Saturday, October 28, 2006

Stuck on YouTube

Great, great game! Shame more people didn't play it.



And some of those rascally rabbids...roll on Dec 8th!

Geek!

I'm a sucker for TV themes. There's just something about a memorable theme that can make you relive the emotions that the TV show made you feel.

I got K's reaction to the new Casualty theme tonight. It's definitely different, very stringy without a full orchestra feel.


This got me thinking...I remember the new Eastenders theme which didn't last very long...too jazzy I think! Good old YouTube though!


Then for K, the Casualty @ Holby theme

You can kinda hear the old Casualty theme tune in there!

Just spotted this...brilliant!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Nor to Battle the Strong

This is going to sound crazy but I swear I'm dreaming about the Wii now. Or maybe its just the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning? Either way it's a problem. I've even commandeered the blackboard in the kitchen to show a running countdown until it arrives (48 days in case you're interested).

Such is my obession that I'm thinking about rearranging the living room to accommodate it. This includes wondering whether we should get a new TV (smaller and more HD ready) and shifting the massive coffee table (how else am I going to be able to stand and play on it?) I guess a part of me also wants to spend money before we get to a stage when money would be better spent on other things (for example a new house or children) and isn't as freely available as it is now. And in case you're interested, this is the TV I'm looking at.

I seem to be getting over the cold I had (well at least I'm not waking with a sore throat) which is good news as I can't possibly be sick this week, we're too busy at work. One of those nightmarish weeks where not only do I have a ton of work o do, I also see to have a large share of meetings to go to.

Went to Ikea yesterday and spent a goodly portion of time stood around while Becks & Ralph decided which futon and lamps to buy. We came out relatively unscathed at only £60 and managed to get a clothes box for the bathroom stury enough to double as a seat for those chatting to the person in the bath moments.

Popped into town today and managed to get myself some new walking shoes. I was looking for something a bit more casual and less heavy than my boots and I think I succeeded! Handy for when we're only away a couple of days and I only want to take one pair of shoes. Have also started to seriously think about Christmas. Kath is pretty much sorted in my mind, as is my brother but everyone else, my parents included, it's a bit trickier.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

One Day in History

The National Trust is running a campaign to get people involved in history and one thing they are tryig to do is create the largest blog ever. What this means is that they want everyone to post a blog entry about their day, Oct 17th, on their website that will be accessible for generations to come as part of the archive at the British Library.

Apparently they are most keen (according to the bbc news article on ordinary day to day stuff that may appear mundane to us now but in 50 years may hold astonishing truths for future generations.

Anyway, here's what I submitted and I hope all my loyal readers will get over there and submit something too!

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My day started pretty much as usual, with me being tired as hell. To be fair it was my fault, we had a show rehearsal last night and decided to do the shopping afterwards. Tesco, at 10.15pm, trying to do a weekly shop is not a great place to be. Especially as I hate Tesco, but that's a story for another time. Doing the shopping that late wasn't the problem, it was getting home, unpacking it,putting it away and then trying to read some of my book before going to sleep, that was. The fact that wake up time in the morning feels as dark as the middle of the night doesn't help.

Had Bran Flakes for breakfast as a change from Shreddies and watched another repeat of Friends until it was time to go to work at BT. Drove there (and really must try alternative routes as it can be quite slow going the Ipswich town way in the car) and listened to Radio 2 and Terry Wogan. Can't really remember what they were talking about but there was some complaining about Gordon Brown stealing money from the Janet & John CDs that should be going to charity.

Got to work at about 8.15am, the first as usual, although I did have a voicemail from my boss who was in even earlier. The day was pretty productive actually as I managed to make great progress on my process document. This is to contribute to my Objective of Succession Planning but really it means if I get hit by a bus someone will be able to understand how I write my reports and the Resource Management team won't fail due to lack of information (although to be honest they don't read what I currently produce and sometimes I think they wouldn't notice if I made the figures up each month).

I also got copied in on quite a gratifying email from my boss's boss's boss to someone I'm doing some work with pointing out that what I'd been saying for weeks was in fact his position as well and that he couldn't understand why the team I'd been dealing with for weeks hadn't sorted it out yet. It was nice to know that he supported me and I didn't end up looking stupid. My favourite bit was where he said "I'm frankly appalled that the XXXXX team has failed to understand this concept yet"...yay!

Left at a reasonable time and called K with a list of additional ingredients for tonight's dinner. Overcooked the noodles and my Pork & Peanut noodles ended up a bit of a slop but tasted quite nice. Also managed to finish my book (Terry Pratchett's Thud!) but was annoyed that the last few pages were the first chapter of his next book. This really annoys me. I think I have so many pages left, judging by thickness, then suddenly it's all over because I've got to read the first few pages of a book that's not out for ages, that I'll only re-read when I buy it anyway! Pointless!

Will be spending the rest of the evening playing videogames (DS - Rocket Slime, PC - Uplink & Darwinia) as K is out at a orchestra rehearsal!
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Monday, October 16, 2006

His Way

Had a pretty succesful weekend by my unique measures of success. By this I mean I did some modest shopping, had a nice lunch in town and sat on my backside a lot!

Holst was good but you can read more about that here. I also managed to do some cooking (Spaghetti alla Prawns, Roast Lamb dinner, bacon salad & Lemon Sponge Pudding).

Got caught up with West Wing and managed to squeeze in ample Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime time as well as finishing the easy level on Stamp mode in 42 All Time Classics.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Homefront

Had a pretty good day at work today, topped off with an escape at at 2.30pm! Hooray!

The weekend is looming large and looking like it might be a pretty good one. Hoping to catch up on sleep, shopping, video games and some cooking.

Have some chicken thighs languishing in the fridge so I should really cook them tonight. Thinking about bashing them flat, stuffing with cheese & garlic, wrapping in bacon and bunging in the oven....hmmm....sounds like a plan!

Also appear to have bought/downloaded 4 new games so I've got those to fill my time to. Also want to try and get into the garden at some point and have a tidy up.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Hmmm!

Stayed in and had a normal night last night, which probably explains why I feel much more chipper today, despite a lot of people getting on my tits at work. The current project I'm involved is such a battle as everything is questioned and I have to puch back on the other people so much to get them to do what they're supposed to do.

On another topic, Nintendo has released a load of new videos of people experiencing the Wii. Hopefully people will realise that Nintendo is going after these kind of people (non-gamers) and doing stuff to please them and bring them in. If I hear one more person complain that they don't need the internet on their TV I'll scream! It's not there for you...its there for the non-gamer!

Likewise with the Weather, News & Photo Channels. Sure you may not use it, but your dad might. And then he'll perhaps try out one of the names and bingo...another disposable income tapped into. Maybe its because gamers like the feeling that they know something others don't, they don't want their parents muscling in on their turf, I dunno.

We've only got 3 episodes of Prison Break left to end the series and we may well get through them tonight. K is terrible when she gets hooked on something, single minded determination!

Finished Faithless yesterday, quite good but kinda petered out at the end. Have started Thud! although I'm getting a little sceptical with Terry P at the moment. Every other book seems to be about Vimes...surely there are other characters worth focusing on??

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Pull yourself together man!

Sometimes I feel like a wreck. My body is weary, my brain hurts and everything is just too much effort!

I'm only 29 and already I feel this way...what's it going to be like in 10 years or 20? God forbid what's going to happen when we start a family! I need to focus on what I think is the problem, namely no free time and do something about it. I think I may not do the show next year and I'm hoping K has got some free weekends programmed into the diary. That'll srt me out I'm sure!

Work was mainly dull today although my boss forced me to have the afternoon off and take back some time owed. Filled it productively by doing the shopping, finishing my book and rescuing some slimes.

Spent much of my remaining time scouring the internet for Wii news. It's sad but I'm freakishly excitedfor this console release but I should stop thinking about it I think. It's still 2 months away! CVG do have some good hands on features at the moment though.

Had a good (if tiring) time at the weekend as we travelled down to a friend's 30th birthday in a hotel in Guildford. Drank too much, stayed up too late and forgot to take the camera...deep joy!

Friday, October 06, 2006

Weary

Looking out of my window, the sky is clear and the sun is shining. Oddly since its been chucking down for most of the day. Perhaps it matches my mood as I was at the office and it was cold and wet and nasty, and now I'm at home at my computer, listening to an IGN Podcast and typing this blog.

Looking forward to doing not much at the weekend except shopping, travelling to Fleet, going to a party, driving back from Fleet and going to a rehearsal. Hmmm, perhaps we are doing quite a lot after all.

Ok this podcast is starting to grate...I might switch to the great Star Trek radio documentary I started to listen to on Tuesday.

Can't decide whether to get a pizza or make something healthy for dinner. We've kinda stopped the diet but still my weight has dropped below 12 stone! Brilliant!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Speed Blog

Neil over at Dogwood Tales has got me onto this idea, so I'm going to try it out as I recount my weekend in Norwich.

Saturday
Got up. Watched IGN Weekly. Got in car. K drove the entire weekend (bless her) which helped me a lot. Listened to radio, discovered Jessica Stevenson has an 8 year old child (although she is 34 so). Arrived in Yarmo and helped the Brown girls empty black sacks of crap from under their old beds, ate lunch and then drove to Norwich. Failed to find new shoes, dithered over and then bought manbag, bought chocolate, bought unfeasibly expensive, metrosexual personal grooming products, bought Carcasonne. Discussed origami and wedding table decorations and decided on a Day Flower & Lily combination with lobsters and boats as extras.
Walked into Norwich, went to a great restaurant (Pinocchios) and had a superb, very reasonably priced meal (K's pasta was especially delicious). Walked back through Norwich and discovered that the Saturday night clubbing scene is the very cess pool of humanity (and this was only from walking around it to get back to the house). Drank water, pinched-punched everyone (by this time it was first of the month) and went to bed.

Sunday
Got up, ate porridge, watched New Popworld (frankly terrible) and deflated bed. Walked to Morrison's, bought Afro comb, discovered Argos sell the GPS I'm after but only do home delivery. Drooled over flat screen LCD TVs (we want to go smaller and flatter) and walked home through the throngs of Norwich City supporters going in the other direction.
Was driven home, looked on the internet, beat K at Carcasonne (althoughh it was close), watched Prison Break, caught up with Lost, played some Ludo on the DS and revisited The Dales.