Going for a dip

We had our 16th, twice annual work 9-ball pool tournament on Tuesday, and I won (woo!) for the second time. So Iget a nice shiny trophy to keep on my desk until the next one.

Here's some pictures: -










also, I got the bad sportsmanship award, just for beating a girl in the final...that's just mean!!!!!



(there's more on facebook if you are my friend)

What about the mess it makes?

So, on Tuesday, me and Susie wearily went to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Shepherds Bush Empire.

We (well, she) had already found out there wasn't going to be any support at this one, which suggested they would be playing for a while, which they certainly did with an almost three hour set, making it the longest single artist gig I had ever seen (oooooooooooo).

We actually rolled up at 6:30 for 7pm doors as we were in the seats (thank god) and they were unreserved so we needed to be early to get good ones, which we did, although not front row as there was already quite a queue when we turned up. One of the early things we spotted was a few people with Pearl Jam t-shirts, and it was quite obvious that a lot of the crowd had been to both concerts, which makes sense seeing as they became popular around similar times in the early nineties.

Back to the music, and it was pretty good. The band has taken on various guises over the years (Billy Corgan called them Smashing Pumpkins Mark IV), but I think he has such a distinctive voice that it doesn't really matter who is playing the other instruments as the collective was not as important. They came out all colour co-oridinated in white, with Billy wearing some kind of robe (which he later discarded, but still had white underneath). To be fair, he is a bit of a weirdo anyway.

I had heard people say they were not very good live, and I guess if you go to concerts to have the band interact with the audience then you would be disappointed (he introduced two songs from the new album, and made a little joke about David Beckham at the end, but that's about it), but musically I thought they were very good. Again, in the three hour set I recognised only five songs, and could probably sing along to bits of three of those, but unlike the night before, it didn't seem to be as long as it was, which was good, and they played my favourite of theirs, tonight, tonight (below)



As an aside, tickets were going for £250 outside.....that is just mental, they weren't THAT good

C

This is my one hundredth post, which, seeing as I didn't really plan to keep going this long is pretty impressive.....

I was thinking of saying something significant to mark this occasion, but decided just to ramble on about nothing.....maybe I'll come up with something better for number 200

Can't believe it would taste nice on toast

On Monday, me and Susie went to see Pearl Jam at Wembley Arena.

Me, I'm not a big fan (in fact I probably know two songs, and even then only a few lyrics), but I did promise her that, if she couldn't find anybody else to go with her I would attend to stop her getting lonely.

Idlewild supported, who I have seen 5 times before, twice at glastonbury (wish I was there now!), once headlining their own gig, and twice in support to others (U2 and REM I think), so there was nothing new to come from them. here's a song of theirs I like.



The main act were pretty much as I expected, big rock, gruff voiced singer, lots of guitars. Seeing as I didn't know any songs it didn't really matter to me what they played, but apparently it was a concert for real fans, and they didn't play many singles (a bit like the Lostprophets gig we went to a while back).

I thought it was OK, it lasted 2 1/2 hours which is pretty good, and I can appreciate why some people might like them, not my cup of tea really though. They only played one of the songs I vaguely recognised.....



It was funny though, as we were in the fans section (one fan can buy one guest ticket) and there were lots of couples, obviously one big fan and their partner, and the fan was singing and bouncing along, and the other person clapping politely. In come cases there was just a person on tehir own, looking slightly bemused, and I can only assume their firend had disappeared up the front to 'rock on'.

Smashing Pumpkins to follow....

Nothing left to get crossed

This is the first post regarding the three concerts in three days I went to this week.

Starting on Sunday, me and Tina went to the final day of the O2 wireless festival at Hyde Park. The previous days had been a bit damp so we went with a littlle aprehension about getting wet, but luckily the rain held off until the final song, so it all worked out well, even if it wasn't as sunny as we'd hoped. Anyway, here's a quick rundown of who we saw

Kate Nash - she's certainly in the Lily Allen mould, but in my opinion not as good as a lot of her songs were a bit samey. Killed 20 minutes or so though.



Mumm-ra - friendly guitar based band, pleasant enough to listen to with nothing really to stand out.



Pigeon Detectives - I think the best band we saw, full of energy (even if we couldn't see them on stage through the crowds, the XFM tent was closed to extra people getting in they were that popular). Catchy songs as well, now I'm just waiting for the album from stupid CD-WOW.



The Cribs - very disappointing. They produced one of my favourite albums in The New Fellas, but I wasn't too impressed with their new one, and their live act seemed to be lost on the big stage, with one of the microphones not really loud enough. Better suited to the smaller intimate venues it seems.



The Twang - I think this lot wish they were the happy mondays, but their baggy pop suited the XFM stage perfectly, and they gave a good performance to a happy crowd, again with some locked out



The Editors - I first saw them supporting early when we saw the Bravery and was impressed, and they didn't let me down this time either. Played a good set, although seemingly rushing through to get as many songs in as possible, but that's a minor quibble



Kaiser Chiefs - Headliners, and milked it. Ricky Wilson was full of energy, rushing around stage orchestrating a wave of applause, jumping off rigging, getting Hero from polysics out to perform a duet of sorts, which mostly consisted of synchronised star jumps, and geerally encouraging a big sing-a-long with the crowd, which I think is never a bad thing. It certainly encouraged me to bounce around.



All in all I think it was pretty good, especially as our line of sight was never really impeded, save for the Pigeon Detectives, as there wasn't too many people there. I would definitely go again if the line-up was worth it.

Standby for Pearl Jam on Monday.....

7 lanes and still a jam

And finally I get around to posting about our Dubai trip in April (I reckon it's just because it is easier to type than upload pictures, which I am about to do).

We were in Dubai to see our friend Terry who is working in Dubai for while as it was his 30th birthday. He is (maybe was by now) living in a pretty large apartment (I mean, it had four toilets and there were only two of them living there), which looked like it was totally furnished by IKEA (including a pot that Tina had noticed was recalled). Unfortunately, Tina had an essay due in on the Tuesday of our holiday, which mean that we spent the first few days inside the apartment whilst she worked on it.....she managed to get it in (via Susie, I can't imagine the post in Dubai is that great).

We did go out to a few various places for dinner whilst we were there, and I tried some new things, although the most obviously strange food was on the first day, when, in the Lebanese restaurant I had a plate of raw meat, and also sparrow roasted in a pomegranate source, it was pretty weird.

Once Tina had finished work we had a couple of days to do some stuff during the day, and on one we went on a Desert Safari, which basically consisted of riding in a jeep through some sand dunes, and then going to a place in the desert that served arab ood and had a belly dancer....here's some photos







Tina also got some mendhi (is that spelt correctly?) done...



At this place, we could also dress up in traditional arab dress.....like so



Tina got up and did a bit of belly dancing (I have a video but it is sideways....if I work out how to flip it I'll post it)



but we do have a decent enough video of me sandboarding (in the dark)



Other than the desert safari, we had a look around the Mall of the Emirates, which, as well as being a pretty large mall, also houses an indoor ski-slope, which we didn't go into as it looked cold, and we weren't in Dubai to get cold. We also went and looked at the 7-star hotel, but didn't go in as you have to pay...



Dubai, I think was reported, has a third of the worlds cranes (I'm not sure, that sounds a lot), but certainly it was a complete building site. From what I can gather, there are two building being erected that are vying for he highest building in the world, and they won't tell each other how tall they are going to be in case the other trumps them (I think the same happened in New York with the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building). There are also lots and lots of hotels, a spanking new large airport and a new theme park (called Dubailand) under construction. There is already a seven laned road through the middle of the city, and it already has plenty of traffic jams, so I don't know what it will be like with all the extra tourists this redevelopment is obviously being targetted at.

Another thing was that I thought there wouldn't be anywhere to get a drink, but it turns out that almost every hotel has a bar (mostly English themed) so there were no problems at all. Funny thing is that almost every bar had a drunk arab propping up the bar. We went into one Irish pub that felt so much like being at home that we actually forgot we were in Dubai (Although, to be honest, the halal steak didn't taste great).

With all this tourism drive (obviously because they are planning for when the oil runs out), I can see it becoming cheaper to go there, and it could quite possibly end up as the new young person haunt (although maybe not as bad as Ayia Napa or Cancun).

We also went to the Indian bazaar to buy Tina's outfit for Dev's wedding in July. This involved haggling (not by me, Tina or Terry, but by Terry's cousin on the end of a phone back in England). I think I would be too scared to try that really. We managed to get the outfit for about fifty quid, tailored to fit Tina, so I reckon we did quite well. I can't post photos yet as otherwise it will spoil the surprise for the wedding. It was funny in the material shop, as the assistent seemed to have no clue about what we were after (e.g. say we were lloking for blue and silver, he would bring over red and gold). He did keep getting shouted at for his troubles, poor lad.

It's all the same to me...

We met up with Paul on Sunday. He has been notionally travelling for three years, although most of that appears to be in India. He was just back to get a visa so he could work out there and get paid (what a novelty).

It was strange how comfortable and familiar it was just to sit around and chat in a pub, not that I was expecting anything different, as maybe people don't really change over such a short period of time. He had some good stories, but then again he's always been good with those, and I guess the Journalism degree he took in India helped...

Anyway, we might go and see him sometime, add India to our list of visited countries.

Wem-ber-lee

I went to the England v Brazil match at the new Wembley on Friday, which, kind of strangely, is the first match I have ever been to at Wembley, new or old.

The match itself was OK (note it was also David Beckham's big comeback), got better in the second half, finished 1-1 with Brazil scoring with the last touch of the game, but it was all really secondary to the whole occasion in my opinion. Here's my thoughts on the stadium....

- It is huge, certainly the biggest stadium I have seen (although that isn't saying much, as I have only seen the Millenium). But I think it is bigger than normal because of the amount of legroom each seat has, which, whilst not so important for short-arses like me, I guess is important.

- The downside of this is that, despite only being in row 19, I felt like I was miles away from the pitch, even having trouble distinguishing different players. Admittedly I was in the corner, so we'll have to see if it is better if I am in my favoured position closer to the halfway line

- The arch is impressive from a distance, but when you are actually in the staium doesn't really have any impact, although I guess that's the point, as the old twin towers were only for outside

- The food and drink is expensive (£3.50 for a beer, £4.50 for a pie), but actually not as expensive as I was led to believe. Also, the programme was the same price as it has been for a few years, so they obviously rejected the temptation to increase those prices.

- I was sat near the Sheffield Wednesday band and the Portsmouth nutter and his bell (I think he is known as Mr Portsmouth), so there was plenty of noise around my area, but the rest of the stadium did seem quite quiet, so it will be interesting to see whether it does manage to generate a good atmosphere in important games.

- The train links were still as bad as ever, and I had to get Tina to come get me after I had walked about 45 minutes towards Harrow. I think when I go again I will either arrange a pick up beforehand, or just mill around for a few hours to let the queues die down

- I was going to take a camera to take pictures, but forgot....I'm so rubbish sometimes

It's Live! I tell you

The project I have been working on for the last three years finally went live today, but I just feel a general apathy towards it. You would have thought that I would be quite excited, especially given the last two major projects I worked on both got canned before they went live, and this would be my first real achievement since I started working for the company 8 or so years ago, but I don't.

I guess it is the fact I expected to be there during the live implementation weekend, but instead find that I am surplus to requirements at home, and so I don't really feel a part of it.

That is very dissapointing though, and I've struggled to get the motivation to even do my normal work in the past few weeks.....I'm sure I'll shake it off sometime though, hopefully.