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9TH DECEMBER 2008

Today has been a day of disappointment so far, but there you go, I guess it’s expected when you put your faith in a woman who knows you like her a lot, and she makes the error in thinking, that because you like her as much as you do, you’ll let sh*t slide…… well not this brother…. As much as I still hold a torch for her, Miss Sept. made that mistake, there’s ego tripping and there’s taking the p*ss.

Not a bad weekend all in all. Woke up on Friday having lost 6 – 2 against The Clubmen which a doubles team consisting of identical twins who must be in their late 50’s early 60’s but are arguably the best league pairing in our league. Knocking scores of 120, 128 and 134 it would seem that at least my new bowling ball has given me a little more consistency... I just need to get better at bowling now.

Friday I was at home waiting for the man to come fix my boiler, with horror stories ringing in my ears about the BBC show “Rogue Traders” and dodgy boiler fixers I was safe in the knowledge that my boiler guy was Corgi registered and knew what he was doing.

Friday night I was DJing at the a photographic studio’s Christmas party and it was brill, there was a good crowd there and it went on late, to the extent that the council turned up asking us to turn the music down.

Saturday I went for lunch with Mr G to his local Ruby House, which opened at 12Midday, so we got there are about 1210, only to be told that the “Tandoor” wasn’t hot yet, so we couldn’t have any Tandoori dishes, which in itself isn’t a bad thing, but that also meant no Non Bread, which is a no no in my opinion, how can you have Ruby without nan bread, wasn’t happy, but besides that the company was great and the actually ruby was very good indeed,

The afternoon of Saturday I went to book into my hotel in Earls Court, was in fact an Easyhotel as in like Easyjet but a hotel instead. I must admit for £25 a night in the heart of London I got no major complaints but will post a review on the site at some point.

Saturday evening I hooked up with KRS and we went to see my man Monts in a play called Topdog/Underdog (originally starring Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle) which the story of two brothers called Lincoln and Booth and their volatile relationship. The play only had to cast members so was a pretty major part for Monts and as I knew he would, he put in a great performance. After the show I went for a few drinks with the cast and crew and met a few very interesting people, one in particular, she intrigued and amused me, especially the way she was all over Monts, yet another young female falls for the charms of Monts.

Sunday I got up early and left Easy to get to the Station at about 0906…. Looking at the departure board I noticed that there was a clear problem what with the 0843 still waiting to leave, a few minutes later it was clear the 0913 was going to be in the same predicament, and low and behold it was…. For the next 1hr and 20minutes I stood on the concourse, predicting correctly that you would cancel the 0843, 0913 and even Virgin cancelled the 0930…. At 1030ish the first train departed. The only good thing about standing around on the station concourse for nearly 90 minutes with no real info apart from the tired excuse of over-running engineering works… please change the record… the only good thing that came out of this experience was that I discovered The Pasty Shop does a cracking Bacon roll, though they never had Mayo which would have made the roll a 10/10 instead of the 9/10 score that it got, and with that fast food compliment I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

4TH DECEMBER 2008

I have to say the feeling of being a candle was broken this week, as I had a dinner date on Tuesday where I cooked and she actually turned up which was cool. I served up Camembert in breadcrumbs for starter, followed by minced beef and mushrooms served on a bed of fresh pasta and dessert was black cherry cheesecake, all washed down with Fresh OJ and Jamaican Blue Mountain freshly ground filter coffee…. Think I suitably impressed her, though that doesn’t really matter because I found out on Tuesday she’s recently happily attached.

With all this candle action going on, I’ve been giving the dating game a fair bit of thought I’ve come to the conclusion, in this country there really is only 3 women I’d like date and really get to know, of course not concurrently, the three being Lil Miller, Fruit Jelly and Biker Jay…. Biker was who came to dinner on Tuesday, but alas none of them are interested apart from being mates and I respect that, but as far as I’m concerned the dating game is over for me. Why those three, because I know they've always been fully honest with me and don't treat me like I was born yesterday.

Right now though I’ve got to get focussed, because as many of you know I’m holding a fundraiser on the 17th January 2009 at Corks Wine Bar in London for the Stroke Association, which had been going smoothly, but the person who was driving it forward has had things crop up and now the ball has been thrown at me and I’m having to run with this event now, and unfortunately due to her commitments the event isn't as far as we’d have both liked it to be, but before I go any further I’d like to give my dear friend Razor Law and massive hug for everything she’s done so far which is far more than she really needed to give, as she’d already given us the venue Corks for free and agreed to donate the entry fee, so thanks for that Razor.

So yeah folks wish me all the best as I take this on board for the final leg and people please do keep the 17th January free and do your very best to be at Corks Wine Bar, 28 Binney Street, Mayfair, London from 7.30 till 2am… £5 before 10pm £7 thereafter and all monies go to raising funds for The Stroke Association, which is the third biggest killer in the UK, but yet hardly gets support compared to the two biggest killers, so your support is really needed people.

With that heart felt plea ringing in your ears, I’m off to bowling and shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl?

28TH NOVEMBER 2008

It’s been a busy week here in Camstar’s world, which is all good. Last night was the second time of bowling with my new bowling ball but unlike last week when I bowled pretty well, last night my bowling was similar to the way my team Barnet play football….. bloody badly…. Knocking in scores of 96, 101 and 144 so not quite as efficient as our team sponsors DB Schenker for all your Logistic needs…

I’d like to give a big shout out to Kate A and her now husband Stevo, congrats on the marriage and wishing you both many many happy years together.

Well another weekend comes and yet again I’ve been blown out by a bird, soon people will start calling me “Candle” cos I get blown out so often… though the person blowing me is not really a potential partner as it’s my mate Wren who has been mentioned on the website before, so not sure if that counts towards my Candle status.

Tonight I’m meant to be meeting TB for a few cheeky ones at the German Market, but not heard from her all week and I ain’t chasing her after all she was one of the birds who blew my out last weekend, so let’s see if it happens or whether my candle status grows.

Oh this week, one thing major that happened was my boiler was playing and not delivering hot water all the time… the engineer came on Wednesday and tried to fix it, but now I’m waiting for a part to arrive, fingers crossed it will come sooner rather than later.

Remember last week I told ya that Mr G got broken into and the insurance company were making excuses not to pay out, well an update, the insurance company have backed down and are now gonna pay up, so that’s pretty cool, nice one Mr G, and with that bit of good news I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

20TH NOVEMBER 2008

Talk about disheartening, this dating game is a nightmare. I had a date lined up for Saturday and this particular date was talking a good game, then bam a family crisis and she can’t make it. Jumping on the wagon I set up another date and bam she’s gone down with an asthma attack, set up a possible third date and again bam she’s got guests for the weekend…. now I’m not saying their lying or anything like that, but all those who know me, know I don’t believe in coincidences. I’ve decided to give up on the dating game till the New Year at the earliest, that said I am pencilled in to be attending a Christmas Party at a Hotel in Birmingham and they are planning to have a singles table, which I’ll be sitting on.

My first experience of 10 Pin Bowling was back in the Summer of 1989, when Luke, Fu, Russ and I discovered Rowans Lanes in Finsbury Park, we got lifetime membership which gave us free entry and preferential booking, but I’ve lost that card with all the moving about. We got to the stage where we were in the Lanes 4 – 5 times a week, not always bowling as they had a great restaurant there too… Over the years of bowling on and off I’d always given people who had their own ball grief, especially when more often that not I’d beat them or lose by a couple of pins. Well today I’ve decided I’m gonna buy myself a ball.

I’m not buying myself a ball because I’m any good, I’m actually buying the ball for two reasons, one it’s a good deal, £42 for a ball, a bag and a pair of shoes…and the second reason is because I actually think buy getting my own ball I might improve my game.

How many times have you been bowling and it’s taken you a fair amount of time to find a ball where you find the weight you want but the holes aren’t right or vice versa, then you use that as a joking excuse as to why you haven’t bowled that well. Well I reckon getting my own ball gets rid of that scenario, which means if I bowl good or bad it’s actually me performing and not cos I got a dodgy ball or something.

I’ve decided this weekend is gonna be a “ME” weekend… phones will go unanswered and I’m just gonna plug into Vic and Tiff big time as this is my last free weekend until Christmas, but I’m only really doing this because I can’t be bothered to try and set up another date just to get blown out again, and on that touch of selfishness I say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to Yawl.

17th NOVEMBER 2008

…Tell you what, Saturday morning….. was it Saturday… yeah it was…. my head was banging… my stomach was feeling arrrrghhhh… rough is an understatement to how I felt, and you know I don’t blame the pints of cider consumed…. I blame this….. just imagine if I’d had more than the one cup that I had….. there were kids drinking this stuff on Friday night….. I think there were a lot of messy houses on Saturday morning.

One thing I really need help with is to understand why when I 10 bowl I can’t get consistency? On Thursday I knocked in scores of 159, 108 and 191. this is an average of about 152…. But I’d much prefer to have three games scoring 150+ then be so inconsistent, so if you got any tips on how I can improve my consistency, then let me know. In the end we drew 4 – 4 Rico, who we always have a good game against.

I’d like to give Mr G a big shout out, as some tosser broke into his place on Friday and stole his TV, Laptop, spare car-keys, a watch and his Sat Nav…. and now his insurance company won’t pay up because they say he never told them he’d taken a lodger…. Any excuse not to pay up, their just as bad as thieves… so if any one out there has a spare TV or maybe a Laptop they’re trying to get rid of cheap then holla me.

The weekend for me overall was ok, had to sort a few issues out, but besides that, I may have a regular DJ slot in the offing at a club in Redditch, but the person who offered me the slot flew to Tobago for a vacation, so we plan to discuss when he returns.

I maybe checking out that Brazilian place again this Saturday coming, an acquaintance of mine what’s to come check it out, though I suppose I should get my first visit review out there sooner rather than later… question is, will this person bring their wallet this time round… with that pondering thought I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

13th November 2008

It would seem that someone in the U S has tried to use my Debit Card fraudulently.

Before I went Stateside my Debit card was fine, could use it on the net over the telephone to buy most things, since coming back what a mare… A couple of days back I tried to book a room at Easyhotel, managed to find one for £25 in central London…. Went to pay for it, but when I got to that Visa Verification step, as you can imagine I know all the verification answers, so was surprised when it got declined.

It was throwing up a message “Details do not match security number (3 last digits on back of card strip) we have on file” ….. Not impressed as I had no idea what was happening and I missed out on the £25…. Before my eyes the price went up to £42… then went on to “Hotel is fully booked”…. Gutted…..

Thinking it might just be the Easy site, I tried topping up my Oyster card as I knew that worked because I’d used it to top the day before I went to the states as I was down at Mr G’s place…. And the same thing happened… in frustration I tired one too many times and the Visa Verification sent message telling me to call a number…. By this time I’m thinking Halifax are just inept and I was p*ssed…. So I thought leave it 24 hours so I’ve calmed down cos if I had called the person answering the phone would have been getting both barrels, I’m thoughtful like that.

So I’m kicking it at home last night, channel hopping and I come across that great quality channel which over the years always makes me smile as they try to sell you something, saying stuff like… “I bought this very product for myself”….. yeah right of course you did… the channel Bid TV….. and up comes a men’s pod watch…. They had about 500 of them…. cost £90+… according to Bid TV, though online I’ve spotted them for about £22, and that’s top end of the scale…. Sitting there I watch the price drop to £5.99 (+7.99 p+p)…. I think, I might get that, so I call the number and wait for the confirmation call…. After about an hour, the call comes through… not thinking I use my Electron…. Only to be told the transaction won’t go through….So now the problems have moved from Internet to phone…

Suddenly the whole wait 24 hours went out the window, I picked up the phone and yep she got both barrel…. Poor woman… she was trying to fob me off with you need to go in the branch with photo ID… which I was having none of… cussed, saying “Before I went to the states my card was fine…. I come back and I can’t even buy a pack of 3, and you know what sister, I don’t want kids, so I want my card sorted now”……. Then I got a tumbleweed moment (…atm…), I’m sitting there thinking maybe I overstepped the mark…. She then pipes up….. “Mr Maynard, I can no longer discuss your account, can you please call the following number…….” I asked if they were there now…. To which she replied gingerly... “No they closed 5 minutes ago…” I bite the bullet and just said what time do they open…..

So I call the number this morning… the man answers… “Halifax Fraud….” From talking to him it would seem that there was what they call a tester transaction for $1 from Napster, which he said is a fraud trigger and alerts them that there could be fraudulent activity on a card…. It happened on 22nd October… Halifax tried to contact me but as they were trying my home number and I was in the states they didn’t get a reply….. they claim they tried numerous times over the next week or so but to no avail… bearing in mind when I landed in Heathrow on the 26th I drew out some cash…. So they put a hold on my card… even though I was still drawing money out…..

Apparently, according to this fraud dude, a tester payment is used by many sites where you might subscribe to something, it is used as a test to make sure the card you are registering is a valid card and it also triggers this Visa Verification screen…. But it would seem that fraudsters use certain sites that have these tester payments (I assume Napster is one) using the card info they may have acquired when you’ve bought something in a shop. They hope that by triggering the Visa verification screen they can set it up against a fake card but a valid account… what would happen is the site would after a couple of days tell them the trigger payment worked, which then gives them the green light to use the card to clear out your account, by buying stuff online, then reselling it on an auction site…..

As I’ve said to a fair few people on my return from the states…. “You really don’t want to lose you credit card if you’re in the states….” It would seem you don’t have to lose you card…….

Gutted… it was a nice watch too….. though I can get a similar watch for £23.99 at this place…£90…. Yeah right bid TV…. Bunch of crooks….and with that revelation I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

12th NOVEMBER 2008

Hello peeps, man I got to shave, my face is itching with this winter beard. I got back from Orlando and man alive it was cold, so to counter that I decided to go for the beard and actually grow my head hair. Though I’ve got a private Christmas party coming up in early December at a photographic and modelling studio, I’ll have to shave that off as I don’t want to be the old guy, grey haired in the corner playing the records.

On Saturday I went to an eating place called Rodizio which is a Brazilian style buffet place and I have to say I ain’t eaten that much at a restaurant, let alone a buffet, remembering I’ve just got back from the centre of the universe when it comes to buffets, but this was a buffet I’d absolutely recommend… alas they don’t have a website, but here’s one of a similar place and concept which is in Denver USA. I will put a review of the place I went to on the site in due course.

After the meal I dropped "Butter" off at home, as she was a little strapped for cash and I’d already paid for the majority of her meal, and I headed to my old haunt Chicago Rock Café, where I DJ’d for nearly three years with The Capt, from the Capt and the Wasp, the place hasn’t changed apart from being pretty empty.

That place can hold 1,800 people and when the Capt and I did that place on Saturday, it used to be heaving, everywhere was packed, but obviously with the credit crunch, longer drinking hours for pubs and smoking ban, the whole industry of Leisure and Entertainment has been hit big time. It was still a good night and I also spotted DJ Lee who was now the main jock at Chicago Rock. Some of you ex Liberty goers may remember Lee, he was the DJ who took over from The Capt and The Wasp back in late 2006 early 2007, so was good to touch base with him.

Sunday I spent having a “Me” day which involves having a lie in, though I was up at 9.30 to get to Aldi, and that was despite hitting the sack at 0430… a “Me” day involves not answering the phone and just thinking about “Me”, so all in all, Sunday was pretty chilled.

The week so far has been ok actually. I put a level out there on Little Big Planet, which is a really addictive game and I also registered for the FIFA Interactive World Cup on the PS3, have played two games so far and lost both, despite playing quite well, but bottom-line, I was out passed and out played, so it’s gonna be a long tournament but it should make me a better player…. and with that touch of optimism I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

7TH NOVEMBER 2008

What a nightmare, I had at bowling last night. I was playing alone, or “blind” as they call it, so odds were it was going to be an 8 – 0 loss, but it started well with me knocking in a 121 and actually with the blind score, I won… but about 7 pins… then the second game went to form and I got beaten but about 12 pins of so, but still managed 131… then the last game is where is all went a little Pete Tong.

Going into the last frame I needed 12 pins to win… so the pressure was on as I needed a strike or a spare to start with. First ball I knocked in a 9… then next ball I picked off the single pin… All day I’d been scoring 7+ on my first ball... so essentially all I needed to do was get it down the middle and I’d get more than 2 pins…..but no… the only time my release let me down and the bowl crawled down the lane tittering on the edge of the gully lip…. It got to the end and took out the 10 Pin…as in the number 10 pin… as in one pin… so scored 11 on that frame… so the game was tied…. So despite knocking in a 137, I lost the game 5 – 3... I guess not bad, the fact I scored 3 points, but I now know how Arsenal feel when Lennon smacked in that equaliser to bring the score to 4 – 4.

Now I say that was a nightmare, but not quite the nightmare of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian leader who congratulated Obama on his presidency, by calling him Young, Handsome and…………..”Tanned”…………………………………………………………………………atm… ………………….

Well the weekend is just about upon us and what’s going on in my world, well tomorrow shall see the clash of Arsenal and Man United, which I hope to watch, but in the evening I’m going to check out a new local Brazilian Buffet style eating establishment, which apparently also provides entertainment… which I’m hoping doesn’t involve any kind of shaving cream…

Sunday shall be filled with spending time with Tiff and Vic and also seeing if Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended from the Beeb yet…and with that I'll say Peace, Unity, Love and Havng Fun to yawl.

5TH NOVEMBER 2008

I’ve pulled my finger out and am making a proper blog entry since my arrival back from the U S, but firstly I must congratulate two people, firstly my man B, whose book “Fallen Heroes” is doing pretty well and his in discussion with a production company who want to bring out Fallen Heroes as series of Graphic Novels, well done dude and keep up the drive to make it happen for you. The second congrats goes to Barrack Obama for becoming the first United States of America President is who a man of colour, well done sir and strive to be the people’s man.

So Obama is the Pressie of the U S of A…. Now what I am about to say I fully form from my own opinion which was derived from being the States in two of the last three weeks before the elections and spending time with U S citizens discussing politics over a bottle of Bud Light and watching the Tennessee Titans hand a case whoop-ass to the Kansas City Chiefs, so if there is any cross over between my thoughts and someone else’s, it is purely coincidence…

Now since the whole President race started and the Obama and Clinton race got whittled down to Obama, I said he was now in someone’s crosshairs…. don’t get me wrong it seems the U S president is always in someone’s crosshairs, as are many country leaders, but for Obama it was more, in my opinion, to do with his skin colour as to why he was in the crosshairs. On talking to U S locals in Orlando whilst eating my All American Breakfast and talking with the staff of the Double Eagle on Interstate 192 West, we all agreed that if Obama became pressie, he would have effectively signed his death warrant. We all seemed to agree that some of the people in the U S who had a view point that the U S pressie should not be a man or woman of coloured skin, also had the mentality to try and take him out, but I do hope that I’m wrong.

It’s a good thing that the U S as eventually got a pressie of coloured skin, but let’s hope the striving for making history hasn’t sentenced a man to death, because listening to Obama and his policies and view points, he is going to be a welcomed change, so long as he sticks to his promises.

As for me in general, I’ll all good, though since getting back from the States I’ve been pretty tired, think I might need to set up an appointment with my Doc and get my sugar and cholesterol levels checked….

I’m currently being a sad lonely individual, I was talking to my man Ju the other night, I must have access to about 19 PS3 half of which aren’t finish, and my life consists of PS3 gaming, day job, DJing and then catching up with Vic… I’m 40 and life being now right…? that said I did have my first Sushi last night, which ok… quite enjoyed it, would def go again, but the downside was the special fried rice was expensive and to be honest not every good… you pay £8.50 for a Special Fried Rice you would expect it be moist and scrambly but it was just dry…. My local take away does Special Fried Rice for £4.30... you get more it’s actually moist and nice…. Think the place I went to was a great concept and the Sushi was pretty good, but I think they focus on the Sushi and they have sacrificed and lost sight of the basics….and on that note I’ll bid, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

31ST OCTOBER 2008

Well I'm back after my U S break, I shall tell you all about it very very soon... have a great Halloweend and an awesome weekend, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl....

9TH OCTOBER 2008

It’s a been a fair few days since the soiree and I have to say thanks to one and all who made the effort to come and even to those who tried to come but had family issues crop up which stopped them, cheers peeps.

It did look like it was going south, when the DJ I’d planned for the evening contacted me at about midday on the day via email, saying he wasn’t going to make it due to a flare up of an old illness….. good job I checked my email really….

So I had to do what I do and throw down some sounds, and I loved it. From where I was standing it seems that people were enjoying themselves so I’d say it was a pretty good success, but I could be completely wrong, and there was only once that I needed to cuss someone.

Would like to say a special thanks to Davey E, who turned up out of the blue, I really didn’t expect to see him, but he turned up and it was like old times in Hemel…. Cheers Davey and def keep in touch sir.

This week has kinda been odd. As most of you know I’m heading Stateside for a while and it kinda weird having my main two week break this late on… the last time I went this late was 2001 when I went to Napa for T and Fletch’s wedding.

People have asked me if I’m looking forward to the trip to Florida, but you know what, I’m not at all, I hate flying with a passion, which is kinda ironic as one of my best mates is a pilot. He keeps saying that he’ll take me up some day and also says I should have a few flying lessons which would make me feel more comfy, but nah I think not. But though I hate flying, need must if you want to get anywhere on this Earth.

It’s the last day of the bowling league fixtures today and The Mag and I will be flying the flag. I must admit, though I’ve lost 8 to zip for the last three games, I’ve actually been playing my most consistent knocking in an average of about 131, with the lowest score being about 123 and a 141 highest, so that’s kinda cool.

Well folks this will probably be the last entry before I head stateside, so for the next few weeks I’d like to say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

2ND OCTOBER 2008

Been a few days since I last wrote on here and I’m counting the days till my B’Day soiree and my vacation.

I’ve got a swanky phone which I’ve been using to watch American shows, which Bucky has helped me to acquire. Heroes and Fringe being two of the shows. I’d seen Heroes early last week, but since it’s now been shown in the UK, I can pass comment.

Well after the disappointment of Season 2, it’s good to see that Season 3 has hit the ground running, literally with the Daphne character. She’s coming across as Hiro’s nemesis. As for Sylar, they should have kept him dead from Season 1, his just become tedious and now Peter and Nathan’s mother is claiming to be his mother too…. It smells of the whole Vader and Luke Skywalker being father and son

As for Dr Suresh, his story arc already is annoying me, that whole The Fly syndrome, where the guy experimented on himself and became the Fly. The Matt Parkman story arc looks interesting looking forward to see how that pans out. But all that said, looking at some of the future clips, it would seems a fair few people are gonna get hurt… let’s hope if people get killed they stay dead.

The new show Fringe, which I think starts on Sunday 5th October on Sky One, I’ve seen episode one and I’ve posted a review here, so have a gander and look out for the show this Sunday.

There are two more weeks of 10 Pin for this period of the League and my top League score of 259 for one game (handicap’d) was taken a couple of weeks back by one pin… I’ve had that score since week one when I knocked in a 200 scratch score (handicap of 59 at the time) so I got two weeks to focus and hopefully get that top score back. Fingers crossed huh, I need to do better than the 92, 131 and 131 from last week though…..and with that wishful thinking I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

25TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Hello peeps, I’ve been a course for the last few days and been educated and it was fun too.

Well it only 9 days to go before my birthday soiree on 4th October and I’m quite looking forward to it, though to be honest I have a deeper dear that no one will actually turn up. You know you fork out for the hire of the venue but then very few people RSVP, so then it get tetchy, and then you don’t want to order food as hardly anyone eats at these events, but then people turn up expecting food to be there. But for the record, I’ve not got any food on order, so if you are coming, I’d advise you get some food down your Gregory before you get there.

This weekend I’m playing at Wear Something Blue which is being held at Corks, I’m doing the 7 – 10pm set, which should be fun fun fun, though I got some new stuff for Tiff, which I’m really looking forward to plugging into, so I’m guessing Sunday is gonna be a day spent playing with Tiff.

Oh people, we got any Heroes fans out there..? Well (with the help of Bucky) this morning I watched Episode 1 of Season 3... I won’t give you any spoilers, but let just say…. they’ve either opened a can of worms….. or copped out….. with what they’ve done in this episode it can either be a inspirational success or it can go great guns then become stayed and predictable... Bit like Smallville in the first season…. First 15 episodes of that were so predictable…. For me, I get a feeling it will be become stayed and predictable... but I really hope I’m wrong.

Well tonight is the first bowling night after my recent practise sessions, but I’m not expecting a win as it’s only me bowling so it could be a hammering I get, but fingers crossed I’ll at least win two points….and with all those thoughts of hope, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

22nd SEPTEMBER 2008

Well peeps it’s been a few days since I wrote on here and to be honest not much has happened really.

I did a bowling practise again and knocked in 123, 126 and 132. Not the best scores but at least consistent. Especially when you consider I was trying different bowling styles and techniques. I now feel a little more confident about my bowling style but I guess it’s now down to delivering on the league match, so what this space.

The weekend for me was pretty much chilled unlike a pal of mine who had gone down to London to attend a wedding, but the adventure she had came right out of a comedy show.

It all started Wednesday night when she found out that although there was a trip to the Registrar on Friday it was not going to be a dressing up day as they were not going to class it as a proper Wedding day till Saturday……..atm……… Well come Friday, the Bride & Groom turned up in cut off trousers, t-shirts and flip-flops………………… atm………………… As my pal had booked transport thinking the wedding was on the Friday, which is when it was, as you can’t post date a marriage certificate, her coach was on Saturday which left at 8.30am but she didn’t make it in time as her ride to the coach station was still asleep at that time… but she made the 10.30am coach. But was further delayed dude to all the football traffic on the motorway….. all seems very Victor Meldew material I say.

The highlight of my weekend was catching Beverley Hills Cop and BHC2 on Sky Movies. I know you’re wondering why was that a highlight; well BHC has sentimental value to me. Back in 1987 when my passed away, on hearing the news I withdrew into myself and I actually went to the video store and hired BHC, as I’d never seen it before and I proceeded to watch the film back to back for three days straight. So though not a cracking film, I loved it and whenever I watch it I get a warm feeling as I think about my mum… R.I.P…. and with that touching statement I’ll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

16TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Hello peeps, man I feel shattered, though going to bed at 3am this morning and knocking out 3 games of bowling at lunchtime, I guess it’s always gonna catch up with me.

Despite the tiredness I actually knocked a few good scores….136, 186 and 152, if only I could take those kinda scores to my league games we wouldn’t be bottom.

Bed at 3am was due to going to The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, London and getting home at about 0140 hours. I’d always wanted to go somewhere like The Berkeley, so dragged Jeffo along and we had a few expensive in The Blue Bar, when I say I mean expensive… Remember a few months back I mentioned going for a drink at Jewel at Piccadilly Circus and a bird paying £17.50 for two drinks and giving the barman a £20 and leaving him the change….well that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Jeffo and I had 6 bottles of Peroni which came in at £31….. but the final bill was £57.37, the other drink we had was a rum and coke each… which when I got it, I said to Jeffo that it had to be the worse glass of Rum and Coke I’d ever had…. I later found out why…. But first the cost…. £25 for two rum and cokes….. and the reason for their poor taste was because it was Bacardi. Having not had Bacardi of decades and now remember why I never drank it or claimed it to be Rum… and have to say it did hurt to fork out that kinda money as I picked up the tab, the consolation though, is apparently we got see Nancy Dell'Olio, Sven’s ex… I never saw her from the front, but Jeffo was facing the door as she came in and was adamant it was Nancy… but from where I was, if it was her…. What a cracking body she’s got… and you could see her wardrobe wasn’t cheap….. it was kinda embarrassing I’d say for some of the women in the bar… Apparently the Blue Bar is a footballer hotspot, so you had a fair few pretenders aspiring to be a WAG… and they are all dressed pretty classy… but then when Nancy walks in, even from behind you tell just looking at her wardrobe, that is what classy is all about.

We ended up going to Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Bar and a couple in there, where Jeffo picked up the tab, and then we ended up in Jewel, which again Jeffo picked up the tab… Jewel seem decided cheap compared to The Blue Bar.

Some news on the Stroke Association Fundraiser 09, I’ve managed to secure a full DJ roster, so on the night we got 4 different DJ’s covering music from 60’s – modern day with sounds of Disco, Funk, Soul, House, Cheese and Electro. So with that exciting news I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

12TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Now I don’t drive, but reading in the Metro this morning the about the driving licence situation, can I say ironically, “It’s a licence to print money” isn’t it? As I said I don’t drive but I’m sure the DVLA and the government didn’t canvas drivers to say “Hey we’re introducing a new photographic licence, which should be credit card size so you won’t need to carry your paper one around with ya all the time.... oh and by the way, the new licence will only be valid for 10 years and you’ll have to pay £17.50 for a new one with a new picture... and if you refuse to pay this £17.50 we’ll do you for, failing to surrender a licence and we’ll fine you up to £1K”….. I’m sure if they had said that, 95% of drivers would have said….”You know what, I’m happy to carry my paper licence about thanks”...bunch of thieving bar stewards

Apart from also seeing the Metro, jacket potatoes aren’t good for you……..I noticed my worst fear happened…. a fire broke out in the channel tunnel, due to a lorry on a freight train overturning. Reading the article it would seem the lorry overturned and not the freight train….my guess, someone is losing their job for not tying that lorry down properly, though a fire in the Chunnel isn’t as big a fear I have of my plane to Florida flying out the sky, I’m petrified of flying but it needs to be done if you wanna get anywhere.

The weekend ahead shall be one of chilling, as I really need to spend some time with Vic and get some hours freed up for when I hit the states as there are few shows I def needed record, though I got to try and complete Ghost Recon and Stranglehold with Tiff as not played them for over a week and that’s just wasting my available credits, but the one thing I do want to happen is Barnet to win a game of football… and on that pipe dream, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

11TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Considering I got blown out yesterday for a date, I feel surprisingly ok about the situation, though to be honest as soon as she agreed to the date, I’d resigned myself to the fact she wasn’t gonna come anyway.

Thing is, it’s not the fact she blew me out because as I said I expected her to, but it’s just, I’m trying to get my head round the prolonged way we got to the fact she wasn’t coming.

Here’s the scene… we agreed sometime last week to go out yesterday, we communicated a couple of times after the date was set. Over the weekend I was down in the big smoke, so I refrained from contacting her, as I just wanted to see if she would contact me first... alas she didn’t. So Tuesday morning I sent her a hello text, to which she promptly replied, we then sent a few texts back and forth, so we were effectively in a text conversation, so I then asked the question… “Are we still on for tomorrow evening?” to which her response was......................atm .............................................................................. yep, “A Tumbleweed Moment”, which proceeded too last all day, bearing in mind this was at 0815 Tuesday, it lasted all day Wednesday too, then at 1750 I get a text apologising for not replying to my text with the reason being about getting into a row with her ex, and she didn’t feel she would be good company.

Now don’t get me wrong I appreciate that often when people split up, their ex is still there hanging around like a bad smell and so I’m cool with the fact she got into a row and didn’t feel like going out.......... no honest I am cool about it, but the bit that doesn’t make sense is the fact this argument with her ex was on the Tuesday night... Not Tuesday morning, when we were having our text conversation…. So why the sudden .... atm ....ending of the text conversation when I asked if we were still on for the Wednesday evening.

Man am I counting the days till I board that plane for Florida… 29 days 20 odd hours, am I looking forward to it... you betcha baby. Still at the moment just me, myself and I going, though, Whitters is threatening to make an appearance, but as I’ve told her, I won’t believe she’s coming till she’s sitting on a sun lounger by the pool at the condo in Florida.

This vacation is 18 months in the making, and though I hoped a few people would join me, in the back of my mind I was, and I am still more than happy to be going alone, the only downside is that my contacts in the Orlando area seemed to have absconded, but hey that’s cool, as I’ve said to Mag many many times.. “There’s a lot of people out there who talk a good game”.

It should be cool exploring around the place on my “Jack Jones”, I’ve found a bike hire place, that actually will deliver the bike to your condo, so might hire one of those... and with that dreamy statement, considering I can’t ride a bike, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

9TH SEPTEMBER 2008

I had a pretty chilled weekend, despite doing a whole load of travelling on public transport…. You don’t hear me say that very often.

The weekend started with me going to the local Waterstone’s to attend the book signing by Barry Nugent of his second book Fallen Heroes, and what a book it is people. Make sure you put that book on your Christmas Stocking list, I even got to talk to the great man himself.

The rest of the weekend was down in the Big Smoke, I was going to a wedding blessing in West London, not too far from Mr G's place, so went down and hooked with Mr G and dragged him to the wedding blessing with me.

Apart a sarkey exchange with the brides dad, the whole evening went without a hitch, even with the obligatory older woman you always get at wedding who hasn’t been out since the last wedding she went too, and is using this event to let her hair down and dance and prance around in stocking feet, dragging as many young men as she can get her hands on to the dance floor. All in all it was an entertaining couple of hours, as Mr G and I didn’t stay too long.

For some reason I was exceptionally tired when we got back to Mr G’s, we stayed up a couple of hours but I was drifting by Midnight, so I had to hit the sack, but I was up and wide awake at about 5.35am…

Mr G was up around 8.30, we sat around chatting and eating toast which was cool. I headed to Victoria Coach Station from Mr G’s place around 10ish and was in Victoria by1120am, the coach was due to depart around Midday.

I hadn’t been to Victoria Coach Station is decades and it was as busy as I remembered. When I got to my coach bay all the seats in the waiting area had been taken, so in the back of mind I was thinking, that it would be chokka bloc trip home, but when the coach number was called, I was like the second person in the queue to get on and in the end there was only about 10 of us on the coach, I’m def gonna do that coach run again.

Sunday at home was pretty chilled with Tiff and Vic, though I did do some ironing of the shirts for the week ahead… and with the thoughts of domestic organisation crossing my mind, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

4TH SEPTEMBER 2008

This week has been fun and games all round, especially on the trains.

Though yesterday was amusing on the train… A fellow train traveller, we’ll call him Foxy for the sake of the website, and I were sat on a Virgin train in carriage A, which is a quiet zone… we were talking quietly and some bloke who was sitting…no sorry was lying across 4 seats sleeping, so his legs were across the aisle jumps up and starts having go at Foxy saying it was the quiet zone. I told him to shut his mouth and had he paid for the four seats he was taking up… then he sat back down quick, as I don’t think he’d seen me properly and had just seen Foxy as a slim spinnerly dude, suddenly he realises he has got a rather large, burly…. Ok fat guy to contend with. We get to Coventry and someone had to ask the guy to move his feet so they could seat down… then minutes later a mobile phone goes off and it had to be set on the loudest ring possible, I grab my phone to check it’s not me and probably most people in the carriage checked their phones. It dawns on me the ring is coming from behind me… yep you’ve guessed it… the phone belonged to the muppet who had been telling us to be quiet, so he could sleep across four seats…the dude answered his phone and dashed out the carriage, when he’d done his call, he came walking though the carriage looking a little sheepish…..Must admit, it left Foxy and I tickled.

It reminded me of Sunday school back when I was younger, I’m sure there was a proverb that said something like, “Be careful to take the Log out of your own eye, so you can see clearly to take the splinter out of another person’s eye”….When Foxy and I went into the same carriage today, the same dude was on the train again, but only taking up two seats, I was tempted to say to him… “Have you turned off you mobile phone, after all it is the quiet zone…”

Yesterday I went on a social event which was bowling and I was well pleased with my scores of 152 and 148 shame I can’t produce those kinda scores when I’m bowling in the league. After the bowling I ended up on a bit of an unplanned pub crawl with T Dubbya and Wendal. I have to say this morning, I def felt like I’d been drinking the night before, even though I only had 7 pints, so the cancelled train this morning didn’t help.

Though I am looking forward to this evening as I’m not bowling tonight so it will be a chilled night in, though I may give Ice T and Daxter a bell, we shall see and with that evening making decision I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

2ND SEPTEMBER 2008

Hello peeps, hope you’re all well? Been a little busy sorting stuff like my birthday drink up on 4th October, it’s a big life begins birthday so I’m having a bit of a do.

Also been sorting out with Corks Wine Bar in Mayfair London to do a fundraiser in line with my sponsored slim for The Stroke Association... I’ve managed to secure 17th January 2009 as the date for the event, so please people keep that date free.

Yesterday, getting work, what a mare… I went to get the 0558 to New Street…. ….. so we get the 0558… which when it gets outside Rugby it stops… and we sit there… the guard then says we have a signal problem… then minutes later he tells us it’s a fault with the train…. We carry on sitting, then the expected news, he tells us the train will be terminating at the next station…. Rugby… so we eventually pull into Rugby and they open the doors…. So the train has pulled into the Rugby and the doors have opened…. But yet there is a problem with the train…. So we’ve got to Rugby be at 0641… 20 minutes late… the next train to New Street is 0720…. That pulls in at about 0726…. And it’s one of the old rolling stock…… so the first working day back for many people and with the Saturday service that’s 13 – 14 stops of which three are major stops, Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham International… on top of being old rolling stock it’s only 4 carriages…. Train pulls in, I couldn’t get on comfortably, so I thought, I know I’ll wait for the 0743 to Liverpool Lime Street as that is an 8 carriage train Mon – Fri….. so I wait… the train eventually pulls in about 8 minutes late… and guess what….. it’s only 4 carriages… so you’ve basically got everyone coming back from summer holidays getting their usual 0743, which is usually an 8 carriage train, only to find it’s a four carriage, as you can imagine the seats were snapped up, and I ended up having to stand from Rugby to New Street which isn’t good when you got weak knees….and the carriage got busier and busier…. It was such a mare of a journey I eventually got to New Street at 0842………. So an hour and a half after I should have got into New Street….you really don’t need that kind trip on Monday morning.

This morning the trip in was good, but I know we’ll have disruption again before the week is out, I guarantee it.

This week should be ok actually as off bowling tomorrow afternoon, hopefully I’ll score better than I did in the league last week... 111, 114 and 92… shocking, though we haven’t got a league game this week, so Thursday will be heading home to chill, though I’m tempted by a J D Weatherspoons Ruby, then Friday again chilling at home, as Saturday I’m heading to the Big Smoke for Cazza D’s wedding blessing… she now lives in Oz, but is over to have a bit of a soiree, I’ll be dragging Mr G along as he lives just down the road from the do and it will be an added chance to catch up with him.

I’m actually doing my trip to and from the Big Smoke by National Express, I managed to get the seats for £1 each, so well cheap, but I’m hoping every man and his dog hasn’t done the same, otherwise it shall be a crowded coach, so with that hopeful thought, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

29TH AUGUST 2008

Man it’s been a bit of a shattering week, though going to bed at 2am and having to get up at 5am…. Doesn’t help, I guess.

It’s a case of I have to get up as well because they are running a Saturday service so the trains run hourly, and I need to get the 0558 to get to work on time, where as normally the train is 0615 or 0635 both of which get me to work on time.

Last night I caught a show called “Love Rat and Proud”, there was this bird on there called Aaliyah Johnson, who has five boyfriends…. Feel free to Google the name, I’m sure she’s out there somewhere… what get’s me is she sits there and says she’s doing Manhattan Dating….. errr… I beg to differ my friend…. you are actually cheating on five blokes, it’s as simple as… see the what makes Manhattan Dating, Manhattan Dating is the all the people dating actually know that they are not exclusively dating said individual and also you’re not sleeping with any of the dates, at a push you might be sleeping with one of them…. where as you are actually sleeping with all five of them, in the show she even admitted that on one particular day she slept with all have of them separately, I assume five different hotels and rooms.

The show was a bit of an eye opener, they even had some dude who runs a website called Alpha Interactions and he preaches to people the way of being a love rat. Some may say that perhaps I jealous, but nope not jealous, I just think it wrong to be playing someone’s emotions like.

I was meant to be DJing this weekend, but promoter has not been forth coming with whether it’s happening, which is quite annoying. This dude DJ’d once and a couple of people told him that he was a fantastic DJ, so from that his decided to get into DJing, which don’t get me wrong is cool and fair play to the fella, but the event this weekend he decided he was going to do and asked me to do a couple of hour set… but I’ve nothing from him in the last month, despite, email, texts and phonecalls, so I’ve decided to just chill out at home playing GRAW2 with Tiffany and also watching some TV with Victoria.

I bowled last night too, what a complete mare, I got my butt handed to me on a platter, I scored 111, 114 and a shocking 92… it was poor, but next Wednesday I’m bowling with some acquaintances, so not a league, so hopefully I put in a better performance…. and with bit of hope I shall bid Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl,

26TH AUGUST 2008

I was kicking it at home with Tiffany yesterday…… had thought about going to the Carnival in Notting Hill but decided with the overcast weather I’d stay in warm house… that said I had been in the London area since Friday night… I went to see my mates Fletch and T and their 10 month old daughter Kezza… they live near Slough, as in the town where The Office was based, as in the UK version.

Then Saturday I headed across London, as Fletch dropped me near the tube opposite his place of work, to the Elstree area to see my pal Ju, as he lives not to far from my very good pals JT and K. JT was having his 40th birthday soiree. My man B who lives in the same town as me, he also knows Ju... he was at Ju’s place too.

So Saturday night I went to JT’s do, where his band The Ovations were playing and it was a pretty good night, his band did four mini sets… The Beatles Tribute, Eric Clapton Tribute, Duran Duran Tribute and the fourth set, they took requests…. Not bad at all… and I had a fair few cheeky ones, and saw a couple of old work colleagues, Midders and Goochie, along with Goochie’s missus and JT’s rather tidy work colleagues.

Then on Sunday, with no trains outta Euston it would have been a nightmare getting home… but B’s girlfriend drove down and picked us up at about 11am, which was pretty cool…. Also just before we left Ju’s place, an old friend Ducktales, who is a chauffeur showed up, so was good to catch up with him.

Sunday evening I went to Bobby Ruin’s place, in just up the road from me for a BBQ and fair few drinks, he has a cellar which has been done up, and has got a HD Projector, so we watch a film and also plugged in the Wii and the PS3. Have never played the Wii, I think it’s great, I’ve got to treat myself to one me thinks

So I had a bit of a busy weekend

This morning got the 0525 bus, was at my desk at about 0715, so from yawnville, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having fun to yawl.

22ND AUGUST 2008

Hello people, just a quick message to say I ain’t forgotten ya and I will knock up a proper blog message over the Bank Holiday Carnival Weekend.

Been an ok week, saw The Mummy on Monday, review to come, saw Journey to Centre of The Earth on Wednesday, which again review will be posted soon. Tuesday I was down in London for a check up, after which I popped into an old haunt… which is actually called The Masque Haunt, and had lunch in there… it was good see working relationships in London still same old same old.. whilst in the public house I noticed a couple having lunch and it was clear to me it was a boss with his PA, and they def had more than a working relationship, made me smile and just reminded me of old City Slicker lifestyle of old.

Last night en route home I bumped into one of the regular train travellers, Bobby Ruin, and he informed me his missus had a pal who needed a bed moving as the workmen who had delivered the bed weren’t allowed to take it upstairs…. Don’t ask… I’m guessing Health and Safety or Insurance against damaging the paint work of the house interior. So Bobby asked if I was willing to go help him move the bed… I thought to myself that’s cool, there will be four of us, should be a synch…..

Man how wrong was I… we turn up, get introduced to the owner of the bed and house then she and Bobby’s missus, proceeded to stand at the top of the stairs looking down on Bobby and I as we struggled with the bed, and yep it was truly heavy, but we eventually managed to get it up the stairs, which was cool… to boot the house owner was quite tidy.

Anyway, I’m off to London tonight, well actually High Wycombe, will be staying the Fletch and T, then it’s off to Broxbourne to attend JT’s 40th so looking forward to that, as I get to see him and his family. Also get to see Ju and B who will be not too far from the soiree.

So people I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl and if you go the Carnival in Notting Hill… be careful out there people.

18TH AUGUST 2008

A pretty chilled weekend from my end, not much got done, apart from playing with Tiff and kicking some butt on Battlefield Bad Company.

Got Battlefield on Friday from Lovefilm and had completed it at about 0145 this morning, twas a pretty good game, I shall post a review in the site’s Games Room later this week, so look out for that.

I must be the only person in the world who hasn’t seen the men’s 100 metres, but I’ve seen the last 30 metres when Mr Bolt was already celebrating and slowing up….. reminds me of Mr Ben Johnson, when he won the 100 years, the picture of him crossing the line and Carl Lewis was about 4 yards behind him, which in 100 metres is a lot of yard. I’ll have to check out You Tube and see if it’s out there.

Not much else done over the weekend, but this week, got a few things on. Tonight I’m going to see the Mummy movie, then tomorrow I’m down to the Big Smoke for a hospital appointment. Wednesday, I plan to see the movie Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which is in 3D… Thursday will be “Chill Time” at home with Victoria and Tiffany, then Friday I’m back down to the Big Smoke for my man JT’s 40th birthday soiree, but will be killing a few birds, as I’ll be hooking up with Fletch and T, then Ju and B and I’ll get to see Moby throw down at JT’s 40th do.

The downer of the weekend, was Barnet getting thumped 3 – 1 at Rochester, it’s gonna be a long season for the Bee’s… On the upside, I’ve found a take away pizza place that actually does take away Calzone pizzas…. I had to give them a try…. And to book for the third week I’ve stayed the same in the weight loss stakes, but I know I need to focus and get back on track… as still got 61lbs left to lose, and on that revealing note, I shall say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

14TH AUGUST 2008

Virgin Money are having a bit of a mare at the moment. I have a prepaid credit card with them. Why have a prepaid credit card?, well it’s a security thing for buying things on the net, as the card can only spend what’s on there, so if you are buying stuff off the next you just put exact the money on the card and just spend what’s on there, but here’s the problem with my card. You know the three digit security number on the back of your card… well despite putting the right number in from the back of my card, they are not being accepted, as in these three numbers are not being linked to the correct card, so as yet I haven’t bought anything online.

I noticed in the Metro this morning a picture of Simon Cowell, so my guess is X-Factor is starting up again this weekend. Now don’t get me wrong, the show has it’s place and in terms of talent shows, I guess it has come a long way since “Opportunity Knocks”... but as least Opps Knocks was not just singing. Though Su Pollard did get beaten by a singin dog once...

It beggars belief that there are some people who go on to X Factor and honestly believe they can sing. I used to sing in the school and church choir, I have in my younger day whilst at Stationer’s Company School sung at St Paul’s Cathedral for the then Mayor of London. I’d been told whilst a regular church goer that I had a good voice…. But some 20 years on, I realise now that most of the time they were just saying it to keep my spirits up.

I’m not saying my voice is the worse in the world and if you give me the right song, I reckon I'm actually rather good actually, but I don’t fool myself and think, “actually, maybe I should go on X Factor and give them a rendition of Oh Come all Ye Faithful, or maybe, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, or even Onward Christian Soldiers…It just amazes me how many people walk into that room with the judges and seem to think they have a right to get to the next stage. I’d rather they walked in there and said, “Look I don’t rate myself highly at all, in fact I’ve only come to get on TV and give the audience a bit of a laugh”….

One consolation about the weekend is Match Of The Day starts back and thankfully it’s not on ITV. Man do you remember when ITV got their mitts on Match Of The Day... what a shambles, the only good thing about Match Of The Day on ITV was the fact they used U2’s Beautiful Day as their theme tune, please God don’t let it happen again… after all remember what Billy Shanks said on how important football is… this coming from a Barnet supporter… we got hammered 4 to zip by Brighton during the week.

Let’s hope The Mag and I can beat whoever we are playing tonight at 10 Pin, 8 – 0 as we are playing to win, unlike the half the Olympiads who give the impression they are there to make up the numbers. One of the reasons why I like the Gymnastics, which I’ve been getting up at 4am for each morning, is the fact there are only 8 teams. I really think that the Olympics should go down the avenue of the football world cup, and there should be competitions held over the four years leading up to Olympics then basically the top sixteen people or teams in each sport turn up, have a series of round robins then knockout phases, cos quite frankly you do wonder why some teams even turn up...yeah yeah, I appreciate the whole ideal of the Olympics, but sometimes change is good... and on that note I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

11TH AUGUST 2008

Man today I feel shattered, though that could be something to do with waking up at 0330 and not going back to sleep and deciding to get up and watch some Olympics.

My weekend was not too bad to honest, my planned visitor from Vegas hasn’t arrived at my place due to a family illness that was bought to her attention on arriving back in the UK…. She lives in Vegas but is originally from the UK so has immediate family over here. So maybe this week we’ll at least hook up for a beer but we shall see.

Saturday, I was at home and my pal B popped over and we got chatting watched some Olympics and plugged into a game called Timeshift, which I’d bought back at the beginning of the year, but not got round to playing. The game is a gem, so look out the initial review which I hope to post sometime next week.

In the late afternoon B’s missus picked him up and I headed down to the big smoke as I was DJing at the an after-party of a speed dinner dating soiree called FLIRT, for where I was sitting the dinner dating part went really well. They had two tables of twelve which I guess is a good number, but the after-party was not very well attended and they closed early.

Now as a DJ, in every genre or era of music you have certain songs that if the crowd are feeling a particular era you play that key song and you’ll always get a dance floor, well I tried every key song from every era and the crowd just weren’t into anything, it was a mare to be honest, it’s what we DJ’s call a “Long Night”

I have to give Mr G a big shout out for letting me crash at his place after the soiree, and spent Sunday morning watching Olympics with him and watching Team GB, lose in the Archery, come last… sorry eighth out of eight in the synchronised diving… the line foe me had to be when the commentator who was British said about the ladies diving duo, “Oh dear a slight discrepancy there” ... Now I’m no diving expert, well not diving into water anyway, and either is Mr G, but we could clearly see that one of the girls extended before the other and hit the water a split second before her partner and was also slight further away from the board…So if we could spot that, you can bet your bottom dollar the judges would have spotted it…. When their scores of 4.5 – 6.5 came up… it was clear that is was more than a “Slight discrepancy”...

Sunday was a bit of a wet day wasn’t it, a day for kicking back and having the family around ya and having a full family Sunday Roast... Mmmmm lovely… when I eventually got home I chilled after talking to KRS and K Newey, this chilling led to falling asleep and waking at 0330am, and with that full circle complete I shall say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

8TH AUGUST 2008

Last night after getting home I plugged into Victoria to watch a couple of shows whilst I unwound after a not unusual poor train journey home.

One of my favourite channels is The Crime Investigation channel and currently I have to a show called Masterminds and a show called Crime Stories on series record, so I watched Mastermind, which was about some dude who took Vegas for $15M from slot machines but inserting a micro chip into the machine and forcing it to drop a jackpot combination, all very interesting, but after that I watched Crime Stories and it has got to be one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in ages.

Usually the show is about some complicated crime incidence, but every now and then they throw in an odd ball episode and last night was one of those episodes. The episode was about new police recruits at a Police Academy just outside New York City. Now most people have seen the comedy films called Police Academy, with the likes of Jones, Hightower, Tacclebury and Moouser, along with places like the Blue Oyster Club, and those films were funny, but this show had me rolling.

Basically 45 recruits turned up, some straight out of high school, some 2nd jobbers, there was even a ex missile commander, they turned up and out came the drill instructors and they were everything you see a drill instructor to be in the movies. They walk down the line of recruits and they single a couple of people out then two or three of the drill instructors descend on that person then inches from this recruits face, the three of the instructors are just barking at them. Then depending on that person’s reaction they’d just turn away say, “You ain’t gonna make it, I don’t want to see you tomorrow” or “I can see you’re gonna be slacker, we don’t want slackers, not on my watch.”

I think what made this show so funny was the fact that all the drill instructors were exactly as you saw them portrayed in films and you always think, it’s just not like that in real life…. But yep it is, dang funny I have to say… out of the 45 who started 39 graduated, one of the ones who dropped out was one of the people who was told within the first hour, not to come back the day….. he didn’t return….

Can someone help me here, I’m looking at going to Vegas next year for Easter and I was reading a review on a hotel just off the strip and in one particular review, someone wrote the following; “The only rift raft we ran into was late night once with some random drunk guy but that's Vegas and we're from Baltimore so that didn't faze us at all.” Couple of things….. surely if it didn’t faze you… why even mention it and secondly, what is so special about people from Baltimore, can someone enlighten me, and with that quest for knowledge set, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

6TH AUGUST 2008

As peeps may have noticed I’m DJing on Saturday night at the FLIRT After Party but hey I may have a date lined up before the event, but not sure if it will happen as I had to cuss her last night.

I sent a message at the weekend to a lass on PoF, the people I did the recently Beach Party for…she had put her profile in the My Likes section, the word “Movies”, but she’d written the word about 30 times, so I broke the ice by sending a message saying, “I assume you like movies then”… she came back with she liked RnB too…

We started messaging each other nothing too in depth, but essentially she found out I’m a DJ and I that I’m in London on Saturday, so she asked if she could join me in the DJ booth as she has toyed with the idea of being a DJ… yeah right… anyway I said she could, as I’ve seen her pic and she’s rather fly…. of course I was thinking with my mind and nowt else…. Honest.

I also proceeded to tell her that it was an after party of a BBW / BHM / FA night, to which she replied… that she wasn’t sure she’d come because with all the BBW’s, she be the slim odd one out……….atm……………. that’s when I cussed, saying to her welcome to my world mate, telling her us fatties have to put up with often being in the minority if we ever go to clubs, as these clubs are full of what society calls beautiful people…

I’m not expecting a response back, but I’ll let you people know if she does…

Just want to give a couple of people a holla... firstly Mr G, cheers buddy for the sponsorship on the new eating regime to raise money for Stroke Association, and I’d also like to say thanks to K,Newey for taking up the mantel as a continuity reader for the book I’m working on, cheers you two… and with that thankful comment I’ll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun,

4TH AUGUST 2008

My weekend was pretty good as it happens…. Friday pretty much chilled at home, the did the Friday night pastime of falling asleep on the Sofa….

Saturday went quite good… I was heading to the Big Smoke and had decided to go by coach… I got a £5 ticket so was pretty chuffed about that… so went merrily along to get the 1130 coach, got to the usual National Express coach stop, there were 6 or 7 other people standing there already…I knew the coach started from my stop, so when 1130 came and went with no sign of the coach, I was a tad perturbed and had already started drafting the letter I was gonna write to National Express to give them what for

I thought, let me go and see if the controller knew if the bus was late… So I walk in and see a bus station member of staff, I go to him National Express, before I could reply he goes… “stands 1, 2 and 3 mate… and yes the London coach has gone”……………atm……………So I strolled over to stands 28 – 30 out of 30 stands, and went up to the 7 distraught looking commuters… “I got some good and some bad news…. The good news is, I’ve found out where the National Express Coach now stops…. Stands 1 – 3, and the bad news is, the 1130 London coach has gone, and the next coach is at 1430”… to say people weren’t pleased, is an understatement.

I have to agree. If it was just me that was stood there, then I say ok I wasn’t paying attention, but 4 different parties of people getting it wrong….. Nah, there’s been a lack of communication. I did take a stroll around the bus station and there wasn’t any notices saying that the National Express service had moved departure bays…. So I had to use some of my well earned London Midland vouchers to get a train ticket, though the good thing is I did travel first class to London and also met Bobby Tat and his missus on the train.

Got to London and met up with K Newey, which was pretty cool. It was really good to catch up with her since our YTS days at a large NASDAQ 100 consumer goods company. We had a few cheeky ones in the Theodore Frog, then we went for a walk along the North and South Bank of Thames… and the walk made me realise what I miss about living in London, the place had such a cracking vibe, with all the tourist and pick pockets milling about.

I took some pics with my new Mobile handset, I shall look at posting those pics at some point this week on site gallery. We departed company at St Pauls Station around 1815, and I headed home and ashamedly ordered Pizza take out, which probably didn’t help the fact I didn’t lose weight this week… but at least I never put any on…..

Sunday was pretty much the usual, gym, food shop, time with Tiffany and Victoria and caught up on some crime shows I’ve got recorded.

Had a chat with A T in Vegas, whose hitting Blighty on Friday coming, am kinda looking forward to meeting the lass, and hopefully we’ll at least get on and have a laugh, she gets to my place on Sunday early/late evening. She’ll be crashing at my place for a week, hopefully I’ll be able to drag her down the gym a few evenings and I may even convince her to come and support Sweet Digit as we bowl the Thursday she’s at my place.

Today didn’t start too well, they had overrunning Engineering works again….so I got to New Street and hour after I should have, so I shall be putting a claim for that delay sometime soon, and on that touch of assertiveness, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

31ST JULY 2008

You know what I’m missing right now, my food processor... and I don’t mean like a shepherd misses a lost sheep.

On Saturday I had a bit of a mare whilst using the processor. I had been using the processor as usual... see unlike the average person I actually keep my processor out so it’s always ready and waiting to go into action... I’d finishing blitzing the veg and potatoes and had washed the bowl and lid... Then suddenly a gust of wind came from nowhere and blew the lid off the top of the draining dishes... It wasn’t me guv honest, it was the wind that did the blag... and I looked in slow motion horror as the lid fell through the air with the greatest of ease and boom boom tssssss it bounced a couple of times.

Now for those of you who don’t know how a food processor works... well my one anyway... you have a bowl with a spinning chopper, grater or slicer, but for the processor to process, the main bowl’s lid needs to be closed and locked into place, this locking mechanism is the little clip that sticks out the side of the lid... Well guess which part of the lid broke off...... yep you guessed it the handle... No joking, it was the locking mechanism.

I did go to the Kenwood website and they happened to have a spare parts section, so I’ve got a new lid on order, though the lid wasn’t in stock, so now I got too Sidney Youngblood... “All I can do is sit and wait, yeah yeah”.

Have to give a big shout out to Lou Knight at The Stroke Association who has sent me some stuff about what Stroke is and action points to recognise the symptoms and preventions and so forth.

Did you know that for every £50 spent on Cancer research, and £20 on heart disease research only £1 is spent on Stroke research... even though Stroke is the third biggest killer

So every penny counts people, so please do get clicking on my weight loss sponsorship form, and with that cap in hand comment, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

28TH JULY 2008

It’s sure been a hot one over the last few days, and that’s been good.

Friday night was ok, as I actually made it to the gym. Once I get back into the gym thing, the plan is to hit the gym Tues, Weds, Friday nights… then first thing Sunday and then I’ve pencilled in every third Saturday, but as yet, I’m just about making two a week… Sunday and one other day. This week it will be Tues, hopefully Friday and… I went yesterday morning, which was very very nice as I was the only one in the pool house.

Saturday I spent a lot of the day burning CD’s and sorting music for the Beach Party, headed down to the Big Smoke around 3ish….and it was warm, but the good thing was due to the engineering works around my neck of the woods, Virgin trains are starting from my station, and because Virgin have declassified coach G, it was first class travel at standard cost, I do like Virgin Trains.

I hooked up with Mr G, and we went to a pub near Bond Street before I headed to the Beach Do… they were only selling small bottles of Magners… what a rip off… two bottles… so a pint of Magners came in at .£7.10…. £7.10 for a pint of Magners, that’s just shocking, I’ll be sending a letter of complaint tomorrow, thieving bar stewards.

The Beach Party went pretty well, we had a good attendance, though had to do an extra hour which was fine, because as you know I love my DJing. Then I had the joys of last train home, which I caught in a peeved mood, but thanks to Fruit Jelly, who gave me a bell and really cheered me… so thanks for that babe.

The rest of my weekend was pretty cool. Spent some time with Tiff racing on Dirt and also caught up with Victoria. I actually put together a fan I bought on bid-tv back in December for £2.99... it's a really cool looking silver number... so was def had a cool weekend. Yes I did buy something off a TV shopping channel andnot for the first time................atm................. and with that shock revelation I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

23RD JULY 2008

Hey world how’s it going out there? My world is all very odd right now. I’ve been talking a lass on Facebook for quite a while now… for the purpose of the website we’ll call her American Twang… AT for short. Well the other night we touched base on Yahoo and she informs me that she likes me…as SHE LIKES ME…which I have to say is a bit of a shock, as I really didn’t think we’d communicated enough or in any depth for her to gauge what I’m really like. Also there is the whole thing that I have never looked at her beyond just being online mates and a contact…. She lives in Vegas by the way

Yeah I’ll communicate with her and she’s over in the UK soon and maybe I’ll hook up with her for a chat and a beer or two, but we’ll see how it goes, but it’s kinda surreal, but I won’t say much beyond that for now.

How is the rest of my world, well after the loss of 7lbs last week, this week is proving difficult to emulate the performance, and then with the Beach Party coming on Saturday and the fact I’m meeting Mr G, to celebrate his engagement to Mezza in Morocco… you already know copious amounts of alcohol are going to be consumed.

The plan this week, was to hit the gym last night, but I had to wait for the a call from the house maintenance to sort out an appointment to come fix the shower as water is cascading through the house into the kitchen, which isn’t the greatest of situations, and by the time he called… it was too late to get to the gym, but whilst waiting for him I did manage to sort music out. so hopefully my new top ten tracks should be out there very very soon.

Tonight I plan to hit the gym, then I got bowling tomorrow, hopefully I can emulate last week’s performance… gym on Friday night, then it’s Beach Party time on Saturday.

21ST JULY 2008

Just in case any of my few readers cared, just thought I’d say the stomach pains have gone since Friday morning so I guest KRS was right.

The stomach pains must have done me good, as knocked in a few great scores at bowling on Thursday night with 141, 181 and 199, was well chuffed, we actually won 8 to zip that night, but we’re still propping up the table, fingers crossed this week I’ll knock in some similar scores.

My weekend was pretty chilled I guess... Friday, I had planned to hit the gym, but ended up chilling at home with Vic and the sofa.... the Friday pastime of crashing out on the sofa.

Saturday was up early and down the market... had a bit of a lie in and didn't go to the bakery for my usual get there for 7am and get warm fresh bread... so was up and about, around 7.30am.. was back home from the market at around 8.45am... and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon with Tiff playing Basketball and with Vic watching recorded Homes Under the Hammer. Around 4pm I headed to the gym, did a short workout and then chilled in the Sauna... that if you can chill in a sauna... back home to Vic and Tiff....

Sunday, I was up, about and in the gym pool by 8.30am.... knocked out about 400 metres. I used to hate swimming but have kinda got into it now, then I hit the Steam Room, Sauna and Spa pool... so was a pretty chilled morning.... again had the day with Tiff driving and with Vic discussing Forensics and crime... so all in all a chilled weekend....

Oh on Sunday did the weekly weigh-in, week 1 has gone, starting weight was 320 pounds, came in at 313 pounds, so have lost half a stone... though am a little disappointed as I checked my just giving page and as yet no one apart from me has sponsored me, but though disheartening, I'm gonna stay focussed as I've sponsored myself £1 a pound... should I manage to lose the 70lbs I'll round it up to £100....

Though I do need to give a big shout out to my man Ju, who is now the first person to sponsor me for the weight reduction, and yep, I’ve def cut out the cider, and with that bit of good news, I depart by saying, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

17TH JULY 2008

Man my stomach is hurting like mad, all this fruit is killing me. I got home on Tuesday after seeing Hancock and I was rolling around on the floor with stomach cramps…. And as for the little room, that’s getting a hammering at the moment, but my pal KRS, she assures me “Things can only get better”…. She must be in a D Ream world...

I decided to upgrade my fragrance from Avon’s Black Suede to Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium for Men….. the other week when I was shopping in Boots, they were selling Opium for Men at £46 (according to their website)….. 100ml bottle….. so I refused to buy it at the time, and my friend Lil Miller was giving me stick…. Well I’ve just had my bottle delivered and it’s real not fake… cost was including delivery…. £18.45…. a tad cheaper than £40….. Lil bought herself on the day…. Prada… at £42…. Think it’s about £30 on the site I used... Am I glad my butt squeaks when I walk… well if it saves me £28…? Then yes…..it’s a great site, they sell probably every top end Fragrance there is out there…

Actually talking about Yves Saint Laurent, I got, what I think is a humorous story, one of my main pals Mr B was telling me about a when he worked with some dude who for the sake of the website I’ll change his first name to Dave Laurent. Whenever he met anyone new he would introduce himself as, and I quote… “Hi I’m Dave, Dave Laurent, as in Yves Saint….” …you had to be there honest…

Well it’s a bowling night tonight and I’m not holding much hope for a good score, what with stomach cramps and being quite sore after the gym last night. First time in a gym in anger since 9th October 2007... I have been in between, but not really got my head down churned out a workout.

As some of you know I’m aiming to get fit for my 40th, and in the process I plan to raise some money for The Stroke Association in memory of my mother. Well if you want to make a donation, the form is here . Thanks is advance if you choose to donate, and with that cap in hand statement, I’ll depart by saying, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

14TH JULY 2008

The first day of the rest of my life, as they say… unlike last week at this time, I’m kinda cool, had a pretty good weekend all in all.

Friday I actually had a Friday evening where I didn’t fall asleep on the sofa, spent the evening doing some stuff on the novel, which was cool and started putting together a logo for the BIDD group I’m creating on Facebook, watch out for the link.

Saturday was quite good all in all, did my weekly food shop and was home by 9am…, then I spent most of Saturday watching Law and Order – Criminal Intent on V+ back to back, over Saturday and Sunday I must have watched about 15 episodes, good viewing, but Saturday night, I did fall asleep on the sofa at around 9ish and woke about 1130ish…

Sunday was a really good day, text my pal Lil Miller who was working on a 12 hour shift, then text Lotti Rabbi who had been to the Huddersfield carnival…. Apparently it was a great day out… then in between Law and Order I played Basketball with Tiff, playing a season and currently I’m 0 – 4….. not good, but I’m hoping at some point I get the hang of it, as often on Fifa games I always start on a losing streak.

Had three magical moments on Sunday, had near enough an hour telephone conversation with K Newey, whose going through a rough time at home, so was good to touch base with her, all the best K, and remember Luv ya sweetie, you got my number, I’m sure it will all work out… and then I had another near enough hour conversation with Fruit Jelly, it’s been ages since her and I had a chat… was brill talking to ya Fruity… and the story about Friday, still got me in stitches… hey it’s not everyday someone tells you about driving a car in the pouring rain, with a Mental patient in one seat, a hysterical man in another and dead dog in another.. quality story…. It’s like a Monty python comedy sketch… quality Fruity… and I hope you’re well today matey.

The third moment was, whilst putting stuff on the new BIDD group I'm getting sorted on Facebook, I managed at last to find a video if a song called "Are You Dreamin", by a group called Twenty 4 Seven... people have previoulsy told me no such group existed, but on finding the video, I was punching the air and doing their dance routine in the bedroom... I even remembered the words of the song... Look out for the link to the BIDD group.

Well today, is the start of the new eating regime, want to lose as much weight as possible by 11th October, ideally 42 pounds would be good, but we shall see.. I think I’m gonna do it if for The Stroke Association, in memory of my mother, so people look out for the Just Giving link I hope to send out later this week, but for the record, my recorded starting weights are… 320pounds, 145kg and 22st 12pounds… and with that shocking revelation I shall depart with Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

11TH JULY 2008

It’s been a interesting week it has to be said, from getting what felt like a swift kick to the nads on Sunday, from an empty void in the stomach feeling on Monday, which lead to inspiration, to being bored Sh*tless on Tuesday, also on Tuesday a touch of disappointment. Wednesday bought hope, tinged with lots of caution, Thursday was a warm feeling of having your friends around ya, as well as the warm feeling of a Weatherspoons Ruby, on to, today and that ring of fire and the whole if your face fits feeling

The one or two of you that read this blog are probably thinking, how cryptic can he be, but to be honest I can’t be arsed to go in details, anyone feeling guilty, that’s their look out, bottom-line it hasn’t been the best ever week.

The weekend ahead bodes well I guess, though much of the time will be spent, watching V+, Balling on the PS3 with NBA08, and chomping on all things bad, as Monday, the eating regime commences in earnest.

Last year on 23rd June I starting an eating regime, using the Slimming World eating plan as the donor regime, and between that date and my birthday in October I lost 27pounds, I need to replicate that once again, but this time I need to try and do it for life. I want to ideally lose 42pounds by the time I board the plane for Florida on 11th October, it’s a tall ask, but I’m pretty sure I can do it, and on that quote of hope, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

9TH JULY 2008

Man I’m still struggling through this downer, I thought I was pretty cool about things, but today is proving very difficult, it has become clear I liked Saturday’s adventure far far more than I thought. I'm starting to go down that comfort eating avenue, which I need to try and curb.... I'm not gonna force the issue as any kinda friendship has to be based on a two way street and I think I’ve done my bit.

It’s like when people are leaving a job, everyone seems to feel the need to say “Make sure you keep touch” or “Here’s my email, do keep in touch”… come please, we all know it’s just not gonna happen… it’s a wasted line, you’re better off just saying… “Hey it’s been a blast I’ll take away some good memories, thanks for everything”... but that said I sincerely hope the offer of being friends was genuine and not just an empty line.Though I know there is alot of outside influences affecting decisions.

Maybe this downer of a mood is probably why I thought Narnia has to be one of the most boring films I’ve seen this year…even Pirates of the Caribbean – Worlds End was more entertaining, I seem to recall I didn’t give that good review…

I’ll write a review of Narnia towards the end of the week, and it won’t be getting a good one, so it someone out there thinks it was the best film ever, you better look at submitting a positive review, you can send it here and I’ll put it out there for ya.

Well at least tonight I’ll have time to plug in MGS4, unless of course Tiffany let’s me down….. who’s Tiffany…. Oh I’ve decided to name my PS3… sad I know, but I guess it harks back to the joke I heard once… Why do men name their private bits…..? because they don’t like strangers making decisions for them…. and with that poor attempt at humour I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

7TH JULY 2008

What a weekend people, one hell of an emotional rollercoaster, from having one of the best days of my life on Saturday, what a cracking high… excuse the pun there…. Saturday couldn’t have been better.

Roll on Sunday, still feeling good, saw The Hulk and that was made better by the appearance of Tony Stark (Iron Man’s secret Identity) in the film, the high continued with The British Grand Prix, followed by one great tennis match between Fed and Nad…

Again it went higher with the new TV Series of Damages on Hallmark and new second season of Dexter starting, then as Detective Messa in CSI NYC would say “Boom”….. brought down to earth with a slam… Think I might write a book about it... the working title will be... "Cam, you're a really nice guy... but, The Life and Times of DJ TC...

Today is not a good day for me, am on a massive downer right now, so with that I’m gonna sign off and say Peace, Unity, Love and Having fun to yawl... I'm sure I'll be back on track soon... maybe not today, maybe not tommorrow, but soon...

3RD JULY 2008

Here’s a first; my dad actually picked up the phone and called me last night, which was really cool. From the tone of his voice and gauging from what he said I get the feeling his is quite worried about me doing the DJing game, esp. since most of my gigs of late has been in The Big Smoke at Corks…

Pops is quite concerned about the whole stabbing situation that seems to have hit London and I can fully understand his sentiments.

I did notice in the Metro today that some bird was acquitted of stabbing another girl to death, even though she admitted to stabbing her, but was crying self defence…. Hummmm… apparently they got into a fight, whilst grappling on the floor she happened upon a steak knife on the floor, so picked up the knife and stuck it in the other girl’s chest…. Me feels that if that story is true, putting the knife through her was optional… could have held it in a threatening manner, sure that would have had a similar but none fatal outcome… you have to wonder if the roles had been reversed would the other girl have got of scot free.

Well folks, 99 days to go before I’ll be heading to sunnier climes to kick back in a four bed condo on my lonesome, supping Bud Light by the pool, topping up my tan and yep I am sure looking forward to it, though hearing about Flyglobespan and their little error of letting a lightning struck airplane fly across the Atlantic, I just hope I get there safely… and on that little worry, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl…

1st July 2008

3am, I’m still spinning around in bed trying to fall asleep, got the old mobile phone radio on, as I’m one of those people who has to have some kinda background noise going on when I go to sleep… and no I’m not scared of the dark… so on the radio they are talking about the fact that today Holland introduce a smoking ban in public enclosed places.

Maybe, just maybe by the time I heard this next statement I was asleep and dreaming, but it was kinda surreal, this radio show said the following…In Holland you can’t smoke in a public place, but if you’re in a ‘Café’ you can partake of cannabis, so long as you don’t mix it with tobacco”…. How ironic is that….. if the statement is true, but I as I said I was drifting in and out of sleep.

My weekend was ok, my pal B came over with the intention of doing some gaming, he arrived at about 1030 and we then just sat and talked until 1930, and we noticed Independence Day was on, so we plugged into that, man that is a quality B Movie, then B, got a cab home, so we never did any gaming, so to all you doubters out there, blokes can sit together discuss about things and we didn’t even talk about sport at all.

On Sunday I watched V+ to get the hours down, so started watching Flash Gordon… some revamp on the old classic Flash Gordon,…..Now I’m a fan of the old Buster Crabbe and Sam Jones’ Flash Gordon…… but someone needs shooting. This rendition of Flash Gordon has to be the worse Sci Fi series I’ve ever seen… so I deleted all the recorded episodes I hadn’t got round to watching…. Which took my V+ box from 6 hours spare to 19 hours spare…. In a flash….Though, it’s kinda ironic that the 1980 Flash Gordon effectively destroyed Sam Jones career….When I say the worst ever, I mean it's even worse than Space Precinct....

Also at the weekend I communicated the manager of Corks Wine Bar, and we’re on for a Charity Do and also we’re on for a night called BIDD (Back in Da Day)… which will be aimed at 30somethings and older and will be focussed in the 70’s 80’ and 90’s and will be a MOBO lick. Ideally I see BIDD happening quarterly, but check out the “Back In Da Day” group on Facebook, join up for exclusive notifications of up and coming events... In the famous words of Afrika Bambaataa, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun….. to yawl

26TH JUNE 2008

Last night what a night, went to get the 1645 train home and…. no not for me… there were problems on the line... we had to in the end go all round the houses, and instead of getting to my home station for 1745, I had the joy of getting there just after 2015…. mmmm just joy….. then on top of all that, I couldn’t even have an ice cold glass of squash, because our local water supply is contaminated with some kind of parasite, so no drinking tap water without boiling it first…. which meant, unfortunately that I had to have an ice cold beer instead…

Go Germany go…. My bet of 2006 is looking good…. At the end of the World Cup in 2006, I put a bet on Germany to win the Euros…. Last night they made the final…. Come on boys, get in there…. I’ve got a feeling for Argentina to win the next world cup…, shall place a bet next Monday….

It’s a bowling day, hopefully we’ll put in a good performance, thing is last week we did ok, but we still got our arses handed to us as we lost 8 zip, thing is we only lost by about 8 – 15 pins in each game, it only I’d bowled to my average I have helped us to victory. Sweet Digits appears to have acquired a sponsor; we are just waiting for the polo shirts to come in the post…

Hey peeps, only 106 days to go before the big 40 in Florida... and with that countdown news, I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

25TH JUNE 2008

Last night I went to see Indy and I have say I was overall quite impressed, there will be a review soon. I must try to be unbiased as one of my closest friends is probably one of the most knowledgeable people on the Indiana Jones franchise…. So B… I loved film man….. but there’s always a but….

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that I’ve acquired a few more DJ slots. I’m DJing at an after party on 12th July at Corks, the main event is a LIL Pleasures party… LIL Pleasures is similar to Ann Summers, so it one of those kinda parties from 7 – 10 then the club doors open from 10ish for one and all… but the first part is ladies only…. Even I’m not allowed to be there…

So if you’re a lady and you fancy a toys party with a disco thrown in then click on the LIL Pleasures link about to order your tickets… and if you someone who fancies a night out in London, the get yourself down to Corks on 12th July for 10pm… I shall see you there, in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

24TH JUNE 2008

Well the Toga soiree was the weekend just gone and it was OK… it could have been better in terms of attendance, but I guess that’s fancy dress for ya… whenever this website does an 80’s night or Skool Disco night, they will get 200+, but other themes just don’t cut the mustard.

80’s and Skool Disco theme nights, just don’t take much effort, especially from a blokes point of view, you just dig out the worse tie you got, put on a white shirt and black or grey trousers and job done in terms of Skool Disco attire, but a Toga party means going out and getting stuff and it seems where effort is needed to fit in, then people just rather stay at home…

Big shout goes out to Jack Matser my fellow DJ who turned up with a swollen hand and wasn’t sure he’d be able to DJ, but he soldiered on like a superman…. sounds like a song coming on….

Must say hi and cheers to an old friend… we’ll call her ‘K Newey’ for the sake of the blog, we got in touch via Friends Reunited and been chatting a while and just wanted to say thanks K for the support over recent issues and I’m well chuffed you got my back… if needs be I’ll let you loose on the person in question in due course…

I’m hoping to catch Indy today, I keep putting it off, but hopefully I’ll get the film review out there before I see The Hulk, Wanted, Prince Caspian and Hell Boy 2… there are a few films coming out, though most have been pretty low key, so whilst you’re watching this space for the latest film review, I’ll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

19TH JUNE 2008

Man oh man I’m still in shock…. Was in The Big Smoke that is London on Tuesday afternoon to have a meeting with a wine bar/club owner about holding some functions, After the meeting I hooked up with my friend, C.K. as she had a date with some bloke she met online and had some time to kill, so we went into a drinking establishment called Jewel, which is right by the Dunkin Donut place in Piccadilly….. we got our seats and I went to the bar to get the first round in, a woman arrived at the bar just as I did, so I let her order first…. She ordered….. 2 Vanilla Vodkas and a single bottle of slimline tonic split between the two vodkas….. total cost... £17.30…………………………………atm ……………………….. yes you read that correctly…. £17.30….the thing that got me was the woman didn’t even flinch, gave the barman a £20 and picked up her drinks and left him the change.

On the nightclub meeting side of things, there are plans afoot, so watch this space, we’re in the throes of having a few Charity nights, the two pencilled in so far are The Stroke Association and Sicklecell. If you have ties with a lesser known Charity please do give me a holla and let’s see if we can sort out a fund raiser for them too.

Also we are looking at maybe doing a quarterly do either called Back In Da Day or Back To Basics, the premise and aim of the night is get all those Thirty and Forty something’s out clubbing again listening to all their tunes from back in the day, it will be a heavy MOBO influences of Luther Vandross, Alexander O’Neal, Earth Wind Fire, Kool and The Gang, The Whispers, New Edition, Levert, The Mac Band, Cheryl Lynn, etc etc… so again watch this space people.

Oh if you are on Facebook, go and introduce yourself to the club, the user name is “Corks Winebar”... come on over and say hello…and with that invite I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl…. Bowling tonight, and I’ll let yawl know how that goes.

Oh shoot I nearly forgot…may I take this opportunity to wish Mr G all the best in his new eating regime…His decided eating “Raw” food is the way forward……………… atm………. Yes “Raw” food…… good luck with that son, I guess we won’t be gong to an Aberdeen Steakhouse this weekend then…..

12TH JUNE 2008

Another day, another dollar, man I am so tired today, missing Lil Miller and her humourous texts, she’s sunning it up in Spain with her “Mate”….upon investigation, this “Mate’s” name is Dave…. It always amuses me when people use that word “Mate”.

Here’s a little exercise for ya…. Next time you’re talking to a friend and they go to you “I’m meeting a mate” or “I went out with a mate”… always listen for the way the word is said or when it’s said. A little observation I’ve made over the last few years of being on the dating scene, more often than not when a person uses the word “mate” in the singular, that mate ends up being a person of the opposite sex and again more often than note, there is an under lying lust from one or both parties.

Normally when a person is meeting a pal, they either say “I’m meeting such and such” or they will say “I’m meeting a friend”… but it’s all about the tone and context, so don’t jump straight in giving them stick… Example, if you’re having a conversation about a subject and a person goes... “yeah one of my mates the other day said…..” then the person they are talking about is probably a genuine mate and could be male or female.

The gossip bells should start ringing when you ask what you doing tonight, and they go “I’m going out”, then you ask if they are going alone, they retort with “Nah I’m going with a mate”…. Clang clang clang… I guarantee you that “Mate” is gonna be someone of the opposite sex… cos if the person was just a mate, male or female, surely they’d just say “I’m hooking up with my mate Alison, or my Mr G, or my Jeffo, or my mate Wren”.

Listen out for such examples and feel free to send over any stories or incidences you come across... trust me, you will now notice it happening, all the best in your investigations, and with that I’ll wish, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

10th JUNE 2008

What a glorious few days it’s been people, even this morning I left home without my coat, have put my faith in the English weather…. Let’s hope it’s not more fool me.

Anything of interest happen over the last few days….. apart from completing Haze, no not really… the usual stuff happened, I was juggling Haze between sorting music, freeing up time on V+ and texting people, finding myself partaking of the Friday evening pastime of “Falling asleep on the Sofa and the last couple of days culminating in the once a week a least, guaranteed, train screw up...so yeah, the usual activities between Friday and Tuesday…

One thing I did manage to do was to send out the email invite to one and all to my 40th soiree which is being held 4th October in London… I suppose I better get round to inviting my family now.

Oh people a big shout goes out to Daniel Takes A Train, who didn’t win the Virgin Radio Dream competition, but hey guys, you did us proud and we all love you, make sure you keep us in the loop as to any gigs coming up… and on behalf of DTAT, I’d like to thank all the readers of my blog who sent in their votes….and whilst I’m doing shout outs, I’d like to wish Lil Miller a safe trip on her four day jaunt to Espanol, have a safe and enjoyable trip, and we’ll touch base on your return... with that, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

5TH JUNE 2008

What a glorious day it is today, despite going to bed at 0230 this morning and rising at 0536… I feel reasonably ok, though that could be a different story by the time I’m bowling this evening.

Why was I up so late, well I was playing Haze on the PS3 and kept saying, "let me just do this next area", then "5 minutes more" and then again 5 minutes more, suddenly it was 0215, though in between playing Haze and most importantly I was having a text convo with Lil Miller in Leeds and winding her up about her trip to Spain.

Talking of LIL, I’m in kinda good spirits at the moment, back in 2005 when I started playing at Libertys in Brum, they had a special night once a month called Biggies, which is a clubbing night linked to the website Loving It Large.co.uk.... they had nights in Brum, Cardiff and London. Liberty’s got new management and they froze out Biggies so I lost that slot but did gain my VIP room slot, but I enjoyed doing that slot…. Well I got talking the main woman at LIL last night and they're interested in moving their London night to Corks and upon discussion I’ve been pencilled in as their go to Jock for London, so fingers crossed I’ll soon have two regular DJ slots in the Big Smoke, which is all good with me….

Well I’m bowling tonight, and after the 6 – 2 victory last week, long may it continue, it will be Digits and I tonight, we haven’t been in tandem a while now, so hopefully we can get our game together and put in a good performance, here’s hoping…

Tomorrow I’m planning to put my new top ten out there, we got a few contenders for the top spot… the short list is Kid Rock with "All Summer Long", Sway with “F UR X" and Jamie Lidell with “Another Day”…. I shall leaving you wondering who will be top and say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl and check out the Top Ten tomorrow.

2ND JUNE 2008

Had a pretty chilled weekend, not doing much except texting a few people, PS3 and V+… so basically the usual sad singleton activities, and nothing of any note really happened, though I’m in the throes of doing some work on a group in Facebook for a drinks company, who make one to the best drinks I’ve ever tasted.

Whilst at the drinks fair the other week I tasted a drink called “Troll Cream”… it’s main competitor will be Bailey’s…. and I have to say, I really do like Bailey’s, but in my opinion, this Troll Cream battered Bailey’s big time, I was given a bottle to take away…. It’s now sitting in my bar, and instead of buying my annual Bailey’s at Christmas, I’ll be keeping this Troll Cream till then.

The makers of Troll Cream are looking for a UK distributor and as a thank you for giving me the bottle along with a couple of key rings and a limited edition Troll ornament, used for marketing purposes, I said I’d set up a group for them on Facebook, so watch out for the link.

I see that good ole Boris the Mayor of London has introduced a ban of alcohol on the London tube system…. What gets me is that people are complaining about it. asking the question why…. so on the last night that alcohol is allowed on the tube, people decide to go overboard and drink excessively, and as a result a couple of tube drivers and London Regional Transport staff and couple of police officers got assaulted…. Which goes to prove why alcohol was banned, surely the best protested would have been to drink excessively and there be no trouble at all…..muppets…..

As a Londoner, I’m so glad that have instigated the alcohol ban on the tube system, but not sure how they plan to monitor it, as to be honest a bottle of coke would look the same as a bottle of coke with a couple of shots of spirits in it… should be interesting to see how this change pans out, and with that, I’ll say peace, unity, love and having fun to yawl.

30TH MAY 2008

Bowling last night was….middle of the road, we won 6 – 2, but having scored 183 in the first game I went on to score 117 and 106…. With The Mag on top of his game, he pulled us through to victory… I shall post full match reports soon….

Actually before we went bowling The Mag and I went for a few cheeky ones and we got talking about our younger days, it was good to reminisce, though he and I were in different worlds, it good remembering the days of when I used to help my mate Tex to do minicab controlling and a certain young up ad coming page 3 model had an account with our office and phoned up to order… and I mean order a cab.. and Tex never sent the cab… she calls back about 45 minutes later screaming down the phone about why the cab had not arrived… to which Tex replied… “Do, you want to know why I never sent you a cab Ms “Mulder” (Think X-Files... for the surname)…… you never said please…” man I was crying with laughter…. Talk about eating humble pie…. Whenever she phoned for a taxi after that, she always said please… quality….. and on that humbling story, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

28TH MAY 2008

Man oh man I am so tired, will be an early night for me, just need to watch England lose to America at soccer….

Why am I tired, well I was off my day job since last week Wednesday afternoon… and came back today, but this morning getting the train was a mare…. For some reason last night… actually it’s not for some reason, I know full well what the reason is… I’ve screwed up my body clock… whilst down in London staying at my pal’s place, we were up chatting till 3am both nights, then I came home and was up Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights till 3am gaming and watching V+….. so last night when I went to bed at 1230…. I just wasn’t gonna get any sleep, and I tossing and turning and it just wasn’t happening…..

It kinda reminds me of an ode/poem/story a pal once sent me about a bloke who went to the four corners of the earth seeking ultimate wisdom, in part of the story he asked two questions of a wise man… the first was… “What time Do You Eat?” and the second question was “What time do you go to sleep?”… to which the wise man replied…. “When I am hungry” and “When I am tired”... makes sense I guess, but we always just go to bed or eat because time dictates that we do…..

So there I am trying to fall asleep, and suddenly something tells me to check the train times, so I have a look at the net via my mobile…. First train to New Street is 0558 and the next is 0658… so there is no 0615 or 0635…. Bearing in mind I start at 0800… I had no option but to get 0558…. It’s not looking rosy though as the time is 0215…. The pressure is now on the get some sleep which is never good, how can you force yourself to be tired? I eventually saw 0330… next thing I know the 0515 alarm… the first of my six alarms.. goes off…. 1 hour 45 minutes sleep…. It was a struggle to get up…. But I made the 0558 with about 45 seconds to spare…. Hence why I’d tired, though I’ll probably fall asleep watching the England game, maybe I should sit on the sofa with my duvet..... COME ON EN-GER-LAND, love’s got the world in motion…. You got to hold and give and do it at the right time… yada yada yada…. and with that shout of a dream for England winning, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl…

21st MAY 2008

I’ve got my breath back now after the 80’s night at Corks on Saturday 17th May… and I have to say it was a pretty good night all in all. Corks was slightly different from how I remember it, namely because it has two pool tables in the lower portion, which is an area with no speakers, so it’s a lot quieter than the rest of the club so ideal for all those players out there who want to woo themselves a lover. There are pictures of the event on the gallery

Think I may have upset one of the people on the POF website…. though to be honest I’m not bothered, it’s a case of what goes around comes around. A few events ago when I was DJing, she’d arranged with me in the week leading up to the event that she’d arrange for me to get a lift after the event to Mr G’s place in Brixton… and she even hinted whilst at the event I was good for a lift… when I’d finished and packed away, I came outside to find out she and lift and long gone, so I had to ring for a cab and stand around for nearly 30 minutes in the freezing November wind, before the cab arrived.

So on Saturday she sends me a text asking if I’d walk her to Charing Cross after the event so she could get on the bus….. but alas, I wasn’t there at the end so oops couldn’t take her to the bus stop….oh but it’s wasn’t my fault, I was staying at Mr G’s place and he was out with me and he wanted to head home after my last set…. because he was on a promise…… uuhuh, uuhuh, uuhuh….. ahh well as they say in J A….. “Sh*t happens”….

I’ll be in the Big Smoke that is London tomorrow as I’m at the Excel centre for the International London Wine Trade Fair, which I have to say is always a very good jolly and often very educational, this year they got the Distil show there at the same time, so no doubt I’ll be consuming…. sorry tasting copious amounts of spirits….. and all for nowt…. should be a blast.

Afterwards I was meant to be chilling with a pal, which we’d agreed months ago when I first booked my ticket to the event, and despite discussing this with him at the weekend, he now informs me his going to see an old flatmate at one of her Gospel events, he did say I could come, but sitting at a Gospel event reeking of booze, would just be disrespectful to one and all. Not totally happy about it, because we’d agreed this months ago, but at the end of the day his got his life to lead and he is doing me a massive favour in letting me crash at his, for which I’m grateful, because on the Friday I’m meeting some old work colleagues for lunch, and it suits that I crash somewhere in London….and yep I am aware he’ll read this and I know him well enough to know he’ll see where I’m coming from, but I do know he was meant to meet his ex flatmate on Sunday but blew her out… probably cos he was tired from being kept up the night before…… lucky bar steward….and on that intriguing note, I say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl....oh and don't forget to vote for Daniel Takes a Train on the Virgin Breakfast competition.....one of the band members is in another band who are available for hire at www.coastfunctionband.co.uk.

16TH MAY 2008

What a shambles this morning on the trains, with an apparent power outrage at my train station there were no train North or South so that was my ass stuck there, went to get the 0615, should have been at my desk by 0730… got to my desk at 0950…You really don’t want that happening when you’ve planned to leave the office on the F or 4.30pm to get your train down south for your big weekender in The Big Smoke.

Should be a good weekend to be honest, I’m hooking up with Fletch and T tonight and will get to meet the new family addition for the first time, and hopefully The Hibbstar will be about too. Saturday I’ll be hooking up with Mr G and then we’re off to the Singles Night I’m Djing at in Corks Wine Bar, near Bond Street Station...

Sunday will be a good day as I get to meet Mr G’s family, been invited round for family Sunday roast… I’m hoping his older sister has split with her bloke so I can hit on her.......... don’t worry Mr G, I’m only joking son…….

Next week is gonna be a good week, as it’s the London Wine Trade Fair at Excel and that’s always a great three day soiree worth a visit… especially if you work in the Off and On Trade, you get to see new drinks coming out and taste well over 600 wines…. It’s all part of the working in the industry…. It hard….. but someone has to do it…. and with that I’ll bid Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

15TH MAY 2008

The other morning on the train I was talking Dr Kate, whose a female who I’ve got to know over the last two years travelling on the same train each morning and often in the evenings chatting whilst waiting for a delayed train or something. She’s not been about for about two months as her hubby has had some heart issues and as I found out the other day, she’s had major back issues.

Anyway, as we were chatting some bloke sat with us as he also knew the Doc. Now he was very well tanned, he’d obviously could the sun over the last few days, now alluding to his tan, the Doc said we both looked very well, to which he replied pointing at me… bearing in mind I’d never seen this guy before in my life…”Yeah but his got a good excuse…….” ………… atm……… yep “A Tumbleweed Moment” ensued between the Doc and I…. the silence was broken by Doc asking what he meant by that…… I made my excuses and headed back to my seat….. The guy’s a muppet.

I was reading The Metro yesterday morning on the train and I caught the readers letters…. I can’t believe that someone wrote to The Metro saying that the reason why the 16 year old got stabbed in a Bakery on a Saturday morning, was due to the……………………… area…… “Err I beg to differ, my friend”….. I don’t know who this person was or where they are from…. But I think you’ll find that Lee in South London, is one of the few places that is pretty desirable to live in....the whole of London…. muppet…and I really don’t think you can blame an area for some idiot welding a knife and killing someone on a Saturday morning in a bakery.

Last night I got to grips with Grand Theft Auto 4, which was reported to be the biggest video game ever, and initial impressions, the game is very good indeed, but in my opinion, it’s not the prefect game everyone raves about, but I will put an initial game review on the website soon…. And with that controversial comment, I’ll bid, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

13TH MAY 2008

Man oh man I need to get back to writing my blog more often, I've been feeling pretty down of late and I think back to last year, I was at my happiest when I was blogging, though that did coincide with losing 28 pounds in weight and I was DJing much more regular.

Well this Saturday sees me on the DJing band wagon once again, as I play at a Free Entry Singles night at Corks Wine Bar on Binney Street, and I'm well looking forward to it as it's an 80's 90's night... apart from those being my music hey day years, I also learnt my DJ trade playing 80's pop and cheese, whereas the 90's were the days I used to dance at the Buzz Bar on Panton Street near Leicester Square.... ahh memories, we had a fantastic dance troupe man.... those were the days. Despite being a fatty in those days, I was quite fit; I could dance hard for five, six, seven tunes at a time..... now, I can just about sway for one tune..... So with me getting to do this DJ slot, maybe it might kick start my happiness genes, after all, Florida is all paid for now, so just need to start saving the spending money and with all this glorious sunshine,

I've got to shake this downer and I also got to get focussed on losing weight again, especially for health reasons, I'm morbidly obese and that's just not good, also the seats on planes aren't design for my girth and with a travel time of 13 hours to Florida (incl stop over in Detroit) for comfort sake, I def need to lose a fair few stones. One thing I've decided to do is to blog more often but with less content, as in not leave it 8 days like I have today, then having to cover a lot more things, but to try and blog a few times a week which should hopefully make for a more interesting blog experience for both myself and any reader out there.

Hey people have you heard of the band "Daniel Takes a Train".... well if you listen to Virgin Radio you will know they in the last three in the competition for ex-bands to have one more crack at the big time. The competition is "One last dream" and is featured on the Christian O'Connell breakfast show. The winners open for Eric Clapton at Hyde Park... Well I've heard these guys play in their early days and they deserve a crack at the whip, especially seeing that they are actually talented, unlike the dross we get on X Factor, so please give them your vote as it's based on listeners votes, go on make their dreams come true people, and with that heart felt request I shall wish Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

1ST MAY 2008

This week has been ok actually so far, it started pretty coolly with Monday evening TV viewing, The Gadget Show, BBC Watchdog, Dirt, Great British Menu and not forgetting Dom Joly's Complainers, which as usual had me laughing. This week they were talking about train travel, which as most of you regular blog readers are aware is the bane of my life, I think some train companies needing stringing up.... anyway, I digress, the train line he was focussed on was Great Western I think, at one stage he broke into a disused army base that happen to have couple of hundred carriages of rolling stock just sitting there not being used.

He went to see the Minister for transport, who claimed it was the train companies who didn't want to use the stock, but the train companies were saying the government had tied their hands about using the stock, it was all very interesting to be honest, especially being someone who has to put up with a poor train service and lack of seats everyday from London Midland...

What I think makes Complainers funny is the fact it's Dom Joly and you expect him to pull out a massive mobile and scream hello and it just doesn't happen which adds to the quality of the programme, especially when he meets a councillor, they think his joking, then they realise he is actually being serious and the realisation hits them that they have just been recorded on TV about a serious issue and it shows they clearly aren't doing their jobs...

Tuesday saw the release of arguably the biggest console game of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV, as yet I haven't played it, but my pal at Geek Syndicate(GS) and author of "Fallen Heroes"Barry Nugent, has played the game and of the game he said the following:

"DAMN the intro when the main characters arrives in the city is like the opening of the movie when you see that level of detail in the opening movie you know people have spent time on this game".

"So far it’s shaping up to be one hell of a game".

"The phone is cool as you can use it any time (from what I could see) you can set your own ring tone, you can even set it to vibrate or go on silent seriously that kind of thinking I haven’t seen since Metal Gear Solid on the PS1). To me I’m all about the touches and in the little time I played in this game there were a lot of touches."

I hope to get this game at some point and no doubt I shall post a review on the website, unless of course the boys at GS furnish me with one, or any of you readers out there, feel free to send me a review of GTA4 to the usual address.

Talking of reviews, watch this space as on Friday afternoon my intention is to post a review of the new Iron Manfilm which goes nationwide on Friday, but I have preview tickets so will be watching it this evening. I will then go and watch it again first thing in the morning. The first viewing will be as a fan, Iron Man was my favourite superhero in my child hood and it brill they've brought him to the big screen, there had been a cartoon serieswith him in it but the silver screen now calls. The second time I go and see it, is to be more critical specifically for the review, so look out for that, and with the excitement building up within my soul I shall Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

24TH APRIL 2008

Hello good people, been about a week and what's been going on? Well, take a look at the quote of the week on the home page.... one of my pals actually said that... but I won't reveal her name.... shocking....

The weekend gone was pretty chilled, not much done except the usual sad bachelor things like PS3, V+ and the other thing....but it was a good time.

Well yesterday was St George's Day and I did my best to celebrate, with a Full English... which ended up being a Bacon Roll, then supper was Banger and Mash with Onion Gravy followed by Treacle Sponge, and yep I'm a fat git, but I need to get focussed and try and a get a fair few pounds off for Florida man, Florida...

Highlight of the week so far was watching Dom Joly Complainers, when he walked into Capital One HQ with two post bags of their junk mail and dumped it on the floor of their reception... quality TV... this was followed by Dom walking into a council building with 11 days old food waste in a box and again left it on their desk in reception.... this particular council had changed it's refuse collection to fortnightly... at the end of the show Dom told us that this council had reviewed its refuse collection and agreed that food waste should be returned to once a week collection..... again quality TV, I would say Complainers is right up there with the best of Trigger Happy TV.

I think though that the week's TV highlight will be surpassed tonight when Heroes Season 2 kicks off, BBc2 9pm... I've already seen the first episode of season 2 thanks to Bucky, and it's def compelling viewing, so if you can, do remember to plug in.

Next Tuesday see's the biggest game of the year so far; in terms of hype anyway, arrive... Grand Theft Auto 4, estimated sales will be 6 million copies worldwide in the first week, at average of £35 a pop.... which is a cool £210m.... alright if you're getting a slice of that pie.... and on that monetary note I shall say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

17TH APRIL 2008

How's it all going out there people, it's been an odd week as it happens, though I really need to get myself back to the gym, I'm forever feeling tired, doing that great Friday evening pastime.... falling asleep on the sofa, but I've done it a fair few times this week already which just shouldn't be happening and I think it's because I've become a fat lazy git, so on Tuesday I went to check a gym right by New Street Station but I'm really not sure whether to go for it as their best deal ties you into the gym for two years, why can't these gyms offer month on month affordable deals it's annoying.

When I haven't been falling asleep on the sofa I have to say TV viewing this week has been pretty good, especially Monday, what with Dom Joly back on our screens with a show called Complainers, for me the classic had to be when they deliberately parked a car illegally and when the guy came to clamp the car, they then clamped his car saying he was parked illegally... it was quality TV...

Also Wednesday night they had a show about the possible real Indiana Jones, as you may or may not know there is a new Indiana Jones film coming out this year, also this week was the finale of Torchwood and tonight is the finale of Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles, though might have to watch it later in the week as I'm out tonight for a ruby with Whitters for her birthday along with McS, Mr Wendell and The Mag, should be cool..... or hot hopefully being a Ruby and all that.

Bliss this week and next as no bowling, not that I don't want to bowl, but when you've been getting bitch slapped 8 - zip every week since New Year, you kinda get dis-heartened, so good have a couple of weeks to rest and lick ones wounds, and on that soothing thought, I'd like to say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

11TH APRIL 2008

It's been a while since I've blogged but done a fair bit, like I saw Untraceable, I've had a few days where mates came round for chit chat and gaming and I also had afternoon tea with Mr G and Jeffo. You'll find a review of afternoon tea hereand Untraceable here. I also got a fair few new PS3 games, Gran Turismo Prologue, Dark Sector and Timeshift, there is an initial review of Dark Sector here. There is a new set of pages coming out on the site relating to games very soon, watch this space.

Hot air, I have this acquaintance who talks alot of this, and yes I know I do but at least I'm forth coming eventually. For he sake of this blog, we'll call this particular female "Tarpo", now I've know this person a fair while and we got a vibe going but she does talk some hogwash.

It all goes back to October my birthday, now weeks before my birthday I'd sent out the invite detailing the plans, now she's expressed an interested in sampling some of "The Camstar Loving" (said tongue in cheek), yet on my birthday she pulls a weak excuse for not turning up... she phoned me when I was in a place renowned for giving a poor signal, and as it was on the Birthday time table.. maybe it was coincidence..... uuhuh uuhuh... I don't do coincidences.... she phones later on when we're in the pub throwing the excuse, "I tired to phone you to find out where you were but as I didn’t get an answer I thought you'd cancel the event".....

new Years Eve I sent a message wishing one and all on my phone a great evening and wished to them that 2008 would bring them love in their hearts and all they desired. Now Tarpo retorts with a thank you message and then she goes, the second part of your email are you offering? I called her bluff and said I'm game if she is, to which I got a very positive response, but ever since it just hot air coming out her mouth, we in the business call it ego tripping..... Well it all came to head in my opinion yesterday. Now last night was the last 10 Pin of the season and there is a planned break of a few weeks, so we got into a text convo and in this conversation I indicated that it would be cool to see her more often.... you’d expect a retort of … “Hey Cam why don’t we meet up next week Thursday for a bite to eat”…. oh no, her retort to the hinted comment of “I’d like to see you more often” was…… “You’re now not going to see me till 8th May when I do my first bowing game of the new season” …. as I said, she talks a good game and loves to ego trip..... why keep stringing someone along that you're interested when you clearly aren't.... and my old pal Carla may say I did the same to her, but alas "I beg to differ" as her and I went on a few dates and she blew me out in the end, something about our musical taste not being the same..... and on that little dig, I'll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

27TH MARCH 2008

It's been a while people and to be honest I've missed you all, but have I done much.... actually.... I've done a bit, but as it's been so long I'll just summarise and the over time I'll recall stuff that's happened over the last 12 days or so...

Well obviously, we've had Easter, I've watched a few interesting TV shows, one about the Life On Earth after Humans, also a show about the real events touch on in the classic film The Great Escape a series of shows about the Last Days of World War II. I also saw the film Untraceable.

Heard news about a very very good friend who plans to jet off to Morocco to get hitched, which is cool and though I'm weary about him doing this, I am behind him all the way, though I do believe he is deferring the marriage till December 2008... which is a good thing... more time to plan the stag do I say.

Also the FS@26 event has gone on the back burner due to circumstances beyond my control. my next confirmed DJ slot will be 17th May 2008 at Corks near Binney Street, London. On 5th April I'm having afternoon tea with Mr G and Jeffo which should be cool as not seen Jeffo in a while and it's always a blast when we meet up. Afternoon Tea, yes you read that correctly, I've always wanted to do afternoon tea, so should be all good.

I'm still on the networking and dating trail, am on FaceBook and have actually made a few potential proper friends as opposed to the "I've sent you lots of inane application things so we must be good friends.....errr no I beg to differ...." type friends.... so a big shout out to "Scam Hunter", "Jude", "GeeBee", "Faithful Chelle", "Dee Small" and it's been good catching up with "jimmy G", "Nas", "Mr PP", "Cozza B" and "I Hot Light".... I still think Facebook is a massive spam generating machine, but I'll still use it as a means to an end

Before I go and head out to what will probably be another whipping at 10 Pin Bowling, I just wanted ask if anyone has been watching the "Great British Food Menu I have serious issues with this show, though it's a good show to get some food ideas, I not happy about this first stage of the show where the food write lines up four potential chefs from each region... that part isn't too bad but it's bit with getting people from the general public to sample the food..... surely they should be selecting a cross section of the regions population, but yet they go to The Lock in Tottenham, North London, and none of the members of the public are of ethnic origin.... errr I'm sorry but Tottenham.... and yet no member from an ethnic community.... seems a little strange to me.... yes the chef was of ethnic origin... but one from the public..... and then it hit me... in none of the shows do I recall them having a member of ethnic origin.... BBC, you need to address that, but I'm guessing it's too late for that as I assume the show has finished filming already.... anyway, on that contentious note I'll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

11TH MARCH 2008

How's it going people? How were your weekends? Mine was pretty cultured and also I had some good fortune.

The cultured side of things involved me hooking up with me mate Wren in Birmingham, and we indulged in the Coffee Cafe Culture at Starbucks, after which we hit the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which was quite interesting and pretty chilled. Now I'm not an art buff but you have got to admire the artists of their day, I look at the pictures and I'm just amazed how good the pictures are considering it was all done with rough brushes and so forth, there were some great pictures some even had a 3D feel to them, my personal favourite was "The Ghost of Christendom" though Wren pointed out to me that a fair few pictures were rooted in some kind of Christian faith or belief. All in all it was a good day, despite the train being up the swanny for the second Saturday in a row.

Saturday evening was pretty chilled, I stayed up late and caught the re-run of Jonathon Ross' show, did anyone catch it? His singing group were away and his replacements were......... "The Temptations", there is only one original member still left and his been doing it 47 years, the next longest serving member has been in it 21 years then I think it was 15, 5 and the newest member had been in it a year.

The Temptations were awesome man, you don't get gifted groups like that anymore, man oh man they can sing... don't get me wrong Boyz to Men are good and in fact based on sales are the leading R&B male vocal group of all time. Shai are good but in my opinion The Temptations are second to none, in my days of DJing at Chicago Rock Cafe with The Capt... by the way, well done on the BSC in aviation qualification dude, and as your son says.... "Now you can fly the big birds"..... uuhuh uuhuh.... anyway, when Capt and I did The Rock, we worked with some big names.... Alexander O Neal, The Foundations (Clem), The Stylistics, The Drifters, Madness and not forgetting at Libertys.. "Phats and Small", but the one group I would give my right arm to work with, The Temptations are top of the list, they were supreme on Ross' show, it's gonna be a major come down when his usual group comes back.

As for my good fortune... suffice to say, the Condo and the Flights to Florida, have essentially been paid for, so just need to sort out spending money and I may even give learning to pass a driving test another go.....but in the meantime... Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

6TH MARCH 2008

I eventually made it to the flicks this week and caught Rambo, you can read my review of the film here, and feel free to pass your thoughts

After the escapades of the trains on Saturday and me not making the POF Networking meet, I kinda thought my run of being their DJ might have been over, but it seems not, last night I came home to a message from the event organisers asking me to Dj for them on 17th May at Corks, even though they had hinted earlier in the year that it was most likely that all the events would be 1st Saturday of the month, which would have clashed with the FS@26 night that you've heard me mention before in my blog. The last two events they've had other people who were members of POF like I am, but haven't DJ'd in a club environment, and reading in between the lines of messages I've been getting it seems I was missed, which in a way is kinda cool. I never profess to being a top drawer Groove "Jailbird" Rider beating DJ at all, but I know I'm not a bad DJ; after all I'd had some great tutorage from "The Capt".

So many times I've come across the attitude "Oh anyone can DJ, you just put the records on and away you go".... then when a person gets a chance to DJ... as my pal Lotti UXB would say..... "They just can't the mustard"... it would be like me saying "Oh I'm DJ, anyone can host a Radio Show"... then Tim Westwood falls ill and I get the nod to his radio show...... people would be turning off left, right and centre or calling up and complaining... I'd be marched off the premises and left cutting the breeze outside..... did anyone ever see that Top Gear show where the boys from the show went on the Radio show to read the traffic reports...... and Richard Hammond used to be a Radio show host.... so it seems DJ Camstar is back in the good books of London POF, so 17th May 2008, get yourself down to Corks, Binney street... but bear in mind one thing I've always remembered from "The Capt" is..... "A DJ is only as good as his last set".... you've always got to strive to be fresh and keep the crowd on their toes, I mean how many times have you been to your local club, having not been there for a fair few months, but yet you can reel off what the next song will be before it starts playing?

I'm not saying that it's wrong that you can reel off what the next song is, but when you can do it for every song for the whole night, that's just not good at all. Yes there are times when as a DJ a certain trio for songs played back to back works everytime you play them, but every now and again it's great to throw in a curve ball so to speak..... an example of this is S Club and their song Don't Stop Moving.... there was a time when nearly every DJ in the country would play Mr Jackson's Bille Jean straight after mixing it in 8 seconds from the end of Don't Stop Moving, it got pretty tedious after all, esp when you consider Don't Stop moving ends a beat, as opposes to fades out, so when you get a song that ends on a beat you can go in any musical direction you want, so long as the next tune is a big tune or anthem..... but yet every DJ played Billie Jean.... no wonder people were saying anyone could DJ.... and as I step down off my soap box I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

3RD MARCH 2008

What a mare of a weekend.... well kinda... Weekend could have been better. Never got to London as a freight train spilled it’s load near some small little village station on my line… so it would have been a case of train couple of stops down the line then coaches… all stations.. so that would have added 3 hours to the Journey…. so I’d have missed my slot so I contacted a couple of the other DJ’s and the event organizer and chilled at home…. which meant I missed Sunday’s Afternoon Tea, but I’m gonna go on 6th April....

Yes you read correctly, The Camstar has suddenly become cultured and has "Afternoon Tea" in his locker... To book my afternoon tea I used this website. Good thing about using this site is that, they list most of the hotels and other places in the UK that do a traditional afternoon tea... it’s not just The Savoy, The Ritz, The Dorchester or The Waldorf that does afternoon tea. Afternoon Tea can range from £12 - £50 a head… but the basis of a traditional afternoon tea remains the same... Also using this site they do the hard work of getting you booked in... you choose your hotel and your preferred dates and they do the booking... I had tried to book direct with the hotel we wanted but they said they were fully booked... I booked with this site for the same date and they got me in... Also using this site, you don’t need to pay anything until the day...

Have a look at the site, it tells you the history of the Traditional Afternoon Tea and also you’ll be surprised how many places do afternoon tea and also afternoon tea is cool, it’s different from going down the local for a Sunday roast… and not all of the places are formal dress... the one I’d have gone to was smart casual...

Enjoy your afternoon tea wherever you go... one thing you should note... The Savoy Hotel is closed for 15 months... so if you’re after the big named hotels like The Dorchester or The Ritz, they may well be busier than normal as I’d guess The Savoy regulars are going there instead...

The luck of the trains... the bad luck.... continued this morning, as I decided to get the 0519, only to find the weekend's Engineering works had overrun.... like they did over the festive season... so the train I eventually got was the 0722.... ouch just the two hours after my planned arrival at work....annoying but what can you do except write to London Midland and reclaim your fair based on their customer charter of the Delay Repay scheme.... currently I'm nearly on £50.. which yes is good for me, but I'd rather get to where I want to be on time...

Well this week I hope to see either Jumper, Rambo or Untraceable it all depends what time the film is being shown to suit what time I can get there, guess it's a case of turn up at the flicks and see whatever is next up, of course I'll write a review on the site, also got 10 Pin Bowling on Thursday and after yet another 8 - 0 beating, I've decided I'm the weakest link, because so far this season we’ve only lost 8 - 0 when I've been playing, it Digits and The Mag play we at least get some points on the board, so watch this space, as it's Digits and I playing, hopefully I'll do better than I did last week... and with that aspiration I shall say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

27TH FEBRUARY 2008

The earth moved for me this morning, but not because The Camstar got lucky, no it was an earthquake measuring about 5.3 magnitude, on talking to people today seems most people were woken up by it, and when you hear quotes like "The birds were flying around like it was daylight..." you'd next expect quotes on Brimstone and Fire, I didn't think it was that violent though I was some 200 miles away and I was up and talking to some dude in India...it happened about 1am.....the next question is "What are you doing on the phone talking to 'some dude' as you put it, in India at 1am".... ahhh there you go.... the answer.... I was on the phone to Virgin Media Customer Services........ yes you know that UK company Virgin Media..... I'd been trying to get some stuff from my pal Bucky, but was having connectivity issues with my internet. According to this dude, it appears my cable modem is offline, even though a couple of the lights are on, so his booked me an engineer for Friday morning, so no contact with Bucky till then... then we have the FaceBook issue.... now over the weekend I didn't go on Facebook for 24 hours and I had 134 notifications.... by say Friday lunchtime, I won't have been on FaceBook for nearly 80 hours.... I'm running a book... how many notifications do you reckon I'll have in that time, the person nearest to the right number, I'll sort you a little prize of something.....

This earthquake, apart from flying birds quote, there was one that caught my eye... one expert said words to the effect of, we get earthquakes of this magnitude every 10 - 20 years..... errr... you may be an expert, but "I beg to differ my friend"..... this one today was 5.3.... but in the very same article they say that in 2002 we had a quake in Dudley rated at 5.0 on the scale.... 5 or 5.3 as far as I'm concerned that's in the same ball park.

I'd planned to see a film last night, but decided to get home and do some music sorting instead, managed to do some, but with no Bucky contact didn't do as much as I'd like to have, though tonight no doubt I'll do more, so I may even update my top ten tracks of the moment, "what's it gonna be" at number one this time round, but no doubt the top ten will be full of "hot Stuff" but if you feel there should be a particular song in the chart feel free to let me know as my chart is always subject to "Changes" and you never know I could be "with you" on your choice, but in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

25TH FEBRUARY 2008

The weekend started ok as it happens, as we had a bit of a bowling team night out and it wasn't a "Busman's Holiday", we actually went and did Indoor Golf and it was fun. I'd actually gone here for my birthday last year, I actually played better than birthday, only because there were less air shots, but I still came in bringing up the rear, with Digits winning and The Mag coming in second. I def need to get more practise as my man Matt Hal is not doubt gonna want to go golf when we hook up in Florida in October this year.

After golf we went for a bite to eat and few cheeky ones at a bar across the way, a few beers later and The Mag and I were on.... actually not quite on... the dancefloor at Lloyds Bar on Broad Street, Birmingham...., though we left as I had to get the last train... well I didn't have to, I could have been a dirty stop out and partied till the early hours and got the first train home.....maybe next time.... though it seems Walsall could be on the cards for the next major night out with my Brum pals, my next night out is this coming Saturday down in London at a place called Corks Wine Bar I'm DJing there.....it's the one at 28 Binney Street.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent chilling out in front the box and the PS3, along with sorting out music, I def feeling the Snoop Dogg track Sensual Eruption which has been censored.....way de go Snoop

This week, not much planned except, going to see Jumper hopefully and got bowling match on Thursday, me and The Mag hope to continue the Sweet Digit revival, though with me bowling that might not happen… and on that note of confidence I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

21ST FEBRUARY 2008

On a more light hearted note, I went to see National Treasure Tuesday night, here's a review, happy reading and feel to submit your own review to the usual website address...

Did anyone read that article in the Metro about the online dating game? It was mainly about a site called Sugardaddie.com..... what gets me is a statement from one of the women; all comments were from women.... “I was invited to the come to the States, but then I saw his picture and he was awful so I never went”..... as far as I can see it’s a site where woman are looking a free ride and rich men have enough money and are willing give women that free ride. The term Sugar Daddy conjures up images of a man who is loaded in his late 40’s + and is dating, courting etc a woman who is young enough to be his daughter or grand-daughter and that’s exactly what it is… what did that bird really expect…. a multi millionaire in the U.S. is asking a U.K. female to come and see him and he’ll pay and his found on a site called Sugardaddie.com….. he was hardly gonna be some kind of Adonis because if he was....he would have been snapped up already....at least she put looks after the money.... though I'm sure his probably got a kind, generous personality....

According to the article the person making the money from the site....... sorry running the site says “It’s a site where equals can find each other”... I beg to differ my friend... if was truly a site for equals finding each other, then why not call the site something like "Equaltoyou.com" or "NoPreNupNeeded.com" or "WeAreBothTheSameUandI.com".... though all I've said here is my own opinion formed by reading the article... that said I registered on the site last night..... no joking I didn't, what's the point, the site is a niche site and the expectation of the clientele is the male half of the site is loaded and willing to pick the tab on everything..... and that doesn't happen in Camstar's World, you got to be prepared to stand your round...But hey if you read the article feel free to pass comment, even if you haven’t read the article, you maybe a user of the very said site, but I’ve been using dating sites for a fair while now and I have looked on Sugardaddie.com and it’s from that experience I’m pretty sure that most of the women on that site are gold-diggers…. And it’s with that thought I’ll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

18TH FEBRUARY 2008

Tesco, Tesco, Tesco..... every little hurts..... this morning I went to the nation’s favourite supermarket to buy some Mach3 replacement blades..... there were no 4 blade packs, even though there were three lines for them... but the 8 pack was plentiful.... then I saw the price and realised why there were so many packs left.... £9.15.......(ATM)..... yes £9.15.... man oh man that hurt....I was so depressed I had to comfort eat with a pack of 5 Jam Do-nuts....I'll have to see if Aldi's sell them after all as they say... Spend a Little, Live a Lot....

The weekend for me was pretty chilled, didn't do much, sorted music out for 1st March gig at Corks, and then watched V+ and played on the Ps3, though I did hit FaceBook and put some more feelers out there for FS@26, and it's launch date 5th April 2008, did touch base with my man Mr G, he was at some Jazz soiree, pretty cool no doubt..... ah yes... that's what happened... I got talking to a few Arsenal fans.... though I was born and bred near the Arsenal ground I actually support another local team... these fans I was talking to... were pretty confident and cocky that Arsenal had it sewn up when they heard Giggs and Ronaldo weren't playing.....looking at the final score... I really don't think Arsenal turned up for the game.... 4 to zip.... You boys, took a hell of a beating...what made me chuckle was that bit the game when one of the Manchester United players, Nani... did a few juggle tricks whilst in the match...oh well Arsenal... one less front to worry about....

Plans for the weekend... listen to Arsenal fans moan about having 9 players out.... who will suddenly bit 100% fit for the Champions League game... you guys are still in the Champions’ League right?... I also hope to see either National Treasure or Jumper... Won't be bowling this week as The Mag is taking my place as he needs to play his second round game for the singles knockout... in the last round he battered the guy I beat last year in the semi finals.... so good luck with that on Thursday Mag... then Friday I'm playing Indoor Golf and then going to drink copious amounts of alcohol... should be good fun...We'll touch base later in the week, probably Wednesday after I've seen one of the two films, which I plan to do tomorrow evening, in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

15TH FEBRUARY 2008

It's been half term and not that I want to point the finger at a certain sector of our society.... but Wednesday... someone or some people thought it would be a great idea to push a supermarket trolley on the train track between Birmingham New Street and Lea Hall... just before a train came through, and the train hit it.... as I said.. it's half term... I wonder who would of had the inclination and time to do such a thing... but because of this selfish act, hundreds if not thousands of people were disrupted on their journey's into and out of New Street, not forgetting anyone trying to get to Birmingham International.... especially when you consider the last train before the incident was about 1500... and the first train through was about 1845... so near enough 4 hours... so I'm guessing someone probably missed their flight, I myself got on a train at 1700 hours... which went the long way round... up to Stafford, back down to Watford then a connecting train home... I got to my station at 2128... as you can imagine I was none to pleased....

I'm sure by now you've guessed that I'm blaming the youth of today, but that is only because the train station staff said it was "some youths".... what really annoys are those people who sit there and say "Ahh they're only kids".... Eff off, that's not a damn excuse.... when I was kid, my mates and I didn't feel the need to go play by the railway track... can you imagine the world of hurt I'd be in if my pops had found out I was playing railway tracks, and this was way before PS3's, 360's and Wii's and online gaming. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you should plonk your kids down in front of the TV give them a joy-pad and say "there you go child, enjoy..." but surely playing near or round a railway track shouldn't even be in their thoughts....

Some of you who have followed my blog for a while now. maybe saying "cam's being pretty chilled about the whole 4 hours plus getting home." Well it's all kinda put into perspective when you learn that on Thursday, as in 14th February 2008... St Valentines Day, the so called most romantic day of the year, someone took it upon themselves to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train just by Coventry, which I guess justifies me ranting on about kids playing by railway lines. It's such a shame that someone felt so empty and forlorn with life that they decide to kill themselves on St Val's day, though maybe they were trying to send a clear message to someone, but who that is...only they will know

So last night did all you lovebirds out there enjoy St Valentines day, did you know... well according to Channel Five news that 90% of flowers sold on St Valentines days are imported from as far as Kenya and South America, so all you environment lovers, did you ask for only British gown flowers for that bouquet you sent or asked for.... oh well maybe next year huh...

So I'm at last on the Facebook wagon, the wagon my mate Dr Dre has been trying to get me on for the last eighteen month, now I'm not a Facebook expert or addict, but on talking to a few people who are on Facebook and I've got a fair mix of opinions, but the two main ones are... It's a means to an end and the other opinion is... it's great to be able to catch up with old friends and acquaintances... The means to an end people are the people who use the site to publicise something or have cult following and use FaceBook as a place to put links for their groups like podcasts, pictures and so forth as it saves sending out a mass email or giving people another website address to remember... the catching up with people seems to be when you type in a name of an old pal, invite them to friends, then you scan through their friends to see if there are any common acquaintances and so forth and I have to say both have their merits and both are great reasons to use Facebook......but

....yep, you knew that but was coming.... one of the things that really does annoy me is this whole application thing... I'm all for fun on the net, you know movie quizzes, the dot game, how hot are you etc etc... but why oh why do you need to be sending an invite to 20 - 30 of your mates just so you can access the site, what happens if you ain’t got 20 mates, cos you've only been on the site two days... some will say it's to keep the site free... which I guess is fair play, but if that's the case, why can't it just be send it to two friends, after all look how many people are on the site.... it's essentially spamming and no one actually likes spamming, but cos it's in the context of Facebook, then everyone thinks it's cool.... you then find yourself going on there everyday, because if you leave it a couple of days, you come back to 50 - 60 notifications, which you have to go through, just in case there is something useful in there

Yes you could just limit our profile to just your mates, but then surely that is not using FaceBook to its potential as I assume FaceBook was created for three main reasons.... One, for people to track down and catch up with old friends... two, for people in the public eye, with major stars or small time celebs, artists, bands etc etc to put themselves out there and increase their profiles and the third reason, for one and all to network and make new friends, I got one pal on Facebook who must basically ignore every application he is sent, as he just has the mandatory FaceBook applications, I'll have to ask him, but I bet he still has to scan through all his notifications to make sure he hasn't missed anything

Don't get me wrong I don't hate FaceBook, my intention is to use it as a means to an end.... and on that gem, I shall bid Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

12th FEBRUARY 2008

Hello good people, it's been a while since I touched base with ya, this is just a quickish note to say I ain't forgotten ya, though that said I have, since I last wrote to ya posted a review of Cloverfield and also updated the 10 Pin match reports, not forgetting the Hot News on Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD and Darth Vader.

It's been a bit of a mixed period of time, had a slight panic crisis but that appears to be all sorted, but I've been busy sorting out FaceBook account and am also in the throes of sorting out the a few DJ slots, got one lined up for the free website, Plenty Of Fish, at Corks on Binney Street on 1st March 2008, and also one at my recent haunt of 26 Smithfields, 5th April 2008, so come watch me throw down at them both, holla me for more info or check out my events listing on the DiscJockey Camstar FaceBook entry.

Some of my old pals on here, yes you did read that correctly, The Camstar will be DJing at Corks on Binney Street, yep the very same place we used to all go to back in the day, the very place where Becks took a table slam whilst dancing to The Thong Song.... but alas it's not quite how we all remember the place. It just goes to show how the Late Licence and the Smoking Ban has and is killing the Nightclub Industry, the fact that Corks has had to resort to hiring itself out for free on the Saturday night. Back in the day it was one of the places to be along with Shuffles/The Office of a weekend, if you didn't get to Corks before 9pm.... that was your arse standing out in the cold until someone came out.

It's still gonna be cool to put Corks on my CV, it just shame it's not in Corks heyday when the place probably no doubt paid. The place holds 350+ people but on average we get 190 - 200 people tops on a POF meet, so please do feel free to come on over, let me know your coming and I'll ensure your on the list, and it is free entry too.

Doctors..... is it just my Doctor's or is it across the board that when you phone up to make an appointment you can never get a same day appointment..... in fact with mine it seems you can never get a same week appointment. I recall back in the 80's and 90's you weren't feeling well, you'd head to your doctors surgery and you'd just go and sit in the waiting room and it was basically first come first served and it was only one or two afternoons a week where he or she would have specialist surgeries’ for things like inoculations and other things... I got a bit of a foot injury and I need to make an appointment but I keep stalling as ideally you want to make an appointment that is ideal for you and your day job as you don't want to having to take time off work, but the pain is getting worse, so I'll have to make time to give them a call.

As some of you may know, I'm heading Stateside this year for my Birthday, I've booked a condo via a friend of a friend of a friend, but as with these things you always wonder if you're getting a good deal. well last night I got some brochures from Jetsave, and looking at their prices, the deal I've got from the place I'm staying is about £125 cheaper a week than renting a smaller condo with Jetsave, so I'm pretty chuffed with that and on that happy note, I'll wish, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

6TH FEBRUARY 2008

Hello peeps, how's it going? Sorry just a short message to say hello, I'll comeback with a proper catch up very soon, just been a couple of day so trauma, Monday was due to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed watching the best Superbowl in a long long time, shame the team I was routing for lost, but hey I love New York City, so not too upset.... and yesterday was a day of crisis in Camstar's World. I can't really go into the ins and outs right now, but I'm sure it will come out in the wash.

Breaking News though, I've pulled my finger out and activated my Facebook account so come on over to my place, if you search for Camstar, you'll find me... I'm the Disc Jockey dude. This website will continue, especially the Blog, Reviews, Quotes and everything else, but I'll also be using Facebook for other stuff.... I'm still not a fan of Facebook, it's just too much, if one of you pals breaths it sends you a notification, e.g... my man Monts makes friends some lass, Facebook tells me this information.... I mean it's not like I know the girl. Anyway, come on over and say hi, the whole of my world will know you and I are mates..... or not as the case maybe.... I'll blog again very soon but in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

1ST FEBRUARY 2008

I'm in a well good mood today esp because the weather man said it would snow today, and all we've had is glorious sunshine and to boot some gorgeous women brought sunshine to Camstar’s World today..... the term "Dreamboats" is an understatement.....

I went to view a property today in Edgbaston, the woman showing me the place had convinced me to view it because she said the rent was just over the £500 I'd requested, so I though Ok, maybe I can stretch, so walking in I thought, dang this place looks good for just over £500, so I asked what the rent was.....£625.... can someone please please tell me since when is and when does £625 constitute "Just over £500"... suffice to say, I asked if I could use the loo.... and left the place a memory of my visit and I spent more than a penny.... I see in the agent's face, she was not happy.... but it was funny...might do that more often...

Today is my last day in the office till Tuesday, as Monday I intend to be recovering from drinking copious amounts of alcohol on Sunday night as it's Superbowl weekend, the New England Patriots vs the New York Giants, with the Patriots having gone the whole season winning all their games, they are the favourites to win, so put a bet on the Giants and should they pull it off you could be quid’s in. Yeah I'll be getting in a case of Bud, Southern Fried Chicken and Corn chips... I'm even going to do some posters and put them up around my living room and I'll be whooping like a goodun for every pass, sack, turnover, touchdown and cheerleader dance... sad I know, but I really get into the whole thing, one of my dreams is to go see the Superbowl live and it would be great if the Tennessee Titans were in it..... So, on that note, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

31ST JANUARY 2008

I had to blog today just to say a moment of you time to pay your respects to the legend that was Jeremy Beadle the man was legend. I grew up with Jeremy Beadle being one of the main stay people on TV and he brought so much joy in the homes of the nation, man he'll be missed.

Kat actually turned up last night... eventually, I'd forgotten what she looked like it's been so long since we last saw each other, but we got on really well, it's a shame she decided to get her own place, but I guess it frees me up for relocating as I don't need to worry about leaving her in the lurch, but we've promised to keep in touch so no doubt she'll get a mention in the blog again.

Whilst getting the ingredients last night from Aldi’s I picked up their special offer catalogue… did you know that next week Thursday you can pick up a 32inch HD Ready TV for £345… not bad… good deal me thinks… but if you don’t fancy buying a HD Ready TV….. you could always buy yourself a Hammer Drill…. but not just any old Hammer Drill... no… it’s actually of those Drills you use standing up whilst drilling the floor… demolition drill I do believe their called… for only £109.99….. humm either a LCD TV… or a 1700Wattt, 1350bpm pneumatic Drill…. I’m all for Spending a Little, Living a lot... but Aldi… too far guys too far……I suppose I better get going to the bowling alley, so folks, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

30TH JANUARY 2008

It's a glorious day of sunshine up here on the on the 15th floor of my office block in Birmingham, but I'm guessing it's rather chilly out there...? Looking out there is noone sitting on the grassy knoll as there normally is of a lunchtime when the sun is out. Kat, the lass who was gonna be my 3 day a week housemate is coming over tonight to pick up some stuff she'd left at mine when she did the initial drop off way back in September and is dropping the key off too, she'll be getting to mine before me, so I'll get a taster for what could have been, I'll be knocking up Salmon Pasta, at her request..... cheeky thing... she asks me to feed her and then she tells me what she wants to eat... man I should have retorted as my mum would have.... "You take what your damn well given......" but that's cool, as it's one of my better dishes though it's the only one I ever cooked for Kat... should be interesting to see how she copes when she moves into her own place.... being that she claims she can't really cook.... guess one of the first things she will get is a microwave....

The week so far has been pretty chilled, esp yesterday, as I managed to leave on the 'F' of 4.30, myusual leaving time, which means I got to street level a ew minutes earlier than normal, which doesn't seem alot but when you consider by leaving bang on time I actually got home at 1750 instead of the usual 1835.. it does make such a massive difference, if I could do that everyday it would make the idea of relocating to Birmingham a distant plan in the future, but alas it involves grabbing a bus, and though the fare is only £1.10... over a week, then a month, then a year it all adds up, and with the Florida saving regime in action, every penny counts, so I'm gonna see if I can do the bang on time magic once a fortnight, which would be cool if I could...

It says a lot when someone never reciprocates…. Most weeks either Monday or Tuesday morning I’ll bump into someone I count as a good friend, when we bump into each other we have a brief catch up on the weekend and how the week is going…. but as we haven’t this week, I thought I’d pop them a hello communication and ask how their weekend was... you need to bear in mind this person became single not too long anyway, upon dicussion they told me they wicked Friday night and the rest of the weekend was OK, and the week so far, could be better....then there was what we call A T M…… A Tumbleweed Moment……. man oh man… not even a “How was your weekend Cam”.....

I've decided not to go and see I AM LEGEND as I hear it's yet another remake, so I'll catch in on Sky Movies or I’ll get it from my man Bucky in a couple of months....but I'm doing a bottle recycle run on Sunday with my mate DD, so hopefully we'll go and see Cloverfield which does look interesting, though does look a little Blair Witch Project in terms of it appears like the film is made in the form of a home video, but no doubt I'll touch base before then, what with bowling tomorrow, so till then I shall say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

28TH JANUARY 2008

Man I was so tired on Friday night, I got home, knocked up some Gnocchi with Stilton, sat down to eat, and within minutes of finishing eating I'd drifted off next thing I knew it was like 10pm, upon waking I plugged into Fifa08 and did some online action, was pretty good, I played it in Pro Mode, so you only control one player for the whole match, played 3, lost 2 one 1... it was kinda cool in a strange way, in so much as first game went to penalties... bearing in mind on my side was 8 other people I don't know from all over the world.... goes to penalties, I'm playing with Fabergas, I'm the fifth penalty... and I did a David Batty and the keeper saved it.. I lost us the game, I was gutted, can now imagine how the real football stars feel when they lose to a penalty shoot out… but in the third game, I scored one and made one so that made up for the bad first game. We won 3 -1 in the end.

Saturday was the usual market in the morning and then a day of mild house chores and plenty of V+ catching up along with looking out for the Barnet score in the F A Cup against, Bristol Rovers, we lost 0 - 1 in the end, which included us missing a penalty....oops....

I spent some time on the plenty of fish website, and sent out a few messages, though I don't expect many, if any replies, but it does amuse me how many women who have a go about people not replying to messages and saying blokes are rude, but yet whenever you send them a message they don't reply, and then there's always the classic when you send a message to break the ice saying something like... "Hello, how you doing? So what have you been up to this weekend and what you got planned for the week ahead?" which let's face it is a pretty easy set of questions to answer... the reply you get back is... "I'm Fine"...... then A T M..... (A Tumbleweed Moment)... annoying or what.....

People will sit there and say, "Yeah but that's not original"... but please, what's the point of me taking the time reading through your 15 paragraph profile come up with something original when you can't even reply to a basic question.... whenever you do make an effort with a descent original ice breaker all you get back is...."Thanks for the message, take care...", right now I think the dating game sucks, but that said, one of my really good pals, is in Morocco meeting his girlfriend.............. for the first time........ he met her online and after a year of, on and off communication they decided to give it a go just before Christmas, but this week is their first proper time together. He text me last night, all seems well and they are def an item so to speak..... so wishing him all the best in this fledgling long distance relationship, I sincerely hope it works for him...CSI NY was kicking it this weekend, quality episode.

Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday, but instead of Fifa08, I plugged into Heavenly Sword and man oh man what a game... Golden Axe, eat your heart out…. people get hurt is this game, am loving it and the graphics are very very good… I would say they are up there with Drake’s Fortune, what an epic game… One thing I did catch on Sunday was a recorded episode of Mission Impossible the original series... seriously people, if there is only one piece of nostalgia that you do this year and that is to plug into the original series of Mission Impossible, the show is from the late 60's early 70's but in my opinion each episode had much more to offer than Tom Cruise’s series of films and that was all without lots explosions and gun play, definitely worth looking at people. With that piece of advice ringing in your ears... Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

24TH JANUARY 2008

It's kinda been a bit cool over the last couple of days, it's just little things that have gone in my favour, but alas my six lottery numbers didn't come up last night, oh to have been the sole winner of the £11.2M jackpot... I've been watching a show at the weekends called the The Worlds Richest People or something like that, and it's so true what many of these rich people say, "People who say money doesn't matter and kidding themselves, because with enough money you can be who you want to be and do what you want to do," and man that is so true... if you want to fashion designer, if you got the money then you buy shares in a fashion house, you want to a singer and you got the money you can build a studio in your house.. it would have been nice.... but no...the only good fortune I got was little things like... wanting to see I Am Legend, but after finding out it was on at 1900 in Birmingham, I thought that boat had sailed, but found out it's on next week locally to home at a time I can make because I don't need to worry about the last train.. which meant I can could go and see Alien vs Predator Requiem Review is here so have a read.

As you may be aware I'm saving big time for Florida, so it's a case of trying to save as many pennies as possible, was due to go to a birthday party at the weekend to which I can could bring a guest, but got no one to take, so was in two minds at to whether to go, because I discovered the venue is slightly off the beaten track, but the do has been cancelled, so pennies saved and do need to let anyone down

Also I've managed to save money a piece of software that I've been after for years as I used to use it back in the day of just getting into computers and now I have a near enough bang up to date copy, and this was due to KateA postponing coffee this morning, so again pennies saved

So just small things that kinda make me feel oooo that's lucky, though the one unlucky thing is where I now sit.... I so wanted a window seat, though I'm beginning to love the actual seat, because I get to see the coming and goings of the office kitchen and I have to say, there are some amusing things to be seen, like seeing who has drawn the short straw for making the coffee for the whole of their section, that said it could be me soon, as I got Dynamo in the Champions League sweep and the booby prize is that the person whose team let's in the most goals has to make the coffees for their section for the day..... bottom line, Dynamo were the whipping boys of their group.

Did anyone catch the showing to Chris Rock in concert the other week, where he talked about that person we all know who is "Single and Lonely".  They feel they are the centre of attention, so they either put people down when others are listening or try and get a laugh at others expense... you ask them a question and they answer at the top of there voice so everyone hears, and they do it in the hope someone in the vicinity joins in, so they get an audience... "Single and Lonely".... I caught it on Sunday night, that was a funny sketch. For all of you who are into comedy, you got to make a point of catch Chris Rock in concert.....yeah I'm single, but I sure ain't lonely....well I don't feel lonely, as I got my pals round me normally via email, txt and phone, also I got you readers out there and for that I thank you all very much, I often get emails and some of you sign the guestbook and getting that contact makes me know it's worthwhile keeping my blog going, and with that thought guys, must dash as it's 10 Pin Bowling night, so Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl...... and can I send a massive hug out to a dear friend and a reader of my blog and website.... J Conceal, wishing you and your family and friends all the best and please accept my condolences on the recent family bereavement, you guys are in my prayers and thoughts....

21ST JANUARY 2008

A pretty chilled weekend in Camstar's World, though I did get some mixed news... all you regular readers may remember back in late September I mentioned I was gonna be getting a two - three day a week flatmate called Kat, as she was starting a new job and needed a base to work outta.... but then she had an op in October and was laid up will January... yes one of the women ops... So she'd only actually stayed in my house twice in all the time... well I was in communication with her over the weekend and alas she now won't be moving in as she's found a place in Irthlingborough, which, if you didn't know is probably the smallest town in England.

I feel kinda mixed about the news, part of me is chuffed she's got her own place as that means I keep my own space, so can walk about the house in my "Tanga's", go to the bathroom without locking the door and be a general slob without worry, but more of me is kinda upset as it would have been cool to have another person to bounce ideas off a couple days a week, as she's not the best as cooking, it would have been cool cooking for two, also would have been cool to pop down the local, as since moving to where I live, I've never been to my local... it's not like the New York culture...

So I won't be having a flatmate just in case any of you were wondering what ever happened to her, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Kat all the best in her endeavours and I'm sure her hubby feels a whole lot better about her staying in her own place instead of staying with a single bloke his never met

Friday, you may recall I said I was heading out to go catch Ramsay doing his national cook along.... sad to say I actually did plug into the show as I had been joking about watching it... Good ole Gordon, he was a little hyper don't you thing, he was pretty excited about the whole thing, though the bit I didn't quite get was, the studio audience.... why were you there... it's not like you were getting fed, surely you must of had something better to do.... say's me who was at home alone watching the show.... I just didn't get it... oh and I didn't even know Celeb Big Brother had commenced, I thought they'd shelved that show.... who's in it this time round? I know I coudl read up on it, but nope not going to....

Plans this week... well today, I'll be heading home on the "F" of 4.30pm...will be plugging into Fifth Gear which starts once again today, in fact telly viewing has really picked up overthe last couple of weeks... Fifth Gear is back, as is CSI and CSI NY, also Numbers new season has started up... Also my personal fav... Homes under the Hammer... Also this week, I seriously need to pull my finger out and go and see I Am Legend, I keep putting it off. Obviously got 10 Pin on Thursday and "Miller Time" on Friday... Actually Saturday this week I got an invite to a birthday party down in the Walton (On Thames) area and I can bring a guest... but alas I'll just be taking my left hand... oh well... on that note, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl, will touch base probably Wednesday, and the song of the moment for me is Amy Winehouse – Love is Losing Game…..man and don’t I know that….

18TH JANUARY 2008

The Mag and I bowled last night after using my £20 voucher for Old Orleans Broad Street, Birmingham, we had a light meal which was ok, but I shall put a full restaurant review out there very soon. We got to Stirchley Lanes and we found out we were playing arguably the best team in the league and both players apart from being identical twins took up two of the top three places in the individual league standings, and I'm not even in the top 20 and The Mag is lower than I, so it didn't bode well. By the end of the first game, "Things were not looking Rosie"... The Mag and I had scored 116 and 117, so that was a total of 233.... one of the twins in his first game had scored 235.... so add in the score of his brother and a hiding looked like it was on the way, but second game we managed to beat them by 27 pins, remember this is a handicap league, so our rather large handicaps came into play, but the final score was 6 - 2 to The Twins...

After getting home I quickly plugged into V+ to watch Dispat ches - Truth about your food.... did anyone catch it? Now I'm a fat lad, and the reason why I'm fat is because plain and simple my calorie intake is higher then my calorie output, I'm what you call "A fat stop stuffing your face bar steward"... but on this show, person after person was making excuses as to why they weren't losing weight... Belly-Dance instructress, said it was her metabolism... despite saying at one stage, she could easily buy a box of four cream cakes and eat three them... she said she'd grab a Mars Bar here or Snicker there... they send her for tests.... and guess what.... her metabolism was normal... even then she tried to argue with the doctor that it had to be her metabolism....there I was screaming at the TV.... "No love it's because you're a fat stop stuffing your face with cream cakes bar steward"

Then we had the dude who claimed he couldn't lose weight because he had the fat gene, despite admitting he was partial to a couple of bags of Pork Scratchings here and there... so off for some tests he went.... and guess what... he doesn't have the fat gene, he took the news on the chin admitting he needed to make more effort to lose weight, but you could see in his face he was gutted, well and truly gutted, bottom-line dude, you're a "fat stop stuffing your face with pork scratchings bar steward"

Then we had the rather large mother of two and home maker who blamed her Thyroid gland for not being able to lose weight, she's be taking medication for it for a fair few years, she was planning having a tummy tuck and other surgery to lose the weight... in a conversation she had with some pals in front of the camera... it came to light she was a big midnight snacker... off for some tests.... and yep you've guessed it. her thyroid was under control with the medication, she was basically a "fat stop stuffing your face at midnight bar steward"

Finally we had the family that sat there stone faced saying they only ate once a day... Mum, Dad and Daughter, all big.... presenter goes... "So you don't eat lunch".... "No" they said.... "And you don't eat breakfast?".... "No" they said.... I'm sitting at home shouting at the telly... "I beg to differ my friend".... come on who you trying to kid... you're telling me you get up at 6am in the morning and you don't eat anything till 6/7 in the evening.... F**k off stop bleeding lying. So the show (Dispatches)put cameras all over their house and also secretly filmed them when they were out and about... at one stage they filmed the mum sitting on a garden wall stuffing her face with a rather large sausage roll... the home cameras caught them going in and out of the fridge drinking mainly cold beers or cider... also whilst they were cooking they would be in the kitchen dipping Pitta bread into the various sauces and their portions were all rather heavy on the Carb and Meat front... not much veg going on there... When they asked mum about the Sausage Roll.... apparently it was just a one off.... yeah right course it was.... nope you are a bunch of "Fat lying bar stewards".... and on that note I must make the dash to go watch Gordon Ramsey cook on Channel Four, so wishing yawl Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun over the weekend to come...

17TH JANUARY 2008

Hey did anyone catch Relocatio n Relocation last night, they had a couple who lived in London, he (Johnny) was a globetrotting dealer of some sort and was not around much and she (Lynsey) was a spoilt little sh*t as far as I'm concerned, they had a budget of £750,000 and wanted to buy a place in Harrogate and a crash pad in London... they had allocated £550,000 to Harrogate and £200,000 to London, they had two young boys. They'd lived in London for 10 years, having moved down from Yorkshire....Harrogate is in the Yorkshire area I do believe

Anyway they view a couple places in Harrogate and at the second one, she walks up to the house and says "I don't want to live here it's in Suburbia".... we find out from Kirstie (one of the show presenters) that house is actually only 2 miles from Harrogate City Centre and 5 mins away from Lindsay's mum.... so 2 miles from the city is Suburbia these days... the fact the house had everything asked for including a very large garden and close to the city... but it's not that which, as you may have gathered, makes me really dislike Lyn, it's the following...

As I said before, she'd moved down to London and had lived in the Capital for at least 10 years, she had instigated the move to Harrogate (in Yorkshire) with Johnny her hubby, the hubby who if they had a budget of £750,000 must be earning a pretty packet though that said they lived in a four bed semi-detached house in the London area....they had sold the London pad and were living in rented accommodation in Harrogate, and had been there a few weeks... reason for the move was because she felt lonely as hubby was always away for days on end... she goes to Kirstie that in the short time she'd been in Harrogate she'd made more friends or met people she felt would grow into good friends than she did in the 10 years in London, because the people in Harrogate were much more friendly...now that pissed me off... big time....

I was born and bred in London and the fact I live 40 miles outside London doesn't mean I don't love London, and I'd be the first to say that London can be a daunting place and there are a lot of people who are quite insular or so career minded they don't notice the world around them, but London is full of nice, friendly people, and she effectively slated London throughout the show, but what gets me no one pulled her up and reminded her.. she really got to know her hubby in London as they lived it up down there for the last 10 years, also she was down there with her husband which is always likely to limit they type of people you meet, and I bet she don't work and lives the f**king Life of Reilly on his hard earned cash, no wonder she wanted to live right by the shops in Harrogate, as it's always gonna be difficult to carry your new ball gown and £1,000 Prada bag along the street and on public transport, with two kids in tow, also she's in a different life place than she was when she went down to London 10+ years previously, your 10 years older, you've lived more of a life, you got kids and you are probably more confident and not forgetting that major issue of "Your mother lives in Harrogate", so you're effectively back on your home turf...

Then on top of the above, they go down to London to view a few studio places and they view a studio flat with separate Kitchen and Bathroom area for £195,000, it was in an ex local authority building, so the rooms were more spacious... remember the crash pad is for Johnny to use two or three nights a week as and when his in London, as she'll be living it up in the 4 bed house his paying for, having coffee mornings with mother dear, she basically said the flat was not good because it was an ex local authority area and wasn't a good area to live, and you could tell, and no doubt more was said but was edited out cos they knew it might cause issues, you could tell from the tone and face pulled she thought they were above and beyond having a property that was ex local authority, she wasn't even gonna be living there, spoilt little sh*t

The interesting thing is that if you go the Relocation Relocation website you can vote on the properties that were shown in the show.... and looking at the votes earlier today... the top Harrogate property was "Surburbia" place 2 miles outside Harrogate city centre, and top London place at time of blogging was the Ex Local Authority place.....huummm, well there you go...

Well now that I've got that off me chest, I shall start to prep mentally for the 10 Pin Bowling tonight in Stirchley, it's The Mag and I tonight, hopefully we won't get the ass whooping we got last week, so keep us in your thoughts and in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl...

15TH JANUARY 2008

Bowling on Thursday.... oh dear.... some would say, we got bitch slapped, pistol whipped, battered, white washed, but essentially we, and that's the Royal we. got our arses handed to us on a chipped plate... not even bone china mate, we got thumped.... final score was 8 - 0... going into to the last game we were 99 pins down... and we lost the last game so we were even more pins down....thing is we put in reasonable scores considering we hadn't bowled for 5 weeks... 132, 128, 127, 96, 136 and 116... but yep we lost....... badly.....It reminds me of that football commentary where the commentator reeled off a whole list of British figure heads and ended it with... "Your boys took a hell of a beating"....

Friday was a pretty chilled day as we had a desk shake up so it was a dress down day and being in IT we had disconnect all the movers and shakers PC's, so I volunteered for the role while the rest if IT went to the pub.... after I'd done all the desk by 2pm... I headed home.... ahhh the joys of being in IT... as the IT department were part of the move the whole system was down...so one could not do any work, from all accounts the whole office left earlier than normal.

The joy of heading home was short lived though as I got to New Street to catch the 1448 home.... but we didn't leave New Street till 1524.... because the train driver was late.... yep, the train driver was late, so the 400+ people on the train had to wait for him....muppet...

When I got home it was "Miller Time" for pretty much the whole weekend, I didn't even play on the PS3 this weekend, though I did stream a few things through the PS3... stuff that an acquaintance called Bucky provided... Bucky is a mutual friend to everyone, but I was introduced to him by The Geek Syndicate and he has been a good good friend, his currently in the throes of providing me with Season 2 of Heroes....

Monday was again pretty chilled as it was unpack your desk day, from the weekend's moves, as with such office moves it takes a while for everything to settle. It's pretty cool now though as I'm actually facing my team whereas before I was kind of facing away from them, so I'll be more involved in the team discussions I hope...

Oh yesterday I was offered a regular DJ slot down in London for the First Saturday of every month, I will of course be taking it, though I need to put a plan together which I have started on, watch this space for the flyers and the launch date, but in the meantime Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl... and listen out for my song of the moment... Jay Sean "Ride It", it's a pretty cool track.

10TH JANUARY 2008

Just a quick note to say hello Today is the first day I bowl at the Stirchley Lanes, and I ain't bowled in four weeks at least, so I'm not holding about much luck for a good score today at... as they say in Outlaw Golf... "Things ain't looking Rosie"....

It's been an ok few days, though yesterday, I was hit first thing in the morning with stomach cramps, but they subsided after I got back home... I had started out to work and was in so much pain at Coventry I got off and headed home.... once the pains had gone I headed back to work.... all because I'm a company man..... uuhuh, uuhuh, uuhuh... no I am seriously

Did anyone catch Watchdog last night... when Nicky Campbell was talking the locals about how the council were selling names on the Electoral.... the first guy he spoke to.... he goes... "But surely that's illegal"... the guy looked like a living criminal... I bet he’s fractured a law or two in his youth... anyway, best go as need to prep for the bus journey to Stirchley and a rusty game of bowling, so Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl...

8TH JANUARY 2008

It's been a mixed bag of emotions the last few days from the joy of watching Trevor win the SoccerAm Dance Off, have to say though he wasn't the best dancer, he gave it a good shot and got my vote for effort alone.... the boy did good, and not forgetting seeing Phil The Power Taylor ping the ball through the hole in Hollywood..... the man's a legend....

Then I had the despair of seeing my team Tennessee Titans crumble in the 3rd and 4th quarter of their American Football playoff game against the Chargers... but I guess at least we made the playoffs, but my tip for the Superbowl winners is the New England Patriots who went the whole season unbeaten, and a good outside bet would be the San Diego Chargers who have won their last 8 games straight, including thumping the Titans twice...Superbowl is on February 3rd 2008, and rumour has it BBC will be showing it....

Monday was different, I actually woke up and got up when my alarm went off as I was heading to Birmingham to view a couple of properties near the McDonald's Drive Thru on the edge of Edgbaston and Smethwick... as you all know I'm looking at relocating to Birmingham, but I made the error of having a gander when I'm not quite ready to move.... so I saw this really great 3 bed place for the same rent I'm paying now and only 20 - 30 minute stroll to Broad Street... I'm now trying to sort out a loan, but the banks and lenders aren't playing ball.

It's annoying as I know I can afford to make the repayments but according to the computer I can't.... I beg to differ my friend..... so it looks like it's gonna be a case of skimp and save every penny, which is cool as I still need to honour the arrangement of Kat being my housemate whilst she sorts out her new job and investigates relocating nearer to the job... I know I know, this all started back in September, but she had an op and was laid up for 8 - 9 weeks, and this week she in training down south, but I'm sure she get to my place soon.

So I'm a little frustrated, but will have to contact the landlord of the house after I've tried my very last avenue of a loan hope... need to tell him not because I'm good like that but because his related to The Jass Man.... for those of you from the Liberty's days... The Jass Man was one of the Bar Managers in the main room, and you may recall The Capt and The Wasp used to give him some stick for just being him.... man I miss those Liberty's days

Right now I'm not feeling the love for Banks or Train companies.... the banks, obviously cos they are dampening my will to enjoy life more with a move to Brum, and the train companies... this morning I tried to get the 0519 train. like I did yesterday.... but no the train didn't move.... until 0645.....and guess what happened at Coventry…. the train was terminated early... bearing in mind it was an eight carriage train, was the 0519…. and the 0615 had been cancelled and the 0635 was behind us… so you had the 0519 travellers along with the 0615 and 0635 travellers from my station to Coventry… the next train through was one with four carriages... so you can imagine how packed the train was, we eventually got to New Street at about 0810…..and what annoys me is that my train company has a Customer Charter, which stipulates that if a train is more than 30 minutes late you and claim back some of the your travel.... unless you are a season ticket holder, because as a season ticket holder you will get a discount when you renew your ticket based on how well your train company has down on it annual targets.... This is a real kick in the teeth because if the trains are bad enough you just won’t renew the ticket and you'll probably drive instead..... the funny thing is...... not... that if a train is cancelled, it is void from their end of year figures... so terminating a train early like they did today means it was cancelled for Brum International and New Street so doesn't count towards their stats..... dang bunch of crooks

The rest of the week, I plan to go see I Am Legend at the cinema in Birmingham, then Thursday night we got our first proper bowling match at Stirchley Lanes, as last week was a practise run. Friday will be miller time in Cam's Boom Boom Room and that miller time will continue over the weekend too, as I start the long road of saving the pennies towards the relocation fund and the Florida fund.... I shall endeavour to blog before the week is out, but in the meantime, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl...

Oh by the way, as I mentioned during the festive season, I made a guest appearance on the Geek Syndicate podcast, so check it out by clicking on download episode 62, let me know what you think, also give the boys at Geek Syndicate a shout out from DJ TC

2ND JANUARY 2008

Well let's start the year as we mean to continue.... the company that does the train line maintainance have overtun for the third day apparently, so everyone who is due back to work and lives between Milton Keynes and Birmingham, is in for a nitemare journey to work, Virgin and London Midland are not best pleased about the whole affair...

To all my readers, old and new, just like to wish you all a very grand 2008 and hope yawl have a great time, I got a few plans for 2008, which include, creating a podcast which will be a light hearted look at the week's news, I'm looking for a co presenter, so if you're up for joining me to discuss the week's talking points each week, then drop me an email at the usual address.... also in 2008, I'll be 40 and I plan to head to Florida and meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and the gang, if you wanna join me than holla me back. Another big plan for 2008, is to probably relocate to Birmingham, sooner rather than later, but that all depends on saving lots of cash....

One of my big hopes for 2008 is to secure a regular DJ slot again, I've missed the week by week joys of DJing in a regular venue and getting to know the regs, but I have got plans for a School Disco type lick, though it might be based in London, that said I have got a possible venue in Birmingham on Broad Street, I just need to put a plan together... I love it when a plan comes together.... well folks on this first working day in 2008, I'd like to wish Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl...