Caught by the fuzz

So, we went to see Hot Fuzz last night. It was very busy, but then you have to get there about 15 minutes before the time on the ticket to get a good seat in Watford. We were near the middle I guess, I like watching people's expressions when they get in, not even late, and realise they have to watch the film near the front of the cinema and get a cricked neck....

Anyway, the point of the post is that, about 20-25 minutes from the end of the film, we suddenly get guns, lots of guns, and at that point an older couple got up and walked out. Now admittedly it was a bit of a plot surprise, but I'm wondering whether they thought it really was just going to be a light comedy about a policeman who goes to work in a sleepy village, and that is what attracted them to the film. Either way, they didn't seem to appreciate the humour (or the guns).

Personally, I thought it was a good film, and my favourite quote was "If you want to be a big cop in a small town, f*** off down the model village".

It went OK

if anybody was wondering. I was really nervous, and I was shaking when up there, but it seems I held it together so well that nobody noticed, and everybody enjoyed what I had to say, and I got no negative feedback the next day.......seriously hope I don't have to do it again for a long while, but maybe doing so well means they'll get me up again, d'oh!

May I present....

I've just found out today that I am to present at next week's staff meeting, and I am shitting myself already. I'm sure it will be OK when I finally get up there, but I am not looking forward to it one bit, especially as people have told me before how nerve-wracking it is to get up there in front of people you work with........shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

What did he just call me?

So on Tuesday me and Susie went to Hammersmith Palais (which is closing later this year to make way for flats) to see Kasabian. I was quite excited as the only time I had seen them before was opening Glastonbury when I'd never heard of them, but saw some people with Kasabian flags wandering around (see, advertising works), and also the Palais is quite small and intimate (much better than those stupid old arenas, especially for short arses like me).

Support came from the Hours, who were pretty run of the mill, nothing too exciting, and the Enemy, who looked about twelve, especially the drummer, and had plenty of attitude (which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing in a band, better than being dull). They were good enough, although the hype I'd heard about them being the next big thing looks a bit off the mark to me.

The headliners didn't get off to the best of starts, with the venue's amps playing up during their opener, Shoot the Runner, which meant we only had the stage amps for sound (which in an arena would have been a travesty), but the crowd made more than enough noise to build the atmosphere. They ran through a set containing all their singles, and I was surprised how many songs I recognised having not listened to the albums much recently, although I didn't know many of the words, I must just make them up when I sing, but a lot of the songs do have an aaaahaaahhahahhh somewhere in them, which doesn't take much remembering. He did seem intent on calling the crowd a bunch of fuckers at every opportunity though, I took it as a term of endearment.

At the end I was pretty content, and the singing from the rest of the crowd continues into the streets outside, always the sign of a good finish (I actually got the name of the last song wrong, confusing LSF with Cutt Off, terrible)......I then had to rush home and wrap Tina's Valentines day gift (I'd bought it the week before, but kept forgetting to wrap it).

Parlez-vous Anglais?

As you probably know, we (that's me and Tina) went to France to see the branch of Knowles family stationed there. They live in a village called Eymet, which is kind of near Bordeaux, however the nearest airport is Bergerac. This was probably the smallest airport I have ever been to (which seeing as there are only two flights a day isn't surprising), but I was a bit taken aback by the fact the arrivals, er, department, appeared to be a tent, and the luggage carousel was more of a slightly sloped series of rollers, on which the people closest to the top had to push the bags down until they reached the owner....very strange, I should have taken a picture really, maybe next time.

Obviously we didn't plan this trip at the best time year, as it was pretty foggy for the whole of our holiday, but at least it was a break. Unfortunately, and not for the first time, Tina got ill whilst we were on holiday (she reckons it's because she relaxes and the germs get a way in to attack). We stayed in a really nice (not yet opened) bed and breakfast there, the room was huge and it wasn't that expensive and the people were really nice. One thing about the area is that is about 35% English, so lazy people like me don't have to know much French.

So being foggy and cold and January, this actually meant there wasn't much for us to do, wine tasting not really being a winter past-time and the village being quiet, but with Tina being ill it didn't really matter. I did play a game of football (training, not a real match) with David though, I thought I did quite well, but seeing as it was a veterans team maybe that's nothing to be proud of. So we mostly just chilled around David and Cathy's rented house (whilst the new one is being built), and ate traditional French food, like curry, pasta and paella.

We split the holiday in two by going to Paris for three days, here are some pictures we took from there....

Tina by the marvellous glass pyramid at the Louvre (as made famous by the Da Vinci code)


Tina by the Venus 'gummi' de Milo



Tina by the Arc de Triomphe



Tina by the Eiffel Tower



Tina by the Moulin Rouge (note she was pretty tired by now)



And, er, me in a wig in some pub



Tina being ill meant the first two nights in Paris consisted of her going to bed about 7 and me going to the pub to watch football (not too dissimilar to every evening here I guess)...

One last thing, all the talk I'd heard about the trains running on time was nonsense, the train home was at least 5 minutes late (so what if that was over a 4 hour journey)....we got in trouble with the ticket guy for not getting our ticket stamped in Paris or something, oh well.

For the benefit of my mum (and nobody else really)

Look what I bought in France: -



As a side note, I'm sure some people would be totally horrified if their parents read their blogs, me, I have nothing to say on here that I wouldn't tell them in person, am I the minority?

On your marks, get set........

OK, GO!

Nope, not in a race, but we (that'll be me and Susie) did go to see OK Go in concert on Sunday. For those of you that don't know, OK Go have recently been one of the musical darlings of YouTube thanks to the videos to their two most recent singles,

a million ways



here it goes again



Back to the gig. They were supported by New York Fund and Quit Your Day Job. The first lot were decent enough, although whatever they may or may not have done was far surpassed by the oddity that followed. Probably a good time to note that I spent the first hour of this concert attempting to keep two spaces as Susie didn't turn up until an hour after I had got there, I did ache a little after all that stretching.

So, Quit Your Day Job.....I kinda knew something might be up when they came out all wearing blue, and the lead singer wearing some very tight tracksuit trousers. He also had a kind of maniacal grin on his face that was to remain pretty constant throughout. The keyboard player, despite his shaven head and moustache, looked pretty normal, ha, what did I know. Throughout their set (when he wasn't actually playing keyboard) he would be stripping down to his underpants, pointing and staring into space, performing kicks, jumping into the crowd, pretending to hump his equipment and pumping his fist....mentalist. If this wasn't enough, their songs, if you can call them that, didn't have the best lyrics in the world. For example, their song about money appeared to be simply "Oooh, a dollar" repeated, and accordingly their song about fire went "Ouch, it burns", again, repeatedly. To be fair, they were entertaining enough for the 40 minutes or so they had the limelight, and they were from Sweden (is that an excuse, I'm not sure).

The headliners themselves were good. Not knowing many songs (well three) I always go to these with a small sense that I would be disappointed or bored, but the songs I didn't know were catchy enough, the singer bloke was entertaining in his links between songs too, and they also performed a mini set on the balcony.....oh, and they finished with the dance to a million ways (which, seeing as they had played it earlier I thought we might not get). Well worth the eleven pounds or whatever it was.