Its been a while...

Hiya!

So it was Septemeber the 18th last time I updated properely which is nearly ten days ago!

What wonders I must have seen! What things I must have experienced!

Well, actually I've been pretty ill. A cold/flu thing that made me feel like I was about to lose my entire bodyweight in sweat and nose gunk, but I'm sure you don't want to hear that. I came back to work after the rugby with a sore throat I blamed on singing land of my fathers at the top of my voice. I'm so naive sometimes. I had been chosen as the host form of the father of all colds, yea the template, the arch-cold to which all lesser colds must pay homage.

So through the fug of the cold I had to say goodbye to all my work colleages. That was a strange experience. I had been at the old place for nigh on four years which I think is the longest time I've been in one place excepting for school. I sent an open invite to the pub this friday night we'll have to see who's able to make it and who wants to indeed. One of my close friends at work left two weeks ago so its starting to feel like the end of an era. I don't regret going, I think it was my time to move on. I just hope the new job is everything its cracked up to be.

So said "Goodbye Everybody!" on wednesday then jetted off to Cardiff on the Thursday with Andy Llion and Vicky, to watch Wales spank Japan which was actually good fun, then headed out into Cardiff proper. Note to self, the jukebox in the Queens Vaults is possibly the best in the city.

Got nicely drunk again, which did my cold no end of good, had a truly awful breakfast which everyone else really rated making it much much worse. Did some hungover shopping which is never a good idea and then caught the train home. All good.

Saturday I traveled with my wife and mother to London where Jane and Wez were having an engaement party. Met some fantastic people. When you start having a random chat with a drunk twenty year old and he annouces his favourite Stones song is "Gimmie Shelter" its hard not to give him a big manly hug. The kids are alright.

Got into random film chat which spun off into religion and nobody got upset or throwing fatwas around so that's got to be a good thing. Jane and wezs friends and family are all lovely which shows excellent taste on their part. We stayed with Paula and Joan who are just the most lovely couple EVER! the day after the party my uncle pete brought down our wedding video and everyone was in tears. With emotion at first and then at the sheer quality of Eds best man speech. It was totally superb.

Came home on the sunday on a bus from Crewe to chester with a bunch of drunk football fans. It was hard not to feel threatened but thats the way it goes I suppose. They didn't do anything just chanted (I couldn't use the word 'sung') obscene football songs and made everyone feel very uncomfortable. Thats the real difference between football and rugby. The violence in rugby is all on the pitch, supervised so the supporters don't feel the need to kill each other as battle has already been done on the turf. Football is, to be frank, a game for girly girls and their girly boys so the fans seem to feel the need to fight for the honour of the overpaid ballet dancers who kicked a ball around for a bit.

(I actually play football but I wouldn't bother watching it on TV anymore, but thats a post in and of itself.)

So then we hit this week of leisure, monday was all about the housework and buying a few bits and pieces for starting work on 1st October. Tuesday was kind of a dead loss, Yesterday Em took off so we spent most of the day being lazy and then I jetted off to my own exclusive premier of HAlo 3.

Now listen, if you like games Halo, 3 is okay. But the way its being presented on TV is this new thing that will get everyone into games.

No.

It does what it does very well but we have seen it all before many many times before (Return to castle wolfenstein anyone?).

I had a good laugh with my gaming mates, teaming up and taking on the baddies but thats all it really was. The online play was quite fun, but we had to mute everyone that wasn't in the room with us. There only so many times you can hear yourself being described as some who has intimate relations with donkeys by a person whose testicles are yet to descend.

Anyway thats you upto speed. peace out.

.

Dear Blog,
Sorry for not writing sooner, its been so busy what with shifting jobs, the rugby trips and having an industrial strength cold.
I will let you know all about it as soon as i can.
Love,
Me.

long day.

Yesterday was a very, very long day. After a night of rugby, beer and random chats with Ulster fans in an all night kebab shop Sunday night I hit the hay at about 11PM only to be rudely awakened by by alarm a scant 5 hours later. Let me assure you that my blood was still rich with Brains extra cold, Donner kebab and some sweet sticky liquor that was forced upon me and into my digestive system.

 

So I boarded the train at 5AM still reeling with the bonhomie of the night before. A four hour train journey later I was ready for the longest day of work ever.

 

To say I was less than productive would be an understatement. After my lunch break they had to poke me with a stick to rouse me from my lunchtable slumber.

 

For weird reasons I had to be in the office but I made it abundantly clear that I would be in cold turkey from a weekend of joyous hedonistic experience.

 

Cardiff was, as ever, an epic experience. The streets teemed with laughter, impromptu touch rugby games and a friendliness that the soccer authorities can only dream of.

 

And I get to go back on Thursday for the Wales Japan game.

 

Hopefully my throat, red raw with singing, will have recovered by then!

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Fiji vs Canada

So Fiji vs Canada was won by the Fijians but was eclipsed by the drinking in the pubs afterwards. Any game where standing your round with the oposition fans is more important than the result is good for you. Drunk now. Goodnight.

travelblog: Cardiff rugby

We lost, but we lost <i>well</ì>. This is a difference thats lost on some people so i'll try and explain. There's no shame involved if your team played well, took its chances yet still were defeated by a superior side. This 'winning is all that counts' attitude does no favours to anyone. Although, over the years my country has crafted losing into some kind of artform.

It was also interesting to note the difference in the Aussie fans themselves, there were a couple in front of us who were funny erudite people enjoying the game and having a chat with us. Marvellous.

Behind us, however, lurked a different barbie of shrimp. First off he smuggled a bottle of champagne into the ground. How, I didnt want to know but he was walking kinda funny. He was the most myopic blinkered fool I may have ever met seemingly with a two phrase vocab
"Smash him!" when we've got the ball, and
"Hands!" when they have. Now Wales is my team and I back them 100%. But when a Welsh player commits a foul, it's still a foul, i dont expect them to be let off due to their Welshness! And his little nickname scheme was intriguing. Gregan became Gregan-y, Jones became Jones-y and Fortesque-Smythe became... Well you get the picture. Basically he was a soccer yob from a country without a real soccer team. Not all Austrailians are like this but its obvious to see where the unfortunate stereotype comes from.

Oh and I almost forgot! We had a minutes silence to remeber Sir Tusker-Watkins, a great servant of the Welsh game. There was 45 seconds of utter quiet and then some idiot shouted a call and a bunch of fools called back. There was shocked silence for a second or two, this sort of thing does not happen at the rugby. And then a single clear voice in a rich valleys baritone rings out, audible to 72,000 people;

"Quiet! Philistines."

Are you G.A.G.A?

Anyone remember the bulletin boards from when the net was young and so were we?

 

Remember everyone used to sign their messages G.A.G.A.?

 

Ten points to the first person that tells me what it means.

 

(And no using Google now. I'll know. I will!)

The small rouge one.

Had a dream about Red Dwarf last night.

 

Bizarrely I was in it then I was watching it.

 

Red Dwarf was my group of friends secret language for a couple of years, every episode was watched to the point where the tape would wear thin, dialogue was learnt and quoted precisely mannerisms aped etc etc. There were penalties for mis-quoting by even a syllable.

 

I remember one night Jane and Craig spent the entire night testing each others knowledge and depth of geek-ism.

 

All this gets away from the fact that Red Dwarf was frighteningly funny. The writing had a sharp bitter flavour, full of the pain of wasted lives and bad situations.

 

Even the 'hero' was a gross out slob whose behaviour could very, very rarely be called heroic. Surrounded by a narcissistic human descended from a Cat, A hologram of the most annoying man in the universe(dead), A senile computer and an Android that only gained pleasure from housework it was a most unlikely crew to explore the out rim of space.

 

But we loved them.

 

So go on dig out some old red dwarf and laugh yourself stupid.

 

 

 

 

Smoke me a kipper...

honeymoon,

The pictures from the honeymoon are now on my flickr account, top left.

 

And yes they are all clean, I think.

EDIT: Now also all the right way up and with captions!

Still clean though.

rugby

Thank God for that! Wales 42 Canada 17 although the first half was very close. Celebratory beer now.
Phew.

Sport

Professional sportsmen are normally just that. Professional. They take winning and losing on board and they understand that its not the end of the world.

Thats why most aftergame interviews are so dull "They played well we just weren't as good etc etc etc". DULL with a capital DULL.

Unless you're a Serbian Basketball player....
Note: Please do not watch THIS if you are even slightly offended by bad lanuage. This guy could make Al Swearengen embraassed

facebook

facebook is starting to make me uncomfortable. My friends and family are linked on there and that's a good thing. It lets me stay in touch with the people I care about.

However I've just had a friend request from someone I haven't spoken to in over sixteen years and have no desire to. We were friends in that way you have to be friend with some poeple at school but as soon as graduation day rolls around you're like "Phew! Thank God I never have to talk to that dozy knob-waft again!".

And then sixteen years later he wants to be your friend... Hmmmm. I'll give it a miss thanks.

The Question is 'Who else can find me?'

As a child you're told that lying is naughty and wrong and that you should never do it.

 

So then you're an adult and told that lying is part of a corporate strategy.

 

Which is true?

 

update

100% done and 400 words under limit. Sure i can bulk it out with some 'therefores', 'meaning thats' and 'verilys'.

Well maybe not the verilys. It isn't on 14th century literature.

essays

Well ive answered roughly 65% of it.

Wait! that should read ive roughly answered 65% if I get a wriggle on tonight i might be able to have my weekend of rugby after all!!

It does mean not seeing the thursday badminton crowd who all made such an effort for our wedding but ill make it up to them next week.

Back

Back to find a mountain of post and about a gazillion thank you letters to write.

Oh, and in the post? Another essay due in by the 25th september, however due to work and family commitments I'm going to have to post it on the 19th. thats right, I have a fortnight to create the perfect 5000 word essay and post it out.

Its at times like this that I hate Michael Moorcock who'd consider less than 25000 words a 'slow' day.



(Edit: And I do not begrudge the thank you letters one jot, there are a great many people who am I espically grateful to, and the only way to really express that thanks is to send a letter.)

travelblog

Got a touch drunk last night so suffered this morning. Took a walk around the canal which runs for a mile and a half stretch underground through the busiest parts of Paris. There's so much of this city thats hidden, the metro, the canal, the catacombs. Whats on the surface is just for show, the beating heart of Paris is there, you just need to search a bit harder to find it.

travelblog

So you gamble. You stake everything on the next song to play on the jukebox. If it's great you stay, if it's shite you go home.

And "She sells sanctuary" by The Cult comes on.

I tell you, some nights the Gods are on your side.

(If you dont know the song buy it on itunes. If you hate it I will refund you.)

travelblog : drinking with ones wife in Paris.

Please note, some Frenchmen take it as a point of honour to try and chat up ones wife RIGHT IN FRONT OF ONE.

Also, slapping them down and shouting "Agincourt, bitch!" is frowned upon.

travelblog : Napoleons Tomb

Napoleons Tomb is crass and dreadful. Its a gaudy attempt to deify a mortal man through the use of marble and gold. Its the kind of place Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton would love to be interred. The self grandising is sickening with no hint of restraint or humility.

The rest of La invalidies museum is wonderful with an excellent collection of arms and armour and a genuinally moving 1st and 2nd world war display.

Just avoid the tat-fest that they've erected to one of their greatest leaders. I nearly vomited.

travelblog

lourve: overrated
musee de Orsay: awesome
eiffel tower:nice place for a picnic
rue de mofftard:nice place to buy the ingrediants for a picnic
place de innocents: where all the cool kids hang out
st michel:where all the touroids accumulate