Down but not out!
Arf! For the past week I’ve been suffering from a nasty back injury, the result of pushing myself too hard in the gym I would guess. Thankfully the pain is beginning to show signs of subsiding. It’s so surprising when something like this hits you out of the blue, especially when you very rarely have injuries or sicknesses of any kind. Me? Suffice to say that I haven’t seen my doctor in 15yrs, since I was 16yrs old to be precise. I am the type who hates medicine of any kind, preferring to let any pain subside naturally, and having said that I was almost persuaded by friends to visit my local doctor this morning. Yet this morning upon waking up, it had almost vanished!
So I spent a solid two hours at the gym this morning literally burning up because I hadn’t been in so long and for the next few days I will feel like an 80yr old OAP as a result. To make things worse, today here in London has been blisteringly hot. I rarely feel the summer heat but today has been FARKING HOT! I arrived home an hour ago and my normally cool room is a sweltering 29.4c! Summer is here baby!
Just a quick mention that I have just added a review of my latest toy in the Reviews section. I replaced my old keyboard with a spiffy new one! Oh, and to those who have emailed asking as to why I am slow with 360 reviews, I am still working on three reviews at the moment. The fact that the weather is gorgeous over here in the UK, combined with my new position at work, and a nagging girlfriend gives me little free time to really write stuff. Take care!
Shrleley not!
I trust everyone had a lovely Easter break? Over here in good old UK, London the weather was top dogs, and it was quite hot! Needless to say it was the perfect weather for….drinking lotsa booze! Now my girlfriend spent the weekend with me, as she was avoiding relatives who came to stay round hers. She then had the gall to say that I am becoming a fat (I’m 10.5 stones woman!), drunken alcoholic. Now this rather cruel outburst came when I was smashed out of my head trying to hold an MSN conversation with three people at once.
My amazingly nippy typing skills that would put any secretary to shame became a shambolic mess after gulping down 2x 1ltr bottles of Baileys (Caramel + Mint yum!), and 8x bottles of Kronenberg 1664 - My favourite beer. Now according to her, I am a fat, beer swigging bar-steward! Charming! I even had to take an Alchy Test…which I never did because I could not focus on the words yay! 
I am not allowed to go near alcohol for a week now…
Oh by the way, the day before Good Friday (6th April for you non UK’ers) I got a lovely Easter egg from me boss - A tiny Cadburys Creme Egg! Cheeky goit dropped them onto our office desks at lunchtime, while everyone was out for lunch and then legged it home on a half day holiday! I wasn’t happy one bit. I wanted more! So today after returning from the Easter break, I whinged in a way that would make PR proud! After lunchtime, I found a lovely Easter egg (see inset pic) sitting on my desk! 
Off to France & Italy for a bit
Wow, it has been a busy week for me. I’m off on holiday from tomorrow night visiting France for a day, which happens to be a trip from work to shop for lotsa booze! The stuff is dirt cheap in Calais, so we go there around three times a year to stock up on the stuff. Then on Sunday night, my girlfriend and I head off to Italy, Venice for a week. I am really looking forward to it now, except as I write this I have realised that I don’t really fare well on ferries - I hate bumpy rides! Venice has been one of my dream destinations for years now.
Yesterday I had a major shock at work when I was called to the director’s office. I thought I was going to get in trouble for taking too much time off from work lately, but instead he had called me in to give me advance notice of a promotion beginning on April 2nd…not the best of dates mind you…
I was totally bricking myself and then knocked sideways as I heard the news that they had planned this for months. I am not entirely sure what my new position entails just yet but it is basically design work for military hardware as I have become increasingly versed in this area over the years. I am excited and nervous, well mainly nervous because I am afraid of failure from doing a job I’ve never done. Thankfully, the people who I will be working alongside have been very welcoming towards me joining their ranks so it’s not all bad. I’ll be buggered if I am wearing a suit to work though - I’m not that type!
I have had the most chaotic messed up weekend ever. I ended up spending Saturday writing up a whole batch of reports and articles for work, and then managed to accidentally shred a couple by mistak! With no backup copies, I am royally screwed tomorrow when I head back to work.
I spent most of today writing and re-writing a single review (Most Wanted) because I ended up losing a massive portion of the code because it was stored in the windows clipboard buffer, which was then overwritten. Great! I also forgot to mention that last week I added a new review into the reviews section, and just today added a second. So Project Gotham Racing 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted are the newest additions. I’ve also tidied up that reviews page to make it look a bit more organised.
Right, that leaves me with Test Drive Unlimited, Top Spin 2, Oblivion, Fight Night 3 and Pro Evo 6 to review so…no pressure!
I predict a riot!
Woo, on the 23rd of March, myself, Ayesha and Deena hop off to France to join my company on the first of our yearly trips to France, organised for the first time by yours truly. This will be rather comical, as I’ve booked two coaches instead of the usual one due to high demand. I’ve been stressing out a lot over this trip mainly because at one point we had more people coming then the coaches could handle! Luckily, some families dropped out so it’s all cool.
I am really looking forward to this trip now, as events on the last trip were hilarious as the coach broke down on the way back to London, and everyone ended up drunk as we all got bored and began to consume the booze that we had only just purchased. Ayesha managed to cause chaos by dropping her handbag that had mini bottles of some sort of booze. Cue utter madness as everyone ended up hopping around the coach trying not to step on them as she ran riot trying to grab as many as possible! 
This time round we seem to have a coach load of raving mad teens and their parents so things should be quite amusing! Hey Ayesha, you might pull! 
I hope that the weather will be decent for once as this isn’t the best time to really visit, but we need ze booze for ze summer!
We return home (hopefully!) just after midnight, and then on the next day Deena and me are off to Venice, Italy! Never been there, always wanted to go there and I’ve developed a serious affection for Italian food lately! We will take a flight directly to the International "Marco Polo" Airport, and then stay at the 4 star Hotel Alexander just outside Venice for a few days before heading back! Ahh the luxury of abusing my position at work continues
So far I have…
- Moved this blog to a new host
- Rebuilt my PC in to a wee overclocked beastie
- Installed Wordpress 2.1 & K2
- Installed Windows Vista Home Premium
- Got myself one of those girlfriend things (not the inflatable type)
- Cried as Lotus Organiser 6.1 wouldn’t work (does now)
To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. Given the circumstances I think I’ve managed to juggle events in my career and my social life rather well! Winter over here in the UK isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. I had been expecting a ton of snow to drop between Jan and March 2007, so far we’ve seen one full night of snow, which saw the UK grind to a halt as about a foot of snow hit London alone. Man, when I was a child the snow was so deep that they’d be waist height to me, and things were fine. Obviously the UK wasn’t as crowded back then, but you get what I mean. Right now as I type this, it’s sunny out there with a chilly ice cold wind. Even my father’s flowers have started blooming - they’re confused too!
I’ve had a few emails asking if I’ve ‘Died yet?’, so no I haven’t done so. I’ve just been rather busy that’s all. I’m currently doing a small (well it was meant to be) write up on Windows Vista’s key features that newbie’s can expect to encounter. Now I was meant to finish it this weekend but half of it has been cleverly left at work! Lastly, I met the lovely Deena at my local gym two weeks ago and we’ve been dating since then 
Valentine’s is coming up people…get those Tesco’s cards on standby…
Did 2006 fly past for you?
Well, it’s that time again. Time to reflect back on yet another year. I’m quite shocked at how fast the year has progressed. Mind you, I guess you all hear the same thing being said every single year. I still remember everything I did this same time last year, in minute detail too.
This time last year, I wrote down my New Years Resolutions on this blog. Now looking at those 6 ‘resolutions’ if you could even call them that, I’ve managed to do all but two. I still haven’t worked out how cows make milk (what state of mind was I in when I came up with that?!), and lastly I’ve failed to make any use of me camera. I was really hoping to take scenic shots of areas around London, and Scotland especially but I can’t find the time to get away from work.
I’ve not given much thought to my resolutions for 2007. Is there even any need to I ask? Well here are five of mine.
- Get myself my dream Toyota Celica and stop using public transport
- Ease up on my mad spending sprees
- Consider moving out of London or the Uk
- Make sure my mad cousin Ayesha (sitting with me) passes her uni course. It’s important to me!
- See my family over in San Francisco. I’ve not met hardly any of them.
I’ve spent some time today just reflecting back on everything that has happened in 2006. I’ve had a lovely year for the most part. Work wise things have been great, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve got a solid circle of friends who always keep my spirits high at work and I’ll miss them horribly as I move to a new section at work mid Jan 2007. I’ve no idea how long I’ll remain at work because the lease for my workplace expires towards the end of 2007, and there’s strong rumours that my lab may be moved to Canada, Toronto. I first mentioned this last
December when I first heard about it.
On another note, I’ve seen more close friends leave the Uk, I only have about 4-5 friends left residing here now. I’ve seen two friends, close to my heart move away from my life, which saddens me whenever I think about them 
They know who they are, and they’re probably reading right now. If you are, I miss you and I wish you all the best for 2007. As for everyone else reading this, what are your resolutions?
I’m being pestered by Ayesha to take her to London tomorrow for the New Years celebrations however I’m not sure, over the past years they keep clamping down on areas you can celebrate in over there, so its less enjoyable then the past years, also drinks cost a ton of cash. I’m also worried about security given the media events of today (30th Dec).
So that’s all I have to say. I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas, and have a joyous 2007. I know I am I’m looking forward to it 
I finish work this week!
At work right now at present, I find myself just counting the hours, and days that go by. I’m constantly staring at the calendar sitting on my desk. Lately I’ve been very reserved and quiet at work. I’m sick of working, travelling etc and I just want to get away from it all. Don’t get me wrong here, I love my job and have one of the most enjoyable jobs anyone could have but lately as the year comes to a close, I just want out. I’m not alone either from my scant observations of my colleagues. Everyone seems to be taking extended breaks, extended loo breaks, and just generally walking around wasting time, just to make the day progress that little bit quicker. Sadly we have another week of work left and break up on the 22nd Dec, so they’ve got another 4 days of boredom to kill. It doesn’t help by the fact that my mates up North in Manchester and Coventry all broke up from work on the 8th of December. It’s my favourite time of the year though, Winter and Christmas is here so there’s nothing that can get me down.
Anyway, the second of four parties was this week. I didn’t want to go to this one, which was at the Royal Spice in London, but went anyway. It was dull, and the moment the drinks started flowing, everyone was kicking back the wine, champers, beer, cider and wotnot like there was no tomorrow. Not too sure what else happened at the party because I was totally wasted like everyone else. I am, however unclear about a few things though:
- How the hell did I manage to bus it all the way home? I looked at the London Bus map earlier and apparently it would take 9 bus changes to reach home from the restaurant we were at. I do recall switching buses on more then a few occasions but how? I was totally wasted after leaving my colleagues.
- I seem to have two packets of cigarettes and a lighter in my coat pocket - I don’t smoke!
- My inner coat pocket seems to contain the restaurant’s menu
- My black shirt is heavily ripped near the lower buttons?!
So if anyone saw a seriously drunk asian guy, with spikey hair, wearing a long black coat on the 140, 282, H14 (that’s all I can remember) buses on Friday night, then I apologise for my actions if I’d done anything stupid! This weekend I really wanted to upload two more reviews, but have drastically run out of time. Instead I ended up fixing some broken parts of the blog after trying to customise the comments forms. Ended up wasting two hours on that, so my reviews on WWE Smackdown and Full Auto have been delayed by a bit. In addition I’ve also been tidying up some existing reviews because of some new fixes I did to the Lightbox plugin that handles the way images are displayed - if anyone spots anything weird, please get in touch using the Contact form on this blog. Ta muchly!
What celebrating will you be doing this year hmmm?
I think I’ve scared away my frequent visitors with all the Xbox 360 chat I’ve been doing recently of late! So to bring the people back, I ask you readers - What will you be up to this Xmas? Christmas is here once again, my favourite time of the year!
Everyone is happy, joyous and all that crap and…no wait. Everyone is still flippin miserable, not one damn shop out there in London has got a Baby Jesus in a manger display in their shop windows. It’s Sale this, and Sale that. Has everyone actually forgotten the meaning of Christmas and what it represents? Now I’m not a religious person, actually I’m not religious one bit but Christmas still means a lot to me, so it just gets to me when I don’t see stuff like that.
I always get chirpy around this time of the month, although I’m still amazed at how fast the year has progressed by. I mean, I still remember in detail exactly what I did last Xmas…drunk and sickly for the most part. This year I’ve been hoping to go to Hannover, Germany to visit my pals over there but I think I’ve left it a bit late to get my ticket, let alone make quick preparations to leave.
I just don’t know what to do this Xmas. Most people spend it with friends and family. All my friends have more or less immigrated out of the Uk, so that’s one idea gone down the pan. I don’t really have any proper family here, so that’s another thing out the way. I could spend it with my parents but then again I did that last year! I might call some work colleagues over for Xmas instead and have a get together dinner party or something. Right now given the situation, it doesn’t seem so bad.
So dear readers, what will you be up to this Crimbo?
