Tristan - enter the madness...

Three. Whole. Years.

2010-10-20T23:15:00.003+01:00

Wow, it's been three years since I last blogged. Three years to the day! Well, what was I on about..

>>reads last post<<

Wow, off-roading, sitting in a fast jet, going to a comedy club and making cake! That'll be hard to beat! Well, let's see what I've been up to in the last few years...

2008
- I went to Ireland & Mexico for the first time
- I went to Mexico again
- Was best man for my best mate
- Saw my brother get his wings

2009
- Went to New York, New York!
- Went to my first air show
- Went to my second air show
- Went to my third air show!
- Lis and I separated so she could have some "space"
- Visited Ukraine

2010
- Went skiing in Italy (with my family)
- Went to Amsterdam (first on my own, the met up with my family)
- Went to Cyprus (for the first time - with my mates)
- Gave Lisa time, space, benefit of the doubt
- Jointly decided to get a divorce
- My Nan passed away

All in all, it's been a really tough few years. This has been countered with some great experiences and travelling to some amazing places.

I've been broken, I've been stretched and I've been pushed to my max. I've also been supported by some amazing friends, some fantastic family and learned a lot about myself through them and through God's guidance.

While my wife has gone, my heart torn to shreds and my nerves pulled apart, I've been blessed more than I can imagine by having better friends than I could have imagined and learned more about myself than I have in the last ten years.

Here's to a fantastic year ahead of new beginnings, new challenges and a brand new life.

One Year

2007-10-20T07:49:00.000+01:00

Hallooooooooo blogland!

So, how are you all doing!? I trust you are well!? It's been exactly one year since my last, rather in-depth, blog about spiders. It was such a hit that I've decided to do a followup post. The topic? Dunno...let's see where we go.

I've put Google Analytics on this page and here's a few facts about this page over the last year:

People still visit me...I average over a person a day!
25% of traffic came here direct - you must have me bookmarked!
24% of traffic came from Loz's blog!!
My most popular day was 20th of August 2007...I had 11 visitors that day!
The average time people spend on my blog is 26 seconds

The top 5 search terms are:

shaun the prawn (4 hits)
scortchio (3 hits)
"eat divers" tristankoffee (2)
enter the madness (2)
reliance on technology (2)

Odd search terms include:

eat me tristan
giggidy
i'm a prawn again, tristan. i saw cod
is it safe for a cat to eat a mouse
toothpaste thespianism

What I've been up to

So, what have I been up to this past year? Notable things include:

going on a 2 week Spanish course in Málaga
working from 'home' in Northern Ireland
going on a off-roading day which included driving an off-road jeep, quad bikes, a reverse-steer Jeep and a Monster Truck....all for free!
sitting in the cockpit of a real Harrier
going to my bro's graduation and then going out on the town with the RAF boyz!
going to a funny comedy club
making brownies to rival the ones the Willy Wicket made (IMHO ;-))

Right, I'm off now...'til next year!

Arachnids

2006-10-20T11:52:00.000+01:00

I think that spiders must be getting bigger as time goes on, because every time I hear someone say they saw a spider, it's always "the biggest spider they've seen in their life".

On this basis, I estimate that next one I see will be the size of a small elephant.

Poem

2006-09-30T14:45:00.000+01:00

It's not by what we do or don't,
It's not by what we say,
It's not by what we think we are;
It's simply by Your Grace

Shaun the Prawn

2006-09-27T09:15:00.000+01:00

Shaun the Prawn was crawling along the bottom of the sea complaining to
his his prawn friend Cristian about the nature of the sea world and how
great it would be if he were a shark.
"Oh it would be great if I was shark", said Shaun. "With a flash of my
tail I'd rip through the water and eat anything that moved."
"It doesn't sound so great to me actually.", replied Cristian.
"Oh it would be great! What are talking about!", cried Shaun.
"Well, if you're that keen, you should go and talk to the Cod, he may be
able to help you."
So Shaun plods along on his scrawny prawny legs and finally gets to the
Cod.
So he approaches and says, "I really want to be shark, it'd be great.
With a flash of my tail I'll scythe through the water and eat divers,
and barrels, and just about anything in the water."
"Are you sure you want to be a shark?", says the Cod.
"Yes, totally, I'd love to be a shark." replies Shaun.
"Ok!", says the Cod and with a nod of his head Shaun instantly
transforms into an immense white shark.

With a flash of his tail Shaun rips through the water and starts eating
anything that moves. Divers, air tanks, empty barrels.

Some time passes and Shaun starts to realise that being a Shark isn't
all he thought it would be. He doesn't have many friends, in fact he's
already eaten most of them. Shaun decides that he's had enough of being
a Shark and goes back to talk to the Cod.

"I'm fed up with being a Shark", said Shaun,"I really regret that you
changed me into one. I want to change back".

The cod nods his head in sensitive agreement but says quite sternly,
"Well, if I change you back, that's it, you change again, you'll have to
remain a prawn."

"Yes, yes, that's fine." said Shaun with an impassioned plea. So the Cod
nods his head once again and Shaun is instantly transformed back into a
prawn.

Shaun is so excited about this he decides to go and tell his friend
Cristian, so he crawls along the sea floor and finally gets to his
house, he shouts excitedly for his friend. "Cristian, Cristian, it's me
Shaun, I'm back!".

Cristian meanwhile is shaking like a leaf inside his house and says,
"You can go away, I'm not going anywhere near you. You're a terrible
Shark and you're more than likely going to eat me!".

Shaun is distraught at this and so excitedly shouts back, "No, no, it's
ok. Don't worry, it's all Ok now. I've been talking to Cod and he's
turned me into a Prawn again, Cristian."

Buying Stamps On The Net

2006-09-19T09:47:00.000+01:00

You can now buy stamps on the net!!

Here!!

Lunchtime

2006-08-31T12:32:00.000+01:00

Mmm, lunchtime is one of my favourite times of day. It's a chance to switch off from work and just relax (yes, I do work sometimes). In the past I've taken the time to blog, read, research, sleep, do stuff (like nip to the bank), Christmas shopping, meeting people for lunch and, occasionally, I eat.

Recently I've found a new lunch-time hobby. It started with the summer - I started going out and sitting on the grass with my lunch and snoozing in the sun. That's nothing new; I did that at both my old jobs (which luckily had grass nearby!). But, last week, I drove into work a couple of times (for the first time in 6 months) and discovered that the docks/harbourside are right behind my work place!!! So now I've been eating my lunch while I work (during the 10 mins before my lunchbreak) and then spending all of my lunchtime walking by the docks and sometimes just sitting there and relaxing - it's lush! You get to see wildlife (Seagulls, baby seagulls and pigeons), people (weirdos mostly..especially when I look in a reflective window), windows being washed by a dude on a crane, people hanging off of a crane in harnesses over the water (I want to try that!) and, best of all, lots of boats. Canal boats, tug boats, steam boats, yachts and (maybe one day) sail ships. I've always enjoyed sea-type things..especially the old sail ships like in Pirates of the Carribean. I don't know why, they just interest me.

Anyway, you should feel honoured because I walked back 5 minutes early so I could blog about it - and also to explain why I hadn't been blogging...because I'm out walking!!!!

Take care peoples, and remember...save Pluto!!

The Solar System Just Lost A Planet

2006-08-24T15:30:00.000+01:00

I'm not kidding...here's my proof.

It's Been A While

2006-08-17T17:31:00.000+01:00

soon (sn)adv. soon·er, soon·est

In the near future; shortly.
Without hesitation; promptly: came as soon as possible.
Before the usual or appointed time; early.
With willingness; readily: I'd as soon leave right now.
Obsolete. Immediately.

Okay, so 2 weeks and 1 day isn't exactly 'soon' by any stretch of the imagination and I am truly sorry. Things have been busy - honest!

Right, so what's happened to me!? Well, I got married to a wonderful woman, moved into our own place and we're in the process of getting said place sorted with furniture and all of the essentials in life (as well as some luxuries too).

For honeymoon we went to Fuertaventura which was HOT HOT HOT! The relaxation there after several months of stress from finance/wedding planning/moving was a paradise.

God is Goooooooood
In everything, I'd say God hasn't been good..not by any stretch of the imagination. He's been amazing!!! Every step of the way He's blessed us, guided us and generally been brilliant, even down to the little things. If you've got time, ask us and we can let you know exactly how good He is...but for right now I'd just like to say;

THANK YOU GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd also like to say thank you to everyone - you were all so generous with your time, energy and wedding presents ;-)

What else? Well, work is going really well - loving it still. I've been here almost a year now, though it really doesn't seem like it sometimes. Cycling is going quite well (IMHO), and is great in the beautiful sunny sunshine. It's been raining today which isn't so pleasant but I'm not complaining - I'm able to do it and that's a blessing!

I'll try to update more as I go...short non-catch-up blogs are less daunting (not that this is that long), but now I've blogged once, maybe I'll blog with some of the other things and conversations that happen to me :)

Peace out peoples

Apologies..I'll Post Soon - I Promise!!!

2006-08-03T14:17:00.000+01:00

Meanwhile, check out these square melons!!!

Giggidy

2006-07-12T01:21:00.000+01:00

;-)

Two (2)...

2006-06-29T09:07:00.000+01:00

...is the number of days until I am married.

...is the number of ends on a line.

...is the number of complete seasons of Lost that I have seen.

...?

Three (3)...

2006-06-28T08:43:00.000+01:00

...is the number of days until I am married.

...is the number of sides on a triangle.

...is the number of episodes of DH that we watched last night while making all of our "Order of Service"s.

...?

Four (4)...

2006-06-27T16:30:00.000+01:00

...is the number of days until I am married.

...is the number of sides on a square.

...is twenty hours short of being a great series

...?

Thou Shalt Not...

2006-06-20T13:52:00.000+01:00

"Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."

- HL Mencken

This Is Why England Should Win The World Cup

2006-06-19T15:45:00.000+01:00

"Mr [Tony] Blair, a Newcastle fan, recently made the rash promise to replicate Peter Crouch's famous robot dance should England win the World Cup in Berlin on July 9th."
-- BBC Website

Come on EN-GER-LAND!!!!!

Video

2006-06-16T12:47:00.000+01:00

If you're not easily offended, and you don't mind canned laughter, then check this out.

;-)

Our Survey Says...

2006-05-17T16:51:00.000+01:00

Well, the RCHP album arrived a few days ago. Within no time at all I ripped it to mp3 and put it on my phone.

I was not disappointed - it's excellent! Flea has his usual manic-100mph-fingers-at-a-blur basslines, John Frusciante is rockin with his beautiful guitar playing, Anthony Kiedis and his silky-smooth voice are still randomly saying words and Chad Smith is beating away some funky beats. I can't say that I've anywhere near fully appreciated the whole thing, but I already have a couple of favourites; "C'mon Girl" (track 12 on the Jupiter CD), and "Tell Me Baby" (track 2 on the Mars CD). Man it'd be great to be able to play bass like that guy.

Aaaaaaanyways, on to other exciting news; we finally got to look inside our flat yesterday!!! Yeayyyyy! We looked silly due to silly hard-hats, yellow vests and wellies. We also felt a bit pressured by the miserable lady that had to 'escort' us because she just stood there and said nothing while we wandered around being really excited about dusty walls, bare light-bulbs and planky floors. It was dead cool...lots of trying to figure out where stuff would go (after we've somehow aquired aforementioned stuff), measuring windows and taking pictures. We're going again on Friday to get Nick to look round and give us a quote for putting in carpets and a couple of other things that will need doing before we move in.

Tonight we have a band practice/sound check for the gig we're playing at youth tonight...really looking forward to it; should be good fun :-D will also be good to hear the other band we're playing at the Gig with; Washwood. From what I've heard they sound alright you know!

Well, better get back to finishing up work now - in a bit yous guys!

Listening to: "Perfect Disguise" - Washwood

I'm A Bad Man

2006-05-10T13:38:00.000+01:00

I just ordered this...

(..I can't wait for it to arrive!!)

Tee Hee

2006-05-08T19:10:00.000+01:00

"God, Schmod - I want my monkey man!"
- Bart Simpson

I Concur...

2006-05-05T12:58:00.000+01:00

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
- Robert Heinlein

Quote for the day

2006-05-04T11:06:00.000+01:00

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
- Douglas Adams

Thought for the day

2006-04-28T12:20:00.000+01:00

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and green, yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Crème Donuts. And Satan said "You want chocolate with that?" and Man said "Yes!" and Woman said "and while you're at it add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yoghurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Cake" and said "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food".

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy centre into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its £1 double cheeseburger. Then said "You want fries with that?" and Man replied "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said "it is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created the National Health Service.

Thought for the day ..........

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040 there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them????

That thing everyone's doing...

2006-04-28T08:10:00.000+01:00

First thing that comes to mind

I AM: ME!!!

I WANT: A milkshake

I WISH: I could stop time whenever I wanted

I HATE: liars

I MISS: my old house

I HEAR: gentle humming of my PC, and Bill downstairs answering the phone in reception.

I WONDER: "why?" sometimes.

I REGRET: nothing

I AM NOT: gay

I DANCE: with Lisa...but she gets scared of me

I SING: to God mainly

I CRY: when I realise I've let down God or Lisa

I AM NOT ALWAYS: good

I MAKE: mistakes

I WRITE: less than I'd like

I CONFUSE: myself when I'm tired, let alone everyone else!

I NEED: a hug

I SHOULD: get back to work

I START: most things off well

FINISH: at 3:20 today!

My Challenge

2006-04-24T10:13:00.000+01:00

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly."

Proverbs 15:1-2

I think this is something I need to work on.

The Slowest ½ Hour On Earth

2006-04-21T13:50:00.000+01:00

...is the ½ hour before I finish work. I don't really have anything to do, and I don't wanna leave before I'm meant to...argh...gimme work!!!!

Honestly, when you were younger did you ever *want* work to do!? You dreamed of a job where you got paid and did nothing all day. Now that you're all grown up, you realise that doing nothing all day is *much* worse than working!

Hmm, random thought time. Did you know there's a campaign to ban the common light bulb and switch over to energy-saving ones. Apparently, an energy saving bulb lasts 8-10 times longer than a normal bulb - that means that even though they're more expensive, they work out probably about the same for the amount of 10 bulbs! Add on to that the fact that you're saving a *huge* amount on electric compared to a normal bulb and I think you'll find that getting rid of normal bulbs is much cheaper overall. I read somewhere that over the life time of 1 energy saving bulb you'd save over £100 in electric compared to 10 normal bulbs!! Crazy eh? So why do people keep getting normal bulbs?

'Cuz they're "cheaper". Ha. I'd rather have a bulb that I *didn't* have to climb up and replace every 6 months!

Any other random thoughts? Anybody? Do I hear seven? No...I don't think I do...either that or I'm hearing things. Again.

Youth tonight! Lis and I took last month off of Youth, which was kinda nice! We've only been back once, but I found I was a lot more chilled than I had previously been. It was taking *far* more than usual for the kids to wind me up, LoL. Maybe, just maybe, I was nicer to them too. But, shhhhhh, don't tell them that ;-)

Right, that's enough for me - better get back to my 'work'.

IQ Test

2006-04-21T11:56:00.000+01:00

I finally got round to doing the IQ test thingy...

Your IQ score is 140!

Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game -- to imagine or anticipate what should happen next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with new ideas and this makes you a Visionary Philosopher. You also have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns in all sorts of situations, a talent that adds to your visionary philosopher mind.

Blimey...'Visionary Philosopher'...sounds impressive!!!

Extreme Recycling

2006-04-20T16:20:00.000+01:00

I want one...

The Best Post Secret...

2006-04-18T08:34:00.000+01:00

Here

My type

2006-04-12T17:00:00.000+01:00

Your type is the girl next door

Cute, fun, and sweet, your ideal girl is just a stone's throw away - she's the girl next door. She's Sandra Bullock, Billie Piper, and Meg Ryan all rolled up into one. Naturally pretty rather than glamorous, she's unpretentious and generous. She loves animals and children, and is great with both. You're attracted to her strong values and traditional ways. Although she demands great respect, she's not particularly high-maintenance. Her ideal date is more likely to be dinner and a film than heading out for a night on the town. She's careful yet spontaneous - a bit of the guy's girl, a bit of a cover girl (the nice kind), and just a hint of the hippie chick. But she's got an appeal that's all her own, which is why you can't stay away. Her winning smile, bright eyes, and loving nature make you want to hold on tight and never let go.

Me questions

2006-04-05T14:57:00.000+01:00

1. LOOK ABOVE YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN..WHAT DO YOU SEE?
"[company name] holiday planner 2006"

2. PRESS A RANDOM LETTER ON YOUR KEYBOARD WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED?
w

3. ARE YOU ON MSN AT THE MOMENT?
Nope

4. STAND UP AND REACH UP...DO YOU TOUCH THE CEILING?
No

5. NOW REACH IN FRONT OF YOU (STILL STOOD UP) WHAT DO YOU TOUCH?
"[company name] holiday planner 2006"

6. WHATS THE LAST THING A PERSON SAID TO YOU ON MSN?
Uhm...I was talking briefly to Luke Green - he said 'goodbye' or something similar

7. WHAT CAN U HEAR RIGHT NOW?
Bryan Adams on the radio..dunno the song, but he rocks :-D

8. PICK UP THE NEAREST BOOK... TURN TO PAGE 27 LINE 18 WHAT IS IT?
"because of the tremendous number of new controls in ASP.NET 2.0. The toolbox is showin in Figure 2-11."

The next closest book says "Use the CONVERT function for conversions to and from numeric values"

...well, I *am* at work :-P

9. WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL MESSAGE ON MSN RIGHT NOW?
Tristan@work (probably)

10. WHATS ON TV RIGHT NOW?
Uhm...dunno. The news on BBC News 24?

11. LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT..WHAT DO YOU SEE?
A potted plant in a metal pot.

12. GO ON THE INTERNET, TYPE IN ON GOOGLE YOUR FULL NAME
Something about american football and how 'hot' Tristan Thompson is - here

13.WHATS ON YOUR MOUSEMAT?
Me no got. Got wooden table underneath.

14. WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR KEYBOARD?
Black.

15. WHAT MAKE IS YOUR COMPUTER?
Shuttle X PC

16. IF YOU WALK 5 STEPS TO YOUR RIGHT..AND REACH TO THE LEFT..WHAT DO YOU TOUCH?
A potted plant in a metal pot.

17. IS THERE SOMEONE IN YOUR BATHROOM RIGHT NOW?
Dunno, I'm not at home. I don't think anyone is in any of the 3 bathrooms at work right now though.

18. IS THERE A GUEST IN YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW?
Yep, I think Lisa is there.

19. ARE YOU EATING?
No... :'(

20. ARE YOU DRINKING?
I have a bottle of cold water next to me

21. TYPE YOUR PHONE NUMBER....
YOUR PHONE NUMBER....

22. WHAT TIME IS IT?
15:03

23. IS YOUR CHAIR COMFY?
Not bad

24. DOES THIS QUIZ DO ANYTHING FOR YOU?
Not really.

Should I Be Worried?

2006-03-28T10:25:00.000+01:00

I decided to have a quick look at how people have found my blog recently. Here's some of the results:

tristan - wow..someone found me just by typing in my name!
ryan & tristan - Uhm...close enough.
tristan coffee - I can relate to this
tristan sandy - eh?
oakhall ski - interesting...I have been skiing with them a couple of times
"fast metabolism" - LoL...what can I say?
"il divo" - can somebody please explain how I appeared when you typed this?!?
"real life hobbit" photo - I never did.
bonjella for toothache - I may be a pain in the neck, but I think this is a little too far
ciao racing moped - from my trip to France/Italy?

...and last, but certainly not least

girls nude OR naked "stole their clothes" -krishna -aberdeen

Who found my blog when they put this into Google!? More importantly, what were you looking for!???

Challenge for the day/week/month/year/lifetime

2006-03-27T10:55:00.000+01:00

"Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."

Philippians 2:14-15

An Email I Got

2006-03-27T10:37:00.000+01:00

My eight-year-old daughter Ananya was about to do her homework, but her mind was elsewhere. She sharpened her pencils. She arranged the eraser, sharpener and ruler in a row. Then she collected the pencil shavings in a pile.

"Let's read the first problem," I suggested, but she began doodling. "Well, have you heard the story of the bird's eye?" I asked. Her ears perked up. I began...

The rest of the story can be found here.

Quote of the Day

2006-03-24T13:16:00.000Z

"I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
Rita Rudner

Ever get that Friday Feeling?

2006-03-23T09:04:00.000Z

I did. This morning. Until I was about half-way to work and realised it was a Thursday! D'oh!

Ah well - one more day of work after this one.

We had our second homegroup last night - it's been really good so far! We're going through James chapter by chapter, and as 'homework' we had to read the whole thing. Man, I forgot how challenging that book is. Makes you realise how much there is to do in this world, without figuring and following out your calling! Also makes you realise just how westernised and materialistic we really are.

Stuff does not equal happiness.
Stuff does equal reliance on stuff and not God.

Is it possible to get by and reach the people in our society without being this way? Did John the Baptist look or act like anybody else in his society just to reach them? Did Jesus? I know these are the huge characters in the Bible and they had a calling to do specifically what they did. But as we strive to be more Christ-like are we prepared to be nothing like the people around us and be unashamed? Are we prepared for the inevitable rejection that would follow, the inevtiable loss of stuff and the inevitable lack of 'creature comforts' that we unintentionally place our security in? It's a challenging question, and I'm not sure I am. In fact, I know I'm not.

Are you?

Proper Bo...uh...Post

2006-03-21T13:08:00.000Z

Well, well. Gemma Norm reminded me that I used to write really long blogs. Reading back over them, I think they were kinda boring, but it has inspired me to write a catch-up blog of what's going on in my life...plus I'm waiting for something to finish installing on my computer and I thought this would be a 'good' use of time ;-)

Right, let's get up to speed - Lis & I are engaged, we're getting married in July and it's now almost April. We've got the main bulk of things organised, and at the moment we're going through the 'interesting' process of buying a flat! We've put a deposit down on it, and the mortgage company has *said* they'll give us the money, but we've now got to go through a full application...so we're not out of the woods yet!! God has been really good and really faithful in the house-buying-thing so far - He's amazing...but still...we're hoping that He'll continue to bless us, so any prayers are gratefully accepted :)

Now I work for a different company developing websites. I enjoy it loads more than my last job, but I miss the people; w've moved into a pink building with a design studio and I spend most of my time with designers...not a techno-geek in sight :( they're an alright bunch, but I can't really chat to them on a professional level...though seeing the design process at work is very cool sometimes.

My bro is now in the RAF - he's my best man and he's organising my stag-day at the mo along with Adam, his partner in crime.

Now, that's brought you up to speed if you don't really see me that much. Let's get on with some other random stuff

24
The single most amazing show ever made. Loz, Lis and I watched 3 episodes last night so now we're waiting for episode 14 of season 5 to be aired so we can...uh...'watch' it (no downloading involved...honest!). Go Jack!

Desperate Housewives
We're also watching this at the mo - when we can...stupid TV at home keeps deciding to not work on Wednesday nights....grrr. Ah well, thank the Lord for second-chance-Sundays...mwah ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaa.

Ma's Verbal Gaff
When I was chatting to my ma the other week, she'd mentioned that she'd downloaded a film (naughty mummy) that she really wanted to watch. I mentioned that I wouldn't mind seeing it too. When we visited her shortly afterwards, I asked if it had turned out okay, or whether it was a fake. She said...
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you! I came downstairs the other day to watch it...it started playing, and a few moments into it I realised that it wasn't the film I thought it was...it was a bit more..uh...'X' rated! It's a pity, because it's something I thought we could sit down and watch as a family!".
Now my mother is condoning pornography....BAD mother.

Hmm..was funnier last night when I told Loz.

Anyways, now that I've confirmed just what a boring blog this has become, I think I'll leave you with this random quote:

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."
Orson Welles

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

2006-03-17T11:04:00.000Z

7 Top Songs...kindof. My fave song/band/instrument comes and goes more regularly than I eat (and that's a lot!), so here are some songs which have been solid favourites at some point in my life...

...in no particular order...

"Hey Johnny Park!" (Foo Fighters) - This is on their second album (which is fantastic in its own right!). Reminds me of many things, but mostly of being 17 and cooking sausage sandwiches in the kitchen while my parents were away cuz that's when I got the album. Foo Fighters are also awsome live.
"Cavanaugh Park" (Something Corporate) - I bought their album randomly (nothing to do with the attractive lady on the cover catching my eye) when I was in a music shop. It's a great album, but I just love the power and words of this song...fantastic. "Globes & Maps" is quite good too.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen) - 'Nuff said...end of.
(Red Hot Chili Peppers) - can't really decide on a favourite from them, so I just put them...Flea is an amazing bassist, John Fruscanti (guitarist) just rocks. And the singing? Like greek yoghurt and honey sliding down your ear canal.
"Self Esteem" (Offspring) - this was the song that got me into Offspring. I haven't been impressed by much of their very latest stuff, but Americana, Ixnay and Smash are great albums. Hmm, I should really try to get hold of thier older stuff too!
"Things I Prayed For" (Eli) - I first head this song on a sampler CD - it's got everything! Humour, depth, wisdom and best of all...God. Eli has a couple of really good albums (IMHO) that I've spent many hours listening to over, and over, and over, and over...
"Untitled" (Collective Soul) - This band never really made it over here, but I think they rock. This song especially!

Grr, that's seven already!! I haven't had room for Green Day, 3 Colours Red, Sheryl Crow, Pink, United Live, Matt Redman, Goo Goo dolls, Guns 'n' Roses...more, More, MORE!!!!!!

[Beer brandname] don't make ringtones but if they did, they'd be something like this

2006-03-09T09:36:00.000Z

Anyone who watches 24 will know that distinctive CTU ringtone - boop-boop, bee-booooop. Recently we've all thought about how cool it would be to have the tone. Tom aquired it first for his new phone - he uses it as his ring tone. I stole it from him and use it as my text tone. Lisa has stolen it from me and uses it as *her* ring tone (it is v.cool..in a 24-geek kinda way). Anyways, I got to church yesterday and Loz let me in;

*Loz waves her mobile phone in my face*
Loz: "Oooh, ooh, text me, text me and hear my new tone"
T: "Uhhh, okay"
*T taps away and sends text*
Loz: "Listen carefully, it's quiet"
*boop-boop, bee-booooop*
*T grins*
Loz: "Isn't that cool!?"
T: "Read the text I sent you"
*Loz reads text*
Text: "Please not 24"

Listening to: people in studio chatting behind me about crap

I'm actually around 200

2006-03-02T11:32:00.000Z

You Should Weigh 160

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight.
If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

My Ideal Relationship

2006-03-02T11:28:00.000Z

Your Ideal Relationship is Marriage

You've dated enough to know what you want.
And that's marriage - with the right person.
You're serious about settling down some time soon.
Even if you haven't met the person you want to get hitched to!

What's Your Ideal Relationship?

My Career?

2006-03-02T11:23:00.000Z

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas.
Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Dilbert Classic

2006-02-22T11:43:00.000Z

Johari Window

2006-02-21T08:40:00.000Z

Click here for mine

It's a Four thang...

2006-02-20T15:52:00.000Z

Four Jobs I have ever had in my life:

1. Paperboy (age 11 - 17)
2. Provisions Replenishment Assistant (aka "shelfstacker") @ Sainsbury's
3. Customer Service for AOL/CompuServe in a call centre
4. Web Developer (current job - lovin' it)

Four Movies I can watch over and over:

1. Red Planet
2. The Matrix
3. Back to the Future
4. Indiana Jones

Four Places I have lived:

1. New Jersey, USA
2. Hampstead, London
3. Ponterewyd (Nr Aberystwyth), Wales
4. Bristol

Four TV Shows I love to watch:

1. 24
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Futurama
4. The Simpsons

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Cayman Islands
2. France
3. Austria
4. Various USA places

Four websites I visit daily:

1. Google
2. BBC News
3. Dilbert site
4. Blogz

Four of my favourite foods:

1. Cake that Lisa Made me for my birthday (microwave it and cover it in Carté D'or...mmmm)
2. Lisa's Honey Chilli Chicken
3. Toasted Ham/Cheese Sandwiches
4. Almost anything chicken

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Bed
2. Skiing somewhere nice
3. With Lisa
4. Playing my bass

Four people I am tagging:

1. VJ
2. "Train Spotter" (via Jen's blog)
3. Timmay!
4. Norm (via Gemma's blog)

10 Steps To Impress A Church Minister

2006-02-16T14:25:00.000Z

Step 1 - Have band practice upstairs during a church meeting.
Step 2 - Leave later than everyone else and lock up the building
Step 3 - Set the alarm.
Step 4 - Wander to the car park to drive home
Step 5 - Notice the Minister's "BannanaMobile" sitting in the car park
Step 6 - Call the church office phone - no answer
Step 7 - Call the Minister's mobile and have the following conversation:

*ring ring*
Minister: "Hallo mate"
Tristan: "Hiya, are you still in the church?"
M: "Yep"
T: "Crap. I suppose I'd better turn the alarm off then. Stay there...don't move"
M: "Too late - I can see a red light flashing"
T: "Pants."

Step 8 - Run back around to the front of the building, pull out keys and dash inside. and mis-type the code.
Step 9 - Hit as many keys as you can in what you hope are the correct order with no response from the alarm panel until it says "INVALID CODE".
Step 10 - Just after the panel says "ENTRY TIME=0", type in the correct code and breathe a sigh of relief when it then reads "UNSET"

Follow these 10 simple steps to ensure a long and happy time at your local church.

No More Smelly Smoke

2006-02-15T16:37:00.000Z

Yesterday, MPs voted to ban smoking in all enclosed public places by next summer.

Yay!

It means no more going out to the pub and coming back all smelly-smokey...woohoo!

Listening to: Radio 1

Future In-Laws

2006-02-10T11:57:00.000Z

T arrives at Lisa's parents' house and is shown to his room. Lisa queries the choice of towel colour that Lisa's mother has chosen for T. T is a messy man.

Lisa: You gave Tristan a white towel!???
Mother: No!
Mother: It's cream.

The World Has Lost The Plot

2006-01-31T12:54:00.000Z

This cannot be happening

I Am Weak

2006-01-30T09:08:00.000Z

I've been thinking and talking over the last week about how I'm going to approach series five of "24". It's already out in the US and it's coming to our very own Sky One soon (as you may have noticed from this post). However, Tommy boy has already got the first 5 episodes of it that a friend of his 'aquired' from the internet. I've been thinking that it'd be much better to watch on Sky One week-by-week and keep the suspense regular and paced. I mean, we're only a few weeks behind, so it's no big deal..and I'm sure I would have the will power to do it.

Then, on Friday, Tom waved a DVD in my vague direction that had the first four episodes on it.

We've now watched the first three.

So much for willpower!

NB - Tom's right..this season is awesome so far!!

I don't watch The OC, but ....

2006-01-27T08:26:00.001Z

You scored as Sandy. You are an easygoing idealist. You follow your own internal values and also know how to have a good time. Make sure that you are not so easygoing and fun seeking that you don't ever realize your ideals.

Sandy

67%

Kirsten

67%

Summer

56%

Seth

55%

Luke

50%

Marissa

50%

Anna

45%

Oliver

39%

Caleb

39%

Jimmy

33%

Julie

28%

Hailey

22%

Ryan

What OC character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

The Colour of my Heart

2006-01-27T08:11:00.000Z

You scored as Red Heart. Your heart is red. You're a very passionate person, and probably very romantic too. Life is a drama and you are the main role. Be careful not to outshine the other people though; you are not the only person in the world.

Red Heart

81%

White Heart

69%

Pink Heart

50%

Black Heart

25%

Blue Heart

25%

What colour is your heart?
created with QuizFarm.com

24 - Season 5

2006-01-26T08:53:00.000Z

Sunday 12th Feb 2006
Sky One
9pm

Be there, or be square.

(Apparently they're showing a 10 minute 'link' episode on Sunday 5th at 9pm!?)

Three Words

2006-01-26T08:39:00.000Z

Season.
Four.
Rocked.

It was surely the best series of 24 I've seen!! Had so many excellent moments...I loved it.

Now, while we're trying to resist Tom's copy of the beginning of season 5, we'd better finish off the first series of Lost.

Listening to - A/C & Tinitus

Challenge for the Day

2006-01-24T10:16:00.000Z

Dictionary.com says...

Love

A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.
A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.
1. Sexual passion.
2. Sexual intercourse.
3. A love affair.
An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object.

To my mind, this generally what people think when they think of love. They think of being swept off their feet, becoming intoxicated with someone and generally living "happily ever after". They think that if it causes them too much hassle, then it can't be love.

God says...

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you asked Joe Public on the street if this piece of scripture has any truth to it, then I'm sure they'd say that it's completely right. He probably wouldn't stop to think about what doing those things actually means. I mean how easy is...

..patience?
..kindness?
..being genuinly happy for someone instead of jealous?
..not boasting when you've got something to boast about?
..not being arrogant?
..being polite all the time?
..putting someone else first all the time?
..holding back resentment?
..being joyful when someone else is right?
..putting up with anything the other person dishes out to you?
..believing in and hoping for someone someone for years and years?
..putting up with anything and everything?
..doing this for your whole life...?

These are not easy things to do or be, even when you're head-over-heels in love with somebody.

God wants us to be like this to everyone.

For All Those 24 Fans Out There

2006-01-20T14:43:00.000Z

You have to check this out

Quote Of The Day

2006-01-20T13:16:00.000Z

"..." he said, then realised he'd forgotten the rest.

Happy New Year

2006-01-20T09:26:00.000Z

Dear Blog,

Hi, how ya doing? I'm sorry I haven't written anything substantial recently; I'm sorry to say that I now have a job where I want to get on with my work. Since I only really go on the internet at work, that means that you, my beloved blog, is the victim.

To make some kind of amends, I decided that I'd write to you and talk to you about my past year, and what's ahead this year. How does an evaluation start? By reading your objectives of course!! I wrote this last January about what was in store for 2005. How did I do?

Massive year of change - it certainly was.
Parents moving to Cambridge - they sold, they moved, they conquered.
Moving out - I moved out and I love it...it'll be even better when it's just me and Lisa and not 4 of us cooking seperate meals! Students; you gotta love 'em.
Brother 99% certain to get into RAF - he's there right now. I got a call from him last night, and he said that today will mainly consist of:
- 3 Hours of Drill - marching around a massive square of concrete being shouted at.
- Inspection? - I think he said he had some tidying to do and then lunch.
- 2 More Hours of Drill - more marching.
I miss him.
Finding out what God wants - In 2005, God let me find the woman who I'm spending the rest of my life with - my Lisa. Other than that, I've been moving on with my music - mainly bass - and growing up.

Best Bits

What were my favourite bits of 2005?

Lisa is a major best-bit...I love life with Lisa :-D sorry to go on, but I can't help it :-P
Moving out - while it has been tough in some respects, it's utterly fab; get on with my parents much better :)
Going to France with my mates from Church - it was a fab holiday...really got to see some great places and experience stuff in France. I'm glad I vaguely know French ;-)
Going to see Green Day at Milton Keynes - it was the best gig I've ever been to; bar none. Soul Survivor doesn't count.
Going to Soul Survivour - It was great; especially losing my voice singing along to Hillsong United Live...too many good songs!
Going to Chicago with Owen - just before Owen went to the RAF, we went to Chicago for a week and stayed with my Dad. It was really great...even though I've been to the US loads of times, it was the first time I really got to experience it for myself - and it was cool having Owen there; he's never been, so I could see it through a newcomer's eyes.

So, again I ask, what's in store this year - 2006?

Marriage!!! Lis and I are getting married - that's a biggy!
Honeymoon - ;-) ;-) Fuerta Ventura, here we come!!!!
House - obtaining a house is on the list of adventures for this year.
.... - fill that space. I'm hoping that the sky's the limit :-D

Well, that's it. I hope you're keeping well Mr Bloggy - give Noel my best.

Yours Sincerely,

PS - I'm Listening to - More tinitus ringing in my ears

How People Find My Blog

2006-01-18T12:38:00.000Z

I decided to have a gander at search terms that lead people to my blog. Here's some of them...

tristan - what a surprise!
MEANING OF Tristan - I'm not sure I know the answer to that one.
blogspot & "curious by design" - go on, who was that then?
hollywood spagbol - engh!?
turning 25 age jokes - ironic?
http theplacewherelozzais blogspot - they almost found what they were looking for!
www. game fee cool com - this has me more confused that hollywood spagbol!

...and, my personal favourite...

"luke radford" - he of the 10 shampoos!

Listening to - Ringing sound in my ears

Exercise 2b

2006-01-09T11:48:00.000Z

Day 2 of cycling. Today I mostly did not get lost on the way to work, and got here in about 25 mins :)

Today I mostly did lie in, hitting snooze for 1½ hours whilst thinking "Don't want to cycle to work". I'm glad I did cycle - nowhere near as bad as last time...I think I paced myself better. And - bonus - my butt doesn't hurt as much!! The seat on my saddle is solid :-S

Well, back to church for the first time yesterday, and I was very tired. Was a real struggle to stay awake in the morning, but I think stuff entered my head in the evening! Also was the first time playing bass for a couple of weeks...got a blister on my thumb - doesn't hurt though...just gonna thicken up my skin. Also got band practice tonight, and a different band practice tomorrow (I'm helping out a friend - let's call him Spike-Head) for an hour, followed closely by the possibility of another band practice stragiht after that...so...3 weeks with no bass playing to playing solidly for 3 days! Ah well; I love it, so no complaints here.

Now...where did I put that coffee. If you're all lucky, I'll reveal my secret recipe for home-made mocha ;)

Listening to: Curious By Design - "Before Your Throne" (Uncontained)

Coffee Construction

2006-01-05T14:04:00.000Z

How to make a good coffee with instant coffee:

Fill kettle with the amount of water you need - if you fill the kettle to make just one cup, then not only will it take ages to boil, but it will waste a lot of electricity.
Switch on/set fire beneath kettle.
(while water is boiling) Milk + Coffee goes in cup first (this is important - the optimum temperature for making coffee is 85-92 degrees C. When water comes out of the kettle it is hotter than this temperature....the milk stops the too-hot water from burning the coffee).
Add sugar as required.
Give it a good stir.
Fill cup half way with hot water. While pouring, hold kettle about 1ft above cup. This makes bubbles/white frothy stuff in the coffee, which just looks cool.
Stir.
Fill cup to desired level as per step 6.
Enjoy!

I wrote that because I just made a coffee. Mmmm, coffee.

Listening to: Jamie Cullum - Catch the Sun (Catching Tales)

Exercise Lark

2006-01-05T12:00:00.000Z

Well, I did it. I bought a bike and today I cycled to work for the first time.

I think I'm gonna get a refund - joke! It was a lot quicker than I remembered it being, and I wasn't really pushing myself. The hard part was when I got lost when I got off of the cycle track - couldn't remember for the life of me where I was meant to go after that - I almost ended up by Temple Meads! Whoops! Got here in the end though..that last bit of avoiding cars tired me out the most :-S I'm sure I'll find my way back tonight fine enough :)

What else..hmm, well Lis and I are up to Season 3 of "24" and have made our way to 2am (finished 13 episodes)...bring on episode 14! It's strange, because it looked like it could all be neatly wrapped up a couple of episodes ago, though we knew there were another 12 to come so things were bound to go wrong.

In other news, I'm hungry. So I'm going to eat lunch now (mmm, ham sandwiches).

*dribble*, lunch.

Bye, bye then.

You can go now.

Stop reading.

This isn't interesting.

LEAVE ME TO EAT!!!!!

That's A Very Long Time

2005-12-15T08:13:00.000Z

If you take 100 years and divide it by 4 you get 25 years; ¼ of a century.

You also get the age that I am turning today. I'd love to say that I feel old (though I don't know why), but the paradoxial nature of hanging out with youth means that I simultaneously feel both old (because I haven't a clue what they're on about sometimes and they don't remember things that I remember 'back in the day') and young (because I get to chat about school and teachers and exams and coursework and breaktimes and general school stuff).

When I got back from the concert last night, Lis needed some bonjella for her toothache, so I went out and got some. When I delievered it to her house, she surprised me with a (10-minute) early birthday present.

If I never get another birthday present this year, this will be enough for me. I love it :-D

Thank you baby!!

The world according to 'the legend' Tim

2005-12-15T08:10:00.000Z

Last night we went to see a band. On the way back, we were light-heartedly making fun of Tim for his 'pop-rock' comments. The conversation was getting a little out of hand, so I decided to change the subject.

Tris: Tim, did you notice that the drummer was left-handed!?

Tim: Yeah I did.

*pause*

Tim: I think he was left-handed the last time I saw them too.

Good News Everyone...

2005-12-07T13:59:00.000Z

..as you may or may not know - Lis and I got engaged!! We're planning on getting married in July :-D

Also, I saw this quote today which I thought was quite cool...

"The quickest way to a man's heart really is through his stomach, because then you don't have to chop through that pesky rib cage. "
- J. Jacques

Now See Here

2005-11-04T11:02:00.000Z

I've posted on the Curious By Design blog - click here and go see :)

Really?

2005-11-01T09:48:00.000Z

I took this quiz twice - I came out as:

Agnostic
Buddhist

Hmm...both of those were quite near to the centre of the graph so I shouldn't be surprised, after all; I am a hub

I'll Have A Big, Small Piece of Medium Pie Please

2005-10-27T16:55:00.000+01:00

At a well known Pizza Shack ;-)

Loz: so, do you want to get a medium grand-pan pizza

Tom: Naa, I think we should get a medium individual pizza

Loz: A medium indivdual pizza???

Tom: *looks blankly*

T: Medium and Individual pizza?

Tom: Ohhhhh, I mean a medium italian pizza.

Emo

2005-10-24T16:31:00.000+01:00

You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing.
That doesn't mean you don't rock out...
You just rock out with meaning.
For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

Not Sure, But Sounds Cool

2005-10-22T18:48:00.000+01:00

Your Blogging Type is Unique and Avant Garde

You're a bit ... unusual. And so is your blog.
You're impulsive, and you'll often post the first thing that pops in your head.
Completely uncensored, you blog tends to shock... even though that's not your intent.
You tend to change your blog often, experimenting with new designs and content.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

Dunce

2005-10-11T08:46:00.000+01:00

I went across to the mini-market across the road from work this morning to get me something for breakfast. While I was there I spotted a packet of Earl Grey tea, so thought I'd treat myself and buy myself a pack...mmm...Tea, Earl Grey; Hot.

What I have just discovered is that this packet doesn't have teabags in it...just leaves.

D'oh. Anybody got a tea strainer I could use?

Happy Birthday To ME

2005-10-06T08:38:00.000+01:00

Today is the day that I get internet access at home! Yay! Finally, I don't have to rely on work internet access and I can do things better (try harder, DO BETTER)! Not exactly sure which things those are, but I'm sure they are.

Right. How are you all doing? Been up to much lately? Not many people seem to be updating any more, including myself, so must try harder; DO BETTER.

Well, the CD is finished - Curious By Design now have a decent recording of their work - yay! I listened to it in my car last night, and even with my rubbish speakers it seemed alright. I'm about to try and put it on my mp3 player so that I can listen to it through some nice headphones and see exactly how well it turned out. Unfortunately we can't afford to give away freebees, even Lis is going to have to pay for a copy (though it will be the first signed copy - not quite sure why that's important).

Work is still great...though the ability to come in late is starting to take its toll - I'm going to have to do some catchup-time tonight and work a bit late.

The weekend of visiting my 'rents was good - got to see the new house (which is really nice), go shopping (and got some great bargains...sales ROCK!) and see Arsenal v Birmingham City at Highbury - which was just cool.

O: "...and when the goal was disallowed, the Chelsea supporters stopped cheering"
T: "There were Chelsea supporters at the game?!?"
O: "Yeah...not many, but there were some in section in the far corner."
T: "Chelsea supporters...at the Arsenal v Birmingham game?!?"
O: "Ohhhhhhh."

While I was at the match, Lis stayed behind and got to meet my whole family. She did really well, though she was playing with fire by dissing Arsenal quietly to me (my family are massive Arsenal supporters...thus the wedding reception at Highbury a couple of months back).

Sorry for the catch-up blogs recently (or not recently as the case may be). Hopefully I'll be blogging more and I can start putting up something interesting.

Oh yeah - I forgot to mention the title! My blog is almost 1 year old..I think Tuesday will be the little one's first celebration. I can't believe it's been going for so long...it started off with lil old me (here in Bristol), and now half the church has a blog...though that's more to do with Loz's blog-vangelism ;) if you look at her list of blog-links on her blog, it's growing almost as big as VJ's list ;)

Listening to: Nothing

Hi Ma!

2005-09-30T23:59:00.000+01:00

I just found out that my mum reads my blog!! Bloggers beware...you are not safe from your parents here!!!!

I guess I shouldn't have given her a link to it then :-S

So...just for mum (who is a voyeur - she likes to read blogs, but not to comment or blog)..."Hi Ma!".

I found this out because I'm in Cambridge visiting my 'rents right now. It's kindof chilled and nice - went out for a meal with Lisa, her friend, and about 20 of Lisa's friend's friends! Mmmm, Pizza Express.

Even got a little lost in Cambridge..LoL - fun.

Listening to: Il Divo - "Unbreak My Heart" (Il Divo)

And about time too...

2005-09-28T09:17:00.000+01:00

Okay, how do I do this again? What is this 'blogging' you speak of? Me forget-sir.

*Jedi-hand-movement*
This is not the blog you are looking for

Ahem. Right. It's been about a month. Yep, a month. I've had a youth holiday; which was fantastic. Got me some sunburn right here yessiree. It's gone now though. Also got me a new job! A job that I am enjoying immensely - finished my first project already and on to the second (though I have a day's worth of changes to make tomorrow on the first after some feedback from the client).

What else - oh yeah! The band finally chose a name that we like, and don't think it's too bad; "Curious By Design". I like it cuz it subtly makes you think. We've been practicing hard this month, and we've been into a studio three times now! We've laid down 6 tracks, and on Thursday night we're going in for a final session to tweak/tidy up some parts of the tracks. We're then going to leave it to our muchos talented sound-engineer to EQ the tracks for us and make us sound good ;-)

Since my brother is off to the RAF in November, we're going to go on a brief holiday together - going to Chicago for a week! We'll be staying with my Dad while we're there, so I get to see him too!! Bonus!

Lis and I are going to Cambridge this weekend to see her friend for her 21st, and to see my parents. Ooooh, I'm also going to Highbury to see Arsenal v. Birmingham City.....woohooo! It's good!

Lis has started playing hockey at uni, and her muscles are really feeling it at the moment...poor Lis :-( *hugs*

Right, I think that's pretty much it...oooh, except for a quote from the famous Norm-meister (who is going into hospital to have a v.serious operation today - pray for him please!)

Norm is the drummer in our band.

*band listens back to guitar and bass at the end of a particular track where we all just go mental (Timmay's Mental Song)*
Norm: I love that bassline! It really makes me want to drum!!

Hmm, not as funny when you type it out. But trust - it was funny at the time.

Listening to: Sheryl Crow - "Maybe Angels" (Sheryl Crow)

So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish

2005-08-26T12:09:00.000+01:00

It’s weird…because I’ve handed over pretty much everything, I’ve got nothing to do!  So I’ve decided to blog.  I was chatting on MSN, but most people are busy :(

I’ve got the youth holiday tomorrow which I’m looking forward to.  I think this will be the…*counts*…7th one I’ve been on (there have been 8 and I missed one).  Wow, lots of youth holidays.  Ooooh, idea…lets see if I can remember them all

1998 – Nr Tenby, Wales
I was 17, I’d been a Christian for about 3 months and I knew nobody.  We took over a little country youth hostel that had about 3 rooms.  A big girls room, a big boys room, and a small room with 2 bunks in it for the leaders.  I ended up in the bunk room with the leaders.  At the start of the holiday I was absolutely petrified…I didn’t do well with new people, and they all seemed to be from a different ‘crowd’ (I was more of a grungy type person, and nobody else was; they all liked completely different music and wore completely different clothes).  I had a brilliant time there.  I made some friends that have become really strong friendships over the years, and I met some great people.  I’ll recall one thing that sticks in my mind the most…

Youth Pastor: “You’d better stop that…it’s not good”
Annoying Kid: “Why should I; what you gonna do?!?”
Youth Pastor: “If you don’t stop, I’ll pour this milk down your back!”
Annoying Kid: “Yeah Right”
Annoying Kid carries on doing Annoying Thing
Youth Pastor: “Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you”
     Youth Pastor pours glass of milk down Annoying Kid’s back!

That was one of the highlights.  And before you ask; No, the Annoying Kid wasn’t me.

Anyone remember Trev’s nice yellow minibus…?

1999 – Pendennis Castle, Falmouth
18 – Just finished A-Levels.  Recently passed my test and bought a lovely, beautiful car…her name was Bayb (I name all my cars..they’re about the only thing I name…sorry VJ :-S) I think this was the year we stayed in Flamouth Castle (there is, for some reason, a youth hostel built-in to the castle).  I think ‘J’ was driving a metro, and for some reason I remember Richy R driving too..though I think I’m wrong cuz he hadn’t passed his test at that point!
I remember playing football (Soccer) in the castle grounds.  This is hazardous, as there was only a low wall;  if you kicked the ball over, there was a 20-30 foot drop into the (empty) moat….this meant a long run around to get the ball.

Quote of the holiday:
C: “Oooh, that’s a nice watch!”
T: “Thanks” *smile*
C: “Was it expensive, or dear?”

Heh heh (for non-english readers…not sure if you have this definition, but ‘dear’ can be used to mean ‘expensive’)

2000 – Brixham, Devon
Bayb had died a horrible death by this point, so I drove Nige’s car – which was just like Bayb, only silver!!  We went to an activity-centre, but only did a few activities.  The best word to describe this holiday is naughty.  We got up to some terrible mischief on this holiday…so much so that the leaders got told off by the owners.  To summarise – a lot of food got thrown about, and sun-cream & spaghetti sauce were cleaned off of walls.  Lozza was naughty too…she put cling-film over a toilet *shock*

2001 – Isle of Wight
Unfortunately I didn’t make it this year – I had just started work in my placement year and couldn’t get the time off!  I hear it was a really good holiday.

2002 – Hayle, Cornwall (nr. St Ives)
On this year we had a number of 6-berth caravans at a family caravan site.  Why they let us on there I’ll never know.  The great thing was that there were loads of on-site facilities to keep the youngsters entertained in the evening.
For anybody that’s played the game ‘Mafia’, this was the year we had our famous Week-Long game of Mafia…it was soooo much fun.  I was one of the mafia, and I’ve never enjoyed it as much before, or since.  Mwaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaa.

I think this was the year I drove Gadget – well done Gadget!!

I also learned how to use a ‘Dance Machine’ on this holiday…the most exercise I’d had in a loooooooooooong time!  There were a pair of brothers on the holiday – we’ll call them Barry & Brawn.  Barry liked a girl – we’ll call her Mungo.  Brawn liked a different girl – we’ll call her RedHead.  Barry & Brawn are interesting chaps – hearts of gold, but they come up with some very funny things.  They weren’t always popular with the ladies (although, I think Barry is getting married soon!).  Anyways, one other chap (I’ll call him ‘Lightbulb’) was always winding up Barry & Brawn.  This year he took it too far…he snogged Mungo!  Brawn was a little luckier..he managed to go out with RedHead for a v.short period of time before she broke up with him.  Not to fear!!!  Lightbulb, who was always full of ideas, decided that he’d go out with RedHead too!  It was very funny (if a little unfortunate for Barry & Brawn).  Lightbulb…you should know better!

2003 – Hayle, Cornwall (nr. St Ives)
This is the one (and only) time that we’ve been to the same resort twice.  We stick to a general rule that we’ll go to a different place each time…simply because no two holidays are the same, and if you have a great time in a particular place, you’re not guaranteed to have a great time by going again.  This year was still good, but in an entirely different way.  The location was the same, a lot of the people were the same, but the holiday was just…different.The first change, was that I was driving Missy!!    I remember that we set up a small dinghy and propped it up with an oar.  Rope was attached to the oar, and bits of bread spread liberally underneath the dinghy.  We hid, clasping the rope in our hands while we waited for seagulls to arrive.  We never caught one, but it was fun trying…mwaa ha ha ha haaaaaaaa.
I believe this was also the year of Brawn’s infamous pink ‘Pulling Shirt’, his retirement from the lifeguard fleet, and Norm’s amazing ‘strip dance’!!  I may be wrong…events from 2003 and 2002 often get confused – that’s the disadvantage of going to the same place 2 years running.

2004 – Nr Tenby, Wales
Now I know what you’re thinking – you’ve been to Tenby before!!  Well, this is sort-of true.  This year, we stayed in a completely different place – it was like a caravan site, had all the same facilities, only we stayed in Chalets (small, one-floor houses).  We had a fantastic time.  One day we went dry-slope skiing, which was amazing!  For the rest of the day I drove half-way around Wales being referred from hospital to hospital because somebody had fractured their wrist by banging into the barrier at the bottom of the slope – ouch!  We also went to an activity centre (which we went to in ’98) which had go-karts, baseball cages, water-bumper-cars, archery, pistol shooting and laser clay-pigeon shooting.  FUN!

Right, that’s enough from me.  Loads of you new bloggers out there have been on the youth holidays….share your best moments!

A-theth-theth-theth Scortchio

2005-08-25T13:52:00.000+01:00

I'm sitting at work on a Thursday afternoon. The weather has been really miserable the last few days, but it's actually started to brighten up today, which is a very good thing; we're going on holiday in Devon on saturday. I've not actually got that much to do - tomorrow is my last day! I've spent half the morning handing over stuff to the other (soon-to-be only) support guy, and the other half having my 'exit-interview' with the head of HR.

On Tuesday night I went out with a bunch of people from work. We went to Las Iguanas in Bath for some mexican food. It was a really good night out. Lis and I got picked up at around 7:30pm to get to Bath for a booked table for 8:30pm. Our lift told us that he could take us there, but had a family (plumbing) emergency and couldn't come for the meal - we'd have to find our own way back. No problem - I knew we could blag a lift back from someone else that had space. We got dropped off around 8pm, giving us 30 minutes to kill. We decided to spend most of that time searching for the place! We walked straight past it (we later found out) and proceeded to get lost in bath! After consulting several information points and printing out a map, we managed to find it in the end. No sooner had we ordered some drinks from the bar, then some people turned up and the fun began. The food was great, the people were funnier and I'm going to miss them to bits. Bob said a few words - he was put on the spot, but they meant an awful lot to me; I'm really going to miss working here. Then I had to make a speech in reply, which I did..shakily...I didn't think I'd get so emotional about leaving!!

We managed to get a lift back with the head of the IT division, who also (very kindly) paid for the entire meal! The ride home was awesome...the man has a Mazda RX-8 which can do 0-60 in minus 3.9 seconds...*dribble* - I want one!

Band
I've got band practice tonight. We're aiming to pay for a recording studio and record our 6 existing tracks. Because of this we're focusing on our songs and getting them spot on so that we don't waste any (expensive) time in the studio. There have been about 3 sessions so far in the past week, and it's been hard work, but really fun. At one point we just had to release, and we went crazy; jumping up and down, playing crazy OTT stuff which didn't fit, and generally having a laugh. It's such fun *grin*

Right, better get back to work...roughly 24 hours left, and then I'm gone for ever

*cry*
*smile*
*CONFUSED?*

Soul Survivor

2005-08-16T13:11:00.000+01:00

Soul Survivor happened last week, and was absolutely fantastic. Adam/Wendy/Andy - thank you so much for the hard work you put in - it was so worth it. It was really great that Lis came..I loved being able to see here for snatches of the day...she did get knackererd by all the hard work she did though - good on you baby :-)

For me, it was really good to just chill and hang out with God for a while. The worship was just fantastic...I don't often get to just switch off from playing bass and just worship, so it was a very welcome change to be part of the crowd. Hillsong United came and played in the 'gig' venue, as well as leading worship the following morning. The sum total of those 2 'sessions' was that my voice got viciously murdered and sacrificed. I now sound like an alien going through puberty. They did a new song with us that isn't published or anything, but it is just pure worship. Very short, but absolutely amazing! One of those worship songs that you can just belt out to God and just drown in His presence. Here're the lyrics...

I'll stand,
With arms high and heart abandoned,
In awe, of the One who gave it all.

I'll stand,
My soul, Lord to You surrendered,
All, I am, is Yours

Note to Jen - please can we do this sometime!???

There were some other great songs that we did couple by Tim Hughes and a couple by Chris Tomlin - fantastic!

Note #2 to Jen - please can we do them sometime!??? *big warm smile*

The best preaching of the week was by this 19 year old guy that was preaching for only his second time. He was just really real about his experiences in meeting God, and it was really good to hear. Of course, Mike Pilavachi was very funny...even putting his foot in it once or twice (for those that were there...his comment about the alleged 'photos' ;-) !!).

From what I can tell, the 'Solids' had a pretty good time of it...they kept us entertained at any rate (especially when they were tripping over guy ropes in the middle of the night!). I really think it'd be great to go again next year...this time with more youth than before. Maybe, one-billion youth *Dr Evil finger*

Mwaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa

Listening to: Hillsong United - "Shine For You" (More Than Life)

It's Been A While

2005-08-07T17:53:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I blogged...no need to tell you that though. Again, eventful things have been happening since I last blogged, and before you ask; no..I'm not kidding.

I handed in my notice on Tuesday...that leaves about 3 more weeks with this job, and then, in September, I start a new one! My new job is doing web development for a small company that's run by a friend who I'm going to call "Emily" (for those that know me, it's the guy that's about to start a church in Cardiff). It's been a really tough decision because I really love the people I work with. They're really great, such a laugh. Basically, a while back "Emily" found out I was looking for a new job and we had a chat about the kind of work that I was looking for. He said that if the business grew enough, he'd love to have me work for him and that I should let him know how the job hunting went. Then, while I was at the wedding, he called me up and said that he was in a position to offer me a job! I met up with him the following day and the job sounded good, so I told him I'd have a think about it and let him know in a week's time. While I was still making up my mind we were out for a meal with work. Lis met *more* people from work (she'd met a few before) and at the end of the night someone said to me:

Mr X : "Well, I guess that's the end of you and Lisa,"
Tris : "Why's that?"
X: "Well, she won't want to stay with you now that she's met us!"
T: "Naaa, it's okay; I'm quitting at the end of the week"
*ironic laughter*

Heh heh, I just couldn't resist *grin*. Anyways, I decided that week that I was going to go for it. My reasons are twofold really - I always wanted be a programmer, and what I'm doing at the moment isn't focussed enough on programming. It's been great for a first job; I've gained a really broad range of experience in different things, but now I really need to focus in. The second reason is money; I've felt for a while that I wasn't really being paid what I was worth. Not when I've been working for two years and I'm still way under the average salary a graduate can expect to get. I'm really looking forward to working for "Emily"; it's going to be a real challenge and much more in line with what I want to do. Since it's a small business, there's going to be an element of risk, but if I can't take risks, then what's life about eh? Both Lis and myself have prayed about it, and I believe that if I just leave it in God's hands then everything will be fine :)

Other News
Lis is finally moved out of Woodies. It was quite sad - obviously more for Lis than me, but it was still a sad day :( I'm finally out of my 'buffer' zone of living with Nathan, and I'm all moved into my new house.

Soul Survivor is this week; should be a real laugh. We're taking a bunch of youth to it - our 'Solids'. Lis found out that she can come for free last week! Yay! She got a call from Oasis asking if she could 'man' their stall. It's gonna be cool.

Right - off to a pub quiz with sum geezahs from church now. Better get ready :-D

Stay safe, and remember; Just say "no" (unless I ask you for money)

Turbulence

2005-07-29T09:42:00.000+01:00

Changes come and changes go,
some resist and some just flow,
Oh what to do! Should I rejoice?
Or hang my head in deep remorse?

So much to lose, so much to gain,
A brave new world, there might be pain.
It's worth the risk, it's worth the fight,
I might fall down, I might take flight.

And through it all there's someone there,
Who listens out; He knows, He cares.
I think it's time to let you know,
His name is Jesus. With Him; I'll grow.

Getting Married

2005-07-26T09:03:00.000+01:00

So, I went to a wedding on Saturday - possibly the coolest wedding in the world! My cousin was getting married to a guy that works for Arsenal, and the reception was held at Highbury (To my American readers: Arsenal is one of the top Soccer teams in the UK). Not only was it really cool to spend time with my dear-departed parents, but I got to see my family too! I don't get to see them much because they mostly live in London, but I do enjoy a good catch-up :-D. When we got there, we found out that the FA Cup would be on display! (To my USA readers: the FA Cup competition is pretty much the UK Soccer equivalent to the Super Bowl). I managed to get my pic taken with it (see above ;-) ).

Cooler still, there was - wait for it - a chocolate fountain!!!! It was sooooo good. No, really...it was amazing. It was about 3ft high and 1-2 ft wide. It had free-flowing, very tasty, chocolate sauce running down it, and was surrounded in abundance by bowls of mini-donuts, strawberries and marshmallows. Plates, napkins and skewer sticks were provided to avoid too much chocolate coverage ;) if I get time I'll upload the video I took of it on my phone *grin*

The wedding was followed by a late-night drive home to Bristol.

Other Happenings
Great news; Lisa is pregnant!! Just joshing. Did I get you? Did you believe me? Shocking? Didn't think so. The great news about Lis is that she's coming on the youth holiday!!! Yay!

Sunday Night
On Sunday we did something we haven't done for ages - about 25 of us invaded a well known Pizza Place! Aaron & Emma are down in Bristol for a while too! Coolness!

T: walks up to greeting-type-person in Pizza Place
Greeting-type-person: "Hi, welcome to [Pizza Place]; how many?"
T: "Hi...uhm...you're going to hate me...there's about 20-25 of us"
G: "You're going to hate me"
T: "Why?"
G: "We're out of pizza!"
T: *double-take* "Ungh?"
G: "We have everything else though!"

So we drove half-way across bristol to a different Pizza Place. This time we phoned ahead.

HP Reading Status - Chapter 22 (page 439 / 607)

Wise They Are

2005-07-21T13:30:00.000+01:00

Read it and weep...it's sooo funny.

Oh yeah, it's here

HP Reading Status - Chapter 14 (page 276 / 607)

Suggestions In A Comment...

2005-07-20T14:32:00.000+01:00

Right, after months and months, we still don't have a band name. We have had many suggestions, but nothing cuts the mustard (how exactly do you 'cut' mustard anyways. Would you want to!?).

Please; suggestions. The winner will get the supreme honour of being able to say 'I came up with that name'. Apparently Kudos is a good prize...

Gym? What's a Gym?

2005-07-20T14:31:00.000+01:00

....ohhhhh, a GYYYM!

Good morning peeps! How are you all!? What've you been up to this week? I started this post a couple of days ago, but completely failed to post it...my apologies. It's not that exciting, so don't hold your breath.

Right, I'm gonna try to give a summary of my week (and a bit);

Parents Moved Away - my parents selfishly moved to Cambridge this week. You might have guessed that.
I joined a gym - yep, that's right folks, I've joined a gym. Even used the rowing machine for 1500m *shudder* now, all I need is...willpower!
I re-wrote my CV - my CV was vastly out of date, and each time I've seen a cool job on a job site, I've never actually applied because I never managed to put the effort into updating my CV. I now have an up-to-date CV. Yay!
Four Months Passed - not in this week...just the 4-month-stage of Lis & myself had its anniversary this week...yay! We celebrated in style; we went to youth club, LoL.
Office Move - our long-awaited office move occured on Friday...pretty much no work all day, and now we have an air-conditioned office.....ahhhhhh, sooo good.
Harry Potter - yup, Harry Potter came out this week on Friday night. I picked up a copy at the supermarket on Saturday while I was buying a tent, a towel and some Passionfruit juice. Mmmmm, Passionfruit juice.
Band Played - we had our annual Park Event on Saturday (free BBQ, free face-painting, free hair-braiding, free bouncy-castle, free puppet-shows, free entertainment of music). Anyways, our new(ish)ly formed band played 4-5 songs there. It was kinda fun! The PA was an hour late getting set up, so there were some techincal problems, but it was great fun. Bass was up nice and loud for me to hear (which is the most important thing I think ;)). The whole thing was great fun anyways. Even if our band doesn't have a name.
Office Move - on Friday we moved office - we now have air conditioning! Yay!!!! No more sweltering in the heat! This afternoon there's going to be an opening cerenmony for the new part of the office building that's opening (we're sat in a part of it). This ceremony is closely followed by a hog roast...mmm...hog roast...*dribble*.

I guess that's enough of an update. At work I've actually managed to do some programming this week! It's been cool. Over the past few weeks I've been setting up some automated jobs to keep track of which datbases were up, and when they went down. I've also created some scripts to extract some data. These past couple of days I've been making a snazzy web front-end for the datbases to use...fun I tell ya's (yeah, yeah...I know...I'm sad. But hey..I'm getting paid for it!).

What else? Oh yeah, I found that I can get my contact lenses for half price if I buy them online instead of going to my optician.

Sorry for the boring blog - my brain hasn't really been in blogging mode much recently...silly brain.

HP Reading Status - Chapter 11 (page 205 / 607)

Blog Pending

2005-07-20T12:33:00.000+01:00

Reading right now....watch this space...

There's Like, No Home

2005-07-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

Last night was really, really hard. It caught me completely unawares.
I went over to my parents' house at around 8:30pm, expecting to head straight out to the pub for a drink with them; they were still packing along with my bro. I just hung around, generally chatting and helping out. Mum was quite emotional. I don't think I'd realised how hard it was going to be for her; she's moving to Cambridge and losing both sons at once...that's a huge shock to the system. For the first time in their marriage, her and my step-dad aren't going to have us around to look after - they met/got married when I was 4/5!! She told me she'd found it really hard on Saturday night after I'd taken my stuff and moved out.

Owen finished up what he was doing and left the house at about 11pm. That just left me, mum and my step-dad. We chatted for a bit, and I decided to take a last walk around the house.

I've been kindof putting off the emotional side of things. I knew it hadn't hit me yet; not fully. There've been a couple of times when I've started thinking about it all, but I've stopped myself cuz I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it. I guess I just didn't want to face it too soon. When I was wandering through the rooms..BAM; it hit me. I was never going to be spending time in this house again. But, more than that, I wouldn't be spending the same kind of time with my family again. I'd never be able to just wander up to my brother's room and hang out with him. I'd never be able to walk up to mum and hug her and banter with her. I'd never be able to ask my step-dad if he had a few minutes to help me out or give me some advice on something. I'd never live at home again. I got into my brother's empty room, sat in the corner and just cried. I don't think I've cried that much for a long, long time. I didn't want to leave the room; I didn't want to lose the house, my family; my life. I finally managed to walk out of the room and close the door behind me. I went downstairs and, holding back the tears and said my goodbyes to my parents before driving off. Is it legal to drive while sobbing? I dunno. I'm glad nobody was around because I was making noises that I imagine Chewbacca would make if you stamped on his foot. Repeatedly. By the time I made it 'home' I was alright again and sounded vaguely human..just with red, puffy eyes.

I never expected it to be like this; I always thought they'd be there..just a few minutes away. I always thought my bro would be around, and I always thought I'd have them all close. Well, it's time to grow up. I'm so thankful for my parents, so thankful that they're great people, so thankful for my brother; he's a really great guy. I'm so thankful to God for the life I have been given, and the life I've got to lead. It's just really hard letting it go.

There's No Place Like Home

2005-07-11T10:43:00.000+01:00

Wow, I really haven't blogged properly in a while - I seem to have been saying that a lot, but I've been busy, so it's okay :-P

This last week has been busy, stressful, tiring and emotionally draining because my parents are moving to Cambridge. By default, that means that I have had to move out and finally live "on my own". I don't think I could hack living exclusively on my own; I'd need to live with other people, but moving away from my parents is something I've never done, and it's not quite hit me in the smacker yet.

I'll do a quick recap; my step-dad got made redundant a couple of years ago and decided to have a go at starting his own business with a couple of his fellow redunantees. They gave it a good go, but it was hard for them to get a contract that would supply money to keep them living; it was going to require them to produce a product and then sell it. That was taking too long. My step-dad managed to get some short-term contracting and then, in January, landed a job in Cambridge. Since then he's been living there in the week and coming home on weekends. The reason my mum didn't move out there straight away was so that my brother could finish his A-Levels. Now my brother has been accepted as a pilot in the RAF, and finished his exams a while ago, so my 'rents are finally moving to Cambridge properly. Whoops - not such a quick re-cap.

It's a bit strange because not only am I moving out, but my parents are moving away. I'd always imagined that when I moved out, I'd be able to just 'drop in' and see my parents whenever I wanted, go out with them now and then, and stuff like that. But I'm going to hardly see them any more, and that's a bit of a shock to the system which hasn't really hit me yet. The actual loss of the house is sad, but I've moved enought times before to know that it's not that big a deal; it's just a house.

And right now I'm a bit in limbo. I've moved out, but I haven't moved into my new place! My contract on my new room doesn't start until August; I'll be sharing a house with Joe and a couple of other random students. Viv and Nathan have very kindly agreed to let me live with them for a few weeks while I wait for my contract to start - thank you guys!

My parents are moving tomorrow, so I'm going to spend the evening with them and my bro tonight, hopefully.

The Week Past
So, last week was spent packing some evenings. Friday afternoon and evening was when I did most of it. I went through my drawers and old papers and stuff, while Lis did loads of work packing my clothes. Thank you soooo much babe - you have no idea how much that helped me :) I missed youth on Friday night but went up at around 10ish to see what they were up to. Late on Friday night I received a text from Tom telling me that he could help at 10:30am if that was alright. This confused me - I hadn't asked Tom to help. Was it alright with me? Huh? Must've been for someone else, so I text him back asking if that text was actually for me, or if it was meant for somebody else. His response? "4 u, u joker!". Tom really was a life-saver. He hung around while I finished packing, helped me carry the Heaviest Chest Of Drawers In The World, and let me fill his car with my junk :-D We filled both of our cars; twice! Then I rushed home for a shower and off to the dedication of a lovely lil girl. The service was great, and the spread of cake and pudding was excellent *grin*

Off to get Lis, and home for more moving! I disassembled my bed, took it to Viv/Nath's, then went back for one more trip. I'd finished moving! Now all I have to do is organise the stuff in Viv's a little bit :-S

Late on Saturday night I went out for a drink with O (my bro), James (His mate) and Lis. We stayed out *much* later than I'd planned, but it was quite cool. I'm going to miss him when he leaves (for the RAF) in November.

Right - work time

Listening to: Franz Ferdinand - "This Fire" (Franz Ferdinand)

PS - about 4 new blogs by my friends have started this weekend!! All at once! Bizzaro! Go visit them... Jen-E, Big Momma, Gemma Norm, MusicMan (almost as beautiful as my bass :-P...he needs to blog for the link to work :-P)

You Know It's A Tough Day When...

2005-07-05T10:04:00.000+01:00

...you get into work at 7am, but don't get around to checking your email until 10am

Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Breaking the Girl" (Blood Sugar Sex Magik)

We Went For Some Food Last Night....

2005-06-29T10:57:00.002+01:00

...and this is what we thought of it:

Salad, salad, salad, salad,
salad, salad, salad, salad,
salad, salad, salad, salad,

Mushroom, MUSHroom!

Salad, salad, salad, salad,
salad, salad, salad, salad,
salad, salad, salad, salad,

Oh no, ste-e-e--eak, it's a ste-e-e--eak!

Listening to: Background Office "Chatter"

Yes Dear.

2005-06-28T13:12:00.000+01:00

On Monday nights I go to worship practice. Because of lack of time, I don't get to see Lis at all :( I do, however, phone her :-D

Last night when I phoned her we were chatting for about an hour before I decided to go to bed. We said our goodbyes and I hung up. I went over, turned out the light and was walking back to my bed when I noticed my phone was ringing (it was on 'vibrate'); Lis was calling me back!

T: Hello?
L: Sorry, I don't wanna annoy you, but I forgot to tell you what I almost said a minute ago.
T: Okay...
L: Well, just before you hung up I was going to say "could you remember to text me when you get home." but I managed to stop myself.
T: LoL!
L: I know, I know; it's silly and probably not that funny.
T: ROFL!!!! Can you not tell I'm laughing!???? *breathes* Classic!!

Then I slept :)

Tonight I get to see her (yay!), and teach her some bass and go for some drive and eat some food. And stuff.

Listening to: Eli - "Do What You Said" (Now the News)

Loz's Quiz

2005-06-23T15:10:00.000+01:00

1. Full name: Tristan Joshua Thompson

2. Nickname(s): T, Mr T, Tris, Trish, Trishy, Trist

3. Shoe size: 9½

4. Height: 5'11

5. Hair: Brunette

6. Siblings? 3 half-brothers (= 1½ brothers). Owen (18), Ben (15), Asher (13)

7. Do you like to sing in the shower? Yeah baby!

8. Do you like to sing? Not so much in public unless (a) I'm being silly, (b) I'm singing along to the stereo in my car

9. Birthday: 15th December

10. Sign: "Give Way"

11. Lefty or righty? Righty; though I hold my knife+fork backwards!

12. Shoes or sandals? Barefoot

13. Coke or Pepsi? Coke everytime. No doubt.

14. What do you want in a relationship? Lis

15. Have you ever cheated? Nope

16. Marital status: I'm taken and lovin' it

"FAVOURITE" QUESTIONS:

17. Song? OOhh, hard. Depends on my mood. And whether I'm playing it or not. Can't really pick one, so I won't.

18. Cologne or Perfume? Aftershave

19. Movie? See my profile.

20. Number? Favourite number!? That's silly. I'll just say 7 - number of spiritual perfection

21. Card games? Mao I Create

22. Radio station? Don't really do radio - it's all rubbish in Bristol. Bush and Troy do my nut in.

23. Sports? To watch; F1, Footie, Tennis, American Footie. To play; field hockey, badminton, footie.

25. Food? Yes

26. TV show? Most recently; Desperate Housewives

27. Cartoon? Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy

28. Character? Peter Griffin

29. Colour? Nope

30. Do you plan on having kids? Yes.

31. How many do you want? I'm easy. More than 1 would be cool though.

32. What's something you can't wait to say? That long line from Wayne's World...though I have to learn it first!
"OK ... First I'll access the secret military spy satellite which is in geosynchronous orbit over the midwest... then I'll ID the limo by the vanity plate 'Mr. Bigg' and get his approximate position... then I'll reposition the transmission dish on the remote truck to seventeen point thirty-two degrees east, hit WESTAR-4 over the Atlantic, bounce the signal back into the atmosphere up to COMSAT-6, beam it back to SATCOM-2 transmitter #137 and down to the dish on the back of Mr. Bigg's limo... It's almost too easy."

33. Get married? Yes

34. Would you have kids before marriage? No.

EITHER/OR QUESTIONS:

36. Do you have a crush? On Lis; yes..but shhhhh ;-)

37. What hurts you the most? Pain.

38. Music/TV? Depends what's on and what mood I'm in. I prefer playing music :)

39. Guys/Girls? To marry - 1 girl. As friends; you need both.

40. Green/Blue? I don't know.

41. Pink/Purple? Uhm...blue?

42. Summer/Winter? Summer

43. Night/Day? Yes.

44. Hanging Out/ Chillin? That's the same thing.

45. Dopey/Funny? Dopey and Funny

46. You know I'm around when you hear: Me

47. What school do you go to? School of Rock

48. Do you enjoy what you do? Depends what I'm doing.

49. What's a major turn on for you? Hourglass figure and a nice bum.

FRIENDS:

50. Who Are They? Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey & Ross. Duh.

51. Most blonde: Alison.

52. Nicest: Luke Radford is a very "nice guy".

53. Funniest: My bro; Owen.

54. Tallest: Dave. Though don't mention 6'9" or I'll have bad images.

55. What's the worst thing a friend could do to you? Kill me.

56. and 57. seem to be non existant? Yes

58. Is it right to flirt if you have a g/f or b/f: Depends on the relationship. Certianly shouldn't flirt if you think it could be taken as "I fancy you"

OTHER RANDOM QUESTIONS:

59. What was the last thing you cried over or got teary about? When Batman's parents died last night in "Batman Begins". I didn't cry, but it tugged at my heartstrings. Poor kid. The kid actor of Batman looked like Luke Dean!!

60. What's something about guys/girls you don't get? Uhm - why Loz thinks that guys are more moody than girls. Yeah we can be moody..but more than girls!?

62. What's one thing you can't live without? Air.

63. Love or Lust: Love

64. Silver or Gold: Silver or platinum or white gold.

65. Diamond or Pearl: Unbreakable diamond filament rope.

66. Sunset or sunrise: Depends what time it is, who you're with, and what the view is like.

67. Have you ever gone Skinny-dipping? Nope - I've seen people doing it though. We stole their clothes and made them run backt to the caravan site naked..huh huh huh.

68. Do you sleep with stuffed animals: Nope.

69. Do you have any piercings: Top of my left ear, though it's probably healed over properly this time.

70. What colour underwear are you wearing right now: Navy Blue

71. What song are you listening to right now? "Floaty" - Foo Fighters

72. What are the last 4 digits of your home phone: 9661

73. Where would you want to go on your honeymoon: It's a secret.

74. Who do you want to spend the rest of your life with? Lis

75. What are some of the first things you notice about the opposite sex? Dunno really.

77. What's the next CD(s) your going to buy? I'm thinking of getting the new Foo Fighters album (In Your Honour)

78. Do you wear contacts or glasses? Yep. Prefer contacts for vain/practical reasons.

79. What was the best advice ever given to you? Aunt once bought me some expensive sunglasses and said "Remember, if these ever get damaged or broken; it doesn't matter. They're just things and can be replaced; it's not like you've broken a leg, or lost someone." That was good advice.
My dad once told me, "Don't marry a fat woman; you'll regret it." I replied "I'm not planning to!"

81. Do you like Funny or Scary movies better? Depends what mood I'm in and what type of comedy it is.

83. Hugs or kisses? Kiddles (Kisses + Cuddles)

84. What song seems to reflect you the most? "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me

85. If you died tomorrow who would you leave everything you own to? I have no will, so it would probably go to my mum.

86. Do you have any enemies? Yes; the matress people of Matressia 9 in the Beddy Star system. One day I shall find a way to defeat their flame resitancy....then..only then shall I rest.

87. Who was the last person to hug you? My girl last night.

88. Would you rather be rich or famous? Depends why you're famous.

89. What time is it in Albania? Uhm - at a guess...4 hours ahead of GMT?

90. What time is it where you are now? 3pm

91. Have you ever met Santa? Did you hear about the dyslexic satan worshipper? He sold his soul to Santa.

92. Name something pretty: Something; I name thee "Flibble".

93. When did you last talk to the person that you like? Last night when I dropped her home.

94. Do you have any pets? 1 evil cat; Kali, aka Darth Vader

95. Who was the last person you danced with? Lis, in my kitchen.

96. Last time you were stressed: Uhm, last time I got stuck in traffic?

97. Are you an alcoholic? Nope

98. Who sent this to you/ what do you think of them: Nicked it from Loz. She doesen't like "whackers".

99 What do you want to do/be when you grow up: A fighter pilot, just like my little brother.

100. Do you want people to send this back? No, but I want them to blog their version!

Just Do It

2005-06-22T09:06:00.000+01:00

Check This Out...

2005-06-21T11:59:00.000+01:00

...my new coffee mug.

I Was Tired Last Night

2005-06-20T13:18:00.000+01:00

T: Night, night
L: Thank you for tonight
T: I will

Lisa is lovely; it's the little things she does. Every night when I drop her home, she asks me (without fail) to text her to let her know that I got in safely which makes me feel muchos loved; to which I always reply 'I will' :) Blast my tired brain for skipping ahead to that part of the conversation.

Listening to: Foo Fighters - "Doll" (The Colour and the Shape)

When I Come Around

2005-06-20T11:47:00.000+01:00

Two words...

...it rocked!

This is me there...

..that was as we walked in through the gates. We managed to get almost to the front! There was an area with a barrier around it that was reserved for the first 3,000 people there; we managed to get pretty much up to that barrier!! There were 65,000 people there, which means we had 3,000 in front of us, and 62,000 behind us.

Here was the running order of my Saturday. The weather was scorching hot for the whole day!:

07:30 - wake up and head to work for an hour to shut down some servers for maintenance
09:05 - leave work.
09:20 - get to church to pick up bass
09:30 - drop keys for work off at my boss's house.
09:35 - get home
10:00 - leave for optician's for 10:10 appointment
10:20 - arrive at optician's
10:35 - get seen by optician
11:10 - go see Lis's potential new house with Lis
11:20 - go home to get changed and ready for Green Day
11:30 - Meant to be meeting youth at church. Am trying to print off directions but out of ink.
11:50 - Get to church, meet youth, go inside church and print off directions.
12:20 - leave church, pick up other youth, and head for Milton Keynes baby - yeah!
15:00 - arrive at National Bowl, Milton Keynes and head inside!
15:15 - sit around on the grass
16:00 - start standing in the crowd to wait for bands to start playing
17:00 - 17:40 - First support band come on - "Hard-Fi" : nothing special. Got booed a lot.
18:15 - 19:00 - Second Support Band - "Taking Back Sunday" : they were good entertainers...music was alright too! The singer did cool tricks with a microphone..coolest one was where he threw it around his neck and let it just wrap itself around him!
19:35 - 20:25 - Third Support Band - "Jimmy Eat World" : they were alright...didn't notice them too much. By this point we'd worked our way pretty much up to the barrier. We were having fun trying to grab cups of water from the bouncers, and trying to drink/throw the water so "Jimmy Eat World" didn't get a lookin really. On a side-note: that water saved my life. I would have dehydrated/passed out for sure from the heat/confines of thousands of sweaty people!
21:05 - 23:15 - GREEN DAY BABY!!!!!!
Now we come to the main event; Green Day! They started off with some tracks from "American Idiot", and went on for another two hours doing various tracks; mainly from American Idiot/Nimrod/Dookie. One of my absolute favourite tracks is "When I Come Around" (Dookie), but they didn't do it :(
About half-way into it they pulled a random drummer, a random bassist and a random guitarist from the crowd and got them to play along! I was jumping up and down, trying to get noticed, but;
a) I wasn't in the front-3000-people area
b) I didn't have a massive sign saying "I play [insert instrument name]", as did the 3 random people.
It would have been soooooo cool to play up there, but I didn't get to :( ahh well...I'll get there early next time and have a big sign :-D the guitarist got to keep the guitar (after messing it up by going completely out of time, LoL), the bassist got to do a stage dive, and the drummer disappeared into the ether somewhere.
For the encore they did "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". Lis - if the battery hadn't died on my phone I was going to call you and let you listen to it...grrr @ batterylife :(
Then they did another song and finished with "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)"..only a lil bit different..it was just Billy Joe on an electric guitar. It rocked *grin*
Is it sad that I was watching how they played certain songs (Like how Mike Dirnt (bassist) played "Longview" and "Holiday", and how Billy Joe played "Good Riddance(...)"? I don't care :-P
The pyrotechnics (FIIIIIIIIIIRE) were well cool. Loads of explodey things, fireworks and, the cooolest part, 70ft high flames all along the back of the stage in certain songs! We could feel the heat from where we were standing!
FI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-RE!
There were four massive screens - two that you can see them either side of the stage in the photo, and two more on stage. They had a camera mounted on the drumkit that was facing at Tres Cool (Drummer)...it was a very cool angle (no pun intended ;-) )
Overall I had a great time!

11:35 - Enter carpark, get to car and get into traffic jam
12:40 - exit car park and enter traffic jam on road
12:40 - 04:30 - driving home. Stopped about 3-4 times to either get food or sleep.
08:45 - Wake up for church!

Well, that was my day. It was amazing; it was the hottest day this year and I got a nice reddy-brown face (which is now settling to a nice brown..I hope). Green Day were just great and I had a fantastic time!

Bring on the next concert (TBA)..since Foo Fighters have just released a new album, I'm hoping they're touring soon..maybe them....*checks*...grr, they've only planned festivals so far. Hmm..maybe next year....(Dave Grohl...if you're reading this...please tour and come to Bristol and get me a ticket :-D you're the man!). Before Saturday, the Foo Fighters gig I went to in 1997 was the best gig I'd ever been to. Ooooh, just thought; I'd love to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers live - I've never seen them and it would rock so hard that my ears would bleed...I'm sure of it.

Oh yeah - I believe I haven't done a "report" on how "meeting the parents" a few weeks ago went. It was pretty good! Arrive late Friday night and went to meet Lis's gran' (who is v.cool!). Saturday we mainly chilled all day long and watched DVDs. We also walked around Lis's village and saw her school and stuff. Sunday we went to the church Lis 'grew up' in. It was quite traditional and it was cool to see where Lis 'grew up'! In the afternoon/evening we went to a seaside town (where Lis's family goes on holidays a lot) to wander around and have some food. Had a nice steak and a 'kit kat' cheesecake. It wasn't too bad...bit warm though :-S then we went back to Lis's. Early start on monday morning to fly to Bristol and then straight to work!

Right, better get on with work now - hope you enjoyed the update. Just to get some comments, please post the best Gig you've ever been to, and the next gig you'd like to go to :-D

Listening to: Foo Fighters - "X-Static" (Foo Fighters)

[edit]Lis's parents seemed pretty cool though - seemed to get on with them alright :)[/edit]

Green Day Gig

2005-06-17T11:19:00.000+01:00

I'm going to see Green Day at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes tomorrow!! Awwww yeah!

I'm taking 4 youth from youth club with me too. I can't wait!! I haven't seen Green Day since I saw them in Brixton on their Nimrod tour!

Leaving at 11am, driving for a few hours and then sitting there for hours waiting for Green Day to start.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Listening to: Green Day - "When I Come Around" (Dookie)

This Was Cool

2005-06-17T10:30:00.000+01:00

Read it.

Now

Fountain Pens

2005-06-16T15:56:00.000+01:00

When I was at school I used fountain pens a lot. I'm not sure why really...I don't think that I'd quite realised that my ability to make a mess was genetic at that point, and so tried simply 'not to be messy'. Anyways, all I remember about fountain pens is mess, and fragility. I don't know how many tens of fountain pens I went through. Once it's bust, it's like trying to write with a sewing needle - yeuch.

Recently, one of my collegues at work found some disposable fountain pens.

I am now addicted to fountain pens.

It's like writing with an anti-gravity pen; it just seems to slide over the paper. And the strokes it leaves behind just look so...cool! It's like....*real* ink and stuff. If pens were chocolate, then this pen would be the galaxy of chocolates...sooooo smooth. None of that ballpoint crap; they're the cheapy supermarket chocolate of pens. I guess those nice gel pens would be like the Dairy Milk of pens. Hmm. The point is, I actually look forward to writing with it. I think I must be sad.

I love my pen.

Nkeba aa.

2005-06-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

Apologies
I feel that apologies are in order. I have been very slack in blogging recently...I can't believe it's been two weeks already!!! I'm going to try to blog at lunch time.

Quiet as a Mouse
Last night Lisa and I watched "Without A Paddle". When that had finished, we were just "chatting" ;-) and we heard a chirping noise from the hallway. Our black cat, Kali (a.k.a Darth Vader), has a habit of capturing animals, dragging them into our hallway and then playing with them until they die. We thought she'd dragged a bird into the house again. We went into the hallway to investigate. That was no bird; it was a baby mouse! Poor little thing :( It was squeaking and must have been in pain with the cat playing with it. We shooed away the cat and looked after it for a while. It seemed to calm down (it stopped squeaking), and even moved around a little bit, but it had lots of blood coming from one of its eyes, and couldn't really stand properly. It definitely wanted to lie on one side because if you laid it on the wrong side, it would flip itself over. We left it in a box in a place the cat couldn't get to, and I took Lis home. It seemed to move a bit more without people around.

When I got up this morning, it was dead :( I was so hoping it would get better. I didn't have the heart to kill it last night to put it out of its misery. Grr @ Darth Vader.

Lisa suggested we should call the mouse Padmé.

Listening to: Mercy Me - "Where You Lead Me" (Undone)

Lego Rocks!

2005-06-03T13:03:00.000+01:00

When cleaning out my room, I found this Lego car-thing that I'd built years ago. It now sits proudly on my desk. Bang...BANG!

I also saw some Star Wars Lego that I'd like to get; a Snowspeeder and a Fighter...they look sooooo cool!

Listening to: Alanis Morissette - "Ironic" (Jagged Little Pill)

Meet The Parents

2005-06-03T00:47:00.000+01:00

First off; go here. It's one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long time.

*1 hour later*

There did you enjoy reading that?

This week I have been mostly chilling with Lis, watching old Star Wars films, and eating Chinese food. Last night specifically we watched (mostly ;-) ) Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. We shouted at the screen a lot; "Dude! That's your sister!". Is it still a sin if make out with someone that you don't know you're related to?

On Tuesday we went to Adam's house to watch "Team America". It was very rude...but incredibly funny. I've never laughed so hard at a puppet throwing up as I did in that film, and believe you me; I've seen many a puppet blow chunks. Never seen puppet porn before though. Strange concept, and mind-rockingly hilarious.

What's with the title you may ask? No? Well, one of my recent titles (God Created Whips) was a direct quote from Tom, and I'm just going to leave you to guess. Hint: it involves a game called 'Apples to Apples' (which you have to try!).

No, my title this week is to with what's happening tonight. I'm flying to Northern Ireland with Lis to meet her parents. *Gulp*. I'm not scared, not really. A little bit anxious about how we'll get on - I'd really like to get on with them. I have a lot of family in the Republic of Ireland (my Mum's side is all Irish). Even so, it's my first visit to Ireland of any description! I knew I'd get there in the end *grin* (I've usually been visiting my Dad when the rest of my family has gone over to see the relatives). I still need to pack, but that shouldn't be too arduous.

---Lunch---

Mmm, foooood is gooooood.

Listening to: Alanis Morissette - "Perfect" (Jagged Little Pill) [can you believe it's been out 10 years now!?]