Tristan - enter the madness...

Wednesday, December 29

Rent! (said the Actress to the Bishop)

What does Christmas demand? Simpsons Monopoly of course!! A bunch of us went round to Jamie & Shaneen's yesterday avo to play Risk, however once we saw the Monopoly there was no stopping us. I hadn't played monopoly in years and it was great fun! It produced some classic quotes...

Andy: "If he'd have offered me $1500 for [property] I would have taken it!"
Me : "Andy, you sold that to him for $200 earlier!"

**Someone lands on Andy's property - he can't remember the word for "Rent" **
Andy: "Uh, uh, uh..."
**Dice get rolled**
Someone: "Too late!"
Andy: "That's not fair!"

**Tom's doing some of his traditional "Bargaining" (i.e. trying to convince someone to do what he wants)**
Tom: "Well, the red properties get you much more money, are in a better position and are the best in the game, but I reckon that these blues are better so you should..."
Me [to Nige]: "Did Tom just say that the reds are the best in the game, but that the blues are better?"
Nige : "Yeah..I think so!?"

Hmm, that doesn't seem as funny on here as it was at the time. IGYHTBT

Rewind
But the day before that (Monday) was where I left you all. You must be wondering what happened between then and now (besides Monopoly). Not much! Monday afternoon I went to town with Nathan with the intention of not buying anything. As an alternative I bought two books ("The Geneisis Code" and "The Code Book"). Grrr, if only I hadn't gone into a bookshop :-S I couldn't resist! Then went back to Nathan's for a bit, had some food and watched a bit of his Little Britain DVD. If you've never watched it then you need to. No, really - it's great! I am going to stea...uh..borrow that DVD from Nathan I think.

Then in the evening we went to see "National Treasure". Nami wanted to go to Weston, but the majority didn't have enough energy to drive 40 mins to a beach at night in the cold winter. LoL. So we saw National Treasure which wasn't half bad! Why is it that I immediately think that most PGs are going to be rubbish? Afterwards (at 10:30pm) I let my crazy streak get the better of me and said that we should go to Weston - Nami and Gemma got excited and we decided to go. When we got outside and found it was raining we decided not to, but went on a bit of a drive. We stopped at various monuments and deciphered their meanings to discover that the "treasure" was buried in "Egypt" (Clifton Suspension Bridge). Those girls are crazy I swear - probably why they're so great, LoL. As cars came past we started out by just staring at them (we had our hoods up). I think we scared some people and not many people gave us a reaction.

Then we decided to spread across the road (Nami on the verge in the middle and Gemma and myself on either side). As cars went past we simultaneously, a) Saluted or, b) did the "crane" move from Karate Kid. It was so funny, people laughed as they drove past. Yay for the non-boring people! Nami and Gemma also tried to walk up the supporting chains of the bridge, but got scared after they got about 6ft high up them. I don't blame them!! Then we went to Miss Millie's (KFC clone that's open till about 2am) for some fast food. Mmm, chicken-in-a-bun gooooood. Then, home.

Cheapy Tuesday
Was it Tuesday already!? Grrr, holidays go tooooo fast. My room was finally finished, so I spent the morning moving all of my stuff from the spare room to my room. Yay! Then in the afternoon I went and played Monopoly. In the evening we went to see "The Incredibles". Normally at the cinema on a Tuesday it's "Cheapy Tuesday" where the tickets are £3.50 (as opposed to £5.60). When Tim and myself got to the front of the queue, we discovered they weren't doing the cheapness because it was a bank holiday! I tried my best to convince the woman behind the counter, but she wouldn't believe that it was Tuesday. I don't know what day she thought it was, but she wouldn't accept that it was Tuesday. Just as I bought my ticket, Shaneen ran up to me proclaiming "It's not Cheapy Tuesday!!". As we walked away we noticed Nige & Es in the queue behind us. "It's not Cheapy Tuesday" we told them, "No way!!" they replied. Gemma ran up; "It's not Cheapy Tuesday!!! I can't believe it!".

As you can tell, we weren't expecting to pay full price.

I also saw my bro and his mates there, and they came into the same film as us in the end. When I got home I stayed up for a couple of hours just chatting to him, which was pretty cool. Now I'm sat in my room listening to my Joss Stone album (which is pretty cool). I might get her new one when I get bored of this one.

Listening to: Joss Stone - "For The Love Of You" (The Soul Sessions)

Monday, December 27

It Was Pretty Good This Year (said the Actress to the Bishop)

Well, it's been and gone. That was Christmas. And it was pretty good! Let's start with Friday:

Friday - The Eve of Christmas
Friday was fun! Got to work at the normal time, but we got to wear casual clothes and only "work" until noon! How cool. We basically chatted most of the morning, and then went up to the canteen at 11am for food. I had a sausage/bacon/egg/mushroom baguette (not a melt)....sooo good. Then we finished work! Yay! Once that was done I was free! Yes! No more work until January 4th! Such a good feeling.

I still had to get a minature Baileys for the stocking that Owen and myself were putting together for my parents. Oh, yeah, I wrapped all my pressies too. Then I went round to Nige's where we played Cranium. Tom and myself won, though we took our time doing it. Nige+Sat were only 1/4 the way round the board when we got to the middle (finish), but by the time we got all of the cards we needed, they were in the middle with us! Then I went home for a bit and we had our traditional Christmas-Eve-Roast-Ham....mmm. That evening we all went 'round Adam's for some games and stuff before our 11:30pm candle-light service at church. We played this really funny game where you put an after-eight chocolate on your forehead and have to eat it without using your hands. I was the only one who couldn't do it. Though later on, I did just flick it in the air and catch it in my mouth - Tim saw me do it (nobody else though). The candle-light service was really cool - some carols and some readings and afterwards we swapped presents and stuff. Adam got me a joint present which was the size of a microwave (it was a joint birthday/Christmas present) only not as heavy. Tom got me a book of insults - they're all quotes from things, and I shall be memorising them ASAP. Then I went home, where "Mr & Mrs Claus" were up watching Eastenders on vid while waiting for us to go to bed. I stayed up 'till 2am ;) I set my alarm for 4:30, and found a stocking on my bed! However I was up do deliver my parents' stockings - yeay! Snuck to their room and dropped them on the ends of their beds - they never knew I was there ~excellent~

Christmas Day
I woke up at about 6am to hear the ripping of wrapping paper from next door (my bro's room) - still tired so went back to sleep. Woke up again at 9am and couldn't delay any farther. I opened my stocking, got dressed and wandered downstairs. We had french-toast with bacon for breakfast (it's been literally years since I've been around for french-toast in the mornings..mmm) and then we opened all of our presents. Owen got me a present to go 'Zorbing'. The basic premise is that there's a 7-foot inflatable ball that I get strapped into. The ball then gets pushed down a hill. It sounds sooooo cool. I can't wait to go! Adam's microwave-sized thing turned out to be a beer-can-shaped fridge! How cool is that! It can be used in the house, or in the car, cuz it's got a car adapter! Youth-holidays will never be the same, heh heh.

Owen and myself then watched a DVD ("The Office: The Christmas Specials") while waiting for 'rents to sort out Christmas lunch. Once everything was cooking, we all went down the pub for a bit, and then came back for lunch. STUFFED ourselves full of food and then I vegged out in front of the telly and watched Owen play Halo 2 on his X-Box. It's v.cool. While he played that I decided that I'd go look for my passport. I needed it because I had volunteered to go into Prison on boxing day to play guitar for a boxing-day service. Anyways, I couldn't find the passport in any of the normal places that i'd keep it and was looking for an hour! It turned out to be in the first place I'd looked, only underneath loads of other stuff....grrr! But, I'd found it, and was a lot less stressed. To congratulate myself I gorged myself with chocolate and watched Halo 2 a bit more. That evening I went 'round to the Blounts' house (they live a few miles away from me) for some fun and games (we played "spoons"...anything that lets me see a grand-child accidentally elbow his grand-dad in the face has got to be a good game!). I stayed the night at their house with the plan of waking up early (6:45am), driving home to pick up my guitar and get changed, and then meet at the church at 7:40am

Boxing Day
Woke up at 6:45 and rolled up my sleeping bag quietly. Checked I had all of my stuff and crept outside. It was freezing! There was a thick layer of frost all over my car. I got in my car and turned it on.

**clickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick-groan-whine-nothing**

It wouldn't start..the battery had died. Arrrghghghhweh£$&$#@!!! I decided that the best thing to do would be to jog home - I should have just enough time to make it. I found out on my jog that nobody gives hitch-hikers lifts any more. I can't complain really, I'm sure that I looked dodgey, and I never give hitch-hikers lifts. So I called someone else that was coming and managed to get them to pick me up from my house. Phew - praise God that I wasn't messing everything up! We got to church early and I had to go inside to get a guitar amp and to photocopy the songsheets. Got the amp while leaving the photocopying going. Got back to the photocopier and chopped the song-sheets in half. I decided to check some of the bottom sheets in case I'd gone through the words, and discovered they were blank! Arrrgh! At this point I feel that I should mention the fact that I hadn't bothered to switch the lights on in the church (no time!) and was doing this all with the light on my mobile phone! I re-photocopied the sheets; they came out this time, and I collapsed into the car while we drove to prison. Ahhh, it was all going to work out. I was actually really pumped up about it. I knew that something that had this much stuff going wrong had to be something God wanted me to do, or else The Enemy wouldn't be trying so hard to stop me from doing it! So I was very much at peace with it and knew it would all be good. And it was! 5 of the lads in the prison got saved!

When I got home I just slept for a while. Then at around lunch time got Owen to take me to get my car and give me a jump-start. That avo I did some traditional-Boxing-Day shopping and got some new jeans/trousers and a few CDs - Virgin and HMV are having huge sales! Got Joss Stone's old album, a Level 42 best-of album and a Santana album. Each for £5-8! Also got Austin Powers:Goldmember DVD for about £7-8

In the evening a few of us went 'round to Loz's and we basically just chilled out. Played "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" DVD game for a bit and watched a bit of telly. It was nice.

Today I'm just being a lazy bum. Didn't wake up 'till noon, and now I'm just sat in bed typing my blog. I guess I should eat soon


Listening to: Nothing - am transferring my new albums to my mp3 player.

Thursday, December 23

Remember This? (said the Actress to the Bishop)

Jetpac!

Yes, Jetpac!

When someone was preaching at church a few weeks back, she asked if anyone remembered that game "Jetpac" on the Spectrum. I put my hand up...along with about 2 other people...hmm.

Anyways, as you saw a couple of blogs ago, I'd like to be the dude from Jetpac rather than a boring Asteroid, and I just found an emulator for Jetpac!

Enjoy -
Click here for Jetpack amazingness...

With This Ring, I Thee Wed... (said the Actress to the Bishop)

Happy Christmas Campers! How is everyone on this fine morning? What have you all been up to? Let's see, when's the last time I did a proper update? *reads back a bit* ahh yes, last Friday. Let's see, what happened...

The Youth Party
The weekend was pretty cool. Friday night at youth was completely mad - almost 100 kids and none of them wanting to play games. Which was a bit frustrating because it was a games night. They did get in half-price if they wore lots of red and/or green which they enjoyed. I was put on the door taking their money and judging whether they were wearing enough red/green. Did I mention that I'm red-green colourblind? LoL - that ain't no joke either bub...I'm really colour blind.

After youth we decided to have another go at some Giant-Jenga-Domino stuff which I videoed using my (not-quite-so) shiny (as-it-used-to-be) phone. I decided to set up a web-page for it, so click here to see it (some of it was from last Sunday after church)

Saturday
It's a bit weird - I'm having a real problem remembering what I did on Saturday. Ohhh yeah, I went into town with Simon and Ryan, and then a bunch of us went to the cinema to see "An Unfortunate Series of Events". It was actually quite good (if you like Jim Carrey). Then on the evening was a Barn Dance organised by Sandra! It was pretty good and there were a fair few people there. The woman leading it must've been ex-military - she kept shouting a lot (keeping everybody in time) and made us do gun movements and stuff. She also told of Lozza.

Comedy Moment(s?) - Loz and myself were discussing the different soft drinks and she was saying that she prefers "flat drinks" (as opposed to fizzy drinks)..I forget why. At this point, Tim leaned across the table and declared "Flapjacks are great!" - the thought we were talking about Flapjacks and not "Flat Drinks". It made me laugh so hard...so funny that I declared there and then that the title of my next blog would be "Flapjacks Are Great!" (thus the confusion in my earlier blog). Later on we were discussing "Dirty Jones" (Lauren has a v.dirty mind sometimes) and I said that you can add the phrase "said the Actress to the Bishop" to almost any sentence and it would make it sound dirty. Thus I amended the earlier declaration and re-declared that the title of my next blog would be "Flapjacks Are Great said The Actress to The Bishop". Thus concludes the story of how that blog entry got a completely confusing title.

Sunday - Shopping + PARTY!!
Sunday afternoon was when my Ma took me shopping for my Birthday/Christmas present. We were going to go to a running shop to get me some running shoes for my new "running thing". However the shop was shut. Mum had seen a nice jacket that she wanted to get me - so we got that instead. It is quite swish if I do say so myself ;)

In the evening was the Christmas party at church. Tom and Shaneen sang 'O Holy Night' and they were soooooooo good. It was amazing! I'd choose them over Frank Sinatra any day of the week. But that's mainly because he's dead and couldn't perform in front of me *grin* After the party, a bunch of us put all the PA/Band Stuff/Choir Blocks back onto the stage and then went back to Jamie & Shaneen's for a bit.

Work Week
Work, work, work. Or not. The whole week so far has been pretty relaxed at work - not much to do and nobody really that motivated to do it! The good news is that we get to dress down tomorrow...Jeans baby - yeah!

Monday Night
Monday night was different to normal - no worship practice - yay! So a few of us decided that we'd go down the pub for the whole evening (we usually go after practice for about 45-60 mins). Gemma and Nami don't normally come, but they decided they would tonight. As we were driving past the Sandringham (to get to the car park)...

Nami: "Ooooh, my friends are having a meal in there tonight."
Me: "Cool...that's where we're going!"
Nami: "Are you joking?"
Me: "Nope...that's why we're here!"
*pulls into car park*
Me: "Why? Did you tell them that you couldn't come out tonight?"
Nami: "Kinda - I said I didn't have enough money to go out for a meal, which I don't"

So we decided to go to the Golden Heart instead to save the hassle of Nami trying to explain stuff to her friends. Adam brought Risk, so we sat in the pub and played Risk! Well...*I* didn't play Risk because there was one too many players and I had to dash off for half an hour to help "Harriet" carry a fridge and a washing machine up onto the balcony of our church (long story - it's being stored there for someone until they move into their flat). It was a pretty good night overall.

Tuesday - Night in. Ish.
Tuesday night I was meant to help someone give lifts, but it turned out they had enough cars. So I stayed in and (eventually) watched a video with Owen and his mate James. We watched "Dawn of the Dead". How cool is that film!? Quite gory, and James jumped a few times (obviously I never jump at scary films... 0:-) )

Wedding on a Wednesday!?
That brings me on to Wednesday. Aaron and Emma got married. In Dudley. On a Wednesday. Yes, it was a long way to go, and a strange day to have it on, but it was worth it. The wedding was good, Tom & Shaneen sang "O Holy Night" again (they originally learned it for the wedding, but got asked/decided to do it at the Christmas Celebration too) and it still rocked. Heh heh. Got home at around 23:30, but read for a bit (I know, I know, I'm just stupid) and went to sleep at 1ish.

This leaves me tired and at work on a Thursday.

Listening to: Radiohead - "The Bends" (The Bends)

What Video Game Character Are You? (said the Actress to the Bishop...)

When I took the quiz I came out as...


What Video Game Character Are You? I am an Asteroid.I am an Asteroid.


I am a drifter. I go where life leads, which makes me usually a very calm and content sort of person. That or thoroughly apathetic. Usually I keep on doing whatever I'm doing, and it takes something special to make me change my mind.
What Video Game Character Are You?

However, I would have liked to have been:


What Video Game Character Are You? I am Jetpac Man.I am Jetpac Man.


I love the outdoors; the sense of freedom, of adventure. I love the sensation of free-fall, and would parachute and bungee jump on a moment's notice. I know where I want to be, and I strive to get there, making great effort to collect what I need. I let nothing stand in my way.
What Video Game Character Are You?

Wednesday, December 22

Merry Christmas (said the Actress to the Bishop)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A few years back I did an animated Christmas card for the place I was working at the time, so, without much further ado....

PS - Make sure your sound is on

Tuesday, December 21

"Flapjacks are great" said The Actress to The Bishop

"Sometimes I just want to scream" he said,

"Why's that?" replied Jane. Jane was Barney's best mate and they'd been walking into town when he'd announced it.

"Because when I see them, it just reminds me of everything that happened. And I just can't go on like that. It's just...there."

Jane thought for a moment.

"Well, you could always just ignore it - that way you don't have to think about it."

"Yeah, I guess" Barney replied. He'd been meaning to tell her for ages, but each time he'd bottled it. There were nights when he'd lay awake for hours just thinking about the right words. But there weren't any right words, and it had all come out wrong..just wrong.

"I dunno, maybe I could move somewhere else and start over."

"What would that achieve?"

"Well, I could start afresh, where nobody knew me. I could be someone else and live a better life without all of these...'things' trailing around after me. Nobody would know."

"You could always tell them."

Barney stopped walking. He knew she would say that. He knew that if he told her she'd tell him to come clean. He also knew this was the right thing to do. Why was she always right?

"Yeah, but...I dunno"

They'd stopped in front of the fountains which had once been the center of a busy marketplace in Cheshireton, but now they were just dried up pits. Barney frowned and scraped lazily at some stones on the ground with his foot.

Jane stayed quiet for a moment so that he could be with his thoughts. He just needed time to think. She knew that he'd come to the right decision in the end - he just needed someone to talk it through with and some space to figure it out.

"Okay, say I did tell them - then what?"

"Then it's all out in the open. Not your problem any more, they can deal with it."

"But I'd be responsible; what if they get upset!?"

"They probably will get upset. But you have to remember: it isn't your fault."

Barney paused for a second deep in thought. He opened his mouth to say something, but caught himself.

"I'll phone them now - after all they'll know and then it's their problem how they deal with it"

He pulled his Nokia out of his pocket, and with the enthusiasm of someone about to attend a funeral he declared, "Here goes nothing.", as he walked around the corner for some privacy.

Ten minutes later he returned with a big grin on his face

"How'd it go?" Jane asked

"Brilliant! They completely understood, and even apologised for putting me in an awkward position!"

"Great!"

"Right then. Now I can really enjoy myself! First drink's on me!"

Barney took Jane's hand and they carried on walking down the street.

"I feel so much better now! I should have done this weeks ago."

Jane stopped and pulled Barney towards her.

"Things are only gonna get better from here for you." she whispered. Jane grinned mischeiviously as she leant forward and kissed him gently on the cheek.

The End.

Friday, December 17

Timewasting

It's a Friday and I've got an hour left at work, so I'm just timewasting really. *slaps wrist* - "BAD Tristan". I've also decided to make the font a bit bigger which will hopefully make it easier to read.

The Running Man
Yes, I went running again! And as I was collapsed on the couch, I saw another vaguely amusing episode of Weakest Link! First of all I witnessed them get 9 questions right in the first round and got to the £1000 straight away. I've never seen that before. Then in the next round, the following happened:

Anne: "Julie, what word follows 'Window' and to describe the act of arranging a display at the front of a shop?"
Julie: "Dressing"
Anne: "Correct. Steve..."
Steve: "Shopping! Uh, 'Bank'"
***Anne gives steve a dirty look and moves on***
Anne: "James..."

Again, I thought it was quite funny, but hey...people say I'm a bit "funny" sometimes too.

Fooood
Ma cooked me my favourite home-made meal for my birthday dinner - Cauliflower Cheese/Mash/Sausages. Mmm, don't nobody make that like my ma. Half the guys at work commute to Bristol and live in a hotel all week, and I was invited for a Christmas dinner/party thing at their hotel, however I had already made plans - skittles!

Throwing Stuff
The skittles night was organised by Nige for the church football team. Since I haven't been playing this season (or for 50% of last season), I didn't know some of the people. Which was fine, cuz that's what social things are for. Didn't really chat to any new people though. Waste of the night? I think not! I was the only person who managed to miss all the skittles with all three balls on one of my goes! Damn I'm smooth. Nige drove us in a shexshy Golf GTI Mk3. How good can a birthday get!?

Things on a Thursday
Went to work, blah, blah, etc...
Went straight from work to church to sort out some web-site stuff, then went home, got changed and went to Luke's house to help him fix his internet connection. Sorted that, and was meant to go to Dan's to give him a bass lesson, but it was cancelled 'cuz he had too much homework, so just went home. My step-dad's got two job interviews in the next week, so Thursday was when they drove off to Newcastle for the first one. Second one is in Cambridge. But this meant that me and my bro had the house to ourselves! Because Adam couldn't make it for my birthday on Wednesday, he suggested that we do something on the Thursday instead, so him, Owen, Chris and myself went to see "The Forgotten". It was kinda cool in places and I won't say anything more in case I give some plot away.

Living Dead
Because of the meal on Tuesday (didn't get home 'till 2am) and late night Wednesday, I got home and went pretty much straight to bed. I woke up this morning feeling so goood! Long sleep rocks. And today has been kinda nice and chilled. Things seem to slow down on the run-up to Christmas.

Wrapping
We've got our youth-club Christmas party tonight which is always manic, but a really good laugh. The dress-code was going to be 60s only, but none of the youth really wanted to do that, so we've changed it to a Christmassy (sp?) theme of red/green clothes. I think we asked them if they wanted a disco and they said no! So we're just going to have a bunch of games and stuff - unless we decide to do a disco anyways.
Before I go, I need to wrap some Christmas pressies for a couple of the guys that I've bought them. I think most of us are swapping presents at the candle-light service on Christmas Eve, but these people probably won't be there. Unfortunately I don't have a cat to help me wrap my presents (see ValancyJane's guide to find out what I'm on about)

I'm sorry this has been quite a boring blog, but I'm lacking on inspiration. If I find something in the next ½ hour, I'll blog it.

Listening to: Nothing - the batteries just died on my Mp3 player :-S

Wednesday, December 15

Things You Tell Your Kids Not To Do

Yesterday I just noticed lots of adults (parents!!) doing things that they would specifically tell their kids not to do. When my boss got into work he munched a couple of chocolates from the big tins of Roses and Celebrations that we have in the office - this was at 8am! I remember getting told off for eating chocolate in the morning! Yesterday was also our double-work-christmas-bash-thing-that-uses-hyphens-a-lot. Our canteen had a Christmas meal, which started at 2pm and finished around 4pm (when I went home!), and all the older people (I'm sure I was the youngest there) were having food/party-popper/paper-aeroplane fights across the canteen - parents always tell their kids not to do that! It was fun though!

I was completely stuffed when I went home - could hardly move! Went to my piano lesson where I got "Harriet" to show me how to play "Mary" (g'rt lush song) by Scissor Sisters on the piano ...must pracice that this week. Then home, change, and off to Bath for our team's Christmas meal at Las Iguanos in Bath. The food was great and we had these ballon things that you blew up, and then let go of. They flew around the room for ages making a whistling noise! They were so funny...although a woman on the next table didn't really seem to think so from the miserable looks she was giving us!

We stayed in Las Iguanos until about 11:30pm, at which point we went to some late-night pub called The Huntsman where they had an mp3 jukebox thing which had millions of songs on it...even some random German band that my friend from work likes (which shocked him to bits when he found them on there!). Didn't leave until about 1:30am. I drove Dave/Ben/Noré to Dave's house and then went home and slept for a few hours before getting up and going to work again!

I had a practical joke plan for work this morning. Yesterday we were extracting the bit from some crackers that made the 'bang' sound when you pulled them. Since I'm in before everyone else, I "prepared" one of the cupboards by taping the banger thing inside it so that it would go BANG when the door opened. This was in anticipation of all the hung-over people there would be in work this morning ***evil cackle*** MWAAA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA - AND IT WORKED!! Scared the life out of one of the dudes who sits next door - gave us muchness of laughing *grin*.

Today's been pretty relaxed, and also my birthday! 24 years young and getting older by the second :-S I went to Asda to get some cakes at lunchtime - mmm...cake - and have gotten lots of texts and stuff from friends :) I love my mates..they're great-great, brill-brill, wicked-wicked, skill-skill *big smile*

I really appreciate all of you lots and LOTS and thank God that he put us in a place to know each other :)

Listening To: Green Day - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"/"Are We the Waiting" (American Idiot)

PS - Thanks Maud

Tuesday, December 14

Like, Tubular Dude

"Tubular Bells" rocks so much! I mean how cool is a 50 minute instrumental that was made 29 years ago!? Can't beat that old music eh?

K, so my life has been ticking along nicely thank-you-very-much. Didn't end up going for a run on Friday after work. I popped into church on the way home to have a quick look at "Harriet"'s PC (turns out hard disk is knackered..d'oh) and ended up standing there with him while he did a backing track for "Do They Know It's Christmas Time" for the youth's Christmas thing they're doing. It was really funny cuz at one point the computer decided it would play random notes instead of the ones that "Harriet" was pressing on the piano! LoL. IGYHTBT. Anyways, didn't get home 'till 17:30, which left me with exactly no time for a run before youth. Youth was busy but fun and afterwards we went to Pizza Hut (again). Last week Simon & co. couldn't come, so I promised him we would go this week. I was worried about enough cars cuz there were quite a few of us. But I needn't have worried because, even though there were 16 of us, 4 cars ended up going (including my bro....yay! He can drive now!! How cool is that!?). Simon had heard of a scam and he tried it at Pizza Hut. I told him not to cuz I don't agree with it, but he tried it anyways. The scam is: because there were so many of us, he'd just order water, and then when people asked for the free refills, he'd just join in and get some Coke (well..Pepsi at Pizza Hut). When it came to it, he tried to get some, but the waitress had his number and not only refused to give him Pepsi, but offered him some if he paid for it!! Ha! I laughed with much abundance..he was gutted but he's a quality guy so I didn't laugh too much...only a 'ikkle bit.

When I got home I looked forward to my nice lie-in that I was going to have on Saturday morning. Owen knocked on my door at about 8:15am and asked if I wanted to go down Town with him and James and Jo (James's sister) for a bacon butty and some Christmas shopping. Because Owen was driving, and I thought it'd be fun I agreed...and much fun it was! I've done most of my Christmas shopping already and so was really just wandering around with Owen and James (turns out Jo was only being dropped off for work).

Then got back home at about 1pm and went up to Church for "Christmas on the Hill" It's a local community event where there's some Christmas fun. They have a parade down the hgh street and end up in the Church and we have some carols, some kids' entertainment (magician this year) and Santa. After cleaning up after that it was time to go home and chill for a bit before going out for an all-you-can-eat curry for Aaron's stag night. We all sat at a table, and every time someone finished food we dashed up for more. The curry was alright, but seeing Aaron sweat was funny too. Heh heh.

Bish (Aaron's mate) sat down at the table with his pile of food from the buffet, and puts a napkin on his lap. He settles down to eat, secretly wondering where everyone else has gone (he's sitting alone on the big group table). Nige calls over to him from the next the table that we're all sitting at and says "Alright Bish?". He went bright red, picked up his food, and joined us. Funny no? IGYHTBT

Since I hadn't got my lie-in that morning, I was looking forward to bed and even though I had to be up at 8:45, it was still a lot later than normal. That is until my brother's alarm went off at 0730 and didn't shut up for an hour and a half...GRRRR! Got up around 9am after trying to sleep through the sound of BEEEEEP-BEEEEEEP-BEEEEEEEP, got changed, and headed out. I needed to get to church early to set up the PA so went out to my car. Dead battery.....ARRRRGHGHGHGHGHGH! Ran up to church. You have no idea how steep Staple Hill can get when you're in a hurry (and unfit). Mark was stood outside the building and asked where my car was (I was about 15 mins late!). Rushed around like a headless chicken for about an hour sorting out the PA. Praise God that everything seemed to come together in the end. THANK YOU!!!

Afternoon was quite chilled (after I got over my strop with someone) - we went to Rita's and loads of food. Not only is the food amazing, but there's always far too many roast potatoes, and so I always manage to have as many as I want...mmm..roasties are GREAT. It makes me dribble just thinking about it now.dribble just thinking about it now.

Managed to grab about 40 mins kip before church in the evening, which was pretty cool! Tim lead the praise again and afterwards we all went to Jamie & Shaneen's for a bit. We watched "Bring it On", which is not only quite entertaining, but has Kirsten Dunst in it...in a cheerleading outfit! In the immortal words of "Billy Madison"; "Soooooo hot....want to touch the hiney", LoL.

And there the weekend ended and the weekstart started. Yesterday work presented itself to me, and I spent the whole day working on a single problem, which I managed to fix by the end of the day. It wasn't so much the difficulty of the problem that took so long, it was making sure that when I made the change to 240 rows of data, that it was the right change that I wouldn't completely kill the system. Eventually after checking, re-checking, and backing up I did it...and it worked! How cool! Then I went home and *shock* went for a run. This time it was slightly easier which is really encouraging!! I'll stick to my 10 minute run for this week, and maybe go a bit farther next week and see how I do.

When I got home I crashed out in front of the telly with a pint of water and watched Weakest Link. They were questioning as normal, being dumb under pressure when this happened and almost made me wet myself laughing:

Anne: "Correct"
**moves to next guy**
Bloke: "Pas..BANK"
Anne: "In which countr..What did you just say!?"
Bloke: "Uhh..bank"
Anne: "You said pass!"
**loses money, goes to next guy**

It was the best Weakest Link ever!


Later on was worship practice, and I was feeling particularly energetic, so I walked up to church. It was quite cool - a bit different and all. We spent quite a while fiddling with PA and stuff (we've moved everything off the stage for Christmas and so the PA was all re-wired) but the practice seemed to go quite well. Afterwards I went for a chill-out chat with Tom, "Brian" and "Sian". Tom and myself basically spent the evening winding up "Sian" because she doesn't like being called "Sian" (which obviously meant that we called her "Sian" lots and lots more ;-) ). "Brian" is going home to Uganda for Christmas and so she gave me Tom & my Christmas presents to look after until Christmas when we can open them. And she gave me a birthday present too, which is soooo nice of her! Really don't expect anything for birthdays really (getting *really* old now :-S) and I know how much effort she puts in to getting the right present that the person will like..so...

Thank you "BRIAN"!!!!!

Then I got a lift home with "Sian" and (as usual) slept. Now I'm at work and we've got our Christmas lunch today! We've also got our Christmas meal tonight; we're going to Los Iguanos in Bath for a mexican, and then probably go to pub or club or something. I might give the pub/club a miss cuz it's not really my thing and I don't really fancy a really late night mid-week. I'll see how I feel after food :)

Listening To: Mike Oldfield - "Tubular Bells" (Tubular Bells Boxed - Disc 1)



Friday, December 10

It's Chriiiiiistmaaaaaaaaas!!

Loz had a go at me last night for not updating my blog (three whole days..I mean...that's forever!!! Tom...)

Well, let's see. What have I done? Monday night was worship practice (do you see a pattern forming here). Wait..no, stuff happened before worship practice! Mum & Nick were due back from Kenya that evening so much tidying was required - of which Owen did a fair chunk earlier that day.

I got home and *shock* decided to go for a run. I last did this a couple of months ago, and so knackered myself out that I put myself right off! This time I would be disciplined. I'd only do a little bit and it wouldn't be so bad. So that's all I did..just down to the edge of the park and back. I almost even enjoyed it! I was still dead when I got back, but nowhere near as bad as the last time! I've also decided that the chicken+ham/bacon+sausage and bean melts had to go and now have ham/lettuce/cucumber/mayo baguettes for lunch.

After recovering from my 'run', I cooked some munch and watched a bit of TV. About 15 mins before I had to go to worship practice, I suddenly realise that I hadn't vacuumed or anything and that downstairs was a right state! Plus loads of washing-up to go in the dishwasher and some non-stick pans to wash! Grr. I amazed myself and did it all in 20 mins and managed to get to practice on time. At worship practice it was more singing. Again, I kept doing harmonies when I didn't realise it. I thought I was doing well for about an hour, then Jen told me that I was, in fact, making up my own harmony. Hmm...apparently some people would kill to be able to that (says Tom) and I keep on doing it without realising!! Anyways, after that we did our usual of popping down to the Sandringham (Tom, "Brian" and myself - Adam joined us too this time) and playing a few computer games there.

Tuesday was pretty cool. I think. Oh yeah - my parents stayed at my step-step-grandma's monday night, rather than drive all the way back after a loooooong flight. So they got back Tuesday. Had a catch-up with them about how their holiday was, and then went round someone's house to help fix their computer (if you know them, it's the family of "Sausage Head", if not, then you don't need to know :-P ). Tuesday was also when I made arrangements with Dad to go over and see him in March - we're going skiing near Salt Lake City - yay! I love skiing awwww yeah baby! YEAH!!!!

Driving - Owen passed his driving test! He's now loose on the roads in his car...lookout everyone ;-)

Wednesday. Well, I get the feeling that I may be boring you by now, but I don't really care. It was when people at work started noticing that I was eating 'heathly' food. My boss says it'll never last. I'm glad he said that, becuase it makes me want to prove him wrong - and that's the more motivation! Wendesday was also time for another run! I think I managed to do it a little faster aswell and then collapsed on the couch watching my step-dad playing Driv3r (research for a job interview) on the XBox. That evening was the youth discussion group thingy too. We did relationships (friendships + boyfriend/girlfriend type stuff). Went pretty well - I reckon it was the best one we've done so far. Was a good laugh too - we bought GIANT JENGA!!! That was cool. We also used the blocks to do a domino thing, and managed to make them go UP the stage steps, over the top, back down again and end up back where they started! I took a video of it with my camera which you can view here. (You'll need Quicktime Player to view it). Was fun! Simon also phoned me, and told me Green Day are playing in Milton Keynes in June and there's still tickets left! I am sooooo there! Yesssssss! Haven't been to a proper gig like that in years!

Thursday - that would be yesterday! Last night was our annual visit to 'Women Agow'. It's a Christian women's organisation that asks our worship team to play every Christmas when they have their "invite your husbands" type meeting (I think - I don't really ask! LoL). We had to get there for about 6, but were late. Managed to get all the PA set up and sound-checked in about 30 mins! Did our bit, listened to the preaching, and then took the PA back to the building and set it up for Christmas-on-the-Hill tomorrow (I can't be bothered to explain that right now). Then I got home and slept. That's me for now. Got youth tonight where I plan to have as much fun as possible and not get stressed. Heh heh. I promised Simon we'd go to Pizza Hut afterwards, so that's good. I'm starting to like the italian base pizzas now..mmm.

Inabitinnit.

Listening to: No Doubt - "Let's Get Back" (No Doubt) [No Doubt's bassist is sooo good...'specially on this album...aww yeah]


Tuesday, December 7

Latest PC Technology

As normally happens, emails get sent around work. Here is one that I got sent today...

"Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use."

This is actually a fake (
see here), but still made me larf!

Monday, December 6

Fffff-i-i-i-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-re!

Found this really cool picture on the BBC web site:

Bi-Polar


"Chris Jordan's 'Bi-polar' was drawn with a sparkler and photographed using a single long exposure (around 10 seconds)."

(Ref: Picture 5 of 10: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4066409.stm)

Listening to: Metallica - "Fuel" (Reload)
30 seconds later...
Listening to: Foo Fighters - "My Hero" (The Colour And The Shape)

Scabby Scab Scab McScab

Three whole days! What's the world coming to? Empires have risen and fallen in three days. Jesus died and rose again in three days. It's also roughly how long I have to catch up on with this blog. First thing's first, The Scab. A lot of picking has happened and it is now (99%) scab-free. So, without further ado...Ladies and Germs, I give you: The Scab...


See. Not so bad now.

I'm sure I should be working (as somone pointed out), but it's Monday morning and I haven't woken up properly yet.

Crunchie Friday
Friday was Youth club. We took them to cinema and bowling...both at opposite ends of Bristol! I went with the bowling crew who got a game of bowling, a Burger King meal and a Christmas variety pack of Cadbury's chocolates - all for £6!! How cool is that!? Pity there weren't enough lanes for me to join in. While there I managed to eat quite a few chips (donated kindly by youth), a couple of chicken nuggets (thanks "Brian" ) and also managed to pretty much learn the Salsa step that we were doing at worship practice last week. It was quite funny because "Brian" and Claire ("Michelle'"s wife) were not only laughing at me practicing, but told me that some people on other lanes were laughing at me also (which probably incuded the two rather gorgeous blondes on the next lane that Tom pointed out..who were with their boyfriends). After that we went back to the building and waited for all the youth to get picked up. After that was Pizza Hut...mmm...Pizza. At The Hut were Sam, Dan, Tom, Adam and "Brian". We went, we munched, we conquered.

Saturday's X-Factor
Saturday was a nice chilled day. Spent late Friday night (when I got home) trying to help Owen de-virus and de-spyware his PC. Managed to get most of the bad stuff off, but Norton still won't install properly on his PC. Grr! Anyways, spent 'till lunch time trying to figure it all out (but still can't - I still reckon he should just wipe his HDD and start again). In the avo did a couple of loads of washing, tidied my room, loaded the dishwasher and watched Jurassic Park with Dan, Justin and Tom. How quality is that film!? It's 12 years old and the computerised dinosaurs still look amazing!! Took Dan and Justin home and then Tom and myself watched X-Factor. I decided that Tabby was going to win and didn't need any votes, and I really didn't want G4 to get through, so I stuck in a vote for Steve. I'm thinking that maybe the rest of the nation thought the same, and nobody voted for Tabby, cuz he went out! Oops :-S LoL

In the evening we had our first Men's Homegroup - which was a social in a curry house! The food took a while to come and was average (mmm, Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan bread). We chatted about loads of cool stuff - including loads of evangelism and outreach ideas. We then decided that our homegroup meetings would be 3 times a month; 1 early-morning prayer meeting, 1 evening teaching meeting and 1 social (YES - more food!). We finished at about 10:30 and then Adam, Tom and myself decided to do a psycho late-night cinema job. Went to see the 23:30 showing of The Machurian Candidate which finished at around 2am! It was pretty good. I love watching films when I don't know anything about them before-hand. I avoid trailers for films that I know I'm going to watch because they usually give stuff away about the film.

Sunday, Merry Sunday
Sunday was pretty cool. Church as usual. Darren's away in the US at the moment, so Sara preached about the Holy Spirit and the difference between being anointed and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Was really cool. Seemed to be a few new faces in the church too (probably about 4-5). In the avo I cleaned up the kitchen a bit, made some rice and sausages and slept for a couple of hours. I tried to read, but fell asleep after about 2 pages. Woke up, went to church for our evangelism evening. Had fun playin' the cool new song we did a couple of weeks ago in worship practice ("Forever and a Day" from the new Hillsong album - "For All You've Done"). Bunch of us went to Adam's afterwards. Got home early at about 10:30 (praise God for youth curfews), chatted to Owen for a bit, read some of Proverbs (without question, one of the coolest books in the Bible), managed to read a fair chunk of my book and slept!

Now I'm at work.

Listening to: Christina Aguilera - "Blessed" (Christina Aguilera)

Thursday, December 2

Incumbent

Apparently the most looked-up word of last year was 'Blog'! That's what this BBC article reckons anyways.

Scab
Go on, I know you want to know how it's looking today...

And of course, no day would be complete without knowing what I'm listening to...

Listening to: Guns 'n' Roses - "Right Next Door To Hell" (Use Your Illusion I)


Wednesday, December 1

Scab Update

**best Irish accent**
Well, hallooooo there. How're you t'day Fath'r? Would ya like some tea? Ach, ya would? Why bless ya Fath'r.

Ahem. right then. The size of my scab is slowly decreasing now and it's even crustier than ever. Take a look (if you're not eating anything...)


Okay then, so that's that out the way. How's you? Been up to much in the last few days?

Salsa
I had worship practice on monday night. We've started practicing for Christmas, and because most of the stuff for Christmas has backing tracks, the band didn't have to rehearse! Bonus! We did, however, join the choir. :-S We're doing a really funky Kirk Franklin version of "Our God Is An Awesome God" which is really good fun. The hard part was when Jen tried to teach us a salsa step and then laughed at us blokes hysterically as we tried to do it with the swingy hip type thing. We all need lots of practice if we're going to do that. Stop it. Stop laughing now. I know you're trying to visualise me doing salsa. STOP IT!! After that a few of us (Loz, Tom, Joe & "Brian") went to the Sandringham for a bevvy and a play on Millionaire...only Millionaire had gone! It had been replaced by a different game. So we played Monopoly instead. It was quite fun - more fun than I expected. Then I went home and slept for a bit....about 6-7 hours. Then it was Tuesday (well..actually it was Tuesday a long time before I woke up, but who's counting? Except Tom maybe... :-P)

Chrismas Shopping, Arturius the King & Kiera..mmmm...
Tuesday was a Pretty Good Day. Work wasn't too bad - I managed to get about half of my Christmas shopping done at lunchtime on the 'net!! How cool is that!? Expensive lunch break though :-S Got home from work and had a blast on my guitar for a bit before going to my piano lesson. Showed "Harriet" how I was doing on my grade 1 piece and the song he gave me last week to do and also showed him a song I'd written. He was quite encouraging about it - which was really cool, cuz I don't really think it's that great a song. I do like some of the lyrics though cuz God rocks and I like him to be told that sometimes (like..everyday!).

After that I went home, cooked me some Chinese food (in a microwave) and cleaned up in the kitchen a bit. Before my parents went away (1½ weeks ago), they left us a big pot of chilli. I had some last week, but the pot was still there. And was also pretty mouldy. When I lifted the lid off, a cloud of mould hovered out of the pot. Nice.

Had some people 'round (Adam & Dan) to watch 'King Arthur' which was good fun. A bit silly in places and sometimes confusing. The best bit was the small village in Scotland, which was full of people with west-country accents! The Saxon leader was funny too cuz he had an american accent and sounded like he had a permanent bad throat. Oh, and he seemed quite drunk most of the time. The best character by far was the nutty Knight that was called Tristan. He was the MAN. I'm not biased or anything. Honest. Kiera Knightley was in it too - so it ended up being an excellent film ;) LoL. Then went to bed and stuff. After Adam and Dan left.

Stealing Binspace
Last week Owen and myself forgot to put out the bins, so we had a bin FULL as well as about 3-4 black bags lying around it. I was determined to get up early this morning to get the bins out and borrow some of our next-door neighbour's binspace for our excess baggage. As usual I was 'snoozing' this morning at about 6:45, when I heard a lorry noise and beeping outside! Noooooo, I'd missed the binmen again! I jumped up and looked out the window...and luckily it was just a minibus pulling away. I have no idea why a minibus was in our road at 6:45am, but I'm very glad it wasn't a bin lorry. I then got up, got dressed and "put the rubbish out". It was very early, so I was in full stealth mode, but unfortunately the black bags weren't being cooperative - they don't like stealth mode. They much prefer lets-make-as-much-noise-as-we-can-and-wake-up-the-neighbour-whose-bin-this-is mode..they were full of bottles and cans from Owen's "gathering" last Friday/Saturday, and instead of smooth, sophisticated, James-Bond-style placing of bags in bins, I got loud, clanky, smashy sounds as I dumped them all in my neighbour's bins (why do they get two!? Skanks!). I finished my task and legged it back into the house. Then I came to work, and now I've just finished lunch. Mmm - sausage, bacon, bean and cheese melt.

A-Pizza Hut, a-Pizza Hut. (no) Kentucky Fried Chicken and a-Pizza Hut
Tonight we're going to miss the prayer meeting and go out to Pizza Hut with the youth discussion group that we've been running the past few weeks. Ah shucks, youth work is sooo terrible sometimes ;-)

Listening to: Something Corporate - "Globes & Maps" (Leaving Through The Window)