wHaT oN eArTh Am I oN aBoUt

Not really news

2011-05-10T09:05:00.001+01:00

While sitting on the Metro en route to work this morning I just read on Twitter that the breaking news is that William and Kate have now gone on their honeymoon! Sorry for the lack of excitement but whoop de doo, I really don't think it constitutes news - especially after they've asked for complete privacy! Although it was from Sky News so what do I expect!!

iPad

2011-04-24T23:11:00.001+01:00

I've just read back through this blog and on 28th May last year I blogged about the newly released iPad - I was definitely a fan however wasn't sure i'd want one. I was pleased to read that I said I wouldn't bother with iPad 1 and instead would wait to see what iPad 2 would bring. Sure enough I'm sat here just under a year later and I'm typing this on a new iPad 2! I was lucky to get some money back from a bank after claiming back PPI which I was sold with a loan I took out a few years ago, and I decided that instead of being sensible with it all I would spend some of it on myself and Katie. The timing coincided nicely with the release of iPad 2 and after reading a lot of info about it I decided to take the plunge. Back in May I was unsure as to where the iPad would fit into my life in-between my iPhone, iMac and Sony laptop which are all knocking around the house. I can now say that I love it and I'm now not sure I could do without it. I'm finding that i'm not using the laptop and iMac as much and instead of sitting away from Katie while she tortures herself watching Glee, Greys Anatomy, X-Factor I can sit next to her on the sofa and do pretty much the same on the iPad! As ever the lack of Flash is a bit of a pain however there definitely seems to be a shift happening away from Flash towards other mediums! I'm definitely an iPad convert and would recommend it to anyone.

I'm becoming a grown up......

2011-04-24T22:44:00.001+01:00

....ish! After getting married, becoming a father and more recently buying a new family car it's looking like I'm likely to complete the set and become a homeowner! It's easily stages yet but so far all the signs look good, the house will require lots of work in and out but strangely enough that excites me! I've been dying to find a hobby to get my teeth into - and this house could just be it! Fingers crossed!

Forgetful

2011-04-24T22:39:00.001+01:00

Well, it looks like my last blogging session was once again a few months ago! Ah well! I'm definitely one of those people who will have a great idea pop into my head, whether it's a line for a new song, or something to write on here and then within five mins it's gone - I really should carry a notebook or my iPad round with me but I don't unfortunately!

Aghhhh!!

2011-01-16T23:39:00.001Z

Once again I've neglected this blog! Humph! Finding the time when I also have something worth blogging about are minimal! Anyhoo - I'm sat here on the new blue three piece suite we got from my brother and sister in law (thank you)! While Katie watches Grey's Anatomy, not my thing really!

Inspiration

2010-09-22T13:49:00.001+01:00

For the last few years I've been part of what we describe as 'a band' - it all started with me and a friend meeting up each week to play bad covers with a rather gruff voiced bloke! Time went on and an evening playing covers involving Mr Gruff always wanting to be as close to the original as possible became less fun and so it stopped. Since then we've moved to a more stable set-up of 5 of us (I've moved from bass to drums) and we're now playing all our own stuff - some of which is marvellous. The problem for me always seems to come when it's time to craft lyrics - I'm wondering if I'm devoid of an imagination or something as I can sit for ages and nothing comes at all! Even if I came up with something about a ghost eating toast up a lamppost I'd be pleased! But nowt! I wonder if I can just get away with writing instrumentals!?

Next week

2010-06-01T15:09:00.000+01:00

Well, this time next week we'll all be finally able to have at least a basic understanding of what the new iPhone looks like - whether they call it 4, 4G, HD or even Jeff I'm not really bothered but what it does differently is really what I want to see! I'm not especially fussed that it won't have flash - I think that just means less rubbish to load from a site so it should make it quicker! I am interested in the camera, the speed of operation, any new bits of software brilliance nobody had guessed about! I regularly trawl through Google to read the latest blogs about rumours, sightings and made up things and they all seem to have their own ideas about what we will and won't see - I'd guess some of them will be wrong an others spot on! One thing I have determined is that there are people out there with far too much time on there hands who need something better to do with their time rather than play a guessing game with Apple!

It's here

2010-05-28T13:51:00.001+01:00

Well after all the hype and expectation it's finally here - the iPad had arrived! I'm a huge fan of all things Apple however due to financial constraints I am limited to my only interaction with them being my iPhone. So when the iPad was announced I was naturally a bit intrigued and as with most people I was keen for a 'go'. Thankfully Phil (Fredspoon) had decided to take the plunge and preordered one which arrived yesterday - so last night I got to have a 'go'. Did I like it? Yes I did! Would I buy one? - No I wouldn't! It is an amazing piece of gadgetary however despite the size there's not a huge amount of difference between the ipad and iPhone! If I was somebody who spent a lot of time travelling on public transport I'd maybe consider it, but not yet! For the moment my iphone and home laptop cover all my needs -even with my sausage fingers I can still dance round the iPhone keyboard and hit almost all of the right letters!

One major thing that put me off being really tempted was the cost - for the price of the ipad I could also get a pretty decent spec Windows laptop - not that I'd want one but just saying!

I think I'll hold fire for a year until Apple bring out iPad v2, who knows it may have a camera, it may do Flash, it may sync with the iPhone making a behemoth of a gadget - who knows!

I am however very much looking forward to the new iPhone which with hopefully be unleashed by Mr Jobs on 7th July - will I be getting one? - I think I will!

Kurt Wenner

2010-05-26T22:45:00.000+01:00

If you have a spare moment when you're supposed to be working have a search in google for pavement art by Kurt Wenner - it's amazing and very clever!

Bookeyface

2010-05-26T22:38:00.000+01:00

Over that last couple of weeks I've contemplated leaving Facebook, as good as it is for keeping up with people and hearing their good news it's the constant moaning, stupid point making and copious amounts of bad news it drops into my face each day! I can be having a great day then read something on there that really makes me feel miserable - and that's a dampener put on my day. In the end I've decided to stick with it, it is after all a great way of contacting my friends en mass with good news and updates about Charlotte. I'm often very tempted to reply to comments with the phrase "No you thick munter...." but hold back 'cos I can't be bothered. I suppose I'll see how it goes, I might just reduce the amount of time I spend on there!

However, as for Twitter - it's marvellous!!

So then, what's happened!

2010-05-26T22:16:00.003+01:00

Since I last posted there haven't been that many changes - Charlotte continues to grow up and develop at an alarming rate. She has developed a new hobby of standing up at any opportunity provided she has something to lean against. If I had been told I'd become a Dad and love it as much as I do a few years ago I probably would have had a mild chuckle however now that it's here I absolutely love it! I also absolutely love being married more than I ever imagined I would - Katie is amazing, we're off on our first main holiday in about a month and I cannot wait!

Aggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

2010-05-26T22:14:00.001+01:00

I've done it again - forgeting about this blog is probably the easiest thing ever! I had a look at Tumblr in the mean time and concluded that it is rubbish so I'm back here for about a fifth bash at it!

I've gone and done it again!

2009-09-16T23:20:00.001+01:00

Sure enough, even with the best intentions I have managed to completely neglect my blog and have not even written anything since April! it's not even as if nothing has happened - completely the opposite in fact!

I've heard it said that moving house, changing job, getting married, and having a baby are some of the most stressfull things to do in life - me and Katie have managed to do them all in the last few months!!

In the middle of June we finally moved out of London and back to the North - quite an easy decision to make really! The move went well and thanks to a couple of Polish guys the move went by without even a grumble!

Then at the start of July I started my new job with a high street back who had a few well publicised problems - it pays the bills - that's all I'll say!

On 8th August me and Katie got married, what an amazing day! The combination of friends and weather made it one of the best days ever!

Then as the icing on the cake Charlotte Mary Anne arrived a bit early on 30th August weighing in at a painfully impressive 9lb 4oz! So far we're 2 weeks in and I love being a Dad!

So that's a potted history of the last few months! Let's hope things calm down a bit!

Nearly Time

2009-04-22T23:29:00.001+01:00

After about a year and a half here it's now getting very close to the time me and Katie reaquaint ourselves with the North East part of England - and about time too! My contract ends at the end of May and so I'm desperately hunting for a new job in the North - great time to be doing that but I'll find something! I hope!

One of the main reasons for moving now is to get Katie settled in with a midwife with the little person being due in September! Also it'll give us chance to get a house and get it in a state for a baby to move into! This all seems a bit grown up to me! Maybe about time!

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Oasis

2009-02-26T08:56:00.002Z

For somebody who grew up in the 80's and 90's do you think I'm going against my generation to say I think Oasis are a bit bland now!?

London Again

2009-02-26T08:53:00.002Z

Before I moved to London I often heard people saying that London is the best place to be and that it's got everything you could ever want - now I've been here for over a year I can announce that I reckon that's cobblers! It does have probably thousands of theatres, galleries, fancy restaurants and other things to see or do! The main problem is that I don't want to do those kind of things, I'm not a fan of theatre, some art is very good but not all, I don't like snooty restaurants who charge a fortune just because of the chefs name or reputation! What I want is my own space, to be able to see the horizon now and then and the opportunity to be where other people aren't so I can spend time with Katie with just us an not shouty annoying tourists or general people walking by!

Job Swap

2009-02-18T09:31:00.002Z

Why is it that in most companies the people who are meant to be Customer Service professionals in call centres are often rude and very impatient and the people who actually do the work are very pleasant and cheery? Yesterday the Titish Brelecom engineer was a really nice bloke and very efficient unlike the call centre person - maybe they should swap roles for a while!

Some Companies Do Things Well...

2009-02-16T23:55:00.002Z

Over the last few days I've had cause to deal with two of what I would describe as being extremely well known. The first I was very pleased with were O2, I managed to crack the screen of my lovely iPhone and although it wasn't in anyway detrimental to the everyday working performance of the phone it was all I noticed everytime I picked it up! So after a phone call to some very nice, pleasant people at O2 on Friday - it is now Monday and I already have my replacement! I've already a huge fan of O2 anyway and from my experience there Customer Service has always been Mint!

The second company who I will not name but will say their name rhymes with Titish Brelecom have been rubbish! We seem to have a fault on our phone line which causes the line to crackle almost 10 seconds and has been known to make calls inaudible. It is also making our DSL drop out too! So after reporting the fault to them just after 12 on Saturday by 12 on Monday we still had no response Customer Service level at 0%. We even called them on Saturday to see what was happening and were told by some lying sniveling little runt that we would be called back that day! Did we get a call back - did we heckers like! So today after calling them and speaking to a nice pleasant lady we have an engineer coming out tomorrow - although the pleasant lady on the phone did make sure she told me about the excessively high charges they have if it proves not to be the phone line - it made me think twice about getting them to come out at all just in case. I hope it is the phone line! This isn't my first time dealing with a problem from this company but I would love to say it would be my last - lets have a look at alternatives shall we!!

So in summary for O2 - well done, Titish Brelecom - useless!

Smoking

2009-01-23T09:32:00.001Z

Like a lot of people I was absolutely delighted when the smoking ban was introduced in England! It meant I could go for an ale and not come away smelling like I'd been kippered! The only problem now is that because you can't smoke inside, lots of people have a cancer stick while walking along the street - which of course means on a regular basis that I end up with a face full of second hand smoke! After a while I thought that if it's ok for them to blow their waste fumes into my face then why isn't it ok for me to do it back to them! So from now on anybody who delivers me a face full of smoke I'm going to try my absolute hardest to overtake them and release my own special fumes in their direction! Although I'll not try too hard!

Just Testing

2009-01-06T12:53:00.001Z

Quite often recently I've been updating my blog using email, however for some stupid reason it likes to stick HTML formatting in which I don't like! So, I'm trying an application I've just got for my phone and this is me testing it!

Humph!

2009-01-04T23:42:00.000Z

Well - the time has come to back to work tomorrow, and am I pleased about that?! Am I buffalo! I can feel a severe dose of the back to work blues coming on!

2009

2009-01-04T13:14:00.001Z

I decided this New Year that I wasn't going to bother making resolutions as they'll just be forgotten about by February. I decided instead that I would try and make commitments instead. This year is also going to involve making some massive decisions too, both me and Katie have to find new jobs this year and more importantly decide where. It all really depends on where the jobs are but I know where I fancy living and it doesn't involve London!

Hopefully this year should be a more creative year for me and Katie, we're both a bit arty (Katie more so than me) but don't seem to be able to make time so hopefully this year we'll get the chance.

I'm also going to try and really cut back the amount of drinking I do - over the course of the last year I've really begun to lose the desire to drink lots. Lots of the boozes available are really not nice and I often find myself thinking "I'll have a pint of that just because it's the best of a bad bunch", but why? If I don't really like it then what is the point of drinking it! I absolutely love a good real ale and a good red wine but their availability isn't always great, there's always a neat Jack Daniels which really floats my boat but I don't want to just drink spirits. I think I'm going to try and just have drinks that I actually want to drink, not just what's on offer! I want to lose weight so reckon doing this should help - as well as stepping things up in the gym and watching what I eat! This starts tomorrow!

This Year

2009-01-04T13:02:00.000Z

I'm very pleased to say that I had a very relaxing and enjoyable New Year. Me and Katie were invited by Paul and Mary to join them at a cottage they had rented in Craster on the Northumberland coast. Normally New Year is a massive anticlimax for me, with all the build up and expectations it invariably turns out to be pretty dull and uneventful and I normally end up completely sozzled! Although I did end up being a little bit drunk this year it wasn't the usual throwing drinks down my throat session. I had a bad chest during the evening and so decided to go out and get some fresh air about eleven, I just went for a wander round the village and it was extremely quiet - the only real noise I could hear came from a couple of cottages who seemed to have a sort of party going on - the rest was provided by seagulls and the sea crashing against the harbour - it was lovely! After taking a few photos I slowly wandered back to the cottage and welcomed in the New Year with Big Ben donging away on the TV and a glass of champagne in my hand. It was fantastic to spend the new year with Katie and her family and I cannot help thinking 2009 is going to be a good one.

Another one bites the dust...

2008-12-29T16:10:00.001Z

At the moment it seems as though every time I either turn on the news or look at the BBC or Sky News websites there is another high street retailer on the brink of collapse and entering the black hole known as administration. I know we’re now in what is known as a recession but I can't help but think that there seem to be a lot of big companies on the verge of disappearing; most of them I would have thought would have the foresight to prepare for something like this. I do not even pretend to understand the major financial factors that have all played their part as things like interest rates etc don't appear high on my "things I need to understand" list but I cannot help thinking that somewhere in the non too distant past greed may have played its part; expanding when the money being freely spent over the last few years but not covering themselves when it dried up.

Most of the companies disappearing so far seem to fall into the "non-essential" bracket such as Pier, Whittards, and now USC but I cannot help think Woolworths could have been a victim of it's own doing. When I think of Woolworths I can remember every Saturday morning meeting up with school friends outside Woolworths in Chester-le-Street where we would all wander in and come away with either a cassette single, sweets or something completely useless; we knew almost exactly what they sold. Unfortunately over the last few days in conversation I asked a few people if they knew what Woolworths actually sold everybody said CD&s and Pick and Mix; although unfortunately from a recent visit the number of CD's they sold was extremely minimal and the Pick and Mix selection was tiny. So although they were a major high street brand and almost an institution does anybody actually what they sold apart from - just stuff

Great Pub

2008-12-28T17:31:00.001Z

Not that it's very likely but if you're ever lurking in the area between Colliers Wood and South Wimbledon I'd definitely recommend popping into the Trafalgar Freehouse for a pint - very Royston Vasey but fantastic beer and great characters!

That's another one gone

2008-12-27T15:02:00.000Z

After all the manic preperation and rushing around to make sure everybody has a present at the appropriate value Christmas 2008 has been and gone. I'm pleased to say that I defintely had a good one! I was a bit apprehensive about this year as it was our first Xmas since my brother died and even though we saw very little of him usually on Xmas Day I knew I would miss him - sure enough, I did! Having Katie around really helped both me and my parents, not just because she is fantastic to be around but it also meant there wasn't an empty seat for dinner - that would have been very strange! Now that Xmas is over attention turns immediately to the impending change from 2008 to 2009. Personally I cannot wait! I already know that 2009 is going to involve massive changes for me and Katie. My current job finishes at the end of March and so I have no choice about looking for something new. What, I do not know! After living in London for a year I have concluded that I definitely don't like it, and so any job hunting I do is going to be outside the M25 by quite a few hundred miles! This will definitely mean a pay cut and I guess a change in industry - but what I do not know! Any suggestions.....

London #2

2008-12-16T21:01:00.001Z

It's probably just me but I've noticed that in London people seem to be lacking in the ability to walk in a straight line! Personally I'm a pretty fast walker, sauntering annoys me and more often than not when I make the move to go round somebody they decide for no reason to completely change direction. I know there's a lot to see in London but it's not an excuse for veering all over the place - I might start a petition for people to be fitted with indicators!

London #1

2008-12-05T22:28:00.001Z

After the last week I know one this I really dislike about London - it doesn't snow here!! I love snow and when they announced it on the forecast I might have even let out a little 'Get In', but no! All we had this week was rain while back home it was snowing like there was no tomorrow! Humph!

London

2008-12-02T20:11:00.000Z

Just under a year I ago I took the plunge and moved to London, since moving there I've come to experience all the good and bad things about the capital. I'm not just talking about the shootings, stabbings etc but there are more day to day annoyances that are starting to creep into daily life! I'm not going to go through them now as I'm in the middle of making tea, but I think I'll try and start to add them on here gradually! I'll try and be constructive!

The Glasses of Intelligence

2008-11-29T23:37:00.001Z

After an evening of watching tv and playing on the laptop I took my glasses of and headed off to bed, as soon as I entered the room Katie (my beautiful girlfriend), asked me where my glasses of intelligence had gone? That made me think - what is it about glasses that make people look clever when actually they only exist because of an eyesight flaw! Is it because they are connected with somebody clever who wore them or simply is it because they change you to fit in a stereotype? Who knows! I wear them so I can see and I'm not clever!

Not as easy as I thought

2008-11-28T10:36:00.000Z

I think it's a combination of being absolutley tired and getting old
that despite having loads of ideas of what to put on here, when it
comes to having time to write them my mind is mysteriously wiped! I do
the same on a regular basis with the web, I'll think of something
great to look at and then when I'm finally sat infront of my laptop
the pixies wipe my mind!

Starting again

2008-11-25T21:34:00.000Z

Up until about half an hour ago I used to have a blog on here that I never updated and after reading back through it I realised that I had filled it with an absolute load of rubbish - so I deleted it! Just because I could!

My previous blog was very rarely updated and was just really a list of things I'd done and not really what I was thinking. Over the last few months my life has changed in a number of different ways and I decided that I would make the effort to write these things down on here - I very much doubt anybody will read this but I never know!