
I checked with Nick and Calvin what the timings were for
the rest of the day and we headed inside to the cafe to
get some food. We beat the mad rush before 1pm. After a
leisurely lunch we decided to take a look around the mueseum.
I of course, had been here before (but without camera) so
there was nothing in particular I wanted to look at but
Pav had a good look around, particularly the contemporary
vehicles such as the Aston Martin and the JCB
Dieselmax. We then headed outside to check out the how
the Audi Meet was going and also the other car stands (there
was a Ford event taking place with a range of vehicles including
Transits). I looked at the competition and gave my verdict.
The yellow TT, retro fitted with some RS parts and BBS alloys
was light years ahead. The engine bay was so clean, it looked
as if the car had just come off the production line. It
was that insanely clean. I am obsessive about my car being
clean but the owner was taking it to another level, I would
be afraid of driving the car if I got it this level of godliness.
We then had a look around at the Ford area, there were some
modified (to the extreme) Cougars and Fiestas. A couple
of great Mustangs (which I took photographs of) but apart
from that not much to see. I spotted a great vehicle with
the Transits (the Bat Van - ideally as The Dark Knight returns
next week)
We had a sit down on the benches by the grass area outside
the Centre main entrance and just chilled out for a while.
The PA system was playing the greatest hits of The Beach
Boys. However while Pav and I were chatting we missed the
presentations. We rushed over but it was all over. As expected
the TT had won and Caversham S3 man had won the raffle (free
Parrot car kit installed by Ritcher - one of the event sponsors).
It was around 3pm now and the show was starting to come
to a close (a lot earlier than I had expected). The Revo
team were packing up and I thought it best to call it a
day. I thanked both Calvin and Nick for their time in organising
the event and looked forward to the next meet as the winner
had his photo shoot courtesy of Drive By Shooters. As I
drove home on the M40, I saw some bright xenon lights in
my rear view mirror. It was Andy, I let him pass and he
tooted his horn (even that is more impressive than the one
I have on my A3!) He was stuck behind a car for a while
giving me a chance to keep up but the second the fast lane
was clear he was away and gone. The acceleration was just
breathtaking, particularly considering I knew the speed
I was doing to begin with. It was too late the car was gone!
As soon as I got home (minutes before 4pm) I said goodbye to Pav (with a gift of some somasas) and then grabbed my gym bag and headed to Castle Royle. I just had to get down there before I got comfortable at home. To my surprise the gym was dead with only a handful of people there. I got out just after 5pm and finally settled down at home at 6pm. The evening was mine to enjoy but after Top Gear there was little to satisfy me on the television, I should have just read my book.
I watched Step Up 2 - The Streets last night, it was marginally better than the
first movie. Mainly because the story was slightly more
believable (but only just) and it featured Cassie Ventura!
(Although her part was far too small and almost insignificant
for my liking). The dance moves were better and the storyline
was not as raw as before. However it still did not do everything
for me. Sure it was good to see the little guy(s) (and girls) come out on top in the end but I just felt it meandered far too much in the beginning, although the opening was very clever. I will not be rushing out to see the third one, even if it is filmed in 3D? (Target audience of six year olds?)
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Saturday 12th July 2008
Timing is everything and after a rather lazy morning I decided to actually go and wash the car (or finish from where I left off yesterday). Just before 3pm, (14:39) I got up from my slumber on the sofa, had a shower and got outside. I wanted to wash the car and I knew my window of opportunity was small. I got everything done within an hour and just as I finished, it started to rain. Perfect timing. Typical, as I begin to the type this post the sun has come out and there is glorious sunshine across the garden and back of the house. Well I have done the best I can considering the weather report I received (sponsored by those lovely people at Crystal Detail)
I am hoping that tomorrow morning it is try to enable Pav to give all the main
panels a hit with his polisher. I have even decided to postpone
my morning visit to the gym and go in the evening instead.
I am going to work on the interior in the morning while
Pav works hard on the exterior before we then head over
to the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon. Then, it will be
micro fibre cloth and last touch detailer spray at the ready
for the final touches. I am quite confident that my car
will not win but it is more an opportunity for Pav to showcase
his talent and make some all important contacts.
Sixty four days to go and September is going to be a bumper month. Not just
the return of Heroes,
but Big
Bang Theory, Chuck
and Terminator:
Sarah Connor Chronicles. I asked Pav to take some photographs
of the location that will be feeding the DivX files, so
I have put up a few images (geek warning, nothing very exciting)
onto a set over on FlickR
but cannot give too much away. There is still a great deal
of preparation work to be done, I have not been given the
new FTP account details yet. I am looking forward to the
4 kbit/s download rate. There is a while to go yet and of course, I am actually really looking forward to tomorrow's Audi Meet.
|
Friday 11th July 2008
It is 15:52 as I begin this posting and the heavens have opened outside. Out the window goes the plans for washing my car (I had made a start actually but more on that later.) A Friday off and a long weekend. A lot planned but as usual I got up later than I had anticipated, in fact it was 8.22am and I was hoping to be in my car on the way down to Nationwide by then but never mind, I left just after 9am and dropped my car off at Nationwide Autocentre in Desborough Avenue. However, as I walked down Desborough Road into town, having text Jen I got a phone call. It was from "Nationwide". I was confused and though the guy and got the wrong number but I had actually forgotten to give the key for my car, so rushed back to give it to them. Wish companies would have different names to safe all the confusion. Then, I headed back into town and waited along with a handful of people for the library to open. It was opened just after 9.30am and I headed upstairs to level 2 (via the stairs, I could not be asked to wait for the lifts) and renewed my books, then asked one of the staff the location of the reading area. Although there were small chairs around, I opted to go to the study area upstairs. I sat down towards the back and continued reading The Catcher In The Rye. I stayed here until 11am and then rang Jen to see where she was. She was just feeding Aiden and would text me when she was coming into town. I decided to make the most of the thirty minutes I had to go and walk into town, go to the bank and have a look around a few of the shops. A suit is on the agenda, so I took a look at a few in M&S. As I came out of the department store I noticed I had a text, Jenny was downstairs. (or so said the one word SMS). I tapped her on the shoulder as she returned a big load of books and placed them in the shoot. We then headed over to Starbucks Coffee for Tazo Tea (Earl Grey). It was nice to catch up and it was the first time we had seen each other in over a year. Aiden was asleep in the buggy and looked very cute. I looked at a bunch of photos on the FinePix camera.
We then went over to La Tasca for lunch which was very nice. It became a bit
of a names game with us bouncing old school friend names
at each other. Some were a bit of a surprise and shock but
most I could not put a face to the name (hence the need
for Facebook). After lunch Jen gave me a lift back to Nationwide,
even though I had been happy to walk. After I paid the damage,
I got into my car and headed home. I wanted to wash my car
before the weather turned and I knew it was a race against
time. It was just gone 2pm. However I could not begin without
watching Break
The Ice music video on XBMC. Eventually I got out there
and vacuumed the interior and decided I would give it a
polish tomorrow. When I started to rinse the car down there
were a few rain drops but nothing serious, so I continued
and loaded it with the snow foam and left it to rinse. However
as I went to take my Poor Boy's Shampoo and fill up a bucket
but the rain started. I rushed back outside and rinsed my
car down a little. Pointless with the rain water but I thought
it better if I rinse off the snow foam with my clean water
rather than the dirty rain water. I then had to scramble
to get all the kit put away before I catch a cold. Then,
typical, as I write, no type this, the sun is out and the
rain clouds have disappeared. The wash will have to wait.
So what is all this in preparation for? Well it it the 2nd
ever Audi
Meet on Sunday and I have Pav coming along in a professional
capacity to help make sure my car gleams in the Show 'n'
Shine competition. Although the weather does not look at
that wonderful for Gaydon. I last went back in early March
(Mother's Day in fact). Do you think I should warn my neighbours
that on Sunday morning they will be woken by the amazing
noise of a polisher?
I must mention a song. A song I could listen to non-stop (and frequently did in the early months of 2000). I heard for the first time in many months on Sunday morning. I had gone to fill my sister's car (a regular occurrence recently) and on the drive back it turned 10am, it was Sunday 6th July. Dick & Dom were about to start their show and their second song was this.
This was the moment when I stood up and took notice of All Saints. An absolutely amazing band and this is by far my favourite song. The lyrics and melody just take me to another place and I can never grow tired of listening to the vocals. The girls are not the best singers but something magical happens when their harmonies combine. Oh and no, I still have not see The Beach.
An extremely social week, with two meals out on Tuesday and Wednesday (Marlow and Cookham respectively) so yesterday was my first 'me' night for a while. Strange how much I miss the internet when I do get a chance to log on at home. So, the end of an era which I should really go and reflect upon over on the work log. I will do that at some point over the weekend but for now I am going to actually get around to enjoying what remains of my day off.
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Monday 7th July 2008
A early week entry to round up events from the weekend. I had a headache last night so could not begin writing my post until now. I really should not of been on the computer at all last night but wanted to burn a new CD for the car. Right, let me give a quick recap. On Friday night, after the cinema and a trip next door to the Ivory Lounge (I am sure it was called Bar 38, last time I was here) I went home. Well actually I did not. I dropped off Emily and Pav and then drove over to Charlie's in Woodley. He had some computer problems and I had no tools apart from my brain. I felt ready and after about fifteen to twenty minutes had resolved the problem. The issue was permissions and cascading them down from parent to child folders. All I had missed was ticking a box to allow this to happen. Easy when you know how. I knew that would fix it, but it was the train of thought to get to the correct window in Explorer. Charlie was happy and even though Annie was on her way and quite close by and it would have been great to meet her for the first time in ages, I opted to jump in the car and head home. I was tired and had a busy weekend ahead. Made a change for the Admiral calling on Terry Rescue Services.
I had quite a lot planned for Saturday but still did not get to bed until gone
2am. I got up around 9.30am and was in the town centre just
over an hour later. I had to return a book to the library,
it was my first time using the new self check system in
the ground floor. Return book, get a receipt (optional -
think of the trees) and then deposit book down the hatch.
Job done and completely painless. Then I went over to get
my haircut at Jerry's, it was not too busy considering the
time of day and week. Once that job was done, I headed back
through Eden to Tesco. I bought some milk and waffles (to
toast). A very helpful lady directed me to the self service
machines to make sure I was not stuck in the queue for long.
I then headed back to the bus station, as I got around to
stand F, I could see the time was 12:00 on the screens above.
The next bus was around in a few minutes and I got on and
headed home. Mission complete, well the first part in any
case.
When I got home, I showered had some breakfast and then went to watch Eastenders
(Friday's edition) on BBC iPlayer (version 2.0 now in beta)
via IE7. After this I sent down to work, to complete the
updates for a web site. It took me most of the afternoon
and I did not finish until 6pm. Yes, these updates were
quite involved and took up a lot of time and concentration.
Then it was a case of preparing myself for the final episode
of Doctor Who.
It is difficult to quantify how big a Doctor Who fan I
am? As the saying goes, you always chose your favourite
Doctor from your childhood and mine is Sylvester McCoy (but
I also had a crazy crush on Ace at the time also). However
people should note that mine was the generation to have
the show cancelled by Michael
Grade. The show was something I forgot about in my teens
although it did make a muted return in 1996. I recall rushing back from a weekend in Paris with my parents to get home just in time to catch the movie on BBC1. I quite enjoyed it but shortly forgot about it (think Championship Manager was more higher up the priority list). It was not until four years ago, when the return of
the show close that I got back into the show and watched
endless shows on the BBC web site (the animated episodes
featuring Richard E. Grant). I was hooked and looking forward to 2005 and the return of my childhood hero. It could not have been better.
Three years later, I sad to see the show take an extended
break but in a way glad for the rest. The Beeb has gone
into overkill at times (they cross promoted the show everywhere,
even Eastenders). It will give the marketing machine a time
to calm down. I still think Christopher Eccleston was a
better Doctor than David Tennant. Onto the season finale
then, it was okay I suppose. A good twist with the regeneration
that was, then wasn't. Although several things annoyed me
in the episode. The Doctor (be he in half human form or
not) never ever gets into a relationship with an companion
(past or present). It is just wrong! Okay, there had to
be some closure but this was not it. We prefer these things
a bit shady around the edges. Secondly there was too much
time spent setting up series three of Torchwood at the end.
Doctor Who saves the day once again but perhaps for the
first time I did not want him to succeed. I am getting bored
with the good guy winning all the time. Perhaps I am just
showing my age and cynicism. Who will be the Doctor's next companion? Or will it be a rotating celebrity female?
While in John Lewis on Sunday my sister bought me a fantastic Quicksilver travel bag come case. It has wheels and is relatively big, the ideal weekend item I was looking for. The bags I have are on the end of two extremes of being too small (e.g. my gym bag) or two big, (e.g. my suitcase on wheels). Now I have the right case for those weekend trips away but typically at the moment there is nothing planned.
I also wanted to mention the few movies I watched over the remainder of the weekend. On Saturday night (while eating ice cream) I watched the Disney movie College Road Trip (not due out here until August). Good wholesome family fun which made me laugh out loud about twice. Then yesterday morning I watched Step Up. It was good but I expected more and the storyline was predictable, plus the secondary story lines (which were more important in terms of a human story) should have had great prominence. I will watch the sequel next weekend. Although it was great to finally get the name of the model (whom is actually an actress and singer and not just dancer) in bright yellow from the Give It Up To Me music video. I also watched Just Friends in the evening which was a complete waste of my life. It was so bad, that I got a headache during the closing credits and had to go to sleep. It was 6pm. I got up at 8.30pm and the tennis was still being played!
|
Friday 4th July 2008
It could have been very different. It could have been the
usual Friday night at the movies. We could even have gone
to Maidenhead (to Trance Planet at Phatz Bar) afterwards.
But we were overruled, but enough about that, let me bring
it all back to the present day. So the plan was to go and
watch Wanted at the new local multiplex in town on Friday
night. However my sister was not feeling well, so I postponed
for 24 hours, looking at the 21:15 screening on Saturday
evening. However she went out with friends so I postponed
until later in the week. Wednesday was the day chosen, I
confirmed with my sister, Samantha that I would book tickets
for the last showing while I was at work. I called her as
I pulled out of the gym cark park before 7pm. She had e-mailed
me earlier that evening but at 17:26, eleven minutes after
I leave the office. She recommended I take my other sister
Natalie, whom I then called. She was out with friends not
happy to be 'forced' to be treated to the cinema. I hung
up and headed home. By the time I got there, I called both
sisters again but this time around my Mum spoke to them.
Both of them were heading home and landed a few minutes
apart. Samantha did not want go, so Natalie took her place.
What a mess for a simple trip to the cinema. I had some
food, while watching Murray crash out of Wimbledon. We left
soon afterwards and parked up in the Eden car park, it was
deserted. Headed across down to the cinema, there was a
long queue for the ATM outside M&S. Schools have not
even broken up but there is already a display for Back to
School in the window? It is July? Are you going to put up
your Christmas display in September?
We made our way up the escalator to the foyer, around the
corner behind the box office were the pre-booking machines.
However the signs were not good, I put in my credit card
but nothing happened. In fact on the first machine I tried
I got a Switch To or Retry message appear. Cannot remember
what they look like? Let this be a reminder.
I tried another machine but it just did not accept my card,
so I headed over to the box office and got them to clear
my card (it had to be checked first, so the guy on the test
called a colleague upstairs to check my card number. Then
our tickets were printed. I checked the display stand behind
the employees (very scruffy uniforms and lopsided name tags,
by the way). The time was still on GMT, it was 19:44 according
to the display, when in fact it was actually 20:44. Surely
someone could have got that fixed by now, it is over three
months since the clocks changed. Plus shouldn't that be
an automated process? We headed up another shorter escalator
to the main area. There was a long queue for popcorn. A
supervisor did arrive to get another member of staff onto
the till. However, just as we got to the front of the queue,
our server, Leah had disappeared. She had gone to the little
girls room but a little message to say she was off would
have been nice. Once we got our popcorn and drinks we headed
to the screen. Screen 3, but it was closed for cleaning
so we waited and looked at the movie posters of up coming
posters. I had already decided in my mind that I would never
be coming to Cineworld again. We were let in eventually
and took seats on Row E but I soon discovered my arm rest
was missing so we moved up to Row F. The screen was relatively
empty with half a dozen people inside (a few more came as
the ads rolled). It was perhaps the smallest screen at the
twelve screen venue, although being closer to a smaller
screen did help with a action movie like this. Carlton Screen
Advertising, oh how I miss Pearl
& Dean. The first advert was for Radio One (believe
it or not!) Jon blogs about it over here
and if you want to take a look for yourself, the UToob
link! Personally I think the advert is too long and a total
waste of licence payers money. It could have ended after
a minute or two after all the DJs have described the types
of music they play on their shows but going into all the
introductions was a waste of time. Thankfully I do not listen
to Radio One after 7pm for their new music slot and the
only DJ I liked from the line up was Trevor Nelson, whom
I've listened to on the odd Saturday night in the car. Although,
I have to admit the line from Annie Mac was great though:
“You know when you are in line waiting to get into a club,
and you can feel the rumble of the beat and then you know
you're in for a great night”. The one benefit of coming to my local cinema was the fact that it was local, it took less than five minutes to get home and we did get a fifty pence rebate on the parking to make the charge one pound.
Wanted was very good, I would give it seven point five
out of ten overall. The action set pieces are just breathtaking,
particularly when Wesley meets Fox for the first time. Personally
I did not think James would be able to pull of an action
like this but he does well. Perhaps because he is so believable
as the office loser that anything beyond this mundane role
is extraordinary. The main draw for me in the movie were
the action scenes, particularly from the trailer. It was
similar to the Matrix and the story itself is on similar
lines. I enjoyed it, it was good fun. Perhaps a bit gory
to get the 18 rating but there was just enough that I could
handle. However there were some major flaws. The story was
not that great and my sister worked out the twist a while
before I did, although it was quite obvious when you actually
thought about it. The way targets are selected was a bit
far fetched for my liking but I suppose it was original.
The supporting cast was very good, but I wish Jolie's role
had been bigger, she deserved to have more of an input into
the action and perhaps ending. Overall, great action at
times mindless violence, but well worth seeing at the cinema,
if only for the crazy set pieces. The story was not brilliant,
could have been much better but never the less enjoyable
and it does keep you guessing for a short while. Only hard
core fans of this genre would really take the step of going
to catch it at the multiplex. I am sure, other wise a great
DVD to rent one lazy weekend.
Right, onto my next movie review. I had wanted to see Hancock
and originally it was going to be just myself and Pav for
the 8pm showing at Vue Reading (in the biggest screen 4).
However by Thursday evening, Poole had invited herself along
(no problems at all). Then on Friday morning, Phil and Sazzle
also wanted to come along. I had to check with Pav if there
was anyone else, and yes, there was the small possibility
of his cousin coming along too, but eventually we learned
she was busy. I was going to check if the homeless guy on
the bench had time in his schedule (away from the Super
brew) to come along too! I booked tickets around lunchtime
at work and was glad it was all confirmed. I had my dinner
early and was out on the road before 7pm. My weekend officially
began as I was at junction 8/9 of the M4, waiting at the
lights to get around the roundabout to the westbound slip
road. My CD player was set to random and had selected Work
(Freemasons Remix) by Kelly Rowland and I hit the gas and
screamed around onto the motorway. The weekend was officially
here.
I went to pick up Pav and Emily and then headed over to
the Oracle. (If felt a bit strange to be taking a different
journey to the shopping centre but never mind). Parking
up, we all noticed some idiots tooting their horns as they
went up the ramps to the various floors of the multistorey.
Strange! We made our way over to the cinema and found Phil
and Sarah at the cash point and went inside to get our tickets.
There was a bit of a queue but eventually the five tickets
were dispensed, then we headed up the escalator to the food
area. Pav was in the queue for a while and I watched on
the screens up above as the time ticked by. It was 20:01
by the time we headed in and I thought we may have missed
the famous music. I was wrong, we got to our seats and sat
down, just as Asteroid was played. Perfect timing once again!
It was not the best place to sit, so far up but at least
I was quite central. Then the movie experience could begin.
Hancock
was great, it did everything you expected and a bit more.
Will Smith was his usual self, enjoying being a loser and
transforming himself eventually into the superhero. However
I was not expecting the twist in the middle but from then
on, I wondered where the story would go. It was a shame
the end was rather more emotional than I would have wanted.
Come on people, I'm a bloke, I want guns and bombs going
off and some serious action sequences. Well worth going
to see at the cinema, it was great fun and very very funny.
Was it a good superhero movie? No because the only think
that makes a hero great is a worthy villain and no such
person exists in this movie, apart from Hancock himself.
I would not be surprised to see a sequel in a few years,
but then again, considering it has taken over twelve years
to get this movie produced, who knows what will happen.
|
Monday 30th June 2008
Just an ordinary Monday? Nothing new, nothing different?
But didn't I say the same about a Monday in mid-June some
three years ago?
If I were to predict such a thing, today was a day that could
change my life forever. There is something about June? Is
it a magical month or just a lucky month for me? However,
that alone is not the subject of this impromptu blog post.
When I get home on one of my gym evenings (Mondays, Wednesday
and Thursdays - regular readers will already know my routine
to the 't') I dump all my gear in the lounge and then get
changed and jump in the shower. My next task after praying
and grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl and then jumping
on my PC. (If it it Thursday and close to 7.30pm, I usually
head straight to the lounge to catch up on events at Albert
Square). Since the rebuild and the latest version of MSN
Live (8.5) signs me in Online as soon as it detects an internet
connection. Annoying and I will try and found a way around
it shortly. However it turned into a blessing as my friend
Kish buzzed me with a question, "U want Akon & MJ new
track?". Was I really going to decline the offer? From the
title, I could tell that this was going to be a slow number
but perhaps just what I needed. I listened to the track
and instantly feel in love with it. Perhaps it is the opening
line (just after a tranquil violin solo) by the King Of
Pop, "This Life Don't Last Forever, So Tell Me What We're
Waiting For...". Want a listen? Go and judge for yourself
over on You
Tube. Once again, a song comes a long to not just inspire
but completely reflect how I feel at this moment in time
in my life. I am just hoping that this can be the moment when I can kick start the second half of my year.
So If You Just Hold My Hand, Baby I Promise That Ill Do All I Can
Things 'll Get Better If You Just Hold My Hand
Nothin' Can Come Between Us If You Just Hold My Hand
|
Sunday 29th June 2008
Reinstalls always take longer than you think. I scheduled in a few hours bit
it took most of the afternoon. Starting at midday and being
back up and running around 4pm. (You can read my updates
via Twitter).
I had hoped to wash my car in the sunshine but opted to
just go and vacuum the interior at 5pm before jumping back
on the computer. Plans to go and see Wanted at the new Cineworld
at Eden also went out the window as my sister went out to
see a friend. During my installation I came over several
hurdles. Firstly my Product ID was rejected, so I went back
and reformatted the drive and used my XP SP2 nlite deployed
install CD from November last year (I had made a CD for
a colleague and opted to keep a copy for myself). This failed
as well, so I had no choice but to go back to one of my
first XP SP2 CDs which I had slipstreamed the service pack
myself manually following instructions online. Once I finally got up and running I manually upgraded to Service Pack 3 which took a while. Then I had to begin reloading software drivers before switching over to my notepad which had a list of all my applications. I have decided to install items on as I need them basis.
So therefore I was a bit a miss on Saturday evening on
what to do. I have moved most of my movies onto my portable
hard drive, to save space on my media drive. The options
were Planet Terror or watching High School U.S.A. (again)
I decided to watch Planet Terror, hoping it would be better
than Death Proof. I was disappointed, just another slasher
movie, so I gave up after sixty minutes. Then I went through
the CD spindles I have on my desk. My uni friend, Darren
had sent me a collection of movies spanning several discs
three years ago but I had only watched handful, so I decided
to watch one of them. The
Butterfly Effect starring Aston Kutcher. I remember
seeing the trailers but never got around to watching the
movie, even when it appeared on Sky. I was slightly apprehensive.
I recalled a scene from the trailer and hoped this was not
be a horror movie. It is a genre I dislike the most. Time
travel is one of my favourite themes for movies and I really
enjoyed the various twists and turns on this fantasy adventure.
Kutcher was surprising good in his first true 'acting' role
rather than the teen comedies I have seen him in the past.
I would highly recommend the movie to you. There was a direct
to DVD sequel but it is unrelated to the original. However,
only worth watching if you are in the mood for a thinking
/ emotional film rather than one where you can dump your
brain outside. A rather poor performing at the box office
when released it has over recent years become a cult classic
as more and more people have watched it on DVD.
Until now at 16:51, I have been very much on the go. Gym this morning at 7.40am, then piano lesson at 11am. I got home at 2pm and decided to wash my car. However, as I got outside, it was overcast and the signs were there. It was going to rain. So I went back inside and decided to get some food, as I finished I looked outside and the sun was out. I leaped off the sofa, I had to make the most of this window. I went out there and started. It was 14:45pm and I finished at 16:15pm. Getting slightly quicker but the car was not that dirty, but needed a clear. It now is sparkling in the afternoon sunshine!
Completed my third book of the reading revival middle of last week. Animal
Farm by George Orwell is fantastic story based on Joseph
Stalin and the Soviet Union. The imagery at the end of the
short story is absolutely amazing and a true reflection
in the phrase that power corrupts. I would highly recommend
it to you, at sub-hundred pages you can easily read it in
a few hours. I am not onto Catcher In The Rye, which has
a distinctly different writing style with the first person
narrative but I'm going to give it a good go. I should really
start labeling the books I have read in my 1001 Books To
Read Before You Die book (does that make sense?).
If I was ever to meet Arsene Wenger, we would have one disagreement. He believes
that football in the Champions League is the best quality
football played in the planet. I completely disagree - yes
football in the CL is great and entertaining but you do
not get the same emotion and buzz as international tournaments.
Football for me, will always be about country and not club.
Do not get me wrong, I love watching Arsenal and would love
to go to Ashburton Grove every other week but international
football just has, in my opinion that x-factor which club
football cannot recreate. The honour, privilege and prestige
to represent your country on the world stage is something
only a handful of players ever get to achieve. Plus there is the time scales, the World Cup comes around once every four years, there is always another Champions League match the following season. Some people feel international football should be scraped altogether. I disagree, it should be the one thing our young players asipre to. As I watched the final this evening and saw the presentations I had a wonderful thought in my head, the next major final, I hope to be there, watching on as the winners are presented with their trophy.
Just noticed that The Fifth Element is being screened on Flim4 in about 10 minutes (22:50) so I think I'm going to watch it before I retire off to bed and another busy week in the office. July is just around the corner. Summer is rushing by and my plans are very much thin on the ground.
|
Friday 27th June 2008
What a week! A last minute invitation to a sales meeting on Thursday met the
end of my week turned into a mini adventure heading into
the capital and this morning getting myself back into Wycombe
and then getting myself in the office for a few hours. Quite
a trek but it all worked out in the end and here I find
myself at 9pm on a pleasant summer evening trying to reflect
on my week and what the weekend has in store.
An extremely busy week in the office but the real fun only started midday on
Thursday. I left the office headed to the gym to do my cardio
work out and then went home to change, pack as little as
I could into my rucksack and jump on the bus into town.
Then it was the switch over to a train, the 15:44 to Marylebone.
I then after buying a Snickers bar at the WHSmith at the
station (I was hungry, a sandwich and drink are not exactly
filling). Rushing down the escalator I realised that I was
not in as much as a hurry as usual. I did not need to be
at the hotel until 6pm. However I was conscious of getting
their early and having a moment to chill out in my room
before the evening festivities would begin. I got a call
from my manager after a few minutes, they were in the lobby
waiting for me. I rushed downstairs and away we went. The
historic pub walk around London had been cancelled and instead
we headed across to Dicken's Inn behind the hotel in the
area known as St. Katherine's Dock. We enjoyed the last
remaining flashes of sunshine in the beer garden before
leaving and walking cross Tower Bridge to Butler's Wharf.
This was a redeveloped area which had originally been a
working dockyard with tea houses and other warehouses. We
went to the Bar All One before going back on yourselves
to the Chop House restaurant. A very good night, which ended
around 3am in the morning. This was after drinks in the
hotel bar (which closed at 1am) so we had to switch to the
lounge and call on room service. A lovely Nigerian man came
and took our order. I eventually fell asleep around 3.30am,
watching Laura Topin present the weather on BBC News on
the 24" HD wide screen in my Executive suite. A taste of,
just for a day of how the other half live.
At some point over the weekend, my car will hit the 50k mileage mark. Quite
a milestone, considering I have done some 19k over the past
eighteen months. Apart from a few minor issues with exterior
damage (let us just call it vandalism) the car is going
very well. Hopefully the weather is good tomorrow and I
will get a window to wash and wax it. Only three weekends
until the Show 'n' Shine at Audi
Meets.
On Tuesday my PC crashed, while I was watching a video
of Shakira performing at Live Earth from last year in Hamburg.
Nothing new there, my PC crashes on a regular basis, even
with the dreaded BSOD. However when my PC rebooted there
was a problem, it got stuck. It would hang at the system
information screen (it has the blinking underscore on the
screen) just before the Windows XP splash screen appears.
So I have taken the executive decision to rebuild my PC
this weekend. I have made a long list of files I need to
back up and software I will need to reinstall. Thankfully
most of the important things are already backed up twice.
Once on DVD format, the second on my portable 320gb hard
drive. Unlike November two years ago, when I was forced
to reinstall Windows after trying to patch IE7 and in the
process corrupting my installation of Windows (you can read
more about that over here).
Back then to get myself up and running I did a quick install
of Windows with the basics to keep me going until the weekend
and then created a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation CD using
nlite. It was fully unattended and installed everything
as I like it. I then spend a few hours getting all my software
loaded and configured. The OS CD saved me hours of time,
which I would have spent fiddling. However back to my current
predicament. I know what the problem is. I have a stick
of RAM in my machine which is slowing down the speed of
the rest of the memory which I should remove. That is a
long term issue (I think I upgraded the memory back in August,
as Charlie did not need it for his machine). The boot issue
now relates to the boot sector which I think is corrupt.
However, if I hit F8 and loaded the Boot Menu, then select
the primary SATA hard drive it loads fine. What could be
the problem? My BIOS is up to date and I have made no changes
to my knowledge. To be honest this clear out has been log
over due and in away I am glad that this has prompted me
to get things sorted out. My timetable is to back everything
up tonight and create a new Windows XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed
and take it from there. Everything important will be copied
over to my I: (Media) drive which has 90gig free (at the
moment). All I can say is wish me luck and I will hopefully
be all sorted some point on Sunday afternoon (before the
final of Euro 2008!). Thankfully I have my work laptop with
me, so will have internet access for any last minute bits
and pieces that may be required.
I should be headed back from Hyde Park right now, having
been at the Nelson Mandela concert. However when I did not
succeed in securing tickets a few months back. I missed
out on registering by a few minutes, because I read about
the concert on BBC News when I got home and then when I
went over to the official web site, registration had closed.
Tickets went on sale to registered users only a few days
later. My chance had gone. It would have been wonderful
to see this great man's potential last public appearance.
I am watching on ITV1 and most likely will download a copy
of the footage to watch again later over the weekend. So
far highlights have been Sugababes, Leona Lewis and Eddie
Grant.
Right I better get going on, it is going to be a long night ahead as I start the climb up the long mountain which is rebuilding my PC. All I can say is wish me luck, I will be back at some point over the weekend with an update (good bad or indifferent!). Fingers crossed.
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Sunday 22nd June 2008
Ultraviolet
was good but it could have been so much better. It is by
the same director who stun the world with Equilibrium.
(I saw this movie in rather surreal setting of my university
lecture theatre, during an overnight stay back in mid May
2004). I can talk about it freely now, as some long
four years have past but preferred not to mention it at
all on my blog then in case the hierarchy of the university
were reading my blog. My house mate Nav had 24 hour overnight
access to the labs inside the Hawthorne Building and we
decided to go in one evening, for me to disappear at the
precise moment the PhD student came around to check everyone's
pass and get them to sign in. We had a bit of a cat and
mouse game to play with security, as the master plan was
to go into the main lecture theatre and put the DVD (rented
from a shop on Narborough Road) onto the full screen protector.
The sound could have been better (it is only decided for
speech) but it was great fun!
Ultraviolet is much the same in look and feel but the plot is poor and at times it becomes difficult to follow. The action sequences paired with some fantastic CGI are amazing to watch but at times, too much is happening for your eyes to cope with. Milla Jovovich is perfectly cast as the heroine and gives a good solid performance. It is such a shame that there were no great actors to support her. There are parallels with another movie I saw recently AeonFlux both in terms of narrative and plot. Towards the end though you feel it has all been a blood bath for nothing and I cannot really recall seeing any gun-kata point two zero as promised by the director. Great action, so really would only recommend to the guys out there and make sure you get the Unrated version which features a few extra minutes not shown in the theatrical release.
A mild Saturday, I got up at 9am and after breakfast watched Click and then
Football Focus. I then got ready and went to the temple
with my family in Slough. We got some food there and then
headed back home. As soon as I got home, I picked up my
recommended reading list and walked to the bus stop. Caught
the 15:17 bus into town and more precisely the new library.
I was very impressed. The image of an old, smoking, dusty
environment has been replaced with bright green walls, plenty
of computer screens and clearly marked book shelves. I took
the lift up to the first floor (yes I know, I'm very lazy)
and took a look around. There were some self service machines
to borrow and return your items. I looked for a few books
from my list and in the end had to consult a member of staff.
He was extremely helpful, firstly showing me the computer
terminal to check for books, then directing me to the 'Classics'
section. This was were I was going to find the meat of my
list. I thanked him for his time and went ahead and picked
up my second book. I had already found Catcher In The Rye
by J.D. Salinger. I picked up Animal Farm by George Orwell.
The book had been featured recently on the television series
GREEK (UK viewers will see the episode in a few weeks).
So hence I thought I would give it a read, both books are
around 200 pages so should not take me that long. I then
decided to look at the non-fiction section and picked a
book from the musical score section. National Anthems from
Around the World. Something to try on the piano perhaps.
I then had to get my pin confirmed before trying the self
service machines myself. You insert your card, enter you
pin and just stack the books in the open shelf and it automatically
reads the barcodes and away you go. Receipt printed with
due date and I was off. I went to Clinton Cards and then
after a short walk around Eden, decided to head home. I
was home by 5pm.
My sister, Samantha called me on Saturday afternoon to let me know she had bought me a Turtle Wax cleaning kit. I was annoyed because I have everything I need and all my products need to cleared by Crystal Detail. I assumed she got me one of those Turtle Wax packs which includes sponge, clothes, shampoos and waxes. In fact it was a interior and exterior spray set. Useful but will see what Pav says on MSN tomorrow after reading this. To be honest apart from a quick vacuum, the interior gets little attention from me these days. Unlike in the days of my Punto when I would spend a good half an hour spraying and buffing every piece of trim.
I watched Death Proof after the football. I was extremely disappointed. Sure I had expected a different type of movie, it was a slow start but once it got going I thought it would improve. It did not, in fact it got worse. It was a cult slasher movie with Kurt Russell in one of his bad guy roles with a fantastic cast of female actresses refered to in the opening credits as "The Girls". The ending was rather pathetic and pointless. The action sequences and general special effects were very good but it was shot like an old movie from the 1960s. I was going to watch Planet Terror straight afterwards but instead decided to chat to a few friends online and then go to sleep.
Back in 1992, I was at my cousin, Anita's wedding. It was
one of the main wedding receptions before the big day over
in Gerrards Cross (later that summer). The party took place
in Flackwell Heath, a few miles from home. My aunty drove
me, my sister and Dad home that evening. I remember when
we got in, I put on the TV and watched the climatic race
of a movie. Thankfully it was on ITV so with the commercial
break came the name of the movie. This was a time before
digital television, electronic programme guides and time
shift plus one hour channels. I really enjoyed the movie
because it starred my childhood hero, Michael J. Fox. It
had everything a young eleven year old boy would want in
a television movie, a big car chase and the underdog
winning in the end (or so I remember). The movie was called
High
School U.S.A. Obviously I completely forgot about the
movie until recently when I was looking at Fox's filmography
on Wikipedia and then took a punt with a search on BT Junkie
and believe it or not, there it was. It has taken me several
days to download at an average rate of 5kbit/s. I decided
to transfer it across to the XBox and watch in the living
room on the big screen. A perfect movie for a Sunday afternoon? It wasn't perhaps perfect but it was very good and enjoyable. Crispin Glover was great and I enjoyed the build up of the story up to the race. The last time I had seen the movie on television (some sixteen years ago!) I had seen it just from the start of the race. Great fun and well worth waiting for and very funny but obviously showed it's age (twenty five years no less)
I have made an executive decision. To drop Hollyoaks permanently
from my viewing radar. I have watched it regularly to the
point of the divine over the past three years or
so, with many of my posts being inspired by the show. (Here are a fewexamples from the archives) However,
with my new gym regime, I only get to watch four episodes
(two on Tuesday and Friday respectively) during the week
and never catch the Sunday omnibus edition. However, that
is not my main reason for dropping it from my schedule.
It is the storylines (which have gone from bizarre to downright
ridiculous) no longer appeal plus all my favourite characters
have either been killed off or left. There is little to
inspire and at the age of twenty-six I feel perhaps I am
out of the age bracket the show is looking for.
After two false starts in 2004 and 2005, Nav is back blogging. He was my housemate in my final year at Uni in Leicester. He was studying Masters with my other housemate Paul at De Montfort. He has started a work blog called Foobar Ramblings. Three posts already from the first day but expect a mixture of helpful posts along with techie commentary related to his work. He has moved to Wimbledon from Acton now and we are trying to arrange a weekend to meet up. Most likely when he gets back from holiday in mid July.
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Friday 20th June 2008
A very long and tiring week and even though it is Friday, I feel somewhat that
the past five days have past me by. I have achieved very
little but somehow, for a change do not feel that bothered
by that indismissable fact. Quite a few things to mention,
some more important than others, so I will kick off from
the start of the week. As I pulled into the gym car park
on Monday evening, I noticed a silver convertible parked
on the side (family bay). It looked like a baby A4 but then
I realised it was the new A3 convertible. Very nice but
the size I just could not cope with, expect to see a few
more on the road but in the States I think Audi US are pushing
the TT so this A3 variant will not be sold (I could be wrong). However I do tend to get all my news from The German Car Blog which I read perhaps once or twice a month.
I have been trying to catch as much of Euro 2008 as possible but cannot replace the empty feeling watching games with no word on England (or any of the home nations for that matter). It just is not the same and during the group phase you always thought they would mention another group (Group E?) featuring England. However, I know this sacrifice is worthwhile in the long term to enable Capello to over turn our fortunes and qualify us for 2010. In terms of the coverage, the Beeb has been streets ahead (as always) of rivals ITV. Quite a heated debate over on the Guardian Organ Grinder blog. One thing is clear, many fans of Martin O'Neil and Gordon Strachan out there, including myself.
Another quiet weekend on the cards but I am going to do more than lounge about and watch movies (more on that later). I am going to have a clear out of rubbish but also give several things a spring clean of both my wallet, bank account and CV. I also want to get down into town to view the new library (it has been open over seventeen days and I still haven't had a chance to take a look). I need to get back on the saddle, only read two books this year so far since January.
I could and perhaps should be out in London at the legendary Pacha nightclub where Pav is djing tonight. However, as Friday drew closer I just did not feel up for a party. I just am not in the mood and do not think I would be good company for my friends. Plus there is always the issue of getting back from Central London to Wycombe in the early hours. Never mind, there will be other nights and I am sure the next big night is already in the planning and event invite will spring up on Facebook very soon.
This weekend is a movie bonanza. I am going to watch Ultraviolet
tonight and then the Grindhouse
double bill with Death Proof and Planet Terror tomorrow
night. Plus hopefully I will be able to watch High School
U.S.A., a TV movie made in 1983. Although there is still
24 meg left to go as I type this.
Not much else planned for the weekend, I am off to the gym on Sunday morning as usual. I was quite good this week, attending the gym on all my planned sessions, although due to time and logistical restraints I did not have time to hit the rowing machine on Thursday night. I am trying hard to stick to the regime of four times a week and three on difficult weekends when I am too busy for that Sunday morning session.
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Sunday 15th June 2008
A productive morning, if I must say so myself. I got myself
down the gym for an hour session at 8am. Then when I got
back, after spending a few hours lounging about in cyberspace,
I went over to ASDA to collect my suit from the dry cleaners
and purchase some bags of ice. Then as soon as I got back
I started the mission to clean the car. If I am honest I
could have cut corners and gone to directly applying the
wax as the car was relatively clean. I prefer to start from
scratch. Whenever it comes to a task such as this, you feel
you have a big mountain to climb but once you get going
it does not take that long. I started just after midday
and finished before 2pm. (I did not apply the wax, prefer
to wait for my next wash, next weekend when I have more
time). When I finished, I packed up all my things and came
inside. As I put on television, it was a few minutes until
2pm. I switched to Sky News, Air Force One had just landed
at Heathrow and was taxing on the runway. At precision 14:00
hours it came to a standstill. (Literally as the Sky News
clock ticked over to 14:00, the wheels came to a stop) If
only my life could be so perfectly timed?
Not done a great deal this weekend, I was right to describe
my weekend to Pav as "nothing dot com" on MSN on Friday
afternoon. Yesterday I got up relatively late around 10.30am
and then just lounged about for most of the day. I watched
Van
Wilder 2: The Rise Of Taj on Friday night and was very
disappointed. Making a sequel without your main star is
always a big risk, so this was your straight to DVD affair
with a rather low key C-list cast. Even the idea was rather
rubbish and Kal Penn is never the same draw as Ryan Reynolds.
Therefore I had high hopes for Old
School, particularly as it stars Luke, my favourite
of the two Wilson brothers. I watched that on Saturday night
after the football. It was good fun but almost immediately
forgettable. The idea of creating a new fraternity in order
to stay in the house was clever but slowly lost direction
in place of complete comic stupidity. I then watched Accepted
this morning to bring my college related movie count to
three in total for the weekend. The movie this morning perhaps
being the best of the three in terms of story and comedy.
Plus the relatively unknown cast make watching much more
enjoyable, you do not have a body of work to compare their
performances to.
Football has been great this weekend so far. The Dutch demolished the old men
of France in a thrilling game on Friday night. Then Spain
overcame Sweden just about in a tight match yesterday afternoon.
The Russian and Greek tie I only caught the second half
of but it was rather flat in places. Tonight we have the
start of the final group game phase with matches played
at the same time. As I type this the Czech Republic lead
Turkey by two goals, looks like my hopes for a penalty shootout
are dead and buried. Hold on, what is this? The greatest come back in European Championship history? The best goal keeper in the world looking like a has been?
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Friday 13th June 2008
A very strange and disjointed week, with my first full day in the office not
coming around until Thursday. Yes - Thursday, believe it
or not! Wednesday, the first day back after my training
course, I was only in the office until noon. Then the real
mission began! Yes, another day midweek, another crazy challenge
and once again the destination was London but not for automotive
reasons. Just like last week, the first destination was
the gym for a workout before driving back into Wycombe.
Here I parked in Eden and went to get my haircut. I had
considered dropping my car off at home and catching the
bus, but it would have only delayed matters. Much easier
to kill as many birds with one stone as possible. I parked
in the new Eden car park, which is just an extension of
the old Tesco car park (which has had a lick of paint and
some minor reconstruction to the entrance and exit ramps).
I found a space on level 2, in the orange zone and then
rushed to the door. I headed down to the ground floor in
the lift and rushed out of the main door into the shopping
centre, then tried to get some bearings. Right it was, I
headed in the direction of House Of Fraser and the bus station,
on my way to Jerry's Street Styles. It was quiet, I got
my haircut from Jerry and then headed back into Eden. First
stop Clinton Cards, then Tesco to grab a quick bite to eat,
I opted to eat on the go as I headed back to the car. I
was surprised it cost just a £1 to park at that time
in the day but perhaps because I had not taken that long
on my errands. Part one complete, I was on my way home and
the second part of my mission could begin.
As soon as I got home, I showered, changed and was out the door way past 3pm,
perhaps a bit later than I had hoped. I opted to catch the
bus to the train station, driving was an option but finding
a parking space and actually paying was a big obstacle.
I had everything I needed and took a deep breath as I stepped
onto the driveway. What would the evening bring? I did not
know at that moment in time, I was only interested in the
music on my Zen and that my mobile had enough charge to
take some photographs. The bus arrived at 15:17, there was
some parents with their children waiting at the stop. Chepping
View was letting out (is that the phrase?) So there were
children all over the Cressex Link. I got onboard, paid
my fare and settled down for the journey into the town centre.
I could have got off further up the road but opted to get
off at the old library and walk up to the station. The sun
was shining, it had been a glorious day. I was looking forward
to the evening, even if I was a little bit nervous.
I opted to catch the non-stop train from Wycombe to Marylebone at 15:57, it was quite busy for a weekday afternoon service. It got into Marylebone at 16:22 and I rushed down to the tube station. I had a plan for the afternoon before the evening could begin. I took the Bakerloo Line to Embankment here I grabbed a tube map from the display stand and ended onto the Hungerford Bridge crossing the Thames over to the South Bank. From here, I took a long walk down the river. It took me over half an hour but eventually I got to my destination. Tower Bridge, City Hall and most importantly The Telectroscope (which will be gone by Sunday afternoon). Here I took some photographs, then my phone rang.
I was late, very late considering I had at one time thought about walking from this point to Covent Garden which had now become an impossibility. I had to go by tube, but my Oyster Card was low. So the I had to top up before I jumped on the tube. I walked across Tower Bridge (something I was doing for the first time). Actually I think I may have only been driven across once in my childhood, but it was a lovely afternoon as the sun shine over the river. If I had more time I would have taken some more photographs, than the handful that have been uploaded to this set on FlickR.
I did not know exactly where I was going but found myself at Tower Hill tube
station. I topped up my Oyster Card (once I found the correct
terminal) then headed through down to the Circle and District
Lines and waited for the next train. I got off at Embankment
and took the stairs and escalator down to the Northern Line,
north bound. There I got a tube to Leicester Square and
then walked across to the Piccadilly Line, here I caught
the tube up one station to Covent Garden. (I know I could
have walked from Leicester Square but I did not have the
time). When I got off the tube train, I ran up the 124 stairs
rather than take the lift but found myself by
