The Bounty Hunters are here....

....and they aren't searching for paradise. I believe they might be after Han Solo and Chewbacca though! Another of my recent purchases has finally arrived. All six vintage Star Wars Bounty Hunter figures!

Zuckuss and IG-88

Bossk and Boba Fett

Dengar and 4-LOM

Once again I am in possession of more things that were so special in my youth and it is fantastic to have them back in my collection again!

Judge Dredd subscription stuff

So, the second installment of my Dredd subscription arrived today. Two gifts plus the latest two installments. First up was the Dredd badge:

...and the mug. Although this looks like a travel one it's actually made of porcelain so I wouldn't want to be lugging it about on my journeys.

Which brings me on the main point of getting the subscription in the first place. The Judge Dredd goodness. Issues 2 and 3

I haven't actually read Issue 1 as I didn't want to take the wrapping off. I will eventually as I can't wait to re-read some classic Dredd stories.

Happy Birthday Scarlett

Happy Birthday to Scarlett, six years old today! Through the power of modern technology we at least got to share in the delight of her receiving her presents from us.

A trip out with Robin and Ellie

Today was a bit of a novelty. Toni and I got to go out for a few hours on our own, leaving kids at home to keep an eye on Pam. We chose to meet up with Robin and Ellie at Nando's in Greenwich for some food and a catch up. It was great to get away for a short while. We had a really good time and we were introduced to a very simple game called Zombie Dice. Toni doesn't normally like board games or thing like that ("there's a reason they are called bored", she says). She did take to Zombie Dice though as it is easy to learn, fast flowing and quick to play. I shall be investigating more games like this when I get home :)

Our next plan is to have them come round one evening for a games night to play short and quick fun stuff so that we can still be sociable and mantain friendships without relying on having to find a granny sitter. Hopefully this might become a regular thing going forwards as it's not always easy getting away or doing stuff together outside of the house these days.

Kenzie's new glasses

Sophie sent me a lovely picture of Kenzie with his new glasses that he has just been prescribed. What a handsome little chap he is!

USB cassette player and demo conversions

The postman delivered me a wonderful new gadget today. A shiny new USB cassette player. I shall be using this  little beauty to start converting lots of my old cassettes.

One quick plug in and driver load and it was time to put it to the test. I wasn't disappointed. Not only can I know easily listen to cassettes but I can now transfer to the PC really easily. I have now converted demos by Voyeur and Pooka to digital format. I am very pleased with the results and can't wait to start working my way through the old cassette collection.

Slave I arrives

One of the goodies that I ordered at the weekend arrived today! I used to own one of these when I was but a youngling. I am now once again in possession of an immaculate complete and functional Slave I (complete with Han Solo in carbonite) that was released back in 1981. So good to have one again!

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:

A light dusting, great day and an epic fail (but not mine)

I woke up at 05:30 this morning to discover it had snowed. It wasn't really heavy but the view was very nice. I do like snow, shame there wasn't more of it.

Great day at work today. Lots of productive things were done which is always a good thing. There were a few surprisingly positive actions from people too which is going to make things much easier in the future. More days like this please!

There was also a man who made my day today. He was moving parcels/boxes on a trolley. Some of them fell off. Actually lots of them fell off. This was him after he loaded his trolley up again. I probably shouldn't find this funny but I do....... what's wrong with this picture?

Sorry dude but your epic fail had to be shared!

...and sleep

Woke up knackered. Made it through the day, just about. Got home and was really sleepy.... and I did!

Sorting out the room

Today didn't go as planned at all. The morning was somewhat disrupted and stressful. We did get back on track in the afternoon though and managed to finally sort out our bedroom. Yes it was a mundane task but the results were spectacular and it has been a long time coming! We were knackered by the evening though so we opted for Tex Mex for dinner!

Star Wars mode engaged and Rangers get the win

Today was one of those days where plans went out the window. Not in a bad way as such, we just put off something until tomorrow. Instead it was a day of chilling, We watched a bit of hockey and I spent a lot of time looking at Star Wars pretties on eBay and Amazon. Some purchases were made and all will be revealed once they arrive :) I might have to pick up a copy of this to make sure I am getting a bargain!

A quick catch up with King Of The Nerds was followed by The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. Yes folks, we are full on back in Star Wars mode again! We are now considering watching the whole of The Clone Wars again!

New York Rangers v Carolina Hurricanes was our live hockey game of choice. Rangers came out flying and were leading 1 - 0 after a Rick Nash shot at 06:30. Not content with sitting back Dominic Moore then made it 2 - 0 with a lovely short handed goal. First period ended with Rangers leading 2 - 0. Shots on goal were NYR 8 and CAR 15.

Hurricanes surged forward in the second with Lundqvist making some great saves. Hurricanes grabbed one back at 05:38 to make it 2 - 1. Rangers always seemed to be on the back foot in this period with the Hurricanes getting more scoring chances. Second period ended 2 - 1 to the Rangers. Shots on goal were NYR 13 (21) and CAR 10 (25).

Third period saw the Rangers coming out like they meant business. The crossbar made an excellent save for the Hurricanes! Chris Kreider extended the Rangers to lead to 3 - 1 at 10:16. Dan Boyle then slipped one in at 10:37 to take the Rangers to 4 - 1. Period ended with a much needed 4 - 1 win. Shots on goal were NYR 16 (37) and CAR 7 (32).

...and on that happy note I will leave you with Dan Boyle and Dancin' Larry!

Star Wars: The Original Years Volume 1 plus new Marvel Star Wars #1

Look what arrived in the post today! Marvel's Star Wars: The Original Years Volume 1. This little beauty is an incredible heavy and beautifully produced omnibus of the first 44 issues of  the original Marvel comic book series. It's gorgeous.... My childhood all bound up in a huge deluxe package from Marvel!

Also arriving this week was the launch of the brand new Star Wars comic book series from Marvel. They have quite a few variant covers with this release. I haven't bought all of them as there are way too many but here's the ones I do have! Yes, you have read that right, they are all issue #1

I thought I was being extravagant splashing out on EIGHT variants. I could see there were many more but there was no way I could afford many more. After a bit of research today it turns out there were SIXTY NINE variant covers! Talk about a licence to print money! If money was no object....... but it is LOL!

All change and Rangers in a slump

Yesterday was a day of reflection and deep thought for Toni and I. Her senior management have decided to become totally rigid and make stupid demands which would effectively stop Toni having any flexibility with her working patterns. Having read the emails myself I am totally disgusted with their attitude. We talked a lot last night and have come to the decision that the best option is for Toni to hand in her notice and then she can stay at home and ensure Pam gets proper care. I've made it clear that Toni should take a good couple of months of just chilling out and enjoying her time with Pam before she even things about returning to work. She doesn't have to, we will get by and I'd rather she was happy than just working for the sake of it just to bring a few extra shekels in. I'm sure the right opportunity will present itself in good time and she will return to work again, there's just no rush right now.

So, on to today..... Toni went into the office and had a meeting with her line manager and formally handed in her notice. Needless to say she was upset with Toni's decision but fully understood her reasons why. She has asked Toni to get in touch with her should the time come that she feels she wants to return to full time work. So that was that, Toni's last day will be February 26th and then she'll be free to relax and unwind from the stresses of trying to balance work and make sure Pam is looked after properly and can concentrate on things that really matter :)  It's all good!

As for me, had a really good day at work. Lots of things all pulling together nicely in the right direction. We've had a minor team shuffle, a new small team formed and an overview of where we are going over the next year with our product(s). I'd actually have to confess to being quite excited about it all.

Ignoring the disaster that was hockey the other night it was back into the fray tonight with New York Rangers v Montreal Canadiens. This was a critical game to get back into third place and out of the wild card spot again. Also on at the same time was Boston Bruins v New York Islanders and although I would normally want the Islanders to lose, they needed to win tonight to keep the Bruins below the Rangers. First period ended 0 - 0. Shots on goal were NYR 10 and MTL 11.Sadly the Bruins were winning 2 - 0 at the end of the first.    

Second period started with some good play from the Rangers.Nothing really exciting happened though and there weren't a lot of scoring chances. The period ended tied 0 - 0 still. Shots on goal were NYR 6 (16) and MTL 8 (19). The Bruins were leading their game but 3 - 2.

Third period started end to end but neither team could break the deadlock with both netminders making great saves. Bruins won their game 5 - 2 with five minutes left in the Rangers game so a win became critical! Disaster struck with 4.17 left as the Canadiens took a 0 - 1 lead. Thought it was going to be 0 - 2 with the empty net but the Canadiens doinked the puck off the post. Sadly the Rangers couldn't pull one out of the bad and lost the game 0 - 1. Shots on goal were NYR 8 (24) and MTL 7 (26). Rangers need to start turning things around ASAP if they want any chance in the Play Offs!

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:

Struggling to get up, muddled worms and Rangers lose to rivals

Getting up in the morning is a struggle these days. Early nights seem to be a thing of the past and crashing out on the sofa just doesn't make up for any loss of proper sleep. To make matters worse the "improvements" at London Bridge are really starting to be a pain in the backside for getting to work easily.

It was a good day at work. Facilitating meetings as part of the Scrum Master role is becoming second nature LOL. Toni has now decided that I am a Scrumbley Egg Master which went quite nicely with my mishearing Kanban today and having Campervan in my head. We seem to be getting all our worms muddled up (for all you youngsters that was a Two Ronnies reference and you should go and check it out). It was nothing to do with me but there was much hilarity when a few of us turned up for a meeting in the right room only to discover that the organiser had gone and set up in the wrong room so we all had to relocate! Priceless! There is more to my job than meetings but looking at my calendar every morning does start to feel like this:

After a drought of live hockey for the past week we got back to things in style with a classic New York Rangers v New York Islanders rivalry. The first period was fast and uneventful with both teams having chances. Islanders broke the deadlock to go 0 - 1 up with 1:55 left in the period. Rangers were trailing 0 - 1 at the end of the first. Shots on goal were NYR 10 and NYI 17.

Islanders continued what they started in the first and were 0 - 2 up less than five minutes into the second. Rangers fought hard but just couldn't get the puck past Halak. Second period ended with the Rangers down 0 - 2. Shots on goal were NYR 18 (28) and NYI 11 (28).

The Rangers really upped the pressure but an unlucky bounce extended the Islanders lead to 0 - 3. The pain got worse as the Islanders took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play and made it 0 - 4. With the win out of sight I was just hoping for one goal to break the shut out. That prayer was answered as Hagelin scored on the power play and ended Halak's shut out streak. The game ended with the Rangers losing 1 - 4. Shots on goal were NYR 13 (41) and NYI 10 (38). What a disaster! That was NOT the way I wanted to get back into my live Rangers hockey fix!

Laptop back, cracked back, Galavant and a Royal Rumble

Got my laptop back today. Nicely rebuilt which meant that there was now a load of software that I had to install on it once again. Bit if a pain but not the end of the world I guess.

After work it was off to the osteopath for the first time this year. Had a bit of a going over but he was really pleased with my progress. Seems like things are really coming together on that front which is great news. Next appointment is now two months away so my aim is to start making the gaps longer and longer after each visit now.

Game casserole accompanied the final two episodes of Galavant, our musical fantasy that has earned our love. We weren't disappointed! There was no closure at the end, we were left wanting Season Two. Will there be one? Who knows. I'll be disappointed if we don't get to see any more but unless it had some pretty good ratings (and it seemed to be a bit of a secret show) it is unlikely to get a continuation I fear.

Finished the night off with the WWE Royal Rumble PPV. It was nice to see The Ascension get a push and a win although they should ditch the silly make up.Divas match was passable and at least had some wrestling in it. Tag Team championship match was OK but nothing to shout about. I enjoyed the Lesnar v Rollins v Cena Triple Threat match. Can't get enough of Cena getting seven shades kicked out of him LOL. I really didn't want Cena to win and I don't really like Rollins so I was delighted that Brock Lesnar retained the belt.

The Royal Rumble match started well. The return of Bubba Ray Dudley was a great surprise. Sadly the Bray Wyatt domination routine just made it boring. Thank the Goddess for Daniel Bryan coming to kick some life back into it. Spirits were lifted slightly with the brief entrance of MizDow but it was short lived. From then on in it just got really boring. Roman Reigns won and The Rock put in an appearance *snore*. One of the most disappointing WWE shows I have seen in quite a while.  

Letter from the House Of Commons

Forget to mention this the other day. I received an envelope from the House Of Commons which I really was not expecting as I've given up on my local Tory shyster replying to any of my enquiries. Turns out it was a letter from Tristram Hunt MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Education) inviting me to a reception at the House Of Commons for LGBT History Month. I can only assume this was because of my membership of LGBT Labour as I have no idea how else I would have been invited. Saying that, I am delighted and look forward to attending. Guess I'll have to make an effort and dress the part! Now, what shall I wear? LOL.

Bacon, Ancient Aliens, Nerds, Star Wars and a hockey fix

Today was kickstarted by two bacon sandwiches on crusty bread from the cafe round the corner. To clarify, my day was but Toni's wasn't because she can't have crusty bread! (happy now? LOL). I did offer to bring her something else back but she didn't want anything. A perfect start to the day, for me at least anyway.

 Many hours were then consumed watching H2's (that's a second History Channel) Ancient Aliens series. Some interesting stuff in some of the episodes mixed up among the usual pile of bollocks LOL. Toni raised an interesting point in that these programs always focus on how aliens "could" have provided the ancient people with technology and skills but could it not have been more likely that they developed these things themselves but for whatever the reason they have been lost over the aeons. I guess it's down to what they consider would actually sell a TV show to the masses and aliens are probably seen as more "interesting".

An entertaining first episode of King Of The Nerds season 3 was then followed by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope as I was feeling a little bit deprived of much Star Wars viewing of late. I'm sure we'll do some more tomorrow!

Due to the All Star Game break we have been missing hockey since last Wednesday. To get a bit of a fix we watch the Ducks v Flames game from Wednesday . We are keeping everything crossed that we will be able to get the stream of the All Star Game tomorrow evening via NHL Gamecenter Live. Fingers crossed on that one!

Slow start and a good day

Having drunk copious amounts of Jack Daniels last night I was a somewhat sluggish heading into work today! Not hung over, just a little foggy! Picked up a bottle of Lucozade Energy en route and I was soon right as rain.

It was another good day, I like good days! Took a bit of a set back on some handover stuff but I wasn't going to let that annoy me and it will all work itself out in the end I am sure. The only downside was that yesterday my "new" laptop had gone to IT for a couple of things to be done to it and at the end of today I still hadn't got it back. I wouldn't mind but the tasks to be completed were actually very simple. Fingers crossed I will get it back on Monday.

Food and TV catch up saw the night out....