Thursday 31 March 2016

Last of the interviews, tokyo banana and Ghost Adventures

Today was the last of my interviews as phase one of our recruitment drive. Overall things went pretty well. We are bringing two of the candidates back next work for further interviews which I am hoping will result in us being able to actually bring someone in to boost the team.

Sam was given some tokyo banana by one of his colleagues the other day for being so helpful. Thankfully he was in a sharing mood. OMG, they are absolutely delicious  It's such a shame you can't buy them over here and they cost a fortune to import!

The evening was spent watching many episodes of Ghost Adventures. It's quite compelling viewing at times. Sometimes I think what a load of old crap, other times I am having a jaw dropping moment and then I am laughing when the presenters have something happen that scare the living daylights out of them. Definitely worth a watch if you have never seen it.

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Guribu is watching you!

For a laugh the other day I placed my Guribu plush at the end of the sofa that he was looking over the arm at wear Toni sits. He was spotted today much to my amusement and to Toni's disgust!

My evening was mostly made of sleep as I kept crashing out on the sofa. I didn't actually feel that tired but clearly my body was telling me something different!

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Back to work and interviews again

This week it's back into interview mode as the search for a Delphi developer continues. Three lined up this week from today through Thursday. I am doing the first pass and then setting up the technical tests. If they get through me and the test then there will be subsequent technical interviews and a final one with the boss next week, Fingers crossed we get somewhere this time and actually manage to employ someone as the last phase was less than successful for one reason or another as we've lost out on three potential candidates so far.

Have to say it wasn't great being back in the office, I was really enjoying the long break!

Toni was out at yoga in the evening so Sam and I had a chill out watching some Rick & Morty. It's not big and it's certainly not clever but it is very amusing.











 

Monday 28 March 2016

Daredevil and chill

Today was a lovely bank holiday and my last day of rest before returning to work. It was spent watching most of season two of Daredevil. Season one really seemed to drag on but season two was straight into the action. The character is now established and with cameos from Elektra and The Punisher there is lots to like! This is proving to be must watch Netflix TV and they are even talking about a spin off series for The Punisher. If you likes the Marvel and.or Daredevil then you must watch this, it's a lot grittier that other Marvel series like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter.

Sunday 27 March 2016

Visit from Jade, kitchen magick and Iron Man

Today we had visitations from the Jade who came over for the afternoon after postponing from Friday. Lovely to see her again.

Toni and I made an amazing transformation, let's call it kitchen magick! We turned some rudimentary ingredients into something spectacular!

All of this turned into a wonderful fish pie. Apologies for the final picture but I forgot to take a picture. As you can see it went down very well with everyone!

Our evening finished off with Iron Man and Iron Man 2 and a lovely assortment of chocolate and sweet things :)

Saturday 26 March 2016

Lazy day and Outlander

It was a day of taking it easy after all the fun of the gig last night. Breakfast from Richard's was then followed by Toni and I finishing season one of Outlander in readiness for season two which starts in April.

This excellent series is based on the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon. It stars Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall, a married World War II nurse in 1945 who finds herself transported back to Scotland in 1743, where she encounters the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and becomes embroiled in the Jacobite risings.


If you've not seen it before then it is well worth checking out. It is well written and the costumes and scenery are breathtaking.

Friday 25 March 2016

THE TOMBOYS @ The Pipeline

It was off to The Pipeline tonight to go and see THE TOMBOYS. This event run by Japan Underground looked brilliant from the off and just got better as it got nearer.

The evening started off well with Japanese food stall Peko Peko serving up some delicious food. Takoyaki was my starter followed by a chicken katsu curry.

Once the doors to the music area opened we had JPU Records on DJ duty to kick things off and fill the gaps between bands. Speaking of bands, this is how things went down:

The Johns
First up were indie rockers The Johns. Whilst not necessarily the sort of thing I would normally listen to they had some good tunes and were an entertaining opening act.


See all the pictures of The Johns here:
https://plus.google.com/114488708332382539692/posts/2KCPXa8YF8c

Check them out: Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp


The Picaresque
These guys were much more up my street. Energetic and bouncy J-Rock with a punky attitude and just a little bit nuts. 



See all the pictures of The Picaresque here:
https://plus.google.com/114488708332382539692/posts/DUjEbRrTFJN

Check them out: Facebook


Glen Matlock & Kobe Beef
This was the dirty little secret of the night! The event was advertised as having a special guest appearing. Glen Matlock is currently producing the debut EP for THE TOMBOYS and very kindly agreed to also do a secret set as part of their debut UK gig. It was a great set of some well known covers and finishing off with Pretty Vacant!



See all the pictures of Glen Matlock & Kobe Beef here:
https://plus.google.com/114488708332382539692/posts/ha729XjcbR9


THE TOMBOYS
...and so it came to the final act of the night and the reason we were all here (well apart from those that had got the tip-off about Glen Matlock LOL). This is how to put on a show. You don't have to be big and you don't have to be clever. Throw together a set if high energy punk rock n roll songs and have fun on stage and it's job done! THE TOMBOYS are so much fun, it's what music is all about!



See all the pictures of THE TOMBOYS here:
https://plus.google.com/114488708332382539692/posts/LBFgzHvBeCY

Thursday 24 March 2016

Day off and X-Men Apocalypse

Day off today and it was lovely. I played a little Star Wars Battlefront while Toni took Zoe to an appointment which was great fun. Some of the new content is really good. Still waiting on that decent solo play though (no pun intended).

We had a visit from a very helpful lady from the Dementia Care Team which will hopefully result in some more support and other good things happening. Fingers crossed on that one and they've already booked two additional appointments for follow ups.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and chilling out catching up with TV shows.

Forgot to post this the other day but here's the latest trailer for the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse movie.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Empty office, last day and LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It was wind down day today as I have tomorrow booked off to make a nice extended Easter weekend break. It was a bit like the Marie Celeste today with people either on holiday already or WFH:

The day was full of ups and downs as usual but it was mostly positive. Lunch was amazing:
Chicken karaage with black pepper, daikon/sesame Salad with mustard leaf rice

Today I pre-ordered LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here's the trailer!
 

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Long day, lovely lunch and horror fun

Today was a day of wasting time in meetings. There's nothing worse than spending hours in a room and coming out feeling that it was pointless. We don't have very many like this these days but sadly today was one of them. This made for a long day!

Lunch was lovely once again courtesy of WASO.Tokyo. Today I chose miso marinated salmon, mushroom rice with tofu/avocado salad

The afternoon was a bit more productive at least but it was a great relief to finally go home.

Toni was out at Yoga so Sam and I took the opportunity to grab some horror movie time. Our film of choice was low budget New Zealand horror Housebound. Not a bad little film with lots of funny moments. It was all made even funnier by Sam not being able to tell the difference between an New Zealand and South African accent!

Monday 21 March 2016

Early start, bad parking, great lunch and a Drag Race

It was up early today to sort out Pam and then do her blood test before I headed out to work. Sam and I were then treated to some snazzy driving as a white van decided that the pavement was a great alternative to parking on the double yellows outside Richard's Cafe!

It was a good day at work. The boss was on holiday which always makes things much more relaxed. I had a lovely Japanese lunch courtesy of waso.tokyo. Pork sukiyaki, tofu salad and salmon/mustard leaf rice. This was the dream on the website.

This was the reality:

It was absolutely delicious and so much more satisfying than most of the usual crap that I buy for lunch. Yes there was a small amount of meat in it but there was lots of healthy veg too. Well worth it and I'll be buying from them again that's for sure!

The evening was spent watching some car crash TV in the form of RuPaul's Drag Race. I'm still not sure what to make of it yet. It is mildly entertaining but there's also something not quite right about the whole thing!