This Sunday I will mostly be doing..........

............absolutely fuck all!

Woke up in a very enjoyable way today and even better it was gone 14:00 when we actually got up! To add icing to the cake I had no hangover at all!

We chilled, had some nibbles, watched The Matrix on Blu-Ray and then chilled some more. Scarlett made a welcome return, she is so much fun and will be walking properly soon.

Rest of the day was spent doing nothing before Toni and the kids had to leave.

Sam, Sophie and I then caught up with the rest of last week's WWE and TNA shows.

As a final laugh for the weekend my mate Dave has just put this old photo of me on Facebook from back in the days when I lived in Nottingham and was involved with the Nottingham Lions!

Surprise party

Toni had told me that I would be receiving a few presents this weekend ahead of my birthday as Aaron and Gemima won't be around on my birthday or the following weekend.

My first set of cards:






And now some goodies........

Candles from Jade and Pete:


A spiritual trinket box, stone and herbs from Aaron and Gemima:


Wonderful things from Toni:



A birthday girl badge chosen by Gemima:


What I hadn't realised though was that she had arranged for a few close friends to also come around help me start my celebrations :o)

So in the end we had lots of food, nibbles and alcohol and as well as Toni, Sophie, Sam, Aaron and Gemima it was lovely to see Hazel and Shane, Mike and Moira as well as a brief appearance from Sam. It was a cracking night, I had a real ball and it was good to spend fun times with good friends.

Large breasted K.T., Dolly Parton anybody?


K.T. "Dolly" impersonating the swedish chef singing Beer Beer by Korpiklanni


Large breasted K.T. "Dolly" attacks Toni:


Fancy a legover?


After everyone had gone, Toni and I ended up sitting up until nearly 05:00 listening, dancing and singing to music and talking, and stopping briefly to clear up the exploits of a drink mixing Sam (NICE!). It was just nice to chill out for hours together though, despite the vomit induced interruption *grin*

A BIG THANK YOU to Toni for organising it all behind my back and to everybody that came!

Early start, Lighthouse and Lidl

We were up uncharacteristically early today as Toni had very kindly agreed to take Sophie to Brentwood to visit the Lighthouse Project with a view to sourcing some cheap appliances and furniture for her flat. It was a successful trip and we managed to get her nearly everything she needs and it is being delivered to her flat on Thursday so very soon she will be moving out of SWF and back to Galleywood.

Next stop was Lidl to buy some bits before heading back to SWF and then having a general tidy up.

Shattered.......

Got in from work and went upstairs for a snooze as I was shattered once again. This cough is a nightmare, had enough now!

Toni arrived with Aaron and Gemima and came upstairs to talk to me. Sophie then came and chatted too. We headed off to Asda to get food and came home and had yummy sausages and mash. Watched a few episodes of Merlin before heading to bed.

Alice In Neverland?

Alice In Wonderland soon to become Alice In Neverland?

... it seems that our friends at Disney have caused a bit of a stir with the release of their new Alice In Wonderland movie.

"The UK's biggest cinema chains are set to boycott Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, due out on 5 March, because of a dispute with Disney over the release window.

Disney wants to cut the gap between the theatrical opening and the DVD release to just 12 weeks, down from the standard 17 weeks. The big exhibitors refuse to book any film that doesn't have a guaranteed four-month theatrical run."

Quote taken from the Guardian, the full article is here:
www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/11/disney-alice-in-wonderland-burton

Since this article was written apparently Cineworld have come to an agreement but the jury is still out on whether or not Odeon or Vue will still go ahead with the boycott.

It's a complete joke considering the amount of money that has been spent on advertising this little gem. It will totally suck if the boycott does go ahead!

Cough, splutter, Fozzy, Skillet

I woke up this morning................. *queue blues riff*
...and I felt a bit better than last night.
Decided that I wouldn't call in sick or work from home and trekked off to work as usual. It was damp and cold and my cough came back with a vengeance but I was there so stuck it out. It was a busy old day but productive and things went well, despite the cough.

Felt exhausted by the time I got home so had a short chat with Sophie and then had a lie down for a couple of hours while my PC got rid of some crap that was causing problems. Didn't really get to sleep but the rest did help a little.

Had dinner and then I had to get all the Capitals Valentine's shirts up on eBay. Took the opportunity to chill and listen the awesome Chasing The Grail CD by Fozzy and also Awake by Skillet.

Early-ish night and more dosing up will be in order again, hope this damn cough has gone by the weekend.

Happy Birthday Emma

Happy Birthday Emma,

Hope you have a fab day

Still meh, Rage Against The Machine and lasagne

Throat had progressed from dry to feeling like I was gargling glass today, most uncomfortable and not pleasant at all.

Got in to work and then tried to back myself a free Rage Against The Machine ticket. This was them honouring their promise that if they got the UK Xmas number one then they would do a free gig.

The lottery release system that seetickets.com were using meant that my browser was auto refreshing for over TWO AND A HALF HOURS before I actually got the chance to try and get a ticket. Thankfully my pre-registration details were OK and I am now the proud owner (well, when they send it) if a RATM ticket. Had hoped to grab two but everybody wanting one had to have pre-registered. To be honest I am not that bothered about going but it is a little bit of rock and roll history that I was part of.

Some poor souls were pretty hacked off to find that after three hours of just waiting the tickets had all gone.

My throat didn't improve throughout the day and I went home feeling pretty miserable. Got in and Sam and Kirby were watching True Blood, season two. Sam made a gorgeous lasagne and chips and we watched a few more True Blood episodes before I decided I needed to bail out, dose up again and hit the pit. At least tonight I didn't have the temperature, just the broken glass throat and muscular pains.

Meh, coming down with lurgies

Struggled all day at work today, have a niggly cough that feels really dry and feels like I have been breathing in smoke.

Didn't feel much better when I got home and as the evening progressed I started to get a temperature too :o(

Toni came over and after some food and watching wrestling it was time for an early night as I felt totally wretched. Lemsips and herbal tea with honey were downed in the hope of soothing my throat.

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:

Yummy food and tidy frenzy

Got home from work today to find the wonderful smell of home backing!
Sam and Sophie had made a lovely sponge cake and then make dinner for me as well which was very nice and much appreciated.

Spent most of the night having a frenzied tidy up of the bedroom (all part of getting the whole house sorted by Wednesday). Cleared out loads of stuff and the bedroom is 99& done and is nice and shiny now!

Spent the few gaps of time that I had catching up with the WWE TV shows from last week.

Valentine's Day fun and frolics!

Happy Valentine's Day Toni!
MWAH
Love you!


We kicked off the day exchanging some lovely presents and were both very happy!

Got up, had a lazy breakfast and then had an "alternative" Valentine's Day but going to London to have a mooch around the London Fetish Fair. We have been meaning to go for ages but never seemed to get round to it so it was somehow quite fitting that we ended up doing it on Valentine's Day. To spare your blushes I won't go into any detail but it was a fun day, we saw an interesting demonstration and made some purchases!

We then returned to North Greenwich and had a lovely Valentine's meal in Prezzo which rounded the day off perfectly.

Lazy start, chilling and Misfits

Today has a REALLY LAZY start. Toni and I didn't get up until gone 13:00. It was so nice just being able to snooze and snuggle and not have to worry about getting up.

We didn't do very much at all, took it easy, did a little shopping and then drove back to back to SWF.

We had dinner and watched the entire series of the E4 show Misfits. Misfits follows five outsiders on community service who get struck by a flash storm and lumbered with special powers. It was a really entertaining show and I really hope they make a second series as it deserves to have one.

Check out more about it here: http://www.e4.com/misfits/

The Ghost Of Lemora @ The Purple Turtle

Toni and I got dressed up and headed off to The Purple Turtle tonight to go and see three bands, two of which contained people that we know.
And here we are:


And so onto the bands.....................

TRES CALAVERAS
We arrived for the last couple of numbers of TRES CALAVERAS. They were pretty good and I'd have liked to have seen more of them.



I NATION
I've been looking forward to seeing I NATION live ever since I became acquainted with Dylan Smith when he was working with The Veil. Musically it wasn't quite what I had expected but it was very good. Dylan is a pretty good frontman and even managed to maintain his composure as he fell of the stage!




See all the I NATION pics here: 120210INationThePurpleTurtle


THE GHOST OF LEMORA
Last but by no means least were THE GHOST OF LEMORA. They put on a fantastic show and I was delighted hear them do "Happy End Of The World" which is one of my favourite Lemora songs. Peddling some awesome gothy tunes they had me hankering for my October visit to Whitby Goth Weekend. Would be awesome if they got asked back to play there again.





See all THE GHOST OF LEMORA pics here: 120210TheGhostOfLemoraThePurpleTurtle

Following the gig we hopped the tube to Leicester Square and had a lovely meal before heading back to Eltham.

Good Hollywood Doll rehearsal

Had a good Hollywood Doll rehearsal tonight. Auditions are progressing well and we aren't far away from making a decision on who will be joining us on rhythm guitar.

We got bumped from Studio 1 to 2 tonight which is the dance studio. There were a couple of pics take of Marie and I doing silly things with the bars! I will post them up as soon as I get a copy :o)

We've also sorted out when we are going to Southend College to record a song with Chris so things are coming along VERY nicely.

Goths................

Cryogenica @ The Purple Turtle

After my hospital appointment Toni and I went to Eltham. I logged into work for a couple of hours while Toni went and picked up Aaron and Gemima.

I then jumped on the train/tube to Camden to go and see CRYOGENICA at The Purple Turtle.

As I arrived the bands had already started:

DEAD HEAVEN
I saw Dead Heaven at the last Gotham event and really enjoyed their set. Nothing has really changed and they still deliver good quality 80s goth rock.




Had a good chat with Carina and Jon (of CRYOGENICA) as well as Carina's boyfriend Rcihard (from Ghost Of Lemora who I am going to see on Friday). The suddenly Dylan Nation (of The Veil and I Nation) arrived so we had a catch up too. I Nation were also with him as they are over from France to support Ghost Of Lemora on Friday.

The next band was supposed to have been STAR SCREAM but apparently the turned up and "told" headline band DIVA SUICIDE that they were going to be using their drum kit only to be told, surprise surprise, NO! This resulted in Star Scream being all dressed up with nowhere. Perhaps if they had asked politely rather than demanding things might have been different but sadly for them they didn't so ended up not playing at all.

This gave more time for CRYOGENICA to set up which wasn't a bad thing for them.


CRYOGENICA
CRYOGENICA once again were impressive. Haunting melodies, crunching guitars and Carina's strong vocals made for a great night. I am really looking forward to hearing the new CD once it has been completed. I was designated official photographer for the evening, based on the fact that I had taken pics for them before and nobody else had a camera LOL.






See all the CRYOGENICA pics here:
100210CryogenicaThePurpleTurtle


And last but not least...................


DIVA SUICIDE
I was quite impressed with DIVA SUICIDE. They had a great image and some good tunes. Sadly I had to leave early due to the trains and they didn't have quite enough to make me stay. What I saw was good though and I definitely want to go and see them properly.

Mr Inwang, stand up comedian... sorry, consultant!

Went to Springfield Hospital today for my gallbladder consultation with Mr Inwang.
All went well and with a trailing wind I should be light one gallbladder in 8-12 weeks!

Mr Inwang was did Sophie's gallbladder removal so I am familiar with his handy work. He had a very strange way of delivering information that was strangely relaxing and some of the things he said were almost comical although he was very deadpan, he really should consider a side line as a stand up comedian.

Here's some of his best quotes:

“The small ones are always a problem. The bigger ones are better, you never have any problems with those.”

“I’d happily whip out your kidney, you’ve got another one if anything went wrong.”

“The top of the abdomen is bandit country. Up there, there’s only one of everything. If we damage something we could be making a chap miserable for the rest of his life.”

“The clips we put on are very flimsy, they sometimes fall off so I always use two. You don’t want bile leaking on your insides!”

So there we have it, a clear and simple way forward and just another short wait until all the pain is gone

Looong day, tired, cooked ROM and great TV

Today seemed like the longest day in history. Work just seemed to go on forever, it was incredibly frustrating and despite doing everything I could to try and help with things and do the right thing it just felt like I was always getting a slap in the face for my efforts. Made me think that maybe I should just fade into the background and get on with things and not do anything to try and excel if it just feels so unrewarding when I do.

Felt really tired and lethargic by the time I got home which sucked. Faffed around for a bit before deciding that I really couldn't be arsed to cook so took the Chinese option. Scarlett has gone to stay with Shane for 10 days so the house is REALLY quiet without her.

Helped Sophie looks at some free/cheap sites to look at sourcing some of the essential secrets that she will be needing for the flat.

Replaced my XDA Serra's standard O2 Windows 6.1 ROM today with a nice shiny cooked Windows 6.5 upgrade which looks wonderful and HTC Sense is so much better than Touch Flo 3D. The battery is taking a hit at the moment but hopefully it will settle down once the ROM has bedded in. Toni also flashed the ROM on her XDA Ignito as well although hers was just an updated official O2 one rather than a cooked one.

Watched WWE Smackdown and then the latest episode of Vampire Diaries.

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:

Happy Birthday Scarlett Louise Malins

Happy Birthday Scarlett Louise Malins

One year old already, where had the time gone?

Hope you enjoy your party tonight!

Chilling and shopping

Another easy day today. Got up and had breakfast and watched Role Models.

Headed off to Chelmsford to do shopping in Lidl and also pick up some birthday presents for Scarlett as it is her birthday tomorrow!

Rest of the day was pretty lazy, lovely roast pork dinner, watched the latest episode of Vampire Diaries before Toni and Gemima had to go back to Eltham.

Sam baked a birthday cake for Scarlett.

After Toni and Gemima had gone Sam, Sophie and I watched the awesome "zombie" comedy Doghouse.

Bloody banks, keyboards and Wicca Moon

Got up and hit the High Street in Eltham with a view to Toni opening a new back account with Nat West to get her away from Barclays. She explained what she was after when we arrived and we were given teas and hot chocolates and then had to wait for approximately 15 minutes. We were about to be seen when the assistant started talking to Toni about the ID that she had with her only to be told that what she had would not be acceptable. Needless to say Toni was a tad pissed off, and understandable so, and it was a shame that the assistant hadn't had the forethought to check the ID situation BEFORE making us wait! It was definitely one of those grumble grumble moments!

Following this disappointment we then popped into the O2 shop to sort some things out but their systems were down so that one was a non-starter! We were doing well!

Next stop was the church as Gemima was interested in taking keyboard lesson and a company offering them was doing a demonstration. Imagine our delight at entering a room with about 12 keyboards in it with a load of kids who had never played before all having a bash. The term "dischordian unity" sprang to mind! After the racket we went and had full English breakfasts and the like to sustain us for the afternoon.

Wicca Moon was our final destination. Wicca Moon is a wonderful shop dealing in all things wicca, pagan and magickal. The atmosphere was so relaxing and the staff very friendly and knowledgeable. We spent absolutely ages in their and nobody left empty handed either. I could have spent an absolutely fortune if I wasn't watching the pennies.

It was a good day and after dropping Aaron off at Gail's, Toni, Gemima and I shot back to SWF and I treated everyone (Sophie and Sam included) to kebabs as nobody could be bothered to cook.

Happy Birthday Sarah Butland

Happy Birthday Sarah

Hope you have a great day cuz

Hey now, hey now, my daughter's back!

Well now that things are clear I can finally share the news again!
Sophie came to stay a couple of weeks ago to "clear her head"! Didn't take her long to realise that moving back to Nottingham was probably a mistake and that she should have stayed in Chelmsford (well derr!)

She decided that she wanted to get the old flat back and move in with Scarlett again. Unfortunately Shane had served a notice to quit which ran out at 5pm today. To further complicate matters there was a rent arrears problem due to neither Sophie or Shane being particularly good at keeping Housing Benefit updated and so Guinness Trust (the housing association) told Sophie that she could have the flat back on the proviso that the arrears were paid in full first.

Sophie had tried hard to speak to House Benefit and get everything sorted out, as the belief was that the arrears could be back paid and everything would be sorted out. Unfortunately Housing Benefit were not able to work in the time scale required and so dad and nanny had to step in and sort things out in the hope that we will then be re-imbursed once the Housing Benefit is sorted.

So, Sophie is now back in Chelmsford with Scarlett!

Rammstein @ Wembley Arena

Pootled off to London with Sam to meet Toni, Aaron, Dan and Laura to go and see Combichrist and Rammstein at Wembley Arena.

It was an awesome night, two great bands made for some fantastic entertainment.


COMBICHRIST
I only found out Combichrist were supporting Rammstein a couple of days before the gig and was absolutely delighted as I missed their recent UK tour dates. They put on a good show and although they seemed an odd match for a Rammstein gig really got the crowd warmed up.





See all the COMBICHRIST pictures here: 040210CombichristWembleyArena


RAMMSTEIN
These guys have a killer live show. Great music, great sound and the best stage sets and pyro in the business. It never ceases to amaze me how they come up with the idea for more ingenious fiery stunts!






See all the RAMMSTEIN pics here: 040210RammsteinWembleyArena

Chilling with Toni after a long day

It's been quite stressful at work at the moment, not in a bad way just lots going on and very little time to get everything done.

It was nice to head off to Eltham tonight to stay with Toni. We ended up going to se4e Karen, who we haven't seen in ages, and spent hours at hers catching up and gassing. It was a really nice evening and I hope we get to do it again soon.

When we got back to Toni's we had a yummy casserole and chilled for a bit before hitting the pit.

Small prick, Sam's kitchen and chilling

This morning was not much fun. Had to leave home early and take myself to the doctors for a blood test in advance of my hospital appointment next week. The blood test was relatively painless and quick, apparently I bleed well! Results will be back on Thursday although I am not expecting anything untoward.

Had a mad day at work today, really busy and also unproductive as I spent a lot of time investigating and testing things that were unnecessary due to a client's IT department completely misunderstanding what it is that was required GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Once Scarlett had gone to bed we played "Sam's kitchen". Well, it wasn't really a game, Sam was chef and Sophie and I helped him prepare the meal. Home made goujons, pan fried potatoes.......YUMMY

Rest of the evening was spent chatting to Toni in MSN being frustrated by the secret plans for my 40th and catching up on WWE RAW and the return of Bret "The Hitman" Hart in the continuing story of Bret v Vince, great fun!

Happy Birthday Toby

Happy Birthday Toby

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: