Von Bondies and London

Hallo all in blogger land, I hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you happen to be doing.

Right I'm now this very minuet sat on a train going to London and the reason I have my laptop is to keep from going insane for the 3 hours I have to sit here. Now I'm off to the big city just for a meeting about audits or something of that nature (thinking I could have done with a little more research on this meeting). It’s nothing to big and I'm glad to get out of work for the day even if it is going to turn in to a long day. So you would think as I needed to get up at 6am this morning I would have been tucked up in bed at 10pm the previous night, well Ha you would be wrong. The von bondies were playing at the Night and Day and I had managed to get on the guest list even though the night had sold out and I'm glad I did as not seeing them live before I was very happy with the night, they are a great band and if they come around again and you spot they are playing it would be well worth £10 or so. So instead of being in bed nice and early I was in bed at a stupid hour and drunk but I still managed to get up on time and get to the train station with time to spare and then off we went. I'm going down with Echo11 and it is only for a few hours.

Back soon ......

Ok back o the train to Manchester and got another 3 hours to burn, got to the meeting just in time and it was ok, it is looking at a self audit for the department I work in but not just for us but for everyone throughout the country so you have to look at it from a company perspective and not just from the view of where you work. I had no problem with this but there were some who could not seem to see past this so we spent most of the day just trying to convince the small group in the meeting of this. So however much I think we had some sort of impact in this new aspect of the company it was a bit of a waste of time when we could have got so much more done in the time we had.

For some reason it has taken me 2 days to get this blog finished, I have just got up from a night of drinking playing board games, I was happy with my drinking ability after a long day but I did well and lost the game with style. Any way got to go to work, something about hours and projectors I think.

Buda – birthday - pest

So it has been a busy week and I week with lots happening, to start I think I will take you a week back and that would be last Saturday. I it was my birthday coming up along with my good friend brain splat we decided to go out as it was going to be a few weeks before we were both in the same country so we grabbed a few friends and out we went. We had a good few drinks down in the ouster bar and then went on to the northern quarter for a few more, I would like to point out the difference in price for a drink – Ouster bar £1.47 and Centreno - £3.20, that is a big difference!

So night came to an end and a few of us made our way back to our flat for a few more drinks and just like lads do we went in to piggy back mode and I have to say I was good at giving piggy backs, this cannot be said for Mr Moodie as half way through his legs just stopped and he hit the road with me on his back with a hell of a force, enough force to crack open his head, I came of better with just a good part of the skin missing from my knee and a few bumps. So after cleaning up his head we finished off a few drinks and called it a night. Getting up in the morning the realisation of the pain not just from the beer kicked in, ouch! But we didn't have time to cry about it as we had to pack as I was not going to turn 28 in the UK!

Budapest

Day 1

Monday to Thursday to Budapest, so off we went Monday and none of this early morning flights a nice midday flight, didn't even got off the ground before we had a problem, got asked to come to the frount of the plane before they closed the doors to find out case had opened, so after a bit of kicking and a strap the case was closed and in the plane, we got there for just after 6, we booked some where to stay with a back packers web site as it was cheaper, we did book something with a room to ours selves as we had enough to do so, so getting there we walked past the place a few time as it looked burned out! But a lot of the buildings did, so we get there and the blokes says ok you are not in this building, ok, so off we went to the nicest part of Budapest and we had an apartment, so we didn't even unpack and just went out, got some food and loads to drink and that was our first day.

Day 2

We decided to hit the first full day we had with a bit of force and get some of the sights done, so we walked over to Buda and headed up this huge hill to see the base where the Germans camped during WWII but now there is a peace monument, it looked like it was not far away and it was not in a horizontal sense it was just miles away in a vertical sense, but after stopping a few time and taking in some of the views we made it, then we headed down the other side and on to Margrot island which sits in the River Danube between Buda and Pest. This was a beautiful place and it was odd how quite it was, so after pottering round a little we made it in to Pest and got something to eat. So after I tried to pay about 17000 florint instead of 7000 (the 1000 and 10000 look the same) we had to get a few bits and then we made our way back down Pest to out apartment so we could get changed and then out for some nice food and today was my Birthday! Yes it had to come at some point and this time round I hit the Big 28, ok 28 is not a big one but hey, so we went out to a place called ... nope cant remember... and it was a fantastic meal (and cheap) and then we went on for a few more drinks. What a day, I was completely knackered but we got so much done and it was just a wonderful day and one I will remember.

Day 3

As we had got a lot of things done yesterday it was nice to take it easy and my legs were very grateful, we went to the statue park on the out skirts of Buda. This park as a lot of statues from the communist era of Hungary's past, they got all these statues in one place as there was a fear of them being destroyed as did the statue of Starlin and all that remains is his boots. This was the first day we had a go at the public transport system and you know it was good, you buy a ticket (well we got 10) and each tickets is valid for one trip, no matter where you are going or how far it is just one ticket! So it was a bit of a trip but well worth it, its not a massive park but its interesting to see all these statues. We headed back to Pest as we wanted to go to one of the thermal baths, these baths are heated from thermal vents and the baths are outside, so once you have got changed you get you towel and flip-flops and you head out side, it was about 3°C outside which is not very warm but that was fine as it was about 28-30°C in the baths, there we 2 so after some time we thought we would try the other one which was about 25 meters away, so we got out and buy the time I got to the other pool my shorts had started to freeze it was that cold outside. It was wonderful, being outside in the cold in really hot outside pool with the steam and mist just sitting above the water, that has to be a must for anyone going to Budapest. For the evening we went out to a restraint in Buda just next to chain bridge as recommended but Mr Moodie, after that we had a few drinks in a bar just round the corner but decided to head to a bar near our apartment. So we walked back and went to this wonderful bar, it had big bowls of monkey nuts everywhere and hey on the floor and a really good live band, they also had things stuck on the walls and posts and ceiling, when i say things I mean anything you can think of, train tickets from around the world, receipts, bus passes, cig packets, anything you can imagine. So I had to leave something so my City of Manchester card and my friends FatFreeMedia card now sits on the wall. It was a really nice place and was very happy we found it.

Day 4

And the day we fly out we wanted to get the last few things done we had up to now not had time to get done, so first was the Zoo and what a Zoo, it was like they had everything and more, it was a little scary as you would be walking thought and would walk was one of them display cases you would see at H Samuels and it would have some killer snake in, the elephant house at the Zoo looked like it was something from the 19^th century, it was beautiful. After the Zoo we walked down to the Terror Museum, this was interesting, this is when the German police had their base during the War and then where the Russian secrete police had their base. To give you an idea what this building was used for the walls are about 6 feet think so as people were walking by outside you could not hear the screams of people inside, it was a dark time after the war, if you were to have thought to have any contact with the German occupation during the war you would have been killed, if they thought you know something you were not saying all your family would be torched or killed until you confessed. There were cells where you could not stand up and one where there was just enough room to stand up and that's it. It was a eye opening place to visit and how ever disturbing the place is you should not miss it out.

All day I had not been feeling too well and at first I thought it was down to the beer from the night before but after sometime it would seem not, yes I had somehow come down with the flu!

Now to break up this 'Day 4' we need to talk about Converse. My first ever pair I got from my lovely girl friend last year, she got me some wonderful green boot converse and they lasted a full year but knowing I was going on holiday I needed some more, can you buy green converse now? NOPE, you can get them anywhere, it like they thought green was no longer for them. So I got some blue ones and they are really nice but as we are walking though the main part of Budapest what do I see!!!!!!! Yes !!!!! GREEN CONVERCSE !!!!!! so my wonderful girl friend got then for me, she is so nice.

Back to the day, we had a evening flight out and I thought it would be just as easy as the flight it but I started to feel very very ill and it turned the flight in to a long time and with the bad winds in the UK it was a very scary landing but karma smiled on me as our bags were the first off the plane and we were on our way back and I have been in bed since. Starting to feel a little better now and got a good night sleep last night.

Please have a look at my photos from my Budapest trip,

i should not be here

Back at work and I should not be here, had to cover a shift that needed covering till 11pm. I did have a plan for tonight and it would have taken me out to watch a friends band play at the Night and Day, they were playing for some sort of contest and the prize was to get to play at a festival. It would have been nice as it has been some time since I had see this group of friends and I like there band. So anyway at work and here till 11pm, sure I mentioned that but it worth mentioning again, during the time I get free and this amounts to not a lot of time I pop out side for a bit of fresh air as being in one room for 12 hours it get a little stuffy, so after one of my trips outside I come back up just to find someone has been sick outside my door! Not nice and even now it has been cleaned away the smell give me that reminder. You know it’s not the fact its 12 hours in one booth or the fact its till 11pm but it’s just a little shit that it had to happen on a night I had something nice to do.

Anyway rant over let’s talk good things, I'm going to Budapest! Yep and I can’t wait, well I don’t have to wait as I go in the 28^th of this month. I'm only going for 3 nights but I'm sure I will have enough time to get everything done I would like to do, it a little birthday present off my wonderful girl friend.

Birthday! I will be 28 this time round but not feeling like 28, I think they are all just numbers and you are as old as you feel, my wonderful girl friend is only 22 so there is roughly 6 years difference but you would not even know, I don’t ever see it. So she is older than her age or I'm younger, well they do say girls are more mature than boys.

One thing I would like for my birthday is a new watch, being a projectionist time is very important and the right time is more important so knowing this I got a Kinetic watch never needing batteries ever and for the last 9 years it has done me well until about 2 months ago and the time would be wrong when I got out of bed, once the capacitor starts to go that's it as it no longer has enough charge to get through the night, but it has got worse, if I stop for more than 30 mins (even typing) it just stops until I start to move again. You never know I may get a new one someday, lets hope.

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!

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.

my back holiday weekend in a nut shell

Well hallo bogspot land and all the little bloggers who live here, everyone have a good weekend? Hope so.

For my weekend I made my way over to Liverpool to go out with some friends at a good night spot called Liquidation, its 5 mins from the docks and is a really good night out. To start the night had a few drinks in Magull and then got the train in to Liverpool and made our way to liquidation, now this is where the story takes a twist so look out for it. After having many many drinks and spending most of my time on the dance floor the night started to come to an end, people went off getting their coats and alike, one of my friends was dancing the few remaining minuets he had left to the onlookers of the bar staff and one of the door staff due to his wonderful and unique way of dancing. Nothing strange here you see, this was until the member of the door staff through some sort of piece of plastic at my friend which to me looked like he was trying to be big and clever in fount of the bar team, this piece of plastic flew through the air and hit my friend on the side of his head with enough force to make him lose balance. Now at this point I was not a happy camper and despite what you may think in my drunken state I was calm, relaxed, not abusive and not angry, so in my calm, relaxed, not abusive and not angry state of mind I make my way over to the group of staff and asked the door man for his name or badge number as I was going to follow this up, as you may have expected he declined in a abusive way, so I turned to ask the members of the bar team who were there and this is where I get hit in the side of the head by his radio and then pushed back! Yes hit in the head! What a fuck whit! Now at this point there was 2 bigger door staff behind me taking me to the exit, I would like to point out that at that time I was still calm and relaxed and didn’t put up any struggle as it would have been useless.

So once outside I had a chat with the head door man who was not very help full and again didn’t want to give any names or badge number.

Now this door staff must be such a idiot or lucky enough that’s everyone he has picked on has not been as keen to see social justice as me because I promise you now I plan to rain a shit storm so big he will think twice about being big and clever again, So to start is a letter to the manager of the venue with every last detail, next is to contact the people who license door staff and make a complaint, next is a complaint to the local council from licensing to the health and safety executive and last but not least a complaint to the Liverpool police, Now please don’t think I will exaggerate the event or my injuries which are not severer and I don’t expect the police to have enough to go on for caution or conviction nor do I think I will get the justice I believe I'm entitled to which by the way would be me hitting him with a radio in front of his friends but this is so if anyone else has the same problem this will have been logged and action may be possible next time round. I also think one letter about this incident will just get put in a pile of other people who are not happy after being kicked out but after my letter should be other letters and phone calls from the other parties I have complained to which brings a real sense of severity.

And to be honest this didn’t spoil the night, nor the idiot spraying people in the face once outside or my girl friend losing her phone or forgetting her keys meaning waking her mum up at 4am to get in, with all this it was a good night.