18th December 2009

Hello people it’s been a while hasn’t it and what’s happened in Camstar’s world, well… I finally got round to registering with my local GP, who is all of about 200 yards from my front door, it’s only taken me 5 months, and I also registered and joined with the gym which is about 3 doors down from the Docs, again 5 months in the making. I need to really focus this year on getting fit, which should lead to me losing weight.

There are a few other things I want to focus on next year, my website to start with to make it better and def more current and to try and keep on top of my blog. Also I want to produce 4 issues at least of my website newsletter, click here to see my last edition. I’ve got an interview with Sara Thacker in the next issue along with an interview with a Vampyre called Sask, so watch this space, but need to source me a laptop or netbook…. Has anyone got one going spare?

One of the major things I want to focus on next year is to get back into DJing on a more regular basis, especially with not doing the POF nights anymore as myself and the website had a difference of opinion. I’ve got some ideas for nights that I’d love to try but need to find me a venue willing to take the chance.

We, as in Sweet Digits, have had a cracking bowling year and I’ve attached a copy of the table here, when you consider last season, we finished bottom and we were about 30 points behind the next team, finishing 5th is awesome.

In terms of resolutions for 2010…. Well apart from getting as much of sparkle as I can and being focussed on the aforementioned things…. Raise more money for Stroke Association; cook a proper meal every weekend that I’m home, as well as at least three proper meals during the week… no really resolutions as such.

Tomorrow is the last shopping weekend before Christmas and I wish one and all a fantastic weekend which isn’t too full of trauma, I’m thinking I might do what I did last Saturday morning and hit Starbucks to people watch after having breakfast at Café 101… but we shall see. I plan to blog before Christmas Day, but for those of you who may not be able to read me before then, I wish you and your friends and family a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year…. and remember, “Never Leave Home With Baggage You Can’t Carry.”

8th December 2009

Well we finished the bowling season on a high, by beating the team I most want to beat every season… we beat then 8 - 0… which means we did that twice to them this season, which is brill, our final position in the Handicap League was 5th out of 14… last year we finished bottom and a long way behind… and in the scratch league we finished 10th, but again last season we were 14th and a long way back, so all in all a good season was had.

Thanks to Digits and The Mag we had a cracking season and also a shout goes out to out sponsors DB Schenker, for all your logistical needs, the new season starts first Thursday in January 2010, but this Thursday we have the Christmas fun night which should be good and nothing too serious.

Friday just gone I did the Christmas party for a leading photographer and all his contacts. It was a party full of beautiful people and it was a fun fun night, with plenty to admire from where I was standing. The only down side was the trying to get a taxi in London, near London Bridge at 3am, it was near impossible, but I eventually came across a driver taking a break and he offered to take me after I'd asked him where was the best place to grab a taxi. Roll on next year….. god's willing of course.

Then Saturday morning was a chore having gone to bed at 4.15am and getting up at 07.30am to get the 0846 train because that's the ticket I had booked, because a pal had said he was coming to Brum for the German market, then after I'd bought my train tickets he changed his mind and it wasn't worth paying the £10 admin fee to change the time of the train ticket, but as I was on the long haul train via Northampton, I managed to get a couple of extra hours kip.

After getting home I spent the rest of Saturday chilling and catching up with recorded TV, Ironside, Mission Impossible, Working Lunch and Paradox, all good viewing, I did get a takeaway order as I'd forgotten to take the Salt Fish out and I cracked open a bottle of Stonewall Sauvignon Blanc which was not as good as the Pinot Grigio I consumed the weekend before, got three more bottles of the stuff think I might give a couple away as Christmas presents, though maybe I served a little too cold, so I'll keep one bottle and try it again sometime next year.

Sunday I did a slo cook, of Liver and Kidneys with Onions, and I have to say I was quite impressed with the outcome, the liver and kidney essentially melted on the tongue it was lovely, def will do that again, have put some aside in the freezer. I remember back at school when they used to have Liver and Onion, it was like eating paper and cardboard, it was awful, you kinda wonder if those school dinner ladies actually cooked when they went home cos they couldn't cook at school.

Well folks 3 Fridays time and we'll be waking up to 25th December, Christmas Day in the UK, so not many shopping days left for one and all to get their presents, but remember folks…. "Don't Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry"….

30th November 2009

After today, 24 days till Christmas and what a year it's been and it only feels like yesterday that I was having my first drink of Christmas 2008…. Lemsip and Honey…. for the last three Christmases I've been all bunged up and drinking Lemsip, so here's hoping not again this year.

Bowling on Thursday has to have been one of my best performances' of the season, knocking in 164, 172 and 179, which culminated in a 8 - 0 battering of the opposition so back on to the winning trail, and with two weeks left, let's hope we can finish the season with two more wins.

The weekend was a bit of a wash out, as my man Mr G, couldn't come for the weekend due to a family situation so I was left to pick up the pieces I guess, so Friday was spent chilling and catching up with recorded TV and touching base with The Lodge briefly.

Saturday I was up at 7am and sorting CD's for the Christmas soiree I have this Friday at the photographic studio and actually answering some emails from my personal email. I also hit a networking sites and picking up some messages and answering them, also found out that POF London had a meet but never asked me to DJ… so I had to ask the organiser if I'd offended them in some way, but apparently no I haven't…. it seems the venue plays their music via a PC…. and the organiser felt it unfair to ask me to come all that way, which I guess is fair play.

Saturday night I sat and consumed a whole bottle of Pinot Grigio, and have to say it was the best PG I've had this year, a must try I'd say, Selezione Mirella Catarratto Pinot Grigio 2007 in fact, available from Laithwaites Wines, and def worth £6.99 a bottle, in fact now I've tasted it, I've pay more for it, and I had a few tins of beer, so in fact I had a bit of a session alone, they do say you shouldn't drink alone.

Sunday I was up and about at 5.30am and again on the PC sorting CD's and personal email, I looked at my hotmail account which is tied into my FaceBook account but I never use it, I had over 15,300 messages… I must really clear that email down sometime. I was gonna go and see the Arsenal game at the Sports Café, but decided not to as it was the late kick off, instead I watched Ironside and Mission Impossible, along with playing Assassins Creed 2, so all in all a pretty chilled Sunday was had, though falling asleep on the sofa during Match of The Day 2 was a mare as I woke up at 5am in a awkward position and I'm feeling the effects, but I'm not complaining because as you know… "Don't Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry."

24th November 2009

Oh dear the losing streak was taken to two as we lost 6 - 2 last time out, though I bowled pretty badly only scoring 154, 117 and 124 so here's hoping that this week we get back on the winning trail.

This weekend just gone I went down to Brighton to meet up with and hang out with The Lodge, and I have to say it was a brill weekend, from the consumption of 4 bottles of wine Friday night, to chilling all Saturday and watching trash TV, which was good as I don't have Sky channels anymore, but we did plug into X Factor and Celeb…. hummmmmm, and Sunday was nice, though got up an hour earlier than planned as I mis-read the time on the clock, then the train journey home via Clapham and Watford Junction went pretty smoothly, so all in all a cracking weekend with cracking company and lots of fun….

This week should be a pretty chilled one me thinks, catching up with TV stuff and some gaming no doubt, currently got Fifa09, Modern Warfare 2, Midnight Club LA, Street Fighter 5 and IL 2 Sturmovik on the go, having completed Uncharted 2, though need to go online with that at some point, but all this gaming could be making me ache all over. Right now my right pinkie is sore in the joints, it could be arthritis setting in or could be down to gaming, but on top of that I really need to pull my finger and lose some weight for the sake of my health, even my back is killing me from just walking the 12 minutes to walk…. well it's more like 20 minutes the pace I'm walking at. I'm sure if I lost about 5 - 6 stone my whole body would feel better.

This weekend coming I go Mr G for a couple of nights, which should be good as he and I ain't had a proper catch up since his missus came over to the UK and moved in with him, so that should be cool, think I might knock up some West Indian cuisine actually, I'm thinking Ackee and Salt Fish served on a bed of steamed rice…. or I could do that dish that Casino owner is on Come Dine With Me of Roasted Pig Trotters….. mmmmmmmm

Funny that, as the other night Nigel Slater cooked a dish with Cutlets, as he called them, but they looked very similar to Pig Foot, but as it was Nigel Slater then it's ok, uuhuh uuhuh uuhuh….. and on that note, I shall remind you people, "Never Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry"

17th November 2009

Well last week Thursday we got our butts kicked at 10 Pin, first 8 - 0 loss, but you know what I'm not that upset about it, as I knocked in 158, 171 and 135, and if it had been another team we'd have won 6 - 2 but alas we played the top team, The Kingpins as they call themselves. Gutting thing though, is the last time we played them we battered them 8 - 0, but last week they bought their A game.

The madness of last week also saw Sainsbury's sell Modern Warfare 2 at a staggering £26 which was £28.99 less than the RRP, suffice to say I have a copy courtesy of my Bro's missus, and I shall post a review of the game very very soon.

Had a pretty good weekend, which started with Mr Wendell coming over Friday night for a bit of a gaming, drinking and chatting session and it was really cool. We had pizza and I ain't had pizza for about 5 months, in fact the last time I had pizza was way back in Northampton days, so was nice. Saturday morning was spent waiting for Tesco, who came in good time, then I just chilled on the PS3 playing a varied selection of games and catching up with recorded TV stuff. This continued through to Sunday, so I missed out on the JLS crush in Brum town centre.

This week is going ok so far and I'm looking forward to going to Brighton this weekend and consolidating a recent friendship that has developed over the last few weeks. It's kinda surreal, the friendship has always been there, we've kinda known each other for about two years and we'd text about once every three months or so, but suddenly we've both hitting 41 and now we are texting most nights and the friendship is going very well indeed.

And yes this person is female but no, we are just looking at being friends, neither of us wants that whole relationship mind games that goes on, so don't go making plans to buy a new hat or suit as that won't be happening anytime soon, if at all in my books.

Hopefully Thursday should see Sweet Digits get back on to the winning road again, but we shall see, all depends if I have a massive hangover Thursday as on Wednesday night, The G Man, Whitters, The Mag, Wendell and I are hitting The German Market and partaking of the beer stalls, but that shouldn't be an excuse for a bad bowling session on Thursday because as my mother 'RIP' once told me, "Never Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry"

9th November 2009

it’s not been too bad since I last wrote, with not too much happening in my world, though I seem to have struck up an interesting friendship.

With no bowling last week Thursday I don’t have any bowling info, but let’s hope the week break is a good thing and we can get back to winning ways when we next tread the boards so to speak.

The weekend was spent cataloguing music, as I got about 40 – 50 CD’s that need inlay cards producing for and with the Modelling Job coming up, I know their equipment doesn’t have text recognition so I really need to get the inlay cards sorted.

Also this weekend I spent some time Tiffany… the PS…. Question….. Why do blokes go around naming their equipment…?… as they don’t like strangers making their decisions for them.....

Hey my channel of the moment is Quest, which is new to Freeview, man they are showing some quality old skool TV, I need to update the Wot Are you Watching page, but with the likes to Mission Impossible, Ironside and TJ Hooker and a splash of the new stuff, Rescue Me, FBI Files and Industrial Junkie, it a quality channel…. Unlike that Viva channel, which is shockingly bad? I hope update the WAUW page this week.

So plans for the week ahead, well today will be TV night and plug into Gadget Show, Flash-forward along with watching recorded Quest stuff and a spot of poker perhaps. Then the only other major things planned are 10 Pin on Thursday and a PS night at my gaff with Mr Wendell where no doubt copious amounts of alcohol will be consumed. It is payday this week, so no doubt the monthly shop will booked and done for sometime later in the week and of course I shall be developing this interesting friendship further.

So wishing one and all a cracking week, and look out for the TV catch later this week, and remember people, Never Leave Home With Baggage You Can’t Carry….

4th November 2009

Starting with the bowling winning streak coming to an end, but at least we got some points, as I recall last year we were battered 8 – 0 week in week out, as yet this season the few losses we have had we are still to be battered 8 – 0, and I’m glad to say we’ve dished out a fair few 8 – 0 to other teams, and we’ve physically beaten them, as last year the only 8 – 0 we won was because the other team had not turned up.

Then you had the euphoria of DJing at Oceana on Saturday night, though that was after the stress of Napster constantly crashing every time I tried to burn a CD, as I was putting a few new compilation discs together for the night and also when I got to the club it took a fair while to actually get the deck sorted and two channels working, but once that got sorted it was a good night from where I was standing, though talking to The Boss she was disappointed in the amount raised, but that was due to what seems to have been a breakdown in communications, but we do plan on taking Help The Heroes on the road around a few venues in the Brum area, so watch this space.

Then the emotions were a little strained as I had to make a decision that meant I could let a very dear friend down, or I could help them out, and alas I went down the route where many would say I was being selfish and letting a friend down, but it was a hard decision to make. The question was “Could I stay at your apartment a few days a week, each week….?”

Now as many of you know I recently relocated from Northampton to Birmingham, moving from a 2 bed house with double reception and garden, to a 2 bed apartment, though it’s really a 1 ½ bed place as the second bedroom you’d struggle to get more than a small double in there. One of the main reasons why I move was so I could buy my own place, which I’m doing through a Homebuy scheme, but also a reason for moving was so I could find my own space too and have somewhere nice that I could entertain and hopefully win some woman’s heart, but that said I really not too keen on the whole living together and the all the stresses a full blown relationship brings, but when I moved to Brum I had always said I want a nice place where I could entertain a lass as and when, but also a nice place that mates could come and visit every now and then. If any other person apart from this person or my Brother had asked, they would have got a no straight away without a thought, but the fact it was this person, I had to give it some serious thought, but after mulling it over, I decide that I didn’t want to sacrifice my space a few days a week every week, as even though I love this person like I love my brother, I also love having my own space to walk round but naked in whenever I want, I should have phoned him and not replied to his text with text, as it may have come across as if I never atually gave it much thought.

Then last night the emotions moved to a bit of a high, as I had sent out a text re the next Drinks In The City venture, which is Brighton, and someone who I’ve got to know on FaceBook, who quite frankly I added because I think she's hot (alot of ladies I've added on FB cos they are hot, and there are few I'm really cool friends with now)...and she accepted my friend request and we’ve communicated on and off for just over a year and I'd say we're pretty cool with each other, and yes she is aware I added her cos I think she's hot... She said she up for the weekend, and she is free and she also lives in Brighton, and we had a really good chinwag, so am really looking forward to meeting her face to face and having a few cheeky beers with her, should be cool, and no as I said before I’m not down for the whole stresses of a full blown relationship, so doubt she and I would ever be boyfriend/girlfriend, anyway who wants to date a fat git like me... but for me, it’s all about fun fun fun, and remember people, Don’t Leave Home With Baggage You Can’t Carry”.....

29th October 2009

Not a bad week, this week. It started pretty well with the bowling last week. The Mag and I went down 2 – 0, with me having knocked in 148, but then with two more scores of 153 and 163 we pulled it back to win 6 – 2, which is a first for us to go down in the first game and actually pull it back to a victory, so we were chuffed about that. Let’s hope it continues tonight as Digits and I fly the DB Schenker flag… DB Schenker for all your logistical needs

Though it’s been a good week, nothing ground breaking occurred except me actually finishing a game on the PS3 from start to finish. That game being Uncharted 2, which I posted a review for about a 10 days ago, what a cracking must have game for the PS3.

I was down in Leatherhead on Tuesday, and in the evening I popped into a public house and what surprised me the most about the place was that there times when I see people pointing and whispering in my direction, now it could be the fact that I was a new face in a local drinking establishment…… or it could have been something else, but who knows eh..?

I did partake of the delights of the legendary Caesars Restaurant for the second time in as many weeks, but I shall post a full review in due of the place, but I have to admit I do like Le Head as a place and I’m sure I’ll be down there in the near future again.

This weekend coming I’ll be DJing at Oceana in Birmingham at a fundraiser for the Army Benevolent Fund to raise much needed funds for our heroes, so if you aren’t doing anything Saturday night, or you fancy “Treating” yourself or coming and learning some new dating “Tricks” then why not come on down and party with Luminar crew at Oceana.

As a result of my giving my time at Oceana, I’ve managed to secure a personal guest list at Oceana, and I don’t even have to be at the club for you m readers to benefit from the list. All you need to do is to contact me by lunchtime on the Thursday before the weekend you want to go to Oceana and I’ll put you and your guests on my list. What you will get for being on my list is reduced entry price, Q-Jump, and 2 for 1 drinks voucher. If your group has 20+ people than you can have a buffet thrown in, and if your group is 40+ then you all get free entry along with everything else, so holla me via Guestbook, or DJTC@musiciwithtc.co.uk if you want to partake of this deal.

I better crack on as I got bowling to go to and music to sort for the weekend, so I’m gonna love ya and leave ya, but remember people, “Don’t Leave Home With Baggage You Can’t Carry.”

22nd October 2009

I have to say I had a rye smile on this morning as I walked through New Street Station, hearing the station master say, “To all customers waiting for the 0733 London Midland service to London Euston via Northampton, this service has now been cancelled, we apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you…” Man I so don’t miss travelling on the trains every morning…. I feel for you Bobby T… hope you’re still loving that train travel son.

So since the spanking of the Sultans last week, what’s happened in Camstar’s World, well I had my birthday drink up at the Sports Café on Broad Street in Brum and despite like 16 people on FaceBook saying they were coming and another 20+ people saying they were coming, and I had the grand total of 5 people turn up, so had to humbly tell the Sports Café I really didn’t need the VIP lounge, which thankfully they were cool about and the management are even trying to sort me out a free night out to Raffle off at the Heroes Charity event I’m meant to be DJing at… 31st October 2009, Oceana, Birmingham.

Though as much as I loved Saturday night with Ju, Jeffo, Zizzo, Nats and Flares and adored the Sunday Carvery at the City Inn where Jeffo and Zizzo were staying, I did feel a little down because literally every text or call I was getting was someone blowing out the event, so much so, I doubt I’ll be having a birthday soiree next year, which will be a first since about 1993.

What else has happened, well I was at a Staff Conference for my day job, down South in Leatherhead, so I took the opportunity to go see my pops, who seemed well and happy within himself, so was brill to touch base with him and I also got to sample the delights of a eatery called Caesars which is in Leatherhead and I have to say the food was wicked. I had an Elvis Burger, which consisted of Double 8oz Burger, Double Cheese and Double Bacon…. Let’s just say… I def ate my fill and breakfast wasn’t needed the next morning.

Tuesday evening I got to sample the delights of a few drinking establishments in Leatherhead, The Running Horse, a great local sawdust kinda pub, then The Penny Black, which though a very nice pub, it was overall a little pricey, then The Dukes Head which was a reasonably nice drinking house and if I lived in Le Head and had to pick a local it would probably be the JD Wetherspoons as it’s cheap and had a more popular vibe about it, though The Running Horse is a very very nice Traditional kinda public house.

I’m now back in Brum and the combi boiler in the apartment keeps resetting itself so I’m having to get the R Team in, to fix it, which will be interesting as they only work Mon – Fri so it’s looking like a weekend of sitting on top of the fan heater and boiling the kettle old fashion style to do my ablutions…. Reminds of Boys Brigade camp…. Washing oneself with a bucket of cold water, well at least I can boiler a kettle and take the edge off the cold water.

Bowling tonight with The Mag, here’s hoping we can have another winning week, keep em crossed for us, and people over the next week or so, remember this…”Never Leave Home With Baggage You Can’t Carry.”

16th October 2009

I sat smiling within, like a madman, last night nodding in the right places as I listened to my bowling mentor as he answered my question of, "Do you think this game will be like that light sabre fight between Darth Vader and O B Wan in the original Star Wars, student meeting his old master"

Well three games later and scores of 142, 203 and 144, I was sitting in the same chair trying to contain myself as I hummed to myself the Star Wars theme tune and could hear a deep asthmatic voice in my head saying….. "I was once a student, by now I AM the master….."

"Strange" you are probably thinking, but let me take you back about 7 months… after coming bottom of the bowling league by about 40 points, we as a team decided to have a lesson or two on the ins and outs of bowling from the Captain of the League Champions, "The Sultans" who happened to be an ex British Standard Qualified Ten Bowl instructor, and with putting what he taught into practise, we as a team are currently sitting 5th in the Handicap table out of 14 teams and 11th in the Scratch Table, which when you consider we were bottom of both leagues masses of points behind.

Well last night we played The Sultans and I have to admit luckily we beat them 8 - zip. The first game we won as they just couldn't get into the swing (that's not a Dire Straits pun) of things. the second game they got better, but with us knocking in a 203 as one of our scratch scores, it was enough to beat them, then the third game they pulled back the handicap but one of their players was slightly off form and we managed to take the game, thus winning on pin count and getting a victory.

Chuffed at our little win, The Mag and I popped into the DogPool Public House on the Pershore Road in Strichley and listened to DJ Carlos throwing down classic Roots Rock and Reggae, but we soon left when he decided to give up playing the original tracks and decided to sing them instead, but all in all a cracking night was had.

This weekend I'm planning to hit the Sports Café for a bit of a birthday drink and I'm meant to have the VIP lounge area booked out, but "I Got a Feeling…." sorry almost broke into song…. no I got a feeling that not many people are going to turn up, with many contacts having gone silent, and other contacts now flying off for long weekends in warmer climes, and many others now telling me they are doubled booked, think it's only going to be a handful of people, which won't really warrant booking the VIP area in Sports Café.

Think next year I may well just do a birthday thing for just me, poss. fly out to Vegas, Canada or Oz, but whatever I decide to do, I'll remember….. "Don't Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry."

13th October 2009

Had a cracking birthday so far, but missed out on the last M burger of the season as McD had sold out, so gutted about that, but looking forward to the smoked salmon and egg supper.

Each year as you all know I throw down a mantra for the year. Last year's was "The Truth Will Set You Free", well I've thought long and hard and decided to use something mum told me days before she passed away as my mantra for the year ahead.... "Don't Leave Home With Baggage You Can't Carry"....  food for thought huh..... What does that actually mean, it could have at least two meanings.....

All the best people and wishing you all a great year ahead.

8th October 2009

What amused me this morning was seeing someone who clearly had issues abuse the police, well I say abuse the police, that should be abuse a police vehicle.

I’m walking towards Birmingham New Street and see this fella walk out the station and a look of anger suddenly hit his face and then he starts giving the finger to someone or something, I say to myself keep your head straight don’t give him a reason to start trouble. Then he starts giving it two fingers and heads off at an angle, then he does that drawing up phlegm from within, from the pit of his stomach and he starts spitting, then I realise all these actions are aimed at a police van which is sitting outside the station. There are no officers in the van, so the thought occurred to me that this fella really doesn’t like the police does he.

The weather here in Brum is very nice indeed, well from the 15th Floor it looks stunning, but no doubt it’s cold out there…. Talking of cold, hasn’t the weather here in the Midlands closed in a little, I had to shut the window vents in the apartment to keep the place warm, but this apartment living is cool as the heating hasn’t yet been put on, whereas in previous years the heating would have been on long ago, so I’m hoping for a massive reduction in my heating bills now I live in the City so to speak.

Back to bowling tonight, not been for 3 weeks, but Digits and kept the winning streak going, we are playing a storming season this year and even our sponsors are proud of us, DB Schenker, for all your logistic needs, might try and get some new T-Shirts out of them for next season. The secret to the success of the team, it probably the bowling lesson we had at the beginning of the season, though for me I think it’s because I actually go home and just chill and unwind before heading out to bowl, not forgetting the couple of cheeky ones I down before I head out.

You know what I wish I was doing right now, packing my bag ready for a flight to Orlando for my birthday. It’s been almost a year now, 13th Oct I’ll be 41. That 40th year seems to have flown by and to be honest I really didn’t do as much as I’d hoped to have done, already another year nearer to death man, it’s kinda surreal. But one thing that has stood out for me over the last year is the mantra The Truth Will Set You Free… I’ve practised it solidly for the last year and it had stood me in good stead, so I’ll def carry on using the mantra, but I do need a new mantra for the next year, and I may resurrect one I used way back after my mother passed away…. So watch this space on 13th October when I will put my new mantra on the home page.

29th September 2009

Sorry people, it’s been a while since I blogged, but been a little busy, with my day job and few changes, but alas as many of you know I’m not allowed to discuss my day job.

Suffice to say I’ve missed you’ll and now the day job has settled and I’m not getting home so tired I do the Friday evening pastime of sofa sleeping no matter what day I get in, I thought I’d quickly touch base.

I’m back from a successful Drinks In The City event in Blackpool, despite only 3 turning up and one other claiming she was in Blackpool but when we tried to arrange a hook up all we got back was …………a tumbleweed moment…..

Although Blackpool is rather tacky in terms of the tourist sites, we found a cracking venue called Soul Suite as recommended by UK Allyson and I’ll put a full review of the venue out there, some time soon.

Though despite her suggested venue, UKA was another who again delivered …….atm…… when a suggested hook up was suggested… and she actually lives in Blackpool, man I got change my after-shave.

Just want to thank a few of my avid readers you have sent me messages asking about my welfare, thanks people esp. Mr G for your concern, and I appreciate it. All in all, apart from a cold picked up in Blackpool, it’s all good in the hood with me.

What’s planned for the week ahead, well PS3 gaming no doubt with Wolfenstein and Colin McRae Dirt 2 along with some Fifa09, though Wednesday I may well be down in the Big Smoke ready for a day long meeting in Leatherhead. I am hoping to hit a couple of pubs in Leatherhead with a member or two of the IT Crowd which should be cool.

Friday will be more gaming no doubt and maybe watching the repeat of FlashForward just in case I missed something, hey just call me Anal, but having missed the series Lost, I’m not missing this series just in case it turns out to be a cracking as Lost apparently was.

I some are saying you sad git, but hey just saying it as it is, after all, The Truth Will Set You Free.

8th September 2009

Been a while since I blogged, so thought I’d jump on and say a quick hello to one and all. Sorry been a little busy… but the main reason has been that I’ve been a little down but hey I’m getting back on track.

Why was I down, well apart from a shoulder injury that put me out of bowling action for a week, just a few things have got me down, just one of those things, you can’t be happy go lucky 24/7 365 days a year…. Can you?

I really need to get focussed and lose some weight as I do feel this is contributing to feeling down, now I’m not saying that by being slimmer I’d be happy, but I do think I won’t feel so lethargic all the time.

Also within my mind I feel I’ve been let down by some people, I ain’t gonna mention any names as to be honest they within themselves will know who they are or should that be, she know who she is…, but at the end of the day if asked to do something and you say you will then either carry it through and come back to me saying no I’ve changed my mind, instead of trying to style it out by making excuses.

Remember The Truth Will Set You Free, and on that little gem, I’m gonna sign off, but will be back soon, very soon, very soon indeed.

27th August 2009

Some people say it’s “the death of an institution”, but me, I say “good riddance”, “about time too”, “how did it ever last so long”, what am I talking about…. Big Brother, but is it’s demise just a publicity stunt to bring back viewers as you already know some muppet is gonna try and create a petition or some group on Facebook called “Save Big Brother”… no just leave it and let the show go. I’ll do a full write up of my views on my new TV page of the website, which is found here.

What else has happened in the last week or so, well I DJ’d in London at Corks for POF website, and it was actually a pretty good night, which was a bonus because I hooked up with my pal KRS and her sister for an early supper in Prezzo Mayfair and I also got see my Dad and Bro for lunch. I even made it to The Angel Café on Stroud Green Road in Finsbury Park, London which used to be the café I went to when I was teenager and doing minicab controlling work with Texan… and also used to hang there on Saturday with Lucas before he would head to Highbury to see the Arsenal game. The same family run the café as when I was a teenager.

After DJing I had the joy of travelling back to Brum on the 2359 National Express coach and what a joyous journey that was…. Not… for some reason the driver wouldn’t put the air conditioning on, so it was a hot sweaty journey home, but the one delight was seeing a couple declined entry on the coach due to the fella being smashing. He was standing there swaying three sheets to the wind with a kebab in his hand, chilli sauce round his mouth and food stains down his Ralph Lauren shirt saying to the driver... “Please let us on, I got work tomorrow and I need to get back, let me finish this kebab and you’ll see that I’ll be fine…” I did try not to laugh out loud.

Also had went to La Tasca for a second time and this time I went with company, which made the visit so much better as to get the best and value for money out of La Tasca you do need to go with at least one other person. The night went well and it was a first meeting and we got on well too, I’m pretty sure and I hope we’ll do dinner again sometime. She’s a nice lass and we are def gonna be friends and who knows maybe more, but as most of my regular readers know, I’m very sceptical about the whole dating game and you all know that I’m on a mission to be happy with myself before I can truly make someone else happy…. Hey I’m only speaking the truth, and saying it as it is… The Truth Will Set You Free… and yes I did allude to her that we’ll work on a friendship and see what happens.

Bowling tonight, wonder if I’ll knock in similar scores to last week, man I hope so, 170, 175 and 158, which pulled in an 8 – zip victory, so fingers crossed good form comes my way yet again.

Hey peeps, if anyone is free on Saturday night, why not come on down to Oceana in Brum and help me to review the club for the website. Also Sunday I’m partying at Flares on Broad Street in Brum, where Plenty of Fish website is hosting a Birmingham meet. It’s guestlist entry only and you can get on the guestlist for free by registering with Plenty Of Fish which again is free, come on down and party, after all it’s a Bank Holiday weekend.

20th August 2009

Well my good (and bad) readers it seems congrats and handshakes are in order for some old friends of ours. The boys at Geek Syndicate are making waves in the podcast industry. They have pulled a great coup and managed to get an interview with Jonathon Ross whilst he was on holiday in the U S with his family. Click HERE to listen to the full interview. He was on the phone to them for an hour, he is passionate about the subject matter.

It's such breaking news that Geeks even got a mention in the Times Online, click HERE to see and read the article.

All you regular readers have probably heard me mention the Geek boys before, well they have quite a family now, with five other podcast plus themselves being linked to The Geek Syndicate Network, check out a full publicity write on the network by clicking HERE, as you can see they are growing. To all you new readers, Geek Syndicate is made up of two guys I've known since my teenage years, so some 24 years and we had some good times.

So once again congrats Nuge and Monts, keep up the cracking work, cos we love you here are Music With TC.

Other news, I'm currently in conversation with a club in the Birmngham area to bring my Facebook group Back In Da Day to their venue hopefully once every eight weeks to start with with the hope of delivering it once a month, so watch this space for the launch date.Join the group by clicking HERE. I'm in the throes of updating and reistalling some links that are currently out of date.

Well it bowling day again today and I'm going it alone once again as Digits and Mag can't make it, so here's hoping I hit my average the other team has a shocker like the team last week did.

Man I'm in pain. my knees hurt all the time even when I'm walking, I really need to get myself to the gym across the road from me and get losing 4 - 5 stone, as that may well ease the pressure on my knees. Yep you read that correctly 4 - 5 stone, I'm a fat git. No I'm not putting myself down I speak the truth, and you know what I say about the truth right. "The Truth Will Set You free"

17th August 2009

A few things have happened since I last blogged, like I bowled on Thursday alone against two others, and knocked in a 6 – 2 win…Yep 6 – 2…. It wasn’t looking rosy when I got there as they had a lead on me before we started... he was 28 ahead and his partner was 41 ahead… as I was on a blind, I got given 170…. So including their handicap one of them had to score 171… to nullify that score and the other just had to beat me to win…. Then the pin count after each game determined who won that game, you get 2 for each game… you play three games, then the total pin count over the 3 games decides who get the other 2 points… so I won the first two games… they beat me in the third game… then I beat them by 20 pins in the over all Pin count…. Thus 6 – 2…

Had a pal up from London for the weekend. Before he arrived I went our for a couple of cheeky beers with the Mag as he’s off for this week, and I think he plans on visiting some dodgy pub in London’s Kings Cross.

My London pal arrived late Friday night and we just chilled as we discussed apartments as he bought his apartment about 2 years ago so was a pretty chilled Friday all in all.

Saturday was a lazy day of us just sitting around chatting with Soccer Saturday on in the background but we did go out in the evening. We started off at Revolution Bar on Broad Street and surprisingly we got served with in seconds of getting to the bar, which is a first in that place, as serving customers isn’t their strong point…. Then we hit my go to place The Brasshouse and my London pal was impressed, it has to be one of the, if not the best venue on Broad Street for 30somethings who like MOBO. Later on we went to Oceana on Hurst Street. I plan to write a full review but in short, the venue itself is a great venue, and having the 7 different areas is good as if you got a group of people with different tastes in music then most if not all should be catered for, but there are certain aspects of the club that need a little tweaking. The only thing that kept me in the club as long as I stayed was the fact that my man The Capt had got me a guest entry and I got the chance to have a bit of a catch up with him as it’s been nearly 18 months since I last saw The Capt.

Sunday my pal left to drive up to Manchester as he was off to see the United play Birmingham City, whilst I settled for going to the Sports Café to catch the game, though I say Sports Café loosely, because in my opinion they only call themselves The Sports Café so they cash in on showing sports.

Why do I say that…. Well a sports showing venue in my view should have sports or sport related shows on various screens with SOUND and picture, not just picture. I walk into the Sports Café they have Goals on Sunday showing on the majority of screens, but the only sound is music, if I wanted to listen to music then I’d have stayed at home and plugged in The Music Factory or MTV Base, I wouldn’t have walked 20 minutes passing a couple pubs en route. I went to the Sports Café to listen too and watch sports. When I asked if they could put the sound on I was told they’d put the sound on at 1315, despite the build up of the game starting at 1300… but I still stand by the fact that if you’re a Sports Café / Bar then music is secondary, it should be about sport... I appreciate that in the current climate and in an attempt to be competitive on a Friday and Saturday night you might want to have the venue be more of a club than a sports café, which I can appreciate, but a Sunday afternoon, first day of the major national sport’s premier league commencing then showing sports should be your primary business.

I will be contacting Sports Café HQ and voicing my opinion and I’ll be telling them about the Sports Bars in the U S that I’ve been too, and maybe suggesting they take at look at their policy and a rethink is in order.. hey just speaking the truth and you know what I say about that… “The Truth Will Set You Free”

11th August 2009

Just a few days away from what many ladies dread, the start of the Premiership Football season 2009/10, Saturday nights of Match of the Day and now BBC has a Football League Show which runs after MoTD, I’ll recording that just in case Barnet score a rare goal and/or win a rare game, what with their lovely Purple away kit…. Almost as nice as the Newcastle United away kit, if you’ve not seen the Magpies new kit, trust me you will see it coming.

I say many women dread this weekend and next 42 plus it’s a World Cup season, so June will be full of football too, but I increasingly coming across many women who are really into football, which is a good thing for sure.

Sunday just gone I was at the Sports Café in Birmingham watching the Community Shield and what a good game it was, the atmosphere in the place was good too, we seemed to have a contingent from London and a group from Manchester who were on stag dos so it created a good atmosphere, I’m thinking about going to the Sports Café this Sunday for the Man U vs Brum game, but not sure the atmosphere will be as chilled as the place is likely to be full locals being in Brum and all that. Hey just saying it as I’m seeing it, “The Truth will set you free”. Come tell how many times you been to a football area where the home team is playing, the air is always so tense, but you go a neutral area and the atmosphere is pretty chilled. If I go let’s hope I’m wrong and it’s good vibe in the place.

Another good thing about this weekend is the fact I’ll actually have been in the apartment a month come Friday, which is cool. Still loving it, and a mate is coming up for the weekend as he heads to Manchester Birmingham game on Sunday, so I think we’ve pencilled in night out at Oceania in Birmingham, I’ve never been there before…. actually that’s a lie, I’ve never been allowed in is what I should say, but I’m hearing good things about the place. There’s been a bit of a change on the door entry policy and also they’ve tweaked the music and it all seems to be for the better, so I’d suggest people you get yourself down to Oceania Birmingham at you earliest inconvenience.

7th August 2009

”Wolf”, cried Peter for the umpteenth time and no one came.

Now I know how that story was derived. I was meant to have a dinner date this Wednesday just gone, in fact I was gonna be cooking dinner, I even had to change what I was going to cook as my guest said she only really ate fish and veg, so I went for Pasta served with Smoked Salmon Flakes.

Note I said “Was meant to have”, because a couple of hours before she was due to arrive I got a text… yes a text saying she was in hospital in pain and stood at 90 degrees as she had a trapped nerve in her back. Now ordinarily I’d be like “ok cool, these things happen,” but alas I just can’t say that this time, as this is the fourth time we’ve arranged to meet, actually the fifth if you include the time I got couldn’t get to her due to the heavy snow falls over winter. But this is the fourth time she has not shown up, and each time it’s been a last minute or just can’t be bothered excuse…. Actually I just realised it’s the fifth time… twice before there was patient issues where she worked and she got called in, the next time she does didn’t turn up, we’d planned to hit the German Market… the next time I was left sitting in Nandos and she didn’t show despite me messaging all three of her mobiles, she then contacted me a few days later saying she’d gone out drinking the night before and had left her mobile at a friends house and then the hospital excuse of this week.

Suffice to say as much as the hospital story and maybe even the previous four stories maybe true, I won’t be asking to meet her again, yes I’ll invite to wherever I’m DJing and if she talks to me I’ll be polite, but in terms of hooking up one on one, she’s got some serious work to do to make that happen, though she could just be a bird who talks a good game. Hey just saying it as I see it… “The Truth Will Set You Free”

On a lighter note, yet another 10 Pin bowling win last night, despite my shocking scores of 139, 108 and 120, we ran out 6 -2 winners. That follows on from scores of 8 – 0, 4 – 4, 5 – 3 and 6 – 2... three wins and one draw, it’s all pretty cool. Since moving to Brum my bowling just feels better and more relaxed, I’m not forever clock watching.

The football season for Barnet starts tomorrow, away to Lincoln, hopefully we’ll have a better season than last season, less nail biting and more punching the air please lads. The Premiership start next weekend, I got a wager with my pal MJ between Arsenal and Man U.. I was born in London hence why I’ve picked Arsenal and she lives in Leicestershire hence why she supports Man U….. hee hee… Basically the wager is each week that they both play, the team that gets the better result in terms of Win, Lose or Draw gets a pound… at the end of the season the loser has to pay the winner the difference.

31st July 2009

It’s been pretty hectic over the last week or so, what with sorting my stuff outta Northampton pad and trying to get settled into the home in Birmingham.

Firstly though I’d like to express thanks to the few people who helped me get from Northampton to Birmingham, my man Lord Soth who came all the up from Southampton to help me do the main move by lifting and shifting and driving the van, it was a hard days work, but it was like old times sir. Would also like to thank Lord Soth’s family especially Lady Soth as the day we did the lifting and shifting and he was with me, it was the anniversary of her fathers funeral, so thank you to the Soths.

A big shout out goes to my man Mr G, who initially had to cancel helping to do a shuttle run due to a possible Swine Flu scare at his place of work, but he came through a couple of days later and drive up from London to help me do a car run and was my first over night guest at the pad. Thanks Mr G, was like the days of driving from work from Hemel when Lotti couldn’t give me a lift, though we never past any Erotic Dancing pubs.

Then we have Mr Wendal, who drove initially from Kidderminster to help me do the final run on a Friday night in the pouring rain, and was my second overnight guest. It was a good drive and I’m still wondering how he gets all his family and all their gear in such a small car, though we did fit in a lot of my stuff. I’d also like to thank Bee, his missus for letting him have the car all day so he wouldn’t have to go back to Kidderminster to pick the wheels up

And finally and def not least I’d like to thank Me Jewel, who has been my cleaner for a while and she came in and did a clean as best she could despite all the stuff piles in corners of the rooms whilst I cleared my stuff, cheers Jewel, you’re a star and I’ll always hold a torch for ya.

One thing I’ve noticed since moving to Brum is that my bowling, well my league bowling has become a little more consistent and I’m enjoying it more now as I’m not looking at the clock, thinking I could make this train or that. This new bowling attitude came to a head last night as The Mag and I battered a team called The Kingpins 8 games to zip, and quite frankly we deserved to win. Some may say I’m being obnoxious, but I speak the truth, and as you know, The Truth Will Set You Free. I was meant to DJing in London, but I had a few things to sort around the apartment so I had declined the London slot, and thus decided to bowl, and what a great decision. Why so special, well the Kingpins are top of the League and we humbled them. When you consider last year we’d have lost 8 to zip, so was well chuffed, but not as chuffed as I was with the steamed rice I produced when The Mag came round after the game from some Camstar’s Bean Chilli.

20th July 2009

Spending a penny… started way back in 1850’s when there were public toilets outside the Royal Exchange and was mainly for ladies as us fellas had the stand up facilities provided for free…. Sexist you may say.

In 1977 the Telegraph had a headline “2p to spend a penny”… so from there on in the price of spending a penny has increased to the extent it’s a pointless saying.

Now I’m affirm believer in why pay if you can get certain things free, and to be quite honest I begrudge forking out 30p to go for a “Jimmy” or an “Eartha” but my first weekend in Brum, I now understand why paying for the pleasure has it’s benefits.

Now I walking round the Bullring and the urge took me that I needed the gents, so I strolled over there and get into the first cubicle. Now I’ve always had a habit of checking there is enough paper before I take a seat, so check the first cubicle, no paper, get into the second cubicle, no paper, check third and fourth cubicles, still no paper, so now we’re on the grace period, so I make the decision to make a dash to New Street station, where it costs 30p.

Get to ticket barrier and show my train pass to get access, dig out 30p change, put it in the slot and gain access to the gents. The first cubicle of the 20 I try, there is paper, and plenty of it, so I take my seat, pull out the Maplin Catalogue that happened to be in my man bag and start reading to break the tedium of this event.

So the value of paying that 30p became clear… there is always paper and the fact you’ve paid means you can settle down with a good book, but what’s getting me is that whilst in the Bullring, to check all four cubicles I had to queue each time… someone came out of the cubicle having been in there 4 or 5 minutes…. Now one cubicle or two cubicles even three cubicles running out of paper with the person just before me is a possible, but all four cubicles…. I ain’t buying it…. I reckon all four of those dudes went in there, settled down, started the business, then realised there was no paper…… hummmm think you know where I’m going with this….. Nastiness

Hey hey, if there are any ex Liberty goers, there is a Liberty’s Reunion Bash being organised, I shall post a link to the Reunion group once I’m up and running online at home, look out for the link and sign up… spread the word, trust me it’s gonna be a monster, and you know I only speak the truth, after all…… The Truth Will Set You Free.

17th July 2009

”What’s in you wallet”….. my ass, it’s more a case of what isn’t in your wallet.

Capital One what are they about? I ask myself. I sent them a letter last week to inform them of my new address, it so happens in the whole moving thing I couldn’t find my Credit Card so safest option is to cancel the card. So I ring them to cancel it, now I couldn’t remember my 16 digit card number, so they take me through 9 security questions and in the process they confirm they had put my new address on my account. So they had accepted my letter as confirmation of change of address. Now once we’d completed the security questions they put a block on the card, then they tell me that because I’ve recently moved they can’t send me a new card for 28 days unless I can send them proof that I’m living at said address, something like a utility bill… I’m like hold up… we’ve just been through 9 security questions and you’re clearly happy your talking to the card holder, you’ve already changed and allocated my new address on the strength of a letter, but yet you want me to wait 28 days before you send me a new card, and that 28 days is working days and does include the standard 7 – 10 days for you send a new card… so basically you’re expecting me wait 38 days for a new card, yet you’ve already assigned my new address to my account…. Muppets….

Talking of Muppets…. The annoying thing is I found the card in the top pocket of one of my shirts soon after the cancellation…. Doh...

The stresses and strains of moving home huh. As my pals B and Ju will vouch, when it comes to moving furniture I’m more a hindrance than a help so when Wednesday morning came and I was waiting for my man Lord Soth to arrive with the Luton Van I knew it was likely to be a long long day of hard hard work and boy am I feeling it still today.

I kinda pleased with myself as we managed to load the van and be on the road to Brum by lunchtime… we had lunch on route and arrived in Brum at about 1340.. had a bit of a break, then we’d unloaded the van and were back on the road by 1600hrs, missing the Brum rush hours. After Lord Soth and gone, I packed a suitcase and headed to the train station to get back to Brum and surprise surprise the train was delayed…. I’m def not gonna miss LondonMidland.

Then this morning I get a call from Jules postponing the shuttle run tonight from Northampton to Brum, because he was being sent home to quarantine himself after a work colleague of his rang in saying he had suspected Swine Flu. Which is kinda a worry no doubt for one and all. So had to move things around this coming to weekend to the moving of the little things from Northampton to Brum… the stresses and strains of moving home.

But I guess the truth be known, and as you know, The Truth Will Set You Free, it might be a god send not having to go to Northampton tonight as I might actually get round to unpacking some boxes.

9th July 2009

LondonMidland…. what a shambles… now we’ll let last week Thursday night slide because there was a fatality on the line, the only thing I’ll say about it is “LondonMidland where is you plan B….” but that withstanding there as been no excuse for the poor excuse for a train service this week.

I never thought I ever hear myself say this but please bring back Central Train and Silverlink Trains. It is so shockingly bad. I am so not going to miss travelling on their trains. Even if once I’m in Brum I have to travel to London I can actually get a Virgin Train for a Blue Lady (Lady Godiva – Fiver) each way… or I can travel down using the Snow Hill line….

Talking inept companies… British Telecom… what a bunch of crooks… I phoned them this week to sort out the fitting of my new line at the apartment and it took 55 minutes to finally get it ordered and booked in and I was calling them from my mobile and the only number they give out is 0800 or 0845 which from a mobile costs the earth

But lucky for me I know of a website that lists most companies 0800, 0870 and 0845 numbers and gives you the landline of that number, so you can use your mobile inclusive minutes, but BT the crooks don’t ever give you that number, on top of that, they wanted to charge me £125 to install the line. But it wasn’t until I asked twice if there was a way round not paying the £125 that they informed me if I took an 18 month contract then installation was free… so why not tell me that from the start, cos even if you pay the £125 you still have to sign up for a 12 month contract…. Bunch of crooks.

Well folks the invite to my birthday soiree in Birmingham is out there and should be winging it’s way to yawl, but if you wanna come along to the do at the V I P Lounge in Birmingham’s Sports Café holla me and I’ll make sure you get an invite.. though some people still haven’t got to grips the whole truth thing as yet. My example... one person who I’ve invited who over the last few months has become an addition to my circle, and I’m not talking about you my bejewelled challenger... someone else… is already giving me the whole “I doubt I can come as I’ve got work” line…. Come on please sort it out the do is in October… here’s an idea… how about going into work this weekend and saying “It is possible for me to have 17th October off as I’ve got an invite to a soiree… or just say the truth… You don’t want to travel to Birmingham…. Remember, “The Truth Will Set You Free…” as I already know you aren't gonna come....

2nd July 2009

Another week over since my last entry, and it sure has been a warm one, though of course as my mate Dunners in Thailand pointed out… it’s really not that warm compared to Thailand, he is originally from Dorking so does know the English weather.

The week commenced with a good bowling session, we won 6 – 2 and I knocked in 163, 151 and 147…. So pretty chuffed there, was playing The Mag who knocked in some quality scores too, hope I can keep it up this week.

The weekend was meant to involve me getting involved with a promise but that person, who yes was female, started making excuses on the Thursday night and in the end was a no show and to be honest I’m not overly bothered as I’ve no real faith in the female species when they say they want some of The Camstar Loving and I never ever expect them to come through, in the last only one has fulfilled a promise and let’s just say she has indicated it could happen again, so I couldn’t have been that bad, even with my beer gut dragging on the floor…. Why make excuses just say “Look Cam I can’t be arsed to come over this weekend…” simple, just tell the truth after all, The Truth Will Set You Free.

I got to see Blood – The Last Vampire this week and have to say it was a pretty good but surreal film and even had Colin Salmon in it which was a pleasant surprise, hopefully I’ll knock up a review for the website soon.

People as much as Dunners says it’s not that warm, it has been quite warm, almost a cracking summer already and with the Ashes this year and maybe just maybe a Brit in the Men’s Final at Wimbledon, could be a good year. Shame about the England U21 team, but at least they made the final right…?.

I got a question maybe someone out there can answer for me….. In the game we call Dating, when someone says… “must have a good sense of humour...” is that not a pointless saying as isn’t a sense of humour an individual thing…. surely you would only find a sense of humour similar to yours a good sense of humour? Or am I missing something…. It’s like when someone says… “I do the usual stuff…..” which is?

As for the move…. Man alive, I was looking in getting insurance for the new place, moving from Northampton to Birmingham, Central Birmingham that is, the premiums have shot up by nearly 30%, what gets me is that my renewal at my old address had gone up by 10% and I’ve never made a claim, was talking to the broker voicing my concerns and he alluded to the fact someone had to pay for the name change… so much for the slogan.. “Protecting your home and much much more…..” shame they ain’t protecting my wallet from their sticky fingers.

26th June 2009

Thought I’d jump on quickly to pay my respect too one the biggest icons in my life.

I had one of the most memorable and awesome experiences in my life, thinking of this person. They always say you remember your first, and I’ve never ever forgotten this person, so be upstanding and pray a moment silence in memory of Farah Fawcett Majors, who passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer.

Also my respects go out to Michael Jackson who had a heart attack yesterday.

They will both always be legends in my eyes.

25th June 2009

Well since my last entry what’s be going on in Camstar’s World,

Last week Thursday I had good bowling session, we won 6 – 2 with me knocking a 163, 151 and 127, it’s a shame the third game was so poor as that could have meant a 8 – zip smashing of the Bowldy Split, but 6 – 2 was nice.

Then we had the ASSUME situation… and we all know what ASSUME stands for…. Don’t ASSUME because it makes an ASS out of U and ME…. and I have to say how try that saying is… here’s the story.

As many of you know, I DJ for a Networking Site (as they like to call themselves) called Plenty of Fish, and I DJ for them at their London meets. Now the original coordinator and I had a good understanding, she’d give as much notice as possible for all the events they needed me to DJ for, so way back in January she informed me that there would be a do on 29th August, which is Notting Hill Carnival weekend.

Now, usually I do the early set and get the 2348 train back home to Northampton, but decided that as this was carnival weekend, we could go for it and have it as a pre carnival soiree, so I sorted out accommodation based on this plan with the intention of going to the Carnival.

Alas since Jan, the original coordinator has been rather ill but thankfully she is on the road to recovery, so other coordinators have taken over, and have done a grand job in her absence.

But this week just gone they just annoyed me. Now I’m not saying anyone is bigger than the POF meets, because in my opinion no-ne, but these new coordinators took it upon themselves to change the date of the August meet to 22nd August, which yeah it’s 8 weeks plus away but they changed it without actually consulting with the entertainment team i.e. The DJ, for the event but had the cheek to put the DJ (me) down as DJing on the 22nd and I only found out about the date change because my mate Sandy had sent me a text saying she was coming to the do the 22nd and had registered for the guest list.

I was not happy as (this is where the make an ASS comes in) I’d arranged accommodation for that whole weekend, and I’d sent out over 90 invites to various people inviting them to the Pre Carnival Soiree… so now I have to go and retract and amend the invite and see if I can get back my non refundable deposit….

Now I don’t have an issue with the date of an event changing, but I do have an issue with someone assuming that I’ll DJ for them especially when I’m essentially paying them for me to DJ at their events.

As you can imagine I’m not happy about it, but I will be DJing, even though by then I’ll be living in Brum and I checked, the last train that night (as I’m not arranging more accommodation) is at 2145… which means I’m having to go back via coach at Midnight… to Brum… so you’re looking at 3am return home. What also annoys me is the reason why the event date was changed… Now as you know, I’m believe The Truth Will Set You Free, so in my opinion it was changed so some people’s might be seen as a saviours, don’t get me wrong these people are awesome people and they are putting themselves out to do what they are doing on the 29th August, but the London Meet didn’t need to be sacrificed so that the 29th August could happen else where. All it needed was communication…. The question of “Can anyone in London help make the Meet on 29th August happen because something has cropped up?” …. I’m sure they would have got a positive response, or maybe they feel there is no one in London capable to holding the reins for one event.

Now I know they are probably reading this cussing, but hey, I was cussing too when I got told second hand that the date had been changed and my name was down as the DJ…Truly sorry if you feel offended, but that’s what my blog is for… for me to be open and frank about how I’m honestly feeling and as you know…. “The Truth Will Set You Free”

There were a few more good things this week, Mr G came over for the day on Saturday, we installed Drupal on my PC, I went to see the Angels and Demons and it’s a cracking film, hopefully I’ll have a review on the site pretty soon.

18th June 2009

Been a week or so since I wrote the blog, I guess I’ve kinda be moping about the whole nightmare DJ slot at Groove in Northampton last week Friday. They say a DJ is only a good as his last set, something The Capt always taught me, and he also reminded me that one bad set doesn’t make you a bad DJ, but it’s still a pain as essentially you burn a bridge with the club and it would seem with the agency that sent me, as I haven’t heard from them despite them saying they were going to contact me on Monday…. Just …………….ATM…………… from them right now.

Why was it a mare, well, I was asked to play 90’s which is what I did, pure 90’s. Now I had a full pumping floor for about 90 minutes as I played what would be regarded as Bubblegum Pop… as in the likes of Spice Girls, Five, n’Sync, Backstreet Boys, Aqua etc etc… Boy Girl Band stuff… so as with any other night when doing this kinda set I threw in a massive New jack Swing track…… Poison by Bell Biv Devoe and it cleared the floor... the floor cleared so fast I thought a fight had kicked off, but I got the floor back with some Mysterious Girl and Pete Andre….. Bubblegum pop.

This was path of the course thorough the night… whenever I played a quality massive 90’s tune, the crowd walked, we talking they walked to Oasis, Blur, Verve, Shabba, Bobby Brown, Faithless and a few more… it got to the stage where I wasn’t enjoying the set and it was just a chore, which is always a bad road to go down as a DJ.

Talked to DJ Pele afterwards who was DJing the other room and he put my mind at rest, even though I told him I wouldn’t see him the following week, which became true when I got a text…. Yes a text from the DJ agency saying the venue had cancelled my Saturday set as I wasn’t quite what they were looking for and to be honest, I was kinda relieved as I really wasn’t looking forward to going back there which is a shame as Groove is a fantastic venue, and I’d def say if you’re in Northampton and after a night of classic 70’s and 80’s music then Groove main room is the place, and if you’re after sing-along Boy Girl Band Bubblegum pop then the 90’s room is the place for you… if you want more serious 90’s tracks… Groove isn’t where you should be…. Obviously this is my own opinion, though may say it’s my own bitter opinion, but seriously I’m not bitter.

One thing that amused me was when I was in communication with the agency and I said that the venue said they wanted 90’s but what they really wanted was Boy Girl Band Bubblegum pop…. The person from the agency replied “That is the 90’s”….. then I reminded the agency person that the 90’s was more than that and I reeled off a few band names…. To which I’ve had ……………..ATM…………………… ever since.

On top of all this, I was meant to meet an acquaintance called Tab, for lunch on Saturday after I’d picked my new places carpet… I went to Mailbox Nandos as arranged for 12Midday lunch and had lunch on my own… not a dickie bird from Tab….. sent texts to her… I say texts as she has three mobiles…. Heard nothing from her until late Sunday evening giving some lame excuse about leaving her mobile (she said mobile, as in didn’t say mobiles) at her mates house, bearing in mind one of her mobiles is her “I’m on call work mobile”… come please. Stop talking shite…. She obviously still hasn’t learnt… “The truth will set you free”… it took you till Sunday night to send me that lame excuse when you got three mobiles and both my email addresses, plus the guestbook on this website….. and also I ain’t heard from you all this week…. Yeah whatever

8th June 2009

Here’s a spot of irony for ya.

As many of you know this website was derived from my DJ days at Liberty’s nitespot in Birmingham on the Hagley Road, even though I have been DJing much longer than the Lib days, but I left Libs under a cloud and under protest, then some two months of so after I left the club shut it’s doors for the last time.

Ever since leaving Libs I’ve been looking for a regular weekly slot but have kept my eye in so to speak by DJing for a couple of websites and doing private functions.

a few months before leaving Libs I joined another DJ agency under recommendation from The Capt, (the Capt and Wasp fame), and up to date the agency has only ever offered me one slot which was a lighting jock position at a venue in Castleford… but the fee was just not worth it as I’d have had to pay train fare and probably book a hotel and would have been forking out £90 a week just to earn £50, so I’d have been £40 down each week….

Now most of you know I live in Northampton (you may not have known that as I never really mention it in my blog), but in July I’m relocating to Birmingham. Well you’ll never believe what happened last week, I got a communication from this agency offering me a residency slot at a venue in……… you guessed it Northampton…. Been with this agency over 2 ½ years and they now offer me a residency slot in Northampton just as I’m on the verge of moving out, how’s that for irony…

This weekend was pretty good, I was DJing at a Black and White themed night at Corks in London, and it went pretty well. After the escapade of one of the DJ’s walking out half way through his set last time, he wasn’t there this time round and to be honest it was a great loss and he is an exceptional DJ, but I was kinda glad he wasn’t there as I got a longer set. I usually play 7 – 9.30, but with him not there, I got to play up until 1045pm so made the journey from Northampton even more worth while.

Hey I’m not dissing the dude, he is a great DJ, I’m just speaking the truth, I enjoyed the night all the more because I got to play a longer DJ set…. Just saying it as it is, and as you know, The Truth Will Set You Free.

3rd June 2009

Don’t you just hate when that happens…? Now I don’t usually talk about my day job on here but had to mention this.

It all starts with the urge for a number two, so you head to the door, but as you turn to close the door one of your male work colleagues is on your tail so you both head through the door and exchange small talk, but between you and the gents restroom are three more doors and couple of corridors and even the elevator lobby.

You go past the first possible turn off, open and go through the first door, turn round the colleague is there on your coat-tails. This door takes you into the elevator lobby, five lifts to choose from, so you’re hopeful the small talk is about to end. You get to the door on the far side of the lobby but the colleague is still there. Now you already know that once you’re through this door, the next door will take you into the gents, and you also know that this colleague is heading to the same small room as you, and you sense he is thinking the same thing. There are only two traps in this particular restroom which covers the whole floor, so you start thinking what happens if one of the traps is already taken, what if both are taken, these thoughts leave you with a dilemma, do you let your colleague through the second door first knowing that he’ll get to the gents before you and thus either have first choice of which trap, or get the only trap left or be in the predicament of pretending he was really going for a jimmy piddle as not to lose face and prolonging the piddle till a trap comes free but that gives you the upper hand as you’ll be in queue thus will get first refusal of the first trap to become free… but there is always the option of that last corridor before the third door, he may be going down there you think, even though you already know where his going.

Thing is he is thinking the same as you, but his more wondering will you let him go first, as he know if he was in the same position he’d not be letting you go first…. I decided to let him go first…. So now it’s squeaky bum time, does he use the corridor or the door…. He used the door, but luckily for both of us both traps were free….

The small talk still continues up until the time you both take you seat on the throne, then it’s the deathly silence as tumbleweed rolls around the room. You’re both in that mindset all us blokes seem to have, that we can’t squeeze our heads if we personally know the person in the next door trap, so it becomes a game of who can clutch for the longest.. .. this time round, I won and I manage to clutch long enough for the colleague to leave the house so to speak.

So his gone as has valuable time waiting for him to do his deed. You can now settle to the business in hand and you let rip… but just as the last of it falls, you suddenly become aware of a noise coming from outside the door, you sit and focus and yes one of your worse fears has just come true. A similar fear of being in a lift when the very same noise is sounded…. Yep, you’ve guessed it, the fire alarm is going off, you double check you watch, it’s not 11 ‘o’ clock and it’s definitely not Friday so you know it not a sound test, it’s a drill of some kind and to make matters worse…… You’re the Fire Steward….Which leaves you with another dilemma…. Man don’t you just hate when that happens…

Some of you may say, a little too much information, but hey I’m just being truthful and you know what I say about the truth….. yep, The Truth Will Set You Free.

28th May 2009

It’s been a week since we last touch base and a few things have happened, I scored a not to shabby 194 at bowling last week, The Mag played well but my other two games let us down and we lost 6 – 2.

We had a bank holiday weekend and we actually had sunshine all weekend for a change so that was cool. I went round to my mate Bobby T’s place to whet the new-born’s head with a couple of cheeky ones, which was nice.

I even managed to do some de-cluttering, which is still progressing ever so slowly, good job I got 7 weeks before the move but I’m trying to stay cool about it all as they say that moving can be stressful and I just want everything to be smooth and cool, though things are going south slowly.

My man Mr G had offered to do a car run when I move to transport the delicates in his families car, we’d sorted out dates and times then BOOM he drops me a note today saying that his little sis has crashed the car, thankfully she is ok and no doubt shaken up, but the car is a right off…. Anyone in London got a car they’d like to lend him for an evening. Preferably Friday 17th July 2009…

Had two highlights over the last seven days, the second (but I’m saying it first) was that Infamous exclusive to the PS3 was… sorry is launched tomorrow, but I already got my copy via pre-order…. I shall post initial review ether tomorrow or over the weekend.

The first highlight was just an amusing conversation I had with someone… they had told me they’d been to a strange pub for a couple of drinks a few weeks back, I asked where, too which they replied… “It was in King’s Cross, London”, (now I’m a Londoner and I’m thinking a pub in King’s Cross why…) he then says… “It was down a side street”…. (indeed I’m thinking...) “It never had a pub name above the door”... (Uuhuh, Uuhuh Uuhuh)… “and when I ordered my first pint they served it in a plastic glass”… (see now I have not got passed the side street bit)… So when he said that I quipped, “And you stayed for two…..”… thing is why was I not surprised when he went on to say… “Whilst I was sitting there supping my pint, a bird came over to me a plastic cup asking for a £1 to pay for the entertainment, and within minutes of me paying the money, the very same bird was up on the stage stripping her kit off”….. Man I was in tears of laughter…. As I said, I’d not have got past the side street bit, trust me when I say if you go to a pub in King’s Cross stay on the main roads, hey I only speak the truth people… and you know what I say about the truth…… yep…. “The Truth Will Set You Free”…

21st May 2009

Yesterday what a nightmare getting to work, but at least I got to see Tamworth station. I went to get the 0556 train and it was going great guns until we got to Rugby and we were told there a signal failure… but we were also told there was a blockage on the line… I’m sure it was one of them though.

So in the end we had to get a train that was going to Birmingham but was being diverted via Tamworth, Stafford and Wolverhampton, but we were advised to change at Tamworth as we’d get to Birmingham about an hour quicker, but of course they hadn’t told us the platform at Tamworth wasn’t designed for a Virgin Train load of people plus the usual crowd who travel from Tamworth, but I eventually got to Brum an hour or so after I should have got there… so 0810, man I can’t wait to, not have to commute every morning and evening…. Last night I worked out that by moving to Brum I get back 18hr 45mins of my life a week… time to kill indeed.

Bowling tonight with The Mag which means a win no doubt after his reported cracking performance last week… 240 he scored, so I’m hoping he will be bring that ‘A’ game this week, so that I can be carried through to a victory. We’ve actually had a reasonably good season so far in terms of bowling, we had a few 8 – 0 victories which is cool, in fact I don’t think we’ve been beaten 8 – 0 yet, where as last year it was case of a given that we’d get battered, but I def need to practise more.

Well it’s a bank holiday weekend coming up and there is a potential date in the offing, but after the recent issues with my last few dates, the truth be known.. and you all know that I think The Truth Will Set You Free… I think I might blow her out…. nothing has been planned as such but if we talk over the next couple of days, I’m just gonna tell her how it is… I have very little faith in the female species and if she wants to see me, then she’s gonna have to travel, I’m not prepared to get on a train or bus to Leicester and have her not turn up.

19th May 2009

Well the dating game is proving a hard nut to crack, I’m just surprised by it day in and day out…. though to honest I’m not that surprised. The amount of times Mr G, Mr W and I discussed the dating game, but now it’s just me, what with Mr G and Mr W both married and they used to be my main sounding boards when it came to dating, now it’s just me and my alter ego, Elijah Bashart Barrington…. Ebbie to his friends…, though Tiffany makes a great substitute, in fact I was playing Bejewelled 2 with Tiff till the early hours of the morning.

Why am I ranting about the dating game, well it’s all to do with my last two potentials, the first was Tracey, who lives in Milton Keynes and drives a Gold and Black Smart Car Roadster, and she works in Sales in Corby for a security company….. now don’t get me wrong she’s a really nice person, but unfortunately she fell into the abyss of the dating game dialogue, or lack of dialogue. We managed two dates and at the end of the second date I said it would be good to meet again, to which she answered yes… but apart from the text she sent to say she got home ok, I haven’t heard from her since and she’s even blocked me on the dating site we met on… so why say yes, would it not be easier just to say, “Nah, I don’t think we’re suited all the best in your search..” .

Then we have Chef, or should that be Jacqui, she works as a head chef at a massive department in central Birmingham. We were meant to meet on Friday evening at about 5pm, but she never showed up. Now I had a feeling she might not show, so I went to Brum with a plan B… to have supper at Nandos in the Mailbox. Now why did I have a feeling she would show, well, we’d planned the Friday meet on Monday night, but come Wednesday she had disappeared, couldn’t raise her on email or mobile (txt and calling), now I know she was going out for dinner with her ‘Daughter’ on the Tuesday night… or so she said, but my personal gut feeling is she had another date….

Now I’ve no issue with people dating multiple people, hell that’s the norm in the U S, but the key to this multiple dating is that you are not overly intimate with any of the people that you’re hanging out with, so yeah I’m cool with that… obviously once you start getting intimate with one of your regular dates, then you need to be telling your other dates that you are now exclusively dating someone…

So she never turned up and like Trace, she isn’t contacting me, though as yet she hasn’t blocked me yet… my gripe is, would it not have been easier to just say, “I’m going out on date on Tuesday night and if it goes well, the likelihood is we will have to cancel our date on Friday”… after all we’re on a dating site and I expect you to be dating other people… then all she would have had to do is call or text me saying “The date went really well on Tuesday, and I’m gonna give it a go with him, Sorry Cam, all the best in your search…”

See both these cases just prove my Mantra for 2009…. “The Truth Will Set You Free….” Cos if they had just been honest as soon as, then I wouldn’t be here cussing them….. Muppets…

After all they’re both in jobs where communication with other people is key to their success….

12th May 2009

Surreal day today, 12th May is Stroke Awareness Day and as most of you know my mum passed away back in 87 after having a stroke, so it kinda surreal as she is on my mind even more than ever today.

Yesterday I got talking to a young lass, that we’ll call Chaz for the sake of the blog and she made it clear to me that she wants some of “The Camstar Loving” which she has said it before but I've never bought it as in my mind the age gap is way to great for her to remotely be interested in a 40 year old morbidly obese guy… 22 years…, but it’s become clear to me that she is 100% serious, but alas it’s not looking like it’s gonna happen…

As you know my mantra for 2009 is, The Truth Will Set You Free, well, I decided to step up to the plate and told Chaz that I got a date on Friday night coming Now back in the day I would have and so many blokes would have not even mentioned the date, they would have gone on the date and even if it had gone well they would have still gone with the youngster from some extra fun, but know what I feel pretty good that I just told her up front that I got a date lined up, and too her credit she’s been pretty cool about it all. The way I feel about the whole thing vindicates to me that The Truth Will indeed Set You Free, as now I don’t have to worry about trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.

So big shout goes out to Chaz and here’s to us at least being good mates…. but of course if the date goes the way of my last date, then maybe just maybe Chaz and I will get it together…. So watch this space, and remember….. The Truth Will Set You Free... all that said I've got my eye on Canada for some reason :-).

Also I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate The Boss as I like to call her, in her new job. She’ll be jet setting around the world as a PR person for her boyfriend’s various business enterprises and I’d like to wish her every success, though it is a little gutting as she and I had discussed the possibility of opening a nightclub, which would have been cool, but at the end of the day fair play to her, getting paid to travel the world, I think most of us if we could, would take the job and enjoy every minute of it… so all the best Boss.

6th May 2009

What amuses me with some people is that often they say things because you’re a mate but they don’t really think about what they are saying. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate what is essentially a compliment, and I do realise that it’s said because they don’t want to see a friend worrying or hurting, but to be honest I’m not sure it helps.

Why am I saying all this you may ask, well, on Bank Holiday Monday just gone I went out on a date, which went pretty well and the lass I went on the date with was pretty tidy it has to be said,. We had a good laugh and she even likes Dr Who and the X – Men… though I’m not sure if it’s more about Mr Tennant and Mr Jackman…

Now I’m not very successful with women it has to be said and to be honest I really don’t have that much faith in females when it comes to the dating game. Now it could be because I’m morbidly Obese... according to my height versus weight ratio anyway, but there are so many times I’ve arranged dates the other party hasn’t turned up and not even contacted me to explain the no show, or they go on the one date and come back with, “Sorry I’m just not ready to date anyone”, or “I’m confused I really don’t know what I want dating wise”, or the classic female cop out “Sorry you’re just not my type, but let’s stay friends”…..granted one or two of them have become good friends, but when I put a message out there saying that I had doubts my Monday date would go on a second date, because a fair few females have said let’s meet then it just never happens, I got well wishes and compliments, which as I said are greatly appreciated and please keep 'em coming, saying “She will cos you such a gentleman” and “How can she resist you” yada yada yada…… the question I end up asking myself is…. If I was such a good catch why then am I single and not dating the compliment giver….

Hey don’t take offense to what I’ve said if you’re one of the compliment givers, none intended, I’m just saying it as I am seeing it, you know me…. The Truth Will Set You Free and all that….

Oh and for the record, she has contacted me which I'm well chuffed about and we plan to go and see Wolverine this evening, what with it being Orange Wednesday... not that my butt squeaks when I walk....

27th April 2009

It’s been an interesting and eventful week or so for me it has to be said.

I won’t go through every single detail but let’s start with Thursday, St George’s Day in fact. I hooked up with The Mag and The G Man and we had a St George’s Day Full English... despite the fact St George wasn’t English, but hey we indulged ourselves anyway. In the afternoon I was meant to meet LP for a birthday Fish and Chip lunch, but I’d sent her a txt about a week ago asking if we were still on and got ……….. atm…………. and I wasn’t gonna force someone to let me buy lunch for them, so I had a Fish and Chip lunch at home alone. In the evening I met up with Jeffo at Fakhreldine, a Lebanese place not too far from Green Park tube in London... A very nice looking place, that one day I’ll eat at, but it did look expensive, especially when a bottle of beer was £4.50 a pop. But that wasn’t as expensive as the next place. Jeffo suggested we go to Windows on the World, a bar at the top of Hilton Hotel near Green Park…. Man I can tell you this, drinking in that bar….. you were definitely paying for the view... it was a cracking view of London and for the view I’d suggest one and all get yourself to this bar, but make sure you got money…. It cost £16.88 for two bottles of beer…. Yes you read that correctly £16.88 for two bottles.

Friday night was an eye opener too, I went out for a few beers with Wendell, TW, Keano, Whitters, Red, JB, The G Man and Colt, it was a pretty good night all in all, but one stage JB tried to set me up with a saucy looking lass, who did come over and talk to me, though she through JB was on a wind up, so she never stayed long. I was pretty intrigued by her and had decided I seek her out and give her my card, but then I spotted her at the bar flaunting herself to a few blokes trying to get them to buy her a bottle of wine… which they did…. A few minutes later I clocked her sitting at her table with her mates and she proceeded to pick up a bottle of wine which was a quarter full and she downed the lot drinking straight out the bottle….. suffice to say she never got my card.

Saturday night I was DJing at a Plenty of Fish Networking night at a venue in London, it was meant to be a Karaoke night, but the venue had a complete nightmare getting it up and running so in the end the Karaoke was scrapped, so instead of the hour or so I was due to play, I ended up playing about 2hours 45 minutes… I then proceeded to hand over to the second DJ, as there were three of us for the night. Now about 40 minutes into his 2 hour set I was sitting talking to Lady Loul and then silence… there was no music…. I looked over to the DJ booth just in time to see and follow the back of the second DJ’s head as he walked out of the club, I quickly darted to the DJ booth and yep he had taken all his tunes and had def walked out the club, so I dived into my bag and put on a track, whilst Lady Loul went to get the third DJ who was busy talking to his “MATE”… I played a few tracks and he eventually took over so I could make the dash to go catch my train home.

As you can see an eventful few days which if I’m honest, it’s been kinda fun, seriously it has, even the £16.88 for two bottles and the wine swigging lass, honest it’s been fun…. You know me, I wouldn’t lie, after all, The Truth Will Set You Free.

17th April 2009

I guess I didn’t bring the weather back from Napa, man it’s awful weather here this week.

Now Napa was cool and I’m not talking weather wise, though it was pretty cool in the evenings and a long sleeve was often needed. No it was really good to be in the sunshine so early in the year for a change, instead of waiting for the summer week that we get towards the end of August.

Napa was pretty quiet compared to when I’d been previously but it was still a good place to be and there were a fair few people milling around in the evenings, though I got the feeling many were Cypriots on a night out.

A major good thing about going so early in the season was the fact the beaches were quiet. Now I’m not a beach bum in anyway, but I could see that if you were, then there was ample space on prime beaches “Nissi Beach” being the main one for one and all and the sun was a sun bathing sun in terms of heat, so I’d recommend to every one to get out there early doors every year.

I shall be doing a full report on Napa for the up and coming newsletter, issue 2, which should out around 30th April.

The main highlight of the jaunt to Napa was the opportunity to DJ at Black and White, which I managed to do. I’d got talking to some bloke standing outside the club one night and we talked DJ equipment and techniques, he then asked if I was a DJ as I seemed to know a lot and I told him I was and where I’d played and who I’ve played with. He then introduced himself as the owner of Black and White and did I fancy doing an hour set the following night. I told him I’d love to but was on vacation and had no tunes. He said the club provided plenty of tunes. So the next night I turned up and in the end I actually did a 30 minute set, but this was due to the fact it was pretty quiet and club opened at 2am instead of 1am…. But after I did my set the main DJ was happy for me to stay in the booth and suggest next tunes, and it was cool as he played 8 of the 10 I suggested, then I went off and had a chat with the owner and a few beers.

So you could say I’m now an International DJ, how joyous is that, and I know you probably don’t believe me, but as I’ve said all year, The Truth Will Set You Free, so trust me I ain’t lying….

8th April 2009

Hello peeps how’s your worlds? Mine is good especially as I’m off to sunnier climes tonight, though it’s with trepidation I am going as money is tight and payday is a week away, man, I really need to secure myself a regular paying DJ slot, I miss it so much it’s unreal.

Why trepidation you ask, well, last night I called the apartments I’m staying at and asked how much I would cost for a taxi from the airport to their place, the receptionist told me that from the apartment to the airport the taxi charges €50 so she assumes it will be the same coming back…. that’s €100 just on taxi fares….. I’m only taking €190 because the exchange rate is so bad… guess I won’t be having too many drunken nights.

Though that said I’m going it alone so it won’t be too expensive in terms of rounds and I’ll just have to nurse my pints, it’s a good job I’m only really going out there to chill and not party, but it’s still gonna be tight.

Well, folks I’m outta here for a while, so yawl have a egg cracking Easter, or a worshipful Easter and we’ll touch base on my return, and remember…. The Truth Will Set You Free.

3rd April 2009

Well bowling last night for me didn’t go as well as I’d have hoped for. Though arguably we did play the top team in the league.

I knocked in scores of 112, 129 and 129 and the final score was 8 – 0 to them, not that it’s any consolation this was the first 8 – 0 we’ve suffered this time round and we only lost the last game by 4 pins. Right up until the last frame of the game we were in front, but they knocked in a Turkey to steal it by four, gutted.

Still mulling over the dilemma I mentioned yesterday, def need to decide as soon as, because I’ll need to cancel hotel, tell The Mag and also the birthday girl of course should I decide to blow the bash out, but man oh man money is tight and with needing to fund my transfer from airport to Ayia I’d need to try and be frugal.

That said, I’ll probably still have a flutter on the National… as they say in NYC… “You never know my friend, you never know…” I could pick the winner.

The weather is currently looking pretty good but rumour has it, that’s about to change, but let’s hope not as it’s actually quite nice having a summer time that is more than two days long, so fingers crossed eh.

Wish you all a fantastic weekend ahead people and remember to be true to yourself, because as we all know, The Truth Will Set You Free…

2nd April 2009

Been another week of apprehension in Camstar’s world, still not heard from Keyhomes so still don’t know if I’ve been given the nod so that I can start looking for a new home.

Got a bit of a dilemma. I’ve got a birthday bash to attend on Saturday and I know it’s gonna cost a good £60, but money is pretty tight at the moment especially with Napa next week and payday being the week after,

Thing is I need to pay for my transfer between Larnaca and Napa which is about €60 return and with the current exchange rate it’s gonna be expensive, do I take the risk and go for the birthday bash and hit Napa and hope I don’t run out of cash, or do I blow out the birthday bash or blow out Napa.

Have to admit I’m a massive Samsung fan. Love my Tocco, the iPhone revolution has been annoying me… but last night I caught an advert for the iPhone and found myself nodding and saying… “Now that’s cool”…. The add starts with some application to get Taxi number if you in strange town… not overly impressed as 118 is fine…. Then the next application was a Tipulator…. Hey Tocco has a calculator…. Then the next app was the “Now that’s cool” moment… the application was a virtual screen of a Spirit Level and you basically use the phone as you would a spirit level when putting a shelf….. see “Now that’s cool”

Bowling tonight with Digits, I’m hoping I can build on my 136, 136 and 155 from last week, fingers crossed eh, of course I’ll let you know how I do, I won’t lie, because as we all know, The Truth Will Set You Free.

Don’t forget people it’s Grand National weekend this weekend so make sure you get your work sweepstake sorted tomorrow.

30th March 2009

Not a bad weekend all in all actually.

Friday night I partook of the usual Friday night pastime of late, falling asleep on the sofa, in fact last week I fell asleep on the sofa every night of the week, which isn’t good, I really need to pull my finger out and go get fit.

Saturday I headed down to The Big Smoke where I hooked up with my homeboys and it was really good, the highlight being my mate Ducktails telling us all about how he seems to have acquired a stalker, though he wouldn’t listen to us telling him, he needs to sort it now before it escalates. I’m watching a show called Stalker on Crime Channel, last week they had an episode where a stalker claimed the person she was stalking had given her unwanted attention and she had proof. She produced a pair of her smalls and it had his bodily fluid as well as hers… he was arrested and charged and her charge of stalking him was dropped… basically it got right down to the day before his trial started before it came to light that there was a third DNA sample on the smalls…. It was the DNA of the accused new girlfriend, who he had started dating some 11 months after the alleged assault…it transpired that this stalker had raided the guys dustbin and found a condom, and had poured the contents on to a pair of her smalls… there are some messed up people out there.

Talking of messed, for my regular readers, cast your mind back a few months, when I told you about my new acquaintance Emre, she was the bird on Facebook whose profile had been hijacked and some messed up tosser of a muppet and he'd post dodgy pictures and transposed her face on to the pictures. As I mentioned back then she is one awesome lass, well Sunday I had the bottle to tell her that I’m into her and though I fully understand we’ll never be more than just mates just had to tell her, good thing is she seemed quite cool about it, and in fact we’ve had a good txt convo today, but deep down I think she’s humouring me, after all I’m a fair bit older than her, but not old enough to be her father legally, before you start shouting cradle snatcher or something. Thing is I feel so much better talking to her now as we both know where I stand anyway, but she’s only ever gonna be a mate, as I know there is a queue a mile long of blokes who want to date, but I feel a sense of freedom after being open with her, which goes to show what I’ve been saying all along…. The Truth Will Set You Free…

27th March 2009

I’m all apprehensive today, kinda concerned that I won’t be accepted for the apartment I applied for in Brum, sincerely hope it happens.

Bowling went well last night, but the other team was so much better than us it was a shame as I knocked in 136. 136 and 155, but we still lost 6 – 2, the other team played well, despite annoying me with their persistent tac tic of having a team conference between each of their shots, and with the lane playing up we ended up finishing our game at about 2105, instead of the usual 2045ish, so made a dash for the bus but missed the 2133 train and had to get the 2153… got home at 2315…. I am so looking forward to living in Brum, as this is the city where my life is now and all this commuting is becoming a bind.

Should be good weekend, hooking up with the homeboys in London Town, be good to see Ju, B, Face, Thommo, Pat Sharp and Lord Soth, should be a good day and night.

Hey the suns out and hopefully it will stay that way too….but whatever you all do this weekend, always be truthful and The Truth Will Set You Free.

26th March 2009

A week of Joy and Pain it has to be said and now I’m sitting here in apprehension.

The pain was being told that I failed to get a mortgage promise and I was on the cusp of putting in an offer for a very very nice penthouse suite, spread over two floors looking over 8 acres of parkland, but not for me.

The joy was finding a scheme where I can try a house before I buy it, not mortgage or deposit needed, alas all the penthouse suites had gone, so I’m vying for a third floor apartment.

The apprehension is that I’ve sent of the application for the apartment and now it’s a case of Sidney Youngblood…. “All I can do is sit and wait,” so here’s hoping the lady from Pilgrims says “Yeah”.

What else has happened this week, well I saw Watchmen, what a cracking film, review will be on the site soon. I scored a bicycle kick against some top team from Austria. I performed an Ollie Reverse Kick flip whilst jumping off a 3 storey building and I spotted… boom, and tonight the adventure continues as I’m bowling with The Mag at Stirchley, so look out for the scores on the doors tomorrow, of course I won’t lie about what I score, because as we all know, “The Truth Will Set You Free.”

20th March 2009

I’m in tears right now, having just read an article about Google’s Street View application…there have been some complaints and requests for certain pictures on the site to be removed, the request that is making me chuckle… one of the pics was of a bloke going into a adult shop….. I’m just smiling to myself about it... can you imagine that this bloke hears about Street View and realises how detailed the pics are, so he covertly logs on to his PC at work and types in the address of the adult shop just to make sure he wasn’t caught and boom there he is in full colour and glory just entering the shop…. What are the chances of that.

Went to my local Nando’s the other night and what a shambles, yeah I’m all for the tithing problems at a new restaurant, but not being able to cook rice, when it’s one of your biggest sellers…. Shocking, suffice to say I filled in one of those “How did we do?” cards and I politely but firmly informed them they had a long way to go to be a reputable Nando’s, the manager actually seemed quite chuffed that I filled in the card, because one of the questions on the card is what other Nando’s have you been too… when I reeled off 10 different locations from Birmingham, to London to Brighton… he was kinda… “We need this kind of quality feedback”…. So I’m waiting for the free meal ticket now…. yeah right…..

Was bowling last night and I was actually quite happy with my bowling, we still lost 6 – 2 but I knocked in scores of 126 150 and 109…. Or course I’m disappointed with a 109, but it was the third game and I was beginning to feel tired, but that tiredness is due to me being a fat unfit git, I really need to pull my finger out and get myself down to the gym, and before all you lady friends who keep telling me “Oh Cam you’re such a nice guy,” or “Cam you’d shouldn’t sell yourself short..” shhhh I’m just being truthful… I am a fat unfit git… it’s the truth… and as we all know… “The Truth Will Set You Free…” but I have got personality and as Sam L J said in Pulp Fiction… “Personality goes a long way”

18th March 2009

I have to express my thanks to London Midland Trains for helping me make up my mind on something that has been bugging me for a while, which was, should I buy a place in my current town or should I buy on Brum where I work, and after the escapade of getting home last night, I’ve decided I’m gonna have to buy in Brum… and if I don’t buy, at least relocate and rent in Brum.

Yep London Midland had a bit of mare, which had always been on the cards way back in December when they changed the timetable. For some reason the train time to my town are 33 and 53 past the hour one special at 1713 Mon – Fri…. so last night I’d gone to view property or two and ended going for the 1753…but lo and behold it was cancelled, so I got the 1750 Virgin train, which took me nearer home, I got to a station further down the line so I could await the next train through… I got to this station at 1822… the next train through to my station was at 1913, so instead of being home at 1900… I got home at 2000hrs… now if I’d lived in Brum, I’d have been home at 1700hrs…. so I’ve decided I def need to live in Brum.

The next step of the process is to decide whether to buy or rent, so will mull that over for a few days, thing is I live in a house, but the lifestyle I’d like to buy into is the apartment living as I don’t envisage me getting all loved up at anytime in my life and I’m thinking an apartment is easier to maintain, but the one thing that narks me about apartment living is this whole Ground Rent and Services charge. You know one of the places I saw yesterday was a fantastic apartment costing £124K, but there was a £1,200 a year ground rent and service charge, which when you look at it, is like £30,000 over 25 years and that only if that cost it’s increased.

So I’m thinking maybe rent first and see if I like apartment living as I currently live in a 2 bed place on my own, as £120K+ is a lot to fork out if you’ve not gonna like that lifestyle….but watch this space I’ll let you know how it all goes.

What else is happening in Camstar’s world… well I’m in convo with a few ladies, but I suspect they are all good at talking a good game, also I’m disappointed with myself, I can’t seem to get focussed and start doing exercise which I really need to especially at my weight, I do think if I got fitter then my 10 Bowling may improve and I’d look more appealing and my health in general would be better, but somehow I need to motivate myself, I guess I need to be true to myself along the way, because as I’ve said many times this year… The Truth Will set You Free.

12th March 2009

Sorry peeps for the delay, had a few things to sort, like getting better after the stomach bug from Newcastle, and also having to cope with some Muppet, I gave information to six weeks before an event, only for him to come back to me the day before the event saying the information wasn’t good enough. Now I ain’t got an issue with someone telling me information I’ve provided isn’t good… but don’t come to me the day before the event to tell me that when you’ve had the information for six weeks, go bloody sit and bloody swivel.

Apart from all that I’m ok I guess, though I’m in the process of buying a house, which was going well until my credit card company decoded to put a stop on my card the day I applied for a new bank account with the bank I’ve have to have my mortgage with, so the application got declined and my guess is that isn’t going to help the mortgage application.

Bowling tonight, which is cool, not been bowling well, but Digits and The Mag have done us proud, but hopefully now I’m feeling better today, I’ll bowl better than the 116, 109 and 127 that I bowled last week, I got everything crossed,

Tomorrow is Red Nose Day, so do something funny for money people, I’m actually going to the Dogs tomorrow, which should be pretty cool, as I’ve never been before, I’ll have to take the camera me thinks.

Hey, fours weeks from now I’ll be partying in Ayia Napa… all alone… so if you fancy tagging along then please holla me back, truth be known I looking forward to probably the only holiday I’m having this year, should be good, and remember people… “The Truth Will Set You Free.”

3rd March 2009

Some of you are gonna say… “You sad Effer…” but alas I really don’t care. On Friday gone I’d actually booked the day off so that I could spend the day playing with Tiffany on the planet of Helghast, but due to the ineptitude of the Post Office the item needed to perform this adventure wasn’t delivered in time, so I have to go to the office to pick it up and by the time I got home, the adventure had lost it’s appeal. I did eventually get to Helghast and at some point soon I shall publish a review of that adventure, so watch this space.

To be honest the weekend wasn’t the best as I spent most of it blowing my nose and coughing and yet today this activity is still going on and I’m sure the cough is getting worse, in fact yesterday I drank so much water, people started calling me Trevi….I spent so much time shaking hands with the unemployed people probably started think I was choking the chicken…

One thing I’m pleased about happening recently was the launch of the website’s newsletter, which gives a small snippet of stuff on the website and is an online link so it’s carbon friendly apparently, click here to have a gander, next issue will be 30th April hopefully and will have the interview with Jane Keeley, a review of the biggest game on the PS3 this year so far, a write up on my planned trip to Ayia Napa over Easter and also I’ll be doing an article on my opinion of Online gaming and whether I think it’s killing, suppressing or enhancing gaming in general. If you want to contribute to the newsletter feel free to holla me, if I get some responses then I’ll look at introducing a reader’s letter page.

This week sees the Club Rush UK hold it’s first, FIRST FRIDAY night, hopefully there will be many more, we shall see, but I’m well disappointed by the reaction of many of my contacts, it all harks back to what I said a couple of weeks back… so many people “Talk a Good Game” so many people have kept saying to me… “Oh you DJ in London it’s too far for me to come, if you played nearer then I’d come and support you….” So when I got the invite to attend this gig in Redditch I immediately contacted all those contacts telling them I’m in Redditch, giving them like 7 – 8 weeks notice…. And you know what I got back………… atm ………… yep silence isn’t golden in this case, there’s even one contact I’d mentioned in like November I could be DJing in Redditch to which she replied “Oh let me know when and I’ll get the posse together and we’ll come support you, it will be like Liberty’s revisited….” From that person I got the biggest ……. Atm ………..... a prime example of “Talking a Good Game…”

You know I’d rather people just told me the truth instead of all this suddenly my mobile don’t work crap, my hope is that at some point they will realise... “The Truth Will Set You Free.”

25th February 2009

Sorry for the delay in updating the old blog, but been a little busy sitting on the throne after picking up a bug in Newcastle or on the way too Newcastle who knows, but Saturday through to Tuesday morning wasn’t pretty.

Sitting here now, it’s amusing to think that Stu was giving me grief about being a light weight and not being able to handle my drink and I must be getting old, all day Saturday… then on Tuesday he contacts me to say that Monday he’d spent most of the day with it coming out of both ends, so it seems the bug hit him worse than it hit me.

Despite being ill I did manage to see some of Newcastle… But am planning on going back up in October just after my birthday hopefully. What I saw of Newcastle, the architecture was cool and the city centre streets seemed historical, def worth a visit

Then there’s “The Gate” which is like a shopping mall, as in it’s enclosed and spread over three floors… but instead of clothes shops, it’s just Restaurants, Bars and late bars, people it wasn’t warm in Newcastle but I’ve never seen so much flesh on show and I’m including that in all my DJing gigs, from blokes in sleeveless tops and ladies in the same kinda tops and belts as Skirts….. man I just didn’t know where to look, without coming across as a letch.

Def going back but will probably fly this time round, unless I can get a car or MPV full cos a coach is just too cramped and too long… think there are a few National Express Coaches which go London / Milton / Newcastle but the rest stop at far too many places in between… got on the coach at 0915, pulled into Newcastle at 1745 oh and you can imagine the coach journey home was a worry what with the stomach bug.

Got back home Sunday afternoon and it’s not been good since then, first signs of solid movement was yesterday morning and now I’ve got a heavy cold and chesty cough, but I’m getting there slowly but surely and I’d really like to be tip top on Friday as it’s one of the biggest days of 2009… and I’m gonna be part of it…. will tell all soon, but in the meantime… The Truth Will Set You Free.., remember that.

19th February 2009

”Leading Em Up The Garden Path”, or as I like to call it… “Talking a good game”… the question is why do people do it and there are a lot of people who do “Talk a good game”. It harks back to my 2009 mantra, “The Truth Will Set You Free”.

Maybe it’s an ego thing, you know in the back of your mind you think… if I lead them up the garden path then they will keep giving me compliments or they will keep texting me and lavishing me with attention, because they will think there is a possibility of us getting it together and whenever I’m feeling low I’ll contact them and know they will lavish me with compliments.

What gets me is these very people who ‘talk a good game” are the very ones who start the classic lines “I’m not into mind games… etc etc….” I know a few of ya are now saying what are you on about..? Well I’ll try explain… but first thing is you have to understand there is difference between “Talking a Good Game” and “Flirting” the main and important difference is that, when you “Flirt” both parties are fully aware that whatever is said there is never gonna be any physical contact, e.g. My mate FiFi who recently moved to Oz, we’d drop in saucy lines in our convo, but we both know it ain’t gonna happen cos she’s married and her hubby is a good friend, similar with my mate The Boss, we plan to work together a few projects and it been made clear we ain’t mixing business with pleasure, so we can say anything and be pretty close to the bone and we know nothing is gonna happen.

So now I’ve defined Flirting, we come on to “Talking a good game” this is where one of the party thinks there will be something happening between the two… I know a fair few women who “Talk a good game” but to get my point across, I’ll address one in particular, we’ll call her Tarpo for the sake of this little piece I’m writing. I’ve known Tarpo for a number of years now and from the minute I saw her I was attracted.. yeah yeah anything in a skirt right…., I’d been split from my last girlfriend a few months and I’d just started working in Birmingham. I did the whole research, finding out her status and whether she was happy.

Found out she was attached and that she was on the verge of splitting up with her fella, I made it clear I’d be interested in getting know her once she’d made the decision and broken away from him. We’d discussed going for dinner and starting the ball rolling on the getting to know each other front... but that is still yet to happen... Now in all this time we’ve talked and she’s made it clear we’d def be going on a date etc etc, she has since split with her fella and still keeps going on about us going on a date…. Even back on New Years Eve 2007 I sent a text wishing her a great year of Joy and Love… to which she replied “Are you offering the Latter”.. I bounced back yes I am but only if she was up doing the same… long story short she made it clear that she was up for a long term relationship… but every single time it was and discussed it’s excuse after excuse after excuse…. She def “Talks a good game”

There is that age old saying that “people are products of their society”, maybe just maybe the reason why, according to women, there are so many male “Players”…. Could it just be that he knows too many women who “Talk a good game…” and cause they are all talk and no action he moves on, then suddenly he meets a woman who isn’t all talk and no action and suddenly the talkers realise he ain’t playing their game no more…. Oh and then suddenly his a player, so lesson here is to stop talking the talk and just talk the truth. I'm not just talking about romance either, the amount of times I've heard the classic line, "Why don't you DJ nearer to me then I'd come and support ya...." then a few months later I DJ locally to that person and I give them five or six weeks notice, and you know what response I get..... I don't.... yep I don't get a response, I get silence, tumbleweed they ignore me for the next seven weeks.... they "Talk a Good Game"..... if you’re genuinely interested say so and don’t just say it, do it… because remember…. “The Truth Will Set You Free”.

16th February 2009

St Valentine’s Day has just gone and I have to say yet again it’s a nightmare days for one and all, but it got me thinking about things and now I’m wondering the reasons why singletons, not all, but some singletons say the following line… “I’m happy single…” not a bad statement and not a lie but when the person saying that happens to be an active member of a dating site, it makes me wonder… “are you really happy single?”

ordinarily if you are happy with something, then why would you actively put yourself in a situation where the apple cart could be spoilt…? All this thinking is about my whole 2009 chain of thought that “The Truth Will Set You Free”…

If you are truly happy single, why then are you on a dating site, don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being on a dating site, but I say if you’re on the site and you’re happy single and maybe you need to be telling everyone that and then also telling them why you are on the site. I’m a member of a completely free dating site called Plenty of Fish and in my profile I’ve clearly stated I’m not on the site to date but am on the site because I DJ for the Plenty of Fish London group at their monthly gatherings and it’s easier for the gathering attendees to contact me. But am I happy being single, well no I’m not and is anyone truly happy being single especially around 14th February…?

It’s kinda a bit of a mare as DJing the St Val’s singles do it was a pain in that, as a DJ I’m playing the smooth grooves to move the atmosphere into a romantic vibe, and as the evening goes on, you start seeing people pairing off into couples…. Everyone except the DJ and that really does bring it home, and that’s when you sit there and realise… having your own space, doing what you want when you want, spending hours playing with yourself on the PS3 and going to Pizza Hut and eating a ideal sharing meal on your lonesome… no you’re not happy single.

Thing is it’s not just fat ugly gits like myself, I got a friend who I communicated with on St Val’s evening, asking who the lucky fella was who was wining and dining her, to which she replied she was home alone, doing diner for one and felt like “Billy No Mates”…. to say the Billy No Mates bit indicates to me are you truly happy being single, she says she is, thing is she is stunningly attractive and has a personality of gold….maybe just maybe the fact she is so gorgeous and could have her pick of any partner but yet is single…. she is “Happy Being Single”….. remember…. “The Truth Will Set You Free”

12th February 2009

The new session of 10 Pin Bowling down at Stirchley starts tonight and I’m kinda looking forward to it, a fresh new start all honours even, esp after the poor last session we had… Sweet Digits finished bottom adrift by about 40 points, so essentially there is only one way to go and that’s up, so come on down and see the new approach and support us from 7.30pm at Lakeside Lanes in Stirchley.

I’m off to Newcastle next weekend, though I’ve made a bit a double booking, which is a mare, I’m meant to be going out on the tap with Madison next Thursday night, but I’d already pencilled in going down to Mr G’s in The Big Smoke, because a coach from my place to Newcastle costs £58 or something stupid, where as going from London the cost is £25…. Go figure… when you consider my home is about 90 minutes nearer to Newcastle than Victoria Coach Station…

Looking forward to Newcastle, never been but it should be cool hooking up with Stu-pot and Duffers and painting the town yellow with little bits of green peas and carrots… if you get my drift…

So now I need to explain myself to Madders re not hooking up on Thursday, thing is she has just got all loved up with some fella off a website, and it’s gonna look like I’m blowing her out because she’s now hooked up…. Oh well, as I always say… “The Truth Will Set You Free….”

11th February 2009

The day after the day before and man it still stings like Cassius Clay is raining blows oops up side me head…

What the hell am I talking about right…. well for the last two to three weeks I’ve been in discussion with some that I call The Boss, we were in the throes of putting a venture drawing on her skills of gift of the gab and being well connected, and my apparent skills as a DJ and the fact I got a whole heap of contacts in the entertainment industry, there’s been long hours on her part putting a business plan together and me re-kindling contact with old friends and work colleagues within the Leisure and Entertainment Industry.

Well yesterday we went to visit the proposed site of the venture and seeing the state of the building our plans and aspiration were cut to shreds. Now the building has been uninhabited for about 20 months, and to be honest I’d never really paid much attention to the place before, but yesterday we went to have a proper look at the place from the outside and man oh man the place was shot to hell. We’d been informed the place was in need of £200K refurb…. But I’m no builder, but with the size of building and some other info we were aware of…. You’re looking at £500K minimum to get the idea off the ground.

The Boss and I have become passionate about this plan and it hit us both hard the realisation that the dream has hit a bit of a wall and the decision was made to put the idea on hold and have a re-think, and even though I’m smarting big time, I know it’s hit The Boss big time as she seemed to disappear for the rest of the day yesterday. But we are back in comms now and I think we’re both thinking about the next step, so watch this space, it may still happen people… you betcha bottom dollar… A Storm is brewing people.

Whilst I’m here I’d like to give a big shout out to Mr and Mrs B along with Pat Sharp and Betty Boo have between them have had two babies, and I’d like to wish one and all great health and long life and remember every one… “The Truth Will Set You Free”…..

4th February 2009

What a weekend, it all started with a moderator on a networking site annoying me big time, but that annoyance, soon dissipated when I received two messages out of the blue.

The first was from my man Dom H, who DJ’s for Voodoo, who after much success in Reading and having a launch night this Saturday at Club Rush UK in Redditch. He calls me asking if I fancied Poland for a DJ slot in May. Now the average DJ, given the choice of becoming an International DJ, with travel, hotel and being the DJ getting paid for, would have bitten his hand off, but I didn’t and gave it some thought due to an incident that happened a few years back when I went on Mr B’s stag do to Lithuania, and in the back of my mind, I had to think, will I get the same situation arise in Poland, but after a bit of thought I decided to accept his offer, so that was pretty cool, I’m on the cusp of being an international DJ, how cool is that…

The second was a IM conversation with The Boss as I’ve decided to call her, she has secured a potential investor and plans to rise from the ashes and an old institution in Birmingham, and she’s offered me a place on the entertainment team and for this one, I didn’t need to think about it at all, to be honest I’d be on the entertainment team for free… or at least for the price of a descent hotel room, but I can’t say much more than that as a fair few things need to be sorted before it happens, but people Beware a Strom is brewing....

What else happened over the weekend…. all I can say is… “Here we Steelers Here we go, Here we go Steelers here we go,” as much as I’m a Titans fans I was supporting the Pittsburgh Steelers all the way to the last play of the Superbowl, what a game, especially the 90+ yard inception run back for a touchdown, and as I’m off next Monday I’ll for the first time get to see the Pro Bowl Live…. It’s gonna be a late one.

Monday saw me endure a 2 hour 20 minute bus ride to go see a friend I’d never met. My pal Gill, I’ve known her about 4 years, we met on a networking website and we’d communicated quite a bit over this time, but Monday we decided to hook up for lunch and we had a good time. Conversation was good and I def think we’ll be pals for a long time. The journey home was interesting, as the bus sped, and I mean sped through the blizzard, I was thinking in the back of mind, would we make it back or would we end up in a broken down bus having to sleep on the floor.

As for what happened in Lithuania, that’s a story for another time, though many of my older readers may recall me telling the story at the time it happened, but here nothing wrong with a re-run right, so watch this space and I’ll do a reminisce, but in the meantime, remember, “The Truth Will Set You Free”

30th January 2009

So after the platform run around that LondonMidland like to pull every so often at Birmingham New Street, your train pulls in and you are on the right platform, but your frustrated and annoyed as this is the fourth platform you’ve been on in the last 10 minutes as you’ve been dashing up and downstairs and along concourses, so you’re not happy.

The train doors open and the fight ensues to get a window seat and plonk your bag and the seat next to you in the vain hope no-one will sit next to you. You’ve managed all this, but as you sit down realisation hits you that the train your on is one of the dreaded new LondonMidland trains that all your fellow passengers, including the size 4 blonde who gets you train in the morning, complains about saying the seats are too small and there is no leg room.

Well all this happened to me last night on the way home, but in the back of my mind I was pretty cool about it, as I’d managed to get one of the special seats, for special people which happen to have lots of extra leg room, but yep my fellow passengers are right, the seats are def too small, so sitting with arms crossed I’m taking up a seat and a bit, because, as most of you know I’m not a small lad. I saw people get look at me, scan the area next to me and decide to stand, but then it happened, every fat guys worse nightmare.

As most people know a train carriage has four sets of doors, two on each side. Well I was sitting right at the front of the carriage looking down the length of the carriage, the doors are due to shut and just before that happens, one of my fellow passengers dashes on to the train through the furthest set of doors away from me. He settles himself and starts to scan the train, looking for an empty seat, but alas there are none, but wait, no one was sitting next to me. I saw his scan coming my way, then boom his head stopped moving and I saw his eyes narrow and focus on the 3/4 bit of seat next to me and he starts heading my way like a man possessed, shoving and climbing over everyone, including the pram, I knew no matter what he was going to sit next to me.

So whilst his performing his own unique version of “Parkour” I quickly check that everything I need for the journey is to hand and available, I grab my bag, pull out my copy of "Shortlist Magazine", my spare headphones as I fear the stereo Bluetooth headphones I use everyday may run out of power as I’ve been using them since Sunday on a single charge and also make sure my two mobile phones are out of the bag just in case I get a call on either, because I know once he sits next to me I’ll be trapped in that seat till the end of the line as he lives in the same area as I do. As I’m fully settled I look up and his there standing over me, and I see the disappointment in his face.

I Could tell from his face, that when he spotted the seat he thought there was more room on the seat next to me and there was the realisation that he was right in what he and the size 4 blonde who gets on our train in the morning had said to me a few weeks previously, the seats on the new LondonMidland trains are small…. He mumbles good evening to me and proceeds to perch on what seat he could, hangs his head and promptly falls asleep for the whole journey.

Oh before I sign off, just wanted to say congrats to Mr G, who got married in Morocco yesterday and may I take this opportunity to wish him and Mezza (his missus) a long and happy marriage.

Anyway, all the best for the weekend people, and remember, “The Truth will set you free”

27th January 2009

It was kinda surreal, odd, actually I’m not sure what word to use, but last night I got back home from 10 in bowling practise, yep I’ve started practising my bowling as that’s really the only way I’m gonna get better, but I got home and decided to plug into the recorded Fifth Gear and I’m so glad I did.

Did anyone see it? it was cool, they had a section on the show where they were doing voice recognition gadgets for the car and they drafted in a voice specialist………his name is Redd Pepper…. he does Movie Trailer Ads…. Not the late Don LaFontaine R.I.P. it was just odd to put a face to the voice and know that as he spoke he wasn't putting the voice on, and ladies to boot, I guess his not a bad lookig gut too. 6ft 4 black guy with a shaved head and goatee.... in fact a taller version of me....LOL..., click on Redd above for a link to the 5th Gear clip, and his bio is here.

Not much else went on last night so I’ll sign out and remind you… The Truth will set you free. 

26th January 2009

Oh well, it looks like I’ve burnt a bridge, but before I talk about that, just wanted to voice me disgust at some dude on Facebook who hacked into the account of a Facebook account of a female acquaintance who he gone out with for two weeks and he posted some obscene pictures and had cut and pasted her head on the picture.

They went out for two weeks but didn’t do anything intimate and his obviously perturbed at the fact he didn’t get any and has tried to make her look cheap. We’ll call her Emra for the sake of the blog, but I’ve not known her long but was in fact talking to her for quite a while on FB on Saturday, so Sunday morning when I logged in and saw these pics, I was like “Dang I didn’t realise she was that kinda girl..” but as the next hours wore on and more of her longer standing mates came online it became clear from what they were saying she wasn’t that type of girl and someone was playing games, the police have the situation in hand now.

But hey Emra, big hugs baby and remember my offer of Balaclavas, Transit van and Epping Forest…. Ahh memories of someone offering to do that in aid of a friend Back In Da Day (B.I.D.D.) and if you any help on anything you got my numbers.

Back to that bridge, as most of ya know I was meant to DJ in Redditch on Saturday, well I didn’t go in the end and I think the club aren’t too happy about it despite the fact I gave them 9 hours notice and the both their resident DJ’s were going to be there…. but I know you’re thinking “Well what do you expect, you let them down..” and yep I’m with you on that, but I feel I was justified, just like Nixon felt he was justified.

Thing is, the club called me on Sunday afternoon and asked if I wanted to DJ on the Saturday, I mistakenly assumed they had a night organised and just wanted me to do, it only when I got a Facebook invite on the Monday night that I realised that they had only just organised the event and it became evident on Tuesday when they contacted me asking if I had any flyers I could drop off at the club…. Which surprisingly, I didn’t. As the week progressed and the communication that ensued was a bit of déjà vu and the nightmare of the do in London that happened the previous weekend, so I made a very hard decision and contacted them Saturday lunchtime and blew them out.

Oh well, watch this space, maybe they will give me another chance, but in the meantime, remember…. The truth will set you free…

22nd January 2009

The truth, why do so many fear it? Some say the truth hurts, some say the truth will set you free, me, I say just speak it. Yes the truth can hurt, but why does the truth hurt, in my opinion it’s because society has forced most if not all of us to live in lies either some of the time or all of the time.

Yep that living in lies includes the little lies, you know the ones ladies that men say to you like “Yeah I’m ready to settle down….” but when push comes to shove he runs a mile…. Then guys, the one ladies tell us saying “Yes I’m fine, you do what you want darling,” then they ignore you for the rest of the evening or suddenly the best way to iron the clothes is to slam the iron down on the clothes… you get the picture, but suddenly someone actually speaks the truth and “boom” it starts to hurt because it takes people out of their comfort zone.

I’m a firm believer in “the truth will set you free” brigade, and it’s nothing to do with coming from a Christian household. I’m saying I’ve always spoken the truth but I am saying that I will be trying my best to do so from now on and I think I’ll feel a whole lot better about it… though could be taking “the fifth amendment” a lot.

I know you’re wondering why am I going on about the truth issue, well today I caught up with an old work colleague I worked back in 1986 at my first work experience near London Bridge in London. When describing how I was, I used the word Obese, to which she replied “don’t put yourself down about being obese...” which is what got me thinking about the truth.

But it’s true, I am obese according to the medical definition of the word and you know what, I actually feel good about that fact. Not because I am obese am I feeling good, but I feel good because I’ve stopped kidding myself saying I’m rotund… no I’m not Rotund, no I’m not cuddly, no I’m not heavy set, no I’m not big boned… you know what I am… I’m fat and I’m proud…. That said I am fully aware that I need to be healthier in terms of my lifestyle but by being truthful to myself, you know what I’ve done…. I’ve set myself free.

I say to all you reading this blog, give it a try, if someone asks you question just be 100% truthful, because if you start being truthful all the time then things will always get better and it will hurt a whole lot less, trust me…. and on that I’ll wish Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl… a word of warning though… don’t use the truth to make someone feel small, i.e. if there is a crowd round ya, take the person to one side and tell them one on one, as shouting them out in crowd will only put their back up and cause friction.

20th January 2009

I have to say today I feel so privileged to be alive. Of course it’s always a privilege to be alive but today is one hell of a day to be alive.

Today 20th January 2009 is the inauguration of President Obama, who is of mixed race, and will be the first US President with that ethnic background how cool is that?

When I think back to the song “Changes” by Tupac, one line of lyrics say “We’re not ready for a black president” but hey today is the day and it’s happened in our lifetime people. I really didn’t think it would happen and here’s hoping that he manages to fulfil his 4 year term.

Talking about 4 year terms, I saw a preview showing of “Frost/Nixon” and I have to say, I was surprisingly glad I saw the film, I shall be posting a film review very very soon, but suffice to say, it’s def worth a watch.

After the trauma of the weekend just gone, I’m on the road to another fall because on Saturday afternoon I got asked to do a slot this Saturday at the club in Redditch that I’ve mentioned before on the blog, thing is it was only decided last week to do this night and I only got invited to it on Saturday. Not much time to get publicity sorted and people through the door, but I guess in a way that’s a good thing, because if no one turned up then it will be clear we needed more time to get people there. So if you’re not doing anything this Saturday, 24th January 2009, get yourself down to Club Rush UK, 76 Ipsley Street, Redditch from 9pm – 3am… it would be good to see you as the Rush Boys and I take you guys to the sounds of Back In Da Day, so come on down… and with that heart felt invite I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

19th January 2009

Well I have to say even though inside myself I had a feeling the fundraiser on Saturday may well fail and the fact that it did, doesn’t make the pain of failure any less painful.

The thing is I don’t need to sit here and say to myself why did the evening fail because I know why it failed and I’m not going blog about the reasons why it failed because it will come across as if I’m blaming others, but suffice to say, the next charity event I put together I’m gonna do it like a proper project. The failing of the event all started with me, I didn’t take control, I just thought, get a club, spot of advertising and bang got yourself a night.

I’m not putting blame on anyone apart from me, yes certain aspects of the event I’d handed to other people, but the buck stops with me, I should have been on top of those people making sure things and been done in a timely fashion and there was proof it had been done, so lessons have been learned. What I should have done was treat the event like I treated projects when I worked at my previous day job. I should have drafted up a requirements document and from there I’d have realised to make the event happen and to raise lots of money I needed to get a team of professionals in who were/are as passionate about The Stoke Association as I am.

I’m not going to give up, I still want to raise £1,000 and then some for The Stroke Association this year, but I might need to make that £5,000 over a three year period.

So I put it to you people, I got a couple of requests, the first being, if you want to make a donation to The Stroke Association then please do so by clicking here and pledging via my Just Giving page.

Secondly, I’m wanting to hold a Formal Dinner/Dance in aid of The Stroke Association. In terms of location of the event, in my mind’s eye I’ve pencilled in either Northampton or Birmingham as both are pretty central and these are the two main towns I’m linked with. I’m after putting a team together to organise and make this dinner/dance happen. So if you’re interested then please holla me back by clicking here.

As I said, this event in my mind’s eye will be held in Birmingham or Northampton, but that’s not set in stone, so if someone comes to me saying something like “I can get you a venue for a dinner/dance for free and it holds 2, 3, 400 people sit down and I’m positive we can get it full because yada yada yada but it’s in Manchester or London or Bristol or wherever…” then of course it will be considered as a possible place.

Should you want to help there is one thing you need to know from the outset, this is about raising as much money as possible for a charity that just does need more funds to do it role more effectively, so you need to be willing to give your time and energy for free, not even exspenses, think of it as your donation.

I envisage that the skills sets needed will be include, a Marketing person or persons and I’m glad to say we already have one of them onboard already but more would be good, also other skill sets I think will be a project manager, a procurement person, a website designer, a PA type role and I’m sure there are other roles, so people please give it some thought and if you’re up for it and would like to actually physically help then holla, and with that plea I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

15th January 2009

Pray a moments silence to the death of a Legend... R.I.P.  you have finally escaped this world.....

Last night I was out with The Mag, we went to check out Mechu Grill, only because we had a 25% discount voucher and I have to say it was a good job we got a discount. For the two of us including the discount it came to £47... 25% discount, you do the maths…. But I shall write up a full review for the website soon.

Now the night before I got talking to Miss Sept on Facebook and we had a brief discussion and in that discussion I told her I’d be in Mechu and she pop along and I’d buy her a cheeky one or two. She replies sounds like a plan, can’t hurt, I finish at 8pm but I’ll see you there, as I told her we’d be there till about 9.30pm

Well 8pm came and went and guess what Miss Sept never turned up, I checked my mobile, no message as to why she hadn’t turned… at about 8.20 I sent text you know to check if she was ok, nothing came back.. we left about 9.15 to get our respective modes of transport home and still no Miss Sept.

The thing is, I’m not overly concerned about her not turning, heck after all I’m doing a Charity event this weekend and a fair few people have clicked on the event saying they are coming to event and I can guarantee you most of them ain’t gonna turn up, no what annoys me is the fact that in this day and age, people can’t just be honest.

Miss Sept has said so many times, “I respect you, I hold you in high regard, you’re important to me”... Uuhuh Uuhuh Uuhuh… so much so you didn’t have the common descency to turn up at Mechu…. Or if something cropped up you did have the respect to drop me a text to say sorry something’s cropped… or hold me in high enough regard that if you’d forgot that when I dropped you a text you text me back to say “oops sorry I forgot” but yet you can go online and tell you world you want cake… Mechu do a fantastic Chocolate Fudge Cake don’t you know….

Man if you can’t be wholly honest with your “good friends” then how can you have the expectation that your partner or loved one must be honest with ya and the reason I use that example is because in my experience of talking to women the most important thing to them that their partner should have is honesty, but yet you can’t even be honest with your so called “good friend”.

I shall now step off my soap box and say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl and if you are stuck for something to do Saturday night come on down to Corks Wine Bar on Binney Street and help us raise funds for The Stroke Association, 7.30pm till late. Oh and by the way there are only 4 DJ’s as one of the DJ’s had to be let go… but that another story for another time…

13th January 2009

Hello good people it’s been a while since I wrote to the blog.

2009 looks like it’s gonna be interesting and could be a year of change for many people, the credit crunch, one just doesn’t know how secure jobs are. The like of MFI, Woolworths, and Wedgewood all institutions in their own right have all fallen and with a few others on the brink or collapse, people will have to change. Things like holidays, I mean I for one had pencilled in going back to Orlando this year but in the current climate the only Orlando I my see is Mr Bloom in re-runs of Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean.

But hey on the bright side Jack Bauer is back on our screens. Last night saw the first hour of the seventh day from 8am till 9am, actually it was a double bill so was from 8am till 10am and I had my reservation when I heard they were doing another 24, after all can a man always be in the right place at the right….. after all why didn’t the terrorist hit whilst Jack was on the run in Africa, Asia or wherever he was, but you soon realise that what is happen could e linked to the 2hour special they showed back in Nov/Dec where they showed the recapture of Jack Bauer… My reservation were quashed when I realised that Jack was up against one of his old work buddies and I have to say I was gripped for the 1hr 50min show…

Just one thing though about 24… do court hearings really start that early in the U S?

Saturday this week is The Stroke Association fundraiser I’ve been organising a while, everything I could do to get people to attend whilst keeping the publicity costs down. All I can do is cross everything and hope that people turn up on the night as the tickets weren’t on advance sale. Wish me luck, and with that I’ll say, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl

5TH JANUARY 2009

I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish one abd all a fantastic 2009 and I've put togetehr a little calender for you to download, here's the link...

24TH DECEMBER 2008

Well the festive time is right upon us, so I’ll just bid one and all a great festive time. Eat, Drink and Be Merry till we meet again in the New Year.

The full blown cold has kicked in for the third year running, but I guess Me, Myself, Victoria and Tiffany will get through it.

For me this festive season is going to be a massive games fest, I’ve got so much to get through it’s unbelievable.

Well folks all the best, and I’ll try and touch base throughout the festive season but if not, I’ll say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl throughout 2009.

22ND DECEMBER 2008

It’s coming, I can feel it. The back of my throat feels like someone has scrapped a grater along it, so I feel a Christmas ailment coming, and if it does happen it will be the third year in a row that I’m poorly over the festive season.

Last Thursday, the bowling didn’t happen, I turned up rearing to go only to find that the bowling alley hadn’t booked us in for a league game so it was either sit around for up to 90 minutes for free lanes of postpone…. They decided to postpone, so I was home by 8.40pm instead of the usual 2310, so that was pretty cool.

Friday was the day job Christmas soiree, and all I’m at liberty to say is that it was a great afternoon and evening and I still got a job.

Saturday I got the last of my Christmas food shopping in and then I headed down to the big smoke for the lads annual Christmas catch up, The Faceman never made it due to Novo Virus and Moby didn’t even bother to confirm whether he was coming, but it was good to catch up with Pat Sharp, Lord Soth, B, Ju, Thomo and Da Driver (used to Ducktails), we caught up in a pub on Dean Street then we hit Nandos in Soho Square and then The Couch on Dean Street, all in all a good night was had.

My night got worse when I got to Euston to get the train home, good old LondonMidland decided to cancel the 2304, and 2348, so the 0010 was packed with three train load of people, they really don’t have any respect for their paying customers. So much for the slogan linked to the new timetable… “The right trains, in the right place, with the right people at the right time”….. yeah right……

Sunday I did my usual food shop, but reduced the amount I’d buy what with Christmas on Thursday, I still can’t understand why people by so much stuff for just two days of the year, that said I’ve kinda jumped on the band wagon. Once I get home on Christmas Eve I shouldn’t need to go to the shop until New Years Day probably.

Tomorrow is the annual Unilever Invitational Pub Crawl being held in the usual Fleet Street area of London, I’m hoping to catch up with Stupot, JT, Goochie, Mabs, Mr B, Mids, Denny Boy and Ritchie at least, but hopefully some more old faces and with that hopefully thought I’d say Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.

18TH DECEMBER 2008

Man I feel drained today, have no idea why, though all the cakes and chocs that seem to be going down me Gregory probably aren’t helping along with the late nights.

It’s a been a frustrating week to be honest….the train timetable has had a massive change, the trains are now 56 and 17 past the hour in the morning and 53 and 33 in the evening, is a good thing, so long as they run OK.

But alas that isn’t quite happening in the evenings, it’s been a shambles basically, from signal failures to staff not being where they are suppose to be, and getting the 0556 this week have been a chore, but hopefully my body clock will adjust.

I’m bowling tonight alone, but it don’t bode well, with Digits and The Mag not available I’m having to bowl blind which isn’t the best situation to be in as so long a both players or the other bowl to their average they will beat your blind score which is 170, so we could be looking at a whitewash tonight, but hopefully not.

Tomorrow is the office do which I’ve helped to organise so hopefully that will go smoothly and sorry what happens at the Christmas party stays at the Christmas Party and on that note I shall say Peace, Unity, Love and Having fun to yawl.

11TH DECEMBER 2008

Well at a time when guns are being sent in the post to pensioners, when for the first time I find myself saying a Bond film was a massive let down, I’d like to ask one and all to take a moment and pay your respects to an institution that has finally died… Woolworths

My first ever sporting type shoes were bought from Woolworths….. Winfield Plimsolls….. my first memoires of pick and mix sweets is Woolworths….. in fact the first ever record I bought for myself, Mr Jackson’s Off The Wall…. Was bought from Woolworths.

All the above aside, just wanted to give you the heads up, the flyer for The Stroke Association Fundraiser is now out, so please do spread the word, that would be most appreciated.

I saw the bond film last night and I was quite disappointed, I will be doing a review soon, but I can’t guarantee it will be a review of glowing feedback. On the way home, whilst on the train I was watching the Mentalist on my phone, and no it’s not an iPhone, what a great show so far, as I’ve seen four episodes of it so far, but the one show you should look out for is a show called Leverage. If you like Hustle or the A Team you’ll like this show, if you like both Hustle and the A Team…. Then you’ll love this show. Though I’m not sure when it will be on in the UK as I got the show off my mate Bucky.

Tonight I’m not bowling so will head home and have a nice chilled Thursday evening kicking it at home, might even take a walk along Hell’s Highway or even visit Mirror’s Edge who knows, but it will be nice to have a Thursday night at home, though I got the Plenty of Fish London Group Christmas party on Saturday at Corks, so will need to make sure I’ve sorted all my B.I.D.D. music for the evening, but if you’re around the Stirchley area in Birmingham tonight, do pop into Lakeside bowl and give Digits of Sweet Digits bowling team your support, in fact it might be worth going there as I do believe it’s party night and everyone is dressing up as superheroes or villains if you fancy it… wonder whose gonna go as a cheerleader….. and with that I shall depart saying, Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun to yawl.