Bloody trains, audits and fish pie

Trains were the bane of my life today! It all started badly with my inbound journey being delayed. I then had the delight of the Olympic route being changed again. It seems like they change it randomly on a daily basis.

Work was busy and quite stressful having to deal with a whole load of audit compliance shit. The one good thing to come out of this wad discovering that Billy Smart had failed to deliver a document that he had promised at the last audit. Will be interesting to see how that develops!

Which brings me on to my journey home! It started with getting stuck in what was essentially an alleyway with 500+ people. Our moods weren't great when we realised that the other Olympic lanes were practically empty and essentially we were being inconvenienced for nothing! It took 20 minutes to do a walk that should have been 2!

To add insult to injury it was then announced that there were signalling problems at Cannon Street causing all trains to be delayed. It was chaos. We'd read the boards and go and wait on the advertised platform only to then get shunted to a different one. This normally meant missing that train by the time the throng had gone for it. Nobody seemed to have a clue what was going on. Temperatures were hot and tempers getting shorter.

I ended up getting lucky. A train was advertised as going from London Bridge fast to New Eltham. One customary platform change later and I got a train and a seat!

Just to round things off nicely there was a sign saying road closed near the bus stop so I ended up having to walk home GRRRRR.

My grumpiness was quickly dissolved when I got home with new clothes, fish pie, WWE Raw and True Blood.

It's been one hell of a day!

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Watching Olympic events, F1, yummy food and Toni working hard

The main purpose of us visiting Bexhill-on-Sea was for Toni to help her nan with various bits of paperwork. She did this when we got up while Aaron and I were subjected to some Olympic events LOL. Things did improve when we got to watch a bit of F1 though, I actually enjoyed that quite a lot.

Once the work was done (or so we thought) we all headed out to a lovely restaurant. Toni and I were jubilant to find that all the pasta dishes that were on offer could also be done with gluten free pasta! OMG what a result! We enjoyed some delicious seafood gluten free pasta yumminess!

After the meal Toni was asked to look through a bit more paperwork which we thought would take about half an hour but ended up being more like four hours! Poor old Toni. Aaron and I got to watch a few more Olympics events, deep joy. Sadly the mobile signal in Bexhill is shite so we couldn't even amuse ourselves with our phones LOL. Still, that's probably the majority of Olympics I'll be doing now *grin*

Eventually we headed back to Sidcup to crash out ready for an early start and back to work!
It was a great weekend though and so nice to breath some lovely clear fresh sea air!

Seeing Scarlett and off to Bexhill-on-Sea

We headed off to Chelmsford again to see Shane and Scarlett today. We took Aaron with us as we were heading off to Bexhill-on-Sea afterwards and met up with Sam and Livvy.

This time we had fun at the park

After park fun and games we took everyone to Pizza Hut for some food before saying out goodbyes to Scarlett and Shane. Sam and Livvy went back to SWF and Toni, Aaron and I headed for Bexhill-on-Sea.

Aaron fell asleep en route:

Lovely skies and sea awaited us:

We chilled out when we arrived and had a late meal and just took some time out to relax. Toni and I finished the day off with a nice walk.

Olympic opening ceremony: WTF?

I'm not going to drag the arse out of it on here as those of you who know me on Facebook will have seen that I was less than impressed with the Olympic opening ceremony. Somebody said on Twitter that it was like watching a £27M party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party!

We had every thing that used to be great about Britain being thrust before us. Things that we have since sold off, destroyed or are in the process of systematically bring down. Agriculture, industry and the NHS to name but a few. Yes it might have been fun to watch but it was a stark reminder of the shit that this country is in thanks to recent governments and how things are most certainly not getting better.

The Olympics won't save us, it won't even give us a bit of brief respite!

Stop bankers betting on food: a campaign to curb commodity speculation

Investment banks and hedge funds like Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs are betting on food prices in financial markets. While they pocket billions in profits, global food prices are being driven up leaving millions facing hunger and deeper poverty. Combining risky financial gambling with a basic human need is a recipe for global hunger.

Excessive speculation on food prices needs to be curbed and we need your help to convince the UK government to back European proposals for regulation. George Osborne, the Chancellor, decides whether the UK will support regulation to rein in excessive speculation.

The World Development Movement is campaigning to curb excessive speculation on food. Please email George Osborne now asking it to support strong and effective regulation to stop banks from betting from hunger.
http://wdm.org.uk/food-speculation

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:

Eyes open again

I was listening to some Chumbawamba on the way to work this morning and I had a blinding revelation as I realised that I had had my head stuck in political darkness for far too many years. It was an odd experience as I was suddenly motivated to not sit on my arse but to actually do something.

This was the song that made the scales fall from my eyes:


I realised that it's not enough to sit and grumble on social networking sites, on the whole that's just like pissing into the wind although it is at least a place to start sharing messages. Time to start getting involved with things again, it's been far too long.

As a starting point, why not help put pressure on the greedy corporate sponsors using the tax haven rules for 2012 Olympics in the UK.

So far 7 of the 14 sponsors have agreed to not use the tax haven rules. This is how things have progressed so far:

Come and sign the petition here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/olympic-tax-dodging-petition

Seeing Scarlett for the first time in ages

Today was a very special day as Toni, mum, Sam, Tristan and I drove over to Chelmsford. Shane had called me to say that he had Scarlett and that we could go over and see her. Needless to say we didn't refuse. This was the first time that we (and he) had seen her in four months, WAY too long!

We went over to Shane's mums and picked them both up and then headed into town for a meal at Frankie & Benny's.

We all had a great time and a lovely meal before we headed back to Shane's mums for a cup of tea and to chill out in the garden.

It's little afternoons like this that make life so sweet. We had a lovely time and it was fantastic to see Scarlett again, she has grown up so much since we last saw her. We have made arrangements to go and see her again next weekend before she goes back. A great big thanks to Shane for setting this up and being a total star and making sure that we get to see her still. At present it doesn't look like there are any agreements for him to have Kenzie any time soon although we are hopeful that this might change and that we'll get to see him too.

Once we had returned home we finished off our day with wine and Jeremiah Weed's Sour Mash Brew in the garden back home followed by a wrestling catch up and Indian food!

Five years since we met again

Five years ago today I made a very nervous journey to Camden to meet Toni Scott for the first time in *mumble mumble* years. We had chatted quite a lot online leading up to this meeting. Well, when I say quite a lot I really mean that we chatted every night for hours on end until stupid o'clock.

Last year was the first time that I really mentioned this in any detail on my blog, for a recap see here:
http://ktglitz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/kt-toni-reunited-start-of-something-big.html

Since writing that we have moved in together and are now engaged. We are each other, friends, lovers, soulmates, split aparts.

So today is a big deal to me. Without that meeting five years ago who knows where we would be now. It was definitely the start of something special and I am so glad that things have turned out the way they have!

Rock Toyz featuring Gemima!

Usually attending any sort of school production is something that feels me with fear. Tonight however was a completely different experience. Year 6 at Haimo were putting on their end of term production, a fun take on the Cinderella story called Rock Toyz.

Tickets and program:

 Toni getting a credit for costume services!

Gemima on the video wall before the performance started:

Here's a few pics:

Video evidence:













All the kids were really good but Gemima was definitely the stand out star for me (and I'm not just saying that because I have to). She exuded great confidence and delivered her lines and sang with flair!

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:

No Madonna, Falling Skies & Haven fest

Madonna was playing Hyde Park tonight but unfortunately time and money conspired against me so I had to miss out. This wasn't the end of the world though.

Aaron (assisted by Toni) made a very nice spicy mince and rice dish for dinner. We watched the remainder of Money In The Bank and then caught up with this weeks episode of Falling Skies.

After that all the kids buggered off to their rooms so I got to enjoy snuggles with Toni and a Haven fest with us catching up on the last few episodes. Viewing was accompanied by tea and gluten free pain au chocolat! Oh yes!



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Interesting day, Money In The Bank, True Blood and Haven

An interesting day today where all sorts of things started going wrong after another set of server moves. Not only had a range of IP addresses been changed but some user access had been changed and in some cases revoked which was caused us nothing by grief. We are slowly getting everything back to normal but it is totally mad that wholesale changes are made without letting anybody know. It would be fine if IT actually responded to the tickets we raise but as they don't it means we have to limp on and sort things out ourselves.

The evening was spent chilling out with WWE Money In The Bank, True Blood and the a couple more episodes of Haven. We have almost caught up with Season 2 of Haven which thankfully means we won't have long to wait until Season 3 begins as it is a series that Toni and I have both really got in to.

ORPHEUM to play ROC(K)TOBER!! FESTIVAL

ORPHEUM are very proud to announce that they have been chosen to open the ROC(K)TOBER!! FESTIVAL to be held at the Watford Colosseum on Saturday 13th October. This event will be headlined by German power metal band Edguy as part of their 2012 Age Of The Joker Tour.

Orpheum will be bringing their unique blend of gothic progressive metal to the proceedings on the back of their Treason EP release and recent support slots with November-7 and Achilla.

KT Glitz commented, "This is an amazing opportunity for us. Everything we do at the moment seems to take us one step further on, which is fantastic but getting this slot is a massive step forward. We really want to thank Martin Willmin of MJW Promotions who has made all this possible. He has put together a really strong line up representing some of the best bands from Europe and the UK. In a way it's hard to believe that something like this has happened so soon. Edguy are a fantastic band and the chance to support them is a bit of a dream come true!"

The full line up for ROC(K)TOBER!! at the Watford Colosseum is:

Edguy - www.edguy.net
Hannibal - www.hannibalnation.co.uk
Jaded Heart - www.jadedheart.de
SPiT LiKE THiS - www.spitlikethis.com
Achilla - www.achillamusic.com
Orpheum - www.orpheum.co

Doors open at 16:30. Tickets for this event are £27 and can be ordered via the ROC(K)TOBER!! website: www.rocktoberuk.com

What (Auntie) KT Did!

Today we popped over to Ziyafet for a Turkish lunch with Jamie for his birthday. Role call for the day was Jamie, Toni, Bob, Jade, Aaron, Leanne, Shivaani, Indie and yours truly!

I am proud to say that my bad influence starts even on babies. This is Indie having a Young Ones moment courtesy of Auntie KT LOL



The rest of the day was spent watching films:
Attack The Block
Modify
Fetishes
The Empire Strikes Back

Not bad for a Saturday!


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Bloody O2 and lunch with dad

Yesterday afternoon my phone started playing up and I was unable to pick up O2 at all. I thought that it was my phone on the blink so was gearing myself up for taking it into an Apple Store to try and get it repaired/replaced. Luckily it wasn't my phone that was broken but it did turn out that O2 had some serious network issues which had stopped my phone from functioning properly. It didn't fully return to working again until around 10:00 this morning. Fingers crossed nothing like that happens again!

Lunchtime today involved meeting up with dad outside The Gherkin and heading to the Slug And Lettuce over the road for food and a catch up. It's been a while since I've seen him so it was good to catch up on events over the last few months.

Orpheum @ Boston Music Room

Tonight was gig time again. This time it was a pretty big event at Boston Music Room in Tufnel Park playing alongside Human Wave Attack, Neuronspoiler and Achilla. It was one of those no pressure or anything but nights as we discovered that both Metal Hammer and Fireworks magazine were coming along with reviewers and photographers.

HUMAN WAVE ATTACK
Good hard indie band that took me back to the 80s and seeing bands like Flowers In The Dustbin at Woolwich Poly!

 

ORPHEUM
This was our best set so far. Despite a few sound issues all went well and we received a good reaction from the crowd.

See all the ORPHEUM pics here: 120711OrpheumBostonMusicRoom

Here's a bit of Broken Glass Kiss for you !



NEURONSPOILER
These guys certainly now how to enjoy themselves! Although they weren't really my cup of tea they had what was needed to whip the crowd into a frenzy with some Maiden-esque style metal.

ACHILLA
As usual Achilla put on a polished show as well as announcing they had been asked to support Edguy later in the year. How jealous was I?

It was a fantastic night and for Orpheum it was definitely us finally hitting our stride!

It was great to see Luca again who had popped along especially to see Toni and I .Terrible photo of me but what the hell! LOL

Biggest surprise of the night for me thought was coming off of the stage and being greeted by a guy who told me how much he enjoyed the set. I looked at him as my memory banks kicked into recall mode and he asked if I remembered him. I did indeed. It was Steve Allen, guitarist for a band called Voyeur, who I haven't seen for night on 25 years! OMFG! It was great to see him but a shame we didn't have much time to catch up. This will have to be rectified soon!

So there you have it, a great night or Orpheum and a great night for me personally!