Sick, mum in and boys out

I was off sick today which left me less than impressed. It was also bloody hot which just made me feel even worse. In better news mum arrived this afternoon and will be staying with us for the week. Sam and Aaron also buggered off to Southend for "Geek Week" so it is going to be much quieter for a while which will be nice ;)

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Shamanic Workshop craft session

Toni, Zoe and I went to Giselle's cabin for the next part of our Shamanic Workshop. Today it was a craft session and we were making smudging fans. It was great fun and we all produced some wonderful stuff.

Here is Zoe's:

Toni's:

....and last but not least, here is mine:

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:

Coffee, mental day and Breaking Bad

Today started well with Sam buying us both a very nice coffee from the bar at New Eltham station.It was a great way to kick start the day and boy was it needed as things went south pretty quickly. It was mental at work. We were system critical on one of the products which meant that one of my teams was in the spotlight to get fixes delivered ASAP with emails and managers flying in all directions for updates. Thankfully I managed to wrestle things to the ground before it got completely out of control LOL

Once home it was time to chill out and we spent the evening re-watching many episodes of Breaking Bad. Such a great show and just as entertaining second time round.

NJPW Final, new veg and bench building

Today was mostly spent watching four hours of NJPW goodness with the climax being the G1 Climax 25 Final between Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Sadly after a brilliant match it was Hiroshi Tanahashi that walked away with the trophy and the money. It was great to see a handshake at the end too as a mark of respect from Nakumara to Tanahashi. That's something we rarely get to see with WWE etc as it might spoil a storyline!

I spent a short while packing up a load of DVDs that I am selling via Music Magpie to clear some space and make a bit of cash. Three boxes all prepared for pick up on Tuesday. I'll give an update on what I think of the service when the transaction has been completed. For more info check out www.musicmagpie.co.uk.

In gardening news we have tomatoes and peppers coming along very nicely:

Finally, after far too long, we got round to building the garden bench that mum bought us. Yes I'll admit that I am not the most proactive DIY person LOL. Have to say it does look fantastic though. Final job will be to paint it in the same colour scheme as the sheds.

NJPW Semi Finals and a meal with Jade

It was a day for chilling which was nice. Sorted nan out and then had coffee and sat back to enjoy the semi-final broadcast of NJPW's G1 Climax 25. It's so nice to watch technical wrestling without the crap storylines that tend to go hand in hand with promotions like WWE and TNA. There is so much great talent on show in the Japanese promotions that we get little exposure to over here. Thankfully I'll be keeping more up to date now that I have an NJPW subscription.

After the rasslin' Toni, Pam and I headed to Eltham to meet Jade and Zoe for the postponed birthday meal. Ziyafet was our venue of choice. Crazy people.....

End of a good week

Well that was the end of a good week. The boss was away all week which made life so much simpler. Things got done with no distractions and I've been started to see some good ideas coming from teams to help streamline their process so that they can work more effectively.

I also discovered New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax 25 live broadcasts were on during my lunch break so I was able to watch some of the matches.

They have two blocks: block A and block B, with each one having 10 wrestlers. They use a round robin style where each wrestler will fight every person in their own block one time. Block A does not wrestle against block B until the very end. Scoring is by way of points: a win equals 2 points, 30 minute time-limit draw equals 1, and a loss is 0. If a tie-breaker is needed, it’s determined by their head-to-head score. The round-robin tournament starts on July 20, 2015 and ends on August 14, 2015. Whoever has the most points in block A takes on the winner of block B in the G1 Climax Finals on August 16, 2015.

A visit from Jade and Walter Mitty

Jade popped round this evening to see us all. We had planned to go out for a meal but as the weather was really bad and Pam wasn't feeling right we decided to stay in. We gave Jade her cards and presents and ordered an Indian from Rishta. The meal out plan has now rolled over to Saturday.

We watched The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.

It was an OK film that got better as it went on. I can see why it didn't light up the box office. Ben Stiller is a bit like Adam Sandler, seems to work in the roles he plays but isn't exactly known for playing anything other than the same role no matter what the film LOL

Drum Ceremony

Tonight Zoe and I went to Oxleas Wood to participate in a Drum Workshop as an extension of our Shamanic Workshop. Sadly Toni was feeling under the weather so wasn't able to attend. We found the perfect spot:

First up was the challenge of getting a fire ready:

There was lots of drumming throughout the ceremony:

I waited patiently for my turn to have a go playing Thunder:

Prayers and meditation were included:

As a mass drumming session commenced I was overtaken by the rhythm:

It was a fantastic experience being involved in the Drum Ceremony and to be working outside with friends old and new. It was also nice to be doing something like this outside of the Dolmen Grove which tends to be the only chance I got for things like this so hopefully we will be doing more of them.

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 Jade

Happy Birthday Jade
Hope you have a fantastic day

New Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer

This is short and was released on a Star Wars YouTube channel in South Korea but it's worth it just for that opening scene!


That First Order sweep is awesome!

Sam's new look!

Sam decided to go for a dramatic makeover tonight which Toni helped with. It started with a snip:

Then some serious clipping:

The the close shave:

..and it really suits him!

Going for the thug (or hardcore punk singer) look!