Stupid tooth

It seems I have the beginnings of an abscess forming in one of my back teeth and it is going to cost between 700 and 1200 pounds to get it sorted...... rubbish, what with us trying to save money with the extra body coming in April it isn't the greatest of timing.

One thing the dentist did tell me though was that I had a small mouth, which, as I'm sure you can all agree, is a pretty accurate description of me......no......oh

Looking more like a baby now

Here's the second of our scan pictures if you haven't seen it already: -



you can see nose, mouth, arm, leg etc.

no clues as to the sex though, that'll be a nice surprise for us (and everybody else) in April

Apparently it is small but normal (like me.......maybe)

Not used to water apparently

We went to Dubai the other week as a break before the baby comes. We decided to go there as we thought: -

a) It would be sunny
b) It would be fairly cheap as we could stay with Terry

Of course, what we didn't count on was Thunderstorms for three or four days, the roads constantly flooding due to lack of drainage and the fact the pound has dropped in value against the Dhirum and so everything is more expensive.....bah

Anyway, here's a quick rundown on what we did, sort of in chronological order

1) Terry suggested we go and try firing a gun. This seemed like a good idea, though I was a bit worried about Tina an dthe baby with the loud noise, and so it proved when we got there so she didn't join us, but simply watched from outside the glass. Apparently it is illegal in Dubai, but legal in Sharjah (which is the next emirate) so we just drove there. I don't really know what else to say about it. It was loud, my first shot was my best, the kickback from the shot was pretty strong, and, er, yeah.

2) So every Sunday in Bur Dubai they have what is called the 'Movies under the stars', whereby they put on two movies for free and you can sit and watch them on M&M beanbags, mmmmm, M&Ms. Each week has a theme actor, and the week we were there was Johnny Depp. This would have been fine, expect it was Johnny Depp drugs films, so we had Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Blow. Now seeing as neither Tina or Terry liked the first film, we didn't stay for the second (which we had all seen anyway), which was unfortunate as it was a nice night and the bean bags were comfortable.

3) So there is a new mall opened in Dubai called, rather uninspiringly, Dubai Mall. Now apparently it is the largest in the region, and four times the size of Westfield. This might well be true, however it is pretty difficult to tell what with most of the shops not even being open, and a whole wing still to open as well. We spent ages walking by boards saying "xxxxxxx coming soon" and not much shopping. I did have a 'Fatburger' for lunch, which must be a nightmare place to work seeing as the staff have to all repeat every order (so the till operator will say "one fatburger" and the rest of the staff will repeat, and then "one fat fries" etc.). There is a full size ice rink in the mall though so that might give you an idea of the size. When I was standing at the end of it it was like I was playing NHL hockey, I just needed some men to control (I hadn't seen an ice rink in real life before). Tina was really hoping to see some fully clad women skating but it wasn't to be.

4) Terry had seen a balloon go up in the air several times and had been meaning to give it a try, so we agreed that it would be a good idea, which it would have been, had the balloon been in a decent position and not overlooking a power station. You couldn't even really see the palm from where we were so it was just like being in a tall builing, pah! By the way, apparently there is just one guy working on that tall building in Dubai as he is the only one who can breathe up there or something. Here are some pictures though: -







5) Terry had booked us tickets to see the Indian/Canadian comedian Russell Peters. He's a bit racist, we knew that, but he has still been funny what we have seen of him. This time, though, he appeared to mostly be trying to make fun of whatever nationalities were in the crowd for the whole set, which got a bit tiresome. It was funny in parts, but wasn't great overall.

6) We went to the Mall of the Emirates again on a cloudy day (we did want to go to the beach one day, but no days were nice enough). Was pretty much the same as before, except we went into the freezing cold cinema to watch a film to kill some time.....Madagascar 2, it wasn't bad, and the seats were very comfartable and spacious

7) We went to the 'sports bar' at the Hilton for a drink, well, as we were passing. Just one drink mind you seeing as, due to exchange rates and overpricing, my beer cost me £7. Also, it had three TVs up, that doesn't make it a sports bar in my opinion

8) Terry lives right next door to a horse racing track, and luck would have it there was a meet on the day before we were due to come home, so we though we would wander over there (I say wander, I mean drive as it would have been a whole 15 minute walk). Now, when I have been racing before (once in england, once in America) there is obviously stuff to do in between races, like getting a beer or making a bet, but what with drinking and gambling not allowed, it actually made it quite boring, just sitting there waiting for the next race, so we only lasted three (or maybe four) races before we left. Also they appeared to be gicing out free yellow caps and t-shirts, but we obviously didn't get there early enoug to get ones, not that we really wanted some anyway. Here's a picture of the finishing post and parade area: -




9) Two cab rides of note to mention. One, from Dubai Mall to Terry's. Now Terry lives in 'The Greens', on 7 street. Now, I told the driver this, and yet he still struggled ot know where he had to go until I drew him a map with the number 7 on it. Second, I wanted to go to 'The Marina' but ended up at 'The Madinat', must be my accent. Luckily it wa sonly about 10 minutes or so difference in journey time.

10) And here's a picture of me by a big TV: -

Yes, I still care

So you might remember last year's day of caring, where I was outside in the sun painting, you know, what with it being September and all. Anyway, someone had the bright idea of doing this year's in November.

The choice I had was, paint the dressing rooms of the local theatre, who, when being renovated a few years back had run out of money, or go to a local common and dig ponds and plant trees. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't have minded doing the latter, but the thing that put me off was the statement that I would need warm clothes and boots, of which I have neither, so, for the second year running, painting it was.

There isn't too much to say, except that we were painting breeze blocks with no sealant, which is a tad soul destroying watching your paint disappear and there still being chunks of grey shining through......but we did our best.

Here's a photo of me painting, I wonder if I'll be doing the same thing next year....

Pay attention man!

As part of my season ticket at Spurs, as well as every league home game, I get the first two cup games, and then after that have to buy tickets for any subsequent cup match individually. Tonight, I went to watch us beat Liverpool 4-2, in the Carling Cup, which was our third home cup game of the season, thus I had bought a ticket.

Anyway, I was behind this conversation at the turnstile (note, each eligible match is allocated a number which matches a voucher in the season ticket book): -

Ticket Collector Person - "Ticket please"
Man - "OK, which game number is it?"
TCP - "No, your match ticket"
Man - "Yeah, I have my season ticket, which game number is it"
TCP - "I'm sorry sir, this is a ticketed match, and isn't on the season ticket"
Man - "Oh........"

I hope he didn't come too far to see the game.....

Who steals a lorry?

So we were supposed to get a new dishwasher delivered today, but this morning we got a call from Currys saying they couldn't deliver it because it was on a lorry that had been stolen, which is both funny and not, I mean, who steals a lorry?

You had a bad day....

.....you're taking one down, you sing a sad song just to turn it around.....

Maybe I should stop starting these threads with song lyrics.

OK, so, here's what happened to me last Sunday (I've basically been in Budapest since then).

First up, I drove up to Stoke to see them play Spurs, mainly because I hadn't been to their ground before. This all went quite well, no traffic or anything, and then we got parked fairly close to the ground, but it all went downhill from there. Spurs lost, getting two players sent off and giving away two penalties into the bargain, which obviously didn't exactly put me in a great mood...

...then, it took 45 minutes to get out of the car park, which, as it was just an area of gravel really, was a bit of a free-for-all...

...then, on the M1, we got stuck a few hundred yards from a car fire (we could see the smoke, emergency services and the charred remains on the ground when we drove past). We were stuck there for about one and a half hours. I was, at this point, a little low on petrol so I turned my car engine and radio off so, it was cold and we had no entertainment, save for a few chats with some of the other drivers. I guess we could be considered a bit fortunate that we were actually driving quite a bit further, unlike one guy who was coming off at the next junction, and had actually wanted to come off at the previous one but had been convinced by his wife to continue...

...so I thought I would call Tina, let her know what was going on, and ask her to get my passport out (as I was going to be home late and it would save me messing around when I got in). She informed me it was not where it should be, so I asked her to look in all the obvious places it could be so she continued looking...

...meanwhile the traffic has been cleared so I could continue on my journey to srop Stu off in Leighton Buzzard. As we had heard that there might be another accident further down the M1, I asked him if there was another way back to Watford and he directed my to another road that headed towards Hemel, and went through a few village type things, so basically the speed limit kept going from 60 to 30 and back again...

...which was fine until I got into Hemel and then got pulled over by the police. Apparently I was doing 75 in the last 60 zone. Luckily, he let me off with a warning as I explained I was tired and was just keen to get home, but, as he was leaving, the cheeky sod suggested I should support another football team as well, just spurs luck, though, we can't even get three points from the police...

...so I got home to find Tina in a panic as she hadn't found my passport, which was now very worrying. Obviously I was considering texting my boss to tell her I wouldn't be able to go, when I thought about checking the laptop bag. Now, I don't have a laptop, but when I go abroad I get use of a 'pool' laptop which I then have to return. The last time I went out was about 6 or 7 weeks ago. Lo and behold, the passport was in the bag, big relief, but basically I had left it in there and handed it back into work, and it was just good fortune that I got the same laptop to use again...

...so it was a bad day but it finished well, like all good stories...

Heartbeat....

.....why do you miss, when my baby kisses me?

Sorry, got lost in the song. We went to see the midwife today and she put the thing on Tina's belly so we could hear the baby's heartbeat (is it called a doppler?). It took her a rather long time to find it, which obviously had us a bit worried, but eventually it was found and heard. Apparantly the baby was hiding behind the placenta or something. After it was found, though, it moved and so we could hear the heart beating loud and clear.

Anyway, Tina has been annoyed with it all day for being naughty and hiding, I think that's a bit harsh and it was really just being playful

For those who for some reason haven't heard...

....Tina is pregnant, and here's the proof



due the first week in April (in case you were thinking of asking)

Do I really sound like a woman????

Seriously mum, I'm pretty sure that I do not sound like Brenda......and should I feel insulted you couldn't recognise your own son's voice on the phone....tut tut

I know I am a little bit injury prone....

.....but this is ridiculous. I mean, who strains a muscle (or tendon or whatever) in and around their elbow whilst taking off a sock.....it really hurt as well

skol, skol, skol, skol

actually, it wasn't, it was mostly Stella, but I couldn't think of a witty Stella related title......

I was queuing up in the Tesco Express near my house on Friday night, about 7:30 and thought I would be nosey and see what everybody else in the line was buying. As far as I can tell, of the six other people in the line we had: -

Beer
Beer and Wine
Wine
Beer and Vodka
Wine
Beer and crisps

I felt a bit left out just buying some milk. Perhaps this is some kind of indication that I am past it, you know, what with buying milk to take home on a Friday night instead of some form of alcohol.....we'll see I guess

It's working

I went to Budapest for a couple of days for work this week. It was my first time there on my own (ooh, scary) and also my first time using the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. Obviously I'd heard the horror stories about the problems it faced when it opened, but then they have advertised consistently that everything was ok there now, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

What I got was....no queue at check-in/bag drop (checked in online anyway), no queue through security, and then, coming back, no queue through immigration and then only a 5 minute or so wait at the carousel, on which my bag came out fifth. So, all in all, I probably spent about 10 minutes doing functional stuff at the airport, which is superb in my opinion. Obviously I'm guessing it helped that my flight time out was 7:50am and coming back we landed at 8:30pm, but still....

I find it funny reading the English translations on menus around the world, but the Hungarians are always pretty interesting. I desperately wanted to try 'Ironed' chicken, and was also intrigued at what a 'donut of potato' was, but alas I had only one evening meal. It was a pretty tiring trip as I left home at 6am and worked until 8:30pm, and then had to be at work for 8am the next morning, so I was glad to get home and relax.

Like a lion

On Saturday we went out to a 'Roaring 20's' party in Highbury. Basically it consisted of dressing up in 20's gear, drinking cocktails, dancing in a room that, had it been hired would have cost £1000 (we didn't hire it, it was just empty), which is ludicrous because it looked like it would fit about 20-30 people at most, and getting home at 5am, you know what it's like.

Most of the girls were wearing a combination of beads, headbands and flapper dresses, Andy went looking most like either a jazz fan (Howard Moon springs to mind) or a 1950's reporter, depending on your point of view. Me, I gangster-ed it up (without a gun, a jacket would have topped it off though), see the pictures below: -





Obviously either mine or Andy's outfit didn't quite convey the right message, as some guy asked us, on the tube, whether we were "Hardcore Jews or what?". He was a bit drunk, but still.

I'm still standing

I've still got a job, by the way. I got a phone call last week whilst I was at the cricket last Thursday telling me the good(?) news. So far we think 11 people have gone, which takes us down to 55 staff, less than half from when I started. I guess if we don't get taken over then maybe I will have to look for another job......oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

It's not just fun, it's educational too

I'm not just here for your entertainment, check out the word of the day over there somewhere ---------------------->

to learn something new every time you visit.

Don't say I don't think about you guys and girls.

Deja vu

So we at work are yet again in the position of waiting for redundancies to be announced. To be fair, it has been almost three years since the last lot so it was about time that morale took a hit. It's all the credit crunch's fault, what with us selling software to banks and banks not buying stuff because they have no money.

So anyway, hopefully soon we will know which of us stays and which of us goes, for those who stay it will be pretty difficult as there will only be about 40-50 people left in the office, down from about 130 when I joined. Whether that is enough to do the work we have only time will tell. Euronet are looking to sell us (we are listed as discontinued operations in their Q2 results), maybe somebody will buy us and invest like we need, maybe not, can't look that far ahead to be honest....oh well, I'll just keep going until told not to.

I'm conflicted

Spurs have signed David Bentley, I now can't boo him....that's really not fair

Go Chris, it's your birthday

Actually it's not, it's two days after, but, to be fair, I have been out for those two days so this is the first chance I've had to post. You might have to bare (or is it bear) with me, as I am a little drunk now.

Anyway, this is the first birthday in a while where I haven't done anything for myself. Personally, I'm blaming Wendy as she arranged two birthday things on the Saturday and the Tuesday, meaning that I did not have much scope for my own birthday celebrations (had I wanted some). I don't really mind as it saves me having to think of stuff, but then again, I am getting pretty old at 31, and so maybe I shouldn't be out on the lash for my birthday?.......nah, I'll definitely be doing something of my own for my 33rd (we'll get Wendy's 30th out of the way first, yeah?)

......p.s. for those that don't know, Wendy and I share a birthday

I'm sure it wasn't what they expected

Teehee, somebody found this blog by looking for teenwild7......I am pretty certain that what they found is not what they were looking for

That never happened with a bath

So I just slipped in the shower. The reason I was having a shower is the lack of hot water mentioned in my post the other day. The shower is electric, did I say that, I forget and I can't be bothered to check?

Anyway, I slipped in the shower. It wasn't my fault really. The flannel had fallen from it's normal position straddling the side of the bath, and I hadn't paid enough attention whilst getting in and adjusting the curtain, so I slipped on it, but luckily I grabbed onto the side and not the shower curtain, otherwise there could have been far more damage.

I obviously made a lot of noise doing this, though, as Tina came flying out of the bedroom to make sure I was OK, which I was as I was back stanidng up by then. She had a kind of glazed, shocked look about her which I took to mean she was in a bit of a panic....a bit of reassurance that I was fine helped but she still isn't sure how she got there so quick, maybe she flew....

Anyway, roll on baths again, I have never slipped getting into bath.....out of one, mind you, is a different matter

Nice Head!

Look, Wendy was in the paper



she's the one in pink (or maybe it's purple) on the left for those not in the know....

p.s. This is my 150th post, in less than 2 years, that is (.....basic maths.....), 75 posts a year. I'm a bit surprised by that.

At least it's not winter

We have no hot water....actually, that's a bit of a lie, we have a kettle and an electric shower, but no boiler.....

....so now I have to be all adult and contact tradesmen and get quotes and talk to them like I have a bit of an interest in how a boiler works, so dull....also I am going to have to spend some money....boooo

I don't really know how much one will cost either, I'm thinking somewhere between £1500 and £2500, at least we have the rest of summer (well, when it starts) to get it sorted

Shocking? not so much for me

We went out for dinner last night in a Brewer's Fayre (for Tina's mum's birthday) and then to a pub opposite (to meet Wendy) in Beckton yesterday. Not a lot to post about there, but, I thought I would share the two toilet conversations I heard (one in each place).

First, there was a young white guy talking to his black friend in a pretty stupid sounding West Indian accent, about how (and this was in pretty fine detail) he got a 'nosh' from a fat bird the night before......nice

And the second went something like this (sorry for the swearing)

skinhead 1 - "That fucking mug called me a fucking cunt so I fucking smashed his fucking head in"
skinhead 2 - "oh yeah mate, you were well within your fucking rights to fuck up that fucking cunting bastard proper"

I am so glad I don't live over that way any more....

Boys and Girls

We went round to see Spike and Bendy on Sunday to see their new baby, Beth. Before we went, Tina made the point to me that Spike probably wouldn't want to talk about football (he is also a Spurs fan) as he would be more interested in talking about his new baby. I didn't think this would be the case, and, was proved correct when the opening conversation was pretty much about football......I was sure it would be the case seeing as he had probably been talking mostly about the baby since she was born and he needed some "adult" conversation

When we got home, Tina just commented that that was one of the big differences between men and women.....

Take the first left, then drive for two hours

So I was in the Shell garage, queueing to pay for my petrol because they are a bit backwards and don't have pay@pump, when this Australian couple come in saying they are lost. They go up to the security guard for directions, but he's all "Sorry love, I'm not from round here" or something similar, so they then come to me to ask.

Now, I'm not that good with knowing where to go, even locally, so I wasn't sure I could help them......but it turns out they were trying to get to Stonehenge.....

I don't know exactly where they came from, but I'm thinking to turn up in Watford means they definitely were lost. Anyway, I managed to point them onto the M25 heading for the M3, but I couldn't remember the A road from there, so I hope they are still travelling in the right direction.

I'm an alien....

My stupid head is peeling today, I don't think I've ever had so many comments about anything than I have had today, even Tina's facebook status is about it, so unkind.....

....apparently it looks like someone out of Star Trek, I'm not entirely sure who but I'm going for Neelix from Star Trek Voyager....

except perhaps without the mohican

Could have done with at least one more player

On Saturday I played in my first 5-a-side tournament since, I think, I was 15. I did play in a thing with work, but I didn't really count that as there were only 5 teams, and it's not like we had kits on or anything.

So anyway, this was a tournament, 7 players to a team, 10 minutes to a game. We were a bit worried when, at kick-off to our first game we still only had 5 players, but luckily one of them was a goalkeeper. Turns out we only had one more player to come, and he was a keeper too, not the best planning as one of them would have to play on pitch.

We were in a group of 4, which basically meant we had a minimum of 3 games, The guy organising us (Rich) had borrrowed a 'lovely' yellow shirted, blue shorted, white socked kit to wear (yes, I know, it doesn't really go, but beggars can't be choosers). Aware that we weren't exactly the fittest team around, we decided to go for a 3-0-1 formation, play the long ball and hope for the best (I was the 1 up front by the way).

First game, was tiring and we didn't get a shot on target (well, basically I didn't, I scuffed both my shots I had, but I blame the second one on the fact the defender chasing me fell over and it put me off my shot). Luckily our defence held out and we got a 0-0 draw.

Second game we played better, I scored giving us the lead just before half time, which then gave us something to defend. The second half lasted about 15 minutes, though this was probably fair as we were all using time-wasting tactics, you know, kicking the ball miles out of play, taking our time with goal-kicks, throw-ins and corners, there were even one or two cynical fouls and a deliberate handball to stop a quick attack. We held on though, 1-0 to us....yay.

Third game in the group we played the eventual runners up, and they were far better than us, beating us 2-0. They were worried though, as their main defender was on the bench and he came on before half time. I also had the opportunity to equalise at 1-0 down from the penalty spot, but I smashed it straight down the middle, and straight off the bar....very disappointing. They also missed a (dubious) penalty too.

This all meant we were into the knockout stages by finishing second in our group. not bad for having scored only one goal. We had a two hour gap so I filled up with some energy food, a burger and a large slice of chocolate cake.

The knockout game came and, in my opinion, we played our best game and had several chances. I think the other team were quite tired too as they only had 6 players, and also played more group games than us. We didn't quite have enough to beat them and lost 2-1, though I had scored the equaliser, muscling a defender off the ball (I enjoyed that) and we came close a few times to snatching the win.

The 6 players was an issue for us as well, as it meant that most of us had to play all the games, though when Rich asked for volunteers to start on the bench, I'm sure you can guess mine wasn't the fisrt hand up.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable day, considering I thought we would be out of the tournament pretty quick, and we didn't have the best of teams. unfortunately, I fogot to put suncream on and burnt my head, oh well.

Here's a couple of pictures (stolen from Rich's facebook), can you spot me in the first one: -




Oh yeah, and there is a chance that we might get to play in an 11-a-side game at Vicarage Road in the near future, that'll be nice.

How does Bob Marley like his donuts?

....wi' jammin

I forgot to mention that, although not totally unexpected, we must have heard about 20-30 Bob Marley songs every day, either from the DJs or by the bands, did get a little repetitive I must say

A bit too "Brits Abroad"

Last week we came back from our holiday in Antigua, so here's a little about what we did.......um, not much. Tina wasn't too keen to take any tours or anything this time, seeing as when we went to Egypt I made her climb up mount Sinai, so basically we just stayed in the hotel.

There was a schedule of things to do, including aqua aerobics, water volleyball (which I participated in once, but before lotioning up, and got very burnt arms and head), beach football and beach cricket. Here's a couple of pictures of me participating in the latter two: -





Here are some pictures of the views, starting with the one from our hotel room: -

















It wasn't sunny all the time, in fact, on the Monday and Tuesday it rained for 4 or 5 hours solidly, and it pretty much rained a little every day, so we did a fair bit of sitting around reading (and for no reason that we don't actually have a lot of pictures, here's one of me sat around reading)



You might have been wondering abour the title. Well, the reason is that there was a small wedding area near the swimming pool, where several couple got married during the week. Tina was quite happy watching them from the pool, commenting on how good/bad the dresses were. This also meant there were a lot of families around, and in some cases it was a bit like being in Majorca or Tenerife, expecially when, on my last day, about 14 East Londoners rolled up (apart from the accent, I know they were form there because half of them had West Ham shirts on). There was also a lot of (other) burnt people around, most far worse than either me of Tina got. I can only assume that the below is targetted at the "chav" clientel: -

Paradise......maybe not

So we roll up in Antigua for a week of holidaying, and are welcomed into the hotel with the line "Welcome to Paradise".......about an hour later I was pooped on by a seagull

I like being paid to give my opinion

So tonight I went to one of them there focus groups, where some people sit around and chat for an hour, you know what I'm talking about don't you?

OK, so basically, me and five other people sat around a table drinking and were asked our opinion on The Coral, and, as I'm sure you are well aware, I wasn't shy in answering. We were basically asked what we thought of them as a band, their image, their music, their album covers, their videos etc. etc. This is all because they are releasing a greatest hits album later this year or something and the record company want to know how to market it (I guess). This was all done in three age groups (I was in the middle one before any remarks are made), and apparently they had trouble attracting younger people, I guess maybe because the band aren't really as popular as they once were.

Anyway, sitting around talking, listening to music and watching videos, I got paid £30 for, I wish my real work was that easy to do.

I've got to tell you my tale

Hmm, so maybe I should really post things closer to the time they happened, but anyway....

In November I went with Susie to see the Verve at the Roundhouse in Camden. This was the first time I had been there and had heard it was a good venue. Now, whilst I do agree it is a nice building, and the acoustics were pretty good, the fact it was dead flat meant I couldn't see a thing, stupid shortness.

That sometimes happens, but normally it is just the main act I can't see and the support acts I do get to watch as there are less people around. Unfortunately, this time there was no support, just a bunch of projected images (which I'm sure did have a meaning) with some backing music, not really the best way to entertain the crowd members who had been there since doors at 7 (like us).

I wondered what they would be like as they had just reformed, although obviously Richard Ashcroft (lead singer) has been releasing albums and playing concerts since then, and I wasn't disappointed. They played for two hours, which is a good session for an act (I guess they probably had to make up for the fact they had no support), and I think it was 30 minutes longer than the concert they played in the North of England the day previous, lucky us, and they played every song I knew and liked which is always a bonus....here's a couple of videos





So, that's it for now.....I appreciate that I haven't put many pictures up here, I'll try to remedy that next time, oh, and by the way, I lost my pool tournament title last night, losing in the Quarter Finals.

It was!

I'm sad because I've just found out that there is no second season of The Class.

We both really like watching it and it's rare that we find a sitcom that we actually enjoy watching and make an effort (well, maybe not that much of an effort) to see the next episode (we only started watching somewhere halfway through so there may still be episodes we haven't seen).....stupid TV executives, what do they know!!!

What a lovely place!

I obviously have some classy people working in my office block (note that there are 5 or 6 companies sharing it)

Last week I noticed that someone had scratched the word 'Cunt' ont a metal plate in the lift, and today a guy walked into the toilets, went for a piss in one of the cubicles (with the door open, I mean, what's the point when there are several urinals free), didn't flush the toilet, left the seat up and walked out without washing his hands......nice!

Far, far too old for this sort of thing

If you thought this was going to be a cup final blog, you'd be wrong (though I'll probably do that next), mostly because I haven't got round to uploading my pictures yet.

A few weeks back for my brother's birthday we went out to see The Ghost Frequency play a club in London, Sin. I was under the impression that they wold be on at 12, thus allowing us plenty of scope to catch the 2 o'clock train home. Turns out they were playing at 2, which left us with a tricky little issue anyway, but we figured we'd just worry about that when we left.

When I left home, I checked the dress code for the place, and it said smart casual. Now, I can only assume I don't know what smart casual means any more, as I turned up in shirt, trousers and shoes, you know, expecting it to be a fairly strict place. I think I saw one other guy in shoes, not too many in trousers either. Seems smart casual can mean hoodies, trainers, T-shirts, combats, pretty much anything that wasn't shorts or a vest as far as I can tell.

The club was very well ventilated, what with it having several doors open, which I'm sure is great in the summer, but in February, not so much. Another thing even some of Ryan's friends conceded was that the crowd were far too young, and the bar staff were rubbish, I even had a go at on girl after waiting at least half an hour to be served in what was not the largets bar in the world. It didn't help that she kept coming to make her drinks right in front of me.

So we left the club at 4, walked to Euston cos I am silly (Tina wasn't too happy I made her walk), got a bus to Edgware, in which the guy behind almost had his phone nicked by the guy behind him, got a cab back to Watford and then Tina drove home from there, getting us in at 5:30. The craziness that is Tina decided she would then set her alarm for 9 so she could get up and clean the house.......madness

I didn't mean it, really!

I'm feeling a bit sheepish this evening because at football I smashed the ball into the back of a guy's head during the warm-up......accidentally of course, just my lack of ability meaning the ball didn't go where I wanted it to. He's quite a nice guy as well so that made it worse, hopefully he won't hold a grudge.

I was disappointed to find out they weren't named after Pigeon Street

Pigeon Street, surely you remember?!?? Mr Baskerville was the detective anyway.

Last week I went with Susie to see the Pigeon Detectives play the NME tour (maybe, NME something anyway, they always seem to have a tour going on). As you might remember I saw them play the O2 Wireless festival last year, but they were that good I wanted to see them again.

As is tradition (for this blog anyway), here's my quick rundown of the support acts.

First up (at 6:30pm, which is the time the tickets said doors opened, and is a bit mean if you ask me) were Grammatics. I don't remember too much about them, except they had what sounded like very emotional songs. Oh, and also they had a cellist wearing a short skirt, I wondered whether the front row were listening to the music play really.

After these came, um, The Rascals I think, yeah, I think it was them next. These sounded pretty average indie fare if you ask me, and I had heard at least one of their songs before, which is why I thought I recognised the name. Actually it was probably because of the showbiz friend they brought out to play on the last song, Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, and I then remembered that I had read about the fact he was collaborating with the singer on an album. Don't know whether it was just the recognition, but the last song they played was, in my eyes at least, the best. As an aside, I still want to see the Arctic Monkeys play somewhere, but not a big place, and it is very difficult to get tickets for them otherwise.

Third on the bill were Black Kids, who, according to their Myspace page, list themselves as Indie / Religious, though to me they sounded more poppy with guitars (but maybe they were religious, it was difficult to work out what the lead singer was actually saying, he had a kind of wail a bit like Kele from Bloc Party).

Finally the headliners. I was wondering what we would get as they do only have the one album to date, and that isn't the longest. What it was was basically an hour of music, no encore, with pretty much all of the album plus three new songs. This was interspersed with the lead singer swing the microphone, falling on the floor, jumping off drum kits, jumping into the crowd and forgetting the words to, aguably, their most famous song and getting the guitarist to tell him. He also must have opened about 15 bottles of water, taking a couple of sips and then launching them into the crowd, and in the end he looked like he'd just walked in from a rainstorm.

Musically, I thought it was great, but seeing as they have very poppy, upbeat, short, sharp songs, thene there was never going to be much time to get bored, as I can tend to do, during elongated guitar solos.

Here's a couple of videos for those not in the know ;)





Also, I promise not to be so long with my next post.

Um, is it really that different

I've thought of something, though it's not about me. I read this article the other day about Dwayne Peel, the Welsh Rugby player, leaving Llanelli to go and play for Sale (which I believe is near Manchester).

I just could help laughing when he made this comment about one of the reasons he was leaving the Welsh club...

"The deal to stay at Llanelli was similar to that offered by Sale - it's about the fact that, not having lived outside Wales, I'd like to experience life in another country for a short period"

Now maybe it's just me, but I don't think that there is going to be an awful lot of difference between Wales and England, or maybe there is and I don't know.....?

It's been a while!

Sorry, been mostly playing the Nintendo Wii I got for Christmas, so not really much to say, I'll think of something soon though, promise ;-)