Thursday 31 August 2017

....more Star Wars Blips

Here are some more Star Wars Blips for your pleasure:



Tuesday 22 August 2017

Long day, Kuso and Star Wars Blips

Today was a long day. Today was a busy day. Things happened and some plans started to formulate. There will be some busy weeks ahead once we get into September. Deep joy!

Sadly when I got home Toni was the wrong side of a massive headache/migraine and so headed to bed. Sam and I decided to catch with a horror movie and chose Kuso. That was a weird one, a really WEIRD one!

Kuso depicts a series of four surreal vignettes about the mutated survivors of an earthquake that has destroyed Los Angeles. The vignettes are broken up throughout the film by animations, television static, and news reporters reporting on the earthquake. Kuso Received a large number of walkouts at Sundance Festival and was deemed in an article written for Verge as "The grossest movie ever made."  Not sure about the gross bit but's certainly odd.

I won't scare you with a trailer and gross you out. Instead let's lighten the mood with some fun Star Wars short videos that have appeared on Youtube. They certainly acted like a pallet cleanser to my brain LOL.

The Chase


Out Of Reach


One Up


Lightsaber



Monday 21 August 2017

Three day week, busy and Game Of Thrones

It's a three day week for me but sadly Monday still felt like Monday LOL.

It was a busy busy day. The morning was spent troubleshooting client issues and trying to persuade people that we can't go on without proper root cause analysis taking place. As usual this was falling on dear ears!

There was a change of pace in the afternoon but just as busy as the boss and I had to burn through doing Q2 reviews for developers. Technically speaking it is still his responsibility but I am involved as I work much closer with the developers than he does and also because he is hoping to offload it all on to me at some point LOL Once the reviews were done it was back into troubleshooting mode and more scratching my head at the lack of root cause analysis.

When I finally got home it was time for dinner and the latest episode of Game Of Thrones! Oh my! These episodes get better and better. No spoilers, no trailers, just watch it!

Sunday 20 August 2017

Garden of delights, NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III and The Jinx

We managed another sleep in today which was wonderful. The weather was nice so I got up, made coffee and headed into the garden.

It looks s lovely out there. I set about mowing the grass. It's amazing to think that I've mowed the lawn more here in the last five months than I did in five years at the last place LOL.

After I had taken these pictures Toni and I were talking about the work that we need to do in the garden. After we had finished our coffee we decided to throw caution to the wind and crack on. There was pruning, strimming and cutting. We managed to do about two thirds of the garden. We stopped when we realised the waste pile was getting a bit large.

We did a good job though and everything looked really good when we were done.

After our hard work it was time for brunch which consisted of gluten free fish finger sammiches. Food fit for kings and queens!

It's been a while since I've had a rasslin' fix so I caught up with last nights NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III pay per view on the WWE Network. This wasn't a bad event and the results at least made me happy with Sanity defeating Authors Of Pain to win the NXT Tag Team Championship belts, Asuka retained her Women's Championship belt against Ember Moon and Drew McIntyre finally coming up trumps by defeating Bobby Roode win the NXT Championship. Think what you like, it's a guilty pleasure of mine :)

Our next step was six part documentary The Jinx. This was recommended to us by Jade and we were told not to Google it, just watch it. It turned out to be veryinteresting. I won't post much about it on here just in case you fancy the mystery of it all so here's a very brief synopsis. Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki examines the complicated life of reclusive real estate icon, Robert Durst, the key suspect in a series of unsolved crimes.


Dinner was provided tonight by the most excellent Ababil Tandoori of New Eltham. We hadn't tried them before so we were taking a chance but it the food was delicious. The offer much more choice than Rishta/Rannah and have a very clear guide on their menu as to which things have wheat in them so it's perfect for Toni.



Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad
Hope you have a great day

Saturday 19 August 2017

Extra sleep, Richard's, American Gods and The Defenders

Getting up at 10am seems awfully self indulgent but it was nice to get some extra sleep! We were too lazy to sort breakfast so we went out and made a trip to Richard's. It's been a long time since we have been there and he was delighted to see us. I'm glad it's not just around the corner any more as we went there far too much but it was nice to go there for a treat today.

Although there are things we needed to do we decided to invoke lazy mode and take it easy today. Last night we started watching American Gods (yes I know we are late to that party but we were binging Bones) and we managed to burn through five episodes. As we'd enjoyed it so much we decided to finish the last three episodes.

This was a brilliant series, some great visuals, acting and a pretty off the wall story arc.

We then moved on to The Defenders which has just dropped on Netflix. I loved Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage (Iron First was OK) so I was looking forward to seeing how all four were brought together to form The Defenders.

It started well setting the scene with all four characters in New York doing their stuff. There were lots of interesting crossover interactions as things start to converge which meant that each episode didn't focus too much on one character. I'm still not completely sold on our Iron Fist but he is slightly more tolerable than in the standalone series. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil still remain the stronger more believable characters but they all work well in a team.

The Defenders was a good series and we burned through all eight episodes in one hit. For me it was totally worth doing it just to get to the end for a big reveal....... we all know that Marvel loves to stick things after the credits and The Defenders was no exception......

I was delighted when Frank Castle was introduced as a cameo in the Daredevil TV series and that portrayal was much closer to what I would want to see in The Punisher. It was even better when it was announced that The Punisher would be getting his own series at some point. Due to hit Netflix in November this trailer (shown at the end of The Defenders) sets a gritty dark scene for where things are likely to go. I can't wait!



Friday 18 August 2017

Star Wars updates

It's time for my next update on all things Star Wars with lots of things coming out at the moment.


The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson caught up with The Star Wars Show to share some of his experiences making the film


Ron Howard has been put out some Han Solo movie teasers recently. We've had another Chewbacca image:

There have been Death Star hints:

Howard has also released a very short video clip:


There has also been a rumour circulating that there is definitely an Obi-Wan anthology movie in the works. The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Stephen Daldry who made Billy Elliot and The Hours is in “early talks” to direct a standalone starring Obi-wan Kenobi. So far Lucasfilm have made NO comment on this and the original article has been downgraded from EXCLUSIVE so nothing is 100% set in stone at this moment in time. Personally I would LOVE to see an Obi-Wan movie and I'd also be delighted if they could get Ewan McGregor back for the role. Additional rumours from 'sources' have talked about Jabba The Hutt and Boba Fett movies too. Interesting times ahead if any of these are true!

EA have announced that there will be a new Star Wars game added to their lineup.
Star Wars™: Rise to Power is a mobile strategy game set in the Star Wars™ universe. Still in development, we are inviting Android users on Google Play to join a Closed Pre-Alpha Test where they will have the opportunity to play the game, provide valuable feedback, and help shape the next great EA Star Warsmobile game.
In Star Wars: Rise to Power, the war between the Empire and the dawning New Republic continues to rage on – and players influence who will ultimately reign supreme. Every move helps to shape the fate of the galaxy in-game as players choose a faction, establish their base, and begin building a fleet of starships.
Players will form or join an alliance and engage in epic galactic warfare with other players from around the world in the hopes of emerging victorious. Power is earned by outwitting adversaries in carefully orchestrated attacks and by building a mighty coalition through the loyalty of other players. In Star Wars: Rise to Power, players embrace destiny by engaging in diplomacy or deception to ultimately become a leader of the Empire or New Republic.

Finally, in news that made me very happy, despite having sold the Lucasfilm Star Wars franchise to Disney back in 2012 George Lucas is still around. Kathleen Kennedy said that although he isn't actively involved in what Lucasfilm are doing now he does occasionally chip in with something, "But he’ll whisper in my ear every now and then. Usually it’s something specific or important to him about Jedi training. Things like that.”


Thursday 17 August 2017

Jade's birthday meal and Thor: Ragnarok International Trailer (Strange)

After work it was off to Ziyafet in Eltham for Jade's birthday meal. There was a whole bunch of us there, Toni, Jade, Aaron, Bob, Jamie, Iain, Callum and Ryan.

We had a brilliant night, everyone had fun and we enjoyed some delicious food. It was nice to get out and catch up with everyone and also lark about a bit.

The final surprise was a cake for Jade :)

To cap off a wonderful evening Marvel have released their latest international trailer for Thor: Ragnarok. Lots of clips that we have seen before but this time we have some Dr. Strange!


Toni and I also made it to the very end of Bones! Wow, that was a wild ride through twelve seasons of delightful television. What an ending! If you haven't seen Bones before I would definitely recommend it.


Wednesday 16 August 2017

Work disasters, new tattoos and Bones

Following on from firefighting yesterday it was more of the same today. Disasters were popping up left right and centre with a trail of schoolboy errors all over the shop. Frustrating it was, VERY frustrating. It was one of those days where you just start to despair.

On the plus side there is a whole load of good analysis about to be done which hopefully might help to alleviate some of the problems in time. Fingers crossed that that all goes well.

I did manage to have another Dark Forces session at lunchtime which was great fun. Another level down.

Toni was back in the tattoo artists chair today and came home with some more amazing work done. She is like a walking piece of art these days.

Our evening was spent rushing towards the end of Bones. Only a couple of episodes left to go now!

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Boring, interesting, firefight and stuff

Today was a mixed bag work wise. It started off with a presentation about the new company pension scheme which was as interesting as it was boring. I know that doesn't make sense but you'll just have to go with it LOL.

There was a bit of s slow slump before chaos started to break out again. I am fully rested now so was quite happy to dive straight back in to firefighting mode. I think I've even got the hang of doing it while not getting stressed too which is a serious result!

In the evening we watched Midnight, Texas and then LEGO Star Wars Freemaker Chronicles until Sam drifted off to bed and then we resumed our Bones marathon.

Monday 14 August 2017

Late start, slow day, pig trains, GOT and Bones

Today started in an amusing manner. Sam was working the late shift which means I get a few extra minutes in bed. I got ready and headed downstairs and waited for Sam but there was no sign of him. I knocked in his door and he'd managed to sleep through all of his alarms so we left even later than we had planned.


My working day was a little slow although it did have some very productive moments. I did get to play Dark Forces at lunchtime though so that was a high spot!

Sadly the journey home was a bit of a pig due to a broken train so Sam and I had to detour via Eltham although we did cheat getting back thanks to Uber.

Dinner was accompanied by the latest episode of Game Of Thrones. Wow, this season just gets better and better. No spoilers here but I am loving it so far.

The rest of the evening was spent knocking off some more episodes of Bones taking us to the end of Season 11 into the start of Season 12.....


Sunday 13 August 2017

Crow Dancers @ Artemis Gathering

It was another glorious day as we headed to Banbury to The Artemis Gathering for another Crow Dancers performance.

We go there and it was time for a quick set up and get make up applied.

This was my first ever gig using in-ear monitors which was an interesting experience. It was better than I thought it would be and certainly saved a lot of wear and tear on my old lugs.

The gig itself was really good. Once again things moved in the direction that spirit took us which made for a great experience for everybody (us included). We seem to have hit our stride now on working with each other to go with the flow and we had nothing but positive feedback afterwards which was fantastic.

I'll update with some pics at a later date if some start to appear.

Our next challenge is to work out how we now commit what we do on stage to a recorded format so that the album accurately captures what we are about.

We have one planned gig left this year which will be on Friday 6th October at Witchfest in Brighton. Tickets for that can be bought here (scroll to the bottom): Witchfest 2017

Saturday 12 August 2017

Off to Nottingham to meet Lydia

Today we were up reasonably early and had a nice breakfast before heading off to Nottingham to visit Sophie and see Lydia for the first time. It was a lovely day which made everything start well.

We had a really smooth journey up there and it was lovely to be greeted by Sophie and Kenzie. Unfortunately Scarlett was away with her dad for a few weeks so we didn't get to see her face to face although we did speak to her on the phone.

Sadly there is still an embargo on posting photos of Lydia but she is absolutely lovely. Truly set and squishy and I can't wait for the day that I can post some pics.

Fun was also had with Kenzie and photos were taken :)

As is always the case time ran away with us and it was time to head back to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was another smooth run and when we got back we went out to Bella Italia for a meal before sitting in the communal garden to sit and watch the meteorite shower.







Happy Birthday Jade

Happy Birthday Jade
Hope you have a fantastic day