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?
Follow the yellow brick road….
I celebrated the weekend with some close friends as it was my birthday. I’m 31! How odd is that?! It feels good, but somewhat strange at the same time, so I’m not sure what to make of it. In my 20’s I actually dreaded hitting my 30’s. So here is the bit I never thought I’d actually say - being 30 actually rocks! I’ve observed one thing amongst most of my friends, and that is during our 20’s we felt we were under a lot of pressure, what with university and getting a career being the main highlights. With those two things in my way I felt my path onwards and upwards was obstructed
However come 30, I’m free! I just don’t give a balls about anything. There’s no pressure well apart from marriage but that can wait! The last two years in my book have been so fun filled and enjoyable that I’m glad I’m at this stage in life. I’ve got the perfect job where I get to travel about a lot and generally abuse my position while at the same time having a lot of responsibility, which is a major confidence builder. A lot of you are wondering that I’m talking a load of bollocks (exsqueeze me!) but seriously - don’t knock it until you’ve reached this stage.
Anyway, as said I celebrated my birthday by hooking up with some old mates. As is typical on one’s birthday I was totally ratarsed inside 3hrs and unable to grasp the concept of simple English as I ordered a pizza! After a few more hours of eating, falling over and general nonsense talk we then proceeded to go for a walk for fresh air. That’s when things went wrong, as there was a fireworks display in a nearby park. We all had no money so we jumped over a fence…and immediately got caught by the patrolling security guard! We were then thrown out 
I’m not sure how I got home after that as I passed out.
As I woke up on Sunday morning, I had no hangover and actually felt fresh but so badly down. Everyone else was still asleep in my mate’s house but I couldn’t stop thinking about my good bud Tasmin. We had a lovely relationship, details which I won’t get into but I miss her terribly now and it’s only just begun to set in. She’s off getting into some arranged marriage back home, something I was so strongly against but couldn’t interfere. My heart knows that she didn’t want that but had little choice but to go along with it. As I let my mind drift I wished that she was here with me, she was missing that night and she would have made it complete. I let my mind drift a lot more and smiled, I still had memories - good ones.
Credit to Objects and Pixels for the above image. One lovely site to visit.
I wash not pished
I spent most of my weekend in France this weekend. My last trip was in March which ended up in a drunken singing session on the coach as we returned to the Uk. This booze cruise trip was also from work, and we could invite whoever we wanted. I was pestered into taking my deranged 19yr old half cousin Ayesha with me. I knew I’d regret doing it as I can’t even keep her under control but she came down from Manchester for the weekend so she could play with Elmo!. She was sad enough to take Elmo on the coach with us which made him quite popular with the other 3yr olds…
We set off for Dover at 04:00 on Saturday morning. We reached Dover very quickly, caught our SeaFrance ferry and starting crossing the channel. Last time we did this, the sea was nice and calm, this time however it felt like I was in a canoe in the middle of the pacific! The weather in France, Calais was horrid (again), but we were here for ze booze! Four hypermarkets were visited, and lots of booze purchased! I ended up spending just over £250 on a whole load of assorted drinks, while Ayesha tried to chat up a young guy at the customer service desk. I think he didn’t understand a word she was babbling on about, he certainly looked puzzled.
We visited Boulogne after that for 2hrs but it was miserable. The weather was dull and almost everyone was too tired to even get out of the coach after having run around hypermarkets for a solid 3 hours or so. Coming back to the Uk was fun. At passport control, I tried to convince them that Ayesha was an illegal lol, they actually told her to stand to one side for a few minutes until she eventually found her passport! 
The coach broke down just 30mins after leaving Dover. While the driver and his assistants tried to sort the issue out, they were unaware that most of us had sneaked out the side of the coach and grabbed as much booze as we could from our personal purchases! Bwahaha. Once again, half the people on the coach were totally smashed and drunk somewhat silly as we sang every Robbie Williams, Westlife and thankfully Oasis tracks that the driver had put on just to shut us up. Good luck explaining to your mum why your jeans stink of Jack Daniels & Coke Ayesha
I had a lovely time, partially marred by the weather but I’m safe and happy knowing that I’ve got enough booze to give friends and family for Xmas now. Mmm Baileys Truffles!
You’re beautifoool…
So I went out last night with some friends to celebrate the birthday of a friend of Taz’s. Now this was a last minute decision to go by yours truly and it was one which I was beginning to regret. It was a mid-week celebration so obviously nothing big was planned, except for a night in a pub in Harrow, which was holding its first karaoke night as the landlord had bought a new machine.
I can’t sing, or I thought I couldn’t. There were 8 of us and I was the only guy in the group which didn’t help matters. We all had a lot to drink downing pints, shots of anything that resembled alcohol and then took rotations on the machine. As I type this right now my chest literally hurts like hell from all the laughter - I’ve honestly never seen anyone make such an idiot of themselves on stage. Things couldn’t get worse, but then dear Taz hopped up, or should I say staggered up to the stage…
The odd thing about tonight was that we couldn’t choose what we had hoped to sing. It was up to the others in the group. We finally settled on
Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous Girl. Much hysterics ensued as she tried to hit the high notes and failed horribly making a total muppet of herself - to be honest she sounded like a mouse being strangled. I was next and their choice of song was a complete disaster! They then shouted out for the Bluntster! I looked a tad confused for a second or two until I realised that I had to sing
James Blunt - You’re Beautiful. I almost cried. There was no way I could reproduce his somewhat high pitched voice and yours truly now looked like the muppet! Other tunes that came up were from Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey and a massive joint group effort as the girls sang a
Sugababes tune! Eeeek!
Had a lovely time though even though I was just there for 4hrs. So, Happy Birfday to you Jenny even though you’ll most probably not be reading this. Ta very much for inviting me and er balls if I’m going through all that again!
I’ll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You’ve been the only thing that’s right
In all I’ve done
And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we’ll make it anywhere
Away from here
Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear
Louder louder
And we’ll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can’t raise your voice to say
To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do
Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear
Louder louder
And we’ll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can’t raise your voice to say
Slower slower
We don’t have time for that
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads
Have heart my dear
We’re bound to be afraid
Even if it’s just for a few days
Making up for all this mess
Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear
Snow Patrol - “Run”
They’ll love me!
I’ve been less then vocal lately on this blog, mainly because of the two brilliant Xbox 360 games in my last post below but also because I’ve been preparing to fly off to Australia on a work business trip to meet some engineers in 24hrs. I’ve been rather nervous about the whole thing really. I’m not a frequent flyer, hell the last time I was on a plane was years ago. Having seen Snakes On A Plane over the weekend hasn’t helped matters either… Mark you muppet, bad choice of film!
I’ll be staying in Queensland, Brisbane for a couple of days, so I doubt I’ll get to do hardly any sightseeing as I’ll be rather busy. I’ve always wanted to visit Oz but I wish that circumstances were a bit different on this occasion. I’ve got some Uk friends at Bond Uni on the southeastern end of Queensland so I’ll staying a night there too. Knowing my luck I’ll end up lost in the Northern flippin territory with the evil crocs! I can’t believe I’m being sent all the way over there just to discuss some work related matters with some acoustic engineers though, it just doesn’t feel right. Anyway talk about being alucky one….although if I meet
Samuel L. Jackson on that plane I’m jumping right the **** off.
I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve had very little time to write up my weekly thoughts let alone anything else. At work I am training other people to do some of my jobs in order to take the pressure off me, which leaves me mentally exhausted towards the end of the day! Right now there is a critical situation where one of our products has started failing horribly - as there’s a multi million dollar contract for this item, sorting out the issues has made it a top priority for me.
Some cool news in regards to this is that I’ll be possibly flying to either Singapore or Australia to talk to some engineers who work at other divisions of the same company I work at. It’ll be a short stay but I’ll try going sight seeing if I can. It’s a nice feeling to have such a strong objective in my life right now and this is so important to me, it’s also cool to be backed up by the company as I try and sort these issues out. Just need a company car now please ahem *cough*…
Over the past few days I’ve had a horrible dilemma which may sound rather geeky to most. I’ve got 3 TFT LCD screens in my room. Two are 17" screens which I use for my pc. I’ve become so spoilt by the benefits this provides me with that I feel someone naked now as I type this on one remaining screen. I’ve got a buyer for the other screen who will be taking it away today. I might as well sell this remaining 17" and get something BIGGER! So…at the end of the day I have a choice.
I’ve ended up opting for the first option. So last night I ordered one 19" widescreen just to see how much desk space the thing will occupy. I’m not sure I can fit two of these beasts on my desk so I’ll get them separately at first. So hopefully by the weekend it’ll have arrived without any defects and I’ll be happy again!
No I’ve not died…
I’m still around and haven’t forgotten this blog at all. With summertime being a complete scorcher over here I decided to take a break and spend more time with some close friends instead of gaming, blogging etc. Last Sunday 30th myself and my parents went up north to Leicester for the first time in ages to see who I would consider as the only true family we have in the UK. There are five sisters up there who I miss terribly and haven’t seen in just over a year. I can’t even explain how good it was to see them as well as their parents once again - to the point where I didn’t want to leave the place. What’s even worse is that I want to go back there…right now.
The British heatwave was one of the highest on record, even higher then rain soaked Spain. Things were so bad over here that local council’s ended up spraying roads with sand - to stop the surface from melting! Sadly I didn’t do much this summer, mainly due to equipment at work either blowing up or just completely dying on me during this intense period. I ended up spending most of my time travelling to work out of work hours to sort out so many issues. Boring it may sound, but all I can say is - DO NOT sit on a London bus when there’s a bloody heatwave going on! Hmm, so I never went on holiday or anything like that but I did enjoy myself for once!
I’ve noticed over the last couple of days that the weather appears to be changing again. It definitely feels a lot cooler now. This can be a problem as the heatwave is indeed over now, but it also means that during the early mornings when I wake up it’s difficult to judge the day’s weather, especially when you leave the house at 5:30am. As a result, I went to work yesterday in jeans and a nice summer shirt - I got soaked as it pee’d down with rain the moment I stepped off the bus.
We’re gonna die!
Just when us Londoners thought last years summer couldn’t get any hotter, this upcoming Wednesday 19th looks to smash the July record of 36c (97F) seen in my old town of Surrey in 1911. Hell its hotter over here then most Spanish resorts and the Canery Islands!
The Met Office has issued weather warnings for London and the South East of England, so everyone will no doubt struggle. London buses have air conditioning apparently. I’m buggered if I can feel it because myself and many others are literally baking as we head home at the end of the day.
Given that I work at the top of a glass covered office/lab with a tin roof, the temperature up there gets, what can only be described as hotter then having two vindaloo’s on a night out followed by a chilli kebab. Today as I was leaving at 4pm, the temp was 38c. Taz paid me a visit and started sweating as she walked through the doors (not a nice sight I tell ya) because it was that bad. I don’t look forward to Wednesday’s predicted 35c.
Seriously though, I could joke about this weather but there’s always folks out there who can’t look after themselves as well as most people can. I refer to the elderly for the most part. If you have grandparents or elderly friends and neighbours, then take a few minutes out of your day to just check up on them and make sure they’re coping well in the heat. It’s important to stay well hydrated and not everyone has that luxury of getting up and walking to the kitchen for some water.
