it was Christmas

So after finishing work I set off down the motorway to get over to my dads which involved going over Snake pass which is not the nicest road in the uk, as I started to make my way up the start of snake pass I spotted a bloke hitch hiking. Now it was pitch black and teaming down with rain, not a nice evening to be out. So I pulled over and asked who he was and where he was going, I may never have picked up a hitch hiker before but I don’t care and we are doing it my way, so I was waiting for any answer that would have pointed out to me that he was some killer or something. But he was just a homeless bloke and was trying to get over to Sheffield, now think its Christmas eve at about 8:30, it dark and raining and it very cold, if you were in that position how much would you have been wanted to be picked up? So I did and we set off over snake pass, so after chatting I found out his name was Dan and he has been homeless for 8 years or so, he came from Manchester but has only been back there recently, he has been travailing around the uk. He has a family but has not contacted them for years and expected they had stopped looking. I have to say he was such a nice bloke, I real down to earth person. This also made me value what I had this Christmas. After dropping him of only a few miles from Sheffield I tried to give him a little money, nothing too much just the change I had on me but he dint want any which I respected. After dropping him ff I did thin about trying to find out where his family are and just letting them know I saw him and he is ok, I must admit I don’t think a phone call however short would have been that hard to do a Christmas eve.

So down to the exciting bit of Christmas and that would be what you get, lets be honest we all like to see friends and family but you cant say the gifts just don’t matter, I think I did very well this year, the big one which I'm really going to look forward to would be the track day down at Silverstone, I get to drive a F3 car round the track for the day, Cool. I also got a nice new bag for my laptop, which is perfect when in just going to and from work. I have a few more gifts which I love but we may be here for some time if I talk about all of them.

Well that's the xmas thing done for another year and sitting on the end of this festive time I feel like its been a wonderful time even if I thought it was going to be just a normal day, even with all the driving and having to run around at speed it was a very good Christmas.

it was the night before christmas and im at work

So here I am working till 9 ish on Christmas eve, then I have got a bit of a drive before I get to relax and enjoy half a day before I'm back in the car for a few more hours. This is what I lave about Christmas, the things you will do just to make sure you get round and see your family and friends on this one day of the year without fail. It would have been a bit easier if I had some of the evening free tonight but its not like I'm driving to Scotland. Not Christmas day is a bit of a rush as I have 2 parents to get round and then a lovely girl friend and as anyone would expect they all don’t live on the same street and it will take more than an hour to get to each one so there will be a large part of Christmas day in the car but I have planned! Got an awesome playlist to go, going to keep warm, got my headset if I want to get in to radio competition, what else can you do if you’re on your own in the car?

But right now I have about an hour before i can get out of work and get back to the flat, get everything in the car and get on my merry way with my fingers crossed that the roads are clear, last year I should have turned back when I started to pass cars on their roofs but I managed to get through, just. So back to the flat and get gone. Even tho I'm looking forward to the next few days there is a small part of me which would be just as happy to get back to the flat, crack open a bottle of wine and enjoy what Christmas eve tv has to offer, may be its the chance to enjoy the time for myself but that's not an option and the road is.

I did get all my xmas shopping done in one day and the only gift I had planned and ordered from Amnesty international didn’t come! The only one planned and not just picked up as I walk around in town looking at everything. I could have done without that day but I did go ready for shopping so close to the weekend, so rap/rock angry music on the mp3 player and I ploughed through town only giving way to old people and prams. Don’t get me wrong I was not just hitting people I was walking around like I normal do but when you have a line of people coming at you with no gap for you to walk through I was quite happy to make my own. (I do come across as a rude person don’t I?)

Well 34 mins and another 10 on that and I'm out of work, until Friday but that's just half a day or so.

Well all I can hope is you all have the Christmas you want, if its driving to see everyone or you have that bottle of wine I was talking about I just hope its a good one.

Hey! Wasn’t that my idea?

Hey! Wasn’t that my idea?

Hallo blogger from all over the world, how are you today? I hope well.

So one Christmas party, early start at work the day after, one big Short film festival later and I find myself very tired and ready to enjoy my 3 days off.

I like staff Christmas parties as I find it hard to get round and say hi to everyone at work as normally I have a lot to do so when the parties come along I like it, get to do some chatting and drinking and this party was no exception. There seemed to be a lot of throughing up going on around the place and I didn’t get any free drinks as I have another party to go to on the 11^th. The bad bit of it all was the fact I had to get up at 7am the following morning and that did not feel too good at all. The main reason I had to be in work at that time was we were doing a dry run for the short film festival we were holding at work, everyone who works for the company could make a short film and submit it with a chance of going to Hollywood! There were some set thing that had to in there and some things which were not allowed but. So today was the main event and what a hard day, it all went really well and looked fantastic and I know it was down to the hard work myself and my boss put in, I did get a massive bottle of Champaign for the work I put in today which made it worthwhile, not the booze but the token. But as I was just finishing off a few jobs got taking to one of the people I work with and he ask if I was pissed off, I was not too sure what he was on about until he reminded me of a conversation about a year ago, the company wanted more ideas of what we all could do for fun and my idea......what for it.........yes was a short film festival as most people who work in the industry I work in like films and that’s why they are there. The cheek!

i type them ,just need to post them

Went to the Apollo last weekend to watch The Hives play, well it was not the thing that caught my eye as it was Dan Sartain who was supporting the Hives and he is very good. He played well but I think his guitar could have done with being turned up a little. The Hives were very good and the front man was fantastic. The only thing I did like about the night apart from one of the support acts keyboard player turning in to a spitter was the no re-admittance rule so once you were in that’s it for the night, not to good if you want a cig at any point, Smoker discrimination? I wish. Apart from that its been all work, topping out at 55 hours this week and it was a hard6 day week but things went well so tired but happy, will be more happy when I get to claim my hours back.
So me and my flat mate have a new bet, Kane and Lynch has just been released for most consoles and he has just got it for his nice new PS3, I'm going to get it for my PC and we are going to have a race to see who can finish it the fastest, now I think I have a good chance as not only do I have a few more years of gaming under my belt but I think the controls for such a game are easier on a PC the a controller. So all I need now is the game and time to play it, girl friends don’t like it when all you do is play computer games. This is something that I have started to notice about games and that’s how much people are starting to notice what big business they are, seeing the advert for Kane and Lynch it looks like a trailer for a film, the latest episode of Chuck from the USA shows the hype around Call of Duty 4. I think from a normal society the people who read books or more accepted than the people who play games for recreation.
Its Christmas part tonight, let’s see what work has to offer in the way of Xmas cheer this year as last year was a very good night in so many ways, I don’t think this night will be as big as last year but lets hope the less they spend on venue the more they spend on drinks. One down point is the fact I have to be back In a 8am the following morning, I would have been out last night if it was not for the fact I had to be in a 7am for an event. Rubbish!

i dont feel too good

So my friend got back from a long trip the Asia yesterday so we had a night of drinks planned to catch up and what not. Now getting older you would think that you get wiser when it come to the old drink or two, you know like have something good to eat and don’t go out for a night of drinking when you have only had a sandwich for the entire day, I wish I had followed the rule. So only after a few hours drinking and may I point out a few hours of heavy drinking I was not the best and then started to feel not too good. So I gave the international recognised look to my girl friend that I wanted to go and up she was saying good bye and covering me by saying she had to at work the following day (which she did and is right now). So the walk back was only 10mins but my situation worsened and I didn’t feel well at all and I was quickly put in bed with pain killers, water and a bowl just in case.
I like to think I trust a lot of people but trust is not a simple as black and white, I feel there are so many types of trust for many different aspects of your life but when you have someone who you trust for every aspect of your life its a wonderful feeling, no matter how stupid you are or look or what secrets you have or the things you want to keep from some people you know as you want to have a good appearance its not very often in life someone comes along and you can open up your heart and soul and feel safe at the same time. I think we all want to feel safe in some way not matter how old you are.

And my video's of the event,

Touch the Sky



Learn to Fly

The day I touch a cloud,

So today I had the wonderful pleasure of touching a cloud. Think how often you have seen clouds in your life time, think how nice they look some days and think of how many interesting things they can resemble. Have you ever touched one? If you would like to touch a cloud all you have to do is get someone to take you up in a micro light and fly in to one which I did today. Now like most people I tend to think that the bigger planes are more safe and more of a smoother ride and I was expecting for my day in the sky to be a scary and bumpy one but this was not to be. Once getting to the air field (no thanks to GPS, I didn’t think a farm would also do flights) I was expecting a 20/30 min lessen in what not to do when up there but after getting out of my car it was 2/3 mins before I was kitted up and sat in the motor bike of the sky. After a few “don’t do this” lessens we say at the end of the air strip and waited for clearance to take off, now these little things are really like motor bikes of the sky. You ever seen a motor bike at the lights? As soon as the light goes green they are off with this is the same for micro lights, as soon as he got the ok we shot down this grassy runway like we were being powered by a rocket and within seconds we were up and up and up. I think most people have been on a plane and for me take off is one of the more interesting times, not good just interesting so I did expect the same type of feelings but nope. It was such a smooth flight as we went out to the cost of Liverpool. as we got there, there were some clouds which he was going to fly under as the last thing both of us wanted to see was a easy jet flight up close and personal but as we start to go under we flew straight through one which I did reach out and touch (with permission) we flew down the beach passing Formby (location of the lovely picnic last year) and then down until you could just make out the Liver building, then we heeded back in and passed over Magul before turning back for the air field. While up there I chatted to the man flying who was telling me how easy these micro lights are to fly at which point he took both hands off the controls, at this point I did close my eyes waiting for the noise of the quickly approaching ground but after a few seconds this was not the case and the micro light just flew its self, even with a bit of turbulence. So after about 20 mins we were back at the air field and starting our decent at a fast rate, with in mins we were quickly approaching the ground and in the blink of an eye we were down and moving back to the safe area.

I know it didn’t last for long but I can tell you that is an amazing thing to do, its not what you expect and is a smooth, worry free, beautiful flight in a wonderful place. I would recommend it to any one

Tim Burton to shoot 3-D Alice in Wonderland

Director Tim Burton has signed a deal with Walt Disney Studios to produce two 3-D films, kicking off with a version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

The film will, Variety explains, combine "performance-capture imagery" - currently wowing the crowd in Beowulf - and live-action footage. Linda Wolverton of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast fame is penning the screenplay.

The second production will be Frankenweenie, based on Burton's 1984 short film about "a pet dog brought back to life by his loyal owner". It'll be a stop-motion animation production, shown in digital 3-D.

Alice in Wonderland is slated to go into production early next year, wrapping in May. Burton is currently putting the finishing touches to Sweeney Todd at Paramount and Dreamworks. ®

a new kind of tree

I have a gripe, after hearing about this I had to see it before I would even believe the possibility of this being true. The reason for this is it just astonishes me how stupid things can get all due to the fact its Christmas.

It would appear that the new big thing this Christmas is to have your Christmas tree upside down, now I would hope as you read this you now have a slightly confused look on your face as I did when I first heard about this new idea. And I would hope like myself you still don’t quite believe what I'm saying, well here is a photo from the John Lewis catalogue.

Now if you do think about it hanging things from this tree would be better as they would have more room to swing or just hang as they are supposed to do but this not account for the pure stupidity of an upside down tree, I mean where is the fairy supposed to sit? Maybe this is the best idea for years and I'm just a little too old to accept the change but I will think you are odd if you get an upside down tree.

the start of 2 weeks off

So I now have 2 weeks off, 2 weeks one after the other. I have never had this amount of time off in one go, ever. I'm now day 3 in and I'm enjoying it. You know I have not reall come up with any master plan for my time away from work but I have a few things I would like to do. I need to plan more.

So last week with work we went on what I thought was going to be a team building day, you know the one where you all work together outside of work which brings you together,.. well we went paint balling! And it was great.

I finally got my micro light thing booked for next week, its about time as I have had the thing now for the last year or so but now I'm going. You know you go up 1500 feet, I'm not too sure on how high that is but I have a funny feeling its high. But I'm sure I will be fine and I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Now Tuesdays is a big day as its my girlfriends birthday. Now I do wish I could do something wonderful like you hear of, you know someone taking someone away on holiday, or a hot air balloon ride, or a really nice expensive meal but I'm still on a semi tight budget and I cannot afford it. I could just afford to get her a SLR camera which she really likes, its not that I'm bothered about not having the cash but it does bother me that its not just me it affects. Now I know if my lovely girl friend was hear she would say that none of this matters and if it was the other way around it would not bother me in the slightest but I think we all know that you would want to buy the world for the person you love if you could

me!

I have started to work on plans for Christmas presents and without going in to too much detail I ended up scanning some old photos of me, well I got someone to do it and it is not cheap if you want them doing to a good quality. But seeing as I have them I thought I would put a few up. Enjoy.

this week, that week, it all some sort of week.

So this week has not been to good, im still battling the flu and some days I think im winning but some days this is not the case. as I said the last time I stopped by I had a meeting I had to go ot and I was not expecting much and I would have been mistaken. There were time during this meeting I was ashamed to work for Odeon, not the site I work at but to work in projection. I would say 60% of the people there were some of the most un-nice people I have meet in years and I would be more than happy if I never had to see them, talk to them or even know they exist. I know this may come across as strong but I cannot describe in words alone the attitudes of some of these people.

Having got a new laptop a few weeks ago I can now afford to eat seeing as payday has finally come along and non to soon as I was starting to think if it would be ok for me to eat the grass in piccadilly gardens (it does look nice), this payday would also include my beautiful and lovely girl friend birthday, I would tell you my plans but im not underestimating the lengths she would go to just to find out what im getting her, I think I have a good idea of what she would like and a few things she would not be expecting so we will see if that plan comes together.

Moving on I have a question, how many people walk to work and listen to some sort of Mp3 player? I bet there are quite a few out there in blogger land who do and I am one of these people, there is always a sound track to my walk everywhere I go, but for a change just try one day where you don’t! I know it may sound simple but I tried it the other day and the world seemed so quite, and that was Manchester city centre at rush hour. HA maybe listening to music day after day had make me slightly deaf, hummm that would not be good.

Harmonisation part 2

So now Ex UCI and Ex Odeon have merged to become New Odeon the projection department has to become one in everything we do, this is from how we schedule staff to how the budget is managed. Over the last few months the power that we have started to roll out the changes to both side but from an EX UCI side there are not so many changes as UCI was a very profitable company and all things have been managed like you would expect a divers company to do but this is not the case of the stereotypical Ex Odeon. In the next few days I have to attend a meeting where they try to roll out some more of the changes they expect everyone to do. This would not be the 1^st meeting like this and the last meeting was very hard work. From what I could see the people tended to fall in to 2 groups, group one are people who are willing to change but just need to get their heads around how and what they need to do. The second group are militant people who are stuck in their ways and any idea which is not their own is not going to work and they won’t even give it a try. Being a person who has done everything they are proposing for many years there is nothing new out there which would cause a problem or a challenge but the main reason I’m there is to try and help make the process easier. But it is hard work as most of the people at this meeting are 10/20 years older than myself, I like to help out and I will do my best but there are still some tensions between the two old companies as you would expect from any 2 company who have been competing for years and years. All this is on top of the fact I have a horrible cold at the moment and seem to be grumpy. I think it will make for an interesting day.

Today I spent £3, all day

London!

Weekend just gone had a trip down to London for a friend’s wedding but seeing as it’s a long way to go just for a wedding we decided to venture down there a day early and do the sights, so drove down Friday morning to come back Sunday. You I have to say that it’s a big drive so stopping at some point was always on the agenda but we stopped at what has to be the nicest services I have ever been to, it was a tranquil Mecca of happy people. I just this is what you get when you have to pay on the M6 Toll road. Anyway the drive was ok but a little busy once in to London and for some reason my GPS decided to take us past every sight London had to offer but driving through London is not the time to have a good look around as there are cars, bikes, people all coming at you from different angles all looking to get hit by a car. So once parked up at the hotel (glad I paid the congestion charge from the 5 feet of road I had to use just to get to the car park) off we went to get some sights is, 4 mins down the road and we were at tower bridge, then on to the tower of London, short trip on the tube to Trafalgar square, down past Downing street and on to parliament and Big Ben and Westminster abbey. Then we went off to Leicester square to meet up with some friends to have some food in China town. After that and a few drinks we went off to Camden Town to meet up with some more friends and have what would turn out to be too many drinks, it was nice at the time sitting in the street drinking wine but the morning after was not so good.

So the day of the wedding, it kind of went to plan, getting there nearly 2 hours early and then for the bride to turn up late meant I had about 3 hours in the church and I think that may be a new personal record or something, the groom looked a little nervous as the time started to tick by. That is where the normality of this wedding ended as my friends and his wife are both royalty to a cretin degree. He is a tribal prince and she is a princess from Nigeria (I think) and with that come the rituals of such a wedding and they were wonderful, apart from the kolanut which was not so good. This was the day after the night before where I vowed never to drink wine again but after a few beers wine sounded like a really good idea red/white what every was going. One of the nice things of the right was when you had to dance up to the bride and groom and put dollar bills on their heads and let them fall off, I know it may sound simple but when you have known this bloke for quite a few years it was a strange moment in our friendship.

So back to Manchester on Sunday with a little stop in Derby for my girlfriends nephews 2^nd birthday, that kid loves tractors, I wanted to live my youth through him and get him some Spiderman PJ’s but it was not to be, well I was not allowed! I decided when booking the time off for the wedding to get in a few extra days in as we come close to the end of the year so I got another 2 days off, good job seeing as the laptop I wanted came out and even after the trip to London I could just by the skin of my teeth afford it. I have never just bought a laptop out right and at these prices its no surprise but the last one I got lasted me for about 4 years so I think is a worth wile investment. And I would like to say that this keyboard is lovely to type on, it may even improve my spelling! One can wish.

How to tell when you have grown up?

So knowing I was due some extra pay this month I have been checking out laptops for weeks and weeks finding the best laptop out there for me, everything from size and weight to the speed of the processor and front buss speed, size of the hard drive and making sure it would be able to handle video editing and odd game I want to play. Having owned the laptop I'm sat at right now for the last 4 years it’s something that will have to keep me going for some time. So I found it as stated in a earlier post, The Sony Vaio CR11Z/R and it’s the top of its range so my decision is set, all I needed next was the funds to get this wonderful piece of human engineering and that would have been today (even though the tax man took nearly £850 off me) so I potter down to the two shops in Manchester who have it in stock and I was going to play one off against the other until I got the deal I wanted as the cheaper deal would have taken too long to come. So off I went only to find out there is a updated model coming out in the next few weeks* with a larger hard drive and faster processor. * Now I say a few weeks but every where I look its due to come out ‘the beginning of October’ now for me that’s the 1^st but the sneaky people at Sony I believe don’t see it this way so I'm betting on mid October. Now to my point, think you have finally got the money to get that one thing you have wanted for some time, you have sat there just waiting to get your hands on the thing but now I could get more for my money, 10 years ago I would have got one today but I now find myself not and willing, if not too happy about it, to wait until I can get my hands on the better of the two.

I'm now grown up (to a certain extent)

Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of old friends coming out of the wood work so to speak, I went out with a bloke who I shared a house with 9/10 years ago, we also worked at the same cinema cleaning screen and the normal usher duties. It was really good to catch up with him for a few hours and chat about the good old days, I also had another friend from the same time in my life wanting to go out for a few, sat I'm going out with another old friend from Blackburn and I have a school friend who I have not seen for 12 years wanting to catch up. I'm not complaining and I'm looking forward to it but have I won the lottery or something? Maybe there is just something in the water.

Ok you may remember that I had some issues with my bank (That would be you NatWest) and there complete incompetence with home insurance and the loan I had with them, well I did get round to sending in a letter of complaint as the customer service I revived was below piss poor, please don’t just thin I wanted to vent me anger at them, I would in a very customer service orientated environment and I only expect the same service they would get coming to watch a film at my cinema. So one complaint was about the fact they were still trying to get money out of me for something that my name was not on and after informing them of this they then had wrote my name on the top (spelt wrong by the way) still wanting about £80 all down to the fact they could no longer find the person whose name was on the policy and all this was sent to my mums house and she was not happy, the next part of my complaint was about the fact I had tried to pay off a loan for 6 weeks and then they tried to charge me interest and fines for paying late and then put poor credit on my name all down to the complete failing of the loan department. So I hope you can see why I would not be a happy bunny.

So I got 2 letters back, 1^st would be the loan wanting more details back from me, they are MY bank, they have all my details and this is my reply, I also go along to point out that I would hope they would be able to check my details for a loan in my name and that I would hope there computer systems are to a point where they would save information.

The 2^nd letter back would be regarding the insurance, this one started off really good, they said they had sent a letter to my mum apologising for her distress and they would no longer be trying to get any money off me (ITS NOT IN MY NAME!) and that they have listened to my conversation (one on many) I had where I changed my address. Well not only did they get the address wrong but my mum received no such letter, the address they said I had changed to is 126 miles away from where I had moved to! Does this mean I had post going to Durham? In my reply I ask how can my bank who I entrust to look after my money not even get the small details correct like address and the spelling of my name?

To be honest I am not letting this go easy, I could just drop it but the amount of crap I got from NatWest during a very difficult financial time without any support has given me the right to give them a hard time during this time and im enjoying pushing the customer services as any one should come to expect from any service they get from any company.

I’ll keep you updated as im sure the next set of letter I get will be interesting.

Tech Blog Vista Vs Xp

As you may have noticed I like my computer, there are people out there who don’t like computers or want anything to do with them well I'm at the other end of the scale. I like making web pages, editing videos, playing games, surfing the web, most things computer related. I thought I would give the new vista a go so installed it so I have Xp and vista in the same computer and just picked which one I would like to boot to at the start, I wanted to do this just in case I thought it was crap, things went well until 2 days in and somehow I lost the boot sector and my computer would no longer boot! Well for me that’s not a good thing, to be honest its not the extra work and problem solving its losing things like photos that is important to me, you can get back your music and you can go out and buy your photos. So I got a pucker copy of Vista and installed it and you know what I like it, before all you Mac users start to explode your right, they did sit there with a Mac and seal loads of ideas but what you going to do about it? There are some niggles like the ‘are you sure’ aspect, everything you would like to do you have 3 buttons to press to say it ok, I switched this off within minutes. The other problem was hardware, the only thing which is not compatible was my TV card so I had to get a new one for it to work. If you are getting a new computer soon I would recommend Vista as there would be no hardware issues and it a easy OS to use but if you are thinking of upgrading check out the Microsoft compatibility web site also the manufacture of you motherboard, graphics card, hard drives, TV card, sound card and any usb devices you may use as drivers still seem to be a problem.

So keeping on the Tech side of blogging I went out for some food last week with some friends, out of the 10 of us 3 had Mac’s (and 1 really wanted one) and 4 had PC’s (the other 2 didn’t want to going the Tech conversation. The topic of me buying a new laptop came up and we discussed what is the better of the two, PC or Mac? We all had good arguments but one thing that I did notice is how PC users tend to see why someone would want a Mac and why they are good but Mac users don’t have anything nice to say about PC, May be you have to be like this to own a Mac! Don’t think so but I did think it was strange.

Started to play Medal of Honour 82nd's First Airborne on the Pc and what a good game, we all have different interests and one of mine would be war, not just the killing but deeper than that, the friendships formed like no other and the things people have to do just to survive, I find it truly amazing. So I like war games, granted its not like the real thing and I don’t think it ever will be unless the game starves you, kills of some of your friends and puts your life in real danger but I still like to play them and 82nd's First Airborne is a good one, if you have seen Band of Brothers its like that just you get to run round. If that’s the type of game you like I would recommend it.

So as I said I'm thinking of getting a new laptop, the one I have now is good but it does not have the power I would like to edit videos so seeing as I may have a little extra money coming my way I thought it would be a good time to upgrade so I have been looking around, The one which caught my eye is the Sony Vaio CR11Z/R which RRP’s for £999 but after a little web digging I found it for just under £900. This may be a lot for some people to spend on such a thing as you can pick up a ok laptop for sub £500 now but this will keep me happy for some time (I hope) and I will sell the one I'm typing on now for £250+.

One thing I did spot (ok the Girl friend spotted) was how many bars now have free Wifi, one being the Trof! This is great news. Quite Sunday, Girl friend has a new book, I have some videos to edit and we both would not mind a drink, hey presto we are there strawberry beer in hand. L like this plan.

Ps i have no idea what is going on with my font, Blogspot is in German aswell!

2 weeks of work

So my boss was on his hols the last few week so I got to do everything I normally do and everything he normally does and some more just for fun. You know it was hard work and it did take a lot of my energy but I did enjoy it, it was not just the amount of work which was hard but having that feeling that you are the one responsible for it all, if something goes wrong it may not have been your fault but you are the one who has to answer for it. In the space of two week we had the Superbad prem (see last post) the Imax bulb needed an unplanned change (£7400 pounds per change is a big deal) and a list of normal things that needed doing. One thing which I was happy to see was the support from the full team over these 2 weeks, it really good to see everyone working in the same direction.

So after spending the last few years going through a work harmonisation I spent most of the time not really thinking about it to the point it would make my angry/upset/pissed off ect as there was and is very little I really could do about it well it finally gone through, what does this mean for me? Well more money for starts and that would be for less hours (now salaried) that means I MUST do 39 hours a week or get them back somehow and trust me I intend to. Another good thing about going from hourly to salary is I get 2 wages this month, Yes 2! And some back pay! I'm sure I will be able to find something to spend it all on but it nice to get something back for once.

Superbad Premiere

We had the premiere of the new film from Seth Rogen called Superbad, I got chance to watch it last week and I have to say I did enjoy it. We last saw him in Knocked up which was a good film but I think Superbad was better. Anyway we got to do the premier with a Q&A after the film with the 3 main actors from the film (Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the night went well apart from some stupid question and a bit of a broken Mic.

Well after we did a good job we got some tickets for the after show party and after a long day it was a welcome idea to go get a drink so off we went. Once there we got 3 free drinks which was nice and what was even nicer was another 3 free drinks half way through the night, after 2 hours and 6 pints I was done especially as I had to be back to work in 8 hours and god did I feel rough the following day, rough but well worth it.

I think Cinemec had a good night with the Zoo Girls!

Happey is not the word

Hi all. After my trip to the lowlands festival I have a lot to talk about and I'm in the process of getting it all down but one thing I didn’t want to miss is how I'm feeling. This was my first festival and with the threat of theft, getting ill and anything else you may through in there I was very uncertain what could happen. I was there for just 4 days but I have never had fun like that. I really, truly cannot describe how I feel, I will write all about it and to you they are just words but for me it will always and will forever be a time in my life which I will never forget. I think there are a few points in your life where something makes you happier that you can last remember and this would be one but another thing I didn’t expect was the feeling after. Remember without the downs in life there would be no ups! And the one and only down to the festival is that it had to end, and with that brings a little sadness. Also I like to think that after a good friend went travailing is part of it to but it hit me after being back for a day feeling sad that it’s been such a long time since a felt that way.

Having this blog for me means I can look back and see where I was and what I was up to and without meaning to sound beg headed its been a long trip to get here but I feel like one of the happiest people on this little planet, hey don’t get me wrong there are things I would change given the chance but it wouldn’t be life without things like that. It has been a while since I have written a blog like this one but me feeling stay the same. Love makes the world go round, without the lows in life we wouldn’t have the high’s, you have to be happy, and the list goes on.

Just to keep you updated got the good review, got the money, got the holidays, got the bank holidays, got less hours.

Night all

camping!

Ok back to blogging after I may have forgotten about if for a small amount of time. Sorry!

Got to go try out my new tent in a pre festival camping trip up to the lakes last week, and what a nice trip. Jump in the car with all the things I thought I would need, spend 1 ½ hours on the motorway and then another 50mins in some of the smallest, winding but beautiful roads I have been on. I tell you any one could go without a GPS unit on the motorway but I thanked god for having it when I had got up there. There are so many small winding roads with no signs for miles and miles. Anyway once up there tried to camp next to Windermere (which we had just crossed on this cool little car ferry) but as you may expect in school holidays it was full so we heeded off another 8 miles to little Langdale (I think) which is sat in this beautiful valley. Having been in the city for some time now I was more than happy for people to look and point at the ‘City folk’ (hay I didn’t need a water proof coat just a brolly) and after putting the tent up in good time might I add we set off for the one thing I knew would be round the corner. The pub! After that things become hazier the more I think of them.

So after not the most comfy night sleep (dam the air bed) we set off to spend the day doing some sightseeing stuff, so back in the car, GPS on and away we go, headed up to Ambleside for some breakfast and then on to Grasmere for some traditional short bread and then on down to Windermere for a coffee or two. It was fantastic and a beautiful day to walk, talk and drive.

So had my review last week! How did it go? It went good, I think I did a good job and didn’t fall short in any areas. For every question they had I came back with all the info they needed, one of the bad point about doing well is they give you more to do and now do i. some things are easy and others are going to take a little more work. So after the last statement you could possible understand why things are not to good as after a good review, working hard for the last year I'm (at the moment) getting paid less that 80% of the team I manage, yep that would be right I have heard nothing about my job, a lot of chatter but no contract and no pay. For the last 8months I have made less money that the last bloke in this job and it look like I'm going to stay here, forever. It’s like the people who make these decision don’t mind its taking so long or that I'm now a little pissed off and earning less that the team I'm supposed to manage. I also have a feeling that the money they are going to offer is not worth it for the job, I know there will be some room for negation but I don’t know, I have a full feeling that it won’t be much more or less that if I was getting paid per hour. I don’t know, only time will tell.

So my week so far consists of doing loads of hours so I can have some time off to go to lowlands over in Amsterdam and I go Thursday and come back Monday and I'm soooooo looking forward to it.

photo's

Get your hands off my beer!

Great bird life in NQ

Its a house, no bridge, hummmm bridge house

i like driving in my car............

The many faces of Darth Vader

Hair cut and about time to.

For a while now I have need a hair cut but I have not had hair this long ever so I had been reluctant but that time came as it was becoming too long. So while getting it cut thought I would get a photo or two so now you get to see before, during and after.

Maybe i'll shave soon!

Mondy Tuesday happy days, Wednesday Thursday Camping days.

So after working hard in my new position at work its review time Tuesday, and it should be an interesting day. After the big take over what feels like 10 years ago we are finally getting to a point where things are starting to get sorted out for the department I work in much to everyone’s joy, now things are going well for them I think it is time I made a move on my job and what I can get out of it. I don’t mean to come across as selfish with all this talk of ‘what can I get’ but sometimes you need to spend some time looking at what’s on offer and just pushing and pushing, remember you can just ask, they cal always say no but you will never get if you don’t ask. I did think about the slogan ‘what do I want’ ‘money!’ ‘when do I want it?’ ‘Now!’ but with only myself singing I don’t think it would have the impact I'm looking for so I'm down to just plain old bartering. I think have done the work needed for me to walk in well informed and with all the points I think work in my favor so now it’s just waiting for the day.

As for this week I managed to get 2 days of which are Wednesday and Thursday so as a pre festive test I'm, with my lovely girl friend going camping! Thinking of Windermere lake but I would like to enjoy the sun at some point so it may be more of a weather based in to where we go. Thought it would be nice to get out of the big city for a few days and its perfect time to get that tent up other than my living room all ready for Lowlands! I can’t quite describe how much im looking forward to going in August and as a cherry on top they are showing Death Proof which was part of the Grindhouse movies, this is a Quentin Tarantino film and it was due to come to the Uk as a double bill with Planet terror (Robert Rodriguez) but the stupid Americans (no offence to you smart one’s) didn’t like it so now they will be coming out a separate releases in the UK but I get chance to see one of what I think will be two very good films.

Movie Watch

So I have some movie reviews to catch up with as for the last few weeks I have seen some amazing films so let me share thease with you.

Harry Potter 3D

Manchester Imax is showing the latest installment of Harry potter on a screen 85 feet wide with 14,ooo wats of sound and I can say it is like no other screen you will see. Now I'm not the biggest harry potter fan and I would say the other 4 film have got better as time goes on, I don’t read the book and I'm not excited about what happening but I will watch the films. So now on to this film and what a film, the visual effects are fantastic and have come on a long way from what we saw in the first harry potter. The acting is well…still somewhat wooden from the younger members of the cast but again it’s a nice change from what I thought were card board cut outs in the first movie but now you start to see some life and emotion. For me this is the turning point in the film and they have now become something epic, a step up in the film world. The story is something which sucks you in and keeps you moving alog at some speed and just when you think you have an idea off it goes again. I think you get something different if you had read the book, I'm not sure of that will be a good different or bad different though. The 3D was good and better that i have seen in full leangh films but only the last 20mins, its still worth seeing it.

I'm 27 and have seen a lot of film and this was the first time I ever wanted to be a wizard.

Ok Next film

The Simpson

Well all know and love the Simpson, if you don’t there is something wrong with you as it been with us for what feels like birth and now it has made the big jump from small screen to the BIG screen and you know what, even though it’s the same length of 3 back to back episodes it’s a dam good film. I had reservations as for me it had to be something good and not what I watched on tv the night before, it looks different as its not in CGI but still holds 90% of what you would expect Simpsons to look like but it now has more of a shine to it, the story is good but not excitingly new, and its funny, even very funny but this is what I expected it to be. I cant see this film wining any awards and after a few weeks its will just disappear until you see it at Asda for £9.99 but I dare you not to enjoy it, just try not to.

Die hard 4.0

So he is back, vest and all. Its good, it is. I sat there and enjoyed all of it, its fast, explosive, funny and nothing new. I cant explain it but there was nothing there to get you really excited. Maybe that’s what they wanted. I could not sit here and pick any holes in the movie, good cast, strong acting, a true die hard story, enough explosions and gun fights to keep the most hard core fan happy, the sexy bad girl, the slightly unbelievable action scenes, car chases, John beaten to a pulp but still fighting. You see its all there and its all pretty predictable but good. I would not say this is a bad movie and if that’s what you fancy on that night go and see it and I bet you enjoy it just not as much as you would have hoped.

Transformers.

Well its been a Long time coming and this would be another of the films I have been looking forward to and after a shaky start to the summer movies no thanks to the fantastic 4 upsetting effort we see Transformers hits the Big and Digital screens.

If like me you remember watching the cartoons many many years ago you may have had your own Idea of what it would all look like as a live action film and from the first teaser trailers from about a year ago to the main big trailers I have been very excited to see this film and I did, not just any old 35mm copy but I got to check it on the digital projector which Odeon have in the Printworks, now there are films out there which look good on the DLP but some that look just like the 35mm counterpart but Transformers looks hart stopping, the so bright and color full even to the extent off when I was checking it in last night to a full screen when the digital kicked it there was a gasp from about 150 people, its that good!

Now on to the film, well I don’t think I have the words, for me it was a blockbuster, not a big summer movie a blockbuster like we used to get. Its been a very long time since I sat in a screen for 2 ½ hours and had so much fun and excitement. The graphics of the film are just awesome and at no point did I sit there and not feel any of it, the acting is surprisingly good seeing as they used some small actors from some major roles. Its wonderful getting you on the edge of your seat with anticipation and then pushing you back with explosive action scenes as you hold out hope that good can overcome evil. this was the most enjoyable film I have see this year and I would recommend this to anyone. Now I want to be a Transformer!

Lowlands 16-20 August

030303
303 Allstars
Admiral Freebee
Abe Duque
After Forever
Air Traffic
Alamo Race Track
The Answer
Arcade Fire
Audion/Matthew Dear
Aux Raus
Basement Jaxx
Battles
Joost van Bellen
The Black Seeds
Blaxtar
Boemklatsch
Bonde Do Role
Brand New
Chatham County Line
Dave Clarke
C-Mon & Kypski
CocoRosie
Chris Cornell
CSS
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Darko Esser
David Gilmour Girls
Devendra Banhart
Dinosaur Jr.
Dizzee Rascal
Eagles of Death Metal
Editors
Enter Shikari
Funeral for a Friend
Games in Concert
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Goose
Groove Armada
Richie Hawtin
Hayseed Dixie
Heartthrob
Heideroosjes
James Holden
Interpol
Jack Peñate
Marike Jager
Jake The Rapper
Jamie T
Jimmy Eat World
Justice (live)
Just Jack
Kaiser Chiefs
DJ Karotte
Kasabian
The Killers
Kings of Leon
Klaxons
Lacuna Coil
La Kinky Beat
Laurent Garnier (Live)
LCD Soundsystem
Lily Allen
Little Cow
Loney, dear
Mad Caddies
Magda
Malkovich
MeloManics
M.I.A.
Mika
Moke
Motörhead
My Brightest Diamond
New Young Pony Club
Kate Nash
Nine Inch Nails
Noisia
Nosfell
Nour
Nymfo (live)
Oi Va Voi
Ojos de Brujo
Orishas
Pendulum (DJ-set)
Troy Pierce
The Pigeon Detectives
Polder
Pronghorn
The Rakes
Damien Rice
The Rifles
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Mark Ronson
Rotfront
Anthony Rother
Sandrien
Saybia
Shackleton
The Shins
Simian Mobile Disco (DJ-Set)
Sonic Youth
Tanya Stephens
Trentemøller (live in concert)
Tool
Turbonegro
Uffie & DJ Feadz
U.N.K.L.E.
The View
Patrick Watson
Andrew Weatherall
Welle:Erdball
The Whitest Boy Alive
Patrick Wolf

Movies:
300
Adam's Apples
Jesus Camp
Falkenberg Farewell
Air Guitar Nation
Glue
Red Road
Babel
Sunshine
Borat
Our Daily Bread
Die Fälscher
Night Of The Hunter
Knallhart
Unknown
Das Leben der Anderen
The Illusionist
Dixie Chicks - Shut Up & Sing
Interview
Rescue Dawn
Ex-Drummer
Q&A Ex-Drummer
Death Proof
Hot Fuzz

Ok where to start.

I had last week off from work as I could have just done with some time away, noting sinister just thought it would be nice. Somehow I didn’t manage to get up to much, my micro light thing I didn’t get round to but with the rain the way it is who would blame me? I did fix my lamp! You may think small task but it was not, it nearly a new lamp after all the bits I replaced.

I decided to get a new phone, Vodafone were not good and didn’t seem to be getting better so I decided to go with orange, they had some good packages with a few extras to seal the deal. After they came up with their best deal I told them that there was nothing there to clench the deal and what else could they offer? Digital photo frame for free! Well that was it for me and I got it and it’s nice, very nice. The other thing which is nice is orange Wednesday, my work will no longer let me take my girl friend to and staff shows of the latest films (I think the next step it to take away my free films and even now I have to wait 2 weeks before I can go and see them anyway) so now I would mind paying for one ticket for the both of us, I know this may come across as cheap but when you have spent the last 10 years not paying for cinema tickets it’s hard to change. So anyway I went with the Sony Ericcson K810i and its nice so expect to see some more (better quality photos from me)

The other thing I did do last week was to book my flights and tickets for lowlands just outside of Amsterdam which I'm really really looking forward to, I think it will be a fantastic weekend, so now its all booked and I now have my passport (last trip to Amsterdam didn’t go to well, well it didn’t go!) it came time to but a tent and did a get a tent. One thing at a festival is 99% of all the tents are green so when staggering back from a day of music you spend hours looking for your tent so I got one with a little colour in it. I would love to show you a photo of it but I can’t find any and I didn’t take any when we put it up drunk in the living room when we got it which sound like a good idea at the time and went well, got to learn how to put up a tent drunk.

Big Boss Week

Its been an interesting week so far, my boss is off so I get to take over for 7 days or so and make sure everything runs well, better that well even. It’s been hard work but in a nice way, I like the challenge and I have had a few to keep my happy but I think over all things have gone really well.

But after working the last 7 days and the last 2 of those days were 13hours I'm knackered, you know when you have to walk up some stairs and you mind says yes but your legs say no? Well that’s where I am but on the up side I have only got 2 more days to work this week before I get a week off! And what do I have planned for this week off? Have not got a clue but I can tell you I hope to be doing my micro light thing. Scary but think it will be fun.

So this is where this installment comes to an end as I can hardly see the screen through my sleepy eyes, only got 3 hours to go and I get to go home (even though I should be at a house warming to night)

S-Tones

The S-tones are playing down at Academy 3 on the 9^th of July, I had chance to see this band play an acoustic set a few weeks ago at the Troff and they were fantastic and now there are playing something bigger.

Tickets are only £5 which is a barging in anyone book, get you ticket from their web site (paypal) You can also check out there myspace from the site.

Hope to see you there

Knowsley Featival

So this weekend I managed to get hold of a few tickets for the Knowsley festival through work for free, I got to pick Sat or Sun but seeing as The Who were head lining on the Sat night there was no other day I could have wanted to go to. So the plan was to get the train to Liverpool and then the buss to the festival have a few drinks, enjoy the music, get the buss back to Liverpool and then back on the train (sound so simple in my head)

Myself, my girl friend and my roommate and his girl friend all set off and getting there was fine and was a nice trip over, thinking the event had only been on that day we hoped the fields would resemble as such with grass and everything and for the most part it was, we found a nice spot just down from the main stage and set up camp. Now trying to get a drink was just impossible, the web site said ‘ample bars’ but this was just not the case, people were waiting for a beer for what must have been 40mins so I opted for the next best thing Coffee! The weather was on and off, there was a good 10mins where I managed to get full use of my sun glasses but I hate to say I'm not one of these people who would keep them on once the sun has gone in.

We got there as The Thrills were playing and it sounded good, I’ll be honest I'm not up to date with their song but there were a few I sang along to, then we had The View and after that The Coral who were both fantastic. At this point it was starting to get cold so we had a walk and got ready for the final act. And at about 8:30 The Who came on and what a show, it was fantastic even though at this point the havens opened and our hops of a mud free exit disappeared (at this point I realized a piggy back was going to be in order and my girl friend was wearing jellies) but even with the rain it was awesome. Getting back to the bus stops was interesting as it must have been 6 inch deep mud and that’s where the piggy back came in as jellies don’t keep the mud out, so girl friend on my back, she had the brolly to keep us dry as I wade through the mud to the exit!

So the trip back we had 3 option.

Option 1 was to go back to Liverpool and get back the way we had come, but there was a replacement bus service which would have taken us 1:45 back from Liverpool.

Option 2 pay and get the buss back to Manchester but there were only 3 and we may not have got on seeing as we didn’t have tickets for that trip.

Option 3 get the bus to Warrington and get the train back to Manchester.

We left at 10:30 ish and got in line for Warrington just to stand there for ages as there was only a small road for all the busses to come down and most of the Warrington busses were at the back, while waiting one of the busses managed to get stuck on the side of the road in the mud which kept us entertained as it tried to get out which made it lean more and more to one side. At one point the easiest option to get it out of the way would have been to push it over in to the field. So finally our bus get to us and on we get after a speech from the driver on how its his bus and he want it clean just for him to try and get round the stuck bus, take the corner to wide and get stuck on the opposite side of the road next to the stuck buss. So now you have 2 busses both stuck next to each other blocking the only road for all the busses to get out. Now we have to get off and wait for someone to get both busses out of the mud. After 30 mins and most people thinking they could push a bus out of the mud a tractor came to our rescue and after 20 mins we were on our way with no chance of getting the last train. Bus stops, hand in air ‘TAXI!’, £40, back home! What a great time! Really! Fantastic day and would do it again

Bob Marley in Manchester

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Bob Marley’s Exodus album Manchester Odeon is showing Bob Marley live at the rainbow on Tuesday 26^th at 8pm. Exodus was originally released on Friday 3rd June 1977. He recorded the 'Exodus' album in exile in the UK, having escaped an assassination attempt in Jamaica.

In the UK alone it stayed on the chart for 56 consecutive weeks and included 3 massive hit singles. Bob Marley was established as the Third World's first superstar, a legacy that survives thirty years after the album's release.

I want i want i want

To go here, Lowlands

A year this summer

I have an anniversary coming up in the next few days and it made me think back to about a year ago around this time, from what i can remember i was still tiring to sell my house and spending most days working, painting or drinking. It was a very difficult time in my life and i had to go through some things which i never thought possible. One thing which I did learn is how many people cared about me and what was happening, I like the saying ‘friends are like stars, you may not always see them but there always there’.

One thing which I do truly regret is my cats, I had 2 cats. I had a boy called Indi and a girl called Toffee and to this day I miss them. I do often think of what I gave up to have the Manchester life style but I tried to find somewhere where I could have cats but I don’t think it would be fare for them to be stuck inside or in a big city.

Around a year ago after spending all day painting I was relaxing in my garden (before I started work on that) when Indi came out of the house in a very playful mood. At the time I had made a few videos and it was something I was interested in getting it to as I enjoyed it so I took some footage on my phone to see what I could do with it. I did end up with something and I liked it, the quality is not up to much and it is something you have to stick with when you watch it but none the less I think it captured the type of cat Indi is.

The cats are the only thing I do miss and I am truly happy with me, my life and who surrounds me. I would like to thank all the people who helped me to this happy place. Thank you

Two days off

Had a day off yesterday and at the last minute we decided instead of sitting in a dark screen for 3 hours watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 we would go for a drive, where did we end up? Well in a place called Mostyn in Wales, to be honest it wasn’t a well thought out plan it was a just find the sea plan and we did, had a walk along the beach, had a brew, it was a very nice day and well worth the drive. Not quite sure why we just got in the car and went, maybe it down to my flat mate trying to get a car, seeing as I have one it would be a shame not to use it every now and then

On Thursday I went over to see my little sister who had just turned 16 that day! Wow 16! I know she is the one who is getting older that day but it sure does make me feel older. She had some of her school friends up who were a nice crowd but I did find myself trying not to embarrass her as I don’t think she would have lived it down. Due to her birthday most of my family came together, my sister came over from Spain, my brother from Manchester (Yes we do live next door to each other but you would be surprised to how little we do see of each other) and my gran. My sisters friends are all music loving and playing group, from rock to blues and they are very in to it much to my grans amusement, she could not stop laughing which made me very happy, seeing as she is 85 and there was a room of teenagers she did just potter in, sit down and start firing questions at them left right and center, normally you would expect the Old lady to feel intimidated but not this time! Go Gran! But I was the designated driver that night so drinking was off the books from me, now I didn’t mind until all the nice rum came out and everyone was having a merry time at which point I wish I had got the train, I would have helped if the weather coming over snake pass was better as well but it was not to be so a more than interesting drive home. But saying that it was still a very good night.