Best laid plans, Ziyafet and a quiet News Year's Eve

The plan had been to get up earlier today and do stuff. Best laid plans and all that LOL. Stuff can always wait right? Oh well, we are hurtling towards 2018 so who cares.

Toni, Zoe and I went out for lunch at Ziyafet and then did a little shopping before heading back home to chill.

We aren't party animals these days so we had a nice quiet night in. There was not even a drop of alcohol involved, we just drank tea and enjoyed some nice nibbles as the clock rolled over into 2018 in the company of Stephen Fry touring America......

Getting up late, The Last Jedi, Ziyafet and We Are Twisted F***ing Sister

Today was another nice getting up late day. I am enjoying these although the days of having to get up at work time is rapidly approaching which I am less happy about LOL.

When we did get up we grabbed a cup of tea and then picked up Jade and headed out to Bexleyheath to watch The Last Jedi as she hadn't seen it yet. This was number five for me.

I still don't get why so many people didn't like it, I think it is great. I love the character development, I love the interesting twists in story arcs and I think it has set the whole final trilogy on a very healthy course for the final instalment. Thankfully Jade enjoyed the film too so it was definitely worth the wait.

After the film we then went to have a lovely meal at Ziyafet and chilled out for a couple of hours. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon/evening.

We finished the evening off watching We Are Twisted Fucking Sister, an amusing documentary on the early days of Twisted Sister. If you are a fan or have a passing interest in the band then this is well worth a watch.

Say-Gah, Fantastic Beasts and fun with the Lowes

This morning was made of nostalgia. Yesterday Toni bought me a Sega Megadrive all in one console with 85 games on it. Today it was activated! Oh the joys of starting up Sonic The Hedgehog and hearing that wonderful Say-Gah (Sega) sound.

My starting point was brief sessions on Sonic The Hedgehog, Kid Chamelon, Columns, Chakan and Bonanza Brothers. Oh so much fun to be had here. This console also has an active cartridge port so I can pick up a few other games over time (Cool Spot and Aladdin are top of my list).

Breakfast of bacon and eggs was accompanied by the most excellent Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them to round off our Harry Potter and related viewing. I'd forgotten how good this film was and can't wait for the sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald next November.

Our evening was spent in Essex in the company of Helen and Keith. The plan had been to play games but we never got that far as we were just having too much fun chatting and messing about. It was a fantastic night with great company. Shadow also entertained us with his wacky bag antics.

The only bad thing today was Zoe throwing up as soon as the car pulled up at home at the end of the night. Thankfully she'd managed to hold it together for the last part of the route. Not a very pleasant way for her night to end so we settled her down and got her to bed.

This excitement over it was time for a cup of tea and some New York Rangers v Detroit Red Wings action.

Up early, lunch with Jade and the final Harry Potter run

It was up bright and early today to get loads of stuff out the front ready for bin collection. It was cold and it was early and I am not sure I was that impressed. We had a lot of bags to put out and to make matters worse the bin men didn't come early LMFAO

Next stop was a cup of tea to try and kickstart the day and then we watched Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets as we continued our run through.

We took time out to go and have lunch with Jade at Ziyafet which was really nice. It was good to spend some time together and do a little shopping.

We finished off our day with Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 to close out our Harry Potter quest. Might have to pick up on Fantastic Beasts tomorrow LOL.

Bananaman The Musical take two #Bananaman #ManOfPeel

It was back to the Southwark Playbouse tonight for round two of Bananman The Musical. Sam and I were back for more this time accompanied by Toni and Zoe.

Once again it was a wonderful show. There were a number of little tweaks that have been made here and there to make everything work a bit better. It is still a fantastically fun production that once again had me smiling from ear to ear and oh those tunes, they just elevate me.

Marc Pickering and Carl Mullaney are just THE best villainous duo as Doctor Gloom and General Blight. They work so well together and it produces comedy gold. You couldn't ask for a better evil pair! Jodie Jacobs is great in her role as crow and has a great voice and provides the perfect sidekick for Mark Newnham  as out hero Eric Wimp. Eric's alter ego Bananaman is handled by Matthew McKenna who hams it up in a delightful manner. Emma Ralston plays investigative journalist Fiona Mullins and oh those vocals, she's a real powerhouse and her solo number Pretty In Pink is a joy to the ears. TJ Lloyd handles the role of bumbling police Chief O'Reilly wonderfully, Lizzii Hills is great as Eric's mum Mrs Wimp and Brian Gilligan makes a mean Mad Magician. Big shout out also goes to Chris McGuigan and Amy Perry who complete the Ensemble.

I've said it before and I shall say it again, Leon Parris is a musical genius. The tunes are fantastic, the lyrics and VERY clever and the whole damn ridiculous thing just carries you off into a place where you can't do anything but have fun.

It still gets 5 stars from me, or should that be bananas!


So that's two down. I suspect there will be at least one more before the run ends!

Boxing Day and Harry Potter

Well here we are in Boxing Day and another day of waking up late. Sheer bliss. We got up, had some breakfast and then decided to revisit the Harry Potter films, this time of the extended variety.

Not only was it great starting to work our way through the collection again but it was also fun seeing scenes that we hadn’t seen before in the standard releases. 

As we watched we indulged in pickies and nibbles to keep the hunger pangs at bay. Christmas mead and more Rattler Berry kept us from getting parched.

Three films down and the hunger started to grow so we prepped up some of yesterday’s leftovers for another marvellous feast.... and there’s still enough for tomorrow too :)

So in the end we managed the first five Harry Potter films. We had another fantastic relaxing day just spent with no stress, good company and good food. Life is good :) 

Relaxed Christmas Day

We had a really relaxed Christmas Day. For the first time ever we didn’t get up until noon. There was no rush to do anything so we had a cup of coffee to kickstart the day and watched The Grinch.

Such a great film to mark the start of our Christmas. I love the way they perfectly captured the look and feel of the wacky world of Dr. Seuss. It’s the only Who I need on Christmas Day LOL. This was accompanied by toast, smoked salmon and some Rattler, om nom nom.

At 3pm we started to think about prepping our Christmas dinner. It was going to be a late one but we didn’t care.

Next up on the old gogglebox was Disney’s animated A Christmas Carol (this wasn’t an intention Jim Carrey fest LOL).

I’ve always loved this take on the Dickens classic. The spirit of Marley is amazing and the ghosts outside when he departs truly convey the despair of leading your life the wrong way. 

Presents were had and then we started putting the finishing touches together for our Christmas dinner. It was actually nice to eat much later in the day. It was gone 7pm by the time we actually ate. Toni worked miracles in our tiny kitchen and served up an amazing spread.

In a bit of an odd one we watched an episode of UK’s Strongest Man with dinner. Go figure LOL

Suitably fully up we then embarked on The Muppets Christmas Carol.

You can’t beat a bit of this musical classic at Christmas time. Sam, Zoe and I were singing along. 

It was an absolutely brilliant Christmas Day. It was great just having it with no plan or expectations. Eating late in the evening was a genius idea and there’s still plenty left over for the next day or so.

Merry Christmas, Yuletide Wishes & Season's Greetings everybody

Merry Christmas, Yuletide Wishes and Season's Greetings to all my family and friends. I hope you all enjoy your holidays and time off no matter how you celebrate! Le anpetu ki wo waste yuha (There is goodness in this day). However you celebrate (or even if you don't) have a fantastic day. Peace, light and love to one and all.

Twas the night before Christmas.....

So here we are on Christmas Eve and I get to post the same old stupid videos I always do because it's like tradition right? These always make me smile and hopefully they'll have the same effect on you. Before that though I'll start off with a few nice pics of how nice our living room looks.

So here we go, in no particular order, some Christmas videos:

A Star Wars Christmas Carol


Next up we have the wonderful Oh Santa from Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer


...and last but not least we have one of my favourite songs from A Muppet Christmas Carol

Bill Bailey Christmas Larks @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Toni and I were out on the town tonight as we headed to Shepherd's Bush to see Bill Bailey for his Christmas Larks show. It was nice to have a 'date night' and we'll be doing more stuff like this next year.

We were up in the gods but we managed to get the front row so the view was brilliant.

The show was brilliant and I would definitely recommend you check him out doing Larks In Transit next year. We had the backbone of that show with a few Christmas treats thrown in for good measure. Death metal God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was a particular highlight with the whole audience death grunting Satan's power, priceless!

It was the usual mix of spoken and musical pieces nicely knitted together around a theme. The night ended with a guilty pleasure of mine. We were treated to a medley of Christmas carols played on tuned cowbells. Marvellous stuff.

It was a fantastic night out, great to get out together and spend some quality time just on us.

A long slow working day and Star Wars Battlefront II

Today was a long slow working day. Usually we have the hope of getting out early on the last day before Christmas but this year we had some management in who make Scrooge look like the most generous and caring person in the world.

Someone asked him what time he was thinking of leaving today and he replied, "Oh around 6:30 to 7". Not the answer you want to hear I can assure you! Although there was work to be done still there was not really any activity from our clients to warrant us having to stick it out to the bitter end. Sam got to leave at 12:30 today and I had the pleasure of leaving at 16:30 *grumble grumble*.

Still, it was the last day of work until the New Year and now it is done and I can actually have a good long, much needed, break!

I spent much of the evening playing Star Wars Battlefront II. I finally got past a stage that had been proving hard to advance from and then I was pushing through it at a rate of knots after that. It's so nice to have a solo campaign in the game.

A Yule celebration at Giselle's

After work today Toni, Zoe and I went to see Giselle to drop over some Yule gifts and to have a catch up as we'd not seen her for ages.  We kicked things off with some Oracle Card work. I pulled out the Egyptian goddess Nut.

My reading was that I need to take more time out to spend with the Mysteries of life. This is a good thing, I know what this means and am all geared up for doing this!

We also did a ritual burning where we committed 13 wishes/things we want by burning each one individually. It was a very positive experience and left me quite invigorated.

Hot chocolate, cake and chat rounded out the rest of our evening. It was a great time and we'll be doing it more often in future.

Tired and an early night

My tiredness from yesterday continued into today and it was a struggle to get through the working day. It was a relief when it was time to go home. Food and then an early night was what was needed.

The Last Jedi (number four)

After work it was back to Cineworld in Bexleyheath to see The Last Jedi for a fourth time. The plan had been to take Jade with us but she was unwell so we took Ryan instead. I guess this means we'll have to a fifth trip now so that Jade can see it LOL.

I was really tired for this viewing so struggled to get through it. The charm has not worn off though and it remains, to me at least, a stand out film in the Star Wars saga. I'm still picking up little things that I missed in previous viewings which is great to find. Full review will be coming soon.

To finish things off here we have a very cool acapella medley of notable Star Wars tunes

Bananaman The Musical @ Southwark Playhouse #Bananaman #ManOfPeel

***** Deliciously ridiculous, outstanding nonsense with musical genius! So much fun to be had! 

The Southwark Playhouse is a small venue and they made good use of the limited space they had to provide a varied and interesting number of set changes.

As for the show itself. It was brilliant. The script music and lyrics are all very witty and Leon Parris has written some brilliant songs. The cast were all fantastic and I found myself smiling and laughing throughout the whole production. The band were on good form and Sam and I were delighted to see Ben Carr and Sam Pegg were performing (they had both been working on The Toxic Avenger Musical) so we had a brief catch up with them.

The whole feel of the show captured the Beano comic and animated series feel of the original Bananaman source material perfectly and it certainly hit the spot.

Here's the video that gave me the heads up on this musical masterpiece:


Grab your tickets while you can!!!! We’ll be back!!!

Star Wars Battlefront II, TV catch up and Ultimate Beastmaster

Today was lazy day. Lazy days are good. I got up at 11 and embarked on my first play of Star Wars Battlefront II on the old PS4.  I'm liking the campaign mode, definitely a much needed addition to the game.

I took some time out so that we could catch up with Marvel's Runaways before indulging a the first four episodes of the latest Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season. This could be a taster of what we have in store for us in the post Infinity Was MCU, maybe :).

Toni was out for the evening so I had some more Battlefront II time. Having reached a tough bit I took a break to watch Ultimate Beastmaster with Zoe. It's a crazy guilty pleasure for us to both have but it's so much fun. 

Dolmen Grove Winter Solstice Ritual @ Stonehenge

Today was an amazing day as we set off for Stonehenge to participate in the Dolmen Grove Winter Solstice ritual.

It was a smaller gathering that some recent events but special nonetheless. We had clan representation from all over and the ritual went very well.

At the end of the ritual we were blessed with the most amazing sunset.

It was such a privilege to have shared the day with so many like minded souls. It felt like had just received a spiritual shower and deep cleanse. It was much needed and I was buzzing all the way home and still am now!