Sombreness

O've had afternoon off to go to a funeral of one of my grandma's friends, Joan who recent;y passed away. She'll be remembered for her constant smoking and gruff laugh. I remember being at her house when England beat Italy in the 1990 rugby world cup. I think it was 30-0. I also remember beating a relative of hers (might be her brother (Robert, a tall Guernsey ex-cop)) at Fives and Threes when I was about nine or ten. He recalled the victory when thanking me for coming which was nice.

Also today this happened to everyone's mate at work. He is gone now but will be long remembered. Morale is low, disbelief is high. I do have every confidence though, that it's not the last I'll see of him and he'll bounce back stronger and wiser from his experience with us.

Back Home

Just a moment after i'd finished the last post (and my first drink), everyone turned up and we all had a good night. I had a Sex On The Beach in Lush. The pool tables now gon and the former Edison's is trying to attract a classier crowd. They seemed to be succeeding until a small scuffle broke out but that didn't really affect us. We went straight to Jaks after that and met up with Shelley. I had pints. It was very busy due to the lack of Coli action. We then went for a pizza and I came home in a very cheap charging taxi. I've been reminded of many past experiences tonight like my whole life flashing before my eyes (well some of it). JJ also revealed the reason behind his non appearance last night which I feel it's not my place to tell the world about so I won't! Emma Bunton's pregnant and it's not mine. There's always Cameron Diaz. It's cold here but I'm playing poker so I can't go to bed yet. Someone just got a royal flush (1 hole card) which I have never seen before - amazing! I came a credible 4th out of 9 with drink not playing a major role. Haven't won for 31 games now which isn't good as it should be one every ten. Never mind - there's always last month :-)

It's 4am - bedtime

Pub post

Im out with kate, john, lucy, and dave tonight. Im
told theyve booked a taxi however im already here so i
found myself a seat and decided to post. Therell be no
paragraphs as i dont know how to do them on the mobile
so bear with me. The house is coming along well now
and we are hopefully less than a week away from moving
in. Finally. Phil and i went to ikea today. First of
all we parked in a neighbouring car park but realised
it wasnt ikea so went to their car park which was full
and there were so many people looking for spaces it
would have been impossible to get one. We then went
back to the original car park which had now filled up
and got busier and decided to give it up as a bad job.
Lesson learned - NEVER GO TO IKEA ON A WEEKEND. I went
to kates last night and watched pirates of the
caribbean which i understood this time and quite
enjoyed. Jj could not join us for a mystery reason.
This is the third weekend in a row Ive been out in
halifax after a night with rob where i met shelley,
brook and jess and last week with kate and belatedly
jj. I wonder if ill ever tire of jumpin jaks. Im a
little concerned huddersfield have yet to sign anyone
this transfer window but theres still 4 days to go. We
certainly need someone as were not as good as last
season and have let 2 players go. Im hoping their taxi
is not far away as i really cant think of much else to
say. Turning to rhyming couplets isnt good. Perhaps
ill update when i get home, depending on if theres
much to update on.

Gas, Inspired Guesswork

Just to add to our numerous problems with the house, our handyman was mending a floorboard and cut through a gas pipe which kind of made it smell and be cold until it got fixed. Both are now fixed and we're almost ready to move in.

The last three weeks at the quiz have seen JJ, Kate, her mum and myself get 81, 88, and 91 out of 136, 128 and 131 coming 6th out of 7, 5th out of 5, and 4th out of 6 respectively. My favourite question this week was in the theme round which was "film related" and went something like "Someone (not really important unless you are over 50) had a hit in 1960 with the name of a US state. What was it?" Indiana was my immediate guess out of the blue. The next answer was David Jones. Anyone got the theme yet?!

Not much else to say really as it's cold.

Chart Changes, People With Power

So the chart now includes downloads. That's ANY downloads rather than just CD releases as previously. This gave Chris Moyles an idea to see if people would download a song he suggested to get it into the top 40. On my very very long journey to Macclesfield last Monday, he kept playing snippets of Honey To The Bee by Billie (Billie Piper these days) which I believe stormed to number one in 1998 (correct me if i'm wrong) and she was at tht time the youngest ever solo female chart topper. So anyway, upon listening to the countdown this week it didn't look as if it had made it. Then suddenly "at Number 17 it's a reentry for Billie and Honey To The Bee".

These leads me on to people with too much much power. Does Moylesy have too much power over things. Jade Goody for instance "the 25fth most infliential person in the world (or was it Britain)". She's not racist, just really really thick. But she's managed to cause a stir by calling top Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, Shiwpa Poppadoom. Many have called it racism. Shilpa's mum came out and said "we don't call her Jade Fish n Chips" which is true but also silly. Then I watched Neighbours and Mishka (Lou's Russian ex girlfriend) returned only to be referred to by Janelle (Lou's new girlfriend) as "Babooshka". Surely this is exactly the same if not worse?

Anyway i'd love to rant further but it's quiz time.

Funny Door

On the way home from collecting my new laptop I spotted an odd looking front door.



No handle, letterbox, number or knocker. How do people get in or out? To spoil the fun of it, I drove past today and it had a handle and a letterbox on.

Maybe it's just one of those things where you had to be there.

Moving

That's how my room looked from just before Christmas when full and below is how it now looks after moving everything out of it on the second Sunday of the year.



Wardrobe, drawers, stereo, tv (already moved to make way for mess) and all the insides cleaned out and now in the new house. I was very cross when a draw fell out of the van onto the drive spreading papers everywhere. We will also not be getting the wardrobe out as it was a bugger to get in. Other than that everything went well. I haven't moved in yet though due to lack of space to put bed.

There'll be another picture later in the week but not another insight into how I live.

Reinspired

I've not posted for a while due to lack of inspiration and general business but I am glad to say I am now feeling reinspired. However tomorrow could be a very very long day as i'm supposed to be in at least 2 places at once for most of the day. I will be in (or at least travelling to/from) Macclesfield. I've printed routes from 3 different websites at got 3 different routes so that'll be an interesting journey. Perhaps i'll invest in Sat Nav soon.

2006 Into 2007, 2nd Place

I finished The Getaway: Black Monday on New Year's Eve which was quite easy and took a lot less time than I thought it would. I think it's the first PS2 game i've finished before my brother so that's good. It may have been sneaky doing it while he was on holiday but we've had it at least 18 months so he can't say he hasn't had chance. Anyway he's back now and the sound on my tv works. You have to turn the volume up as it's not connected to the surround sound. Duh!

Bill, Ed, Kate, JJ and I went to The Big 6 for new year. JJ filled a personality test in. It was more fun than it sounds. We missed the chimes on tv as Christmas lights were plugged in but did get to see the fireworks afterwards. Ed and I then had our 2nd annual Big 6 darts game. I had already shocked Bill (unbeaten in 12 months stretching over about 1 match I think) with a double 2 after only a few attempts however it was double 2 that proved illusive and after just 35 minutes, Ed hit double 2 to level the series. It wasn't as gruelling as last year and harder as I actually had an opponent after 30 minutes! Things then went much the same as last year after playing Space Invaders and Pinball and leaving about 3:15. Hopefully everyone else had a good new year too.

Looking back on 2006 it was an excellent year in some ways and a normal year in most others. It had it's ups and downs but this is the moment that is most likely to be reembered for the rest of my life.

Anyway it's 2007 and if there was a Big 6 quiz league out of all the teams we would be 2nd! There were 6 teams, many not at full strength, except us, who were at about 150% if very tired and we even had a 5 person alcoholless round at the bar (note - i've had no alcohol since 22nd December)! But with the same quintet as new year we amassed 86 out of 134 to claim 2nd place and 10 english pounds. I then watched the darts final i had recorded on Sky+ which led to 3:00 and left me very tired.

Not to worry, back at work now and sleeping in the evenings after many shopping trips and still transporting stuff to my house. Here's to good a 2007 for all of us!