Friday 31 July 2009

Nightmare journey to Stoke!

Toni picked me up from work and we headed off on a long drive to Stoke to go and stay with Dren and Emma for the weekend. As Toni hadn't eaten all day we hit TGI Friday to stock up vital energy and then hit the road. Traffic was really bad and it took us hours just to get to Cambridge services so we sent a text on to say that we would be a few hours later than planned. Much roadworks and detours later we finally arrived at midnight. On the plus side there was chinese food and alcohol waiting for us!

Thursday 30 July 2009

Buckcherry & The 69 Eyes @ HMV Forum

Sam and I battled National Rail strikes to make our way to Stratford to meet Toni to go and see Buckcherry and The 69 Eyes at the HMV Forum in Kentish Town. Detoured via Tottenham Court Road to grab food at Pizza Hut and then shot off to the Forum. We arrived at the end of Dear Superstar's set but according to Armitage we didn't miss anything LOL

Armitage:


Guess who!:



THE 69 EYES
Totally fucking awesome. I love The 69 Eyes and they certainly didn't disappoint. It's shame that, given the length of time that they have been around and number of albums out, they don't do headline tours and always end up doing short support sets. They played a mighty fine set of their classic and aired a new track from their new album. It was all very sexy goth n roll!






See all THE 69 EYES pics here: 300709The69EyesHMVForum


BUCKCHERRY
I have to say that after The 69 Eyes Buckcherry were a BIG disappointment. Their fans were well into it but despite enjoying their recorded output I thought there performance was pretty flat but what do I know LOL. I'll be honest the ridiculous bandana that the singer wore at the start probably didn't help me take thems seriously LOL






See all the Buckcherry pics here: 300709BuckcherryHMVForum

Happy Birthday Dren

Happy Birthday to Dren

Hope you have a great day today and looking forard to helping you celebrate over the weekend

K.T. and Toni
x

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Tom and dick plus good news

Was off work today with rough goats. Really need to keep them better looked after :o)
Seems going back to the healthy eating ways has finally worked it's way back through my digestive system......... you needed to know that didn't you? Am sure it will all settle down quickly....... I hope!

In more interesting news:
1) Sam finally got off his backside and filled in his college application form and went to Chelmsford to hand that in so all being well he'll be staying in further education (assuming he gets on the course). I can't wait as he wants to study food and become a chef so I am looking forward to lots of lovely meals!

2) Sophie went back to court today to sort out arrangements for Scarlett with Shane. The most important point here is that they have both agreed that Sophie should have residency of Scarlett and the judge has made an order to this effect. Secondly, and the reason why this all started in the first place, on the contact front, Shane has now agreed to let Sophie have Scarlett on the first weekend of every month with him having the remaining three. Apparently the residency is set in stone so that won't change and the contact agreement will become set in stone in six months time if neither party have a reason to take the matter back to court so fingers crossed this is all over now and everyone can try and get along and enjoy bringing Scarlett up.

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Hair today and gone tomorrow!

Sam went for a drastic image change at the weekend and decided to have all his hair cut off as we just found it unmanageable!

Here is the new look him:


And here is a sample of what we removed!

Happy Birthday Kathryn Ferraby

Happy Birthday Kathryn

Hope you have a great day

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 27 July 2009

Oh what a day.............

.........a completely shite one that is!

Toni dropped me at work at 08:00 (as the boss had suggested that I might like to be in early as one of our customers was an hour ahead and we were anticpating problems). By the time I reached work I had a raging headache and had to take painkillers. Got in, no emails at all from the customer so that was a complete and utter waste of time! The day didn't get any better. Another problem with another customer and all sorts of unnecessary comments when all I was trying to do was manage the situation and get things sorted. Fortunately we did manage to get it all sorted by the end of the day but I could really have done without the stress and just been able to resolve things with no grief. Still it's done no so hopefully tomorrow will be calmer! Headache did subside but it is still lurking :o(

Sunday 26 July 2009

Roof racks and vaccuum packs

After a healthy breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, Toni dropped Sam off at Livvy's house and then we went to Chelmsford to get roof bars and a roof box fitted in preparation for us going on holiday in four weeks. Let's just say that the reservation process was not exactly smooth but fair play to the assistant, he sorted us out and fitted the roof bars and box. Due to some inventory balls up (he couldn't find one of the items we needed) we had to upgrade to more expensive parts but he did at least give us a discount.

Next stop was Argos where we bought a new strimmer and some vacuum storage bags.

Following the fitting of the box we went to Pizza Hut for lunch before heaading back to SWF.

The rest of the day was spent blitzing the house from top to bottom (including strimming the front garden and using the vacuum storage bags to compress a load of things and put them under a bed) My house is now all sparkly YAY!

Saturday 25 July 2009

A nice view...........

Bexhill-on-Sea beach most calming:





I like this, does it come in black?

Happy Birthday Sandra Staunton

Happy Birthday Sandra

Hope you have a great day

Friday 24 July 2009

Off to Bexhill-on-Sea to relax

After an incredibly stressful day at work (which included angst, frustration, unnecessary rudeness and mucho mucho pressure) I finally got to leave and go to North Greenwich to meet Toni to go and see her nan in Bexhill-on-Sea with Aaron and Gemima.

Aaron feel alseep on the way, teddy under his arm and half a cake on his lap! What a picture!


When we arrived we had a lovely morroccan lamb casserole. Following that Toni and I went for a nice long walk along the sea front.

Macho man...ok maybe not

How rude LOL


Well it made me snigger!

I know Toni isn't really tall but surely only a great dane would be able to read something this high!

Very thoughtful place Bexhill-on-Sea. If you have any spare bits of dog left over then they very kindly scatter bins around for you to put them. Wonder if it all ends up at the local chinese take away?


Quick joke for Marilyn Manson fans............. is that what you get when the creators of his earlier work get older?

For those in blissful ignorance they were called The Spooky Kids!

Last but not least. The sign on the left speaks for itself. What does the one on the right mean? You can only bin litter when there are footprints? Beware of being danced around while binning litter? Answers on a postcard please............

Thursday 23 July 2009

Taken over and horror

Got in from work to find that he living room had been taken over by Sam and some of his friends so bailed out to the bedroom until they had all gone (which was 2.5 hours later!!!!). It's good that he is building his social life though so I don't really have an issue with it as there were things I needed to do anyway.

Following that I made us a pasta meal and we settled down to watch another horror film in our long line of things to watch.

This time we chose Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Not a bad film and nicely covers the years prior to the happenings in the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Poor old Sam was feeling unwell so went to bed dosed up in the hope that he would be well enough to go and see Livvy tomorrow.

Horse on the loose

The traffic alert news on Heart FM made me chuckle this morning as Toni was driving me to work.
M25, minor delays
Most routes, nothing to report
Blah Blah Blah
HORSE ON THE LOOSE on the A127!

Not funny for the horse I am sure, or anyone that might have come into close proximity with it, but it just tickled me as it isn't the sort of thing you hear very often on a traffic alert.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

The quest for a new singer continues

Well following on from our disasterous set of auditions last week the search is now on for a new singer for HOLLYWOOD DOLL. I have contacted Danni and Marie to see if they are still interested but I suspect from their silence that they will fade away :o(

Have placed ads on various sites and have had two replies so far. Whether they go anywhere remains to be seen but at least we have had some interest. We also had a girl get in touch via MySpace saying her boyfriend might be interested. Time will tell on that one.

Guess we'll just keep plugging away until the right person turns up.

Happy Birthday Gloria Ashmore

Happy Birthday Gloria

Hope you have a great day

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Bad Brains & Vice Squad @ O2 Empire

Thanks to the wonderful Paul Rooney of Vice Squad, Sam and I got to go to the O2 Empire in Shepherds Bush to watch his band support Bad Brains.

When we arrived and went to collect our guest list tickets we were given two tickets for a Buddy Guy concert in 2003! Well I guess that saves them money on printing tickets for this gig but it was disappointing as I like to keep my ticket stubs LOL.



STRAWBERRY BLONDES
These guys were very good and a great warm up band. It was a shame that there were so few people there to actually see them. Lots of trad punk style songs with plenty of bounce.






See all the Strawberry Blondes pics here: StrawberryBlondesO2Empire


VICE SQUAD
Punk rock legends VICE SQUAD were superb. They may well have been around for 31 years but they put on a far better show than a lot of new bands do. They all seemed to be having a real blast and really got the crowd going.






See all the VICE SQUAD pics here: ViceSquadO2Empire


BAD BRAINS
I was looking forward to seeing the Bad Brains as I hadn't seen them for what must be 20 years. The display tonight was slightly different from the good old days though. Frontman H.R. came on stage and proceeded to hand a loaf of brown bread to a photographer and told him to hand it out to the crowd, how odd!


H.R. didn't seem particularly comfortable doing the hardcore punk numbers and was far more at home during the reggae numbers. He doesn't leap around like he used to and was SOOOO laid back he was almost horizontal at times. That said he still delivered the vocals and the band were tight and put on a great set. You could tell there is still some tension between the guys in the band but it didn't spoil the show.






See all the BAD BRAINS pics here: BadBrainsO2Empire

Rose is lifey!

Sometimes I feel low and then realise...
..... how lucky I actually am!

I read other people's blogs and statuses on various social networks and it just occurs to me that as I am not suffering from any short or long term medical issues, I don't have any serious issues causing me stress and I don't have people pissing me off all the time, that things aren't actually that bad.

Sure I have my own emotional ups and downs, who doesn't, but on the whole things are pretty good. There are things that I can take action against and things that I can't.

Some random things just because..............

I hate being woken up and I hate mornings. Unfortunately there is nothing that I can do about those things so you'll all just have to put up with me being a grumpy git!

I hate my belly. It's my fault, I eat crap and have slipped with my gym routine. I can fix that and I will. There's no sympathy to be had from self inflicted injuries so I will deal with it.

I hate being tired. Suspect part of this is related to the eating crap and lack of gym regime but I am also notoriously bad at going to bed at a reasonable hour (and possibly a contributory factor to point 1 as well!). Time to have a strict curfew and stick with it so I am not fannying about after midnight when I should be sleeping.

On the plus side I have great kids and a grandchild, a great girlfriend, a stable job and a roof over my head not to mention lots of fantastic friends.

Then there is my band, HOLLYWOOD DOLL, which is coming together nicely although I do need to knuckle down and get some tracks recorded and work on some new material. Just got to find that elusive singer now, adverts are being pushed out!

Reading back that all looks a bit like the ramblings of a crazy man! Oh well, say luvvie!

Roll on tonight, going to see Vice Squad and Bad Brains with Sam at the O2 Empire in Shepherds Bush.

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 20 July 2009

When I grow up.............

.............. I want to be like mommy - FAIL!

Sunday 19 July 2009

It's good to chill

Got up late today to the wonderful smell of Sam making a lovely cooked breakfast. So nice that he decided to do that. We then proceeded to do absoultey naff all other than watch all six episodes of Ultraviolet (the vampire TV series). Toni made a lovely roast lamb dinner. The rest of the day will be spent cramming in as many Die Hard films as we can before bed!

Saturday 18 July 2009

The journey back

Got up early-ish to go and have a good breakfast before heading off back to SWF. There was a painting on the wall that was... well let me think.... is it just me or does this seem rude to you?


I know they did stair lifts but I have never seen one of these signs in a standard hotel lift. No sign of Thora Hird though:


We were most impressed with the special parking bays at the Holiday Inn:


Poser:


The journey back was fairly uneventful, only one real traffic jam, no rain of biblical proprtions. Stopped off at Cambidge services for some caffeine and a nibble. Had a gluten free chocolcate caramel slice with the most amazing warning on it:


We went via Eltham to pick Aaron up and chilled out for a bit before heading back to SWF.
Just don't ask!:


That's more like it:


Once we got home, we relaxed. Sam & Toni made a BBQ style dinner for us all and Toni inadvertantly conjured up/created a demon pepper monster:


We finished off the say with Alien and then headed off for bed.