17 January 2008
Important Work Task Of The Day 17/01/2008
Today, my main job is to scan in 42 "unofficial" programmes for the 2007 Champions League Final between Liverpool and AC Milan for my boss.
16 January 2008
Why is it...
that no matter how many times I tell certain members of staff that items such as:
"An important message from the Police Guys please pass this along to all the women you know.....This actually happened a few weeks ago right here in England.
It was early evening and a young lady stopped to get petrol. She filled her tank and walked into the store to pay for her petrol.
The cashier told her, Don't pay for your petrol yet....walk around the store for a while and act as if you're picking up some other things to buy. A man just got into the back of your car. I've called the police and they're on their way'.
When the police arrived, they found the man in the back seat of the girl's car and asked him what he was doing. He replied, he was joining a gang and the initiation to join is to kidnap a woman and bring her back to the gang to be raped by every member of the gang. If the woman was still alive by the time they finish with her then they let her go.
According to the police that night, there is a new gang forming here originating from London. The scary part of this is because the guy didn't have a weapon on him. The police could only charge him with trespassing.... He's back on the street and free to try again.
Please be aware of what's going on around you and for your family and friends. LADIES you or one of your family and friends could be the next victim. Please forward this on to everyone you know. Please do not discard this message it is very important that everyone knows what is happening.
Please be careful when leaving your vehicle and make sure it is ALWAYS Locked to prevent this from happening to you."
and I tell them that they're just urban legends (Snopes.com), a month or two later and they're circulating another bloody one?
"An important message from the Police Guys please pass this along to all the women you know.....This actually happened a few weeks ago right here in England.
It was early evening and a young lady stopped to get petrol. She filled her tank and walked into the store to pay for her petrol.
The cashier told her, Don't pay for your petrol yet....walk around the store for a while and act as if you're picking up some other things to buy. A man just got into the back of your car. I've called the police and they're on their way'.
When the police arrived, they found the man in the back seat of the girl's car and asked him what he was doing. He replied, he was joining a gang and the initiation to join is to kidnap a woman and bring her back to the gang to be raped by every member of the gang. If the woman was still alive by the time they finish with her then they let her go.
According to the police that night, there is a new gang forming here originating from London. The scary part of this is because the guy didn't have a weapon on him. The police could only charge him with trespassing.... He's back on the street and free to try again.
Please be aware of what's going on around you and for your family and friends. LADIES you or one of your family and friends could be the next victim. Please forward this on to everyone you know. Please do not discard this message it is very important that everyone knows what is happening.
Please be careful when leaving your vehicle and make sure it is ALWAYS Locked to prevent this from happening to you."
and I tell them that they're just urban legends (Snopes.com), a month or two later and they're circulating another bloody one?
Important Work Task Of The Day 16/01/2008
Was to connect the boss's kids' Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii to their wireless network.
Makes me glad I bothered to go university!
Makes me glad I bothered to go university!
11 January 2008
Important Work Task Of The Day 11/01/2008
was to put three football programmes up for auction on Ebay for my boss!
08 January 2008
The Dalek Invasion Of Ea...My Living Room 2008 AD
Nothing of note happened between getting up, leaving for work and returning home from work. In fact, the only highlight of my work day was getting a lift home from my father and arriving home 40 minutes earlier than normal.
During the evening meal, my wife and I watched "The Family Of Blood", which was the second part of the story that started with "Human Nature" from Doctor Who series 3. It's only recently that I recognised that the chap who plays the creepy alien-possessed Baines in it is Harry Lloyd who has also recently been seen on our screens in BBC's Robin Hood series.
With dinner, the programme over and being armed with the batteries I needed (this time) it was finally on to activating my 18" Voice Interactive Dalek for the first time.
I first tried it in remote controlled mode, which is rather basic. Two joysticks control movement of the Dalek, another to control the rotation of the dome with its eyestalk on and another to raise and lower this eyestalk. In addition, there's a button which causes it to utter one of the familiar lines from the modern run of Doctor Who (i.e. 2005 onwards). Unlike the ones in these later stories, it doesn't off er a rotating centre for shooting behind itself.
"Voice interactive" mode is where it shines. It can stand sentry and challenge (and "exterminate" i.e. make a firing noise while the gun lights up) anything that approaches it; go off on a wander; seek & locate (and "exterminate"); find & track moving objects. It also has a mode where you can tell it to move forwards, left or right (but strangely not backwards) a specific number of units and you can also set up a list of these movements to occur which can be triggered by another command.
It's very fun to mess around with and looks great too, which is ideal for the room I'll be setting up as my gaming/home cinema/hi-fi/reading room later this year!
Wisely, my cat chose to hide behind the sofa, which was kind of apt!
During the evening meal, my wife and I watched "The Family Of Blood", which was the second part of the story that started with "Human Nature" from Doctor Who series 3. It's only recently that I recognised that the chap who plays the creepy alien-possessed Baines in it is Harry Lloyd who has also recently been seen on our screens in BBC's Robin Hood series.
With dinner, the programme over and being armed with the batteries I needed (this time) it was finally on to activating my 18" Voice Interactive Dalek for the first time.
I first tried it in remote controlled mode, which is rather basic. Two joysticks control movement of the Dalek, another to control the rotation of the dome with its eyestalk on and another to raise and lower this eyestalk. In addition, there's a button which causes it to utter one of the familiar lines from the modern run of Doctor Who (i.e. 2005 onwards). Unlike the ones in these later stories, it doesn't off er a rotating centre for shooting behind itself.
"Voice interactive" mode is where it shines. It can stand sentry and challenge (and "exterminate" i.e. make a firing noise while the gun lights up) anything that approaches it; go off on a wander; seek & locate (and "exterminate"); find & track moving objects. It also has a mode where you can tell it to move forwards, left or right (but strangely not backwards) a specific number of units and you can also set up a list of these movements to occur which can be triggered by another command.
It's very fun to mess around with and looks great too, which is ideal for the room I'll be setting up as my gaming/home cinema/hi-fi/reading room later this year!
Wisely, my cat chose to hide behind the sofa, which was kind of apt!
07 January 2008
Power Of The Daleks
This morning, I got into town early enough to go to the latest Tesco before work and pick up my lunch for the first few days of the week and a lot of AA batteries as I was going to be needing them when a certain package arrived.
During work I received an email from my wife, who is currently unemployed and is therefore handy for receiving parcels from courier companies, though I'd much prefer she wasn't and earning enough so I could just receive them at work and pay the £20+ for a taxi home. This email announced that a large package was waiting for me at home to open.
It contained...an 18" Voice Interactive Dalek!
After a long day my working day came to an end and I returned home and consumed dinner while watching "Human Nature", one of my favourite three episodes of Doctor Who series 3 which guest starred Jessica Hynes (formerly known as Jessica Stephenson) of Spaced fame.
After 15 minutes of wrestling with the packaging containing the Dalek, I finally managed to get it out. I reached for the pile of AA batteries to insert them, but any hopes of playing with it tonight were dashed when I realised that it not only required AA batteries but four D and one PP3 batteries too, which of course we didn't have!
BAH!
During work I received an email from my wife, who is currently unemployed and is therefore handy for receiving parcels from courier companies, though I'd much prefer she wasn't and earning enough so I could just receive them at work and pay the £20+ for a taxi home. This email announced that a large package was waiting for me at home to open.
It contained...an 18" Voice Interactive Dalek!
After a long day my working day came to an end and I returned home and consumed dinner while watching "Human Nature", one of my favourite three episodes of Doctor Who series 3 which guest starred Jessica Hynes (formerly known as Jessica Stephenson) of Spaced fame.
After 15 minutes of wrestling with the packaging containing the Dalek, I finally managed to get it out. I reached for the pile of AA batteries to insert them, but any hopes of playing with it tonight were dashed when I realised that it not only required AA batteries but four D and one PP3 batteries too, which of course we didn't have!
BAH!
06 January 2008
Sunday In San Andreas
Today, was pretty much more of the same, except for the usual Sunday ritual of the making of the bacon butties, which were eaten while watching "The Lazarus Experiment from the series 3 box set of Doctor Who.
The villain of this story was played by Mark Gatiss, making him one of the few people to have written for and acted in Doctor Who. Mark Gatiss is mostly known as a member of "The League Of Gentlemen", however he is also the writer of "The Unquiet Dead" for series 1 and "The Idiot's Lantern" for series 2 of Doctor Who as well as several Doctor Who novels for Virgin New Adventures and BBC Books.
Afterwards, I fired up the PC and Steam announced that all Grand Theft Auto games for the PC were available for £25ish and that seemed a reasonable enough deal and handed over my credit card details and then started downloading them.
As we were still full from the bacon butties at breakfast, we decided to skip lunch, apart from large bag of thai sweet chilli flavour crisps while watching our movie for today, "Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer", which was enjoyable enough though I prefer the first film.
Not long after we finished watching the film, it was time for my wife to go to her laptop and speak to her mum (or in her case "mom") back home in the USA via skype with webcam. I, of course, headed off to the computer room and tried my morning's purchases.
The first game I tried, after the games had finished downloading, was "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" which was my favourite of the GTA games for the Playstation 2. Well, the PC version is enjoyable enough, but the mouse control seems to be over-sensitive and the game crashed a few times.
However, most of the rest of the day and evening was spent playing "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" which I also have for the Playstation 2, but as I got it at a point where I hardly wanted to spend my time in front of a console and so have hardly played it. This game is less prone to crashing, though it did once, and the mouse control works a heck of a lot better. I played through a few of the early missions, but generally ate, worked out at the gym and "wasted" rival gang members.
During dinner (pizza!) we watched "42", yet another episode of Doctor Who from the series 3 box set which featured former Eastenders actress Michelle Collins" as the captain of the sun-bound spaceship.
I went back to "GTA: San Andreas", before heading to bed to watch the first episode of the 2nd series of "The Mighty Boosh" and then sleep.
The villain of this story was played by Mark Gatiss, making him one of the few people to have written for and acted in Doctor Who. Mark Gatiss is mostly known as a member of "The League Of Gentlemen", however he is also the writer of "The Unquiet Dead" for series 1 and "The Idiot's Lantern" for series 2 of Doctor Who as well as several Doctor Who novels for Virgin New Adventures and BBC Books.
Afterwards, I fired up the PC and Steam announced that all Grand Theft Auto games for the PC were available for £25ish and that seemed a reasonable enough deal and handed over my credit card details and then started downloading them.
As we were still full from the bacon butties at breakfast, we decided to skip lunch, apart from large bag of thai sweet chilli flavour crisps while watching our movie for today, "Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer", which was enjoyable enough though I prefer the first film.
Not long after we finished watching the film, it was time for my wife to go to her laptop and speak to her mum (or in her case "mom") back home in the USA via skype with webcam. I, of course, headed off to the computer room and tried my morning's purchases.
The first game I tried, after the games had finished downloading, was "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" which was my favourite of the GTA games for the Playstation 2. Well, the PC version is enjoyable enough, but the mouse control seems to be over-sensitive and the game crashed a few times.
However, most of the rest of the day and evening was spent playing "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" which I also have for the Playstation 2, but as I got it at a point where I hardly wanted to spend my time in front of a console and so have hardly played it. This game is less prone to crashing, though it did once, and the mouse control works a heck of a lot better. I played through a few of the early missions, but generally ate, worked out at the gym and "wasted" rival gang members.
During dinner (pizza!) we watched "42", yet another episode of Doctor Who from the series 3 box set which featured former Eastenders actress Michelle Collins" as the captain of the sun-bound spaceship.
I went back to "GTA: San Andreas", before heading to bed to watch the first episode of the 2nd series of "The Mighty Boosh" and then sleep.
05 January 2008
Daleks In Manhattan (Not Taken By Muppets)
Nothing really happened today. We watched the "Daleks In Manhattan" episode from the series 3 box set of Doctor Who and "The Dark Crystal", which is a cheesy but enjoyable nonetheless film made in 1982 by Jim Henson and featuring muppets (though none from "The Muppet Show", of course).
The voice talent in this film includes actors such as Billie Whitelaw (recently seen as the hotelier in "Hot Fuzz") and Michael Kilgarriff (who is familiar to Doctor Who anoraks, like myself, as the Cyber Controller in "Tomb Of The Cybermen" and "Attack Of The Cybermen" as well as Experimental Prototype Robot K1 aka "The Robot" in "Robot") in addition to the vocal & puppetry performances of Jim Henson and many of his fellow veteran muppeteers including Frank Oz (who co-directed the film with Henson) and Jerry Nelson.
Following a few hours in front of our computers, with dinner we watched "Evolution Of The Daleks" from the Doctor Who series 3 box set which was the 2nd part of "The Daleks In Manhattan" story.
Apart from that, most of my time was spent in front of the computer.
The voice talent in this film includes actors such as Billie Whitelaw (recently seen as the hotelier in "Hot Fuzz") and Michael Kilgarriff (who is familiar to Doctor Who anoraks, like myself, as the Cyber Controller in "Tomb Of The Cybermen" and "Attack Of The Cybermen" as well as Experimental Prototype Robot K1 aka "The Robot" in "Robot") in addition to the vocal & puppetry performances of Jim Henson and many of his fellow veteran muppeteers including Frank Oz (who co-directed the film with Henson) and Jerry Nelson.
Following a few hours in front of our computers, with dinner we watched "Evolution Of The Daleks" from the Doctor Who series 3 box set which was the 2nd part of "The Daleks In Manhattan" story.
Apart from that, most of my time was spent in front of the computer.
04 January 2008
My 2nd IT job
My main job is providing technical support for a small firm and my 2nd job is providing technical support for family which is, naturally, generally unpaid.
After a long and boring day at work, me and my colleagues were released for our 2 days and a few hours of freedom before our Monday return.
I was collected from work by my father, with my wife "riding shotgun" and driven to my parents house, about 15 minutes drive away. On arriving at my mum & dad's house, I was greeted by mum and I then proceeded to their PC in the conservatory with the task of installing Skype, their webcam and generally maintenance. Pretty easy stuff fortunately.
Although I say such work is generally paid, I considered the beer, wine and roast beef dinner with tons of roast potatoes and yorkshire pudddings as more than adequate recompense!
My wife and I were then driven back home around 10.30pm where we watched several episodes of series 1 of "The Mighty Boosh", which makes no sense but is enjoyable nonetheless
After a long and boring day at work, me and my colleagues were released for our 2 days and a few hours of freedom before our Monday return.
I was collected from work by my father, with my wife "riding shotgun" and driven to my parents house, about 15 minutes drive away. On arriving at my mum & dad's house, I was greeted by mum and I then proceeded to their PC in the conservatory with the task of installing Skype, their webcam and generally maintenance. Pretty easy stuff fortunately.
Although I say such work is generally paid, I considered the beer, wine and roast beef dinner with tons of roast potatoes and yorkshire pudddings as more than adequate recompense!
My wife and I were then driven back home around 10.30pm where we watched several episodes of series 1 of "The Mighty Boosh", which makes no sense but is enjoyable nonetheless
03 January 2008
It was an early start to the day. The alarm went off at 5.40am, instead of the usual work day time of 6.25am, as my wife had to be ready to leave the house at 7.20am. The reason for this was that she was being collected by her driving instructor for her final lesson before her driving test at 8.20am.
Twenty minutes after she left with him, I was also out of the house to start my commute to work, which consists of two bus journeys and takes between 45 and 70 minutes depending on whether the first bus arrives on time...which of course it usually doesn't.
I arrived at work with 5 minutes to spare but the coffee that a colleague had made for me and was waiting on my desk was to remain untouched. I hadn't even had enough time to hang my coat and the coat stand before I rushed out to one of our directors' houses to sort out a printing problem with his home computer.
Fortunately, this just proved to be blocked printing queue where a print job had failed and held up every subsequent print job until I deleted it.
On the way back to the office, I checked my mobile phone for missed calls and noticed that my wife had tried to phone me a few minutes earlier as she'd obviously discovered I was not at work.
On calling her back, I was pleased to discover that she had passed her driving test with only 6 minor errors! I was very confident that she would pass however as, until she forgot to renew it, she was the holder of a USA driver's licence already.
Although she had been living in the UK with me for 10 years, since 31st December 1997 to be exact, and had only driven a few times in the USA on our trips to visit her folks in Washington State, I knew she'd cope well with driving in the UK.
She's only licensed to drive automatic cars, but as she has never driven "stick shift" cars and doesn't intend to, this is fine.
As per usual, a celebratory Indian meal occurred this evening!
Hopefully, she'll find a job soon and we can afford to take our banger of a car off my father's driveway!
Twenty minutes after she left with him, I was also out of the house to start my commute to work, which consists of two bus journeys and takes between 45 and 70 minutes depending on whether the first bus arrives on time...which of course it usually doesn't.
I arrived at work with 5 minutes to spare but the coffee that a colleague had made for me and was waiting on my desk was to remain untouched. I hadn't even had enough time to hang my coat and the coat stand before I rushed out to one of our directors' houses to sort out a printing problem with his home computer.
Fortunately, this just proved to be blocked printing queue where a print job had failed and held up every subsequent print job until I deleted it.
On the way back to the office, I checked my mobile phone for missed calls and noticed that my wife had tried to phone me a few minutes earlier as she'd obviously discovered I was not at work.
On calling her back, I was pleased to discover that she had passed her driving test with only 6 minor errors! I was very confident that she would pass however as, until she forgot to renew it, she was the holder of a USA driver's licence already.
Although she had been living in the UK with me for 10 years, since 31st December 1997 to be exact, and had only driven a few times in the USA on our trips to visit her folks in Washington State, I knew she'd cope well with driving in the UK.
She's only licensed to drive automatic cars, but as she has never driven "stick shift" cars and doesn't intend to, this is fine.
As per usual, a celebratory Indian meal occurred this evening!
Hopefully, she'll find a job soon and we can afford to take our banger of a car off my father's driveway!
02 January 2008
First Work Day Of The New Year
Back at work after the paltry day off that is New Year's Day. If I was a drinker, I'd probably still be hungover from New Year's Eve. Thankfully I only partake of the occasional bottle of beer every now and then
Sitting on my desk, when I arrived was a package from Big Finish Productions containing 7 hardback books based on the adventures of Professor Bernice Summerfield which had been available in the Christmas sale for £35.
Professor Bernice Summerfield (or Benny to her friends) is a character created by the marvellous Paul Cornell who wrote the Ninth Doctor's "Father's Day" and the Tenth Doctor's "Human Nature/The Family Of Blood" episodes for the revamped Doctor Who television series.
She started off as a companion of the Seventh Doctor from the 8th book of the Virgin New Adventures books, "Love and War", until the 50th book "Happy Endings", although she appeared in four more stories afterwards.
One of these books was "Human Nature" upon which the television story was based, replacing Benny with Martha Jones.
After the TV movie in 1996, the BBC decided not to renew Virgin Books' licence and publish their own books instead, so in 1997 Benny took over the main role from The Doctor in the New Adventures for 28 more books.
In 1998 Big Finish Productions start releasing audio plays with Lisa Bowerman in the role of Benny, and the first series of 6 plays were based on VNA books, including a few which originally featured the Seventh Doctor but were adapted to not feature him this time, as they didn't have a licence from the BBC....yet! (that was not until the next year)
I have the first four series of these and highly recommend them.
Anyway, too cut a long story short, in 2000 they started producing books too, 7 of which I now possess!
Sitting on my desk, when I arrived was a package from Big Finish Productions containing 7 hardback books based on the adventures of Professor Bernice Summerfield which had been available in the Christmas sale for £35.
Professor Bernice Summerfield (or Benny to her friends) is a character created by the marvellous Paul Cornell who wrote the Ninth Doctor's "Father's Day" and the Tenth Doctor's "Human Nature/The Family Of Blood" episodes for the revamped Doctor Who television series.
She started off as a companion of the Seventh Doctor from the 8th book of the Virgin New Adventures books, "Love and War", until the 50th book "Happy Endings", although she appeared in four more stories afterwards.
One of these books was "Human Nature" upon which the television story was based, replacing Benny with Martha Jones.
After the TV movie in 1996, the BBC decided not to renew Virgin Books' licence and publish their own books instead, so in 1997 Benny took over the main role from The Doctor in the New Adventures for 28 more books.
In 1998 Big Finish Productions start releasing audio plays with Lisa Bowerman in the role of Benny, and the first series of 6 plays were based on VNA books, including a few which originally featured the Seventh Doctor but were adapted to not feature him this time, as they didn't have a licence from the BBC....yet! (that was not until the next year)
I have the first four series of these and highly recommend them.
Anyway, too cut a long story short, in 2000 they started producing books too, 7 of which I now possess!
01 January 2008
Happy Arbitrary Calendar Event
According to my calendar, 2007 is done and dusted.
Last year saw: the death of a long term online friend, Jim Langmead (1974-2007) due to complications caused by Crohn's Disease; my wife lose her job (twice); my wife lose a friend to cancer; my father in law rushed into hospital for an emergency operation to remove a blockage in his aorta but apart from that, as years go (and today proves that they do), it was okayish.
On the positive side of things - tiff started driving lessons (taking test soon), got a new boiler, moved the kitchen door so that we have a bigger kitchen area, got an inner door between the lounge and the dining room, so we can silence the noise of the washing machine while we try and listen to the TV!!
Movie of the year is not "Transformers", which is the only movie that I'd actually bothered to go to the cinema to see, but the final instalment of the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" trilogy, "At World's End". Admittedly I'd only seen it for the first time in 2008 (i.e today), but it came out last year so there.
My favourite album of the year was Manic Street Preachers "Send Away The Tigers", however it was the only new album I bought that year. I bought mostly reissues by bands like The Move and the Electric Light Orchestra.
Favourite music gig of the year has to be Squeeze on the 8th December at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
Favourite comedy gig of the year had to be Richard Herring on the Liverpool leg of his "Ménage Et Un" tour and was part of the Liverpool Comedy Festival. Richard was very funny and I can highly recommend the DVD from this tour which is available for a tenner from Go Faster Stripe.
Now...
As tradition dictates here's a list of resolutions....
1. Lose Weight and Get Fit - I'm 5ft9ins and 16 stone.
2. Get my wife on the road - all being well she'll be a licenced driver in a few days. We've got a car waiting for us and it's on my mum & dad's drive awaiting tax, mot etc. Due to financial constraints of my wife unfortunately being unemployed it hasn't seemed likely to be any time soon. However, a 6.9%ish salary raise starting from this month means that this should happen after all! Will check salary at the end of the month before getting my wife's hopes up to soon, but I'm sure it will be viable! As a result of 2. onto 3.
3. Go out more. Most weekends are spent at home doing nothing but watching movies and sitting in front of the computer. Thanks to 2. this is may still occur occasionally but we'll now be able to visit friends within a couple of hours driving distance with ease and visit various areas of the UK and make use of our cameras and fill the Flickr accounts up!!
4. Get the house feeling more like a home. Although our house is our house and has been for a few years, a lot of the furniture, carpets and curtains are from when my parents owned the house. Last year we managed to finally get the first stage of having a nice new kitchen sorted, so this year a new kitchen is on the cards. In addition I plan to spend holiday entitlement where we aren't away boxing up stuff in some of the rooms, moving the boxes into another room along with the furniture, stipping the wallpaper and painting the rooms in colours that we want - not just boring white emulsion.
5. Help out more. I confess it, I'm a lazy git and although our house rule is that if someone isn't earning money they do the housework, even when my wife is working she does the vast majority of the housework. This year will be different - once Tiff's back at work I'll iron my own shirts, clean the bathroom and vacuum and dust!
6. Give up beer entirely. I find I don't enjoy it any more, so once my in-house beer has gone that's it.
7. Clear debts as much as possible by buying less gadgets and dvds and not at the expense of things mentioned in the other resolutions!
Last year saw: the death of a long term online friend, Jim Langmead (1974-2007) due to complications caused by Crohn's Disease; my wife lose her job (twice); my wife lose a friend to cancer; my father in law rushed into hospital for an emergency operation to remove a blockage in his aorta but apart from that, as years go (and today proves that they do), it was okayish.
On the positive side of things - tiff started driving lessons (taking test soon), got a new boiler, moved the kitchen door so that we have a bigger kitchen area, got an inner door between the lounge and the dining room, so we can silence the noise of the washing machine while we try and listen to the TV!!
Movie of the year is not "Transformers", which is the only movie that I'd actually bothered to go to the cinema to see, but the final instalment of the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" trilogy, "At World's End". Admittedly I'd only seen it for the first time in 2008 (i.e today), but it came out last year so there.
My favourite album of the year was Manic Street Preachers "Send Away The Tigers", however it was the only new album I bought that year. I bought mostly reissues by bands like The Move and the Electric Light Orchestra.
Favourite music gig of the year has to be Squeeze on the 8th December at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
Favourite comedy gig of the year had to be Richard Herring on the Liverpool leg of his "Ménage Et Un" tour and was part of the Liverpool Comedy Festival. Richard was very funny and I can highly recommend the DVD from this tour which is available for a tenner from Go Faster Stripe.
Now...
As tradition dictates here's a list of resolutions....
1. Lose Weight and Get Fit - I'm 5ft9ins and 16 stone.
2. Get my wife on the road - all being well she'll be a licenced driver in a few days. We've got a car waiting for us and it's on my mum & dad's drive awaiting tax, mot etc. Due to financial constraints of my wife unfortunately being unemployed it hasn't seemed likely to be any time soon. However, a 6.9%ish salary raise starting from this month means that this should happen after all! Will check salary at the end of the month before getting my wife's hopes up to soon, but I'm sure it will be viable! As a result of 2. onto 3.
3. Go out more. Most weekends are spent at home doing nothing but watching movies and sitting in front of the computer. Thanks to 2. this is may still occur occasionally but we'll now be able to visit friends within a couple of hours driving distance with ease and visit various areas of the UK and make use of our cameras and fill the Flickr accounts up!!
4. Get the house feeling more like a home. Although our house is our house and has been for a few years, a lot of the furniture, carpets and curtains are from when my parents owned the house. Last year we managed to finally get the first stage of having a nice new kitchen sorted, so this year a new kitchen is on the cards. In addition I plan to spend holiday entitlement where we aren't away boxing up stuff in some of the rooms, moving the boxes into another room along with the furniture, stipping the wallpaper and painting the rooms in colours that we want - not just boring white emulsion.
5. Help out more. I confess it, I'm a lazy git and although our house rule is that if someone isn't earning money they do the housework, even when my wife is working she does the vast majority of the housework. This year will be different - once Tiff's back at work I'll iron my own shirts, clean the bathroom and vacuum and dust!
6. Give up beer entirely. I find I don't enjoy it any more, so once my in-house beer has gone that's it.
7. Clear debts as much as possible by buying less gadgets and dvds and not at the expense of things mentioned in the other resolutions!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)