Pi-KEA

If anyone suggests that you go to Ikea in a single car and leave the other one at home, say NO!! It seemed like such a great idea. Not only would we be able to be social with our guests (sister in law and partner) it would act as a deterrent to buying too much stuff. While the first held true, it certainly didn’t stop us spending a significant amount of money between us.

The interesting part was the Krypton Factor style challenge of getting everything wedged into the car for the journey home. Whilst we did eventually manage it (albeit after 3 attempts) the new futon mattress didn’t escape unscathed! Kath’s skill with a needle and thread is definitely required!

Despite all that we have a new coffee table looks great and we’ve finally thrown out (well its sat in the spare room, ready to be thrown out) my old canvas and plastic, fixed together with press studs (don’t ask!) bedside cabinet which was serving as a telephone table in the dining room.

We suddenly feel very grown up having a coffee table. Until now we’ve never had one and as far as I can recall my parents never had one either. True it does get in the way of the ironing board and stops us from practising dance steps in the lounge but with its handy under table storage that double as extra seats I can forgive it the space it takes up!

Interesting Entry

I read this blog and then read other blogs and can’t help but think I’ve got nothing of any import to say! Other blogs discuss important things and detail often profound reflections on life/reality/the universe. Mine talks about shopping, video games and cooking. Hmm bit of a difference. Is anybody really interested in what I write? I wonder how many people actually read this blog?

Despite this I think I’ll plough on as I’m pretty sure at least one person reads it. Well I know I read his….

Perhaps if I had more time and made this a priority to complete (by setting aside 20 minutes day perhaps) then more insightful comments would appear. Having said that trying to force out an update a day may result in a load of banal tripe that is of no interest to anyone…who knows?

Lazy blogger

Again I have managed to go an entire 2 weeks without completing my blog! I don’t know where the time goes…I should fill it in when I get home form work but I find that I have too many other things I want to do instead.

Depending on when I leave this office I have between an hour to an hour and a half to myself before Kath gets home. In this time I have to cook dinner. This is the only thing I HAVE to do. We usually aim to eat at around 18:30 so I need to get cracking when I get home. This may seem like a long time but we tend to only eat stuff cooked form scratch. I’m not a fan of ‘processed food’ to be honest so always try and use fresh ingredients. I find that ready meals always look appetising on the label but end up tasting a bit shit really. Added to which they are absolutely loaded with unnecessary sugar, salt and fat means that they aren’t exactly nutritious either. A normal meal would usually be a stir-fry, pasta and a sauce or couscous. Jacket potatoes (as long as I get home early enough to put them in the oven) are another common meal.

The recent SUDAN 1 dye problem hasn’t affected us too much because of the general lack of processed foods in the house. Although the list does keep getting longer! I can’t believe its in Walkers Worcester Sauce crisps!! Its amazing how many foods have got this illegal dye in them!

The rest of the time is spent checking email and then playing computer games. This is a distinct activity separate from video games. With video games (Gamecube, GBA, DS) I can play them downstairs and be “social”. Kath is happy for me to hog the TV and play them, while she gets on with some reading, cross-stitch or revision.

Computer games means games played on the PC, which is upstairs. This form of entertainment is even more antisocial for Kath. Currently I’m playing in a MMORPG called City of Heroes. This means that I’m actually playing alongside other people in Europe. Not sure how long I’ll want to continue though…CoH like other MMORPGs has a monthly fee. I think I’ll play out my trial period and then reassess.

Out and about on the town....

.....or Massive Update part 3.

Still gots loads of things to provide an update on although I'm finding it hard to focus on the screen. That's what work will do for you! Exercised as well today so I'm gonna have sore legs in the morning.

I had my hopes cruelly lifted and then dashed by the missus today. She thought my new super duper video game console had arrived but it, in fact, turned out to be the personalised Monopoly set I ordered for my parent's 25th Wedding anniversary. Hasbro offer a great service where you can customise the whole board with new streets and everything! My brother and I came up wth the titles and hopefully my parent's will like it. If they don't and in case they are reading this its OK because we have something else up our sleeves.

Ok before I start the update proper I just want to say that I've discovered pies! Alright that is a slight exaggeration having been the butt of a 'Who ate all the pies...' style chant when I was younger. What I should have said was I have discovered the joy of making pies! My new food processor makes pastry effortless and a big pie can feed us for Sunday and then Monday as well. Handy when we usually have to do the shopping on a Monday evening. Today's is mince, potato and onion and last week's was Chicken and Bacon! Delicious!

Any update for what we've been doing since Jan 9th. It was my lovely wife's birthday towards the end of the month and her sister arranged for us to go and see 'Relative Values' in Norwich at the Maddermarket theatre . We had a great time! We also did some shopping in Norwich and I bought a load of crap that I didn't need but we won't go into that (home pretzel making kit....what was I thinking?)

Next up and K had bought me some tickets to go and see The Prodcuers at the Theatre Royal Druy Lane. It was fantastic! I urge anyone reading this who likes the theatre to GO AND SEE IT!

Right I'm off to do something else as my eyes hurt and I'll need to do a separate update for what we did the weekend just passed! As a hint I'll just say it involved a pair of Marigolds and a lot of gay men.

New year Shenanigans

The glamorous Kitty Killer & Terence Shrimp attend a party at New Year.

My video game hell

Well it would seem that my love of the video game art form is still burning bright! The lovely Nintendo have decided to bring out a new handheld console the Nintendo DS. This isn’t due for release until March 11^th but since I am a lovely and devoted fan I was able to get my hands on one of 3000 early releases and it should arrive in the next couple of days!!! The beauty of this new console is that it allows game playing in new ways and I can’t wait!!

In addition to this I’ve just ordered a new MMORPG game called City of Heroes. This will allow me to don my cape and tights and take to the skies in a persistent online city and save the citizens from maruading thugs!

In an effort to free up time to undertake these activities I’m desperately trying to finish my current game of Tales of Symphonia. My current game has so far clocked up 47 hours and I’m sure I’m skipping through bits and missing side quests! Hopefully it’ll be finished soon! This will allow me to start Metroid Prime 2 again. That isn’t even counting Pokemen Colloseum which I won in a competition, Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance which await me on the Game Boy! Eek! That’s scary.

Future possible purchases include Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Resident Evil 4!!

Massive Update

As the title suggests this is going to be a massive update! I had gotten lazy and I'd decided that I would only update my blog once my friend Alex had updated his. I thought this was a sure fire way of not having to update anything! But no, to spite me his blog saw a flurry of activity and so I am forced to update mine!

Its hard to beleive that it has been almost a month since I updated my blog! Time sure does fly when you get old! Such a lot has happened that I'll probably forget to include everything but I'll try my best. I may even attenpt to reinstate one of my resolutions and update this every day!

Where to begin?? OK resolution update.....

Exercise....Wahey I've actually done some! Went to aerobics twice last week and am attempting to make this a regular occurrence. This should be very achieveable as long as I'm not working out of the office. We have also started private dance lessons! These should help us with our shoddy technique but I am dreading the lesson when Bruce asks to see our quick step!! Along with the Foxtrot that is the dance that we can't do!

To help with the exercise I have also bought a cheap Yoga dvd and will attempt to learn the basics. When it arrives and after I have undertaken some, I'll provide an update. I've aso bought a slimming/hypnosis book which caught my eye and hopefully along with the exercise the weight should start to drop off!

The saving money seems to be going well also as I now have £200 in my savings account and so far its staying there!

Alas the not spending money on crap resolution has pitifully fallen by thewayside. My ability to spend money seems undiminised! My only rationalisations are that I don't smoke, I save, I don't go out all the time and apart from the mortgage I'm debt free....why shouldn't I spend my hard eaned money?