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

No Snow.... but it's definitely Christmas

Hilarious times with the Managing Director

I can’t believe I have been writing these things for over two years. I know that this years posts have been a little low on the ground but to be honest that because there has been so much going on and I’m so busy each day at work that I just haven’t had the time, lol. New years resolution for 2012 – Try to keep a bit more on top of this and actually do more reviews on things rather than keep it as diary the whole time.
I actually had a chance to look back through a lot of my old posts, it was quite fun to read back to when we were making the offer on our place and then all the bits after it. It wasn’t so fun realising that I was getting a feeling of growing old as my 26th birthday approached when I am now well into being 27. Hopefully the internet will not explode when we are taken over by robots (it’s going to happen, have you not seen Terminator??) , that way in years to come I will be able to look back at these posts and all the old bits I did of travelling (they were on Facebook in a group I did when I went away -http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7361182921 but aren’t anymore) I just had a look and ALL of the old diary things I did on there are gone! How annoying. Luckily I have all of the American travelling ones in a book but I will have to search out my Australian ones. If anyone has them in their emails, as I sent them to people via email too, please let me know (this is where Im hoping my mum still has them somewhere). Anyway, onto to recent things.

Boy Genius and a Cheeky Little Monkey
On Saturday just gone we headed over to my Auntie Kath / Uncle Jons for a pre-Christmas gathering that happens every year. Unfortunately we couldn’t make last years due to the snow we had causing havoc on the roads, but this year was fine weather wise so off we went. As always it was great seeing everyone, Dylan and Mia were on form as usual and Dylan showed me his reading skills…. Unreal! He started school a few months back and is already able to read pretty much properly. When he gave me the Christmas card from him and Mia, he read it to me!! Amazing. Apparently he is the only one in his class on a certain set of books and even then there is nobody on the set below, he is steaming ahead… brilliant. He is asking what words mean and things now too – although I was stumped on one word, he asked what derby meant, as in ‘destruction derby’ as it said it on a game on my phone, I honestly didn’t know how to explain that one, haha. Mia was just hilarious again too. She was doing this thing that whenever she did something that was funny or cheeky, she would laugh in this funny way and double over holding her tummy, it was cracking us up. She is really mischievous as well, trying to grab every chocolate she could after some small gifts had been given out. I can’t wait to see them both again on Christmas day and give them all of their pressies.

Football With The Fam
One massive thing happening over Christmas is that during the day on Christmas eve, we have managed to arrange a proper football match that is a once in a lifetime occurrence. It has been sorted that for one day only, there is going to be a family football team made up of uncles, cousins, sons, brothers all from my dad’s side of the family. The fact that we have enough of us to field a full 11-a-side team doesn’t surprise me, it’s just incredible that we will all be on the same team from teenagers through to uncles in their 60’s. It’s going to be incredible and we are all crazily excited about it the game. It’s going to be recorded and my cousin Andy will have his wife Amy there taking photos too….. I can’t wait. I don’t think any of us will care too much about the result as this hasn’t happened before and probably won’t happen again with this group of people, Immense! I will let you know how it goes. The team photo will be something to keep hold of for sure.

Head On Collision With The Managing Director
We had our work Christmas do a couple of weeks back in Milton Keynes which was pretty smart. It was at this big marquee and all decked out in 20’s theme which was cool. There was some entertainment  and nice food but the highlight of the night was the bumper cars they had. They weren’t your usual carnival bumper cars where you have to all go in a circle and not really crash into each other, they were do whatever you want in whatever direction you want bumper cars which was mental. There were people driving all over the place and smashing into you from all angles. The best part was catching our managing directors eye while he was at the other end of the floor and heading straight at each other with our arms in the air waiting for the smash. It was just hilarious to do this with people that we have to be serious and work like for 99% of the time we usually see them. Fun night!

I haven’t seen any new movies lately so there is nothing to give my thoughts on there…. We have been watching more Scrubs which still makes me chuckle, only on Season 6 so have to see if that continues. We have been to Yo Sushi a lot over the last month or two, that place is just amazing. It’s that one where the food goes around on a belt between all the tables and you just take what you want. If there are things you want that aren’t going round or if you want hot things like soup or rice you order it and it comes really quickly. All the food is put on coloured plates/bowls which relates to the cost of that dish so its all tallied up at the end and nice and easy. Plus the food is always lovely in there too. I recommend ‘Prawn Korokke’ which is like a croquet potato with mini prawns in it cooked to order and its delicious. It’s not all sushi though so don’t let that put you off. KFC have a new burger out called the Supercharger which will need to be getting in my belly ASAP! Lol.

Other than that I’m going to leave it there for now. Have an awesome Christmas, don’t eat too much…. I will probably write another review of the year like I did last year between now and 2012 so until then, take it easy….

G