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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

fighting at the printworks

Found this on youtube (yes I'm taking credit) and it makes me never want to go down to the Printworks on a fri sat night.