Bloody Hell that was quick.....

Well, it only seems like yesterday that we were wishing everyone Merry Christmas last year. I can definately say that it was warmer this time last year, but it probably is just as warm in Thailand this year too.

Just winding down now at work (as opposed to winding everyone up!) and hopefully only an hour to go before we're out of here.

Merry Christmas to everyone and no doubt see you in the New Year, where there will be more incessant ramblings from me and more sensible blogs from Michelle.

If you can't beat them, join them....

Well it's getting close to the end of the month again and one of us needs to write a blog. (EDITOR'S NOTE - Michelle did actually write a blog the other weekend, but I threw a tantrum and made her delete it. Not exactly freedom of speech and democracy is it. Anyway I went into a strop but we’re over it now. What was the blog about I hear you ask? Well it was about my obsessive compulsive disorder of buying gadgets and electronic equipment which as you know is completely unfounded and probably potentially libellous. Anyway we settled out of court so let’s move on!!)

This leads me neatly on to the topic of this blog..... yes, yes, yes ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND GADGETS (hahahahaa). No not really. While we’re on the subject though, I just wanted to categorically say that I have bought my last gadget (of this year anyway) so you can all rest easy at night. I finished off my collection with a lovely black Onkyo HTX22HD 2.1 Digital Surround System. I decided that rather than spending about £800 on a fully operational 5.1 Surround system I’d go for the more compact one. It has all these features; 2 HDMI inputs, 1 output (with support for up to 1080p, Deep Color, x.v.Color, Lip Sync, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, SACD, and multichannel PCM) but I don’t know what any of this means; Stewart does and he said it’s cracking. Anyway the main thing is that now films sound really good, we don’t need to watch them with the subtitles on anymore, there’s no wires trailing all through the house which would have been the case with a 5.1 system AND most importantly X Factor in HD will now be accompanied by cinema quality sound! (Is that really a bonus?)

Oh by the way, we also ordered a wardrobe and a dresser a few weeks ago, too. It’s pine, has two sections, one triple and a single, hand-made in Beverley, sports 4 HDMI inputs, has a built-in upscaling DVD player, has Audyssey Dynamic EQ for loudness correction and you can hang your coats in it. Obviously not all of the “features” are present, but I’ll let you decide which ones I’ve added.

Well it’s about 7 weeks to our holiday to Sri Lanka and it can’t come soon enough! It seems ages since we went anywhere and it will be a well earned rest. I’m not sure 2 weeks will be long enough though really; last time we went away abroad we had 10 months to do what we wanted. I’m really looking forward to the food too. Obviously being so close to India, curry features heavily on the menu, in fact it will probably feature in every one of my 4 meals a day. Yes, that’s right, I eat 4 meals a day, so what? Interestingly enough, Michelle has now ordered us both a Nintendo Gameboy from eBay. I think Michelle has just got sick and tired of watching me play LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 and thought if you can’t beat them join them.

Anyway, just a short one from me today, I’ll try and think of something interesting to say next time, and I promise I won’t mention technology once!

Adios

I haven't slept with your Grand-daughter...

Well for no other reason than making sure we have a blog dated in October I thought I’d waffle on for a bit. Again, most of you probably won’t like this one, as no doubt at some point I’ll be talking about my new iMac, but heyho.

So, Brand and Ross, what’s all that about? I’m pretty sure the media (or especially the Beeb) hasn’t got itself in this much of a frenzy since Princess Diana was viciously killed by MI5 on the orders of Prince Phillip.... sorry killed in a car that was driven by a p*ssed up Frenchman, who had been paid by Prince Phillip to make it look like an accident! Anyway, you get the picture. Now personally I can’t understand what all the fuss is about. Anyone who hasn’t been in a coma for the last 5 years will know that Russell Brand has a certain “brand” of humour and to be honest if you don’t like it, don’t listen to his radio show. Most of the complaints have come from people who have subsequently read/heard about the radio show and weren’t even listening to it at the time. What’s the point of complaining about it, if you didn’t actually hear it at the time and therefore were not offended at the time. What a farce! Andrew Sachs (it’s ok , he’s from Barcelona!) didn’t seem that phased by it when he was interviewed on TV, again by the BBC, and he said he wasn’t after revenge. So why does the British, or more accurately the English public (I can’t see the Irish, Scots being interested, and no one cares what the Welsh think anyway) jump on the bandwagon and lose the plot. What a joke. I don’t particularly like Jonathon Woss, that’s not a spelling mistake, that’s how he says it, and only watch his show because it’s on BBC HD (cracking picture). He constantly interrupts his guests to make some witty remark and to be honest; most of his guests seem to get annoyed with him for doing so. Excluding the likes of Ricky Gervais, Noel Gallagher and I think even Russell Brand has been on the show, who have a bit more about them and give as good they get. Even “The Ramsey” , whose restaurant we dine in quite often LOL, got annoyed with him and made some joke about Woss having a small c*ck. At least it shut him up, Woss I mean not Wamsey, sorry Ramsey, even I’m doing it now!

It will be funny if Woss loses his £6m a year job at the Beeb, but to be honest I don’t think he gives a sh*t. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, especially in entertainment, and all of the involved parties, even the Satanic Slut (apparently Georgina Baillie, Manuel’s granddaughter is part of a dance-troup called Satanic Sluts. Allegedly Pauline Fowler and that other minger from Eastenders are part of it too) will move on to different if not better things. Brand has been here before anyway; he lost his job at MTV, for turning up to work dressed as Osama Bin Laden the day after September 11th attacks in New York. (P.s. That would be September 12th then!!)

Anyway back to the world of technology and gadgets! Since I/We last blogged we’ve now got FreeSat and a new iMac. Firstly, lets talk about FreeSat. Well, it’s basically Freeview but via satellite and you get a couple of HD channels thrown in for good measure. BBC Hd, which shows mostly repeated programmes from 7pm onwards, is cracking! Unfortunately we didn’t have it in time for the Olympics or Wimbledon, but we will have for next year, or 2012 for the Olympics. (Maybe Jonathon Woss can present the Paralympics; I'm pretty sure he couldn't say anything controversial or offend anyone there eh?) ITV HD is not a permanent channel, if the programme is available you have to select the red button. They did have the England game on the other week, which again looked stunning. I'm just waiting for Coronation Street to come on in HD. Can you imagine Deidre Barlow in full HD, warts and all??!? Not a pretty sight I hear you say!

Well on to the new iMac. My old one had been playing up for a while, and kept shutting itself down as if there had been a power cut. So, I read up on t'internet and found out that it was most likely the power supply that was causing this. So, I ordered a refurbed power supply and fitted it, and bob's your uncle, it worked a treat...... well for about a week anyway. It completely died after that and I can't even get the bugger to start now. Now I wasn't going to get a one for a while as I can always use Michelle's laptop (I'm writing this on it now!!), but after a few days, (and because we got our Christmas discount vouchers from work; sales are bad , we are in a credit crunch after all!) I bought one anyway. I went for the same model as Geoff (Michelle's Dad for new readers) and to be honest I'm well chuffed with it. It runs like a dream and although the glossy screen on it isn't to everyone's liking I actually prefer it to the old one. I've even installed windows XP on it, just cos I can, but I think that will be going this weekend.

Anyway that's about it from me, I had a sh*t day at work today, but that's all I'm saying as I've just read that some people from Virgin have been sacked for slagging off their company on Facebook!

Adios,

p.s. I love Comet, they are the best company in the world! Honest!

Tell me about the honey mummy!!

I didn't think I was going to be able to remember my login details for the blog as it's been so long since I last blogged!! I just never seem to find the time now we're back at work, and then what spare time I do get to go on the internet I spend on Facebook and eBay!!

So we've been home nearly 8 months now, we were in NZ this time last year!! Work and home life are going great and Matt has really settled into his life Ooop Norf!. He is a an official Hull City fan now and hasn't missed a home game yet. Our life is much less hectic than when we were living and working in the south, but we do miss our pals down there. We have been down to see Gary and Eve (and baby Ella) a few times and they have been up to see us too. Matt also see's quite a bit of Gary at work as he still has to go down to Ricky every now and again (usually when he fancies a few beers and a curry!!)

We booked ourselves a holiday for the New Year to Sri Lanka, we haven't had a proper holiday since we came home. We did have a good week in the holiday cottage in June, but you can't beat a bit of R&R on a nice beach with an all inclusive food and drinks package!! We fly in the middle of January, which is the same time of year that we visited the Maldives. It is a really good time of year to go, as Christmas is usually stressful and expensive and it is really cold and dark nights. Can't wait!

We had another team night out on Tuesday as one of the girls was leaving Discover to go back to Uni. We went out to The Fox in South Cave. It was only supposed to be a quiet night but as usual I had far too much to drink and don't really remember talking to anybody. As far as I know though I didn't manage to upset anybody, which is always a bonus!

I'm really enjoying my new job, it did take a few months for me to settle in, as it does anybody I suppose. I can't remember if I blogged about the big fat hairy bird that I used to work with?, she was a bit like the honey monster from the sugar puffs advert, just as hairy too. Anyway I didn't really like her, in fact nobody did. She just spoilt the whole ambience of the place, just by being there. Every day I would go to work and think 'If only she didnt work here, what a great job and place it would be' The days turned into weeks and months and as they did it became more and more apparent what a lazy big fat hairy bird she was too. This just made me and everyone else in the office dislike her even more!! So you can imagine my delight when my boss came in and told me she was/had left!! We were victorious in our office, the lights were flashing, party popers going off, it was just like the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. We still celebrate most days, and have a leaving party for her every other week, only we don't invite her!!!

Anyway I haven't got a real lot to blog about, not that you'd be interested in anyway.

Enjoy the autumn sunshine that we've been blessed with this last few days!!

He-Man

I thought I'd better write a blog as neither of us have blogged in August and if we don't do it soon, that means we'll have missed a month in the archive (see right hand side).

Anyway, so I'll start the blog with a moan about fuel prices. Well it's not really a moan more of an excuse to put this funny cartoon on the blog, which one of the lads at work sent me (thanks Mark G). Fuel prices have gone up though haven't they? Still, I'm sick of everyone moaning about "the current climate" and "the credit crunch" so I'm not going to dwell.

So, what have we been up to then? Well, I've had quite a busy August to tell the truth; I've been backwards and forwards to Ricky a few times, up to Scotland (Ayr) for Al Green's stag do (my mate from Uni not the soul singer ; I couldn't make his stag do, I was double booked!), and then last weekend we went to Belfast for Al Green's wedding to the lovely Jennifer. Oh, we also watched the mighty Hull City beat Fulham in the first ever top-flight football game for Hull. They've got Wigan next week at home and I'm going to that too! Glory Hunter I hear you cry; yeah well I'm not bothered , I'll be dead one day, I may as well make the most of it.

That's about it really, we had a cracking weekend in Belfast, a place I'd like to revisit. It was really easy to get to; we flew from Robin Hood airport in Doncaster to George Best Airport in Belfast (no it wasn't full of pubs!). Al and Jenny put on a fantastic do, good food, a free bar - the Guiness was well and truly flowing, and even a covers band. They weren't as good as The Recovery at Owen's wedding; though I would say that being as though I was the rhythmn guitarist.

So, a fairly quiet September lined up; for those reading in Droitwich we are definately coming down this month, I promise.

Well, I'm off now, as Michelle has got the tea prepared and I've just had a bottle of beer placed down next to me.

Adios,

Questions, Questions, Questions!

Now then, Here's a quick blog from an idea I got from one of Palace Fan's blogs. Click here to see what I'm talking about. Anyway so look above to see the "mosaic" that I created by following the instructions. p.s. And there's no sign of faggots, Simmo!

Here's some links back to the original photos too.

1. Matt, 2. Curry, 3. RGS, Worcester, 4. B l u e, 5. Sinead O'Connor, 6. Beer, 7. N.Z., 8. Cheesecake, 9. Happy, 10. Michelle, 11. Relaxed, 12. My Flickr

Foxtrot Oscar

Just wanted to share my pic with you all. We are just back from a FANTASTIC weekend in London. We went for dinner at Gordon Ramsey's Foxtrot Oscar on the The Great Hospital Road, and who should show up but the man himself! I was totally in awe of him. I love him anyway, which is why we went, but to look up and have him stood at your table asking what you've ordered and if you're staying for desert was just something else.
It was a top night and the food was amazing. Gordon is a top bloke and very self effacing, not like the arrogant tw@t you all probably think he is from his TV shows.

Wedding Update

Now then! I thought that title would get your attention! I will talk about the wedding later, but as per my last couple of blogs this one will be about technology or more specifically gaming. The fact that I have been playing “Grand Theft Auto 4” (GTA4) over the last couple of weeks has sparked this off so lets get straight into it.

This game has been in the press a fair bit recently, mainly in the US on scaremongering religious TV channels deeming it the Devils’ spawn. These channels seem to think that it will no doubt lead to multiple copycat killings, beatings, stabbings, drunk-driving and general naughtiness. I don’t know how the journalists over there have got the balls to say this as the yanks seem to be doing a good job of all of the above without any encouragement from a video game.

So what is this, this Grand Theft Auto game. Well for those that don’t know it’s one of the biggest video game franchises about, with 8 stand alone games in the series (so why is this one called GTA 4??) and sales totalling more than 70 million copies world-wide (thanks to Wikipedia for this info). The first game was a pretty basic top down view driving game, which I remember playing at Ben’s house most Saturday nights after Picasso’s night club but that’s another story! After a few sequels it’s morphed into an absolutely huge, free roam, “sand box” game. The “sand box” moniker is a term that’s used to describe the non-linearity sections of a game, where you can ignore the plot and just go off and do what you want. Now GTA4 is a classic example of this as there is quite a detailed storyline with set missions which introduce (introduce?? – no one will understand that except Stew!) characters at set points in the game. But if you just want to go off and cause some mayhem then you can.

The game is set in a fictional city, called Liberty City, but everyone knows that it’s really New York. The game area is absolutely mammoth, even with only half of it unlocked, and pretty much everything you see you can go and explore. There’s burger bars, bowling alleys, pubs, cabaret clubs, Internet café’s, Laundrette’s, everyfink! You have your own mobile phone and you build up contacts throughout the game, you have radio stations that you can tune into whilst driving, you can watch tv in your apartment, you can go and buy clothes from shops, you have even have your own in-game email that you have to check. You can even download ringtones for your in-game mobile phone!

Now this all sounds well and good, but is it just a gimmick or is it fun to play. Well I have to admit for the first couple of hours of gameplay it is a bit overwhelming getting to grips with all the controls, mobile phones, emails, characters, but it’s designed in such a way that you don’t have to learn everything in one go. Still, I couldn’t help feeling that the game was a bit overrated. In one incident I was driving around and went for a drink and a game of a pool. Now I was sat there thinking why don’t I just go out in REAL LIFE for a drink and a game of pool??!??. This takes me back to one of my previous posts and the youth of today. How the internet/PC revolution has changed their lives forever as they can do everything and anything in a virtual world from their own bedroom. Oh yeah, there’s even strip clubs in GTA4 where it’s $50 a dance from a virtual stripper, errrmmm apparently.

Anyway, as I as was saying, I must admit that after a while the game definitely does live up to all the hype. The main character Niko Bellic (who is Serbian, but sounds more like Borat from Khazakstan, it’s nice!) is well acted, and he even has a “shady” history that gradually gets unveiled. Everyone who’s into games these days knows that things have moved on from Horace and the Spiders on the ZX Spectrum and they are full-blown productions, some of them rivalling Hollywood blockbusters, with the amount of design, marketing and hype that goes into them. It’s the attention to detail that wins me over for this game though, just silly little things, that when you’re playing it you think that’s nice. If you “borrow” a motorbike that you find with a helmet Niko puts this on and when you finish and walk away, after a few steps he takes the hat off and throws it to the floor. When you crash through some dustbins little bits of paper fly up in the air and then gradually float down again. This game has different weather conditions; when it rains the roads become really slippery. The inhabitants of Liberty City are so detailed it’s almost like you’re actually living there. In some games where there are a cast of many there are only a limited number of characters and they start “repeating” after a while; I’ve not seen the same person twice on the streets in GTA4 and I must have seen thousands of different pedestrians.

I don’t think games are quite there yet, when it will be an all encompassing “life” that you can live and do absolutely anything you want, and to be honest I’m glad as I still like getting out and about, going to restaurants, going for a walk, etc. You have to draw a line between real-life and games, although Michelle will probably comment that I am living more in Liberty City than in Hull City for the last couple of weeks!!

Well that’s it from me. Oh yeah I did mention the wedding didn’t I? Well, it’s looking likely to be sometime in October 2009 but there’s no date or venue confirmed yet. Watch this space!

Adios,

Sticks and Stones

Check out this link on YouTube.
This guy should try being Hull born and bred!!

Rant

Enjoy - it is funny!!

Pleading Poverty!

We're just back from a week away in Foulridge, Lancs. We had a really relaxing time, despite seeing lots of places. Foulridge is about 12 miles outside of Skipton, the nearest place you may all be familiar with is Burnley? Anyway it's irrelevant really. Our holiday cottage was two mins walk away from the Leeds Liverpool Canal and the famous mile long tunnel, In fact it's probably that famous that you don't have a clue what it is.. Google it!

We did a bit of walking along the canal path and around the reservoir, but we didn't do any real 'rambling' as we didn't take any maps or a compass. We spent a day at Hebden Bridge and Howarth (home to the Bronte Sisters) we had a day at Skipton, mooching around the market, and trying out their fish and chips! we also spent a day visiting Grassington and Hawes up in The Yorkshire Dales. The weather was great at the start of the week although it did get a bit cooler on Tuesday, luckily though we never had any rain!
I have been to all of the above places before so knew what we were in for, Matt however has never visited any of these places, I think it's fair to say I picked out all the nice spots. We are hoping to go in the same area later in the summer and get some camping done, weather permitting!
England really is a stunning country when it comes to scenery, we were surrounded by rolling fields full of grazing sheep and lambs, it was just like been back in NZ, only there were far more people and cars. It was such a peaceful and tranquil setting, just what you need after the hustle and bustle of living in a large city like Hull.
It's not cheap though holidaying in the U.K, firstly there was the expense of the cottage in excess of £300 for the week, and then there is the issue of fuel, not to mention the extortionate prices at the moment. It was also self catering too so we had to feed ourselves for the week, then there were parking fees (£2 every time you stepped out of the car) £5 each for fish and chips, £4 for two cups of pissy tea, and then all the tat you tend to buy when you are aimlessly ambling around the shops on holiday mode. It's amazing the amount of tat you can accumulate in one week.
We did have a lovely Indian curry though and some decent pub grub, and more than a few pints of the landlords finest ales. My mum and dad also came up for a few days and wasted equally the same amount of cash as we did on nic nacs, it's obviously a holiday thing. At least we didn't bring home any fluffy donkeys or castanets!!

Anyway back to petrol prices as it seems to be the topic of all conversation at the moment. After much complaining about the price of it and the way it has steadily continued to rise over the last few months, me and Matt have agreed to just accept it. What else can we do? it's not going to come down again so we might as well just get on with it. For those of you that are feeling the pinch (which I think we all are) check out www.petrolprices.com, if you type in your post-code it will give you the details of the cheapest petrol stations in your area. It's not just fuel prices that are on the up though is it, it's your shopping bill too, a couple of pence here a couple of pence there and before you know it you are only getting half a basket of shopping for the price that you used to be able to get a full one for. Which means all your little treats have to go.. Campbell's meat balls, Fray Bentos meat pie (in a tin) Angel Delight!
And what about the cost of gas and electric city, they are just going up and up, and the weather is getting colder and colder. Can you believe it is mid June next week and we are still having to put our heating on in the evening as it's so cold! There has been a few articles on the news about poverty in the UK, what a load of rubbish, there is no such thing! There was an old girl on the TV complaining about the cost of heat and light etc and about the choice between keeping warm or going hungry, she also goes on to mention about the housing benefit she gets and the tax credits she so ungratefully receives (thanks very much I'll have them back then) and how difficult it is to cope. And she genuinely believes she is living below the poverty line. What I would say to that sad old woman is, save up your pension, your housing benefits, your tax credits and whatever other handouts you receive from the government and buy yourself a one way flight to somewhere like Ecuador, where 80% of the population DO live below the poverty line. Poverty in these countries is, no running water, no gas, no electricity, no food, no heat, no welfare benefits, no nothing! They also suffer extreme winters in houses that are no more than concrete huts, now that IS poverty!
However bad thing's get in Britain we can always be guaranteed a comfortable standard of living, we all live in habitable accommodation, we all have access to utilities (pensioners get a heating allowance every year) and we know that we can claim some kind of benefit from the government if we are unable to work or if we are retired.
In these 3rd world countries they live a hand to mouth existence every day of their sorry lives, they have never known a days luxury in their lives and the chance are they never will. So when I see a fat old woman, with nice clean clothes on, a lovely little flat with cupboards full of meatballs and angel delight saying "woe is me' I have to say I have no time for her and her wittering. My message to her is this 'Get in the real world love and stop feeling sorry for yourself!'

Anyway that's my rant over with.

We have uploaded some pics of our hols onto Flckr, there are also some of Edinburgh too. Our next jaunt is in a couple of weeks when we are off down to London on the train with Anna and Robin. We are booked in at Gordon Ramsey's Foxtrot Oscar for a slap up meal, we're also gonna do the touristy thing and jump on an open top bus and take in the delights, we're then off to Belfast for a wedding (not ours) and then who knows where?
Talking of weddings, we are just in the process of putting together a guest list for the occasion (a task in itself, you can't please everyone) so as soon as we have that agreed(!) we will be booking a venue and setting the date. It is difficult knowing who to invite etc, I might do it the Willy Wonka way and put so many invitations/golden tickets inside special packs of Angel Delight (or something similar) if you're lucky enough to land a ticket then you get to enjoy the celebrations, and if you don't land a ticket then you're even luckier as you don't have to worry about a wedding present, what to wear, where to stay, how to get there etc etc etc

Well done the Tigers!

Just a quick post to say congrats to the Tigers (Hull City) for winning the championship play off this afternoon. We're off out now to celebrate with Ben, Dan and Cookie.

I'm sure the people of Hull will be celebrating tonight, they always seem to be celebrating something on Saturday nights whenever we've been out! They certainly know how to party, good luck to them I say!

Adios,

The Duchess

I'm going to try and write a blog which could be difficult as I haven't blogged for soooo long. Well it's a year ago that we set out on our big adventure and it almost pains me to think back on what a great time we had. The overwhelming sense of freedom we had for those 10 months was just the best feeling in the world. I appreciated it at the time but now I'm back at work I appreciate it even more!

My new job is keeping me extremely busy as I don't get a spare minute in the day to even think about the blog, let alone write one, however we have just moved into our new swanky flat and today have just got our internet connection sorted out, so there really is no excuse not to update you on what we have and haven't been up to.

We had a great weekend in Edinburgh a few weeks ago for Stew's 40th, we spent a couple of nights there and it really was a good weekend. We ate and drank to our hearts content and luckily for Matt we didn't shop!! We took plenty of pics which I will get Matt to upload onto the blog. We have also booked a hol in June, we have hired a holiday cottage just outside the Dales at a place called Foulridge, which is in the heart of the Pendle district. We are really looking forward to that, we decided that we still weren't ready to get on another plane so opted to stay on home ground instead!

We have also just bought a new car, not brand new, it's a Ford Focus Silver. The one that we had was on it's last legs and it was becoming impossible to drive as the gear box was knackered. We had agreed before we went away that when we got home and settled that we would buy something bigger and newer so with the MOT just a few days away we decided to P/X it rather than waste money getting it fixed up. It has been a cracking little car though and it was sad to leave it at the garage. We haven't had any trouble with it and I have lost count how many trips it has done up and down the M40 and M1. RIP little Corsa!
The new car is lovely, its got leather interior, A/C, alloy wheels etc, it is complete luxury for me and Matt (especially for me as I use it for work)
On top of the car as I mentioned earlier we have moved into our own place, we have had a great time with Stew and Kirsty but we wanted our own space. We agreed that we wouldn't be getting a mortgage anytime soon with the interest rates being as they are so decided that we might as well just get on with it and rent somewhere while we save enough for the heft 10-20% deposit that is required from the banks now. Our flat is beautiful, it's down Park Avenue in a big converted house and is on the top floor, we've even got a glitter ball in the bedroom!! It's the sort of flat that we would consider buying, it really is just what we wanted. We are still set on buying a house though... we just need to save 20k!!

It is now about 4 days later and I feel I cannot miss the opportunity to comment on whats been on TV of late. On Sunday night we decided to watch Brokeback Mountain, or should I say some of it. The thought of watching Jake Gyllenhaal strutting around in a pair of dusty Wrangler drain pipes was quite appealing to me, that is until I saw him taking his 'friend' Heath Ledger (who I expected to look equally as handsome) from behind. I like to think I'm quite open minded when it comes to such matters, but I have to be honest and say to see two blokes cavorting in such a manner in the small confines of a tent was a bit disturbing. So much so that I turned it off. Now last night was very entertaining viewing, no I'm not referring t the Omnibus of Corrie, but the Duchess comes to 'Ull!! Now I'm not a fan of anything big and ginger and Sarah Ferguson is no exception, but I have to say that after watching this last night that my whole perception of her has changed (not all things fat and ginger, just her!) She is such a nice person and was genuinely concerned for the Hull family. I have to say though that the Hull family were as you would expect, absolute cringeworthy to watch. It is unfortunate that they chose Hull to record this documentary as there are far worse places to live, apparently? it can only leave people thinking what a hell hole the place is, when in actual fact it isn't that bad at all, and that family are not necessarily a stereotypical Hull family. I know Hull has more than it's fair share of dysfunctionals but hey they've got to live somewhere, and we have got more than enough pound shops for em to spend their invalidity benefit when they've finished watching the Jeremy Kyle Show on their rented TV from Bright House, before getting back to pick up Roxy-Chantelle and Tyrone-Leeroy from school (providing they're actually in school and haven't been taken into Social Services!!) Ey I'm not cynical though, each to their own.

We were walking along Princes Avenue on Saturday night coming home form the Thai Restaurant and there was a couple of bike riding, baseball cap wearing chavs on the pavement. In jest Matt shouted to them 'ey, where's your lights?' Well having lived in Hull most of my life I know that this is like red rag to a bull if you get the wrong person. Luckily for Matt it was just a couple of yobs who had plenty to say for themselves, it was like getting an outburst from a tourettes victim, just a string of obscenities. At least he never got his head kicked in and the chavs got the opportunity to demonstrate their vocabulary to us.

I'm not allowed to watch the 2nd part of the Duchess tonight as Matt is climbing up walls, shooting people and just generally making a nuisance of himself (like most people living in Hull this evening) the only difference being Matt is on his PS3!!

Technophobes unite

I thought I'd put a girly blog on as Matt seems to be getting ahead of himself with all this technical crap that I for one am not the slightest bit interested in. I am sick of hearing TLA's (three letter abbreviations) relating to TV/PS3/DVD. We have enough cable in our hoose to go the full length of the British Isles, we also have more remote controls than Corby RDC. We have tech magazines laying around all over the place, every other bookmark on the web browser is of a TV/Audio site or a PS3 blog. I am SICK of hearing the words 'look at the picture on that' ' look at the graphics on this game' etc etc. Me and Matt have had a few words about his over use of the PS3 (if you spoke to Matt he would say he NEVER gets to play on it!) He went through a particularly obsessive phase a couple of weeks ago, at which point I decided to call a PS3 crisis meeting. We have agreed now that PS3 is ok in moderation.

We have just come back from a weekend in London catching up with Matt's UNI mates (Al and Wigan) and girlfriends (Jenny and Kate) We went down on the train yesterday and met up with them late afternoon for a few beers and a Polish/Mexican meal last night(!) I know you must all be wondering how you can combine Polish Cuisine with Mexican, and the fact is, you can't. Me being Veggie was never happy about going here anyway and after much unsuccessful nagging at Matt to try and get the restaurant changed decided that I would just have to go along as everybody else seemed quite satisfied at this strange choice of Al's. Me and Matt started drinking about 12.30 yesterday lunch time which was quite foolish in view of the fact that it was going to be quite a late one. I did manage to down a few soft drinks in between pints and halves so when 5 o'clock came I was still relatively sober. After the introductions and a lot off cooing over engagement rings the drinking got underway once more.
A good night was had by all, even more so by Matt who was bordering on paralysis when we all departed each others company around midnight. I took great delight in being sober the next day and reminding Matt just what an animal he had been, needless to say he had no recollection of the past 12 hours! It was a lovely sight from the coffee shop in Kings X seeing Matt slumped over the railings breathing in the traffic fumes. Never one to say I told you say I'm just glad that I insisted that Jenny didn't buy him a Jamiesons whisky in the last pub!
It was a good night though and it was good to see Al in a more civilised environment as opposed to our first meeting at Reading!

Last Wednesday I had my first works night out with my new boss Trevor and the rest of the team, we went to The Westwood which is a swanky restaurant in Beverley, there was about 20 of us in total. At the beginning of the night Trevor told us to drink as much wine and beer as we could and to enjoy ourselves, so, we did! I was so drunk I don't even remember getting home, not to mention going to the bank on the way home to get some cash to pay the cab (that Keelie had already paid once!!) We were drinking a lovely NZ red and I don't think I realised just how much I'd consumed... until I tried to get up on Thursday... and couldn't!! I was still drunk, I felt shocking, I couldn't even stand up! Luckily it was my day off so I popped a couple of headache tablets and crawled back into bed to die in peace. I resurfaced at 1.30pm took two more tablets and laid on the couch for another hour, before then getting in the bath and laying down for another hour, by this time it was almost time to go back to bed. It's fair to say I wasted a very valuable day off!

I've been doing my bit for nature by filling up the bird table in Stew's garden. Stew always complained that he never got any birds (in the garden!) and I told him it's because he's not putting the correct food out. He thinks if he throws a full slice of Warburton Toastie on the garage roof once a week that we will get a myriad of birds flocking round. Well after watching numerous nature programmes and even before that actually I knew we were never gonna have a Blue Peter garden throwing random slices of bread out, so that's when I went to Wilko and got the biggest sack of bird food that I could carry. It took a week or so for the birds to start coming in (I think they wanted to finish the bread on the garage roof first) but they are coming thick and fast now. We've got Robins, Blue Tit's, Great Tit's, Hedge Sparrows, Blackbird's, White Collared Doves, the ubiquitous pigeon and even a squirrel is frequenting the table. It is so funny to watch them all coming in, it gets really busy and I think we might even have to start organising two sittings. The squirrel is the funniest of all, he has to jump up on the plant pots, across onto the recycling bin and then he hops onto the table. I think he must have a family as he fills his face up with nuts and then scurries off down the garden and under the fence, to God knows where, and then within minutes he's back again repeating the sequence.

Parking is proving to be a bit of a nightmare while we're staying at Stew's, luckily for Stew and Kirsty they have car parking space for 2 cars outside their house, but we have to park on the road. Because the houses are so big down the avenues just about every house has 2+ cars so parking is sometimes impossible. So much so that the other night when I parked I was actually 1/3 on double yellows. I didn't give it too much thought as I was more off them than on. I was mortified to find a parking ticket on the windscreen the next day! I have disputed the ticket, and have provided a pic of how I was parked so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get off with it?!?!?!

Just going back to the subject of remote controls. I once read in one of those silly magazines that chavs read (I must have read it in the dentist's waiting room) that if you have trouble with remote controls and you keep losing them down the back of the couch or under the chair, that you should instead get an old pair of oven gloves and hang them over the arm of your chair to safely store your remote controls!!

Folksonomy and the wonderful World Wide Web (2.0)

web (web) noun
1.A complex, interconnected structure or arrangement.
2.Something intricately contrived, especially something that ensnares or entangles.
3.A membrane or fold of skin connecting the toes, as of certain amphibians.

Now Then! Amazingly I felt like writing a blog again today, as it has again been a while. I must warn you though that this one is again, about technology and will be boring to most of you. It’s also a bit of a rant about social networking sites and the internet too as they have been in the news recently, like for the last 12 years.

So of we go. I’ve been trawling round various blogs, websites, forums, newsgroups, Wikis (during either my lunch hour or at home, Sweeney, in case you’re reading this!) and just generally reading about what the hell this Web 2.0 actually is. It seems to be a bit of a buzz phrase and is quoted all over the place, probably nowhere more than in corporate boardrooms and marketing strategy meetings. And you can guarantee that only a small percentage of people actually know what it means and the other 98% are too embarrassed now to ask what it means as the phrase has been in existence since 2004 apparently!

So I thought I’d have a stab at it.

Usually when you see a version 2 next to something, especially in IT, it means an upgrade of software, hardware or technology. This is where Web 2.0 doesn’t really follow that trend as it’s still the same World Wide Web that was in existence in 1989; Web 2.0 is more about the content, personalisation and how people use it.

Incidentally, for those that don’t know the WWW, was actually started at CERN, in 1989, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (it’s French don’t ask how they came to shorten it to CERN). It started as a way for nuclear physicists to share important information on scientific research from each of their computers. Little did they know what it would evolve into! This site actually brands itself on being the most pointless site on the internet, surely that belongs to this site (In case you can’t be arsed clicking on the last link, it’s Vanessa Felz MySpace page. p.s. I think it’s a wind-up check out some of her friends. Mr.T??? )

Anyway, where was I? Yes, Web 2.0, is a trend that encourages creativity, information sharing and collaboration; exactly what the WWW was invented for, but this second wave is all about you and me posting our own content. The example that you’ll all have heard of is social networking sites, e.g. MySpace, Facebook and maybe Del.icio.us. I only started using Del.icio.us a few days ago and to be honest I’m still not convinced that it’s anything else than an online bookmark depository, enabling you to access your browser favourites from any computer. But others use it for sharing bookmarks; like I said I’m not convinced.

Now depending on your age and/or social ability you’ll either be using some or all of these sites or completely not interested. Now to tell the truth I did use Facebook while we were away as it was a good way of keeping in touch, posting photos, playing scrabble (??), but now that I’m back I’m really not interested in whether an acquaintance from 15 years ago has added the “Which Thundercat character do you most resemble” application. I did try to cut down my use and even delete everyone but my real friends, but it still got on my nerves. Some Facebook addicts in my initial “friends” list updated their status that often I used to get 4 pages of news feed when I logged into it. Some people have over 300 people in their friends, I don’t think I even know 300 people let alone be friends with them. I’ve even heard of one Facebooker who has been sacked from work as he/she was penning less than salubrious comments about their employer on their Wall (must have been someone from Dixons). There will be some people who are reading this who are lucky enough to have never used Facebook and won’t have a clue what I’m on about. You don’t know how lucky you are.

I’ve come to that conclusion that there are 3 types of these social networking whores, and I’ve categorised them below:

1. Under 25’s. This bunch are probably the biggest users and to be honest, these sites are aimed at them. They spend most of the life on the internet anyway, and haven’t really developed the social skills to hold a conversation. Most have at least one ASBO and probably know someone who is/was a member of a Welsh suicide pact. They are members of every single social networking site available and need to spend 4 hours every night, after Eastenders, Corrie and Emmerdale obviously, updating their status, photos, emotion, writing on their 300 friends walls, joining the latest “If I get 1000 members I will name my first born child Charlton Heston” group. They have very pasty skin, ginger/dyed black hair, wear hoods with everything and listen to “My Chemical Romance”. These people are a paradox. They are the most anti-social of all social networking users!

2. 25-40 Year Old’s. These people are either single and trying to cop off with the boy/girl (or both) that they fancied at school or they’re trying to find out what all their “mates” are doing, where they are living and how much they are earning. In fact, I’m surprised that Facebook haven’t added a Salary field in the personal details section for these users, as lets face it, that’s what it all boils down to at this age. People in this group are quite sociable actually, but feel a need to go on these sites as they don’t want to get left behind or feel they are missing the next technological phenomenon.

3. 40 years old (and beyond). Let’s face it, people on Facebook over 40 probably signed up by mistake and can’t work out how to delete their profile. There really is no need for people this age to be on Facebook. Usually their profile picture is one from the 1960’s when they were cool and their religious views are probably set to atheist or agnostic as they don’t want to give too much away. They only have a few friends as they can’t find anyone they know. They may have offspring listed as their friends, but only with limited access to their profile.

I read somewhere on a blog some comments people had on a relatively unknown social networking site (can’t remember the name of it). Some users were championing the fact that you could keep some professional friends (work colleagues) separate from other friends and so information you would share with your non-work friends wouldn’t be visible. An example was cited of uploading pictures from a friend’s stag-do for instance. Now, forgive me for stating the obvious, but would you really upload photos that you considered risque onto the internet. Regardless of whether you want your professional colleagues to see them or not, surely common sense would prevail and you wouldn’t do it in the first place. People are getting carried away with this whole concept of publishing everything you’ve ever done on the internet and even more irritating is they think that everyone else is interested in it. Even this blog, for instance, is a little bit “me, me,” or rather “we, we” by this I mean the 1st person plural not urine! The blog was written as much for our sakes as it was for your sakes, as a memento of what we did on our travels and how we were feeling at the time. (Admittedly you could argue that I’m as guilty as anyone for even writing this blog in the first place!)

So, I won’t be using social networking sites such as Facebook anymore. Or MySpace, Bebo, iLike, FriendsUnited, Habbo, Reunion.com, Student.com, etc. However, I will be using Flickr as a means of backing up my photos, not necessarily for sharing them, and Del.icio.us, for again storing my bookmarks online and not sharing them.

And just to wrap it up, a word on the WWW itself. I remember first “seeing” the web in 1993 in the computer lab at Surrey University. A non-professional friend of mine, (he wasn’t in anyway professional at the time although he probably is now), showed me a browser, Mosaic, to be specific, and said “Look at this page, it’s hosted on a computer in the US”. I wasn’t exactly bowled over by it, and said something along the lines of “So what, what’s the point of that, I can’t see that taking off”. I think that comment even beats the one from Surrey University’s Entertainments’ Officer saying, when asked if he wanted to book a band called Oasis in 1993, “No thanks they’re crap. No-one will pay to see them”

Adios,

p.s. Going back to the definitions at the top I think the 2nd one is the most appropriate. Once you use the WWW you’re hooked, or I know I am (and Geoff is)

p.p.s. Folksonomy is a posh word for social bookmarking apparently. You learn something new every day.

p.p.p.s. Check out the links to the social bookmarking sites on the right. Just because I’m not using these sites doesn’t mean some of our many readers aren’t!

Green

Hola, just a quick note to say, obviously I’ve changed the style of our blog to give it a more “green” theme. Everyone seems to be jumping on the green bandwagon at the moment, and we’re no exception. Obviously Michelle’s last post “Keep Britain Tidy” was a lot greener than my last post “If you don’t like computers or technology then don’t read this!”
Well, that’s it for me, I’ve got work to do and all that and should really be getting on with it. See you Soon.

Keep Britain Tidy

Does anybody get as wound up as I do about litter? When we were travelling through South America it was like touring through a rubbish tip. I never seen so much garbage, and so little disregard for the environment. It really is about survival out there and they think nothing of throwing their rubbish on the floor, out of the bus window etc. They don't even try to do it discreetly, they don't need to as everybody does it and doesn't know any better.

When we got back I didn't realise just how untidy Britain really is, it's a pit! I was doing a bit of walking before I got back to work and that's when I started to realise just how bad it really is here. There are cans, bottles, carrier bags, fag packets and just litter in general strewn everywhere. There is literally tonnes of the stuff and it is EVERYWHERE! On my drive into work now I go through the little villages rather than try and get caught up in the school run. It's a really nice drive round the country lanes, passing fields with little lambs and even the office I work in is in a rural setting surrounded by rolling hills and greenery. The other morning I was driving behind a Ford Focus and all of a sudden I started seeing litter in the road. I was totally incensed when I realised that it was the driver of the car that was blatantly throwing his rubbish out of the window, with no regard whatsoever for the environment. I felt like driving after him and having a lot off, but whats the point??

Any road..

It's Easter Sunday now, I started this blog last week and realised how boring it was so I decided to stop it. It is really difficult carrying on a blog about your every day existence, because in reality that is all it is, an existence. Got up, went to work, came home watched telly went to bed and did it all again the next day.

We have just been out with 'the family' as it's my mum and dad's 41st wedding anniversary, we also went out with Kirsty's mum and dad as it was Karen's B'Day yesterday. It was lovely we had a BIG carvery and it was spot on, the only thing that spoiled the day was a FAT anti-smoker. Now I'm not a smoker but each to their own, I'm a lot happier that it's now banned from pubs as there is nothing worse than going home stinking of smoke. My mum and Kirsty's went outside for a fag before their lunch and while they were out there a (fat) woman walked past and expressed her views on smoking, which was something along the lines of 'dirty smokers' nothing was said back but then the same woman came back and gave my mum and K's a mouthful and said that she 'hopes they both die of cancer' Well for a couple of women who were out trying to celebrate their wedding anniversary and Birthday I'd say it was a bit harsh. Alright we all have our own views and fair do's that she called em dirty smokers, but to wish that upon them. To Karens credit she did come straight back at her with some expletives and reference to the womans size, but even so it was very uncalled for and we were all a bit annoyed about it. Luckily the lovely lunch more than made up for the fat womans remarks.

On Friday Ben, Dan and Cookie came up for a night on the razzle dazzle, again it was a good night but the weather was lousy. We had planned to go into town the next day, but it was agreed that we had all had a little bit too much to drink, to fully appreciate the copious amount of £ shops in Hull. Don't worry though kids there will probably be twice as many next time you come up, Hull people love £ shops. I do remember trying to convince Ben and Dan to move up to Hull, you would think I was an estate agent the way I was rattling on at them, so apologies for the rant. That said though you would have felt a lot better on Saturday morning if you hadn't had a 2.5 hour drive to do back to Droitwich, we have some great fish and chips here too ;o)

Carry on Camping

I can't believe it's Sunday night again already, these 2 day weekends need a review!!

We have had a bit of a nightmare weekend this week with cars but I can't be bothered to go into all the detail and tell you about it. Suffice to say, it's going to cost money :o(

I still haven't been paid yet as I actually started my job on pay day, so the only money I have had since we returned from our jollies is £200, courtesy of the tax payer. Roll on the 20th March!! We have managed to get saving, well I say saving, my parents have very kindly and generously donated 1k of their hard earned cash (and believe me it is hard earned as my mum is a nurse!!) to our mortgage fund, so we officially have 'savings' People keep asking us about the wedding, but the wedding is not as important at the moment as us buying our own house is. I could hardly expect Matt to carry me over the threshold of somebody elses house when we tie the knot could I? So once we have a house we will set a date for the big day, we hope to achieve both within the next 18 months, so Jo and Di you wont have to wait too long to buy your hats!

I'm loving my new job, I spend most days putting processes in place for our new call centre and trying to recruit some staff. I have managed to secure 2 up to now and have another to interview on Tuesday. The settling in period is well and truly over too and last week I was dealing with customer complaints. I'd forgotten just how much I love Customer Service and sorting problems out, my phone never stopped ringing last week and I've only been there 3 weeks! It's also great talking to people who want help and advice on their motor homes and caravans and finding out where people are going on their travels, it's not like a job. I'll tell you what I can give Judith Chalmers a run for her money! I did get a bit of unexpected news last week though, that I wasn't really expecting, and that is a trip to Barcelona!! Not sure if I mentioned this on my last blog... anyway we have a supplier of awnings (google it for all you non campers!!) in Barcelona and we are going out to their factory sometime soon. We also have a supplier who is based in Bradford, I think I'll opt out of that one, for obvious reasons!!

Matt has finally stopped spending money and buying gadgets, I think he's getting it out of his system. He did buy me a iPod Nano for getting a job which came as a complete surprise. I hadn't even worked out how to use my new phone or boot my laptop up before I had another gadget to contend with. I've taken all his bank cards away from him now, it's for his own good!

Some of our friends are coming up to Hull for Good Friday, it really will be GOOD Friday for them as they're from Droitwich and nothing ever really happens there. I think somebody from Droitwich once applied for a passport, and then somebody from Droitwich passed their driving test and even contemplated buying a car, they have also just got an Aldi supermarket there so it is an up and coming town, I think most of the houses there have electricity now too, although there are still a few locals who are struggling to adapt.
We will be showing our mates the cultural delights of The Avenues, and the many bars and restaurants that we frequent. I think it's safe to say we are going to have a 'cracking' Easter weekend!!

If you don’t like computers or technology then don’t read this!

Now then! It has been an absolute age since I've blogged, in fact I know exactly when it was, the 22nd Dec 2007. Michelle has blogged a massive 16 times since then and as usual her blogs are a lot more interesting than mine. In fact ‘I’m getting bored just trying to write this and I’m only 3 sentences in! I remember reading “Palace Fans Blog” a while back, where he said he’s getting quite “blogged down” with all this blogging business; “nothing interesting to say”, “can’t be bothered telling people about mundane, every day life stuff”, “not allowed to slag off work as some regular readers are from work, and I might get sacked”, etc.etc. Well I’m not stupid enough to slag off work on here, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve got nothing to slag work off about (at the moment!) as things are going well. I promised myself I wouldn’t get (as) cynical as I used to be and definitely wouldn’t get stressed anymore. There’s people in Bolivia who live at 4500m above sea level in concrete huts, with no running water, heating, let alone a 50inch plasma tv and 4 computers under one roof (more on later!)

So what shall I write about then? Well there’s not a lot I can write about except maybe my new PS3!!. At this point I have to apologise in advance to Michelle and Kirsty as to be honest they’re getting sick to the back teeth of me and Stewart talking about gadgets, tv, computers, routers, WEP, DLNA, PVD, BluRay, HD, etc. So, sorry girls.

So on we go. You probably don’t know this but a vast amount of my time during the last two weeks in Chiang Mai was talking and thinking about technology with Alan (from eComet). The remainder of my time was spent sunbathing, eating Thai food, and drinking Chang beer usually in that order. Anyway, back to technology. Alan is, like myself, and Palace Fan for that matter, an Apple geek. We love to talk, think, live, breathe and dream about Apple computers, iPods, iPhones, and iAnything. I can understand Michelle showing no interest in these conversations and to be fair I show no interest in shopping conversations, or discussions about applying foundation cream before blusher. In case your wondering we do have a lot of things in common though, we both love travelling, obviously, reading, watching films, walking, eating, drinking, sleeping, I could go on. Another point worth mentioning is that Alan is such an Apple lover that even his wife is called Apple! And along a similar line, Palace Fan called his first-born Max, get it Macs, Max?

Anyway, back to Chiang Mai. One of the things I promised myself when we got back and had earned some money was a games machine of some sort, be it an XBOX360 or a PS3. Now I’ve always favoured Sony Playstations and have owned all of them at some point. I sold my PS2 before we left for the bargain price of £30 to Wellsy from eComet. I hadn’t used it for ages and knew that it would be obsolete by the time we returned. There seems to be a massive debate at the moment in various forums over which of the two games machines are better, XBOX or PS3. There are all sorts of factors, which I won’t bore you with here, to consider. To be honest I think the XBOX is probably winning at the moment, for two very good reasons; there are more games out and the Live/Online play looks better than the PS3. New games are usually written for the XBOX and then ported across to PS3, with the old PS2 this was the other way round. However, one of the main reasons I opted for the PS3 was the Bluray player. Anyone who is remotely interested in TV/DVD will know that Bluray was declared the victor in the High Definition DVD wars (not to be confused with the War on terror that has probably had less coverage!). So, now that Toshiba has thrown in the towel it seemed a good idea to opt for a games machine with a built-in player. It’s worth noting too, that the Bluray player in the PS3 is by all accounts a pretty damn fine one. I remember when I bought my PS2, with build-in DVD player, and DVD was really taking off at the time. However the player in the PS2 was absolute sh*te; every film watched through it had a slight green tinge. This worked fine with the George Romero classic “Dawn of the Dead” as he purposely filmed it to give everything a green tinge, but anything else was appalling. I suppose Shrek would have looked quite decent though!

I’ve read that not many of the games out currently stretch the PS3 to it’s limits, but this will change over the next 12 months, when the developers get to grips with all the technology. Incidentally, the games that I’ve played on the PS3 look pretty damn fine, so I’m looking forward to the next 12 months. It’s not just about the games though anymore, as now this black box is supposed to be the centre of your universe, or as they call it a media hub. You can surf the net, look at your photos, watch tv through it (or you can when Sony release the Play TV attachment in a couple of months), stream music/video from your PC/Mac. Now this topic deserves another blog on it’s own and that would be really boring. I spent most of last week trying to get the streaming working from the iMac to the PS3. This is where XBOX wins again as this is a lot easier to do. I’ve seen Ben’s working and it is pretty cool. Obviously a Mac isn’t as straightforward as a PC and of course it didn’t connect to the PS3. I even had to download some software (Nullrivers Medialink) which I got working but only intermittently. I’ve still not finished tinkering so maybe on my next blog, sometime in May at my current rate, I’ll have sorted it. I’m sure it’s something on the router, and my theory is that the traffic coming from the PS3 is caning the router which thinks it’s a Denial of Service attack and then just blocks it.

So, the PS3 is sitting underneath Stewarts brand new 50” Pioneer plasma TV. The picture quality on the games is absolutely stunning and the TV is not even full HD. It’s only 720p, the maximum is 1080p, although this is a bit of a sore point in the house, as it means Stew will be wanting another TV in about 12 months. (If Kirsty’s reading this, which I doubt as it’s turned into a rant about technology, she’s probably cursing me at this point! Sorry Kirsty!). I’ve been playing a game called Heavenly Sword last week in between fiddling with the router settings. It’s the usual story; lots of hacking and slashing, fighting medieval-type knights with huge swords, and generally trashing everything in sight. There’s one scene where you can smash food-laden tables up, and then pick up the food and throw it at the enemies. I picked up what looked like a grapefruit, threw it at a huge shield bearing knight. Needless to say it did little damage and he followed up with a skull-crushing blow to my head. Oh yeah, the main character in this game is a girl, I can’t remember her name, who wears a bikini (or something similar) and wields, yes you’ve guessed it a Heavenly Sword. She is hard as nails and some of the moves she pulls off are fantastic. I don’t know how she does it though as I’m just pressing buttons as fast as I can in any order. It seems to work though as I’m on the 6th level now.

The Bluray movies look even better. I’ve rented the BBC Planet Earth series, the one that BBC constantly broadcast on the BBC HD preview channel on SKY. I’m not that much of an AV geek like Stewart is and will settle for a fairly decent picture on a TV, but when you see this it just blows you away. You find yourself not really concentrating on the DVD itself, but just marvelling over the picture quality. “Look at that ant in the background, look how detailed it looks, you can even see the hairs on its legs”. This reminds me of a classic Carry on Film joke; it’s the one when they’re all going on holiday. One guy Bernard Bresslaw, I think, says to another, possibly Kenneth Williams, whilst sitting on the plane and looking out of the window, “Look at those people down there they look like ants”. The other replies “They are ants, we haven’t taken off yet! Classic.

The only downer is that Bluray disks cost about £20, so it’s not even worth thinking about upgrading all your existing DVDs to Bluray, like everyone upgraded VHS to DVD. I’ll probably wait a while before I buy any Bluray disks to be honest as I’m not willing to pay anymore than £10 for a film. Currently I/We rent them from Lovefilm.com which works out pretty well. You can rent games from them too, so even better. You can have any 2 films at home for as long as you want. You send them back when you’ve finished with them and then the next 2 off your list turn up. All the postage is free too. You can add what you want to your list and prioritise them. Most of the time they do send you what you want in the right order, although sometimes if you have a 5 disk series in your list, like Lost for instance, they send you them in the wrong order. You end up watching the end of the series finale before you’ve seen the start, although in the case of Lost I don’t think it makes much difference do you?

So that’s about it really; turned out to be one of my longer blogs, but I’m sure most of you are thinking it’s my dullest blog. Maybe I should have called it “If you don’t like computers or technology then don’t read this!”. In fact that’s what I’ll do, I’ll call it that and hope that only Palace Fan, Stew, Geoff, Ben and Alan reads it! If you have got this far down and you don’t like technology then sorry, but to quote Little Britain “ I did warn you!”

Adios

P.S. There’s over 1600 words in this blog! I used to struggle in GCSE English to write 400 words on “Discuss Wilfred Owen’s poetry and his use of alliteration and onomatopoeic phrases in relation to the First World War”. It’s amazing how much you can write when you’re not put under pressure or the subject is boring!

Trailer Park Trash

"Editors Note - I've been going through some of our old posts and adding relevant (in most cases) pictures. Now we all know Britney is trailer park trash but to be fair to the girl I thought I'd at least put a fairly decent picture of her on this post"

Talk about feeling the earth move! We was in bed last night and you know what it's like when you're half asleep? Well I was aware of movement in the bed and in my semi conscious state decided to blame Matt, as he is prone to a bit of fidgeting. Well this was like no fidgeting I've ever experienced before and the bed was literally shaking and juddering. I said to Matt 'what are you doing?' to which he replied 'it's not me it's you!' As I started to wake up I knew that it was some kind of earth quake we were experiencing, as just after the big judders I started to feel some slight tremors too. Anyway not one to be kept from my slumber I just fell back to sleep and didn't think any more about it, until this morning. I put the BBC news on and there was a scene in Lincoln, that was being broadcast live and there was rubble in the street. Then they started talking about the quake, so I woke Matt up and told him that neither of us was guilty of fidgeting. Fancy that though! Anyway it has been the main topic of conversation all day at work and on the radio and I can honestly say I'm sick of hearing about it now.

We're starting to get back into a kind of routine now, especially now we're both back at work. I'm finding the constraints of a 9-5 life really imposing at the moment. After 10 months of doing our own thing I guess it was always going to be difficult. We are already starting to talk about holidays, we're not going far though probably a week in The Lakes to start with, and maybe a long weekend in Bonnie Scotland too. We both want to see more of England now we have travelled the world as there is so much beauty and heritage on our own doorstep.

We are also going on a stint 'darn sarf' in April to meet up with some of Matt's old Uni mates, one of whom I've already met at Reading a couple of years ago, he probably wont recognise me without the muck and big tide mark around my neck. The other mate I've not met, although I've been reliably informed I will get on with him 'cos he's 'from the North!' So that should be a good weekend.

My new job is going really well, I'm starting to piece things together. There is so much gear involved in camping, it's mesmerising. I have poached an old colleague to come and work with me, Keelie. She came in for an interview on Monday and is starting in a couple of weeks, I'm really looking forward to working with her again as she is an absolute star. When we were in the interview I mentioned to my boss about some supplier training, Keelie's eyes lit up when he said that he would fly us out to Spain to some of the factories and we could tag a long weekend onto the end of it. There's bound to be some perks working in the leisure industry?! Oh I remember the days when I was working for Eurocamp cleaning the seals of the windows with a cotton bud and scrubbing the shower tray with a tooth brush, God knows whose tooth brush it was. I don't know if anybody else shares my enthusiasm for camping/caravanning, but I think there's something really exciting about buying a packet of bacon that you are going to cook on a camp stove and then wash the pans in cold water, and I don't even eat the stuff. For anybody that is stuck for some inspiration as to where to holiday this year, try it, you will love it. You don't have to go on the trailer park at Withernsea either, you can go to most places in Europe, or why not go long haul and spend a couple of weeks caravanning with the Ozzies, cozzies and mozzies.

I can sing now I'm winning!

Well I started my new job on Wednesday, at a company called Discover Leisure, they are a company who deal in caravans, motorhomes and anything else to do with camping. I am the new Customer Service Team Leader, what a result!

I first heard about the job when I went to register at a recruitment agency, Beardshaw Murray. We talked through my CV and chatted about what sort of role I was looking for, what experience I had etc. The recruitment consultant then told me of this opportunity that had come up with a leisure company, she told me all the details and said that the guy was looking for somebody who was well travelled and had a genuine interest in the outdoors. We both agreed that it had my name all over it. I was really excited when I left the agency as up until this point I hadn't really seen anything that I wanted to do. I had been to an interview at the infamous Welcome Finance, but if I'm honest it was the last place I wanted to work. It is full of ex-Comet staff and after a fatal blow dealt to me by an ex colleague I really was looking to move away from all things to do with 'Britains most trusted electrical retailer'.

My interview at the agency was on the Thursday and on the following Monday I got a phone call to say that I had an interview the following Tuesday. I was over the moon. I did the prep, read up on the company, revisited all my work experience, skills, strengths, achievements you name it I read it, I thought my head would explode I'd read so much stuff. On the Monday before my interview I had to go see my retarded mate at the Job Centre to sign on. Sure enough he was his usual retarded incompetent self, we went through the script, what have you been doing to find work? what websites have you looked at ra ra ra. At this point I told him that I had an interview the following day and that I didn't expect to be seeing his ugly mug in another 2 weeks. It made no difference to him, there are 1000's more unemployed scrotes in Hull that will always ensure that he is never on the other side of his desk claiming Job Seekers allowance.

On the day of my interview I was a little bit nervous, but was looking forward to having the interview and just getting it all over with, it was over a week now that I had known about the job/interview so I really was sick of thinking about it. It went really, really well and it was more of an informal chat than a structured interview. I chatted about my travels, my time at Eurocamp in Italy and all the other experience I had in Customer Service. It really did go well and when I left Trevor, (my new boss) said I will give you a call this afternoon and let you know. It was such a relief to walk out of there and I was feeling pretty confident about the way things had gone. A couple of hours later I got a call from the agency to say I had been offered the job and could I start tomorrow!! I was a little taken aback by the pace at which everything was happening, but after 10 months off work I decided that I might as well get on with it. So that's what I did, I started work last Wednesday, and I love it. I have no team at the moment and have full responsibility for recruiting, I have poached an ex colleague already, I know it's a bit naughty but hey it's dog eat dog in this world!

It is such a good feeling to be back at work, it was a lonely time being unemployed when everybody around me was busy getting on with it. Agencies don't return your calls and you don't even get rejection letters for anything you apply for, not even a thanks but no thanks. But that's all in the past now, I don't envy anybody living in Hull who is genuinely looking for work, you have got your work cut out!

My first day at work I was late, not fashionably either! The offices are just outside of Hull so I left the house at 8.15, thinking it would allow me plenty of time to get there. Well at 8.50 I was still in Hull and wasn't even half way there, the traffic is manic in a morning with everybody taking their kids to school. Why can't they get the fluffin bus like we had to!!! Anyway I phoned ahead to let them know and have now picked out a short cut that takes 10 mins off the journey and also cuts out a lot of traffic. No I haven't got a helicopter before you ask.

All in all life is really good for us at the moment, we can now get saving to buy a hooooose in the Avenues, I've already set my heart on one down Victoria Avenue. It's a beauty, 4 bedrooms with all the period features, French doors, polished wood floors, dado rails, cast iron fire places in the bedrooms, just what we're looking for. And for all our Southern readers I have to tell you that it is a snip at 234k By the time we get our deposit saved though the house will be long gone. I've already got my eye on a few motorhomes at work too ;o)

Matt seems to be settling into the Northern way of life, he addresses everybody with 'now then'. When I look back we have just about picked our life up from Berkhamstead, packed it way for 10 months, travelled round the world and come back 'oop North' unpacked and now getting back on with it. We are back on top, even if our savings are 20k lighter. Whats 20k though when you've seen and done what we have this last year!

Back to work!

Hi all, just a quickie. I will post a blog at the weekend and tell you all about my new job. I know you'll all be really excited now (not!) It took me a very long and lonely 34 days to find a job, but it really is just what I was looking for. Will reveal all when I get a few minutes to myself!!

Giz a job

Sorry it's taken me so long to blog, it's just that I'm living a normal life like everybody else now so I'm a bit stumped for a topic! I will make an effort though as I know people are still looking us up, so thanks all you avid readers!

Well life 'Ooop North' is all I hoped it would be, it is fantastic to be 'home' where all my friends and family are. My mum and dad have never gone through so many tea bags (and cake for Matt!!) We're staying with Stew and Kirsty at the moment and that's great too, they have got a lovely big house and we have been made right at home, they've even laid us on a wide screen TV and DVD player in our room ;o)

We have spent the last couple of weeks catching up with everybody and everything, although I have to say very little changes. Everybody is still going about their day to day business while me and Matt get under everybody's feet. I have been looking for a new job, a task in itself in Hull, and I have a few 'irons in the fire' so to speak. Unless you're willing to work for 12.5k though you're a bit limited as to what you can do. Yesterday I went to the job centre to sign on for the 1st time. It was an experience in itself. I had been a week or so earlier to make a new claim and was done up like a dogs dinner as I had just had an interview at a recruitment agency. Needless to say I stuck out like a sore thumb. The guy who my appointment was with was 20 minutes late seeing me and when I finally did have the pleasure, he stunk of beer! He had very little interest in getting me a job which wouldn't have been so bad if he tried to hide the fact. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting to come out of there with a 30k job, company car and all the trimmings kind of job tucked under my belt, but he didn't ask me the 1st thing about me, typical male I suppose!!!!!!

So this week when I went back I had to 'sign on' and then prove what I had been doing to find work. Well believe me short of going door to door looking for jobs, I have been very busy trying to find something suitable. I had it all documented on the silly form that they give you to keep. When I sat down he asked me in his best Hull accent 'So Michelle, what ave you bin doin to find work' well this was my opening gambit, I blurted it all out, I didn't stop for breath for about 30 seconds. He was shocked, the only thing he could come back with was ' Did you remember to look in the 'Ull Daily Mail on Wednesday' (it's jobs nght in our local rag on a Wednesday, and yes of course I looked!) I told him that yes I had, but to be honest it was a load of twaddle. He then said "Well that's as good as it get's in Hull, that's Hull for yer'.

What I want to know is who employed that big hapless b*&$@rd, how can somebody as BIG (and believe me he was) and gormless as him have a job and I have to rely on the likes of him to get me back into work!! What chance have I got?, any road rant over.

We went to Hornsea at the weekend with Kirsty's mum's dog, it was great. We took him on the beach for a frisk about and he loved it. It was a freezing cold day and the wind was whipping round our ankles and through our layers, it was great to get some fresh sea air though. Another good thing about living in Hull is that you are right on the coast, well good unless there's ever a Tsunami I suppose. Tomorrow we are off up to Scarborough for the day with my folks, so that will be another bracing day no doubt.

Since we got back we have done loads of walking, when we were travelling we literally walked for miles and miles so now that we're home walking down to the local shop or into town is nothing, wheras before we went we would have just jumped in the car. Travelling does make you appreciate so many little things that we take for granted on a day to day basis.

On Sunday we went out with some people from Comet, Hull, again it was good to see so many friendly faces (some not so friendly) I had a good old hangover on Monday morning as a result, luckily there was no work though ;o)

So that's about it in a nut shell, loving life and glad to be back!