The 2010 Review

Only one day left of 2010, where did that go?? It seems like only yesterday I was seeing in the new year, drinking more than I should have and starting 2010 with a hangover. Since then it really has been onwards and upwards for me and 2010 has been one of the best. As always, I doubt I will be able to remember everything that has happened but I will have a good crack.

Best Year Ever??

So the year started on a bit of a dip with the hangover but it really did push on from there with some force. In February I moved into my first place with Lara, a lovely 2 bed apartment in Maulden, Bedfordshire which I still cant believe I own. I was saying to Lara a little while back that sometimes I walk in at night and think to myself how perfect that place is in my eyes. It was a big move for me to be so far from family and friends but I have some great friends up in Maulden now (even if we do get kicked out of pubs for taking a megaphone in) and I think it was the right move for me.

It was baby central this year with my best mate and his wife Shelley had their first baby, Joshua, they have proved that they are naturals at the parenting thing and Josh is a little star! My cousin Dan and his lady Helen had a little girl, Ella, who I haven’t seen nearly as much as I would like of but there is something I can aim to change in 2011. Then my Sister and her husband Tom had a little girl too, Mia, and I have my first niece!! Dylan has turned into an awesome big brother to her as well which is nice. Although watching him saying ‘I Love You Sister’ through a voice changing megaphone on Christmas was Lovely, Scary (due to the voice) and hilarious (due to the voice and Mia’s reaction) all at the same time. So yeah, lots of new additions in the family.

Congratulations go out to Dan and Helen, Matt and Emma, Stew and Katie who have all got engaged this year. This must have been extra special for my auntie Bern and uncle Les as these are all brothers from the Tilley family!

I have to do it, I just have to and I don’t care if you jump this section. WHAT A YEAR FOR TOTTENHAM! Qualifying for the Champions League and then getting through the group stage as winners at the first attempt, beating Inter Milan on the way through! Love it! There has also been beating Arsenal and Chelsea in the same week, coming back from 2-0 down at the Emirates to beat the Gooners 3-2. The complete revelation of Gareth Bale who is just a different class. Signing Van der Vaart who is just immense. We now have a team that really makes other clubs worry when we play them and we have done all we have done this season with a crazy amount of injuries (which nobody ever seems to mention!) Im hoping 2011 will be just as good for the mighty Spurs!

This year I have been back playing football which is nice, loving the banter with the lads which is a big part of what I missed about not playing. Scoring the winner on my birthday in front of Lara, my mum and Roy was a highlight (even if I did injure my ankle and was out for 5-6 weeks in the same game!)

I thought it might be cool to do ‘Top things of 2010’ so here we go –

Top Album: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Top Song: Time – Hans Zimmer (not exactly a song as such but a great piece of music from the Inception soundtrack)

Top Film: Inception

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Actress: Olivia Wilde (I couldn’t actually think of any for acting reasons but she is HOT!)

Top Xbox Game: Alan Wake

Top Playstation Game: Little Big Planet (I only played it for the first time this year)

Top TV Series: LOST

Top TV Show: An Idiot Abroad

Moment of 2010: Picking up the keys to my first house!

That’s about all I can think off now, haha so we can leave that there for now. Oh, I saw Tron: Legacy the other day so may as well do a quick review on it. It was pretty good, not great but very good. The main reason for seeing this isn’t the story, that’s just ok, if anything they could have worked a little harder on that as it seems a bit of a waste to just progress through with pretty lights and 3D. What makes this film a must see is the visuals. This was something really amazing to see, you are immersed in a 3-D world of light, colour and shiny stuff that is just so engaging to watch. I wont go into things too much but the light cycle battles early on, with the ribbons of neon light streaming out of the bikes is spectacular! I would recommend going to see this just for the visual spectacle, if you go with the intention of seeing a story and character driven film then you will probably think ‘Meh?’, but go with the outlook of simply sitting and watching something extremely clever and incredible looking on a screen then you will probably be happy.

That’s about it for me now. I hope everyone has an amazing New Year and I wish you all a prosperous 2011!

G

New Job and Cruising The Med

Another four weeks flies by without a chance to breathe – madness – just where has 2010 gone?? Its been over a year since I started writing these blog things on here and although they have turned more into a diary rather than a review on stuff, I think the reviewing on www.culturedeluxe.com goes a bit of way to making up for it. Haha. Christmas is less than two weeks away and this time last year we had just had the offer accepted on our house. Now we have our first Christmas tree up and decorated (only as of yesterday though) and I have all my presents bought and ready to be wrapped – am I organised or what!!

New Year, New Start

I suppose the biggest news for me this time around is that I have got myself a new job… Came a bit out of the blue with the interview and the offer within the space of a few days but Im really pleased and excited to start the role next year. Its back doing something similar to what I used to do in surveying as an estimator for a flooring company. Its less than 15 mins drive from my place so there goes my horror 1 hour each way journey to work too. Just with that I will be able to have an extra seven hours to myself each week that I would have spent driving! Brilliant. It will be a shame to leave all my friends at my current job behind but I have kept in touch with people from previous jobs and I would expect it to be the same here. So all in all a great way to start 2011…. But not the best way…… that would have to be………

If It Is Called Titanic We’re Screwed!!

One good thing about leaving the company I am at now means that I am able to start a couple of weeks later which is handy as I wouldn’t have been able to go on a cruise. We are being taken away by Laras dad on a Mediterranean cruise to a few countries that I am so excited about its silly! It starts in Barcelona and heads off to Egypt, Italy and Greece I think and sounds right up my street with all the things this ship has on it. 14 restaurants, casino, gym, swimming pool and a load of other things too. I have never been on a cruise before so I am not sure of what to expect, but Im sure it will be amazing. Watch this space….

Fringe = Brilliant

As LOST has now finished there needed to be a gap filler when it came to TV shows. There are the odd ones that come along and you watch here and there but there has to be something special to grab you by the kahoonas and have you waiting for the next episode to air. Fringe is now on its third series and it is just getting better and better each year. We have been watching this since the start and each time a series ends (of half a season as they keep having month long breaks with this one) we wonder how they will keep this story evolving, but they always deliver and then some! Its hard to explain the premise of the show without giving too much away but for those of you who have watched it, you know what I mean. This show keeps you so interested in everything, the characters, the plot, just everything. Brilliant. Have a watch from the start if you get a chance.

Other than that I hope everyone watched An Idiot Abroad which was just fantastic. I have also listened to a few new albums lately. Take That – Progress. Fairly decent although some of the songs can get a bit boring but overall a decent listen, Underground Machine and The Flood are my favourite songs on there though. But…. My favourite album by far this year is the new album by Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. That is amazing. Yes I know that Kanye West is a complete and utter tool but he sure does know how to create music. The lyrics are sharp, the guest appearances are amazing, especially Jay –Z and the beats and music are just incredible from start to finish. I love almost every song on here with Monster and Runaway being stand outs. Awesome. Put the hatred for the man aside and sit back and listen to a genius at work.

That will just about do me for today, so if I don’t write before then I hope that everyone has a brilliant Christmas and New Year. Happy 2010 and here’s to 2011. Don’t forget to follow me on twitter if you don’t already @FuzzyCoyote and.

Take it easy… G

The Big Catch Up

I just had a look at the last time I wrote one of these and it was over two months ago! My fans have been up in arms not knowing what to do with their evenings without these. Well my mum mentioned I should do another one as it has been a while… haha. There has been so much go on since the end of August, Birthdays, Stag Do’s and a load of other stuff in between that I will no doubt forget about when it comes to writing it down in a bit. This really is a where do I start moment…..

What A Weekend

I suppose the best place to start would be the stag do back in mid September, what an awesome weekend that was!! It was for Joes brother Alex who was getting married in Vegas later in the month, lucky bugger. There was 19 of us that went and obviously I wont be going into full on details about what went on as there is an ancient sacred pact of silence for things like these, but some things are ok. We headed down on the Friday for a night in a Casino and out on the town. We had lessons in the casino which was cool along with champagne and other drinks and there was a few of us, myself included that left with more money than we went in there with, good times. Quite a few headed home fairly early but there were some of us that stayed out until the clubs closed. I think I got back about 4:30am ish and when I opened my hotel room door I was met by a passed out naked Joe on his bed which just made me laugh something crazy! He had headed home earlier in the night, completely drunk and he doesn’t know how he managed it. One funny thing was that even though he couldn’t walk straight he managed to hang my shirt that I lent him for the night, he didn’t even remember doing it! A good start to the weekend.

Saturday was a great day all round, there was some mud buggying which was a right laugh. We were all absolutely covered in mud and Joe pulled off one of the greatest last to 1^st moves in history, this is well worth a watch - http://www.youtube.com/user/grizm#p/u/4/XdoUsvEKKC8 - Lewis Hamilton would be proud!! The evening started out with a buffet dinner and then onto a bar which has Jagerbombs for £2 and shots galore! There was the most horrific looking dirty pint that all the lads shared and then it was onto Oceana to party the rest of the night away. This was another mega late one but a quality night none the less. It was the first time in ages that I had managed to do two heavy nights in a row without feeling like I was going to die so that was brilliant too. Alex was certainly saying goodbye to the bachelors life in style!

I Got LOST Again

So remember I was saying before that Lara and I were watching LOST through, well we watched the last episode the other day and I can definitely say that I enjoyed it even more the second time around. I noticed a whole load of stuff that really made the whole writing of the show seem so much more in depth. Lara really enjoyed it too although I think it helped that she didn’t have to wait each time after the end of season cliff-hangers, haha. I had to wait 6-8 months each time where as she only had to wait 6-8 minutes… Well sometimes I would make her wait a day or two, just to get her mind going imagining what is going on. I said it before and I will say it again - What an completely amazing show.

Happy Getting Old Day

Early October is one of the most expensive days of the year for me barring Christmas, Lara and my mum have their birthdays on the same day which is handy for remembering but a bugger as I am useless when it comes to actually buying the presents. This year I thought I would think a bit outside the box and buy something a bit special for Lara, so I bought her a Playstation 3. Most girls would have cried if they had opened that on their birthday but Lara absolutely loved it and I knew she would. She has always been into the games stuff and never really got into my Xbox, only the Wii but she has always been a Playstation person so I thought, why not. I bought her a few games, one of which Little Big Planet is absolutely brilliant, its like an old school platform game but with so so much more involved. I also bought her a game that I knew would be right up her street even without knowing anything about it. Its called Naughty Bear and basically you are a teddy that doesn’t get invited to a party so you go on a bit of a killing spree, tearing up and killing other teddies around the island, mental. There is other plot lines to it as well but that’s all I know about that one so far. We got to spend the Sunday at my mums with Katie, Tom, Dylan and Mia which was great as always.

Rock Your Socks Off

My latest project on the review front was for a DVD that was released in late October, it was a concert featuring the four biggest rock bands of the last 25 years - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. I know this is a bit of a personal preference with the music but it was awesome. My mate Sean even came up to watch it again with me last weekend before we headed out for a few beers. Metallica were incredible but you can read the review here – http://www.culturedeluxe.com/music/musicreview/the-big-four-live-dvd-review/ I think that this is the best review I have done, Im not sure why Im just really pleased with it. Have a look see.

Football is going quite well, I have played some games, scored some goals and there have been a couple more nights of everyone meeting up for a few beers here and there. Not much to say on that front really, we played in a quarter final of a cup last night and lost unfortunately but it was a decent game. On the subject of football Im going to mention Spurs here, I know that the league side of things isn’t going as well as hoped but the Champions League is brilliant to watch. Beating Inter Milan 3-1 at home was one of the greatest games to watch ever! Both Lara and I were saying that we were on a high and didn’t come down for a couple of days. That is why I love football!

Other than that I cant think of too much that’s gone on, I knew this would happen, haha. Lara and her mum did the wallpapering in our bedroom which looks awesome. But yeah I think that will do me for now. I wont leave it as long until the next one..

G

Smashing a Paper Pram to Bits!

These last 3 weeks have absolutely flown by!! I haven't had a second to breathe let alone write another blog thing. So whats the latest you may wonder....Hmmmm. Let me think.

Damn Chocolate Ankle!

Unfortunately football has taken a little bit of a back seat since I last wrote. In the game I talked about last time - the one I played on my birthday - I did something to my ankle without realising and it became all swollen and painful for the next few days. So that put me out for a little while. What bugged me most was that I have no idea how it happened, I just woke up the day after and couldn't put any weight on it. What a bummer. Just as things were getting decent something like that happens. I played my first game back from it yesterday so it lasted 3 weeks which was a pain. I came off the bench but hopefully now I will get back involved again as we have had a slow start to the year as a team. Great bunch of lads down there at the club though which always helps. It was completely mental after the win yesterday actually - Shower gel, water and talcum powder was flying all over the shop!!

We Are Champions League

So Tottenham have actually managed to pull it off, we are there, Champions League and we have been drawn against Inter Milan in our group too. Pinch me I'm dreaming!! I was there for the FCB Young Boys game and I actually got a little choked up when they played the Champions League music before the game, thank god we managed to beat them though as it would have been a real tease to only get the qualifying round. So, who's up for an away trip to Italy, Germany or Holland?? I know I would love to!! Just think, Spurs will be playing in the San Siro this season! GET IN THERE!!

Hitting Things With a Stick

Last weekend we headed back to Berkshire for a couple of things. It was great to see everyone and have a good catch up. On Friday it was Joes birthday so we went down the pub for a few drinks. Not a heavy night but a good few drinks none the less. On Saturday there was a party for Baby Josh which was great. Loads of people turned up, lots of drink was consumed and there was even a Piñata there which was awesome. I have always wanted to have a crack at one of them so that was fun. I even took a few videos so here is the link to a little thing I did for it on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJCBA9axXQI

Sunday we headed to the Spa which as always was fantastic! The ice room there is my favourite, you come straight out of a hot steam room and walk into there where you find walls of ice to lean on and crushed ice to rub on yourself, such a nice way to cool down. lol.

Toy Story 3

Remember last time I mentioned that I would be seeing Toy Story 3 that evening, well I saw it and it was everything I expected, just a brilliant movie. It wrapped up the whole thing which was nice. Im sure that everyone who has seen this will agree that if you have seen the first two then this is a must watch. loved it.

More Reviewing

Well I have had another couple of things posted on the review website that I am writing for. I saw Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, so here is the link to the review I did for that - http://www.culturedeluxe.com/film/filmreview/knight-and-day/. Also there was a little bit of gaming news that I wrote a little piece for, this wasnt a full review or anything like that but I think its worth checking out anyway, its for the teaser trailer for the latest BioShock game due out in 2012. Looky here - http://www.culturedeluxe.com/gaming/gamingnews/bioshock-infinite-–-first-trailer/. I should plug the site as well as you can really spend a lot of time on it looking at all the news / reviews if you would like to - http://www.culturedeluxe.com/

Well I think that should just about do for now. I know that more has happened and that I should write about it but it's late and I really just want to eat something so I'm going to shoot and do that. There is the football teams first 'Team Night Out' on the 11th Sept to an Oyster festival and onto other places so that should be fun to talk about soon. Also I have a Stag do the weekend after that so if I dont write before then I will definitely have something to write about after.

Thats all for now.

G

Kicking Balls and Becoming 26

As the last post I did was a proper review rather than a diary 'blog' thing, there is a lot to catch up on this time! Loads has happened and I know that I will forget a few things but lets see.

Kick Ball Goal

Since the last update on the football side of things, there have been a few matches so better have a little talk about those. The first one, and quite frankly the most important of them was back 3 weekends ago when we played an MK Dons XI at our place. Now bearing in mind that these are all full time footballers and we are a town team we knew it was going to be a tough one. Playing in it you could tell that a few of them were extremely good, every time they got the ball it seemed to slow down and look so easy. Anyway, cut along story short we all managed to play a hell of a game and won 3-2! Awesome. Considering this was the first proper football game I had played in for a year and a half it was one hell of a feeling to win again! I was buzzing for the rest of the weekend. There have been a couple of other matches that have been hit and miss since then and I managed to bag a goal a couple of weeks ago which once again was an amazing feeling after so long. Yesterday we played another match and as it was on my birthday I hoped it would go well. We won 4-3 in the end and I scored the winner!! Not a bad present if you ask me! lol, Lara, my mum and Roy came up to watch which was cool too. So the first game any of them have seen me play in a while I bagged the winner, good times. Lets hope things carry on this way.

Meeting Little Mia

Last time I wrote about having a new niece, well after the MK Dons game Lara and I headed back to stay at my mums and I met her on the Sunday. She was such a little cutie that actually slept most of the day but I still got a hold for a while. I thought it would be good to make that the photo for this blog too. To be fair I spent most of the day playing with Dylan which was fun. He played on my iPhone 4 for the first time, working it out in an instant I might add!! lol. He found the movie maker and wanted to know what it did so we made a silly little movie of him running about in my mums house. I have uploaded it to YouTube so you can have a look here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEi1AGt823A. He is such a character.

More Real Writing

Remember my last post was the proper review thing I did for Inception, well I was asked by the editor of a review website to write a review for an Xbox Live Arcade game that they would use on the website and in the monthly magazine. The website is quality so I think you should check it out anyway - http://www.culturedeluxe.com/ and then my review is here http://www.culturedeluxe.com/gaming/gamingreview/hydro-thunder-hurricane/ I think I did alright there, lol, very proud of myself with that one. Also as I said they do a magazine too, this review had a really cool double page spread which was really cool to see. Hopefully I will do a few more soon that I can tell you about. Until then, check out the website as there is a massive range of stuff they talk about on there.

Another Year Older

As I mentioned up in the football part earlier it was my birthday yesterday. I really cant believe that I am 26 now.... Seriously, I know that people say it all the time, but where did that come from?? I had a really cool day yesterday actually as my mum and Roy came up to see us which was really nice, I played football and scored the winner, had a BBQ and beers down at the club after the game and then headed into town with a few of the lads and ladies for drinks at a couple of places. Nice day all round then. I also got some really nice presents too which is always nice. lol. Before I can blink I will be 27 and writing about this all again.....

What else what else.... I know that a lot has happened but as per normal there are a few things I have surely forgotten about. I think I'm heading to see Toy Story 3 tonight which I am really excited about. I think this will be a little bit special actually, a closing chapter to a film franchise that has been a big part of my generation. The way I look at it, I was 11 when the first one cam out so it was just about right for me to love back then. The second one came out when I was 15 so I was still happy to watch it even as a teenager. Now the third one has come out and I would bet my life on the fact that more people in the twenty-something age range are looking forward to this movie than kids are. I cant wait! Pixar have a knack and always manage to make incredible movies as well. the film 'Up' is definitely one of my favourites in recent years and Wall-E is just a beautiful movie too. I shall update next time on my thoughts.

Oh, I saw The A-Team last week. People are slating it as a rubbish over the top film..... well Duh!! This is The A-Team we are talking about, the TV series was all about mental action and stupid stuff. Granted Liam Neeson as Hannibal and Rampage Jackson as BA aren't quite as good as the original actors but they aren't bad. Bradley Cooper as Face and Sharlto Copley as Murdock are brilliant though. Yes the plot is a bit pants, yes the action is stupid but that's what it's all about. I went in there with the intention of switching off my brain and enjoying a silly action movie and that's exactly what I got. Good Times.

That should just about do it for now I think as I don't want to bore everyone to tears.... for now.

Hope all is well with everyone. Take it easy.

G

My First Proper Review

INCEPTION

Every now and then, a film comes along that makes you remember why you love movies. Something clicks to let you know you have witnessed pure creation from some of the brightest minds in the business. This is one of those moments.

Christopher Nolan has proved time and time again that he is a clinical maestro when it comes to film-making. For starters, you have The Dark Knight - still very fresh in the minds of viewers. Add Insomnia and Memento, along with The Prestige, and you have a line-up gracing the majority of film lovers’ collections. Even before the release of Inception, the expectation for Nolan to deliver a movie of five star quality was sky high. I actually believe that this is, without doubt, his finest production to date.

The idea is a simple one: corporate espionage has reached another level in a world where the dream can be entered - not even your deepest secrets and ideas are safe. To try and explain the plot would be a lost cause, as it would take 20 pages to do it justice. It really is one of the most detailed storylines I have ever witnessed on screen - unravelling at a relentless speed, while remaining at an almost perfect pace to keep you 100 percent involved. Throughout the entire two hours and 28 minutes, not once did I think or wonder when the ending was coming.

The action scenes are wonderfully shot - they provide a balance to the developing storyline, only arriving when you feel they should and not just for the sake of blowing something up… á la Michael Bay. Each element involved in the movie is as close to ideal as it could be.

The cast deserves every ounce of credit they will receive, as each member plays his/ her role to the highest calibre. Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb) is at his very best as the leading man with trouble letting go of his past, providing a performance worthy of a nod when Oscar season rolls around. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) proves he has a real depth to his talent as the right-hand man to DiCaprio. Ellen Page (Ariadne) shows why she has been touted as one of the leading female stars of the future. I should also mention Brit actor Tom Hardy in the role of Eames, who provides light comedy relief while holding a dominating, yet suave, presence for every second of screen time.

One performance that does not usually gain the recognition it deserves should also be praised here - the composer. Hans Zimmer gives the film an extra dimension, using his impeccable talent to set each scene with the desired feel throughout - something that undoubtedly added that little bit extra to the viewing experience.

If I were to offer one minor criticism, it would be that the complex storyline progresses at such a pace that a momentary lapse of concentration could result in missing a key plot point – make sure you go to the toilet before the film starts!
That aside, its is really hard to find fault with any other aspect of Inception - it is possibly the perfect movie. The ending suits the mentality of the movie, without leaving you frustrated or short-changed, the visuals are stunning throughout and the story is as brilliant as it is intricate. This proves that in a time of sequels, remakes and reboots, something original and intelligent can still come along and blow you away. Christopher Nolan has written a masterpiece that may be studied by media schools in years to come and I urge you to experience it – you will not be disappointed.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Crying Babies

I HAVE A NIECE I HAVE A NIECE!!! Congratulations to my sister Katie and her husband Tom as they have just had a beautiful baby girl - Mia Summer. As I write this she is only 2 days old but already has the world in the palm of her tiny hand, so many people have wished her well and commented on how gorgeous she looks. Hopefully I will get a chance to head to Kent to meet Mia soon and see how amazing Dylan is as a big brother. Just look at that photo I have used for this blogs focus, brilliant!! So yes I'm sure there will be plenty more to come on Mia and Dylan but for now I'm just excited to meet her soon. So pleased for Katie and Tom!! Whoop!!

In other baby news my cousin Dan and his lady Helen have had a little girl too called Ella. I actually got to meet her last weekend and she is a cutie too. Congratulations guys. There are babies everywhere at the moment!! The couple that live in the apartment below us also had a little girl last week -Sophie. I don't think that any more are due any time soon though, lol. So a massive congratulations to everyone who has bought a little person into the world recently. What was 9 months ago?? October... That must have been one randy month

Legs Like Jelly!!

I mentioned last time that I would be starting pre season training soon, well that was last Tuesday and here I am 4 sessions later feeling a hell of a lot fitter. The first session I actually thought I was going to throw up and it felt like someone had stolen my legs at one point. Behind the football club there is a big hilly park that I didn't know about until training. The views are amazing and you can see for miles but there are also hills as big as your house and steeper than you can imagine. Every bump and turn of the two main 'Killer' hills is etched in my memory as I have run up them so many times now. My cousin Matt and his fiancée Emma came to stay on Saturday night so I took him over there for a run on Sunday which was cool. I think my mum would really appreciate a visit there next time she is up this way. Not for the hills of course for the amazing country views, its her kind of thing. With each training session though the hills got easier and the football I was playing got better, you really struggle when your mind is tired to play how you want to play. The first pre season game is this Saturday against MK Dons reserves, although I will have to see if I am heading to see Katie, Tom, Dylan and Mia as I dont think I will get many more chances before the season starts. So all in all the football is going well so far, good bunch of lads and a good set up. That's probably the main thing I missed about not playing football last season, the banter with the lads, you cant get that anywhere else. Lets hope it carries on this way.

Now I know that so much more is going on with me at the moment but I just cant think for the life of me what to write about. The Wii Fit seems to be working - when I started on 6th June I was 13st 12lbs, now after a bit of training and football (with a weekend of hard drinking at Download Festival thrown in halfway through) I am down to 13st 4lbs now which is some good going I think. I also played a match for my cousins team back in Middlesex at the weekend which was great, it was quite a family affair with 2 of my cousins playing with me on one team, another cousin playing against us for the other team and another cousin was the ref, haha. We drew 3-3 but it was a really good game and great to play with the guys.

Movie Thoughts

Oh... I have finally come around to the idea of LoveFilm.com for DVDs. Now for those of you that don't know LoveFilm is basically a rental site for films, games etc that you can pay a monthly fee and get sent DVDs. You create a list of films/games that you want and prioritise them according to which you would like first and they send them to you. You can keep them as long as you want and when you send one back they send you another one from your list, brilliant. There are all types of packages, 1/2/3/4 discs at a time and 2/3/4 unlimited swaps a month which works great as they are all at different prices to suit the sort of viewer you are. I have 2 discs at a time with a limit of 4 swaps a month and I can have 2 DVDs or 1 DVD and a Game. I think in the long run this is going to save me a hell of a lot of money, especially on Xbox games. Its great for TV series too, coming to the end of Season 2 I can just request Season 3 on a disc by disc basis and watch them all for under a tenner a month. Good times, I would recommend that to anyone who has a bit of a film or game passion, I'm just surprised it took me so long to come around.

I am heading to the cinema tomorrow to watch Inception, the new Chris Nolan directed film with Leonardo DiCaprio in it. I have been excited about this for a very long time so hopefully it will live up to the expectation. Other than that I havent headed to the cinema much lately, need to sort that out. One of the DVDs I have from LoveFilm at the moment is the latest Star Trek so i need to watch that. Now I absolutely hate any form of Star Trek in any form but the latest one was done by JJ Abrams who I think is amazing so I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and Im going to check it out, I will let you know.

What else....... Well the weather (barring today) has been fantastic lately, most of my lunches have been spent relaxing in the field over the road from where I work which is nice. It feels like we are finally getting a summer after under achievement from the sun in past years.

Now that I have had the new iPhone 4 for a while it really is amazing, the battery life is my biggest plus. Before I was having to charge it on a daily basis but now its an every other day thing even though I am probably using it more. I have iMovie as an app that is just brilliant for editing your recorded movies on the go. I know that people are complaining about the reception issues but I have had no troubles at all. Pleased as punch.

I think that should just about do it for this one. I know its probably a bit slow but I cant think of anything that springs to mind that I need to write about. So for now, Ta Ta.

G

More Than One Home Town

I always wonder how to start these things, pondering to myself thinking what do I talk about first?? Where I have been, what I have seen, who I have been with?? This time however I have got no worries at all, one of the days geeks look forward to each year has arrived and this time I got involved.

Little Box of Tricks

It has been 2 years since I returned from my travels across America and Australia, one of the first and most important things to do these days is buy yourself a mobile phone (thats a cell for all my American friends, lol). So just at that point the iPhone 3G had just been released. I had been looking at it while I was in Oz with my cousin Ollie and we both wanted one. Sure enough the first chance I got less than a week after getting back I was a proud owner. The next year I decided to pass on the 3GS as I had 6 months left on my contract, but last week the iPhone 4 was released and it was a real iWant!! They were released Thursday and by Friday I had ordered one. It arrived Monday and has blown my expectations since then. First off it looks amazing with the glass front and back, the metal border round the side of the phone and the redesigned buttons. That is not the main thing though, the whizz kids at Apple have managed to cram a world class magician into each phone because as far as I can see this thing is filled with Magic!! Everything is so responsive, everything works how I would want and hope something to work and its just excellent. The battery life has increased significantly, the camera has increased to 5megapixels, not to mention the 720p HD video recording. Although to truly unlock the potential the Apps are where its at. Coloursplash is a favourite of mine and has been since I had my old phone, but it comes into its own with the new 'Retina' display screen that the iPhone 4 has, it is seriously crystal clear, the highest resolution display ever put in a phone. With Coloursplash you can take a photo you have and add/remove colour from any part of the photo, allowing you to be really creative. I have added a photo up the top of here that I have recently done for my sister from her wedding that I need to send her. I hope you like it. Thats enough on the iPhone 4 for now but I have only scratched the surface of its potential and am in awe of what I have seen from a handheld gadget!

Shouting Descriptions

At the weekend I headed back to Shepperton for a leaving do for my cousin. We had a few beers, a Chinese and had some good laughs, it was really nice to see so many of the family again. I stayed at my cousin Stewarts and we managed to play FIFA until the very early hours (like 4am!!) I even fell asleep in the middle of a game at one point and so did he, haha. Saturday I headed back for a BBQ at Joes, what a day! The sun was out non stop, Joe had the BBQ literally at the highest temperature it could be before it melted a hole in the Earth, the drinks were flowing and the company was great. We ate the food, drank the drink and decided to play a game called Articulate. Now this is a game that should be played for fun, but from what I have heard it always gets very competitive, haha. What you have to do is explain words or places to your team from a category such as 'Places' or 'People' without saying the word, anything rhyming with the word etc. to make them say the answer. For example if you had 'Laptop' you would need to say something like 'small computer that you can flip open and take anywhere' or something like that. You get as many answers as you can in 30 seconds to move around the board. We played a good few games of that and some of the answers coming out were hilarious. I think I will be buying that game at some point cos it is a definite party pleaser. Joe will be pleased that I am sharing this considering how competitive we are. We played 4 games in total, all with different teams, I won 2 and he won all 4 (the bastard!) Well done Joe! But all in all it was a great day. I wont mention Sunday because it was England V Germany and we all know what happened there. Lazy muppets!!

On the subject of football I have looked into a team for next season from round here. Ampthill Town is just up the road and play at a pretty decent standard so I took a chance and headed over there tonight to see if I could find out when pre season training started. I managed to get lucky and the manager happened to be down at the ground sorting a few bits out. I introduced myself and they are going to be starting training next Tuesday, result. So watch this space and I will update a few bits about that soon enough. Thank god I started doing the running on my lunch breaks a few times a week to blow the cobwebs out.

LOST

Quick update, Lara and I are smashing through LOST, we are up to about episode 13 of Season 2 now. It seriously is so much better the second time round, I am remembering all of the questions I asked in the first place (99% of them Lara is asking me and I stay totally silent) yet as I am asking them I know they are going to be answered which is nice. There are so many things that I have forgotten about too. The characters are fantastic and you can see how clever the writers are at developing them (Lara has switched completely with a couple, like I mean she wanted one to die in the beginning and now loves him, lol). I am really enjoying it. Who knows, maybe the couple of seasons that I thought were a bit below par may actually be better this time around??

Anyway....... Heading back home on the weekend got me thinking and led me to the title of this posting. Can you have more than one home town? I say yes. I say this because I currently live in Maulden, Bedfordshire and I love it here, the quietness, the atmosphere and the whole attitude just suits me. Then there is Berkshire where I have grown up, a lot of my friends and family live there and I can go back any time knowing that I will have a great time. I think of them both in different ways though, Maulden is my home town where I live and Berkshire is my home town where I am from. I think I am quite lucky to have two places like that.

So todays question is - Do you have more than one place that you call home and why?

Laters Taters... G

Rocking My Socks Off

Well Well Well, time is certainly flying by at the moment, its already mid June!! I am currently enjoying a nice week off work following a very long weekend at Download Festival, that is what this blog is pretty much going to focus on as so much happened. Here goes, hopefully I wont miss much.

Thursday

Sean and his dad stayed over on Wednesday night so we could head out early for the weekend at Download Festival 2010. This was the 3rd time I had been in 4 years with the only missed year being 2008 while I was in Australia, fair excuse I think. We arrived and managed to get one hell of a camping spot, 2 minutes walk from the main village without being in a place people walk right past, brilliant. There is no music on Thursday so we met Mark from my Contiki tour of Oz and his mate Phil who were also camping with us and just had a day of drinking going on rides, my highlights were the house of fun and the bumper cars! I have a YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/grizm where you can check out a load of videos from the weekend. I would recommend the Spin Wheel ones from the funhouse as they are quite funny. Late in the day we met up with my mate Will and his group from my old job at Siemens which was cool. Other than that it was just a drinking day. Video Diary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwbpSCgrxw

Friday

The first day of music and what a day it was going to be. AC/DC were headlining and had their own stage set up directly next to the main stage in the arena, I couldnt wait. Before that we watched a couple of other bands, Killswitch Engage were brilliant and stepped it up from last year when we saw them. We saw Them Crooked Vultures, made up of Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, and John Paul Jones from Led Zepplin who were ok but it was just like watching a chilled jamming session rather than a show but not bad. Then AC/DC came on and they were amazing. Loads of hits, 110,000 people only watching them as all the other stages had closed and basically cannons, fireworks, flames, inflatables and rocking. Very very impressed with them. Back to camp for more drinking! Video Diary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ommznxFXBYc&feature=related

Saturday

After watching AC/DC we were hoping that it hadn't peaked too soon, one thing that Saturday had going for it was that music started at 11am rather than at 3pm like Friday so there was more to see. We watched a few bands, the stand out ones were Atreyu, Flyleaf and Five Finger Death Punch, the latter being one of my favourites of the weekend and actually got stopped as there were too many people crowd surfing, haha. The Deftones were playing but I didnt really like them that much, I dont know why they just werent my thing. Later in the day 30 Seconds to Mars headlined the second stage and were a really great show before Rage Against the Machine headlined the main stage. They were really good and finished with a bang! Good times. Video Diary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWPlead7UA4&feature=related

Sunday

Already the last day and we were not flagging at all. The sleeping in a tent on the ground wasnt too bad and the music was really great. Nothing could go wrong, well so we thought. The day started off really well with us chilling out with a Guinness watching a couple of great shows. Slash was really good to watch and performed a couple of old Guns N Roses tunes which was a nice surprise. Then Billy Idol came on which took me back to my younger days of being in my dads car, good memories listening to his songs. BUT....then the rain came, all weekend it had been boiling but all of a sudden the heavens opened and we were soaked through, and I mean soaked. We had all had enough after about an hour of getting wet so trudged back to the tents to have a relax in the dry. I got changed and headed back to the arena as the headline act was Aerosmith and there was no way I was missing them. Luckily the rain stopped just as I started to walk back. It was well worth the walk as they were fantastic. Steve Tyler is one hell of a frontman and had the crowd doing whatever he wanted. The highlight was him singing 'I don't want to miss a thing'. What a way to end the weekend!! Video Diary - Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-1dUAShAsI&feature=related Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVJ8zXNyyEs&feature=related

So that was my weekend. The highlights were definitely AC/DC and Aerosmith with a nod to Killswitch Engage, Five Finger Death Punch and 30 Seconds to Mars.

I will go back to proper writing next time, lol. Check out the videos and if you are my friend on Facebook you can see a load of photos too.

Take it easy, Rock on....

G

Remember Where You Are In a Moment!

Hotter than an Eskimo in Barbados


As I am writing this it is currently 27 degrees outside, lush! The weather at the moment is putting everyone in such a good mood, well, most of the time. You still get the grumpy ones at work having a grumble that they cant be bothered to work on such a nice day, lol. It has been lovely lately, the weekend was especially nice and isn’t it so much easier to get out of bed earlier in the day when you see the sun is shining. If it was raining on Saturday morning I would have probably stayed in bed until 10 / 11am not being too fussed about doing anything, but I was up and about by 8 wanting to do things.





I have met little Josh now, he is a little star. The first time I met him I thought he wasn’t my biggest fan however as he cried – no wait – screamed pretty much the whole time I was holding him. On Saturday though I saw him a couple of times and he was as good as gold, sleeping the majority of the time I was holding him and being a good little fella when he wasn’t in the land of nod. Im sure that his mum and dad are extremely proud as he is a special little dude, although I have seen a picture of Joe when he was just born and he is a spitting image. Shelley did make me laugh the other day saying to Josh while pointing at Joe ‘This is what you are gonna look like in 25 years’. Haha.





My friend Sinead had a BBQ on Saturday which was great in the hot weather, Joe caught a few trout on Friday and gave me a half of one, so I took this to the BBQ and it went down a treat. Yum Yum.





Reviewer G


I have bought an app lately, on the recommendation from Lara called Talking Carl. If you have anyone you can show this to under the age of 10 then I would urge you to get this. Its only 59p although worth it really. It’s a funny looking character repeats what you say in a silly voice, you can tickle it, poke it and make it growl too. Heck who am I kidding this makes me and every adult I have shown it to laugh let alone a 10 year old. I am looking forward to showing it to Dylan next weekend when I head to Katies for her birthday / babyshower do.





Oh, Alan Wake, that game I was saying that I was getting, is excellent. Its great to play alone, in the dark, quite late at night. Im not going to lie it scares the hell out of me when there are bangs or someone just appears but that’s what I love, something that can give you a range of feelings and involve you a little more in the world they have created. Lara is playing it too which is cool. The special edition package that I got for it came in a big book presentation case which was a nice touch (Alan Wake is a writer). There were a few other cool parts in the special edition, like a soundtrack and a 144page back story book, a bonus disc but I will leave those until I have looked into them a bit more to let you know what I think.





6 Years, Over 100 Episodes – Just Brilliant


This morning was a very significant moment in my life, one of my favourite shows, well possibly my favourite ever show LOST had its final episode. This was planned before the series started that it would be the final season so I have been excited about this for a long time. I was originally going to download it and watch it as soon as I got in as it would be shown in America first. But when they announced that it was to be shown in unison with USA then it was a no brainer, my Monday morning was starting at 5am no matter what! Usually Mondays are hard to get up for, not today! My friend from work James came over to stay so we could get up and watch it like mega geeks but I don’t care. The funny thing is, I has set my alarm for 4:55am but by 4:45 I was wide awake, my body clock knew that this was a big day! Haha. So we watched, it ended and that was it, LOST was over!





I know that not everyone will think this or agree with me but I thought that ending was just perfect for the show! I am totally satisfied and even though not everything was fully explained it didn’t need to be. I was actually a little choked that this period in my life and something that I have been involved in for so long has come to an end. This will be one of those shows that people will talk about probably 40-50 years from now and look back at. I will always remember where I was and the feelings I had when I watched that final episode of possibly one the best TV shows of our time.


LOST - Thank you!!



So Question of the Week is

What is your favourite ever TV Series?

On that note I think I will leave it there for this post. Hope you all enjoy the sun.





G

I'm Buying a Hot Tub and Chernobly

Ok, Im starting this blog with massive congratulations to Joe and Shelly (Finally!!) as just before midnight last night baby Joshua joined us. At 2 weeks late he kept us all waiting but I know that they are over the moon. I can’t wait to meet him, I have already seen a couple of pictures that Joe put on Facebook and he looks like a real cutie (must take after Shelley in that department – sorry Joe I couldn’t resist). So the first of the 3 babies that were due to arrive this year is here now, there are 2 more due in the next couple of months with my sister Katie and her husband Tom expecting and also my cousin Dan with his girlfriend Helen. Babies Everywhere!!

Silly Name – Quality Film

On Saturday night Lara and I went to see ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’. I kid you not that is the name of the film! Haha. Having read some reviews on it before I knew that the writers wanted to get the essence of old school 80s comedies in an up to date film. How do they do that though? Well there are 4 main guys, 3 old friends and one guys nephew, one of them has a near death experience and they all decide to relive their youth by going back to a place they used to party in the 80s. They find that now it's all run down and a bit of a dive. Basically there is a hot tub at their place there and when they spill Chernobly (A made up Russian version of Red Bull) on this electric dial it sends them back to the 80s. From there it really does have some brillant comedy laughs quite often, with some definite quotable moments ‘Great White Buffalo’ haha. Also I have to give an extra shout to Crispin Glover for his bell boy/general hotel guy role as it had me in stitches some of the time. (Crispin Glover is George McFly from Back To The Future for those of you who aren’t sure). So all in all a good laugh and another recommendation for you all to see. I would say that a lot of people aren’t seeing this for the simple reason of the name of it, try not to let that bother you, it’s just a silly means to get the film set in the 80s and it is very enjoyable. G Approved!

While I am on the subject of films, I hope that people took the time to see Cloverfield when it came out in 2008, it was one of my favourites. I only say this because the legend that is JJ Abrams thought that up amongst other things like LOST, Fringe and Alias. I saw a trailer this weekend for a film called Super 8, not an awful lot known about it, it comes out next year but is set on the basis that a train transporting something from Area 51 crashes, the final shots show something smashing its way out of a steel container carriage, QUALITY!! Watch this space!

Remember a little while back I said about a game called Alan Wake coming out soon, well that soon is this Friday so by the time I write next I will have hopefully had some time to play it and will be able to give my thoughts on it. I have high hopes.

Season in 3 Months

Well, with all the moving I have done over the last 9 months – from Berkshire to Hemel Hempstead and then Hemel to Bedfordshire, I haven’t been able to join a football team this season as I didn’t know when I would be moving on. Now that I am settled in Maulden, I will be joining a team somewhere near me for next year. The season usually starts around August so that gives me some time to get fit. Trust me, I have lost a hell of a lot of fitness not being in a team this year. I have started running on my lunch break with a guy called Tom (Hi Tom, told you I would give you a mention, haha). We have done a few sessions now and the first one was an absolute killer, I felt as if I was going to be sick! Only 3 sessions in and already we have noticed a major improvement. We are working on some sprints and things like that with a bit of distance thrown in. I remember when I was writing my diary thing while I was travelling that I had a health kick to play football over there and that seemed to work out pretty well (22 goals in 19 games!) so hopefully with the effort we are putting in it will pay off. Now all I have to do is find a team round here with a good setup. A quick thanks to my cousin Martin on this who has given me a few tips too :)

Little side note – I still cant remember that funny thing I was going to write last week and then forgot. I can just remember that it was hilarious…. How rubbish!!

Question of the week – Which decade would you most have like to have been around to party in?

G

Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden

Howdy,

Well, how the hell is it May already? Over a third of the year in and moving as fast as ever towards the inevitable disappointment of a rainy summer. Before you know it we will be buying each other Christmas presents and I will have written this blog for over a year... One step at a time now G. lol. So what has been going on with me lately? Well the majority of my time has been spent worrying that Spurs might not get that final Champions League place, although that feeling of dread will not completely go away until at least tomorrow night. MASSIVE game against Manchester City, god I'm nervous. Anyway, enough of that for now, I have been a busy bee lately so this post should be a little more eventful than normal.

If Its Not Filmed In 3D, Bloody Leave It!

So as I wrote in my last post I was heading to see Clash of the Titans on the Friday, here is my little review on it! It wasn't bad.. Nothing to shout about and I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again, but it was good harmless fun. Loads of battles with mainly mythical creatures such a giant scorpions and a story that rattled along without pausing for breath. The characters were ok, nothing special although Ralph Fiennes was good as the God Hades. Don't get me wrong it wasn't hard to watch, just a bit Meh?! The one major gripe I do have however is that I saw this film in 3D. If you go and see this make sure to see this in standard good old regular 2D. The 3D was tacked on afterwards and in places it really showed. They had to move certain parts of the scene around and at points when two people were having a conversation they didn't even look like they were looking at each other! I think they have done this with a couple of other films lately and the result gets much of the same feeling from people. So I would say that if any film makers happen to see this (I bet thousands read it by the way) if you cant be bothered to film it in 3D, don't tack it on afterwards because it looks pretty pants!

I will be heading to see a few films soon as there are a lot coming out that look decent so I'm sure there will be a couple of reviews in the next blog or two. The one I am really looking forward to is Hot Tub Time Machine! How can you go wrong with a title like that for a comedy? Its a throwback to the 80s when comedy films were raw genius and yep, you guessed it, the hot tub takes them back there by accident. Iron Man 2 is also out and I will be seeing that first, should be good plain and simple action. The A-Team is out soon too, once again that is going to be switch your brain off fun. There is also a film coming out that may raise a few eyebrows, its called Four Lions and to explain it simply, its a comedy about terrorists! I bet that gets a few bad comments!! haha. I think this is going to be class though, Kayvan Novak (The Fone/Facejacker) is also in it and they are basically a bunch of bungling terrorists trying to cause havoc without much luck, there is even a white guy convert they rip the hell out of most of the time! Brilliant.

Why Cant All Weekends Have 3 Days?

So the bank holiday weekend has just been and gone, hopefully everyone had a decent one, i know I did. Saturday I went up to White Hart Lane with Lara to watch Spurs play Bolton, they won 1-0 with a wonder strike from Tom Huddlestone which was great. It was the last home game of the season so they did a few awards and a lap of honour which was nice. After that we headed to TGI Fridays with Lara's dad which was really nice.

Sunday we didn't do a great deal in the day before heading out to Covent Garden for a night out dressed as golfers! Lara's friend Katie had a birthday do and as per usual we all dressed up (See above). How many of you know what golf means? Check the title of this message for the answer. lol. It was a good laugh, they had a live band which was great and the MacDonalds at 3am was a right touch! One thing I will say is that it's a lot harder to stay up until 5am at 25 than it was when I was 18! 2am comes and I think a wall of tiredness just hits me, rubbish, lol. Monday was mainly a recovery day before the forced return to work the next day.

One thought, can a government change a weekend to be 3 days long? If they can do you think that I would be able to get into a position of power for the next election and use that as my main policy to try and win voters? I think I would be in with a chance!

When I started writing this I thought of something really funny, I thought to myself, ooo I will write that a little later on that will be great - what have I gone and done, bloody forgotten what I thought of now, brilliant, a right schoolboy error there. Maybe I will remember it soon.

So a couple of other little updates. Lara and I have now been living in our place for 3 months! I can't believe how quickly that has gone, it feels like only yesterday I was moaning about our muppet of a solicitor and hoping we would complete on time. I wrote last time about my best mate Joe and his wife Shelley being close to their due date, well the due date of April 26th came, passed and became a week ago in the blink of an eye, still no sign of the mini person yet. Surely by the next time I write I will know if its a boy or a girl, what his or her name is and most importantly - will it instantly be better than Joe at FIFA when it's born, I think so!

I can't think of anything else to write for now, so until next time here is my thought of the day - Who picks up a guide dogs poo? Surely not the blind man?

G

Happy Happy Joy Joy

So, I write this on the eve of the weekend, and I have actually realised that it is St Georges Day today….. Hope you all have a good one and Up The English!! Anyway… This weekend sees Tottenham play Manchester United in a massive game for the course of the season. As the title of this posting shows I have had much better time of things since I last wrote with the lows of Wembley, I couldn’t have expected what was to come next, Spurs have done me proud!

Best Week Ever!

How low was I after the Wembley semi final? Pretty damn low let me tell you, so what were my expectations of playing both Arsenal and Chelsea in the space a week straight after that horrible performance? Rubbish in all honesty. So can you imagine my happiness when we beat each of them 2-1, not luckily, convincingly!! We were just fantastic. It was great to watch them beat Arsenal, I was at home watching it with my neighbour Darren from downstairs with a few beers as we tore them apart. It was a great performance that would shut up the nation of Arsenal fans (aka Muppets). There was also a wonder goal from our young debutant Danny Rose, Goal of the Season without a doubt!! What could possibly be any better than that!! Well I will tell you what…. Sitting in the front row at White Hart Lane on the Saturday to watch the Spurs beat Chelsea too!! We were even better this game, it was just a perfect day. Absolutely everyone played brilliantly, the atmosphere in the stadium was incredible and John Terry the cheating scumbag was sent off! Awesome. I didn’t come down from cloud 9 for the rest of the day! LOVE IT!! To top it all off for the greatest football week of my life, Arsenal played Wigan on the Sunday and let a 2-0 lead slip in the last 10 minutes to lose 3-2. Remember that Spurs beat Wigan 9-1 earlier on this season, lol. On a side note, Gareth Bale is an absolute legend at the moment, what a player - WHAT A WEEK, I LOVE TOTTENHAM and so should you!!

Ready To Pop
At the time of writing this, Shelley (my best mate Joes wife, that’s Joe who is 2nd best at FIFA) is due to have their first child in the next few days. Im so excited so I cant imagine how they are feeling about it. I have known Joe since we were about 12 or 13 and have just seen each other grow up along the way, I have been the Best Man at his wedding and Im certain that he will be mine when I decide to get a ball and chain too. For us to be at the stage of our lives when one of us is having a baby is really a point I think I will remember for the rest of my days. So I hope, and I think Shelley will too, that by the time I write my next rambling that there will be another person in the world that is part of the family/friends.

I think I will leave it at that today to be honest, there isn’t much else going on in the world that I can talk about right now. Im going to see the new Clash of the Titans tonight so I will write about what I thought of it next time too.

Have a great weekend.

G

Joke Telling Machine

So another couple of weeks have flown by and it is already mid April – Can you believe that? Over 3 months ago it was New Years and the start of a new decade. Now we are a quarter of the way through the year and staring down the barrel of Summer. I must say that I am extremely happy with the run of good weather we are having lately. Is this just the powers that be teasing us before providing us with a Summer so rainy and grey that it makes last year look like a Barbados wonderland? I hope not.

Wembley Sucks!

Well, I write this in the wake of the Spurs Semi Final defeat to Portsmouth, It Sucks! End Of. Wembley on the other hand needs to sort a few things out considering that it is our national stadium, the so called pinnacle of sporting arenas for this country. Don’t get me wrong it is something spectacular to look at but there are a few small details that bring the whole place down. First off, the pitch. I have never seen more players slipping and falling over than I did in the 2 semi finals that were played there this weekend. In no way am I pointing the finger as the reason for the loss as Portsmouth had to play on exactly the same pitch but it was a disgrace, half the time it didn’t matter if a player had skill, he would stop (or try to stop) and the other player would fall over (or he would fall over and the other guy would take the ball), they may as well have played it on an ice rink. Secondly I think that the place is incredibly dangerous! With one of the main aspects of things being health and safety these days, you would expect one of the newest and most up to date stadiums to have the latest health and safety planning right? Well, when Portsmouth were awarded the penalty to make the score 2-0 I, like most other Spurs fans in there were up and on the way out – or so I hoped. The penalty was awarded with 3 minutes to play in extra time, 2 minutes were then added on top of this so 5 minutes after the penalty was awarded the game was over. Portsmouth then paraded around in front of their fans and left the pitch and this took at least 3-4 minutes. I was still there about 20 steps lower than my seat!! Now I was 1 row from the back and everyone was trying to leave at the same time (and believe me everyone wanted out of there asap!) so surely its not good for it to take almost 10 minutes to just get to where the block entrance is? After this I still had to go down about 15 flights of stairs to get outside of the stadium. To be fair it cant be easy to design all of this sort of thing, but if there was a real emergency such as a fire I would not be sat here writing this blog. Over 10 minutes to get from my seat to the outside of the stadium is crazy! Lets hope there are no security issues at that place while its fully stocked up eh? That just topped off a really Crap afternoon!

Future Thoughts

In my whole what’s good side of things I went to see Kick-Ass at the cinema. This film is everything you could ever want from a movie based on Superheroes, it doesn’t have all the silly back story or any radioactive spiders, this just puts it all out there and doesn’t care who thinks if it’s good or not. The action is mental, the majority of it coming from a completely nuts 12 year old girl killing people left right and centre with the title character as a bit of help here and there. Nicholas Cage put in his best performance since he was in Face/Off as a slightly deranged dad with revenge on his mind, based loosely on Adam Wests Batman from the 60s, Classic.

Also there is a game coming out for the Xbox that I am really looking forward to, it is called Alan Wake. It’s a hard one to describe but lets say for now that it is a psychological action thriller that is quite unique in its whole approach. I would check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNZT9QobIY if you can.

I have finished Assassins Creed II now. It became slightly samey samey towards the end with what you are doing, but the story was excellent the whole way through. For such a simple idea that memories of our ancestors are passed down into our memories through the generations without us knowing it really has done a great job of creating a story that will really immerse you from the start.

Family Guy

Over the last week or so I have had all of my immediate family over which has been brilliant. My Mum, Sister, Tom and my legendary nephew Dylan came over for an evening. Dylan told us a joke about muffins that was quality. I wont ruin it by telling it because the way he told it was excellent, he said it with such timing and style that he has just added top comedian to the already massive list that he could end up doing in the future. We also played a little on the Wii which was really funny too. Dylan lost a race on Mario Kart but at the end he was still happy which was good to see, lol.

My Dad and his girlfriend Elaine came up later in the week too, it was the first time he had seen our place and he gave some really nice comments which was brilliant to hear. We went for dinner at the White Hart next to ours as is standard when I have people visit and the food was awesome as per normal. I just need more people to come and visit me so I can go there more often!

For now I think that’s about enough from me. Make sure you ask Dylan to tell you a joke if you can!

G