Monday 28 February 2011

WWE catch up & Dragon Age

Tonight was WWE catch up night.

Sam and I managed to finally got round to watching the WWE Elimination Chamber PPV which wasn't bad overall. We then watched the Undertaker and Triple H make their returns on RAW. All of this was accompanied by the delights of Domino's South Woodham Ferrers!

Sam then started a new campaign on Dragon Age: Origins which was surprisingly fun to watch. When I get a chance I shall have to have turn myself.

Sunday 27 February 2011

VERY lazy day and being a bloke

Didn't get up until 13:30 today. RESULT!

Did very little. Went out for breakfast (well lunch) and then came home and became a bloke for 2 hours and watched the Arsenal v Birmingham fiasco that was the Carling Cup. I don't know why I felt the need to watch it, must have been one of those rare testosterone moments.

The evening was spent watching The Empire Strikes Back and eating stir fry, a great way to finish things off.

Saturday 26 February 2011

TGI Friday, Mysteries, Forbidden Planet, Orcs Nest, Phantom

Today was an epic trek to London and a fantastic birthday treat courtesy of Sam and Toni.

We started off proceedings having "breakfast" in TGI Friday just off of The Strand. A wait at the bar gave us all a chance to whet our appetites with Morgan Spiced Rum, Jack Daniels and Becks (not all at the same time!) Times Square Big Share and JD Wings provided the starters and then it was Jack Daniels Ribs (FULL RACK) all round. Sam developed a fancy for our waitress Kat which was quite sweet! The food as ever was delicious and we finished off with a relaxing coffee.

With our appetites duly sated we then headed off on a fun shopping expedition.

Mysteries: A magick/spiritual shop that is always good for a browse. Lots of interesting things in there to look at. Toni and I came away with a couple of books and friendship bands.

Forbidden Planet: This shop should need NO introduction. If it does then shame on you! I could spend all day in here but today we had to be focussed! I bought the SFX magazine Vampire special and a Hello Kitty mint tin. My birthday present from Toni was Judge Anderson Psi Files Volume 1 and Sam bought me Strontium Dog The Final Solution. RESULT! The only downside was that Ace Trucking Volume 1 was out of stock. I spotted a cool Ninja Coat Hook for Toni to get Aaron. It would have been quite easy to spend an absolute fortune in there and I will be going back soon!

Orcs Nest: One of the few remaining shops that deals with all kinds of role playing games. It was a real trip down memory lane seeing things like Traveller and Dungeons & Dragons on their shelves. This was another shop that it would be quite easy to spend a lot of time (and money in). As it was I bought two clan books for Vampire Requiem, namely Gangrel and Daeva.

With a terrible thirst encroaching on us we trotted up Charing Cross Road and took refuge in Starbucks for caramel macciata, latte and hot chocolate. We then dropped Sam off at Tottenham Court Road tube station so that he could head back to SWF as he had to work. The pinnacle of my birthday treat was tickets to see Phantom Of The Opera which Sam had bought for himself, Toni and I but fate kicked him in the nuts and he couldn't get the time off work so he had to miss out.

Toni and I then strolled off through Soho (and a fun trip to Ann Summers) before we stopped for a rest in Trafalgar Square to do a little people watching before heading for our final destination Her Majesty's Theatre.

Phantom Of The Opera: It was such a shame that Sam had to miss out on this as he had got us really good seats in the stalls. It was a sell out and the performance was astounding. Real shivers down the spine stuff! It was totally superb and there was a well deserved standing ovation at the end. We will definitely go back and see it again and will take Sam with us so he can marvel at it too.

Two pretty things:


The stage as it was set up before the performance:

Friday 25 February 2011

Eltham, SWF, hair colour, iPhone & Ultramarines

After a wonderfully productive day at work (as I'd managed to avoid most of the shite meetings) I headed off to Eltham. Fish pie for dinner and then we chatted while we waited for Nick to pick up Gemima. Poor bloke had to wait ages as Gemima did her fannying about antics.

Once they had departed we set sail for SWF. One trip to Asda later and it wad time to colour Toni's hair a lovely red. It now looks lush and you'll see the pics tomorrow.

One of my tasks for the evening was restoring my iPhone backup to my new phone so that my phone would feel like mine again. All went to plan and normal service has now been resumed.

We finished the evening off watching the Warhammer Ultramarines and very good it was too!




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Thursday 24 February 2011

Work meh, fish and cake, and back to Hollywood Doll promotion

Work, work you say? What happened today then? A den of low and rapidly dropping morale! Sometimes it's not so great to have a job LMFAO!

Went back to Toni's tonight for some gorgeous fish pie and more gluten free teddy cake.

After that it was time to catch up with some Hollywood Doll stuff, adding new gigs and starting to promote things again for March and beyond. Lots of exciting things are coming up so watch this space as we reveal more over time.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Fantastic birthday

WOW, what a fantastic birthday!

The outpouring of good wishes on Facebook was truly humbling. So many people popped by to say Happy Birthday and I really appreciate every single one of them!

Toni bought me a limited Devilish Presley DVD which has been personalised by Jacqui and Johnny which I am absolutely delighted with!

The kids got me some lovely smelly candles.

We'll skip the work part as that was not really important LOL.

After work I popped into the Apple shop for them to take a look at my iPhone which has been playing up. With no effort at all I was walking away with a brand new replacement. Now THAT is what I call customer service. Well done to Apple for making me very happy and on my birthday too.

It was then back to Toni's for a lovely meal and cake with Toni, Sam, Aaron, Gemima, Jade and Bob. We had a lovely time eating, chilling and playing cards.

Toni made this fantastic gluten free teddy cake for me, it was so cool:


There was also a Hello Kitty cake on offer too:


Hello Kitty plates and cups were on hand for the festivities:



Who is behind the Hello Kitty plate/mask?






Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Surprise Toni, Being Human and V

Had a surprise visit from Toni tonight which was lovely. We weren't supposed to see each other again until tomorrow night but it turned out that she was child free so came over anyway YAY *happy dance*

It was time to catch up on some TV shows al we started with Being Human and then moved on to V. It's frustrating having to wait another week for the next episodes!

Finished off the day doing some Glitzine stuff.


- Posted using BlogPress on my iPhone

Monday 21 February 2011

Domino's & Family Guy Star Wars fest

Work was thankfully a flap free zone. Stuart, Hez and I all went out for lunch together which was something we've never done before so it was good to be able to do a bit of bonding and talk offline for a change.

The evening was spent in the company of Sam and Tristan eating Domino's pizza and having a movie fest with all three Family Guy Star Wars episodes being our choice for the night.

Blue Harvest and Something, Something, Something, Darkside remain Family Guy classics and I have to confess that It's a Trap was a more pleasurable viewing second time round as I didn't really enjoy it the first time I saw it.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Toby Carvery, chilling & great weekend

Breakfast today was skipped in favour of diving out the door just before midday to join the massive queue at Toby Carvery. The wait was worth it though as the meal was absolutely fantastic although feeling like I was going to explode afterwards was less good LMFAO

Rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing, just chilling. Sam and Aaron disappeared into the world of Monster Hunter on the PSP, Gemima and Shivanni did Viva Pinata and Sonic on the Xbox, Bob fell asleep and read whilst Toni, Emma and I chatted and did various (anti)social networking things.

It's been a great weekend which hopefully will pave the way for an equally great week!

Saturday 19 February 2011

Hair transformation

Here is how the remainder of Saturday night was spent:

Phase 1:


Phase 2:


Phase 3: TADA!


Crappy trains and phantom guinea pigs

We got up early-ish today as Bob was coming over to do some DIY for Toni. Not sure I agree with this getting up early at the weekend game!

Tea and bad things was breakfast and then I had to go out.

Oh how I love trains. Not content with providing a rubbish commuter service they also manager to continue these high standards at the weekend too! One cancellation later I made it to London Bridge to meet Sam. We then travelled back (on time) to Eltham and had a brief mooch around the shops. This included popping into the O2 shop to discuss an iPhone problem that I have been experiencing. I got some reasonable advice so I can at least now try a couple of things before I have to worry about taking it in for repair.

Amusing moment of the afternoon was Emma thinking she saw a guinea pig outside the window. Nobody else saw it. We think she was making it up although she does however remain adamant that the little blighter was there!

Lasagne and salad was well received followed by freshly ground coffee.


A Beautiful Start To The End Of The World (The Clan Destined)

I am really digging The Clan Destined at the moment! Check them out.......

Friday 18 February 2011

Revolution is a brewing and chill time

Well it's still completely insane at work. The blind continue to attempt to lead the clueless and as a result an ineffectual equilibrium continues to hang in the air with a feeling that we are on a road to nowhere (thank you Mr Byrne and co). It is most frustrating!

The revolution is brewing. Watch this space.

In better news, I headed off to Eltham after work to go and send the weekend at Toni's. Emma came down (as it was her birthday and we haven't seen her in ages) and we had a good night of chatting and catching up and generally chilling out. A great way to end a pretty shitty week.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Illness and cancelled gig

I've spent the last couple of days being very sick!

This was bad on three fronts:
a) I had to miss work which is not good at the moment as we are insanely busy and on a tight schedule with one of our projects.

b) I had to cancel a Hollywood Doll gig.

c) I didn't get to see Toni midweek.

With regard to b) this is the first time we've ever had to do anything like this and this was not something that I had taken lightly but there was just no way that I was in any fit state to be performing. I felt really bad letting the rest of the band down and I'm a bit worried about what everyone else now thinks having done this. :o(

There were a couple of up sides though. I got to catch up with some Gavin & Stacey and also start watching the awesome vampire series Moonlight.

I even managed to catch the New York Rangers scrape a penalty shoot out win over the LA Kings too which was very cool!

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Monday 14 February 2011

Kindred spirits

Had a wonderful evening with Toni tonight. Gorgeous fish meal and some wine and just sitting around chatting and not a child in sight, bliss!

It was lovely to just chill and spend some time together :o)

Happy Valentine's Day Toni


Happy Valentine's Day Toni


MWAH

I love you very very much!
You make me very very happy and life is so much fun with you in my life!



Here's to many many more!

Sunday 13 February 2011

Weekend of feeling unwell

It's been a fairly rotten weekend with my lurgies hanging about like a bad smell.

It's been nice having Toni over but not so fun not really feeling up to doing anything and being generally meh.

The weekend was spent catching up on Being Human, The Vampire Diaries and also Season 2 of V (which has got off to a great start).

Fingers crossed the lurgs fuck off and I feel better and have a better week. Time for bed now!

Friday 11 February 2011

Changed plans

I was going treat you all to nice piece on arses and elbows or even how to teach your grandmother to suck eggs but sadness illness has sapped my strength so you'll have to wait for those delights.

More annoyingly our plans to hit Colchester for the Valentine's Day Massacre had to be cancelled as I was just not feeling up to a night out which was a major bummer.



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Thursday 10 February 2011

Table, Raw, geetar lessons and Spitting Image

After escaping the madness of the London nut house I scooted back to SWF to spend the evening with Sam. Bumped into my landlady en route who has just given me a nice big collapsible dining table which was nice of her :o)

Once home it was time for food and to catch up with Raw and the crazy world of the WWE before embarking on the task of trying to teach Sam to play guitar. I had completely forgotten what it was like to just be starting out and learning on your own. We'll get there though!

The evening was finished off educating Sam and watching Spitting Image video clips on YouTube (a show he is now all too aware of)!

Here's some of my favourites:

The Chicken Song


Essex Is Crap


I've Never Met A Nice South African

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Hollywood Doll @ New Cross Inn

Another new venue for Hollywood Doll tonight, this time it was the New Cross Inn in London. As venues go this was quite a cool one to have the check list even if it isn't the most prestigious one in London.

HOLLYWOOD DOLL
It was a good solid performance for us tonight. A remarkably clear sound was probably a contributing factor and as usual we seemed to be well received.


THE CONNECTORS
A garage punk two piece that put on a pretty good set. Catchy songs and rhythms.


KITTY LIPPS
Another solid set from these guys which culminated in it being cut short due to the drum kit giving up the ghost!


Overall it was a good, positive night, and it was also great to see Dan Love again.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Happy Birthday Scarlett

Can't believe Scarlett is 2 already!
Happy Birthday!

Monday 7 February 2011

Mad day

Today was just one of those mad days where it was busy busy busy all the way. It only stopped briefly at lunch time when we stepped out for a £5 lunch time deal in the pub which was very nice indeed :o)

Evening was spent chilling, eating pitta pizzas and chips while watching WWE Smackdown followed by a few rounds of South Park!

Sunday 6 February 2011

Being Human, The Vampire Diaries and racing about

Caught up on Being Human Series 3 today as well as gearing up for the continuation of The Vampire Diaries.

Toni, Sam and I popped over to see Sophie, Shane and the kids to drop off Scarlett's birthday presents and have a quick lunch.

Following this it was all systems go as we raced off to Southend to meet Heather and go and chill out in Starbucks and have a catch up.

Back to SWF to drop Sam off and then it was time to scoot off to London to go and pick up Aaron and Gemima and do a whistle stop tour of the Scott residences before finally resting at Toni's very tired :o)

Happy Birthday Sarah

Happy Birthday to my cousin Sarah, hope you have a great day

Saturday 5 February 2011

Movie day

Today was movie day. We did bugger all and chilled out and watched films.

Food was provided courtesy of the kebab van and our viewing pleasure was satisfied by the following gems:

Tank Girl
The Elephant Man
Redneck Zombies
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter

What a great Saturday it was!

Friday 4 February 2011

Hollywood Doll @ The Fat Surfer

Gig time again. This time we were at The Fat Surfer in Grays courtesy of Unified Sounds and their Essex Rocks night.

BLACK VENDETTA
Black Vendetta (also known as Nathan Virica) delivers hurting songs in the style of Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth and The Jacobites. It was one man, a guitar and a backing track. He actually showed great potential (for those of us that actually got what he was aiming for) but was a little rough around the edges. With a little bit more practice this is definitely one to keep a cursory eye on.




WIRED DESIRE
Wired Desire shot from the hip with some classic rock n roll bluesy boogie. Sadly they only managed a very short set due to not bring prepared which was a shame.




INTERNAL SCARS
Punk rock roll emo with lots of bouncy songs. Very energetic set which finished with a cover of Kunt & The Gang's Use My Arsehole As A Cunt (The Nick Clegg Story).




TANK TRAP
Funky rock metal with influences from Audioslave, Rage Against The Machine, Tool and maybe a little hint of Jay Kay (Jamiroqui) thrown in for good measure. Good solid tunes and the singer had an amazing voice.




HOLLYWOOD DOLL
Whilst this might not have been our finest hour we still got the job done and were well received by a good sized crowd.






See all the Hollywood Doll pics here: 040211HollywoodDollTheFatSurfer

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists: