Monday 30 July 2007

11th August

Slight change of plan

Seeing as i'm coming back home on the weekend of the 25th anyway, i'm not coming back on the 11th.

Instead, if you can make it come to London to see my new flat and have a game of poker. Same rules as last time.

£30 each (£20 for betting, £10 for food and beer). Cheap night!

Weekend review

Wow, busy weekend!

Friday night was April’s gig, a really good night and quite a packed venue. It was Nigel, a friend from Lloyd’s first ever live gig (34 years old). He’s only recently had a cochlear implant operation and said it was excellent.

Saturday I went to Sundae in the Park, Ben and Jerry’s sponsored concert in Clapham Common. Free ice-cream all day and 6 decent bands, of note, the Rumble Strips, the Breaks and the Bees. We had tickets for the Sunday too where the Proclaimers were playing but had to move so gave it a miss.

It was a long day yesterday but by 8:50 last night I’d moved everything into my new flat and was sitting down with my feet up eating a Chinese takeaway and drinking a cold can of beer.

As usual, you always have more things than you think, but we managed to fit it all into a Volkswagen transit type van. April booked it through Streetcar.co.uk. She hired a car through them mid-week to go shopping and heard that they also did vans. As you can hire them by the hour it was perfect. 4 till 9, will cost us around £35!

I’m pretty tired this morning and will look forward to finally getting home tonight but I’ve been roped into feeding Steve’s cats tonight so have to go all the way down to Wimbledon first. I may have a quick go on his wii whilst I’m there too.

All I have to do now is clean the rest of my flat and then wait to get my deposit, should get more or less the full £1,000. Cash flow’s going to be tight this month, but should be okay.

Current plan is to have another poker night round mine on the 1st Sept, (Ian, I know you can’t make it but will make the Eagles of Death Metal gig on the 31st). Kris do you think you can make the Saturday? I’ll send an e-mail round with details later today.

Friday 27 July 2007

SC Movie Review 18

The Simpsons

April bought managed to get 2 tickets for a screening of the new Simpsons Movie yesterday. Beforehand we went for a quick bite to eat at the Hare and Tortoise, very Wagamamma like but good all the same. We both had ramen type things. I had a chickeny sweetcorn one and April had a spicy chicken and prawn number. All very good and very reasonably priced.

Anyway… on with the movie.

As expected all of your favourite characters are there, all on top form and there are five or six laugh out loud moments. Most notably Homer’s Spider-Pig.

The story revolves around Springfield getting placed inside a huge glass dome to prevent them from polluting the world further. It was Homer’s fault, surprise, surprise so they were banished and ended up in Alaska. Whilst there, they find out that Springfield is down to get demolished. Homer is the only one to save the day.

There were a couple of moments when I nearly shed a tear (yes, I nearly shed a tear), but this didn’t last long as the amusement carried on.

The film kept the same style as the TV series and worked well but if the film went on for any longer it would have dragged. It was a tough job to drag out a Simpsons episode into a full length movie and they just about pulled it off.

Perhaps it’s me and I’ve drifted away from the whole thing but for a while now I’ve not really been interested in watching the repeats lately on and some of it’s lost is lost to me.

Go and see it if you like the Simpsons, which is probably going to be everybody that reads this. It’s certainly no 9 / 10 as IMDB seems to suggest but there is enough gags to keep you smiling throughout.

SC rating: 68 / 100 (1 vote)
IMDB rating: 9.0 / 10 (3778 votes)

Thursday 26 July 2007

Scary cat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5067912.stm

A furry grim reaper

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6917113.stm

I bet he's a popular cat.

Fair enough...

Millionaire footballers have invented a new drinking game with only one rule - whoever brings the least amount of money on a night out has to buy ALL the drinks. (Daily Star)

After the meal last night which was very pricy, we ended up going to a bar in Shoreditch called Lounge Lovers. I've mentioned it before, we went after bonus night one year.

It's very cool and this time I didn't have to pay so all the better.

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Flat update 12.4 version 6_final version, amended-draft

I e-mailed Holly again this morning to find out the progress of my reference checks. Having not heard from her I gave her a call this afternoon to make sure that everything was progressing as planned.

It turns out that she simply forgot to cc me into an e-mail to the referencing firm asking how things were going. But in any case they had not gotten back to her so she was going to give them a call to try and speed things up. She also gave me their number so that I could do the same if I wanted to.

Having not been too confident with my dealings with Holly so far I gave them a call an hour later having heard nothing from her.

I phoned them up and gave them the required details only to find that they have no record of my name!!! I phoned Holly again…

She assured me that everything was in hand, she’d had the same response but when she enquired further spoke to the person that she usually deals with and he said that things were moving along.

Hopefully things have now been fast tracked so that I can move in this weekend.

The saga continues some more…

On the plus side i'm out for a free curry tonight with a couple of American cat modellers. One of which is the size of a vending machine! It's at fancy place in Spitafields Market called Scarlet Dot. I've been there before with April and it cost em a fortune.

Seems an awfully high figure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6914870.stm

"There are about 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States."

Given a population of around 300m that makes it just 0.2%. I would imagine the vast majority are male. That makes 0.4%. That's huge!

If these figures are correct or in the right ball park, that makes it 1 in 250 men in the US is a registered sex offender.

Is the UK any different...?

Tuesday 24 July 2007

"Ben is in desperate need of a massage. 5:17pm"

Seriously Ben, just give her a call...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691720089&highlight&ref=nf

Ha, ha, ha!

100 Friends!!!

According to Facebook I now have 100 friends! More realistically I now have 100 people that I vaguely know that are members of facebook, a subset of which may or may not be my friends.

Flat update

Moving in...

I sent off my reference details last Tuesday and are still waiting. The letting agent (Holly) said they take up to 4 days. I've just spoken to my boss and he's not heard anything yet so I hope they pull their fingers out.

If everything can get sorted this week then I can hopefully move in this weekend and not have the hassle of taking time off work.

I don't see what the problem is, it's not as if I want to give them money or anything. Oh yeah, I do. Silly idiots.

Watch this space for new news on my flat saga...

Monday 23 July 2007

Specialist

I have an appointment to see an orthapedic hand specialist tonight over in Wimbledon.

I hope he'll know what's wrong with it and is able to fix it. The physio was good but was only able to get a half the movement back. It's still swollen, bruised and bloody sore and has been for the past 5 / 6 months.

Friday 20 July 2007

...other gubbins...

I met my 'new' land lady last night. She wanted to meet me and I wanted to have another look round the flat so we met up after work.

She seemed very nice, very talkative, but very nice all the same. All that's left now is the formality of getting my references approved. Which according to the letting agent take up to 4 days (so Monday max), then me transfering over another £2700. Already paid £280 so £3k just to move in! The lease on my current place runs out on the 3rd but this place is

It's a great flat though, and to my surprise, the sofa, is in fact a sofa bed, so Ian and Ben can spoon to their hearts delight when they come down to visit.

Other details about the flat.

Street and house

It's on a nice and wide tree lined street, 5 minutes walk from the tube. The house is a big old 4 story Victorian building that's been split into 4 flats. I have the first floor.

Living room

The living room is big with nice big windows overlooking the street. It has a fire place but I don't think you're allowed to use it in London. i.e. I could move the flat to another location then use it.

It has lots of storage and plenty of room for my lcd.

Kitchen

The kitchen is small but new and is just off from the living room. Again it has loads of storage place so at least I have the option to keep the place tidy.

Bathroom

The bathroom is large and has what looks like a decent shower. I hate testing things like that. The way I see it, if you test one thing, you have to test everything. Taps for water pressure, gas hobs, plug fittings. Why stop there? Why not have a big dump in the toilet to test its flush? To save embarrassment I decided not to check the shower.

Bedroom

The bedroom is again big and overlooks the garden (I don't have access), it has recessed built in wardrobes which I have stupidly said that April can store 'some' of her clothes in. In English to Australian translation that will mean dumping all of her winter clothes round mine.

Overall i'm very pleased with it. It’s expensive but my plan is to stay for a year and in the last 3-4 months of the 12 month lease start looking for a place to buy.

I’m paying £1150 per month, I think that can get me a decent sized mortgage.

I think I’ll be having a house warming over my birthday weekend (31st August). Ben, you’ve confirmed the Friday as Eagles of Death Metal are playing. Ian, can you make it? We’ve got six tickets.

Me
April
Steve
Shaheen
Ben
?????

So hurry if you want it. The house warming will be on the 1st September. I think that’s enough rant and nonsense talking so ta ta for now.

Hmmm… 503 words. Impressive.

London transport

I've been travelling into work from Putney for the best part of 250 days this past year and just as i'm about to move to Clapham I have the best journey in ever.

We arrived at the station a little late at 8:10 and pretty much walked straight onto our train and straight into two first class seats. That has never happened before.

Then when we got to the Waterloo and City line again we were straight onto the tube. How good is that?

The only down side is that i'm now in work early and don't know what to do...

Tuesday 17 July 2007

"Helsinki, we love you!"

If anyone thought that rock was dead, move to Helsinki.

The place is rock.

Every bar / pub that we went to had rock / heavy metal playing through their sound systems.

50% of men had rock beards and hair, all about 6ft+ and massive, with tattoos covering both arms. I’m sure even some of the women had beards.

I’m not sure I’d like the winter much as it would be far too cold and only get daylight for a couple of hours each day but the summer was great. Although it rained a little it was pretty much sunny for 20 hours each day. I think I’ve even got a bit of a tan.

Although not as big or as impressive as Wembley, Helsinki’s Olympic stadium still held about 40,000 fans and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even after the 4th encore!

I think that may be the way forward for my travelling in the near future. Find a band I like and travel somewhere where I haven’t been before to see them. Why not…?

In other band news, I’m off to see The Black Rebel Motorcycle club tomorrow night.

P.S. The funniest thing I saw whilst there was a t-shirt stand in one of the markets selling “I like Finland t-shirts Ha, ha, ha!

Thursday 12 July 2007

Moving house

I put an offer on a flat in Clapham last night!

Fingers crossed it'll get accepted... It was 10% below asking (£1191) so hopefully they make a lower counter offer, perhaps 5%.

I'm quite excited!!!

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Qualified

Steve passed his final actuarial exam last Thursday.

A long slog but no more exams for Steve. Maybe I should start...

I've been thinking about ACII (Insurance) but have never got round to it.

And the winner is...?

Just checked my weekend lottery ticket and I am the proud owner of a new £10 note!

Whoop-tie do I wanted to win £5,000,000. Never mind. I guess you have to be in it to win it.

Tuesday 10 July 2007

Sad news...

Just found out from Harriet that her old cat Perkins has died. He's been living in the country for the past year or so but he was still a cool cat.

He was hit by a car and died. Thankfully the vet thinks he would have died instantly so he would have been in no pain.

I salute you Admiral Perkins.

Out of respct I'll retire the Perkins photo.

St. Ives

I've just gotten back from St. Ives and what a lovely long weekend it was.

We set off early on Friday morning and Ken our Australian Tom-Tom tour guide helped us navigate our way 1.5 hours quicker than the RAC website. Well done Ken.

Friday afternoon was spent walking round the picturesque town of St. Ives, if you haven't been (Do) it's a pretty, quaint old place with a good mix of people, old retired folk and young surfer dude types. It also has amusing pikeys and a large number of resident artists. In the evening we found a quiet restaurant and had a lovely meal.

Saturday was spent getting various parts of our bodies burnt on one of St. Ives many pleasant beaches, we really didn't think it was going to be that sort of weather but we were lucky and it was only really horrid on the day we left. We ended up going to a posh restaurant called the Blue Fish. April was celebrating getting herself a new job so had some lobster. More pain than it was worth if you ask me. I had a big steaming pot of every bit of seafood going. All very good.


On Sunday we drove to the Eden Project, lots of plants and rain. We then drove back and spotted a cider farm. I screeched the breaks on the car and followed the signs. I've bought a nice big bottle for our bbq in a few weeks. Fish and chips was the order of the day for tea.

Monday was a quiet one, I attempted to catch crabs with some squid bait and April tried to disguise her red bits by getting a little more brown. Meanwhile I built a huge sand castle. Later on April went to a live drawing class and I was impressed with her work.

I got back a couple of hours ago and am tired now but all in all it was a great weekend away. Roll on Helsinki!!!

Photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34051&id=604100720&ref=mf

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Do wonders ever cease?

Do Polo Mints emmit light when snapped?

I'd heard the statement before but assumed it was an urban myth and thought that Mythbusters would cover it in good time I ignored it until Ben mentioned that they do whilst on our canal boat holiday.

Curious to see if they did I decided to try for myself, I also bought the extra strong variety to see if there was more light given off by them.

So, do polo mints emmit light when snapped...?

...yes!

Not much but they do give off a tiny amount of light. How cool is that? Who found out first? Can they solve the worlds energy crisis? Is April going to get a back full of polo mint crumbs next time she stays round mine?

Stay tuned to find out!

Monday 2 July 2007

I've just poked Stephen Fry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6260210.stm

I've just looked up Stephen Fry on facebook and you can no longer add him as a friend. This left me with only one option...

I 'poked' him!

Ha, ha!

Does anyone want to pay me to update their facebook for £1000 / month?

Demolition

Corby defines what it means by regeneration DEMOLITION!!!

CORBY'S regeneration will take another step forward today as 38 rundown homes are demolished.
The vacant houses and flats on the Kingswood Estate are to be bulldozed to make way for a fresh development on the site.

http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby?articleid=2992105

Incidentally my Dad's old house isn't one of them...

Yeah for no smoking!!!

I went out for a meal with April last night and I didn't stink of cigaretes afterwards. I hope it rains more this year so that smokers faces really get rubbed in it.

Ha, ha!

Welcome back to civilisation

Shaheen has left Canterbury and moved to New Cross (next to where I used to live in Deptford South East London). I'm grabbing a beer or 9 with him this Wednesday.