Running Wild

It's been a big few of weekends in terms of my favourite American Sports. My New York Giants defeated the San Fransisco 49ers two weeks ago to become NFC Champions and will compete this  Sunday in the Superbowl against the Manchester United of American Football; The New England Patriots. This match will be a repeat of the Superbowl that featured these two teams four years ago in what was my favourite NFL game of all time. It was a really back and forth match that saw both NY and Pats stealing the lead even throughout the final minutes. When all was said and done back in 2008, it was the underdogs, my team known often as Big Blue defeating the Patriots in a real upset (New England had been undefeated all that season right up until the Superbowl). Will history repeat itself? I hope so; and I also hope to be able to stay awake as late as possible on a work-night to watch the drama unfold live.

I'd also like to note that the Giants (and Patriots for that matter) seem to always make it to the Superbowl in the seasons that I attend the International game at Wembley... looks like I need to get tickets to the Patriots/Rams game this October then. Who's coming with me?

Impact

Last weekend was a big one wrestling-wise, as Team Blockbuster (Sam, Andy, Nick and myself) trekked on up to London and tubed it over to Wembley for the first television taping of TNA's Impact outside of North America. Due to TNA still being a relatively young company, and there being plenty of hype surrounding the occasion, it wound up selling so many tickets that it became the biggest event in their history to date in regards to attendance.

Holding some super-special tickets that allowed us into the arena early to meet some of the wrestling men and women, it would be an understatement to merely describe it as an exciting day. We were expecting to meet some of the lower-card wrestlers and were quite content with it. We were let into the warmth of the building and guided the backstage section of the arena. We were near the front of the queue and the excitement built higher as the wrestlers started assembling themselves behind a table at the far end of the room, including Olympic Gold Medallist and childhood favourite of mine Kurt Angle. The owner of TNA, Dixie Carter was wandering around the room greeting the fans and kindly posed for a photo with me and Nick. The ring announcers were also walking around and Andy managed to pose for a quick photo with his arm around former Playboy covergirl Christy Hemme.

Walking along the front of the table, we got to shake hands with each of the wrestlers, all of them signing my Beer Money cap. I had a quick chat with Kurt Angle about his current bid to make the 2012 Olympic wrestling team for the USA, and was left rather speechless as I believe most were by the women who were even more striking in person. Some were friendlier than others, with Christopher Daniels extending his hand first to thank us for coming and to hope that we enjoyed the show.

We were then told that Hulk Hogan was on his way and that as we'd already been through and met the wrestlers, we could wait inside from the cold to meet him when he got there. After a brief wait, the Hulkster walked in - 24 inch pythons in tow - to a huge cheer from the room. He was set up at a table and we were told that we could take a picture of him, but not with him and that he's sign one autograph per person. This was the staff at Wembley arena imposing these rules though as Hulk actually seemed to want to talk to us fans. Reaching the front of the queue, I went to shake his giant hands in the normal fashion. He however went in for one of those hip, trendy handshakes where you point your hands more upwards and grip with your thumbs. We fumbled completely and eventually shook hands awkwardly. 

'We messed that up a little didn't we?' I said.

'Sure did, Brother!' replied Hogan.

Nick then very excitedly met his childhood hero while I defied the security personnel at the arena and took a sneaky photo:

Nick meets the Hulkster... BROTHER!

Andy then stepped up, followed by Sam, who approached the table wearing his giant foam finger that we'd all been given out and cheekily asked Hulk Hogan to pull his finger. 

Our view from ringside

After the meet 'n' greet we all stepped back out into the cold, stopping for a quick McDonald's before heading back into Wembley Arena for Bell time. Sat in the 7th row, we had an awesome view... except for the parts when people in front felt compelled to stand up, which due to the raucous atmosphere was often. TNA filmed two weeks worth of their show Impact for us, and gave us some outstanding matches. The show of course featured the grand return of Hulk Hogan who entered the arena to a deafening ovation. We were also witness to the last ever match of Sting (not the singer, but the Stinger) in the UK. The atmosphere was electric all night and I can safely say it was one of the best shows I've ever attended. At the time of writing the first of the two episodes that they filmed will be on tomorrow night on Challenge at 9pm (just before the Superbowl). Try and spot me with my big yellow foam finger!

Bring on January 2013....

End of Days / It Begins

It's been a couple of months since I've written an entry for this thing. In truth, when I wrote my last blog back in November my heart wasn't in it. A lot's happened since then though and the landscape of my life has completely changed.

Unhappy with my London job, I interviewed successfully for a new position closer to home. I'm feeling a lot happier now than I was back then, and life has become fun again. I returned to Blockbuster for a week before starting my new job and enjoyed the Christmas run-up and period. Even the grey month of January has been flying by in a flurry of fun.

December several events starting with Stacey's birthday which was murder... well, I guess that's what happens when you throw a murder mystery party! Ok that was a lame attempt at a joke and not even a remotely funny pun. We did have killer time though! Oh, and I was the killer. The twelfth month continued with my new work's Christmas do, a Christmas Movie Marathon, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Another Christmas Day, Blockbuster's Christmas do and concluded nicely with New Year. This New Year's Eve was celebrated at Becky's and wasn't with out drama... or vomit. I'm not naming any names so we'll refer to the culprit as P. Town. Ok that might be too obvious so we'll go with Pete T.

The new year has kicked off with more memorable life moments, such as giving my little sister the greatest gift anyone could ever give for her 9th birthday - fake turds! As well as my Sister's birthday, we've just celebrated the birthday of our friend Natty too. Last night we began our night in the flat to celebrate. We planned to get drunk and wind up in a naff club. We only succeeded in half of our plan, but I think it's safe to say that we had an interesting night to say the least. In part thanks to the antics of our Old Boy Chris Warren, and in other part thanks to the whole bottle of Scotsmac I polished off.

2012 is shaping up to be a helluva year and has certainly started in style. January's not even over yet either as next week I get to meet Hulk Hogan! Oh yeah BROTHER!

I'm watching Van Wilder while typing and it looks as if it's getting to the climax (there's a montage running at present) so I'm gonna focus all of my attention back to that.

Ta-Ta!

Loud Crowd

A year ago life was sweet. Last November, I travelled up and down the country attending various events. This year has a similar cluster of live events penned in my diary around this time, and once again I've had a blast.

October 23rd - The American Dream, in London
On  a cold, late October evening, Stacey and myself took to Wembley Stadium for this year's NFL International Series Clash. For those of you not in the know, this was the fifth year that the International Series has invaded Wembley, and it sees the NFL put on an actual league match between two of their top American Football teams. Last time I had been was during the inaugural International Series match in 2007 that saw my team, the New York Giants defeat the Miami Dolphins. This year, we were treated to a stellar, high-scoring game between the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Despite it being a Bucs home game, and that they had given every single fan a free Tampa Bay flag to wave, I couldn't help but cheer the legendary team from the Windy City on to victory.

Final Score: Bears 24 - 18 Buccaneers

Non-Gridiron related highlights of the match included a squirrel running around the pitch at the start of the match, and a semi-streaker (semi due to only having removed his upper clothes - thankfully) running up and down the pitch, dodging security in the process until he was finally tackled rather violently by four or five large men in suits. Oh, and Katherine Jenkins sang our National Anthem, some American singer performed theirs, and the Goo Goo Dolls played live before the game.

October 28th - Jungle is Massive
To celebrate our anniversary, Stacey trekked up to the London Town to meet me from work the next day, Friday night. After meeting some of my colleagues for a quick drink, we hopped on a tube to Victoria to see the Westend Sensation that is Wicked. It lived up to its name, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good musical to go and see. It is very well written in that it links to the Wizard of Oz and completely spins that classic story on its head, while still making total sense.

What was extremely funny in a ironic sort of way was that the new episode of South Park that I'd Sky plussed that night was about Broadway Musicals with Wicked being the main one featured. I love life... and South Park! 

November 11th - 'It's Clobbering Time!'

On this Friday, I got to leave work early. As soon as the clock struck 12:30pm, my empty chair swivelled around a few times, having been spung by the momentum of me looking forward to getting the hell outta there for a slightly extended weekend... and WWE live at the O2 Arena.

Hopping on a tube at Southwark, I reached North Greenwich at just past 1pm, and in a spot of good timing, arrived just as Sam and Andy were pulling into the carpark. With several hours to kill, and the Dome as our playground, we kicked things off with a trip to the cinema and a somewhat serviceable film in Immortals. It was a decent film, but in my opinion more of a DVD rental, not worthy of a cinema trip. As the end credits rolled, we went to explore our eating options and decided upon Spur. None of us had eaten there on previous O2 visits, and the meal was enjoyed by all. I certainly enjoyed my rather epic cheeseburger. Then, while our plates were being loaded into the dishwasher in the kitchen of the restaurant, we went to the one place that no O2 visit is complete without. We went for a pint or three in Thai Silk. As soon as we entered our favourite Thai establishment, I decided to head up to the loo to... well, you know... leak. There was one other gent in the gents, and rather worryingly, he acknowledged my existence in this place in which men are meant to keep their heads down and just get on with it. 

'All right, mate?' he asked. Startled, I looked around and saw that it was no stranger, but instead my old buddy Simon, also at the O2 for the event. Him and his mate then joined Sam, Andy and me for some Japanese beers (I still don't get why a Thai bar serves Japanese beers - all the same I suppose). 

After a very long queue to enter the arena, which was one of the longest queues one O2 steward had ever seen apparently, we took our seats and were treated to three hours of sheer entertainment. Match of the night had to go to an epic 30 minute US title match between Champion Dolph Ziggler and challenger John Morrison. Other contests included a six-man tag match as John Cena partnered with Kofi Kingston and Zack Ryder to take on The Miz, R-Truth and 90s legend Kevin Nash (a.k.a. Diesel). Kevin Nash is a giant of a man by the way. Following this came our main event of CM Punk challenging Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship. Another very entertaining bout was performed before us, and the match ended with run-ins galore, as many of the bad guys attacked Punk. John Cena, Kofi Kingston, and Zack Ryder made the same and a brawl ensued, until we were left with Dolph Ziggler trapped in the middle of the ring, as the good guys got to have a little fun with Ziggler, who was celebrating his birthday that very night.

It was certainly one of the more entertaining skits I've ever seen live and in person, and the sellout crowd was electric for it. Loud all night!

19th November - Giving it Away
Last night as of the time of writing. Stacey and I journeyed up to Birmingham to stay in a Hilton Hotel (very posh) and meet up with Tam and Dan who shall soon be abandoning us to move to Oz. We also met with some of Tam's friends Ruth and Michael. All of us had tickets to the big gig occurring at the LG arena that night, with some band who go by the name of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Chili Peppers played a tremendous gig, and the standout song for me was without-a-doubt Give it Away which was probably down the the fact that the band has had a couple of decades to perfect the tune in the live arena.

After the show, we all went back to the hotel bar, feeling tired, but not tired enough to not allow ourselves some obscenely priced beverages.

Stacey drove us home today, and I'm pretty tired now, so will wrap up the writing. Until the next time I set aside some blogging time, I'll leave you with the view that I was treated to upon working home...

There's no place like home...

No matter how great an event is, when all is said and done, and sleep is needed; I love returning to the flat that has become home.

The Lost Paragraph - thinner.

Two blogs back, in my entry entitled Blank Canvass, after the subheading The Path at the End of the Clearing, a rogue word stood all alone except for the company being provided to it by an attached full stop. The word was out of place, a misfit that didn't belong. It destroyed the aesthetics of my well formatted piece, and shattered the flow. The word in question was: thinner. 

The 'thinner' was even in itallics just like above, and was most likely due to the fact that the canvas for writing in on this site sometimes doesn't like itallics and non-itallics used in the same paragraph. As a result, there was in fact a paragraph missing. Thinner wasn't a rogue word at all, but more a survivor, with the rest of its family condemned to some dark, dank depths of cyberspace; lost forever. I've therefore decided to attempt to recreate that paragraph, although admittedly these things never come out reading as well a second time. I take the Stephen King approach to writing in that I feel it flows best when you let it just spill out onto the page, without planning ahead so much. The lost paragraph actually concerned Stephen King oddly enough (aren't I just great at leading you into something?), as it was about how I had finished his Dark Tower series after 4 years.

The Lost Paragraph... at the end of the clearing.

I did it! After four long years, I finally reached Stephen King's Dark Tower. I took my time and paced myself with the seven books, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the journey. It's amazing to think of just how far I've come in my own life since I started the quest to find that tower with Roland and the cast of characters that he encountered along the way. Without trying to give away any spoilers - as I fully recommend that all of you out there read these fantastic books - I'll say that the ending was tremendous and indeed for lack of a better term: very clever. In fact King gives you a choice. You can reach the tower after seven long novels and leave it at that, or you can choose to carry on past the author's note and discover what lies behind that door if you're that selfish kind of person. I left it at the front door, content with the adventure that's always more fun that the reward... for all of 9 hours while at work (I'm a weaker man than my good buddy John Tresadern who wasn't pulled back for four or five months apparently). I then read on, entering the tower and being awestruck by the ending that only seemed so obvious, yet was extremely unpredictable at the exact same time. It was the author's note that I found most intriguing though, as Stephen King advised the reader to leave the story at the door and to not press on any further, as life never ends in one place, life just goes on. He's right and it's something I'm still learning myself. I had two goals for this year that I set myself last winter and I've attained both of those now and guess what? There was no fade to black and no end credits. I had my new full time job, and had moved out with Stacey and here we are... carrying on. 

Carrying On

Well, that was something like what the missing paragraph was originally. Only the original, lost paragraph ended with thinner, so I guess it might not have been anything like that afterall. The word thinner would have been used to describe time, as time is speeding past at a rapid rate at the moment, and feels thinner, which is a reference to the Dark Tower, as time is described as feeling often thinner in the Gunslinger's world. 

While I'm here in blog mode though, I will quickly discuss the nostalgia that I felt yesterday as Stacey and me took the young sister of mine out for the day and essentially stepped back into the childhood (for Stacey and me, non-existence would  be more apt for my sister) days of the 90s. We took my sister out for her first ever Burger King, and her kid's meal came with a Simpsons toy (the alien, I believe he was called Kang, but haven't visited the Treehouse of Horror in a while so can't remember off the top of my head). Following this, we went to the cinema to see The Lion King which is seeing a brief rerelease at the cinema. I still love that film today in my adult years, and it was great to introduce it to my sister who'd never seen it before on the big screen. Then, after the film, we headed to my favourite place of Autumn/Winter to get me feeling that early Christmas spirit: Notcutts garden centre. It was a risky call deciding to head there as there might not have been any Christmas stuff out yet, in which case it would have been just a boring garden centre, but our fears were soon put to rest when we saw this sign:

Nothing gets me pumped up and excited for Christmas than the Christmas shop at Notcutts, as I visited Santa there and chose tree decorations every year as a kid! I even walked out on this particular visit with a bottle of Advent Ale - thanks Stacey.

Anywho, I'm going to leave this blog here for now, as a dinner is needed and Stacey's in Strictly-viewing mode! And on we carry on, because time's moving along, and growing thinner.

Disneyland!

Two weeks ago I'd already been back a day, back home from the most magical land in the whole of Europe. Home from Disneyland Paris. Two weeks ago I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms, and to an extent I still am; for although we were only there for 3 days / 2 nights, Disneyland is like a drug, it's a different way of life. I want to go back.

Simply put, if you haven't been to Disneyland before, I highly recommend it. I personally can't wait to go back, or possibly even jet off to DisneyWorld in Florida. You're cut off pretty much completely from the skull-drudgery of the real world in Mickey Mouse's kingdom; it's a happy place through and through.

Just over two weeks before going, we found out that by complete coincidence, Stacey's cousins Kirsty and Gemma were heading to Disneyland at the same time as us. In fact, they were heading out on the very same train, and heading home on the very same train home. It was a pleasant surprise and made the trip extra fun to have a bigger group to wander round the parks with. The more was most certainly the merrier, especially as Kirsty had been before and could guide us round.

So up we got on the Monday morning of the 19th September. Stacey and me got showered, packed the last of our bits and bobs needed - toothbrushes and the like - and off we set. We hopped on the train to Ashford, where we boarded the Eurostar. I'd never been on the Eurostar before,  and we were surprised at just how quickly you emerge from the tunnel into France. It only took 30-40 minutes from our Ashford departure to travel to the other side of the Channel. The majority of the journey then takes place through the French countryside. The only downside to travelling to Disneyland is that no coach is seemingly free from screaming brats, as we were stuck in carriages with such kids both ways, as were Kirsty and Gemma. I personally just kept my head down and buried in my Kindle. What is great though, is that once we reached our destination of Disneyland, you hop of the Eurostar and drop your luggage off in the station. You then get to go straight into the parks, and at the end of the day, after having already experienced some thrills, when we finally went to check into our hotel, we found our suitcase waiting for us in our room.

Our hotel by the way was awesome. We stayed in Disney's New York Hotel, which was themed on... a New York Hotel! It was massive, and was just like leaving France, including a New York style bar.

On that first day, we all went straight to the Disney Studios Park, as this was the smaller of the two parks at Disney in Paris and we essentially had a half a day after travelling. We began with the Armageddon simulator, which featured some very real flames. Following this we went on our first rollercoaster: Aerosmith's Rock'n'Rollercoaster! Imagine Stealth and Thorpe Park, but inside in the dark, with a full length roller coaster track (the ride lasts a good few minutes as opposed to Stealth's 3 seconds) while having the music of Aerosmith being blasted out. There's not much I can say other than that it was the best damn rollercoaster I've ever been on. Other fun rides that day included a ride based on Finding Nemo: Crush's Coaster, simulating spinning through the EAC, and the Toy Story themed RC's car ride.

On our first night, the four of us went out and wound up eating and drinking cocktails at Planet Hollywood. We whittled the night away and retired all feeling very tired to our hotels; Kirsty and Gemma residing in the Santa Fe hotel.

Day two and we rose early to grab our breakfast (New York style bacon baby!) and head to the parks! Being guests of the Disney hotels, we had early access to the parks, and got to go in at 8am French time. We headed straight for the Disneyland Park, and were blown away by our first sight of the iconic castle. We then saw Mickey being driven down the street. Once again we headed for the biggest, baddest ride first, getting our first go on the legendary Space Mountain (Mission 2 in France apparently). Space Mountain was another in-the-dark coaster and was so much fun. Also, because kids are all at school in mid-September, and littler kids who are there at that time can't go on the big rides, there was no queue. Same for the Aerosmith coaster, we could just wander straight on! We wound up riding Space Mountain about 12 times over the course of the next couple of days, and on one of these trips to the mountain out of the atmosphere, Stacey's mobile in her handbag accidentally dialled mine, and when we got back I received the message that began with the countdown and was followed by the screams of us being launched into the stratosphere. Another cool ride nearby was Buzz Lightyear's Star Command, a ride in which you have a gun, and have to shoot the targets, trying to get the highest score possible as you go round. Again, we went on this countless times while there!

During our days there, we went on all the rides that we could, from the bizarre It's a Small World (which Stacey was strangely entranced by and enticed back to), to the ride that inspired a massive film franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean. Characters walk around all day long, and both parks feature a parade at different points in the day; the Disneyland Park featuring the huge one at 5pm. We also got to eat at Buzz Lightyear's Pizza Planet, although it wasn't quite as cool in real life as it was in Toy Story. Oh, and I should also mention that we spent a small fortune! Everything was expensive, and we spent hundreds just to eat... well, and on a baseball style jacket for Stacey who was a silly-head and didn't pack any warm clothing.

On our final day in Disneyland, we checked out of our swanky New York lifestyle first thing (leaving our bags there, to be picked up at the train station before boarding the Eurostar at the day's end). We headed straight back into the parks, and rode on all of our favourite rides again and again, having experienced it all in the first two days. Three days really is enough to take it all in, and the days knacker you out, yet I still want to go straight back. In the queue for Crush's coaster, which we decided to ride twice on that third and final day, funny things happened to us. The first time, we were stood behind some French celebrity. We have no idea who he was, but the French were all trying to not look like they were pointing and staring at him, and then one girl asked to have her picture taken with him. Then, I looked over and saw the guy watching himself on some French chatshow on his iPhone, as if he was trying to let us know that yes, he was someone important. The second tome we queued for that ride that day, this guy of about 18/19 kept trying to talk to us. He was there with his parents and obviously thought he'd make some friends. We were polite and didn't mind, but it got rather too much when he kept butting in to our conversations. Then, when on the ride, we stopped. On this ride I'll point out that cars of 4 seats go around at a time, so the girls and me had one to ourselves, with our new friend and his parents being on the one ahead. Now, we stopped, and weren't moving at all, strapped in. Then an announcement was helpfully called out through the PA system in French. We waited for several minutes pinned in when someone entered through a door, and the thought of an awe wielding maniac coming in did cross my mind. It was just some Disney staff though, and they told us it was going to be OK... and left us there. In the meantime, we'd been talking about the weird guy in the queue, and had been a little mean in making fun of him... well, he was parked just round the bend with his parents, and in the end, we were released from our car and had to walk out of the ride as it had completely broken down. Great! We just walked quickly.

Our time at Disney was just about up and over, and it was a sad time. Usually when heading home from a holiday you get that feeling of 'well I've had a good time, but it's always nice to get home'; unfortunately that feeling never came with Disney. It truly was the best couple of days, and once again, I highly recommend it! We took the train back to England, and then another train home.

As Stacey and me had the rest of the week off, we rested and recuperated on Thursday, and spent a grand old day at Leeds Castle (not in, or anywhere near Leeds) on the Friday. It's now been a couple of weeks, and things are getting easier, but in the future, I feel that I need to be weaned off of Disney, as I'm sure Stacey would agree. Nothing else compares.

Blank Canvass

Prologue

Sitting around the table in Frankie and Benny's after watching the latest rom-com (Friends with Benefits was what we saw for those interested and Timberlake and the lovely Mila Kunis were much better than the disappointing effort from Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher earlier this year) we seemed to be going round the table in a circle, each of us asking one of the others the exact same questions as we'd just been asked by the previous person in the group: What are you up to? and How's your new job going?

It became a bit of a joke and we all began to realise just how much we've all moved on since the days of Woolworths. We're all adults now who catch up over a dinner and pints of Budweiser (from the tap, thank you Frankie and Benny). Long gone are the simple days of screwing around in the store and studying for a qualification in this, or learning the art of whatever... except for Chris at least; our token student for another year. It is amazing how life is all coming together at once for a large portion of the people in my life. Even one of my younger brothers Ben has just left his school-days behind him for good, opting to learn how to give me free haircuts for life! My other brother has even been applying for jobs.Only my sister remains to remind me of a more innocent time and to give me an excuse to catch up with Spongebob and the gang... I just need to figure out a way that justifies my breakfast viewings of the happenings in Bikini Bottom.

Flying the Nest

Regular readings of my ramblings will maybe have noticed, but most likely not, that there's been a bigger gap than usual between blogs for me. Truth is I've been without regular internet access for a few weeks having been getting settled into my brand new home! For the first time in my memory (who can remember when they were 1 and a half) I moved house, or should I say 'into a flat'. It's been about a month now and it really does feel like home now. We have Sky tv all set up and we're now online. It's taken some adjusting as it turns out the washing, cooking, cleaning, and ironing didn't all do themselves... who knew! In all seriousness though, Stacey has taken the brunt of the chores as she gets home a whole two hours before me. So to her I say thankya. I don't envy her getting home earlier than I do so much as I do the fact that she's still snoozing in bed when I leave in the mornings.

While saying a thankya, let me now also thank all of those who gave/bought us cards and gifts for the new flat.

It did seem very strange leaving my home of over two decades. Even though I can go back and visit whenever and even still have a key, it still felt as if I was leaving behind over 20 years of memories. But the fun part is that I now have this brand new (the flat has literally had noone else live in it before us) canvass upon which we can paint new memories. We've already started too as we've had everybody that we can so far round to see the place. If you haven't been round yet give us a holla and we'll get back to you. Another good memory awaits this week as I'm hosting my first wrestling night in the flat. Beer and Burgers shall be served up a treat. Oh, and I just picked up the original Star Wars movies, so they must also be watched.

The Graduate

In other news I graduated this past Saturday. I got a text from Christoph last week telling me he was back for the weekend from Portsmouth; I text back saying that I would actually be going the opposite way, as I would be in Portsmouth for the event to celebrate my successful studies. I got to dress like Harry Potter for the day and even got a little more stage time than most, as I was turned into a bit of a case-in-point for the gentleman handing out the degrees on stage as I was considerably younger than the average Open University student. It was a terrific day, mainly in my mind because of the great time I had with my family: Stacey, Poppy, Mum and Dad. Dad treated us to lunch and a dinner in Portsmouth at Chiquitos. It was delicious and we all had a fun time (San Miguel on tap certainly aided). Stacey also surprised me with the awesome graduation present of two tickets to this year's NFL fixture at Wembley, so on October 23rd of this year, I'm going to see the Chicago Bears face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Go Bears!

The Path at the End of the Clearing

thinner.

Work is also going extremely well. I've become a placement machine and am always hitting my targets. I'm knocking wood right now in the hope that that continues. I'm enjoying it thoroughly and can't see myself enjoying anything more right now. I think it's safe to say that I'm just all round happy as this new book - chapter doesn't seem big enough - in my life begins.

Epilogue

And here we all are; Stacey, Pete, Nat, Chris and Me - sitting around a table in the corner of Frankie and Benny's. Looking across the table towards the friends that have become my equivalent of school friends - my Woolies Friends - the glow of a red neon sign shines and blurs in the background as we all discuss the things we've done in the past year and what we're doing currently. All of us have moved on from the year that many of us often claim will never be beaten by another; 2008. The year of 19 for yours truly (read the adventures of Roland and you'll get the sneaky reference). Fact is this year could well be adding some major points to the scoreboard. Sure, 2008 was essentially 12 months of solid fun, but this year feels like the year that I've (we've) grown; the year that I've (we've) made it; the year where for me (us) it's all starting again. Probably the most important thing to take from the conversations that were had over pizzas, steaks, and a black n' blue burger though is that it didn't end with us all having found out exactly what each of us has done in our lives to date, but that we still discussed our future plans. We've all moved on, but we'll all move on again, and again.

...and the Tower is closer.

It's the end of the world as we know it (No Mercy)

All we could hear from the office today was the sound of sirens. Ambulance sirens, fire-engine sirens, and most of all: police car sirens. It got to the stage where one of my colleagues turned around and asked if anybody had been keeping a tally as to just how many we'd heard whizz by outside. Everyone had lost count hours prior.

It'll be news to nobody not living in a bubble that the nation's Capitol is in turmoil right now and that many parts have been in fact torn apart. Thankfully the part of London in which I work has been unaffected so far and (knocking wood now) will hopefully remain that way. The sirens that we heard non-stop today weren't for anything in the nearby area, but were rather off to aid and help to fight against some of the rioters dotted around the city and its boroughs.

On a happier note, it is the end of the world as I know it, as this is my last week of living at home. Mine and Stacey's trial run has come to an end now, as her Mum is home from holiday, and it's been a great couple of weeks. I am really very excited to be living together. Saturday is moving day. Not long to go. As Stacey has had the free house over the last couple of weeks, I've resided there, and have come back to my bedroom (soon to be former-bedroom) to find that it's already been pretty much demolished by my eager to gut-and-decorate mother. I do appreciate her helping hand, even if it is a little forceful. I think she's just as excited as I am though, and I love her for it. So here I am, my world has been torn apart, as my room really does look quite atrocious... I'm literally staring at a mouldy, bare wall right now. Gross! At the same time, it's going to be quite sad leaving my bedroom of a decade and a half, and to my home of over two decades. Only 5 nights left in the old bed. I've already stayed over at Stacey's for the final time which is also weird to think. Even if we crash at Kim and Peter's in the future, it won't be in the same bedroom as they're snatching Stacey's as soon as she's gone.

We went out in style though with a little get together on Saturday night at Stacey's, which again would've been for the last time. Tam, Pete, Alex and Becky came over and we had a curry, film, and Buzz night. We watched Mean Girls which I hate to admit that I enjoyed thoroughly as a movie to sit and watch and have a laugh with. As for Buzz, Pete claims that he won in his recent blog, however I did win the main game. He may have just won one of the mini-games! Overall it was a good weekend. I got to cruise in Tam's new convertible... with the roof up (it was a rainy day) and I purchased a vacuum cleaner. Oh, and I got my degree! I fluffed it on the final big assignment, which unfortunately brought my entire grade down a peg, but I'm still happy and content with the fact that I worked hard and can be proud of my accomplishment. I'm booked in to have a graduation in September and can't wait to wear the gown and hat thingy attire.

I'll leave it there for now as I want to go to bed. I've got work again in the morning and need to keep my wits about me in the city and all right now. I'll end on a cheery note, by telling the world that Stacey and I watched the Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy last night, and Stacey cried during it. That's right, she shed tears over an Adam Sandler movie. Goodnight folks!