Hip hip horray!

It's my last working day of 2007 so I thought I’d write a short (ish) review.

I've been working at AJG for just under a year and I have to say that it's gone really fast. Does that mean i've had a great time? Probably not, it hasn’t been bad by any means but I think it can be improved. 2008 is a new year and I look forward to seeing what’s in store.

Highlights of 2007

New York
I went to New York for April’s 25th birthday. Other than during the first day or so being the coldest I’ve ever been in my life the whole place was just perfect. The people, the atmosphere and the sites were all far better than I expected. If I ever decide to leave London, I think I could move to New York.

Canal Boating
During this long weekend I think I managed to get wetter than I have ever been in my life, but this didn’t matter as everybody mucked in and we got by pretty much unscathed. Another day or too would have been nice as we had to rush to get back on the final day but that may have been the down fall as it did seem claustrophobic at times. It was good to come back without any accidental drownings.

Spain
In Spain I realised that golf was not for me. I think this is an important lesson to be learnt in any man’s life as it’s a very expensive and time consuming past time. I managed 9 out of 18 holes and totted up a score of 80+ and that’s playing by Stuart rules… if nobody’s looking it didn’t count

Helsinki
Metallica delayed announcing their UK tour days a week before the rest of Europe. I suggested to Shaheen that we should just book it see what happens. That was all that was needed. We looked at the various countries and neither of us had been to Finland. Helsinki here we come. The place was excellent. It exuded ROCK! The only downside I can think of is that April didn’t come along with us.

Limerick
It was my Dad’s 60th birthday this year so Steve and I took my Dad to Ireland as a special treat. We saw some cliffs and caves, an old jail and a flying boat museum. Between us we drank about a barrel of Guinness and watched loads of rugby. As an added bonus we also saw Cheryl Baker.


Things to look forward to in 2008

Monaco
April’s running a training course in Monaco on the 7th so we’re going to make the most of it and have a weekend looking round. Apparently our hotel room has a superior sea view (???). At one point it was suggested that we get a helicopter ride from Nice airport to Monaco but seeing as April’s company will be paying I think that would be taking the p!ss a little too much.

Australia
Although the date keeps getting chopped and changed (currently end of March) we’re off to Australia next year. I looking forward to seeing the place as I’ve always wanted to go. Also, it’s only fair, I’ve shown April round Corby, She must show me round Australia.

Buying a house
By the time my lease runs out at the end of July I will have been living and working in London for nearly 6 years. In rent alone I will have paid £49975! My last place is £14,000 per year! We have to buy a house. The house market is not as strong as it was a year ago but in 6 months time I think we will certainly know where it’s heading. It’ll be a big decision but I think we’re ready.

Win the lottery
My main goal in 2008 is to win the National Lottery. I don’t think it’s much to ask to never having to work again and I will strive to achieve this.

Bo selecta...

I should retire from rugby now, on Saturday we played and beat London Cornish 3rds. Their number 8 was no other than So Solid Crew’s MC Neutrino. Ha, ha, ha!

http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/RFUHome.News_Detail/StoryID/17326


The pinnacle of my rugby playing career has been reached, I do not think I can do any better.

FYI

Our league record this year is Played 9, won 7, drawn 1, lost 1. That sees us sitting pretty at the top of the table. Looks like another promotion is for the mighty Mayfair Occasionals!

Phew... I'm finally feeling better

I had a Christmas dinner with my rugby team (30+ guys) in Holborn on Tuesday night. It was a really good laugh and extreamly funny. Especially when Tunnah and I had to down a load of sambucca each for being foolish enough to be wearing the same hat.

Waking up yesterday morning I felt so rough that I had to call my boss and tell him that I won't be coming to work for the morning. Luckily my boss is a good chap. When I eventually got into work he proceeded to take the p!ss out of me for the remainder of the day. I guess I deserve it.

To give you a gauge as to how ill I was yesterday. I didn't go to an event that I was invited to which there would have been free drink. I've also canceled my plans for tonight with Markus at his new place as i'm absolutely shattered and need the rest.

Roll on Christmas!

And this years numb nuts award goes to...

Stuart!

To help save the environment (or save on me having to wash up) I reuse the paper cup I get for my tea in the morning. Last week on picking the cup up which was full of boiling water I gripped too hard causing near boiling water to cascade down my hand.

Being a hard ass, I didn't scream or swear but quietly went back to my desk and sat down.

P.S.

I have just done it again with the same bloody hand!

Busy period

The next few weeks are going to be a killer on the liver.

This week

Monday: Dinner party round mine (i'm getting so old)
Tuesday: Rugby Christmas dinner
Wednesday: Nothing (although James was mumbling something about drinks this week)
Thursday: Dinner round Markus'
Friday: April's company's Christmas dinner
Saturday: Nothing (I'll be playing rugby so I imagine something will happen then)
Sunday: Nothing (I think I need to keep it that way)

Next week

Monday: My team's Christmas dinner
Tuesday: Drinks with a few of the old Lloyd's lot
Wednesday: My company's Christmas drinks
Thursday: Nothing (April's Mum will have arrived so will probably go for a meal)
Friday: Drinks with a few of the old, old Lloyd's lot
Saturday: Reunion (possibly)
Sunday: Ian's House

The week after

Monday: Christmas Eve drinks
Tuesday: Christmas Day
Wednesday: I die... urgh

CPW Customer feedback survey...

Ha, ha, ha!

Dear customer,

As one of our valued customers we would like to gain your views and feedback regarding your recent email to Carphone Warehouse customer services.

Therefore we have asked eDigitalResearch, an independent research agency to gather opinions and feedback to help us improve our service and products for you.

This survey will only take a few minutes to complete. To view the survey just click on the link below:

http://ecustomeropinions.com/popup/survey.php?sid=129696815&data=3Decc25780

(If the link above is not clickable, please copy and paste it into the Address bar of your web browser)

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Kind regards,

Monaco in January

April has to deliver a course in Monaco this January, I think I might join her.

Bill Bailey update

Ticket Information from Bill Bailey Tickets for order ********
We are pleased to advise that your tickets are currently being prepared for dispatch and you can expect to receive them shortly

20/11/2007

Your tickets will be delivered securely by courier and will require a signature on delivery. In the event that you are not at the delivery address at the time of delivery, either an Attempted Delivery card will be left with full contact details or Secure Mail Services will contact you to rearrange the delivery at your convenience. If you receive an Attempted Delivery card, we urge you to make contact at your earliest convenience to avoid delays in redelivery. If you entered your mobile telephone number during the ordering process you may receive a text message from our delivery partner ‘Secure Mail’ in relation to your order. If you have not received your tickets by 5 working days prior to the event.

Just what I needed

I bloody woke up early this morning so am stuck watching the news. Stop repeating the football highlights.

URGENT PILATES UPDATES FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

I'm still on the mailing list for the physio I used for my knackered finger and i've just been informed of this URGENT!!! message.


Message Heading

URGENT PILATES UPDATES FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

Choice phrase

Please read the document attached carefully as it has information on the Pilates class timetable for the Christmas and New Year period.

Seriously...

Oxford

We finally got round to booking a hotel in Oxford for Thursday and Friday night. The room was £65 per night, knocked down from £180. Not bad at all if you ask me.

Oxford is a lovely place, lots to do, and plenty to see. We also ended up going to a Carling Academy to see a band called Hot Hot Heat.

Borrowing Steve's car was good too as I miss driving.

I'm still on holiday now which is nice too.

StuartM.D.

It turns out that James (one of the sandwich year students who has been off ill for over two weeks now) has been diagnosed with glandular fever.

I’ve been ill with something or other for nearly a month now so it got me thinking. I looked up the details on the nhs direct site.

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleID=213

Evidence

1) Ill for nearly a month
2) Sore throat
3) Tiredness, lack of energy
4) Loss of appetite
5) Muscle ache and headache

April’s also been ill for quite a while now and was prescribed amoxicillin.

“At first, glandular fever is sometimes wrongly diagnosed, for example as a bacterial throat infection or tonsillitis. If you are given treatment for a bacterial infection with the antibiotics ampicillin or amoxicillin, you may develop a rash of small red spots.”

She has also complained of a rash and only stopped taking the pills a few days before. And she’s still not 100%.

Since then I have also been prescribed amoyycillin so I guess we shall wait and see.

Before you all say, I have not been kissing James (Glandular fever is also know as the kissing disease), we must have drank out of each other’s pint or something by mistake.

It’s all a bloody pain though as I’m off on holiday from tomorrow till next Tuesday. What a bum time to be off ill!!!

Urgh... I still feel rough!

This is not good, I never get ill and will be having my 4th day off this month. Not good at all. I hope these drugs work because i'm on holiday on Thursday through to next Tuesday!

No Fair

Mmm... cake day...

I love Fridays!

8-0

Liverpool won 8-0 last night! Yeah!

My question is this: How come we lost 2-1 to them 2 weeks ago?

My answer is: Peter Crouch!

Give him a chance Rafa, Kuyt can't score. Crouch is a natural...

Argh...!

Lotus Notes is down again.

This is the message that comes up on our intranet.

We are currently experiencing some problems with sametime instant messaging, along with certain lotus notes databases.

Incidentally Sametime has been down for nearly a month. What can possibly have gone wrong that it takes a month to fix?

This week ahead

Monday: Mussel night, April's Dad has sent us a recipe for chilli mussels so we're going to give that a whirl tonight.

Tuesday: Nothing [Edit] Football's on tonight so will watch that.
Wednesday: Nothing [Edit] Sausage and Mash night
Thursday: Nothing [Edit] Going for a meal with April (http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/7384.html)
Friday: Nothing [Edit] A few beers with James [Edit] Going to go straight home now as not feeling great today.
Saturday: Rugby then Sophie's engagement party [Edit] I think i'm going to cancel the rugby.
Sunday: Ian's house

I can imagine one of those nothings will change into a beer or two and I promised April we'd go out for a meal one night but so far I have an unusually quiet week. And that's the way I want it.

Off ill again.

I'm not well so have decided to take the day off.

Bill Bailey

Just looked through my work calendar this morning and saw the Bill Bailey gig on Thursday 29th November. As you know it was me that booked all 6 tickets and I did this months ago. 20-04-07 to be precise

That's when it struck me...

What have I done with the tickets? I had a quick look through my draw and couldn't find anything. Then the panic set it. Where would I have put them?

It occurred to me that I would have ordered them at work and so would have printed out a receipt. I re-checked my draw and found it! Yes! But then No! The delivery address was for my old flat in Putney.

I called up the phone line printed on the receipt and there was a recorded message stating that the printing and sending out of tickets had begun this week. I held on the line to speak to an operator...

Tune in next week for another exciting instalment of the great Bill Bailey Tinsleworm ticket extravaganza

Poll 1

Ikea

I successfully watched April make most of our Ikea purchases last night. Unfortunatly we(she) started quite late and our neighbours banged on the roof whilst we (she) were hammering.

We're out tonight and tomorrow so it may be stuck like that for a while.

E-mail is down

Every day there seems to be something new wrong with our IT systems.

Errors in log on scripts
Drive mapping failures
Sametime (instant messaging from lotus) hasn't been working for 3 weeks

And now to cap it all off our Lotus notes e-mail has broken. What a load of rubbish.

What next? Internet down..., please god no!

I can't seem to shake this bloody cold!

I've been suffering with one thing or another for around a month.

It's not fair. I'm okay and don't need time off but i'm fed up with it.

The weather and dark skys don't help either.

What have I done to deserve this...?

April's making me go to IKEA tonight!

Boo, hoo, hoo. We've hired a car and are going to drive down for a bit of late night shopping. The roads and the store should have calmed down by then.

My biggest concern is that we have an almost blank list of things to get. This can only lead to buying loads of junk that we don't need!

It's always good to be prepared

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2569823.html?menu=


Ananova:

Police chief ready for zombie attack

A US police chief has stockpiled chainsaws - in case his city is invaded by zombies.

Police lieutenant Bruce Ferguson says his team are ready for any attack on Lansing, Michigan.

"We have been doing mock disasters and cross training for several years," he told the Lansing State Journal.

"People can feel confident, if zombies start invading, we'll know how to close the streets. We can get chainsaws too.

"If a swarm comes in on I-496 westbound, we'll block off the exits so they miss the city."

Who is pauper_ol?

pauper_ol has added me as a friend but I don't know who this is?

Reveal yourself!!! Or at least write a little blurb in your profile...

It's arrived...

Football Manager 2008 has landed, and to mark this special occasion April mocked up these photos of me being a 'manager'.

http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=281742
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=281744
http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=281745

He, he!

And before you say it, I am indeed a loser...

... but I like it!

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

I've still got a bit of a cold. I've had something off and on for almost 3 weeks now. I was fine on Saturday and Sunday but I feel a little run down now. I have a bit of a sniff and have been sneezing all day.

I may have to find something stronger than lempsip to blow this cold away.

Only an hour and a half left of work. Yeah!

Hmmm... duel 17inch monitors...

I've been using two monitors for a few months now and although I do like it, the fact that one is 17inch and the other is 15inch monitor they both have to be set at a lower resolution.

One of our new sandwich year students is partially sighted so has been given a second monitor (24inch) by a charity that minimises the problems that partially sighted people face in the work place. He was initially planning on using both, but what a shame, his graphics card cannot cope.

I have swooped in and knabbed the 2nd 17 inch monitor.

He, he! Now all I need it for my eyes to readjust to the small writing.

Gym update

My inital aim since joining the gym was to excersie on 1/3 of all days average exercise. But I have now passed 33%. Since the mid May I have exercised on 34% of all days.

I think this's pretty good when you count for the fact that I had virtually the whole of July off. If I start after July it's more like 55% of days.

Just found out the price of my flat.

I thought it would be £350,000+ but my land lady's just had it remortgaged so needed it surveyed She said that it was re-valued at £270,000.

I thought that I was going to be priced out of Clapham but this turns the table a little.

Also we had a look at house prices yesterday in a few estate agents and they weren't that bad too.

Although, together we could get that mortgage (easily), we won't go that high. I really don't see the point in stretching ourselves and end up not having enough cash to actually live.

Hmmm... it's certainly got me thinking (which is a good thing). I still like the idea of having a house nearer to the country with maybe a garden and a few trees but that comes with additional costs too. We'd need a car, an extra £1,000+ (each per year) transport.

All things to think about, it's a big decision so probably wise.

National Environmental Blog Day

According to Live Journal it's national environmental blog day today.

They want to raise awareness about the state of our environment, so by getting everyone to write on this subject the world becomes a better place.

I think I’m generally good when it comes to doing my bit.

- I use public transport
- I recycle most of my rubbish
- If I can I try not to use plastic bags, and will make an effort to use my bags for life more often.
- I’m quick in the shower
- Try not to print things if I don’t absolutely need to

I have flew quite a bit over the past year (Hong Kong, New York, Spain, Helsinki, Limerick) and that’s probably only going to get worse seeing as I’m due to go to Australia next Christmas with April. But generally, overall, I think I’m making a small imprint on this world. Carbon footprint related imprint that is, not social or being fantastic imprint (or the size of my arse print, before anyone else mentions it).

I will keep trying to improve and continue whinging at people that don’t.

Metro idiot

Another idiot writing into the metro...

In response to Debby Wakeham's comments about a fair trial for potential suicide bombers in light of the case of mistaken identity of John Charles De Menezes (Metro, Thurs), she seems to forget that these suicide bombers do not have consideration for anyone.

So, personally, yes, I would prefer the police to take action rather than give suicide bomber a fair trial after he had killed innocent people - particularly when there is a possibility he might get away with it and do it again.

How is a suicide bomber supposed to get away with it exactly? Let alone attempt to do it again.

Moron!

An Electronic Tumble Weed

A deathly silence over live journal

groovicron - posted 7 weeks ago
0 in September, 1 in August, 3 in July, 5 in June, 1 in May, 2 in April, 3 in March, 3 in February and 2 in January. Very poor showing Mr Sorrie, a total of 20! There must be interesting things that are happening to you.


ginger_i - posted 1 week ago
1 in September, 2 in August, 0 in July, 1 in June, 4 in May, 2 in April, 2 in March, 2 in February and 2 in January. Very poor showing Mr Russell, a total of 16!

Ireland

We flew into Shannon Airport at around 3pm on Friday and drove to Limerick in our hire car. It was a Kia cee’d (or something like that). And although an automatic was actually very good, in fact quite quick if you thrashed it…

Our hotel was very good and was around a 10 minute walk from the centre of town so we dumped our stuff and had a wander in. The England game was on later so we had to find a pub that wasn’t too anti-British.

We managed to find one, it wasn’t too difficult actually as the Irish love there rugby and they were all extremely friendly. After much Guinness was consumed we ended up going for a Chinese.

We headed out to the Moor Cliffs on Saturday morning then drove to some caves to look at the stalagmites / tites. In the evening we watched some more rugby, Scotland and Wales games and had a load more Guinness.

Sunday was quiet, we went to the airboat museum (don’t ask, or laugh) then onto some village prison thing. There we met a mad Irish lady who run the place and ended up getting free cups of tea. After this we headed back for the Ireland game and more Guinness.

We flew back yesterday afternoon, and although I had a good time am glad to be back.

I think the highlight of the whole weekend was spotting Cheryl Baker on the Ryan Air flight over to Shannon. This was made all the more hilarious as there was a driver waiting for her at the arrivals lounge. Spotting this, a group of 20 + drunken men waited for her cheering “Cheryl, Cheryl , Cheryl…”. Very funny indeed. She took it well though.

Keep away from my lucky charms...

Top of the afternoon to ya.

I'm off to Ireland tomorrow with Steve and my Dad. It was is 60th a couple of months ago so we're treating him. Not much actually planned but it'll be a laugh all the same. Back on Monday afternoon.

Carphone warehouse update, probably not the last for a year

I had an automated call on Saturday telling me that my phone could not be repaired due to water damage and that I would have to claim on my insurance. Fair enough, if that's what's happened there's nothing much I can do about it. It would just have been nice to have been told that almost a month ago when I first took it in.

Luckily I remembered to update my insurance policy with my Lloyds TSB account for the new phone which meant that I was fully covered. All I had to do was pick up the phone and send it off minus the £30 excess.

When I picked it up from the carphone warehouse repair centre it came with some paper work. Luckily I checked as the idiot member of staff didn't. It said "improper repair attempt" That means at some stage during all this time one of the idiots i've been dealing with damaged it. The guy actually had the cheek to see if I was still going to claim on my insurance (still paying the excess).

As it stands he's sending it back to the original place where the first attempt for it to get repaired was made. If I don't hear back by Wednesday I will expect a new phone.

Just got back from "lunch"

Won £10 on the quiz machine
Won 4-1 at pool.
It's cake day.

All in all a good Friday afternoon.

Change pot

I counted my change pot again last night. £75 worth of baggable coins! €90 in notes which i'll use in Ireland next weekend and I also have £100 Hong Kong Dollars (£6).

Boiler trouble

Our boiler's been leaking for the last few days so i've got to take next Tuesday off from work so that the gas man can take a look.

I'm actually looking forward to it. Not the gas man servicing my boiler... oooh er misses, but the time off to laze around doing nothing.

All of my weekends have been chocablock for the past month or so and there's no let up in the near future.

Richard Herring

I'm off to see Richard Herring later.

We'll probably go for a nice meal and a couple of drinks first then head in for 9:30.

What are the chances?

April's Mum is flying over from Australia for the Christmas holidays and is staying round mine. She lands on the 19th.

Guess what night my work's Christmas is on...

Carphone Warehouse Update 2

They called me up yesterday to appologise and offer me £45 plus a pushed forward (28th Sept) fix date. If it's not ready by then they get another £45 fine.

I'd rather have my phone (working) back but I guess it could have been worse.

I've also cancelled my direct debit. They're not getting a penny more from me until I have my fixed phone.

PO'd German Kid playing Unreal Tournament

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2QxLpS3aIM
Oh dear, oh dear.

Ben: Ring any bells?

Carphone Warehouse Update

Sir / Madam

The side volume buttons and the flash stopped working on my new Nokia N95 so I took it back to the store (Fenchurch) to get fixed.

They said it would take up to around two weeks to repair. Two weeks later I get a call telling me that it was fixed and that I could collect it.

Upon collecting my phone it turned out that it was NOT fixed after all. The assistant offered me no apology and very little assistance. I was told that my best option would be to take the phone to Cannon Street to get fixed at their on site workshop. I did this on 04/09/07.

I called today (13/09/07) to find out the progress of the repair and was put on hold for 5 minutes. I called again and amongst other things put on hold again for 5 minutes was told that the phone could not be fixed in store as suggested and that it was now being sent back to the manufacturers where it could take up to 28 days.

Not only do I have to make do with a seriously substandard loan phone for the best part of 7 weeks whilst still paying a premium price for my handset and line rental I have also had the privilege of having to deal with your unhelpful and sometimes rude staff.

I think the service I have received from The CarPhoneWarehouse has been thoroughly unacceptable. Unless I am compensated substantially for the considerable inconvenience and waste of my valuable time I will terminate my contract.

Regards

Mr Blah blah

P.S.

I have also tried using your on-line complaints form however this does not work either.

Mmm... soft towels

Additional benefit of April moving in. Most of mine are like sandpaper.

Amusing job title

Child: "Daddy, what do you do for a living?"
Father: "Well dear, I am dog bark counter for the council"

Six days later a council official noted 1,303 barks over a 32-minute period.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6989475.stm

What was he doing to the dogs to make them do that?

If only this was true

Dear Mr. Clark:

On behalf of International WHO'S WHO of Professionals, I am pleased to inform you that you have been nominated as a candidate for inclusion in the 2007-2008 Edition. We congratulate you! Nomination into WHO'S WHO is an honor in itself. WHO'S WHO has over 20,000 members in 154 countries worldwide. It is the most elite professional network in the world. Our members assist each other daily with business and career opportunities. It is in times like these that such a network is most valuable and we are seeing members help other members expand their businesses, find new positions, even relocate to another country.

If selected into WHO'S WHO, you will also be listed in the 2007-2008 Edition of International WHO'S WHO of Professionals. This is the definitive work on the world's leaders in commerce, economics, policy, and trade.

We do require additional information to complete the selection process and we ask that you provide your biographical data by accessing the form on our website at: http://www.!"£$%^&*()

Our editorial deadline is quickly approaching. I urge you to act today. If you delay, I cannot guarantee the committee will have ample time to review your submission.

Sincerely,


Wayne Uehara
President
2020 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., PMB #504
Washington, D.C. 20006

My work address must be on a junk mail list somewhere.

The Alan Titchmarsh Show!

Hello there!

We thought that you might be interested to know that we currently have tickets available for the new chat show hosted by Alan Titchmarsh at BBC TV Centre, White City, London. As with all of our shows, the tickets are FREE!


THE ALAN TITCHMARSH SHOW


Alan Titchmarsh is hosting a brand new chat show for ITV1!

With celebrity guests, music, prizes and Alan at the helm, the show will be a mix of laughter, glamour and good old-fashioned entertainment.

Phone update

I had a call yesterday from carphone warehouse saying that my phone was returned and that everything was fixed (volume side buttons and flash) and it was free to get picked up.

I picked it up this morning, had a look and the volume buttons weren't fixed. The guy said "sorry" and that I should take it to the Cannon Street branch where they have a team of engineers on site that would be able to fix it.

I thought "fuck it", i'll get no where with him, so took the phone and kept the motorola shit.

I'm back at the office now and have just tried the flash.

Surprise, surprise, it doesn't work either!!! What a load of bollocks! If you haven't bothered fixing it why tell me it's fixed? It's a waste of my time, there time, my patience and a whole lot of bother.

Why did I use them again?

I've still got it.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Chris Morris and Peep Show

Radio Times Story

They won't say what it's about, they won't say when it's coming, but it doesn't matter: Chris Morris and the creators of Peep Show are collaborating and you can't miss it. Not least because whenever it comes, anything by Morris will cause a storm in the press.

Morris is best known for spiky satires such as Brass Eye and The Day Today, which so precisely cut through news and documentary television clichés that they're as painful as they are funny to watch. Whereas Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are on a high writing the fifth series of Channel 4's Peep Show plus a second US pilot version.

It's Armstrong who has confirmed the project but won't reveal specifics: "I can't say anything more at the moment. Chris will announce further details when he wants to."

http://www.radiotimes.com/content/features/newsletter200736/01/

Big weekend for Stu

April met my parents for the first time and it went surprisingly well.

She also moved in yesterday and despite having far more stuff than expected, everything is more or less in place.

'New' phone

I finally handed my phone in to get fixed (flash and volume buttons), so now I am the proud owner of a Motorola Shit, It's a new model so you may not have heard of it.

They said it can take up to 14 days so I probably won't be as texty during that time.

I'm also a little sore after playing on Steve's Wii yesterday. My arm and shoulder are really achy today. I also played on his swing ball set so I guess it could be a combination of the two.

Your country need you

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/default.stm?dynamic_vote=ON#vote_6960534

Kerang must beat Mobo...

VOTE RESULTS (16:00 23-08-07)
Which of these music awards are you more interested in?
Mobo Awards
31.17%
Kerrang! Awards
68.83%
1851 Votes Cast
Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion

Football

Poor result for England last night. For the first 20 minutes I was quite optimistic, but as usual England reverted to normal and became crap again.

In better news, I managed to get Leeds promoted to the Premier League after taking over in January. I finished 5th but beat West Brom and then Derby in the play-off final. In the summer England won the European Championship, Sven moved to Bayern Munich and I was offered his old Man City job. All change…

Maybe I should get round to plugging in my broadband...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6958429.stm

I have had broadband reconected to my new flat but till this point haven't been bothered. The thing is, there's a perfectly usable one somewhere near by that is always on. Maybe i'll do it tonight...

Gig

The Living End

I went to the Electric Ballroom in Camden with April last night to see the Living End. They’re an Australian heavy version of Greenday. Lead guitar, drummer and electric double bass.

Shaheen came along for a few beers and a bite to eat before hand and we also met up with a friend from work and his younger brother.

The venue was cool, much larger than expected. April thought that it would hold 200, but it was more like 1,000. At least half of the crowd were Australian, and at least half of them were red necks that drove Utes, had dingos called Blue and were called Shane.

The band and support act (Gyroscope) were good but a combination of me being old and the fact that I hadn’t heard them before stayed at the back with the comfort of the bar. April on the other hand went straight into the crowd and proceeded to jump up and down for an hour.

I'm fucking angry!!!!

An update on the deposit saga, this is my summary to Becky.

Hi Becky

How are things? Our deposit woes are still ongoing.

As I see it this is what is going on...

When the property was bought by the new landlord (Mr Edwards) the contracts that we had with Gary Sangra moved over to the new owner. Our original deposits were held with a third party company called Mercury Development.

I've been in touch with KFH and the new manager of the property Gill and Griff (something) for the past 3 weeks and I think we're finally getting somewhere. KFH never held our deposits they only handled the deal.

The issue we have is whether the deposits were transferred over to the new company / landlord when the purchase was made.

Here's the fun bit... Mr Edwards and Gary are on holiday.

Mr Edward is due back 'sometime next week'
Gary is in the Caribbean (probably spending our money) until the 28th.

Gary says that it's the new owner's responsibility however. Griff can't do anything till Mr Edwards gets back from his holiday.

I've told Griff that I expect a call from him next week once he's spoken to Mr Edwards, i'll chase on Wednesday if I haven't heard anything from him. I left him with by telling him that if things do not progress within the next couple of weeks that we will have to file a claim with the small claims court.

I've looked into this and it's quite simple and doesn't cost much. I'm leaving it all till next week now as it's really making me angry.

Anyway... how are things? Everything okay?

See you soon

S x

Gym update

My interest in going to the gym has been rekindled. My initial plans was to go once ever three days. Currently it is just over once every five. If you take a rolling month it's 29% of days, but a more accurate look is a rolling two week where it's up to 57% of days I have been to the gym.

Not bad. Unless i'm going for a free boozy lunch there's no excuse not to go. So watch this space.

Pretty cheap

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6954718.stm

Famous Stuart Clarks that aren't me...

Just to save confusion, I am not

Stuart Clark the Science Fiction Writer
http://www.stuartclark.net/

Stuart Clark the Science Writer
http://www.stuartclark.com/

Stuart Clark the Australian Cricketer
http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/4582.html

Stuart Clark the Venture Challenge
http://www.stuartclark.org/home.html

Stuart Clark the Musician
http://www.outofthebedroom.co.uk/newootb/performers/stuart_clark.htm

Stuart Clark the CEO of Interactive Data
http://www.ftinteractivedata.com/07company_info/about_us/team/company_team_clark.shtml

Stuart Clark the Comedy Writer of Broaden Your Mind
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/b/broadenyourmind_1299000443.shtml

Stuart Clark the Breakfast Show
http://www.thestuartclarkbreakfastshow.co.uk/

Stuart Clark the Dentist
http://www.dentistry.manchester.ac.uk/staff/StuartClark

Are you guys not famous versions of famous people names?

For all those conspiracy theorists (Kris)

Quite an amusing story about wikipedia

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6947532.stm

Playstation no more

I've just sold my playstation to my boss.

All I every really used it for was to watch DVDs so now that i've got Steve's old DVD player and speakers it's been gathering dust in my cupboard.

I got £30 for it which I think isn't bad.

A sad, sad day...

I can't get cable TV either.

What will I do? The land lady doesn't want me to put a dish up so I can't get sky. And I've ust had confirmation from Virgin that they don't provide cable TV to my flat!

Any suggestions?

Bowling and a curry

Last night was the last day that my whole current team will all be in together so we decided to go bowling.

Actually it was pretty funny.

My scores

68 (After 0 pints)
100 (After 2 pints)
74 (After 4 pints)

Is there a connection? Similar to my pool. Maybe it would be the same with rugby...(?)

After that we went for a curry which wasn't bad but I ate far too much.

More facebook horror stories

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2453429.html?menu=

Spider related claim

I was just skimming through a list of claims (30,000 odd) for one of our major clients and came across this gem.

KILLING SPIDER WITH STAPLER- STAPLED FINGER.

Ha, ha, ha! the guy got $260.

That has to be one of the funniest things i've heard all week!

Try and beat that!

Sky

My new landlady doesn’t want a sky dish on her flat so I’m going to have to say goodbye to my lovely Sky. Boo hoo!

I can get cable so it’s not too much of a problem. But Virgin don’t have Sky 1 so I’ll miss any new series of 24. On the up side I’ll probably get the recording service and can get faster broadband.

Self-defence with a Walking-stick

You never know when this will come in handy

http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_barton-wright_0200.htm

Thanks April!

11th August, (modified)

Seeing as we missed the beer festival this year whilst canal boating, how about this

http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=195496

during the day? And if we're still up for it, poker round mine later on?


You too can look like this

New Shoes

As always with new pair of shoes I nearly kill myself!

This morning walking down the steps outside my new flat I slipped nearly fell on my ass. Although to many of you this would have been highly amusing, it would have really hurt. Luckily my super human reflexes saved me and I grabbed onto the wall, my untimely death has put off for at least a few more days.

A similar think happened a few years back when I stepped off a train and slipped and fell. Unfortunately there were hundreds of people about so my embarrassment was for all to see.

Good news...

http://fm08.footballmanager.net/en/article/101/1600.html

But I would hardly call this a release date. Before Christmas

11th August

Slight change of plan

Seeing as i'm coming back home on the weekend of the 25th anyway, i'm not coming back on the 11th.

Instead, if you can make it come to London to see my new flat and have a game of poker. Same rules as last time.

£30 each (£20 for betting, £10 for food and beer). Cheap night!

Weekend review

Wow, busy weekend!

Friday night was April’s gig, a really good night and quite a packed venue. It was Nigel, a friend from Lloyd’s first ever live gig (34 years old). He’s only recently had a cochlear implant operation and said it was excellent.

Saturday I went to Sundae in the Park, Ben and Jerry’s sponsored concert in Clapham Common. Free ice-cream all day and 6 decent bands, of note, the Rumble Strips, the Breaks and the Bees. We had tickets for the Sunday too where the Proclaimers were playing but had to move so gave it a miss.

It was a long day yesterday but by 8:50 last night I’d moved everything into my new flat and was sitting down with my feet up eating a Chinese takeaway and drinking a cold can of beer.

As usual, you always have more things than you think, but we managed to fit it all into a Volkswagen transit type van. April booked it through Streetcar.co.uk. She hired a car through them mid-week to go shopping and heard that they also did vans. As you can hire them by the hour it was perfect. 4 till 9, will cost us around £35!

I’m pretty tired this morning and will look forward to finally getting home tonight but I’ve been roped into feeding Steve’s cats tonight so have to go all the way down to Wimbledon first. I may have a quick go on his wii whilst I’m there too.

All I have to do now is clean the rest of my flat and then wait to get my deposit, should get more or less the full £1,000. Cash flow’s going to be tight this month, but should be okay.

Current plan is to have another poker night round mine on the 1st Sept, (Ian, I know you can’t make it but will make the Eagles of Death Metal gig on the 31st). Kris do you think you can make the Saturday? I’ll send an e-mail round with details later today.

SC Movie Review 18

The Simpsons

April bought managed to get 2 tickets for a screening of the new Simpsons Movie yesterday. Beforehand we went for a quick bite to eat at the Hare and Tortoise, very Wagamamma like but good all the same. We both had ramen type things. I had a chickeny sweetcorn one and April had a spicy chicken and prawn number. All very good and very reasonably priced.

Anyway… on with the movie.

As expected all of your favourite characters are there, all on top form and there are five or six laugh out loud moments. Most notably Homer’s Spider-Pig.

The story revolves around Springfield getting placed inside a huge glass dome to prevent them from polluting the world further. It was Homer’s fault, surprise, surprise so they were banished and ended up in Alaska. Whilst there, they find out that Springfield is down to get demolished. Homer is the only one to save the day.

There were a couple of moments when I nearly shed a tear (yes, I nearly shed a tear), but this didn’t last long as the amusement carried on.

The film kept the same style as the TV series and worked well but if the film went on for any longer it would have dragged. It was a tough job to drag out a Simpsons episode into a full length movie and they just about pulled it off.

Perhaps it’s me and I’ve drifted away from the whole thing but for a while now I’ve not really been interested in watching the repeats lately on and some of it’s lost is lost to me.

Go and see it if you like the Simpsons, which is probably going to be everybody that reads this. It’s certainly no 9 / 10 as IMDB seems to suggest but there is enough gags to keep you smiling throughout.

SC rating: 68 / 100 (1 vote)
IMDB rating: 9.0 / 10 (3778 votes)

Scary cat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5067912.stm

A furry grim reaper

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6917113.stm

I bet he's a popular cat.

Fair enough...

Millionaire footballers have invented a new drinking game with only one rule - whoever brings the least amount of money on a night out has to buy ALL the drinks. (Daily Star)

After the meal last night which was very pricy, we ended up going to a bar in Shoreditch called Lounge Lovers. I've mentioned it before, we went after bonus night one year.

It's very cool and this time I didn't have to pay so all the better.

Flat update 12.4 version 6_final version, amended-draft

I e-mailed Holly again this morning to find out the progress of my reference checks. Having not heard from her I gave her a call this afternoon to make sure that everything was progressing as planned.

It turns out that she simply forgot to cc me into an e-mail to the referencing firm asking how things were going. But in any case they had not gotten back to her so she was going to give them a call to try and speed things up. She also gave me their number so that I could do the same if I wanted to.

Having not been too confident with my dealings with Holly so far I gave them a call an hour later having heard nothing from her.

I phoned them up and gave them the required details only to find that they have no record of my name!!! I phoned Holly again…

She assured me that everything was in hand, she’d had the same response but when she enquired further spoke to the person that she usually deals with and he said that things were moving along.

Hopefully things have now been fast tracked so that I can move in this weekend.

The saga continues some more…

On the plus side i'm out for a free curry tonight with a couple of American cat modellers. One of which is the size of a vending machine! It's at fancy place in Spitafields Market called Scarlet Dot. I've been there before with April and it cost em a fortune.

Seems an awfully high figure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6914870.stm

"There are about 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States."

Given a population of around 300m that makes it just 0.2%. I would imagine the vast majority are male. That makes 0.4%. That's huge!

If these figures are correct or in the right ball park, that makes it 1 in 250 men in the US is a registered sex offender.

Is the UK any different...?

"Ben is in desperate need of a massage. 5:17pm"

Seriously Ben, just give her a call...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691720089&highlight&ref=nf

Ha, ha, ha!

100 Friends!!!

According to Facebook I now have 100 friends! More realistically I now have 100 people that I vaguely know that are members of facebook, a subset of which may or may not be my friends.

Flat update

Moving in...

I sent off my reference details last Tuesday and are still waiting. The letting agent (Holly) said they take up to 4 days. I've just spoken to my boss and he's not heard anything yet so I hope they pull their fingers out.

If everything can get sorted this week then I can hopefully move in this weekend and not have the hassle of taking time off work.

I don't see what the problem is, it's not as if I want to give them money or anything. Oh yeah, I do. Silly idiots.

Watch this space for new news on my flat saga...

Specialist

I have an appointment to see an orthapedic hand specialist tonight over in Wimbledon.

I hope he'll know what's wrong with it and is able to fix it. The physio was good but was only able to get a half the movement back. It's still swollen, bruised and bloody sore and has been for the past 5 / 6 months.

...other gubbins...

I met my 'new' land lady last night. She wanted to meet me and I wanted to have another look round the flat so we met up after work.

She seemed very nice, very talkative, but very nice all the same. All that's left now is the formality of getting my references approved. Which according to the letting agent take up to 4 days (so Monday max), then me transfering over another £2700. Already paid £280 so £3k just to move in! The lease on my current place runs out on the 3rd but this place is

It's a great flat though, and to my surprise, the sofa, is in fact a sofa bed, so Ian and Ben can spoon to their hearts delight when they come down to visit.

Other details about the flat.

Street and house

It's on a nice and wide tree lined street, 5 minutes walk from the tube. The house is a big old 4 story Victorian building that's been split into 4 flats. I have the first floor.

Living room

The living room is big with nice big windows overlooking the street. It has a fire place but I don't think you're allowed to use it in London. i.e. I could move the flat to another location then use it.

It has lots of storage and plenty of room for my lcd.

Kitchen

The kitchen is small but new and is just off from the living room. Again it has loads of storage place so at least I have the option to keep the place tidy.

Bathroom

The bathroom is large and has what looks like a decent shower. I hate testing things like that. The way I see it, if you test one thing, you have to test everything. Taps for water pressure, gas hobs, plug fittings. Why stop there? Why not have a big dump in the toilet to test its flush? To save embarrassment I decided not to check the shower.

Bedroom

The bedroom is again big and overlooks the garden (I don't have access), it has recessed built in wardrobes which I have stupidly said that April can store 'some' of her clothes in. In English to Australian translation that will mean dumping all of her winter clothes round mine.

Overall i'm very pleased with it. It’s expensive but my plan is to stay for a year and in the last 3-4 months of the 12 month lease start looking for a place to buy.

I’m paying £1150 per month, I think that can get me a decent sized mortgage.

I think I’ll be having a house warming over my birthday weekend (31st August). Ben, you’ve confirmed the Friday as Eagles of Death Metal are playing. Ian, can you make it? We’ve got six tickets.

Me
April
Steve
Shaheen
Ben
?????

So hurry if you want it. The house warming will be on the 1st September. I think that’s enough rant and nonsense talking so ta ta for now.

Hmmm… 503 words. Impressive.

London transport

I've been travelling into work from Putney for the best part of 250 days this past year and just as i'm about to move to Clapham I have the best journey in ever.

We arrived at the station a little late at 8:10 and pretty much walked straight onto our train and straight into two first class seats. That has never happened before.

Then when we got to the Waterloo and City line again we were straight onto the tube. How good is that?

The only down side is that i'm now in work early and don't know what to do...

"Helsinki, we love you!"

If anyone thought that rock was dead, move to Helsinki.

The place is rock.

Every bar / pub that we went to had rock / heavy metal playing through their sound systems.

50% of men had rock beards and hair, all about 6ft+ and massive, with tattoos covering both arms. I’m sure even some of the women had beards.

I’m not sure I’d like the winter much as it would be far too cold and only get daylight for a couple of hours each day but the summer was great. Although it rained a little it was pretty much sunny for 20 hours each day. I think I’ve even got a bit of a tan.

Although not as big or as impressive as Wembley, Helsinki’s Olympic stadium still held about 40,000 fans and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even after the 4th encore!

I think that may be the way forward for my travelling in the near future. Find a band I like and travel somewhere where I haven’t been before to see them. Why not…?

In other band news, I’m off to see The Black Rebel Motorcycle club tomorrow night.

P.S. The funniest thing I saw whilst there was a t-shirt stand in one of the markets selling “I like Finland t-shirts Ha, ha, ha!

Moving house

I put an offer on a flat in Clapham last night!

Fingers crossed it'll get accepted... It was 10% below asking (£1191) so hopefully they make a lower counter offer, perhaps 5%.

I'm quite excited!!!

Qualified

Steve passed his final actuarial exam last Thursday.

A long slog but no more exams for Steve. Maybe I should start...

I've been thinking about ACII (Insurance) but have never got round to it.

And the winner is...?

Just checked my weekend lottery ticket and I am the proud owner of a new £10 note!

Whoop-tie do I wanted to win £5,000,000. Never mind. I guess you have to be in it to win it.

Sad news...

Just found out from Harriet that her old cat Perkins has died. He's been living in the country for the past year or so but he was still a cool cat.

He was hit by a car and died. Thankfully the vet thinks he would have died instantly so he would have been in no pain.

I salute you Admiral Perkins.

Out of respct I'll retire the Perkins photo.

St. Ives

I've just gotten back from St. Ives and what a lovely long weekend it was.

We set off early on Friday morning and Ken our Australian Tom-Tom tour guide helped us navigate our way 1.5 hours quicker than the RAC website. Well done Ken.

Friday afternoon was spent walking round the picturesque town of St. Ives, if you haven't been (Do) it's a pretty, quaint old place with a good mix of people, old retired folk and young surfer dude types. It also has amusing pikeys and a large number of resident artists. In the evening we found a quiet restaurant and had a lovely meal.

Saturday was spent getting various parts of our bodies burnt on one of St. Ives many pleasant beaches, we really didn't think it was going to be that sort of weather but we were lucky and it was only really horrid on the day we left. We ended up going to a posh restaurant called the Blue Fish. April was celebrating getting herself a new job so had some lobster. More pain than it was worth if you ask me. I had a big steaming pot of every bit of seafood going. All very good.


On Sunday we drove to the Eden Project, lots of plants and rain. We then drove back and spotted a cider farm. I screeched the breaks on the car and followed the signs. I've bought a nice big bottle for our bbq in a few weeks. Fish and chips was the order of the day for tea.

Monday was a quiet one, I attempted to catch crabs with some squid bait and April tried to disguise her red bits by getting a little more brown. Meanwhile I built a huge sand castle. Later on April went to a live drawing class and I was impressed with her work.

I got back a couple of hours ago and am tired now but all in all it was a great weekend away. Roll on Helsinki!!!

Photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34051&id=604100720&ref=mf

Do wonders ever cease?

Do Polo Mints emmit light when snapped?

I'd heard the statement before but assumed it was an urban myth and thought that Mythbusters would cover it in good time I ignored it until Ben mentioned that they do whilst on our canal boat holiday.

Curious to see if they did I decided to try for myself, I also bought the extra strong variety to see if there was more light given off by them.

So, do polo mints emmit light when snapped...?

...yes!

Not much but they do give off a tiny amount of light. How cool is that? Who found out first? Can they solve the worlds energy crisis? Is April going to get a back full of polo mint crumbs next time she stays round mine?

Stay tuned to find out!

I've just poked Stephen Fry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6260210.stm

I've just looked up Stephen Fry on facebook and you can no longer add him as a friend. This left me with only one option...

I 'poked' him!

Ha, ha!

Does anyone want to pay me to update their facebook for £1000 / month?

Demolition

Corby defines what it means by regeneration DEMOLITION!!!

CORBY'S regeneration will take another step forward today as 38 rundown homes are demolished.
The vacant houses and flats on the Kingswood Estate are to be bulldozed to make way for a fresh development on the site.

http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby?articleid=2992105

Incidentally my Dad's old house isn't one of them...

Yeah for no smoking!!!

I went out for a meal with April last night and I didn't stink of cigaretes afterwards. I hope it rains more this year so that smokers faces really get rubbed in it.

Ha, ha!

Welcome back to civilisation

Shaheen has left Canterbury and moved to New Cross (next to where I used to live in Deptford South East London). I'm grabbing a beer or 9 with him this Wednesday.

I love it when a plan comes together...

http://www.rent-a-keg.com/

8% of the world's countries

According to an application that I added to facebook. I have been to 8% of the world's countries. My initial reaction was that that was too high.

But doing a little research it's probably about right.

According to About.com there are 194 countries

http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/a/capitals.htm

And I have so far been to 16 of them

1 England
2 Scotland
3 Ireland
4 Wales
5 Spain
6 France
7 Cyprus
8 Italy
9 Monaco
10 Holland
11 Hong Kong
12 US
13 Turkey
14 Belgium
15 Austria
16 Finland (soon)

Hands up if you can beat that.

I feel quite chuffed.

Another year, another flat.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past couple of weeks and have decided that I don’t want to renew my lease at Mercury Mansions.

The are two main reasons,

a) I would have to live with a stranger and I’ve grown out of doing that
b) We would effectively be subletting our flat and if we were unable to find someone before August we would have to find the £1000 deposit on the room and pay the first months rent.

I think that’s a lot of risk to take on with a stranger. The rent is high so you’re not going to get a dreg of society but you just never know. Imagine me moving into your house…

Also as the rent and bills are high there will be less chance of finding someone due to the fact that they are less likely to need a flatshare which puts more enthuses on option b.

I spoke to Becky about it and she understands my decision but she’s really not interested in the hassle of moving flats again so has decided to move back to Colchester until she can find a place to buy.

This of course means that I will have to find a place on my own. I’m actually quite excited about it all as I do like my own space from time to time. I’ve got a lot more friends in London since the last time I lived on my own and of course I now have April to keep me company (and force me to keep it clean).

The question is where to live though.

Zone two is important as I have effectively already paid for a zone two rail pass with work. It’s probably not that difficult to change but I’d still like to be close.

South West is where I’d like to live as that’s where April, Steve and my rugby club is. This will save me a load of hassle getting around plus it’s much nicer this way.

The problem with all this is that living on your own is not cheap, especially where I am now. Having a quick look on-line yesterday 1 bedrooms start at £900 and they’re no way near as nice as my current place. But I think I’d struggle finding somewhere as nice as that anyway.

Do I want to go for another studio? If it was the same / similar layout to my previous place then I’d actually be quite happy. But it’s finding somewhere in the month I have left that could prove tricky. April’s volunteered to help me out so I’m sure we’ll get somewhere good.

Anyway… wish me luck, I imagine I’ll have a house warming around my birthday (31st August) so bring your sleeping bags!

SC Movie Review 17

Confetti

A 'mockumentary' about 3 couples attempting to win a most original wedding competition.

Along the lines of Best in Show this was an pretty decent comedy film, the good casting and improvised nature made this film a real Monday night treat. A must see.

Highlight: The two gay wedding planners. Hilarious!

SC Rating 74 / 100 (1 Vote)
IMdb Rating: 5.9 / 10 (1271 Votes)

Who says taking drugs to excess damages your health...?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/default.stm

Click on the image called THE BIG PICTURE on the right.

I won't be there for long so hurry up.

The Big Cheese

Yesterday we had a big corporate event where our CEO, Chairman and President (Same person, the holly trinity, or Pat Gallagher) flew over from America to talk directly his UK arm.

I was really impressed by his enthusiasm and public speaking skills. That's not something I say lightly as i'm usually not in to all this pep talk rubbish.

Thankfully I opted to leave early so that I could get the last tube home otherwise it would have been carnage last night. There are a few stories of drunken debauchery floating round that I will endeavor to find out more about.

How stupid do people think people are?

From : child benefit
Sent : 19 June 2007 15:02:36
To : kelvinleo@yahoo.com
Subject : Child Benefit And Income Support

| | | Inbox


Child Benefit And Income Support

Child Benefit Office (GB)
PO Box 1
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE88 1AA
Tel: 079080452325/Textphone: 07852432168

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Good day,
From the table of the Child Benefit management in conjunction with the Income Support office, we noticed that for a very long time now you’ve not applied for the Child benefit/income support which you have the right to apply for. We decided to send you this message so as to remind you to apply as soon as possible.
Remember on no condition should you give out your details or information (online) to any organization or corporate bodies. We do not wish to have your details online for your convenience.
For further enquiries please call………………
079080452325
Or
07852432168
Or email us at cbismail@yahoo.co.uk
Pls note: This message is for those who have the right to apply for the Income support and Child benefit only.

Thanks for your support to your right of Benefit.
MANAGEMENT


WARNING: Do not reply back to this mail, contact the above phone numbers and email address.

Baned game

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6767623.stm

Although it's not my sort of game, I still feel annoyed when this sort of thing gets banned.

There's too much governance in this country. Butt out of it all and get a real job.

As good as grass...

I recieved an e-mail with the subject matter Brooke Weston CTC this morning advertising astro turf.

Dear Sir / Madam,
We would like to inform brooke weston ctc about our synthetic grass products and playground safety surfaces. Please find all the details below or call the office on 0845 22 11 345 for a free consultation. If you are having problems viewing this email, a copy is available on our website at:

http://www.asgoodasgrass.co.uk/index.php?origin=nl

My reply

Although I went to the school I have no interest in synthetic grass. Can you remove my details from your mailing list please?

What a load of cheek!!!

Weekend

Yesterday was pretty good. It was one of April's flatmate's (Abby) birthdays. We met them in a bar called Gigalum where the manager was a complete arse, then we headed towards Balham were we went to a pub called The George.

I really liked the George, huge cavernous ceilings and loads of comfy leather chairs. There must have been 30+ of her friends there.

There was also a pool table where the lads played killer. Needless to say that I was the first out!!! I'd obviously passed my peek of 2.5 pints. I'm actually not that bad and kindly laid up some nice shots for the guy Steve behind me.

Thankfully we left at around 9 as the drinks were starting to get a little silly. I was in a round with a couple of others and our last two drinks were a turbo shandy and a snakebite and black.

After that we got a cab back to mine watched the end of Hot Fuzz (again) and tucked into a take away curry.

http://www.thebombaybicycleclub.co.uk/

I can highly recommend it!

I was planning on going to Greenwich today as Harriet has a stall on Greenwich Market and we were going to take a look. But I really fancy a day of doing very little and April was unconscious till 11:30...

Long awaited physio

My left ring finger has been swollen for the past 4 months so after much nagging (just kidding April) I finally got it checked out by a proper doctor (not Shaheen obviously).

I'd had it x-rayed a couple of months ago a St Barts and the nurse said that it wasn't broken so I just left it as that and have waited for it to improve.

It hasn't. So am finally going to get it checked out today.

The decadent life of Stu…

Last night I watched Hot Fuzz whilst sipping champagne with April. April finally quit her job at Lloyd’s on Wednesday so to celebrate I cooked a lovely meal of lamb a la Stuart.

Recipe

Ingredients
Enough lamb for two (4 chops, 2 loins or 2 long thin neck bits (that’s what we had))
Rosemary
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 big sweet potato
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Mint Sauce
Mint 50g
Vinegar 50ml
Castor sugar 20g

Method

Pre heat oven to 200oC
Peel and chop all the vegetables into large chunks and throw in a large baking tray.
Stab the lamb with a sharp knife and fill the holes with sprigs of rosemary
Smash the garlic with the back of a knife and throw in to the mix
Season
Drizzle olive oil over the lot.

Depending on how you like your lamb, cook for 40 - 60 minutes. For a crispy finish whack up to full power for the last 5 mins.

For the sauce, just mix everything up in a bowl and leave. Adjust measurements to taste.

Enjoy!

Wonder when

http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby?articleid=2945124

What an absolutely stupid idea.

Viva Espania

Well, you guessed it, i'm back and raring to go.

Spain was a pretty good laugh, nice and sunny for the most part and a nice change from the normal weekend away from work.

I had to get up at 4:45 on Saturday as my flight was due to take off at 10 from Stansted. It wasn't really a problem as I had an early night but it's certainly not the on the weekend for me. Our flights were delayed for 2.5 hours so what did we do...?

...straight on the Stella. You've guessed it Saturday was a big one.

We eventually arrived at our villa at around 6 in the evening so there was only really time to quickly shower and head out to the table we had booked in the near by village. The villa was big, fitted 10 (idea for a holiday next year?). It had a nice villa and a lovely friendly cat (i'll post some pictures on moblog if I can reduce the size of them).

The meal was great and the wine flowed. I had massive Gambas for starter followed by a suckling pig then some cheese. You could see the others secretly jealous of my choices seeing as they had all ordered various types of paella.

We arrived back at the flat at 11:30 and sat outside drinking more beer and wine. I snuck off at about 3 but the rest carried on till 4 in the morning.

The next day was golf! I'd only ever had a go on a driving range (with Shaheen in Jersey) so I knew it would be interesting... The course was nice and we booked our selfs a buggy, driving that was best part of the day for me.

I was first up on the tee, swing and a miss... oh how hey laughed! Yes, very funny. Second go, swing and a hit! Sploosh! Straight into the water, Ball number 1 of around 6 that I lost was never to be seen again. 10 shots for the first hole which was a par 4. Not bad for my first go, things can only get better eh? Ha, ha!

I finished the first 9 holes in 88 shots (probably considerably higher if I played the correct rules). That's 52 over par! Thankfully I stopped after that and just caddied for the other guys. And by caddying I mean driving (cruising) around the golf course occasionally helping the guys with club selection and nearly dieing when my boss hit a beauty which went straight for my head. Luckily I was watching and dived out of the way.

The evening was much more sedate, we had a couple of beers and shared a bottle or two of wine over barbeque. I was in bed by 10:30 shattered.

The next day the guys had to be up early for another round, I opted out and had a nice lie in, watched some cricket and fed the cat loads of left over food from the previous night.

I flew back with one of the guys (stock broker) and landed at around 6:30 last night, shattered. I pretty much wanted to sleep on the Stansted Express but just as I sat down someone called my name and it was Anish (spelling?) the guy that came with Shaheen to Amsterdam and the one Kris kept calling Abdul (Kris: or was it Mohamed???).

I'd seen him about a year ago (he actually ended up staying round mine) when I went out with Shaz and a few of his mates for a birthday party.

Anyway, a good time was had by all, and now i've got to get up and go to bloody work. Boo hoo! At least i;ve got a lovely suntan (sun burn) to show off!

Long time no post

First of all, apologies to my hoards of on-line fans for having not written about my exciting life for so long. I’ll bet that some of you are suffering from some quite severe cold turkey.

Well, where shall I begin…?

Friday was our 6 month anniversary so as a show of commitment I missed the England versus Brazil game, England’s first game at the new home of football. It was worth it though. April treated me to one of the best meals ever. It was an exclusive French restaurant in Covent Garden called the Clos Maggiore

http://www.closmaggiore.com/v1/default.aspx

I had rabbit for starter and lamb for main. I think given the option, you have to go for the cutest animals on the menu. April had pigeon with foie gra and a delicious cod fillet with snails for main. I even tried half of one. There’s really no need.

Despite my pleading April paid for the lot so I paid for some lovely pink champagne, a big tub of ice cream and the cab ride home.

Saturday we were up early as we were off to Bristol to visit John and Ros. We got there at around two and I proceeded to show April round all the wonderful sites of Bristol. Mostly pubs and bars that I have had the privilege of getting drunk in. We tried to find one (Coronation Tap) but I missed the turning so ended up walking round Clifton aimlessly before giving up and heading back down to the centre to meet up with the others.

We went to a nice restaurant on waterfront overlooking the marina where I used to live then we went back to John’s for the night. It’s good to see his top dog Ben is still going well. He’s a big fury bear of an animal but gentle as his name suggests. He’s 12 now so very old for a big dog. Luckily John’s fiancé Ros is now a qualified vet so he’ll get the best treatment available. They’ve also got a young puppy pointer called Meg (too lively, jumpy and clawy for my liking), Morpheous the cat and two rabbits.

Sunday was spent wandering the streets round Bath and sitting in cafes and tea houses eating scones and drinking surprise surprise tea.

April had to get back as she was playing another gig over in West London, a Finnegan’s Wake in Ealing. I was shattered but willing to go to support April but thankfully she thought the thought of me whinging all night about being tired was worse than going alone, let me go straight back to Putney.

Monday was a good break from the norm, I went to Birmingham (Aston uni) with my boss to interview 10 students for 3 placement openings we’ve got down here. All good fun. Finished early on the Monday so went to The Mailbox, it was right on the Grand Union Canal! A little further north than we will be but got me in the mood. After a few beers we had a great curry in the centre somewhere.

Wednesday was the England game. I can’t say I watched much of it but it was a good night anyway. The Cheshire Cheese by Tower Bridge, grotty pub but cheap and we had a corner of the upstairs bit. I was there with probably 20 of my old Lloyd’s buddies too so a good night was had by all.

That’ll be all for now. Just leaving you with a few highlights to look forward to before my next post.

I’m off to Spain tomorrow for my boss’s 40th birthday. Playing golf and mostly getting drunk and sun burnt will be the order of the day. Fly back Monday.

Ta ta for now…

6 months

I have been going out with April for 6 months today! Yeah!

Happy is me! She's taking me out to dinner tonight. Although, won't tell me anything about it other than it's in Covent Garden.

BB Pact

It's bloody started again and will be on for god knows how many months.

What an absolute load of tripe it is and a real blight on society

Sign here for a pact against watching big brother, avoiding all of it's sponsors and those who advertise during it.

Be warned...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6687673.stm

I love my job, and all my bosses are lovely...

Narrow boat update

Kris and Kirsty now pencilled in for one night in our mighty vessel.

We'll find a nice pub to moor up against, tell Kris where to meet us and he can find us on his sat nav.

The wonders of 21st century living!

Not sure which night it’ll be yet but it’ll mean that I will owe all of the original eight £9 each.

There’s also a possibility that Becky (flatmate) and another workmate will join us for one night. So the price may come down a little further. I will keep you informed.

Goody, goody gum drops

New 24, last 2 episodes next week. It's going to be good...

He, he. Jack kicks so much ass!

It's raining it's pouring

It's pretty much rained all day for the past two days here in London and it's great.

I really like the rain. I don't mind getting stuck in it when on my way home. It's nice and refreshing. It's been far too hot lately and hardly been comfortable commuting every day.

I've also purchased a lovely new umbrella but that kind of defeats the object of me liking the rain.

New phone saga

My new Sony Ericsson phone arrived at work on Monday but as I was at home waiting for my laptop to get delivered didn’t get it till yesterday morning.

The phone is really nice but upon trying it out it soon dawned on me that my poor chunky fingers were never going to get used to using it (dialling wand may be needed).

So I have just this minute popped it in the post back to CPW where they will be shipping me a lovely new Nokia N95. The contract is a little more expensive but I think the phone is substantially better than the Sony, that is, till the next one comes out.

I think I’ll probably get it delivered on Monday.

Scratch that… Damn you bank holidays!!! Probably get delivered on Tuesday.

Watch this space for my new phone review.

Milan v's Liverpool

Rematch of the 2005 final where I nearly left the pub at half time as the score was so bad (3-0). I was about to go out for a meal but needed the loo first and when I came back it was 3-1. Then Steve needed the loo and we’d scored again 3-2. There was no way I’d have left then. We ended up getting a penalty which was saved then converted on the rebound by Alonso to make it 3-3 and led us into extra time. 30 more minutes of painful oooing and arring till the penalties where we won due to the heroics of Dudek.

This year I predict a 0-5 thrashing by Liverpool. Bring it on! In truth I predict 0-0 with five minutes to go, so they bring on Fowler and he sneaks the cheeky winner with a toe poke over the line...

My worst idea of a game would be to score early on and have to sit back and watch 85 minutes of pressure whilst hoping to die.

Anyone fancy a bet?

Who said Jesus was a wimp...?

http://www.adultswim.com/games/biblefight/

Lloyd's 7s

Just got in after a very tough day. A good laugh all in all but will be feeling it tomorrow.

I played for Gallaghers in Lloyd's rugby 7s at Richmond's ground. We somehow managed to get to the semi and very nearly made it though to the final. Thank god we didn't win as the team that eventually won beat us in the group stage by around 30 points, bearing in mind we only play 14 minutes per game...

All in all a good day. A little sun burnt, a little drunk but home now so chilling out.

Gym

I've been to the gym 3 times this week. Nothing too difficult but the fact that i'm going is an improvment.

Gym status: 4 days out of 14

Laptop

Just had a look at the order status of my new laptop and it has been built, dispatched and is now with the couriers. It's original delivery estimate was next Tuesday.

I hope it turns up sooner as i'd like to play with it at the weekend. Only problem is that i'm not really back at my flat for the next few days so I won't be around to sign for it.

Argh! You are tormenting me with your efficiency...

In other Stu gadget news, i've ordered my new phone Sony Ericsson w880i, but having looked a little more into it think I may swap it for the new N95. It'll be a little more expensive but think it's a much better phone.

I'm also buying Steve's Sony 30gb mp3 player for £50, I borrowed it when I went to Hong Kong and it's pretty cool.

Off to the rugby in a minute, wish me luck...

Feeling on top form today

I finished on time last night then headed to the gym for a quick 45 minute ‘work out’, then got the tube back to mine as April was cooking and Steve was coming round to help me fix my bed (again).

April made home made pizza whilst Steve and I tried to fix the bed whilst drink a nice cold Becks. After 15 mins of umming an arring we gave up and had another beer.

After that we went to a new pub that I’ve discovered for another couple of beers / cider and had an early night.

I’m feeling much better today after a couple of downers. Maybe it’s because today is my last day of the week.

Tomorrow I’m playing in Lloyd’s rugby 7s which will be fun. Then it’ll be all the free beer I can drink and food afterwards. We’ve (AJG) got a tent that can hold 150 but we’re just one team out of about 20. Should be a good event! Steve’s playing for us too.

On Friday it’s one of my friends from Lloyd’s wedding over in Tunbridge Wells, she’s the now the new CEO’s PA. We’re staying the night in a pretty swanky hotel near by.

Then on Saturday I have to head back to Corby for S&L’s presidents dinner where I will be wearing a stupid shirt and tie (I lost the try scoring comp with Tunnah).

Sunday, lunch with Ben. Then heading home to watch the FA cup then watch rubbish on TV till 24 starts.

Great claim

Just looking through one of our claims listings at work and came across this great one.

CLMT WAS SHOT BY A POLICE OFFICER, AFTER HAVING STABBED A POLICE OFFICER

And the guys trying to sue the police. Isn't America great...

Quote from last night's comedy

Last night was a strange one, I left at 5:15 and went straight to the gym. It really didn’t seem worth it as after half an hour I had to shower and meet up with April as I we were going to grab something to eat before going to see the charity comedy gig with Bill Bailey at the Lyceum Theatre.

We ended up going to Live Bait, a really good fish restaurant next to the theatre. I’d been to the one in Waterloo before so I knew it would be good. For some reason I really felt on edge though, quite jittery and hyperactive in fact. Although I’ve never taken anything like speed, I imagined that would be some of the side effects. Weird! Still not feeling 100% now. Anyway…

The show started by the new host of Never mind the Buzz Cocks (jokes about the tsunami), comedy poetry (better than it sounds), funny cockney guy that’s on QI quite a bit and an amusing Geordie (aren’t all Geordies funny?) all compared by Phil Jupidus. The comedy was great, lots of good acts plus Bill Bailey at the end.

The best line of the show had to come from one of Bill’s songs.

“Like a shredded duck in a pancake drowning in the hoi sin of your lies”

Nearly made me cry.

We were supposed to head over to April’s but she had a couple of messages left on her phone when we came out and it turns out her flat has had a gas leak (2 to be precise!) so seeing as there would be no hot water ended up heading back to mine. Just as easy really. Hopefully all that will get sorted out soon!

Super-buff Stu has a 2 week delay

Well, almost 2 weeks since I joined and I haven't been since. But it's not for lack of trying...

I planned to go on Tuesday, then was working late so moved it till Wednsday but ended up working late so moved it to Thursday but ended up working late yet again.

I guess I could have done something at the weekend as I can use the one in Putney too, but all of my gym stuff was left at work so all I could have done was have a swim.

I plan to go tonight before the comedy gig.

Booked!

£1130.00 for 8 people (£141 each for three nights...but we may end up with a couple more people so this could still go down a bit), done and dusted! We'll be touring the ocean waves (let's hope not!) near Shropshire on the Union Canal in our trusty vessel (yar!) from June 22nd to 25th, so you'll need to take the Friday and Monday off work.



Ahoy!

The geek challenge

Me

56% Geek

April

47% Geek

*ha ha ha ha ha* (April laughs)

Canal dreams

I'm going to choose the canal boat tonight and book it.

I'll let you all know how much you owe me in due course...

As it stands

April
Steve
Jenny
Ben
Ian
Markus
James
Me

I might go for a 10 birth but we shall see.

Still at work...

This bloody thing is still on going. It's about 14:10 in the states at the min so the guys I need feed back from are still at lunch!!!

Hurry up!

I am so going to get p!ssed tonight!

Political correctness gone mad...

Warning - this play contains meat

A playwright has been told to warn audiences his show features a roast chicken - to avoid offending vegetarians.

Thank you Ananova, I love these stories...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2323417.html?menu=

Doug Devaney, 41, is starring in one-man play Mein Gutt, a black comedy about one man's losing battle with obesity.

But Brighton Fringe Festival organisers say the roast chicken in the play could cause offence, reports the Sun.

Mr Devaney, of Brighton, said: "I've heard of strobe lighting or nudity being cause for audience concern but never roasted chicken.

"I'm happy to do it - I just find it weird. Will Shakespeareans have to warn theatre-goers about eye-gouging in King Lear from now on?

"It takes some of the surprise of theatre away. How sensitive are we?"

But event organiser Sandra McDonagh said: "We don't want to cause offence. There will always be one person who is sensitive enough to complain.

"I have come across staunch vegans who will kick off about most things. It's always better to cover yourself."

------------------------------------------------------

How about this instead?

"I have come across staunch vegans who will kick off about most things. So what..."

My weekend

Although I didn’t really do much I had a nice weekend.

I had a nice meal with April, Steve and Jenny on Friday in Wimbledon. We were supposed to go to the Dog and Fox, a recently refurnished non-smoking pub / restaurant in Wimbledon Village but their new booking system didn’t have Steve’s details so we had to find somewhere else. This was annoying as we’d already been stung for the best part of £40 on 8 drinks!

Steve and I had a couple of pints each whist the girls had spirits with a mixer. We were a little late so I only bought the drinks for myself and April. G&T plus a Peroni on tap. £8.15! I’m sorry but that is ridiculous. It was a nice enough pub but come on… there’s no justification to charge that amount, other than your customers can probably afford it. I for one will never go there again.

On Saturday, April cooked me a lovely dinner before we went to the cinema to see Spider-Man 3 (SCMR 17: 64 / 100). I felt the film was not bad at all, in fact exactly what I wanted. Spider-Man is pretty much the gayest of super heroes and parts of the story did wind on, but overall it was not bad and did have one of two funny moments.

On Sunday all I really did was go to the shops and watch a bit of sport on TV. And of course watched 24 which is all coming to a head. Can’t be many left can there…

Yesterday was similar to Saturday where I didn’t leave the house except to go to the cinema, this time with Steve to see Shooter (SCMR 18: 68 / 100). Mark Wahlberg was good but the role didn’t really need much acting. The plot was pretty much a modern day Rambo which can only be good…, the film was overly long which is never a good sign but the action was good and that was why we went to see the film. Again there were a few laughs thrown into the mix which made parts of the film quite light hearted.

Ta-ta for now

New lap top / PC

For the past couple of months i've been really considering getting myself a fancy new lap top or PC. I really like the mobility of a lap top (i'm posting this via April's MacBook Pro outside on my balcony in the sun) but if I really want to get a games machine it pretty much has to be a desktop.

My current PC is still pretty good after 4 years (P4 3.06ghz, 512mb RAM, 128mb graphics) and it plays FM fine but most new games that i've bought are at quite a minimum speck when it comes to graphics.

I could always upgrade it a little but that will only prolong the issue and would only have to do it again in a years time. Does anyone fancy buying my PC from me? I'd probably get rid of the lot, monitor and speakers.

The bad thing about getting a new PC is that if I want anything really decent i'm going to have to fork out a few quid. I had a quick go today and before I knew it I was pushing £2,000 and I don't really want to spend that sort of money.

Decisions, decisions...

I'm also getting rid of my PSP if anyone's interested in that, £100. There's a guy at my old work that wants it so if you want it you can have first dibs. I just don't play it enough.

Uncle Shaz

Shaheen's now a proud uncle. Parvez and Beena (Spelling?) had a little girl on Sunday night. 6lbs if you're interested.

He, he, he!

What a game! Had my heart thumping more than once but I think we deserved to go through to the final after both legs.

Utd or Milan in the final? I'd prefer Milan, as I don't know any Italians but know loads of Utd fans. And just in case we lose in two weeks time, i'd rather not get bragged at.

P.S. Ian and Kirsty owe me £1 each.

Geordie Racer

I watched this program on pigeons last night with April that was really funny. I think it's a series of documentaries as I watched a similar styled one last week but that was on the hairdressing world championship...

It was really interesting seeing all these people enthused by all the pigeons and all the excitement that goes with it. Some parts were quite moving too, with the outbreak of bird flu many of the fanciers were threatened with having to cull their flocks. Another man and his wife who was sadly suffering for Alzheimer's flew to South Africa for the world's biggest pigeon event.

But what made me post today was something that I found truly amusing. In a pigeon version of crufts (Blackpool) one lady was boiling a kettle and steaming her prized pigeon's tail feathers to make them straight, similar to using a steam iron she proudly proclaimed.

BBQ-tastic

If you count a day being the period when you are awake. I had 3 bbqs on Saturday!

First at lunch, second for tea before heading out and then in the early hours of Sunday morning for snacks.

Yum, yum, in my tum, tum.

This weekend...

Tomorrow night i'm supposed to be going out with the Barnes rugby lot to celebrate us winning the league and to have a general get together / prize giving before the off season starts.

It's a Bavarian beer just off Old Street.

http://www.bavarian-beerhouse.co.uk/
Check out the animated gif at the top of the page...

I've been there before and it is a laugh but not sure if i'm in the mood. I guess I might feel differently tomorrow though.

I've got the flat to myself for the whole weekend too as both Becky and Liz are away. Sometimes I like having a bit of time to myself.

On Saturday i'm supposed to be going to see The Daves at Borderline (Tottenham Court Road) with an old friend from Lloyd's.

http://www.thedaves.co.uk/

Boz is off to Nepal again so it'll be a pre-final send off drink. It'll be a laugh but we haven't confimed yet and we're out next Thursday anyway to see a Hendrix cover band.

Sunday no real plans although Steve mentioned something to about the possibility of a bbq so seeing as I can't resist I imagine April and I will mosey on down to Wimbledon for the afternoon.


In case you're wondering, this is Barbeque Bob. Front man for the Rhythm Aces. 14th picture along when searching for a picture of a barbeque using google images with the safe search turned on

Big Game Tonight

Chelsea v's Liverpool (real life)

It's the second of the semi finals of the Champions League tonight. I think Liverpool can go through over the two legs but it'll certainly be tough. If we can get a scoring draw at Stamford Bridge tonight we'll go through next week in the return leg at Anfield.

Shaheen's coming up from Canterbury after work so i'm heading over to Victoria to watch the game with him. The problem there is that i'll be getting the district line home, that's when all the Chelsea fans will be coming out of the stadium and be using my line. Dirty scumbags!

Gulp...

Wish me luck.

I finally joined a gym last night

It's an ex Holmes Place gym (so very nice) but they've now been bought out by Virgin Active. It's part of my benefits so I thought I may as well make the most of them. I really should use this one at though especially seeing that now the rugby season's finished. Saying that, we're now entered into a 7s tournament so that should be good for me too.

They're paying £300 towards the annual membership so not bad.

I really should have used my gym at my old flat more seeing as it was less than 200m from my door so now that i'm actually directly paying for it now I will give it a real go. My home gym is at Tower Bridge but I can also use the one in Putney too so there's now good excuse. April doesn't believe that i'll use much it but we shall see.

My plan is to go between 1 and 3 times a week...

My weekend

On Friday I went to a friend’s leaving drinks (Lloyd’s), a good turn out but not nearly as good as mine. I think I had the best part of 60 people.

Saturday I went for lunch at the Jolly Gardener with Steve and April, then drove all the way back to Corby for my cousin Joely’s 18th birthday party. Luckily Steve was driving and April had lent me here laptop for the weekend so I was able to play FM for both journeys.

I went round my dad’s for a bit to have a look through all my stuff that was up in his loft. I found my bendable Watto, old Reading uni photos and letters and a litre beer glass.

We eventually got to the Corby Supporters Club for the party at around 7:30, it wasn’t very busy at that point but it certainly filled up later. One good thing about the place was that it had a barrier around the bar which created a queuing system. Excellent! Why doesn’t every bar have one of them?

When it came to giving our cousin the card and present we hit a stumbling block, we were told she was sitting by the table by the bar but when we got there, there were 15 almost identical 18 year old girls all done up for a night on the tiles. Luckily Joely recognised us which saved us a lot of embarrassment.

It was a good night really as 5 out of 7 of my Mum’s brothers and sisters were there which was nice as we rarely all get together like this.

After the do, we went to what used to be Mr Ques but is now a night club, in there we saw a few of the older rugby lot so it was a good laugh too. I left at around 12, but Steve didn’t get in till 5:30. He ended up having a few more drinks round my Auntie’s.

Sunday was chilled out, I finally got back to London at about 2, then lay on the couch all afternoon till I ordered a takeaway then watched 24 (which was excellent) with April before having an early night.

Overall it was a good weekend but I can’t help feeling like I didn’t really have one. I think all that travelling has taken it out of me. I do not know how I did it for rugby for so long in the past.

New theme

You like?

http://wat-de-fu.livejournal.com/friends/

Bill Bailey

I'm going to book tickets for Bill Bailey for myself and April tomorrow morning.

Wembley Arena 29th November

I'll give you all a buzz in the morning to let you know how much it costs but i'll book them. You can pass on the money later.

I'm actually back this weekend for my cousin's 18th so can meet up on my home if you want and you can pay me.

Ian, you can have your axes back too.

First post from a mac

April's left her apple laptop round mine so I thought i'd have looksee around the old internet thingy. Whilst i'm here I may as well update my journal.

Currently sitting on the sofa watching the footy with a beer in my hand.

Oh, the life I lead...

I'm in trouble...

Ignore the seriousness of the case and focus on the first part of the last sentence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6564623.stm

He denies two charges of administering a poisonous or noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy.

Although I don't do any administering of poisonous or noxious substances, unless alcohol is included, I have on occasion been known to annoy.

What's the world coming too if you're not allowed to annoy anyone? That's half the fun. Maybe i'll get an ASBO...