I'd just like to share a small moan with the world. As those of you that know me will know, and many that read these blogs may know, I currently work in a shop. Now, part of the job is to deal with customer complaint, which isn't so bad when the customer is understanding and reasonable. Sometimes though, you wind up serving an arsehole, and I could swear that more and more of the consuming public is fitting into the arsehole category of customer.
One example, the one that inspired this very blog, occurred on the Friday night just gone. I was working with two of my colleagues, Jason and Tom, and thankfully we weren't very busy (most likely due to Children in Need being on the box). I say thankfully because the credit card machines were down, meaning that we could only take cash as payment for the whole night, and it would have been a complete nightmare if we'd been busy, as for those that ignored the signs and still attempted card payment, we had to send them outside to the cash point before completing their transaction. People were generally fine with this, and went out to make a withdrawal with no fuss whatsoever, I mean, it's not like it was our fault that the card machines were down... right?
Well, according to one customer it was. This, who was being very greedy anyway, had filled a pick-n-mix cup to bursting point. I'd never seen one filled so much, it was ridiculous! He came up to the till, placed it next to one of the many signs that explained that it was cash only for the night, and I scanned it through.
'That's £4.49 please' I said (he was buying a large cup).
The guy just stared at me, looked at the sign and looked back at me, not saying a word.
'Oh, sorry, I'm afraid the card machines are down, but there's a cash machine just outside the door' I say.
Still not uttering a sound, the man walks out, and 30 seconds later, he's back. In that 30 seconds I'd started to help another customer, so Tom takes over just as I'm saying thank you and goodbye to the other customer. The man then suggests to Tom that he should get a discount for going to the cashpoint, and we all chuckle in that awkward way when a customer makes an unfunny joke. Of course, it turns out that he isn't joking and actually believes that he has earned a discount. I politely say that we can't do that, and apologise again for the small inconvenience. The man then decides to continue arguing, and asks why exactly the card machine isn't working, to which I explain that there's a fault with the BT line, meaning that the card machines can't put through any transactions. According to the man, that's a lie, as his BT phoneline 2 miles away is working fine, and therefore out card machines must be working. I assure him that they are not, and he mumbles something about seeing a manager. I ignore the manager part, as it was her night off anyway and argue the basic point of: 'Why would we pretend that our card machine doesn't work? And especially on a Friday night!' He's still not having it, and as he pays, is still having a go at us. He tells us that we have lost his custom (Thank God) and that he'll go to a certain internet rental store, because they always let you pay by card (no sh*t). In complete disbelief I wish him a super weekend on his way out the door (hopefully forever) and then we all burst out laughing once he's gone. What a douche! Someone should tell him that not only are the online rental company in question apparently going under because nobody can ever get the films that they want from them, but that they also don't sell pick-n-mix.
Rant over :-)
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Friday, 12 November 2010
UK Tour - Part One
I need sleep. I've not had much of the stuff over the last week, but it was all with good reason. I have had one of the greatest weeks of my life so far. This month, November 2010, is the month of my long awaited tour of the United Kingdom. No, I haven't become famous from writing this blog, I simply happened to book tickets to all sorts of different events that are happening all around the country. The term 'UK tour' may be a little deceiving as I'm only seeing events in England, but I personally think it sounds much cooler than 'England tour'.
Anyways, my tour kicked off this week with a bang, as I travelled with a couple of guys up to Manchester to see the television spectacular that is WWE Monday Night Raw be filmed for worldwide transmission. Sam had hired a rental car for the trip, a brand new 60 reg VW Golf. It only had seven miles on the clock when we picked it up, I think it had over six hundred by the time we gave it back. The drive was long, but not nearly as bad as we had expected, despite the weather's attempts to deter us. We turned up the CD player and had us a good old sing-along, which got us there in seemingly no time. We didn't get to see much of Manchester, in fact, all we saw was the carpark, the arena, and the train station attached to arena. It didn't matter though, we weren't up there to see the sights, we were there to see some wrestling. We all got to see our favourites, and from some pretty good seats. I won't go into huge detail about the event here, as I did that already during this week's Positively Raw column. If I had to choose one highlight from the show that I could watch over and over again, it would be this comedy skit that was absolutely hilarious live: Santino's Tea Party!
After the show Sam drove us back the 250 miles to Kent. Sam did all the driving for me and Andy (partly because he was the only one allowed to drive the rental car) and for that I'd like to say thanks. We stopped at a service station at about midnight for a snack before travelling the rest of the way back. Unfortunately, once we reached the M25, the home stretch so to speak, we were met with road works and a sign telling us that the east side stretch of the motorway was closed. We had to got the long way round annoyingly, and I fell asleep for about half an hour. I awoke to find that Sam had nearly driven the full stretch of M25, and we were soon home. I got home at about 3:30am and was happy to be able to go straight to bed.
The next day was a WWE Raw house show (non-televised show) at London's O2 Arena. Stacey and Jason joined us for this one, and I travelled up with them, meeting Sam and Andy at the arena. Now, almost every time that I go to the O2, I seem to end up having a drink or two in a bar there called Thai Silk. This was where we all met up on Tuesday evening, and with time pressing on before the start of the show, we wound up eating in there for the first time. The food was good value, and tasted great, even if my chilli-beef did burn my tongue like hell. We then took our seats, which were up in the top tier, but the front row. Sam, who has a bad fear of heights wasn't loving the view when edging his way towards his seat, but admitted it was great when seated. This show was a lot of fun, in that when they don't have to play up to the TV cameras, the wrestlers go out there and put on a really fun show for the audience in attendance. Our main event was a great, hard-fought battle between golden boy John Cena, and my current favourite The Miz. Sadly The Miz lost, but he sure did dominate the match. Jason found it funny to hum Cena's theme music after the show, much to my chagrin.
Probably the highlight of this show though, was a triple threat match for the United States Championship, as reigning champion Daniel Bryan defeated R-Truth and Englishman William Regal. Daniel Bryan won the match, and was booed by the crowd who were in favour of the home-country hero. Regal soon grabbed a microphone and announced that after 27 years of wrestling, that he was probably getting too old for it all, and that this tour may well have been his last. If that remains the case, then it truly was an honour to see Regal's last matches in England. William Regal is a legend of the 'sport', having wrestled in England during British Wrestling's heyday, and wrestling for America's biggest companies. I've already found his speech on Youtube, watch it if you're at all interested:
After two events in two nights, I was feeling tired enough already, but that wasn't the end. On Wednesday night, I decided to make it three in a row, as I had tickets to see one of my most favourite bands of all time, Linkin Park with Stacey, Tam, and Andrew. I had seen Linkin Park once before, nearly three years ago now back in January 2008. They had put on a good show then, and they put on another fantastic show now. Rather than playing mostly new stuff, Linkin Park know how to strike a good balance, so that each of their albums gets a fair representation, resulting in a concert full of all different sounds. From the heavy, to beautiful acoustics.
Linkin Park perform 'One Step Closer' live at the O2 Arena
We were sitting very far back, and up high, but Linkin Park's live performance is so strong (sounding just as they do in their recordings) that everyone in the arena couldn't help but get into it.
All in all, it was a great few days. Thinking back to when I was twelve, the two most important things to me at the time were WWE (then known as WWF, before that Panda organisation sued) and Linkin Park. These three days would have been the most exciting imaginable to me then, and to be honest, I really did have a brilliant time that will be hard to top. The excitement for this month doesn't end here though, as this Sunday I'm going to see Sean Lock's new stand-up tour, and then on the 29th, I'm going to see 30 Seconds to Mars in Brighton. The November UK tour is rolling on baby!
Anyways, my tour kicked off this week with a bang, as I travelled with a couple of guys up to Manchester to see the television spectacular that is WWE Monday Night Raw be filmed for worldwide transmission. Sam had hired a rental car for the trip, a brand new 60 reg VW Golf. It only had seven miles on the clock when we picked it up, I think it had over six hundred by the time we gave it back. The drive was long, but not nearly as bad as we had expected, despite the weather's attempts to deter us. We turned up the CD player and had us a good old sing-along, which got us there in seemingly no time. We didn't get to see much of Manchester, in fact, all we saw was the carpark, the arena, and the train station attached to arena. It didn't matter though, we weren't up there to see the sights, we were there to see some wrestling. We all got to see our favourites, and from some pretty good seats. I won't go into huge detail about the event here, as I did that already during this week's Positively Raw column. If I had to choose one highlight from the show that I could watch over and over again, it would be this comedy skit that was absolutely hilarious live: Santino's Tea Party!
After the show Sam drove us back the 250 miles to Kent. Sam did all the driving for me and Andy (partly because he was the only one allowed to drive the rental car) and for that I'd like to say thanks. We stopped at a service station at about midnight for a snack before travelling the rest of the way back. Unfortunately, once we reached the M25, the home stretch so to speak, we were met with road works and a sign telling us that the east side stretch of the motorway was closed. We had to got the long way round annoyingly, and I fell asleep for about half an hour. I awoke to find that Sam had nearly driven the full stretch of M25, and we were soon home. I got home at about 3:30am and was happy to be able to go straight to bed.
The next day was a WWE Raw house show (non-televised show) at London's O2 Arena. Stacey and Jason joined us for this one, and I travelled up with them, meeting Sam and Andy at the arena. Now, almost every time that I go to the O2, I seem to end up having a drink or two in a bar there called Thai Silk. This was where we all met up on Tuesday evening, and with time pressing on before the start of the show, we wound up eating in there for the first time. The food was good value, and tasted great, even if my chilli-beef did burn my tongue like hell. We then took our seats, which were up in the top tier, but the front row. Sam, who has a bad fear of heights wasn't loving the view when edging his way towards his seat, but admitted it was great when seated. This show was a lot of fun, in that when they don't have to play up to the TV cameras, the wrestlers go out there and put on a really fun show for the audience in attendance. Our main event was a great, hard-fought battle between golden boy John Cena, and my current favourite The Miz. Sadly The Miz lost, but he sure did dominate the match. Jason found it funny to hum Cena's theme music after the show, much to my chagrin.
Probably the highlight of this show though, was a triple threat match for the United States Championship, as reigning champion Daniel Bryan defeated R-Truth and Englishman William Regal. Daniel Bryan won the match, and was booed by the crowd who were in favour of the home-country hero. Regal soon grabbed a microphone and announced that after 27 years of wrestling, that he was probably getting too old for it all, and that this tour may well have been his last. If that remains the case, then it truly was an honour to see Regal's last matches in England. William Regal is a legend of the 'sport', having wrestled in England during British Wrestling's heyday, and wrestling for America's biggest companies. I've already found his speech on Youtube, watch it if you're at all interested:
After two events in two nights, I was feeling tired enough already, but that wasn't the end. On Wednesday night, I decided to make it three in a row, as I had tickets to see one of my most favourite bands of all time, Linkin Park with Stacey, Tam, and Andrew. I had seen Linkin Park once before, nearly three years ago now back in January 2008. They had put on a good show then, and they put on another fantastic show now. Rather than playing mostly new stuff, Linkin Park know how to strike a good balance, so that each of their albums gets a fair representation, resulting in a concert full of all different sounds. From the heavy, to beautiful acoustics.
Linkin Park perform 'One Step Closer' live at the O2 Arena
We were sitting very far back, and up high, but Linkin Park's live performance is so strong (sounding just as they do in their recordings) that everyone in the arena couldn't help but get into it.
All in all, it was a great few days. Thinking back to when I was twelve, the two most important things to me at the time were WWE (then known as WWF, before that Panda organisation sued) and Linkin Park. These three days would have been the most exciting imaginable to me then, and to be honest, I really did have a brilliant time that will be hard to top. The excitement for this month doesn't end here though, as this Sunday I'm going to see Sean Lock's new stand-up tour, and then on the 29th, I'm going to see 30 Seconds to Mars in Brighton. The November UK tour is rolling on baby!
Sunday, 31 October 2010
'This is Halloween, This is Halloween'
The 31st October, one of the year's most unique 'holidays' Halloween. To most, Halloween will be signified by trick or treaters, sweets, egg throwing, pumpkins, scary movies, and dressing up. To me, while it is also symbolised by all of the above, it also means that the countdown to Christmas is officially on! It is also the first day if the year that I allow myself to watch my favourite film of all time: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Created by Burton, and directed by Henry Selick, the film tells the tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, who has grown bored of celebrating Halloween year after year, and wanders off into the night after yet another Halloween. He wanders into the woods and stumbles across the collection of trees seen during the film's opening in the video above. After seeing all of the different doors on the trees, the one in the shape of a Christmas tree draws his attention, he opens it, and falls into Christmas Town.
After being swept off of his feet in amazement by all that he sees in Christmas town, Jack decides that the residents of Halloween town should produce Christmas this year in an effort to do something different. Unfortunately, when the citizens of his town don't understand that Christmas is meant to be a jolly, happy, fun event, Jack gives in and decides to do Christmas the Halloween way, despite love-interest Sally's desperate pleas to abandon this crazy plan. Sally has had a vision of Jack's Christmas going terribly wrong.
Things do begin to go wrong, when Jack makes the mistake of hiring the trick-or-treaters to kidnap Sandy Claws (Santa) from Christmas town, and rather that follow Jack's orders of making him comfortable so that he can enjoy a Christmas off, they take Santa to Oogie Boogie (The Boogey Man) instead. Meanwhile, the people of Earth don't take too kindly to Jack's terrifying version of Christmas.
This is without a doubt my favourite film. Firstly, because of the sense of nostalgia that washes over me as I watch it. For I can still remember being in awe of Christmas town and the all of the strange, bizarre characters that inhabit Halloween town. The fact that there could be trees with doors that lead to all of the best parts of the year somewhere in the world also seemed like an extremely magical concept in my mind. The characters are all well envisioned by Burton, and the score, composed by the legendary Danny Elfman, is truly one of the best movie soundtracks ever heard.
Between now and Christmas I will undoubtedly be watching this film several times. It is one of the only films that can be considered both a Halloween film, and a Christmas movie rolled into one. In my humble opinion, this stop-motion, scary, Christmassy, animated, musical, Disney feature really is the greatest film of all time! If you have never seen it before, do yourself a favour and pick up a copy NOW!
Monday, 25 October 2010
A Positively Bashful Month
Good day all, I hope that October has found you all well. I can't quite believe that the month is nearly behind us already, and that in one week's time we'll be the final sixth of 2010.
This month has been a bit of a funny one, in the sense meaning it's been pretty darn odd! At the beginning of October, many of my close friends once more waved me goodbye as the drifted back to their random corners of the nation to study... and more likely drink the time away until they all return at Christmas. Only kidding, slightly.
On the 14th I myself had something to study for, as I sat my last ever (hopefully) exam. It was in Film and Television History, a course which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and one that I am hoping to receive a good grade for. I don't find out the result until December though, so for now, only time will tell.
With that course out of the way, I have been making some headway with my next, and final, OU course Children's Literature. The first assignment for this is due in by midday on Thursday, so I really should be cracking on with it, although the need to write this blog has kind of taken over for the minute.
Speaking of writing, the writing bug has really hit me this year, as not only do I produce for you this fine blog, but I have been hired by 411mania.com to write a weekly column for their wrestling section. The column was an idea that I had to find at least three positive things to say about WWE Monday Night Raw each week. For those of you not in the know, Raw is the world's biggest weekly wrestling show, and because of that, comes under the most criticism each week by commentators on the net. I've therefore made it my mission to help rid the world of some of this (mostly undeserved) negativity. If you're at all interested, the first ever edition of my column Positively Raw can be found here.
I've been enjoying my week long tenure with 411mania very much, but alas it's unpaid and only something I do for fun because I enjoy both wrestling and writing, which all means that I still have to do proper work for money. As far as work is going at the moment, I can't complain at all. I'm enjoying myself at the store, and getting on with it rather nicely. It's been all change this month though, as two long-serving members of staff have moved on to better and brighter positions at other branches, which has allowed room some new - but familiar to me - faces. Our video-rental store is now inhabited by two of my former Woolworths colleagues in the brilliant Stacey, and my old partner in crime Tom. We're considering changing the name of our branch to WoolBusters!
This month has also been one of pain - in a physical manner - for many that I know unfortunately. Firstly one of my brothers was attacked by a fellow schoolboy on his way home one Friday, leaving him black-eyed. He reckons he got a few good punches in himself though, so more power to him. My good friend Chris was then in what sounds like a terrifying accident on the M25. Another car swerved across towards him while driving along Britain's most dangerous road. Luckily he was OK, even if his poor car wasn't. And to round things off, Stacey's brother celebrated his 18th birthday this past weekend. Rather than end his night in a nightclub though, he cracked his head open and spent the final minutes of his momentous coming of age in a hospital bed. Again, luckily he seems to have survived.
It also seems relevant to mention that I survived unscathed after a trip to Crystal Palace, watching the football team face off against Millwall. Those classy Millwall fans proved once again just how charming they are by throwing a smoke-bomb onto the pitch during a minute long round of applause in memorial of a former player, Malcolm Allison, who had died that week.
The month isn't quite over though. In two days I'll be taking Stacey out to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the date that I first asked her out. Funny enough it's also the anniversary of the first time that I threw up from too much alcohol consumption. Then on Friday it's my Dad's birthday, meaning that he'll be even more of an old man. And finally, Sunday, the last day of the month, is Halloween, which means that I will be watching my favourite film The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time this year. I may even have to writes something down about it to post on here.
For now, I've got to get ready for work, so until next time, stay tuned.
This month has been a bit of a funny one, in the sense meaning it's been pretty darn odd! At the beginning of October, many of my close friends once more waved me goodbye as the drifted back to their random corners of the nation to study... and more likely drink the time away until they all return at Christmas. Only kidding, slightly.
On the 14th I myself had something to study for, as I sat my last ever (hopefully) exam. It was in Film and Television History, a course which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and one that I am hoping to receive a good grade for. I don't find out the result until December though, so for now, only time will tell.
With that course out of the way, I have been making some headway with my next, and final, OU course Children's Literature. The first assignment for this is due in by midday on Thursday, so I really should be cracking on with it, although the need to write this blog has kind of taken over for the minute.
Speaking of writing, the writing bug has really hit me this year, as not only do I produce for you this fine blog, but I have been hired by 411mania.com to write a weekly column for their wrestling section. The column was an idea that I had to find at least three positive things to say about WWE Monday Night Raw each week. For those of you not in the know, Raw is the world's biggest weekly wrestling show, and because of that, comes under the most criticism each week by commentators on the net. I've therefore made it my mission to help rid the world of some of this (mostly undeserved) negativity. If you're at all interested, the first ever edition of my column Positively Raw can be found here.
This month has also been one of pain - in a physical manner - for many that I know unfortunately. Firstly one of my brothers was attacked by a fellow schoolboy on his way home one Friday, leaving him black-eyed. He reckons he got a few good punches in himself though, so more power to him. My good friend Chris was then in what sounds like a terrifying accident on the M25. Another car swerved across towards him while driving along Britain's most dangerous road. Luckily he was OK, even if his poor car wasn't. And to round things off, Stacey's brother celebrated his 18th birthday this past weekend. Rather than end his night in a nightclub though, he cracked his head open and spent the final minutes of his momentous coming of age in a hospital bed. Again, luckily he seems to have survived.
It also seems relevant to mention that I survived unscathed after a trip to Crystal Palace, watching the football team face off against Millwall. Those classy Millwall fans proved once again just how charming they are by throwing a smoke-bomb onto the pitch during a minute long round of applause in memorial of a former player, Malcolm Allison, who had died that week.
The month isn't quite over though. In two days I'll be taking Stacey out to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the date that I first asked her out. Funny enough it's also the anniversary of the first time that I threw up from too much alcohol consumption. Then on Friday it's my Dad's birthday, meaning that he'll be even more of an old man. And finally, Sunday, the last day of the month, is Halloween, which means that I will be watching my favourite film The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time this year. I may even have to writes something down about it to post on here.
For now, I've got to get ready for work, so until next time, stay tuned.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Revision vs Procrastination
Exam time is once again almost upon me. Next week, in 8 days to be exact, I will be taking my third and final exam with the Open University. I'm looking forward to getting through it and to that feeling that always follows me out of the exam hall of relief. Exams have become almost second nature, as in the last 5 and a half years, I've taken more than I care to remember. If I were to try and remember though, the list would include:
As far as the cramming of information goes, I have also always hated revision. I think this goes back to my GCSE days, when my Dad, in an attempt to 'motivate' me, gave me the nickname TrolleyBoy, as he kept telling me that if I didn't do well at school, that a trolley-boy was all I'd ever amount to. The thing is, it was an extremely irritating nickname and actually put me off of bothering, seeing as how I was supposedly never doing enough anyway and in the end, the whole family were calling me TrolleyBoy anyway!
I don't think there is a perfect way to revise. With my A-Levels, particularly the Law one, I found that mind-maps worked well, although they took an age to create. I also find that writing notes, memorising them and constantly writing them back out without looking also works alright. No matter what though, I never do as well in the exam as I've done in my coursework which quite plainly sucks! With my Open University courses for example, the exam has pulled the mark that I worked hard to obtain via coursework down every time. I just have a sad feeling that it will happen again, which would be terrible and upsetting, especially considering that the finally piece of coursework for this module was a double-length piece that was worth double what the other essays were towards the module and that I scored a whopping 80%.
I also hate revision because the urgency of a deadline is missing.
'Surely the exam is the deadline?' I hear you all cry. Well no, not really. You see I don't have to give in my revision notes like I would a piece of coursework. It's not the same at all. Therefore I find that like many others most likely experience, I procrastinate.... a lot!
Suddenly that novel I'm reading becomes much more enthralling, or I suddenly become addicted to a new videogame, or I'll even find myself watching any old crap on the telly. I'll agree to more hours at my part-time job just to skive off of revision, or, as I've done recently, decide to begin and get ahead on my new course despite there not being any assignments due for a few weeks because this course is new and shiny, whereas the old one is nearly over and expects me to pass an exam!
I probably should get on now, after all I'm procrastinating further by writing this blog. STOP DISTRACTING ME!
I have in the last few minutes turned down the option to go into work a couple of hours earlier this afternoon. I was very tempted to go in just to get away from the textbooks, but alas, a passing grade will be worth more than an extra tenner in the long run I'm sure.
Stay tuned!
- GCSEs for all 10 subjects that I took.
- AS Levels in Film Studies, ICT, and Law.
- A2 Levels in Film Studies, ICT, and Law.
- Driving Theory Test.
- Driving Practical Test.
- Exams in various modules as a part of Broadcast Operations at Ravensbourne.
- End of course Exam for Open University Module Understanding Media.
- End of course Exam for Open University Module Approaching Literature.
As far as the cramming of information goes, I have also always hated revision. I think this goes back to my GCSE days, when my Dad, in an attempt to 'motivate' me, gave me the nickname TrolleyBoy, as he kept telling me that if I didn't do well at school, that a trolley-boy was all I'd ever amount to. The thing is, it was an extremely irritating nickname and actually put me off of bothering, seeing as how I was supposedly never doing enough anyway and in the end, the whole family were calling me TrolleyBoy anyway!
I don't think there is a perfect way to revise. With my A-Levels, particularly the Law one, I found that mind-maps worked well, although they took an age to create. I also find that writing notes, memorising them and constantly writing them back out without looking also works alright. No matter what though, I never do as well in the exam as I've done in my coursework which quite plainly sucks! With my Open University courses for example, the exam has pulled the mark that I worked hard to obtain via coursework down every time. I just have a sad feeling that it will happen again, which would be terrible and upsetting, especially considering that the finally piece of coursework for this module was a double-length piece that was worth double what the other essays were towards the module and that I scored a whopping 80%.
I also hate revision because the urgency of a deadline is missing.
'Surely the exam is the deadline?' I hear you all cry. Well no, not really. You see I don't have to give in my revision notes like I would a piece of coursework. It's not the same at all. Therefore I find that like many others most likely experience, I procrastinate.... a lot!
Suddenly that novel I'm reading becomes much more enthralling, or I suddenly become addicted to a new videogame, or I'll even find myself watching any old crap on the telly. I'll agree to more hours at my part-time job just to skive off of revision, or, as I've done recently, decide to begin and get ahead on my new course despite there not being any assignments due for a few weeks because this course is new and shiny, whereas the old one is nearly over and expects me to pass an exam!
I probably should get on now, after all I'm procrastinating further by writing this blog. STOP DISTRACTING ME!
I have in the last few minutes turned down the option to go into work a couple of hours earlier this afternoon. I was very tempted to go in just to get away from the textbooks, but alas, a passing grade will be worth more than an extra tenner in the long run I'm sure.
Stay tuned!
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Back online (Wake me up when September ends)
I'm back! Sorry it's been so long, but the internet at our house has been a complete nightmare these last few weeks! I have had several blog ideas in the last few weeks, but due to various problems they haven't happened. To fill you in let me first take you back to where my last blog left off (imagine your own blur effect transition between scenes here, like they do in tellyland).
I ended my last blog by bragging about how I was in Sunny Spain and enjoying 'mucho vino blanco'. Well it turns out that there is such a thing as too mucho vino blanco as I discovered a couple of days later on a day during which I hadn't drunk enough soft drinks, but certainly overdid the wine, causing dehydration to kick in. What this resulted in was me making a complete ass of myself in the home of Stacey's Grandad and his wife. I threw up not just in the toilet, but in the shower and on the upstairs landing. Super! All was forgiven though, as I was told the next day that this sort of behaviour is apparently a rite of passage for those that visit their household.
About a week after the posting of my 'Live from Spain' blog we returned home on a late-night flight from Alicante to Gatwick. Many flights had been delayed that day, we luckily only had to wait an extra twenty minutes though. Everything looked to be going smoothly and we soon found ourselves up in the air drinking coffee. It was when we landed back home in England that the classic British way of life once again reared its ugly head towards us. For when we landed, we had to sit on the plane an wait for the airport staff to actually come and let us off, as even though the plane landed right on schedule, the airport weren't ready for us. The pilot sounded just as peeved as us passengers. Once we were finally let off the plane, we trekked the endless hallways and corridors of the airport to what can only be described as Hell on Earth: Border Control. Now I will make it clear that I do appreciate the job that Border Control attempts to do, however when it's 2am and five or six flights are all landing at around that same ridiculous time, they could have at least had more than four members of staff working. We had to wait there for about an hour in the queue which resulted in much agitation!
My Dad was nice enough to pick us up at silly-o-clock in the morning and after waiting at a coffee shop that he referred to as Costa Fortune, drove us home and to bed for a deep sleep.
Once home, I discovered that the internet was down in our house. Talk about terrible news in 2010. Luckily in these days of 3G all was not lost even if not convenient. You see the flash player on my phone won't let me play Scrabble on Facebook. Internet problems are, as it turns out, extremely hard to solve. Dad bought a new router, we had a neighbour fix it up properly, and got the internet... in small doses on the desktop. Our laptops could forget about it! So we continued to get on the case of our internet provider, who'll remain nameless because you've probably never heard of them anyway. After weeks of badgering, we finally ended up with a BT engineer out to fix us up with a brand new phone line running to the house, and a new phone socket in the house. Although there had been a problem with the phone line, the engineer told me that unfortunately it looked like we had a 'two for the price of one' problem with out internet connection, as although the problem line had been fixed, there was also most certainly a problem with the new router. And where was the old router, oh yeah, at the dump somewhere! So the plan for Saturday was to take the new faulty router back to the shop and exchange it for a decent one, until on Friday evening when we received a message from our internet provider. Our provider hadn't been too helpful up to this point, but this message has made them good guys for now in my eyes, as they said that they'd detected problems in our house concerning the internet still, and as a result were sending us a new router. The router arrived today, less than 2 hours ago, and I set it up straight away. It's working great and has meant that I'm back online to entertain the masses (I'm counting both of you that read this as a mass by the way) with this great blog.
One thing I can't help but think is how much we become accustomed to having something in our lives. I can remember being a kid back in what seems now like the stone-age, the nineties and can't quite believe we used to live without the internet. I even still had some access to it, whether it was when I went round Stacey's, if the desktop was sort providing it for a bit, or even through my phone. I still felt some form of withdrawal though as it wasn't there as often as I would have liked, especially on this here laptop of mine. It now makes me wonder what we'll have in the future that we won't be able to live without.
On a side note, when the very helpful engineer was fitting our new phone line to the house, he told me that one of our neighbours was staring at him out the window. This neighbour has since been round and lectured my seven year old sister, moaning about how some dust from the drilling went on his windows and about how there was a mark left on OUR house. I don't why he felt he had to tell us, but gees. I just don't understand what goes on in people's heads sometimes and hope that I don't end up a complete busy-body when I'm older.
Moving on now from chat of internet troubles, as they are hopefully behind us, I will now tell of some of the more exciting stuff that has been going on in my world this month.
A couple of days after returning from Spain, Stacey and I attended a concert at Wembley Stadium, a venue that Stacey described as a 'great feat of engineering'. We were there to see Muse, and although I'm not a huge fan of their work, was plenty excited nevertheless as I had heard good things about their live act. Unfortunately to get to see them, we had to endure three of the worst support acts in history. The Big Pink and White Rabbit were both rather dull, and at one stage (I can't remember during which set this was) I actually forgot that there was a band playing. It would have been much better if they had merged to play one set between them and become The Big Pink White Rabbit, it would have saved time at least. The third and final support act was Lily Allen, who I admittedly detest. I simply hate her style of music. Her set was appalling and she even apologised and admitted that she was a little off due to her pregnancy. Why was she even on the stage then? She was in no state to put on a performance. Then, it seems Lily decided that I hadn't been tortured enough, as she introduced a rapper (crapper if you ask me) named Professor Green. All I can say is that I have serious doubts that he has a PHD in anything. He certainly has no qualifications in the studies of music.
Muse eventually came on at a rather late time for a Wembley gig, especially since the venue gates opened at 4:30pm. Alas, they put on a fantastic show! A lot of their appeal is smoke-and-mirrors, but done in the best way. Their songs were all recognisable, even to me, and they truly won me over. I'd happily see them again, so long as the support line-up is improved.
We unfortunately had to leave before the encore due to the time and that fact that we right around the back of the stadium and furthest away from the station. We got to the station as the crowds were beginning to exit the stadium behind us. Running down the steps to the platform, I saw a train about to leave, headed for our direction. I ran and jumped onto the train just as the doors were closing, very smooth. However, I then turned around and found that Stacey had not made it and was stranded on the platform, her phone died earlier that afternoon. I was stricken with worry and panic. Every imaginable horror came to my mind at once. I would never forgive myself. Then 10 minutes later, I found her.. or rather she found me. She was fine and couldn't believe that I'd been worried. After all she's not a child, in fact she's older than me, so it should have been her that was worried about me then I guess.
The next day we got up early...ish and went with some of the old gang to one of my favourite places in the whole wide world: Thorpe Park! It was a great day and despite more queues, these were much more worth waiting in than that of border control. Stacey, Chris and Nat queued up for the Saw Maze. While they were doing that, Pete, Jason and myself went on Logger's Leap. Afterwards we met back up and those that went through the maze claimed that we that had skipped the maze were cowards. I can safely tell you that we were not cowards, but indeed held the same belief, which is when at Thorpe Park, you queue up to have your body thrown around 100 mile per hour, not to have some of the park's staff jump out at you in a dark room wearing fancy dress.
As for the rest of the month, well, it's been business as usual. I've been back to work for a few weeks now, started revising for an exam that is fast approaching, and been on a few nights out with friends. Spain seems an age ago now, although I still feel the difference from life pre-holiday. Whereas before the holiday having to go to work, do uni work, and life in general was starting to become a bit of a drag, after having spent ten days away from it all has had a refreshing effect. I'm now excited to be back in the middle of all of the hustle and bustle in my life. Especially as I always enjoy this time of year, the run up to Christmas.
I also found what I consider to be somewhat of a bargain this past Saturday. I paid £18 for a Gamecube game, which may sound a lot to many of you, especially when you take into account that most Gamecube games in the same store were between £2 and £8. This game was however quite a find, and some would possibly consider it an antique of sorts. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a very rare game, and being currently 5 hours into the game, is proving to be worth every penny. If you don't believe me, let me leave you with this epic scene from the game. Lara Croft, eat your heart out!
Stay Tuned!
I ended my last blog by bragging about how I was in Sunny Spain and enjoying 'mucho vino blanco'. Well it turns out that there is such a thing as too mucho vino blanco as I discovered a couple of days later on a day during which I hadn't drunk enough soft drinks, but certainly overdid the wine, causing dehydration to kick in. What this resulted in was me making a complete ass of myself in the home of Stacey's Grandad and his wife. I threw up not just in the toilet, but in the shower and on the upstairs landing. Super! All was forgiven though, as I was told the next day that this sort of behaviour is apparently a rite of passage for those that visit their household.
About a week after the posting of my 'Live from Spain' blog we returned home on a late-night flight from Alicante to Gatwick. Many flights had been delayed that day, we luckily only had to wait an extra twenty minutes though. Everything looked to be going smoothly and we soon found ourselves up in the air drinking coffee. It was when we landed back home in England that the classic British way of life once again reared its ugly head towards us. For when we landed, we had to sit on the plane an wait for the airport staff to actually come and let us off, as even though the plane landed right on schedule, the airport weren't ready for us. The pilot sounded just as peeved as us passengers. Once we were finally let off the plane, we trekked the endless hallways and corridors of the airport to what can only be described as Hell on Earth: Border Control. Now I will make it clear that I do appreciate the job that Border Control attempts to do, however when it's 2am and five or six flights are all landing at around that same ridiculous time, they could have at least had more than four members of staff working. We had to wait there for about an hour in the queue which resulted in much agitation!
My Dad was nice enough to pick us up at silly-o-clock in the morning and after waiting at a coffee shop that he referred to as Costa Fortune, drove us home and to bed for a deep sleep.
Once home, I discovered that the internet was down in our house. Talk about terrible news in 2010. Luckily in these days of 3G all was not lost even if not convenient. You see the flash player on my phone won't let me play Scrabble on Facebook. Internet problems are, as it turns out, extremely hard to solve. Dad bought a new router, we had a neighbour fix it up properly, and got the internet... in small doses on the desktop. Our laptops could forget about it! So we continued to get on the case of our internet provider, who'll remain nameless because you've probably never heard of them anyway. After weeks of badgering, we finally ended up with a BT engineer out to fix us up with a brand new phone line running to the house, and a new phone socket in the house. Although there had been a problem with the phone line, the engineer told me that unfortunately it looked like we had a 'two for the price of one' problem with out internet connection, as although the problem line had been fixed, there was also most certainly a problem with the new router. And where was the old router, oh yeah, at the dump somewhere! So the plan for Saturday was to take the new faulty router back to the shop and exchange it for a decent one, until on Friday evening when we received a message from our internet provider. Our provider hadn't been too helpful up to this point, but this message has made them good guys for now in my eyes, as they said that they'd detected problems in our house concerning the internet still, and as a result were sending us a new router. The router arrived today, less than 2 hours ago, and I set it up straight away. It's working great and has meant that I'm back online to entertain the masses (I'm counting both of you that read this as a mass by the way) with this great blog.
One thing I can't help but think is how much we become accustomed to having something in our lives. I can remember being a kid back in what seems now like the stone-age, the nineties and can't quite believe we used to live without the internet. I even still had some access to it, whether it was when I went round Stacey's, if the desktop was sort providing it for a bit, or even through my phone. I still felt some form of withdrawal though as it wasn't there as often as I would have liked, especially on this here laptop of mine. It now makes me wonder what we'll have in the future that we won't be able to live without.
On a side note, when the very helpful engineer was fitting our new phone line to the house, he told me that one of our neighbours was staring at him out the window. This neighbour has since been round and lectured my seven year old sister, moaning about how some dust from the drilling went on his windows and about how there was a mark left on OUR house. I don't why he felt he had to tell us, but gees. I just don't understand what goes on in people's heads sometimes and hope that I don't end up a complete busy-body when I'm older.
Moving on now from chat of internet troubles, as they are hopefully behind us, I will now tell of some of the more exciting stuff that has been going on in my world this month.
A couple of days after returning from Spain, Stacey and I attended a concert at Wembley Stadium, a venue that Stacey described as a 'great feat of engineering'. We were there to see Muse, and although I'm not a huge fan of their work, was plenty excited nevertheless as I had heard good things about their live act. Unfortunately to get to see them, we had to endure three of the worst support acts in history. The Big Pink and White Rabbit were both rather dull, and at one stage (I can't remember during which set this was) I actually forgot that there was a band playing. It would have been much better if they had merged to play one set between them and become The Big Pink White Rabbit, it would have saved time at least. The third and final support act was Lily Allen, who I admittedly detest. I simply hate her style of music. Her set was appalling and she even apologised and admitted that she was a little off due to her pregnancy. Why was she even on the stage then? She was in no state to put on a performance. Then, it seems Lily decided that I hadn't been tortured enough, as she introduced a rapper (crapper if you ask me) named Professor Green. All I can say is that I have serious doubts that he has a PHD in anything. He certainly has no qualifications in the studies of music.
Muse eventually came on at a rather late time for a Wembley gig, especially since the venue gates opened at 4:30pm. Alas, they put on a fantastic show! A lot of their appeal is smoke-and-mirrors, but done in the best way. Their songs were all recognisable, even to me, and they truly won me over. I'd happily see them again, so long as the support line-up is improved.
We unfortunately had to leave before the encore due to the time and that fact that we right around the back of the stadium and furthest away from the station. We got to the station as the crowds were beginning to exit the stadium behind us. Running down the steps to the platform, I saw a train about to leave, headed for our direction. I ran and jumped onto the train just as the doors were closing, very smooth. However, I then turned around and found that Stacey had not made it and was stranded on the platform, her phone died earlier that afternoon. I was stricken with worry and panic. Every imaginable horror came to my mind at once. I would never forgive myself. Then 10 minutes later, I found her.. or rather she found me. She was fine and couldn't believe that I'd been worried. After all she's not a child, in fact she's older than me, so it should have been her that was worried about me then I guess.
The next day we got up early...ish and went with some of the old gang to one of my favourite places in the whole wide world: Thorpe Park! It was a great day and despite more queues, these were much more worth waiting in than that of border control. Stacey, Chris and Nat queued up for the Saw Maze. While they were doing that, Pete, Jason and myself went on Logger's Leap. Afterwards we met back up and those that went through the maze claimed that we that had skipped the maze were cowards. I can safely tell you that we were not cowards, but indeed held the same belief, which is when at Thorpe Park, you queue up to have your body thrown around 100 mile per hour, not to have some of the park's staff jump out at you in a dark room wearing fancy dress.
As for the rest of the month, well, it's been business as usual. I've been back to work for a few weeks now, started revising for an exam that is fast approaching, and been on a few nights out with friends. Spain seems an age ago now, although I still feel the difference from life pre-holiday. Whereas before the holiday having to go to work, do uni work, and life in general was starting to become a bit of a drag, after having spent ten days away from it all has had a refreshing effect. I'm now excited to be back in the middle of all of the hustle and bustle in my life. Especially as I always enjoy this time of year, the run up to Christmas.
I also found what I consider to be somewhat of a bargain this past Saturday. I paid £18 for a Gamecube game, which may sound a lot to many of you, especially when you take into account that most Gamecube games in the same store were between £2 and £8. This game was however quite a find, and some would possibly consider it an antique of sorts. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a very rare game, and being currently 5 hours into the game, is proving to be worth every penny. If you don't believe me, let me leave you with this epic scene from the game. Lara Croft, eat your heart out!
Stay Tuned!
Friday, 3 September 2010
'Live from Spain...'
That's right: Live from Spain, it's the world's greatest blog!
I thought that I'd take a break from the sunshine and the swimming pool to step inside and delight you all, my constant readers with my monthly blog detailing the last month or so.
August really was a dark and wet month weather-wise. It seems that as soon as the kids all finished school for the summer, the sun decided to go on a holiday of its own. As a result of this, added to the sum of there being nothing to entertain in town, our humble video rental store was extremely busy. In fact, it has been the busiest summer in history for us, and very tiring. As well as working at the store, I also had plenty of work to keep me busy with at home too, as I had to write not one, but two assignments for my Film and Television History course this month. Part of this was self-inflicted though, as the deadline for the jumbo-four thousand word assignment hasn't yet been. I just wanted it done and out of the way before leaving the country for a much deserved rest.
Leaving work alone now, my parents took two of my siblings away on holiday for two weeks at the beginning of August, they did however, leave on sibling behind with me. Bummer! Although I had a great time, as Stacey moved in for the fortnight and we had some friends over on a few of the nights, my brother seemed to try to (or should perhaps I should say 'made no effort resulting in..') ruin what should have been a great, carefree couple of weeks. He appears to have no skills in living... at all. He can't cook, clean or take care of himself. I may be being a little unfair here, I mean, maybe it's a pure case of won't as opposed to can't! Anyway, whenever his mates would come round, they would stay the night, causing a lot of mess to be left the next day. My dearest brother made as little effort as possible to tidy up, leaving me to bare the brunt of it. The house was left in a tip every time they stayed, and let's just say that at least one of his friends has extremely poor aim when it comes to using the toilet! What all this came down to was a huge bust up. For on the Friday before my parents returned, Stacey and I made the effort to clear up the house, as although they weren't coming home until the Sunday, I had work on both Saturday and Sunday. So after cleaning the place, I agree with my wonderful brother that I have been nice and put up with a lot or beer spills, pizza stains and toilet unpleasantries, and that he his to have no other friends round in a bid to keep the place looking good. He agrees and all is good. Then, that night at about 1am, just after going to bed, I hear my brother come home, and also hear that he is not alone. In fact I can hear that there are lots of them! I then let my temper get the best of me and storm from my room in my dressing gown to confront my brother. I find him and some of his friends in his bedroom unplugging the Playstation to take downstairs, and remind him of our deal.
'We're only going to play games and aren't drinking tonight' he argues.
This is contradicted almost right away with the line 'and some of them live in Leigh and have drunk, so can't drive home'.
I tell him that I don't care and that they'd better start walking then. Following this I go downstairs to find two crates of lager. Thanks for the honesty bro! I tell them all to get out, trying to ignore the abuse some attempt to throw my way. When they're gone, I turn to my brother and things melt down rather quickly as we nearly came to blows. Thankfully Stacey came down and broke us up to prevent us from killing each other.
Aside from that I had a great couple of weeks :-)
Life went back to normal once the rest of my family returned. My Mum had her birthday, for which I bought her a canvas print of our cat Pepsi. The following day, Stacey's stepdad Peter also turned of age. The rest of the month that wasn't spent consumed with work included a great Indian meal with some close friends, a night on the town in Maidstone which was great, and an evening bowling with the usual gang added with an American friend-of-a-friend. August came to its end with an evening at the cinema with the gang. We watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World which if you haven't seen it, is fantastic! Edgar Wright as director has done a brilliant job of creating something completely different that also features many a cheeky nod to retro-videogaming!
And now here we are, that was a week ago already! On Sunday morning we flew out here to Sunny-Spain! There was even a celebrity on our cheap, early morning flight. That's right the one and only Louie Spence was aboard! We didn't pester him for autographs or pictures though, he was with a friend and looked as if he was trying to keep a low profile. I mean, the guy didn't even dance!
Anyway, Spain has been great! Mucho Vino Blanco! Swimming Pool! And many chess victories over Stacey! I have also managed to read a lot more which is great, and have started playing the second Professor Layton game. There's barely been time to leave the house what with how busy we've been, but we did manage to go to a Spanish Shopping centre today. While there I found out something rather horrifying. It turns out that a virus is spreading and fast becoming an international plague. I am of course referring to the fact that we found a very large Primark store in Spain.
I'll leave you all now as it is early evening and I have a new glass of vino blanco sat in front of me, ready to drink!
Until next time, Adios mi amigos!
I thought that I'd take a break from the sunshine and the swimming pool to step inside and delight you all, my constant readers with my monthly blog detailing the last month or so.
August really was a dark and wet month weather-wise. It seems that as soon as the kids all finished school for the summer, the sun decided to go on a holiday of its own. As a result of this, added to the sum of there being nothing to entertain in town, our humble video rental store was extremely busy. In fact, it has been the busiest summer in history for us, and very tiring. As well as working at the store, I also had plenty of work to keep me busy with at home too, as I had to write not one, but two assignments for my Film and Television History course this month. Part of this was self-inflicted though, as the deadline for the jumbo-four thousand word assignment hasn't yet been. I just wanted it done and out of the way before leaving the country for a much deserved rest.
Leaving work alone now, my parents took two of my siblings away on holiday for two weeks at the beginning of August, they did however, leave on sibling behind with me. Bummer! Although I had a great time, as Stacey moved in for the fortnight and we had some friends over on a few of the nights, my brother seemed to try to (or should perhaps I should say 'made no effort resulting in..') ruin what should have been a great, carefree couple of weeks. He appears to have no skills in living... at all. He can't cook, clean or take care of himself. I may be being a little unfair here, I mean, maybe it's a pure case of won't as opposed to can't! Anyway, whenever his mates would come round, they would stay the night, causing a lot of mess to be left the next day. My dearest brother made as little effort as possible to tidy up, leaving me to bare the brunt of it. The house was left in a tip every time they stayed, and let's just say that at least one of his friends has extremely poor aim when it comes to using the toilet! What all this came down to was a huge bust up. For on the Friday before my parents returned, Stacey and I made the effort to clear up the house, as although they weren't coming home until the Sunday, I had work on both Saturday and Sunday. So after cleaning the place, I agree with my wonderful brother that I have been nice and put up with a lot or beer spills, pizza stains and toilet unpleasantries, and that he his to have no other friends round in a bid to keep the place looking good. He agrees and all is good. Then, that night at about 1am, just after going to bed, I hear my brother come home, and also hear that he is not alone. In fact I can hear that there are lots of them! I then let my temper get the best of me and storm from my room in my dressing gown to confront my brother. I find him and some of his friends in his bedroom unplugging the Playstation to take downstairs, and remind him of our deal.
'We're only going to play games and aren't drinking tonight' he argues.
This is contradicted almost right away with the line 'and some of them live in Leigh and have drunk, so can't drive home'.
I tell him that I don't care and that they'd better start walking then. Following this I go downstairs to find two crates of lager. Thanks for the honesty bro! I tell them all to get out, trying to ignore the abuse some attempt to throw my way. When they're gone, I turn to my brother and things melt down rather quickly as we nearly came to blows. Thankfully Stacey came down and broke us up to prevent us from killing each other.
Aside from that I had a great couple of weeks :-)
Life went back to normal once the rest of my family returned. My Mum had her birthday, for which I bought her a canvas print of our cat Pepsi. The following day, Stacey's stepdad Peter also turned of age. The rest of the month that wasn't spent consumed with work included a great Indian meal with some close friends, a night on the town in Maidstone which was great, and an evening bowling with the usual gang added with an American friend-of-a-friend. August came to its end with an evening at the cinema with the gang. We watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World which if you haven't seen it, is fantastic! Edgar Wright as director has done a brilliant job of creating something completely different that also features many a cheeky nod to retro-videogaming!
And now here we are, that was a week ago already! On Sunday morning we flew out here to Sunny-Spain! There was even a celebrity on our cheap, early morning flight. That's right the one and only Louie Spence was aboard! We didn't pester him for autographs or pictures though, he was with a friend and looked as if he was trying to keep a low profile. I mean, the guy didn't even dance!
Anyway, Spain has been great! Mucho Vino Blanco! Swimming Pool! And many chess victories over Stacey! I have also managed to read a lot more which is great, and have started playing the second Professor Layton game. There's barely been time to leave the house what with how busy we've been, but we did manage to go to a Spanish Shopping centre today. While there I found out something rather horrifying. It turns out that a virus is spreading and fast becoming an international plague. I am of course referring to the fact that we found a very large Primark store in Spain.
I'll leave you all now as it is early evening and I have a new glass of vino blanco sat in front of me, ready to drink!
Until next time, Adios mi amigos!
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