Phil's 21st

Phil, John, Hailey Gary and I (apologies if anyone else was there, i'm writing this some time after the event) went out for Phil's birthday and the Champions League Final. Liverpool lost the Champions League Final to AC Milan but it was a nice moment when Dirk Kuyt scored an equaliser as John had a Kuyt shirt on and also looks like him! I think we watched that in Bar Eleven then we moved on to Yates' and kareoke was on. Someone did a nice YOu'll Never Walk Alone and spirits were lifted. Gordon sang New York New York too! After that we transferred to Huddersfield and drank some more before I left about 1:00 as I had work in the morning. Seemed like everyone had a good time though and now my brother is a real man so congratulations!

Dancin, Dancin and Racin

It's been a while folks. I've written four posts in draft so hopefully these can be finalised and published shortly but once again i've just been lacking inspiration. Also as you can see from the title of the post, when I first started writing this one, my laptop didn't crash immediately for a change but the letter G stopped working. I've decided it's a display driver issue with my laptop perhaps as well as something else. Blogger has added a new feature since my last post though that saves my post every minute which means I don't get really really mad when I finish a post and my laptop crashes. I think that a trip to be repaired is still required though since I haven't played poker for a month.

So anyway what's been going on? A couple of weekends back Rosie came up to Halifax so we had some wine at Kate's house but we didn't go out because it rained a lot so we had some more wine! It was good to see Rosie again but it already seems too long since :-(

Kate, her mum and I came 7th out of 11 in a crowded quiz a couple of weeks ago with 76 out of 140. I didn't know any of the music (title and artist) so can't really add to my list. We didn't go last week as Kate and her mum went to watch a beauty contest or something (sounds good) and the rest of us didn't fancy testing out if we were up to it. I had had a very busy weekend though so it was nice to have a night in for a change.

The busy weekend started on Friday when I went out with Rob ending at Jumpin Jaks and I seem to remember being on stage dancing for a bit again. Oh dear. I then got up early to take my car in for a free service. On Saturday evening I went to a Ceilidh at Todmorden Hippodrome with Kate, her mum and step-dad. This was more fun than I thought it would be and good exercise too. Me and Phil went shopping (rubbish) on Sunday and then I went to a race night with Kate and her mum which appeared a bit fixed but it was all for a good cause and not an expensive evening so I can't complain really.

Since then i've not done much (ooh except for Wednesday which deserves a post to itself). The highlight of this weekend has been the two big motor races. The Monaco Grand Prix was duller than ever but it's always tense watching the cars go round the streets of Monaco at amazing streets. Fernando Alonso won with the amazing young Brit Lewis Hamilton coming second. The Indy 500 which lasted about six hours due to a rain delay was eventually won by scotsman Dario Franchitti whom I've been a fan of for a number of years now. He's married to actress Ashley Judd for anyone that cares! Unfortuneately due to a thunderstorm in Washington, Sky lost the pictures five laps before the end so missed the big crash at the end and all the celebrations. Hopefully they'll be on the highlights show later. Luckily it's bank holiday again so that means another morning in bed which is where i'm going now.

A Small Tribute To Steve Irwin

I just watched a documentary on The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. It's sad that he died as he was such a kind, nature loving family man and i felt myself welling up at the end with a lump in my throat. Crikey! I pulled myself together and decided that the quote at the end should go on the blog - so here it is:-

"Whatever you want to do in this world it is achievable, the most important thing that i've found that perhaps you could use is be passionate and enthusiastic in the direction you choose in life and you'll be a winner."

Tipping Debate

I've not had a debate since The Great Video Replay Debate in January 2005 so here's a good chance for people to air their opinions on the sometimes controversial issue of tipping.

Back in April was the annual student society committee meal at Lounge 68 in Huddersfield. Tom, Mel, Sam, Emily, Cheryl and I were those present and it would be a farewell meal for Sam and Emily who moved on to all things Leeds.

We had the meal and a fair bit of drink (not as much as last year thankfully) and then received the bill. The food wasn't of a very high standard and the menu was quite poor too. We also felt the service could also have been better. The bill came to £182.15 Question 1: Tip or no tip? Answer: We decided to pay £190 tipping a small amount out of politeness rather than anything else.

They wouldn't let us pay by cheque so I put it on my card and we were just about to leave when the waiter came over and told us that he'd undercharged us for a drink so we owed about £3.20 more. Question 2: Now what course of action should be taken? Answer: We considered running but weren't really near enough the door and would've had to go past the till so in the end we decided to explain to them that we had overpaid for our bill and that as it was their mistake it should come out of their tip. They weren't very happy with this and tried to make us pay but we refused to back down and they let us leave.

So, did we do the right thing? Discuss!

Is It A Bird?

This morning me and Phil both heard birdsong coming from the kitchen. It continued this evening. We've looked outside and can't here or see any birds and there is no bird trapped in any cupboard. There is a tiny vent but surely one can't have flown in there (being as wide as my little finger). We've called the "bird" Ruud because it is a rude bird always interrupting our conversation and we'd just played as Holland on PES6. More updates if the chirping continues!

Bank Holiday Weekend

While snooker is finishing and my laptop is working, i'll write a short summary of the weekend.

On Friday night I went to Halifax with Kate, JJ and Caroline where I had a couple of pints and a couple of cocktails before going onto the usual before I got completely drunk. As usual when round town, I ended up bumping into a few old faces and it was really nice to see Liz again (and Caroline and Sally too) and also Terry in Maine Street. I've not been to Maine Street since the fire but it's exactly the same except there's no entrance to the Coliseum anymore which is due to reopen in August/September under a different name whereas Maine Street's future remains unconfirmed.

On Saturday I went to The Crucible (see posts before and after this one). Yesterday the same quartet as Friday went to see Spiderman 3 which wasn't a very social occasion but at least it got me out of the house. The film had some good action sequences in but the love story side of it was rather immoral and cliched. Pretty good though as it should be being the most expensive film ever made. Also than i've ever seen - £6.25 - I remember going to see The Full Monty at the ABC Cinema in Halifax (now Jumpin Jaks of course) and it costing £2.80 I think. Just shows i'm getting old.

Today i've slept and watched snooker. I should be sleeping now but snooker is still going. Yawn. Can't miss the end can I?!

World Snooker Radios

I went to see the final session of the semi-final between Stephen Maguire and John Higgins on Saturday with Wood. Maguire was 14-10 up but Higgins came back and won 17-15 however the atmosphere is not how it used to be.

This is due to about 70% of the audience (guesstimate) having World Snooker Radio earpieces on. They are available for £5 and pick up the BBC commentary. However, if people have them turned up below a very low volume level, they can be heard throughout the Crucible arena which makes the auditorium not silent anymore and must be very off putting for the players. Perhaps they should only be sold to people not on the first five rows or some other solution should be reached because this is one technology upgrade I think is a good idea but needs to be implemented better.

The time now is approaching 10:30 and it's 14-12 in the final. There's a lot of snooker left in this one and my estimated finish time is about 1:20 but that all depends on the score. There's going to be a lot of tired people in the morning. Perhaps it would be better to start the final session at 7pm like all other final sessions during the tournament.

Dogs, Hair, Shaymen Stay Up

Last Friday the CASSH (Chartered Accountants' Student Society of Huddersfield) went to the dogs at Sheffield's Owlerton Stadium. It was a poor turnout from my work but credit should be given to me and Tom for going despite everyone else being an unsociable bunch. A far cry from the good old days. Anyway, everyone who went seemed to have a good time. I lost the first eight races I bet on but luckily won the 9th and last to reduce my losses to just under £30.

After getting my haircut last Saturday before going to snooker, I decided to push the front up though it can't really be seen on the picture in the previous post. i've been trying to post a picture on Facebook but my Bluetooth needs reinstalling to work with Vista which I haven't really had chance to do due to the random crashing of my laptop. I digress. I put it up again for work and got so much attention couldn't really change it back. In answer to the most popular question, i'm not trying to impress any specific person, just trying to become less "boring" and give myself a little bit of style. It wasn't meant to last really but it is doing so I should see how much difference it makes tomorrow when i'm out in Halfax. I'm told I will pull all the girls. A scary thought!!!

I went to see Halifax Town beat Stevenage 2-1 to ensure their Conference status for next season last Saturday. It wasn't a classic - as expected - and they ended up five places outside of the relegation zone so comfortable at the end of the day. The funniest point came five minutes from time when the announcer asked supporters to refrain from running onto the pitch at the end of the match. This prompted a chant of "On the pitch, on the pitch, on the pitch, on the pitch, on the pitch, on the pi-itch" for the last five minutes before about a quarter of the 2200 ish fans ran past the about 10 stewards onto the pitch! It was my first time watching Halifax since the play off final last season though I got the impression I hadn't been missing much.

It was just Kate, JJ and I at the quiz this week but we did very well (especially me for once) getting 91 out of 142 coming 6th out of 7. I'm thinking my music credibility maybe slightly recovered with Barry White's The First, The Last, My Everything being the 5th choice. I kmight give it a miss next week. It depends how the snooker is going.