Tattoos, Birthdays and Nearly Paris

First stage of the tattoo, lots of work to be done yet though

Less than a month since the last blog, check me out!! Lol. There has been a few things going on lately and I suppose I should put them down on paper (or parade them on the internet) for people to have a look at.

Now, biggest news and the thing I was most excited about last time was my latest tattoo, so this had to be my main photo for the blog. On the 4^th February I headed to Woody’s Tattoo Shop in High Wycome to have a tattoo done that I have been waiting a long time for. I booked it in November as the waiting list for the artist I wanted was so long, so it was a bit of a wait but I didn’t mind the delay though. I figured that if I was going to have such a big art piece done that had a lot of detail and input from the artist needed on the design then I was going to make sure that I had a brilliant artist to do it. The artist is called Jammes and he has done a couple of tattoos for my friend Sean before so I know that his work is a bit special. The link to his page on the Woody’s website is here - http://www.woodystattoostudio.com/Tattoo%20Gallerys/Jammes%20Galleries/JAMMES9.html - you can actually see one of Seans on the left below Laurel & Hardy. Anyway, I went in there on the Saturday morning with the pictures / writing and after a good chat with Jammes we changed the whole set up of the tattoo, completely for the better though. I especially like his idea to invert the writing at the bottom of the tattoo. I was getting tattooed for about six hours and I have to say that god damn it hurt. The first couple of hours weren’t so bad and it was just a bit of a sting but towards the end of the day it was taking its toll and my whole arm was feeling sore and throbbing. The most painful parts were on the inside of my arm and on the top inside of my shoulder (the top of the shoulder might have been because it was the last thing he did and I had probably hit my limit by then). But anyway, what I have already is an absolutel masterpiece but I have the second session booked for April to finish it off. Jammes thinks there will be about another five hours to do in the second sitting which will probably hurt again, haha. There is a lot of filling in, shading, highlighting and shadows to be done to what I already have so the photo above is not near finished yet. I can’t wait to get it finished off.

The Saturday I had the tattoo was a part of one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. On the Friday night I headed down to Maidenhead to meet up with my friend Sean (the one with the tattoos above) and we headed to the gym before chilling at Pizza Express for a while. We played some FIFA into the night and I lost the first game but currently have a winning streak of about eight or nine games going, which is awesome as Sean is pretty damn good at it. Saturday all day was tattooing and then off to Joe and Shelleys in the evening for a nice dinner and hanging out which was nice as we don’t get to do it as often as I would like. I was feeling completely drained after the tattoo though which was a bit of a shame. Then on the Sunday morning after the snow we were mucking about in the garden with their 1 yr old son Josh which was a laugh. About mid day Joe and I went to meet up with our mate Nick, who we have known for years but I haven’t seen in quite a while. It was great to have the three of us hanging out as it was like old times. Hopefully we can do that again soon. Then back up to Bedfordshire where Lara and I headed out for a Yo Sushi (again, we love that place). So all in all a quality weekend.

The weekend before that was my nephew Dylans 5^th birthday so we drove to my mums on the Saturday to stay the night, played a game (Which I won, Booyah!!) and then headed to my sisters on the Sunday for the birthday party. There were kids everywhere and it was completely mental but it was such a good day. I loved watching Dylan opening his presents and to top it all off, the whole day he was wearing the onesie I bought him for Christmas which was awesome!

I mentioned last time that I might be going to see my mate in Paris, Nico, well I booked that up and that is this weekend actually so I’m pretty excited to head out there and see him. We used to live together in Hemel Hempstead for six months and got on really well so Im looking forward to seeing him again. Also I am looking forward to doing a couple of touristy things and seeing what the Paris nightlife is like too.

Other than that I have the Rammestein concert coming up on the 24^th Feb which I know will be absolutely out of this world. Hopefully I will be able to get some photos / videos but to be honest I will probably be so busy throwing myself about like a lunatic that I will probably forget, Haha. There are a couple of photos below to show why they are just an incredible live show!!

I think that’s about all for now, Fringe has started back up again and is becoming more incredible with every episode. Do any of you watch that? If not, you should.

Take it easy

G

2011 Review & Happy 2012

Family Football - Immense

Happy new year to everyone!! How far into the year can you go before saying happy new year becomes just a little bit daft? I’d say at the end of the first week is when it's really ok to still say it so yeah, in writing the Happy New Year at the start of the sentence, I have made myself an annoying twerp, haha.

Christmas Jumperama

So hopefully everyone had a brilliant Christmas, mine was awesome. Christmas eve I went out with the guys I went out with the year before although this time we didn’t have a megaphone with us. This year we all went out wearing Christmas jumpers which just looked hilarious. We ended up having a fair bit to drink, meeting up with the girls through the night and having an awesome time. Roll on Christmas Eve 2012.

RED TEAM!

Family Football

I have to write about the Christmas Eve football match with my family too. As I mentioned before, we had arranged a game where our whole 11-a-side team and subs would be made up of family members from my dad’s side of the family – cousins, uncles, brothers, dads. It was just amazing to be on the same pitch as everyone, some who had never even played football before but did really well! It was a real shame my dad was away on business as it would have been amazing to play in a game with him too. Some were in their 60s and there were 16 year olds too. We played against a proper team and ended up losing 6-5 but the game was great. You could see some of the older players were definitely decent when they were younger as they were a step ahead even while being slow. I managed to score as well which was a great feeling. My uncle Jon videoed the game too so I have been able to watch it back which is nice. Overall it was one of the best experiences I have ever had and definitely the most enjoyable game of football I have ever played. Brilliant! Obviously this had to be the main photo for the blog this month, haha.

Presents and Stuff

On the Christmas day Lara and I woke up and did our pressies which was cool, then we started the long drive down to my mum and Roys place in the New Forest. Katie, Tom, Dylan and Mia arrived just after we did so we had most of the day with an extremely excited and happy four year old and an 18month old that seemed to love getting clothes (who would have thought that?!). One of the best things was Dylan picking up a present from me and Lara and then coming to say thank you with massive hugs, BEFORE he had opened the present, lol. We got Dylan some HexBugs which are such a laugh to play with, we played for about 2 hours and made up stupid rules and stuff. Mia was really lovely on the day too, she kept coming for cuddles which was nice, although she did bring me a Brazil nut which would effectively close my throat but I’m sure she meant well, haha. So yeah, Christmas day with everyone was absolutely amazing, and I got two Onesies which are just the best things since sliced bread!! We even played some games after my sister and the clan had left.

The Onesie with Dylan in his too and Mia

Christmas week was fairly manic too, we went to Lara’s dads on Boxing day and had some nice food, some games and watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I wasn’t sure about this movie at first but after watching it I was thinking that it was one of the movies of the year. Such a great story, paced well and as it is a prequel it really does a great job of setting everything up for the movies made before. It’s not all action so don’t let that put you off watching it, it has real depth and is well worth your time. Later in the week we headed to Lara’s mums place for some amazing curry cooked by James. Some more drinking was done and it was another great day over the Christmas break!

Goodbye 2011

Then New Years Eve rolled around and we had another house party at our friend Katie’s house which was the scene of the dog food eating / drunken state from two years before, haha. I even had a special bucket ready for me with my name on, haha. This was another great night and I managed to get through it without being a mess or sick which was nice. Lara let the team down with a visit to chunder town though, haha. There were drinking games with the big glass where Pat managed to beat his six minute record with a time of about five minutes and 30 seconds – keep improving!! The New Year rolled in and we danced to some Scottish stuff too which was a laugh. Good times.

The Graham bucket

Now it’s pretty much back in the swing of normality again. Back to work which has turned out to be busier than ever, although that does make the days go fast which is nice. I have started the wheels rolling on booking up Dans stag do for June which should be great – off to Newcastle! I have just over two weeks until I get the tattoo so I will be putting photos of that up when I have it done. I might be going to see my French mate Nico in Paris at some point in March for a weekend so that should be cool, although the Eurostar is a cheeky mo fo and charges three times more to get back from Paris than it does to get there….

Last year I did a ‘Top Things of 2010’ list so here is my one for 2011:

Top Album: Ed Sheeran - + (Plus)

Top Song: Labrinth featuring Tinie Tempah – Earthquake -

Top Film: Super 8 (Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a close second)

Best Actor: Kevin Bacon – In X Men First Class (brilliant old school villain)

Best Actress: Elle Fanning (The young female actress in Super 8)

Top Xbox Game: Gears of War 3

Top Playstation Game: I haven’t played any this year so I’m just saying Heavy Rain because of how incredible it is!

Top TV Series: Fringe

Top TV Show: The Young Apprentice

Top Moment of 2011: The Christmas Eve football match with the whole 11-a-side team, and subs, made up of my family members. What an absolutely incredible experience that was!

Other than that I think that’s about it for now. Have a few things to do over the next couple of weeks so I will try and write a bit more often (as I always say, haha)

Peace

G