MCM Expo @ The ExCel Centre

Toni, Aaron, Gemima and I got up reasonable early to get dressed up ready for a trip to MCM Expo at The ExCel Centre in London.

Toni went in a steampunk stylee:

Aaron was Ichigo from Bleach:

Gemima was Honoka Kōsaka from Love Live! School Idol Project:

I went as Zatanna Zatara (from the DC Universe):

This time round we made the mistake of not booking Early Bird Tickets so rather than getting into the venue in around thirty minutes we ended up queuing for over two hours! None of us were particularly impressed with this and Toni and I were aching before we'd even started. There were few cool costumes doing the rounds while we were waiting:

Once we had finally managed to get our tickets and hand stamps we were confronted by a pretty cool bunch of Star Wars fok:

After all that waiting around we had to dive to the loo and I managed to snap this awesome Catwoman:

Aaron darted off to meet friends and wander on his own so we took Gemima round the main halls in search of goodies. We weren't really into doing it but we made the effort for Gemima. We did have a quick catch up with Z and Vikki Spit of SPiT LiKE THiS.

It was a hasty exit for us as we were aching but overall it was a good experience apart from the queuing. We'll definitely be buying Early Bird Tickets next time. My only real regret was not getting more photos of the awesome cosplayers out there. Next I will do a better job!

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:

WTF? New York Rangers cock it up again!

I had the misfortune of staying up to watch Game 3 of the New York Rangers v Boston Bruins play off series. Going into this game 0 - 2 in the series this was a must win game for the Rangers to try and get some momentum going.  It was frustrating to watch. There were slight improvements in certain areas but throughout the game the Bruins always seemed to match the Rangers tactics and it was pretty clear that the Rangers were just plan out of ideas on how to break down the Bruins.

Power play continued to be absolutely dire and the players just don't seem to want to take a shot on goal. Neither do they park a man at the crease ready for deflections or to pick up rebounds. The just can't rely on Lundqvist to win them games. Yes he is a phenomenal netminder but if you aren't scoring at the other end you are always going to struggle!

*sigh* it was depressing to watch. Sure they picked up a 1 - 0 lead but it was quickly equalised and then when the Bruins went 2 - 1 up I predicted that it was game over. Sadly, I was right.

I went to bed very grumpy with my team now trailing 3 - 0 in the series which means they will have to win four straight games to advance. Is this likely? Based on the current form of the New York Rangers I would say no but I will always live in hope that Tortorella can pull something out of his hat and turn things around. I might be delusional but it's all I have! Roll on Thursday night with a little fear in my heart!

Yes we're in but we could soon be out!

BIG spring clean day, BBQ steak, Doctor Who and Rangers lose game two

It was a BIG spring clean day today. We started off getting the boys up and having bacon sandwiches and tea. Bob turned up and then it was time to hit the trail of chores!

Bob moved all the lawn (which was getting quite long) and then proceeded to go into hack and slash mode and trimmed back loads of trees and bushes and dug out some flower beds. Sam was on weeding duty in the  back and front flower beds and Aaron was tasked with digging out the weeds on the driveway. Toni stripped down the kitchen and re-organised it all while I did a major blitz on the office and in the living room. We were all at it for around seven hours. A LOT of hard work was done today by everyone.

As a reward for all our efforts we dined on a mountain of steak that was cooked on the BBQ accompanied by cheesy chips! It was a wonderful meal that was well earned by everyone today. We are on a roll now though and there is still more work to be done to get the house exactly as we want it but we broke the back of it today.

We caught up with the latest Doctor Who episode The Name Of The Doctor. I won't say much about it in case I spoil it for anybody that hasn't seen it yet but it was an excellent episode. We were really impressed with it and now have the frustration of having to wait until 23rd November for another episode!

The night finished off with game two of the New York Ranger v Boston Bruins series. The first period was really quick. A fast free flowing game with very few stoppages. Once again the Rangers power play was piss poor. First period ended 1 - 1. Boston came out looking like they meant business at the start of the second taking a 2 - 1 lead. Thankfully Rick Nash ended his scoring drought and even things up to 2 - 2. A Rangers cock up while play four on four ended with them trailing 3 - 2. A much better power play sadly didn't result in a goal but at least it looks like they had a chance which was a welcome change! Second period ended with Boston leading 3 - 2.

At 00:26 into the third period the Bruins made it 4 - 2 with an awesome play! Rangers had another power play that was a waste of time. Whenever the Rangers go on the power play the opposing team has the advantage! I'd rather play five on five that have to watch that dross! Continuing the pain the Bruins took a 5 - 2 lead. With the game starting to look out of sight at least the Rangers proved they can win a fight with Dorsett handing Campbell his arse!

Rangers just seemed completely out of ideas for this game with the Bruins having their number nearly all of the time. Call me cynical but dumping the puck in and then not chasing it down afterwards is never going to help you with scoring chances!

Looks like the predicted cagey low scoring games for this series will not be happening now! Expect to see some revenge at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night as Rangers go into the game with home ice advantage!

Coffee Town, bizarre shopping experience, spring cleaning and Pirates

We started our day off meeting Jamie in Coffee Town for breakfast. Well it was lunch really by the time we'd got ready and made it into Eltham. We traveled in on the bus rather than driving which was a real novelty.

After food we wandered off to try and buy Sam a smart jacket for a meeting that he has on Monday afternoon. First stop was Marks & Spencer, the ultimate place to pick up a suit or smart jacket. At least it used to be. After wandering around the store for five minutes we went and asked where the suits etc were and were told that they no longer stock them in this store due to lack of demand. We were astounded at this. M&S has always been the place to go for to buy this sort of thing. Apparently the nearest branches that still stock suits are in Bromley or Bexleyheath.

Next up was Debenhams who also failed us big style with no menswear at all let alone suits and jackets. We were getting a little frustrated by this point. Final stop was Moss Bros but one look at their prices (even the heavily reduced ones) made us decide to abort the mission and head home. Absolutely crazy that we could get a suit jacket from a busy high street like Eltham.

Spring cleaning started today with a blitz on the dining room. We got lots done but we have a whole pile of work to do throughout the whole house tomorrow. Kebabs were accompanied by Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End.

I feel like curry tonight!

I made an awesome pork curry tonight (with a little assistance from Sam). Onions, garlic, peppers and pork all nicely cooking together!

Add a little tikka masala paste plus some stock and seasoning and you end up with something looking a little like this!

It was a fabulous curry. Sam was really impressed and so was I. Toni tried it and said it was good but I had made her sausages, mash and beans as she wanted comfort food. Sam and I weren't complaining though as it meant lots of curry for us!

Going Agile and New York Rangers lose first game in overtime

Today saw us start to kick off our move to Agile for the CF product. It's going to be interesting to see how well it goes and we are all new to Agile so it might be a slow process. I've been nominated as the Scrum Master, it's a role that shouldn't mean I have a lot of work to do but I will be a facilitator and mediator. I've also found some good tools to bring to the table which should help is keep track of things without the need for a whiteboard and post it notes which will be a relief for those that feared we were going to go down a CSI/Minority Report route. You'll be hearing my praise of feeling my pain on this one as time goes by.

Tonight saw New York Rangers take on Boston Bruins in their first semi final game of the Play Offs. It was a slow and cagey game to start with as neither team wanted to take any unnecessary risks. First period ended 0 - 0. Boston took the lead in the second period but thankfully New York pulled one back and the second period ended 1 - 1. Rangers went  2 - 1 fourteen seconds into the third but Bruins equalised and the third period ended tied at 2 - 2 and so into overtime we went. 15:40 into overtime and the Bruins got the game winner.

It was a good game but New York Rangers power play is still absolutely dire and this is something that coach Tortorella really needs to address ASAP. A misfiring power play is always going to hurt a team! So Boston now lead this series 1 - 0 and I live in hope that New York can tied things up on Sunday night!

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:

Brrrrr...is it really May? Well done Sam

It was absolutely freezing today! I can't believe it's mid May. I had to put on loads of layers and I was still cold. We ended up having to put the gas fire on in the living room to take the edge off of things. Totally unbelievable especially as I don't normally even feel the cold!

We had a change of plan for dinner too as the chicken we had left in the fridge for 24 hours was still frozen. Turned out somebody had managed to nudge the temperature control in the fridge and whacked it up 5 (the maximum). No wonder the chicken hadn't defrosted! Guess what Sam will be cooking tomorrow! LOL

Sam had his CISCO exam at college today and managed to score an impressive 96.7%. Apparently he got one answer wrong. He was absolutely delighted to have scored so highly though and understandably so. Toni did some work on his CV and then he spent a few hours looking, and applying, for jobs. It's weird to think that he is about to finish college and will soon be out in the big wide world and earning a salary.

Boston Bruins amazing come back and New York Rangers win their series

Watched some of the Boston Bruins v Toronto Maple Leafs game 7 match in advance of the New York Rangers game. I was siding with the Bruin for this one and kept an eye on the results during the Rangers game. It was 4 - 1 in the third period and it looked as if  the Bruins were toast. They managed to get things back to a 4 - 2 deficit by the last two minutes of the game. Amazingly they then pulled their netminder and managed to make it 4 - 3 at 18:36 and then 4 - 4 at 19:09. They managed to hold out for the last 51 seconds and took the game into overtime. It was an impressive come back. at 06:05 into overtime the Bruins let rip and walked out of game 7 as 4 - 5 victors and won their series 4 - 3.

I was a bag of nerves for the New York Rangers v Washington Capitals game. Rangers managed to tie their series last night at Madison Square Garden with a close 1 - 0 win so I was worried about what was going to happen on the road. At the end of the first the Rangers were leading 1 - 0. It was too close for comfort. At the end of the second the Rangers were winning 3 - 0. Now at this point I would have been very happy that this one was in the bag. Normally that is but I had just seen Boston fight back from a 3 goal deficit to tie a game so if they could do it then the Capitals could as well. The game went to 4 - 0 and I was feeling a little happier. Then an amazing thing happened. New York Rangers went up 5 - 0 and held out to the end to win the series 4 - 3. Henrik Lundqvist was awesome (and on fire) and to finish his last two games with a shut out was amazing.

Never in a million years would I have predicted that the Rangers would win in such a convincing manner on Washington ice. I figured that the Rangers would be dumped out quickly or it would have gone into overtime. The team was playing really well and despite the fact that the power play is still abysmal there was definitely a remarkable improvement for this game. Hopefully they can keep the momentum going. They will have to as their opponents for the round two series will be Boston Bruins! Have to say this is probably going to throw out some exciting games!

NHL Play Offs cause sleep nightmare & New York Rangers win!

One of the downsides of the NHL Stanley Cup Play Offs is the severe lack of sleep if you live in the UK. With New York Rangers playing every other night and usually starting between midnight and 00:30 I've not really been getting to be until around three. If there's overtime then it's later than that! One the other nights there has been to odd game that I also want to watch so the sleep patterns are somewhat shot to shit LOL.

The only saving grace is the odd matinee game that happens at weekends meaning that it starts between four and nine thirty so I can get to bed around midnight. Tonight it was a 21:30 face off between New York Rangers and Washington Capitals for a make or break game 6. Capitals are leading 3 - 2 so the Rangers have to win tonight to push for the final game 7 tomorrow night.

First period ended 0 - 0 with the Rangers unable to buy a goal. It was frustrating to watch but not for want of trying! Second period saw sterling work from New York and they were rewarded with a beautiful goal and ended the period 1 - 0. It was a welcome sigh of relied but the Rangers were far from out of the woods.
Rangers power play was terrible as per usual and this is something they really need to get sorted out ASAP. With the score still at 1 - 0 and with less than 2 remaining in the game the Capitals pulled their netminder for the extra skater. AARRGGGHHH edge of the seat stuff! Fortunately some awesome blocked shots held off the onslaught and Rangers win the game 1 - 0 and force game 7! There was even a mass brawl after the final buzzer!

So, with game 7 now on the cards this means that Monday night sleep will also be disrupted! Oh well!

Let's Go Rangers!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lazy git day, big breakfast, vegging and hockey

Massive sleep in today which was a result. Staying up until 4am probably had something to do with that LOL

I made Toni, Sam and I a massive cooked breakfast. Sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, beans and cheesy chips. There was a lot of food and we were all stuffed with some left over.

Doing nothing was the order of the day so we just vegged out and watched stuff:
Da Vinci's Demons
Cockneys vs Zombies
Shaun Of The Dead
Tank Girl
The Big Bang Theory

Lots of coffee kept us up to take in the New York Islanders v Pittsburgh Penguins game. This series was at 3 - 2 and although I have no love for the Islanders (being a Rangers fan) I really wanted them to cause an upset against Penguins and force the series to game seven. Islanders took an early lead but Penguins equalised two minutes later. First period ended 2 - 1 with most of the pressure coming from the Islanders. Islanders remained focused in the second period but Penguins brought things to 2 - 2 and that's how it ended.

Islanders wasted no time in the third and quickly took things to 3 - 2. In the last ten minutes the Penguins managed to mount some serious offence to try and tie the game which was rewarded with a goal to tie the game at 3 - 3 with 05:16 left in the game but with no further goals it was into overtime! That's happened a lot during these Play Off games. Penguins got the job done though to win the game 3 - 4 in overtime and so they win their series and progress to the next round!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Late night client support and another Rangers game

After a reasonably quiet day at work it was a busy evening. I volunteered to be on standby for a client who were doing an upgrade to their production environment. Usually this means no extra work for me. Not tonight though. The cline in question is one of those poor souls who have outsourced their IT which always tends to make things more complicated. I had a number of calls from the IT provider to clarify things that shouldn't have really needed any help with. It all got busy at 21:30 though when I ended up on a conference call with the client and IT provider for 1.5 hours. To be honest there was really no need for me to have been on the call but that's the way things go. On the plus side the upgrade was a success and the client is now live!

Dinner was prepared by me. Chicken and ribs with cheesy chips! It was delicious even if I do say so myself! Everyone else loved it too!

Game five of the Play Offs was a nail biting affair. New York Rangers came out well and took a 1 - 0 lead early on but Washington Capitals were hungry and very up for it. It was no surprise for the Capitals to get things to 1 - 1. Rangers lost Ryane Clowe during the game which didn't help matters. The game went into overtime and sadly things ended New York Rangers 1 - 2 Washington Capitals meaning that Washington now lead the series 3 - 2. Game six is on Sunday and back at Madison Square Garden. Hoping for a push to win game six and take things to a nerve wracking game seven! New York Rangers do have to seriously up the ante on the last game(s) though if they want to have any chance of survival!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

When you write to your local MP.... shame on you James Brokenshire

.....it is good protocol to not cut and paste something that somebody else has already written. This is the recommendation that is given on the excellent www.writetothem.com website. I recently wrote to James Brokenshire (Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup). [@JBrokenshire - www.jamesbrokenshire.com]

I followed the advice of the WriteToThem website and wrote a personally crafted letter about Early Day Motion 1256 - MISREPRESENTATION OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA. This was done on 26th March. I didn't get a reply until 7th May but I did at least get a reply. On it's own it did seem to be a fairly reasonable reply although he actually completely failed to answer how he stood on the issue at hand.

I then posted the reply on the Protest Transphobia and Trans Media Watch pages on Facebook for comment. Turns out that although we are expected to write to our MPs with well thought out personal messages, we are not afforded the same courtesy in return. The reply that I received was actually the same one that lots of other people had received from their MPs. Nice! Prepare a stock message to try and pacify the trans people and hope they go away! Shame on you James Brokenshire and all your other Tory puppets taking guidance from the Whip's Office rather than bothering to take the time out to answer your constituents properly!

Train trouble, productive day and Rangers WIN (series tied)!!!!!

Train trouble this morning meant that I was late into the office. I hate it when that happens, it gets right on my wick! LOL

On the plus side it was a really productive day at work today. I was up to my eyeballs in automation coding and ventured into territories unknown. After lots of going round in circles I managed to get the code running quite nicely doing exactly what I wanted! It's always good to get things working the way you want through damn hard work!

Tonight was game four of the New York Rangers v Washington Capitals Play Off series. I had confidence that the Rangers were in with a shout with them having pulling it back to being down 2 - 1 in the series on Monday night. They didn't let me down today either! It was another tense last minute as the Capitals pulled their netminder for the extra skater but the Rangers managed to successfully defend their 4 - 3 lead and emerged victorious without the tension of overtime! So now it is all squared up nicely at 2 - 2 (rather than trailing 3 - 1) so there is everything to play for.

Roll on Friday night for game five! Let's Go Rangers!

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:

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries makes a mistake

I saw this the other day and just felt incredibly sad. OK this statement actually comes from a 2006 interview but has recently become headline news as a big backfire from Jeffries!

I'm sure the people who shop there don't give a fig one or another but in this day and age it is astonishing to see comments like this being made. Personally I think it is not a sensible business model to write off 47% of your potential market through being a twat and harbouring unkind views that you make public.

Not sure how he could even quantify what makes someone a "cool kid". I am pretty sure that buying A&F is not what makes one cool (although I am sure Michael Jeffries bank account would disagree with this).

As for his comments about "good looking people". Has that man looked in the mirror lately? I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it's pretty rich for a man with his sharp looks to be criticising how other people look! I wonder if they keep him away from their shop floors for fear of scaring the customers?

Can you imagine if Apple came out with a statement like that? They would get crucified. Then again, Jeffiries could only dream that A&F were as cool and desired a brand as Apple!

Reminds of a certain Mr Stringfellow and the sort of women he allowed into his clubs! Spot the pattern here? Another bloke with prejudiced views with a face that only a mother could love! LMFAO!

Bank holiday, plucking and make up, Rock Band, steak, nerds and New York Rangers

It was a Bank Holiday today! So nice not to have to get up early go into work! Sadly it's business as usual tomorrow!

Breakfast was followed by a quick TV catch up of Game Of Thrones, The Borgias and Once Upon A Time. All three series are running strong and frustrating us with the need to wait for the next week!

Toni and I decided to have a make up session this afternoon. I set about plucking my eyebrows as they were a little unkempt. Managed to do it all on my own though with just the odd pointer from Toni on bits that I had missed. Make up came next which all went well. Again there was valuable guidance from Toni but I did do it all myself. Toni suggested that I should wear it more often which I intend to do!




It doesn't happen very often but the living room was turned into a gaming room today as we cracked out the Rock Band gear and Sam, Aaron, Gemima and I tried to kick out the jams. We were a little rusty though si it did take us a while to get back into the swing of things so it was hilarious listening to us murder some classics!


Steak dinner was served up with an episode of King Of The Nerds. It's a very silly show that we all enjoy very much. In fact, it's one of the few shows that EVERYBODY in the house wants to watch so we all spend a little time together, which is a bit of a novelty these days!

The day finished off with Game 3 of the New York Rangers v Washington Capitals Play Off series. This one started out with the Rangers trailing 2 - 0 so it was time for a BIG win! Going down 1 - 0 within five minutes didn't exactly fill me with confidence! Two lame power plays and then "blam", it was 1 - 1 and suddenly we had a game of hockey on our hands! 1 - 1 at the end of the first period gave me some cheer and hope that there was still a chance. A much better second period saw the Rangers take a 2 - 1 lead only for the Capitals to make it 2 - 2 with less than three minutes left so we headed into the third period with a tied game! Rangers took an early 3 - 2 lead only for the Capitals to make it 3 - 3 with 12 minutes left. A hard push took the Rangers to 4 - 3 with 6.5 minutes left. The last two minutes were played 6 on 4 as Capitals had a power at an pulled the goalie but the Rangers held fast for a 4 - 3 win. The series is now 2 - 1 to the Capitals and there is everything to play for!

Early start, fry up, bleaching hair, Anchorman, Goon and more Play Off hockey

Early start today (boo) as we had to go into Eltham for Toni to pick up her new glasses and a set of contact lenses. Our excitement new no bounds as we then went to Tesco to do some food shopping. On our return I cooked up an awesome fry up: bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and toast. I might be biased but it was delicious. We caught up with Doctor Who from last night which was another really good story and then followed up with the magically larger than life Da Vinci's Demons.

I finally got round to bleaching Toni's hair in the afternoon. I had been promising to do this for some time and finally did it. I was a little nervous but my fears were unfounded as it looked really good when I was done.

As Play Off is upon us we decided to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Islanders game. I'm no fan of the Islanders but I was kind of hoping that they might win just to upset Pittsburgh as they'd already caused a shock to get the series to 1 - 1. Sadly this was not to be as Pittsburgh made it a 2 - 1 series lead in overtime. It was a good game to watch though.

Sam cooked up some delicious Tex Mex for dinner and we had a good old chuckle to Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. Such a funny film that we never get tired of watching. This little clip with Baxter going for a trip is awesome:


Next up was a wild punt on Goon, an ice hockey film about a guy who is handy with fists that ends up getting signed by a team. It was a pleasant surprise, not a bad movie for killing some time although not a patch on Slapshot!


Our night finished off with more live Play Off ice hockey as we took in the Montreal Canadiens v Ottawa Senators game. Again this was not a game with teams that I have any allegiance to so it was good to just sit back and enjoy. This one had spurred our interest after the shocking hit from Eric Gryba on Lars Eller in an earlier game so we figured it might be a feisty one.


This was an end to end game with lots of masses hits. Tensions were high and you could just feel things were waiting to boil over. It did too with a mass punch up in the third period between all main players on the ice. You don't see that very often in a play off game! Ottawa had the better of things overall though and took a 2 - 1 series lead after a 1 - 6 victory. The penalties and fighting didn't stop throughout the game (with lots of players being ejected) and the final penalty minute totals were Montreal: 125 and Ottawa: 107 making a cozy game total of  232. The benches were so short that forwards were playing in defence! This was a great game to watch!

May The Fourth Be With You!

Yes it was Star Wars day today!


The day started well and we didn't get up until one. It was nice to have a Saturday where we didn't have to rush about and do anything at all.

Toni, Sam, Gemima and I had an awesome meal at a Toby Carvery. It is very rare that Gemima gets to come out with us as she is usually at with her dad at weekends so it was nice to actually take her out for a change as the rest of the kids get treated to food out far more than she does.

Spent a tense afternoon watching New York Rangers in their second Play Off game against Washington Capitals. Rangers couldn't buy a goal with Rick Nash hitting the piping twice! It's not often you'll hear me commenting on the offiicials in the NHL but they did not have a good game. A number of key penalties were missed including the most important one which was a delay of the game against the Capitals in the last couple of minutes of the third period with the game tied. Video replays clearly showed that it was a penalty but for some inexplicable reason it was not called. The game went into overtime and the Rangers lost while the Capitals were on the power play. Ironically this came after a delay of the game WAS called on the Rangers. Hey ho! So now I have to wait until Monday night when the Rangers will be back on home ice and can hopefully reduce their 2 - 0 deficit to 2 - 1 -and keep their hopes of progressing in the Play Offs alive!

As it was Star Wars day we finished things off with Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. A wonderful way to end the day!