…same old me.

Reflecting and the horizon.

How was your Christmas and New Years?

I lost my appetite for food just before Christmas, although gained it back a few days later and helped to lower the stock of left over turkey with plenty of sandwiches. So much so that I no longer fit in to a pair of indoor shorts.

Presents wise, I got..

A few Wii games – it’s hit home that unless I get a decent paying job my current steady income of Wii games will be gone when I get to Spain
Books about Spain – so I can read up what official forms I need to fill and where to get them from, a book about Spanish food so I can learn the different food types
Some really funky shoes and trainers
An alarm clock – that once turned on, cannot be turned off and beeps every hour and at some random time every day. I get on of these every year and it takes a while for me to figure out how to switch of the alarm. I’m sure people think I like this kind of amusement.

New Years me and the missus spent in alone watching ‘The IT Crowd,’ on More4. It was nice. It’s so much harder to get to places from Central London to where we live. Even an invite to a friends home for quite drinks was declined as it felt like there would be an incredible long and expensive mission to get home.
Which made us even more surprised to see a bus doing it’s tiny little local bus route drive past at 1215.
Afterwards we spent some time watching the Radiohead webcast which was great. I have to go and see these guys later in the year in Barcelona. I’ll have to make sure to set aside a Radiohead tour savings along with my Spanish savings.

This year will mostly be made up of the trials and good times of moving to Spain. After having a chat with some friends who live in Spain and were back here for a few days I am very excited. There isn’t nothing major happening beween now and then. I turn 26 thats about it. (I can’t believe I needed a calculator to work out my age. Thats the downside of cards that don’t have your age on them.)
But Spain is looking very close. April isn’t too far away. I only have 2 more visit’s back up North to see family and friends before I leave. The time will fly past.

But in a few monthes I’ll be taking regular dips in the pool or walks to the beach. Hopefully I’ll be fitting back in to my indoor shorts pretty soon ha

What ever your plans are, good luck with 2008.

Feliz Ano Neuvo

“Or How to make the most of the quick one excuse.”

Well most of my weekend and my near future will be spent kickin’ some serious Metroid Wii ass so my time here my be cut down alot.

So here is a quick one.

I’ve always used a note pad to make notes of things to blog about. Sometimes I might get a thought while watching the TV so I’d run and make a note of it. These days I use my phone or google note pad.
I make a quick one or two sentence line about the idea, and then just pad it out like a snowball until it turns in to a blog entry.

Here is my Google Note Pad list. Some have been hidden as they are coming up. You may recognise some too, click the pic to enlarge

They include the likes of

• Christmas starting in Summer Time
• Monkey spinning in zoo/Adrain asking what Bromley South train station looks like
• Finding out I had long hair after being charged extra by the hairdressers

There are more hidden gems in there. Check the whole list out for a little insight in to my mind

Or “How I like to get a hole bunch of things of my chest.”

Work is going OK. Last week we spent most of the time training on home to be insurance claims advisors. The plan was for everyone to go in to training. a few people would be given more responsibilty and have more training as personal advisors and the majority of people, including myself, would be given just basic call centre-esque jobs.
The last day of training didn’t go too well. After training for two hours we took a break and one of the girls had nticed she had voicemail. It turns out it was a message off her agency from the day before letting her know that she was not needed at the office anymore. Which shocked everyone.
Then we done some tests to see how much people had learnt. The call handlers went first and I was pretty pleased that I got to go second and get the test out of the way. Then all the personal advisors went in. After everyone had finished their tests we all met up to se who would be working in which group. One of the trainees was asked by the manager to see their agency. At first we thought that another person had been sacked. But then he came back with his timesheet. And then a little later he did dissappear and we found out he had been asked to leav as he hadnt picked up the training well. Which shocked people even more.
Finally we were told who would be claims advisors and who would be call handlers. To my surprise I was asked to be taken from call handling to a claims advisor. Well I wasn’t too surprised as the people who were originally listed to be claims advisors had been sacked or didnt seem to grasp things too well.
So it means a bit more responsibilty. A slight and gradual pay rise. So there is now a bit more reason for me to stay at this job and not job hunt further, while we wait to move to Spain.

Then on my way home on Friday, while on the bus I spotted many large groups of young children in fancy dress Trick or Treating. Has someone moved Halloween forward?
When I was a kid we always Trick or Treated on the 31stof October. I remember a few years later that some children done Trick or Treating a few days before Halloween. But to go Trick or Treating ovewr two weeks before Halloween is just a bit stupid.

And I’m still loving Radiohead’s In Rainbows, other then some podcasts – including the fantastic and always very funny BBC 6 Music Russell Howard show – the album is the only thing I am listening to at the moment. If you still haven’t downloaded the album you can still do so and choose your own price.

And it’s all good news for my Wii and DS. After abandoning them for some time I’m pretty excited about a few games coming out for Nintendo, especially Zelda DS and Metroid Prime 3. So things could get a little quite round here for a bit.

And final news, me the missus were over in Camden at the weekend. Celebrating Button Down Discos 5th birthday bash over at Koko. Not only that but we got guest list free entry (which is so much more better then regualr guest list). And with our special arm bands we got in to VIP areas, like past security and to the DJ booth so I could say a Happy Birthday to the the DJ and access to VIP toilets. The missus told me they weren’t real VIP toilets, they were regualr single cubicles that were away from all the crowds. It could be a very very long time the next time I get chance to be VIP’d at Koko – or any other club – so I was pretty impressed and thankful of the hosts kindness.
But the one of the biggest shocks/surprises of the night was seeing Koko for the first time. That place is huge. And I’d hate to lose friends in their as they would stay well and truely lost.
But I should have more about this soon, and perhaps with some fancy photos.

Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend

For those who have a Wii here is a little bit of blogging good news.

A while back I championed the new Google Reader.

Well now you can get a Wii mode for your Google Reader. It even comes with Wiimote controls.
Just visit here. Don’t forget to bookmark.

PS you have to have the Internet Channel, this is not it’s own channel. Although I do think a RSS Channel on the Wii would be fantastic.

Or ”Next: I wonder if I brought in my racket they’d let me play.”

Today I have moved in to my proper office. This one is brand spanking new. Its just been refurbished. Most of the walls are glass so you can see everywhere. And its a very very big building.

We have just noticed that in one of the office’s across the mezzanine they have a Wii. Although I have my own, Ive never really seen a large group of people playing one of these and its quite fun. Especially the one guy who was far too over enthusiastic.

Some other advantages are the many widescreen TV’s. Any direction you look in you will see at least four TV’s in your eye line.
On top of that every PC is connected to a TV IP. Meaning we can watch TV at our desks. Any channels. In fact you could just plug in your ear phones and flick between work and Jeremy Kyle, or whatever movie is on film four. Nice!

Now I just have to find a good sandwich shop.

If I don’t Im seriously considering traveeling back to St James Park on my lunch for a cheap and tasty sandwich.

Watch this space.

Or “Jonny, I too love Adam now.”

In a bid to up my reputation for keepin you kids happy here are some things I found whilst traversing the World Wide InterWeb. Wicked.

Soupy, if you haven’t already got Thom Yorkes amazing album The Eraser here is another reason why should pick it up.

Sasha has already started remixing tracks off Thom’s album in to his trance house set.

Go. Get. The album. Now!

Next is a clip from Adam Buxton’s youtube page Adam is of course famous for the Adam and Joe Show.
Big thanks goes to Jonny Greenwood of Oxford for this.

A ’random’ caller on the Richard and Judy show. Very funny. But wait for the last round. Best. Clue. Ever.

Too many funny quotes from this. Some memorable ones are
 Judy “Is she English?”
Caller “No. She’s. Just. Rubbish.”
Or caller “Its a FALCON Richard”
Richard “Hawk?”
And the last one is the best. Told you so.

So soupy youtube embedding does work.

Make sure you bookmark Adams blog and youtube page to keep you entertained.

Also for any Wii owners. Check out this site for having your Mii turned in to a sculpture. Looks good. I wonder if they would do Wii Sports poses?

PS does anyone know of any good gigs to look forward to in the Summer? Preferably London, England.

A little extra for those readers using Google Reader. It comes with many keyboard shortcuts.
For example hitting gh <Thats ‘g’ followed by ‘h’> It takes you to the Google Reader homepage
gu brings up your subscriptions. You can either use arrow keys and enter to quickly bring up you desired blog or you can type in its name. Voila
gt does the same as above, only for tags.
hitting u on its own will make the left sidebar dissapear giving you nothing but all your blog entries. Hitting u again will bring it back.
For the whole list, go here.

The last 12 hours haven’t been the best for me. When will this end?

The boy who just likes to get it over with.

Maybe its not even the last 12 hours. Maybe its a bit longer then that.

Tuesday | I get in to work to find out the other girl is off so I have to do a 10 hours day. My first day back, Im working alone - therefor twice as busy, and putting in a 10 hour day. Not that I have a problem with doing this, it’s just that when you have a schedule in your head of ‘Leaving work at 430, getting shopping done and home within the hour. Then nothing but watching Curb Your Entusiasm,’ it can be a little annoying having your plans taken from.
What makes it worse is leaving after a 10 hour day to go to the shop and finding out the supermarket closed at 6. What kind of backward city do I live in with the supermarket closes at 6pm? Your not on holiday now, get back to your regular opening times.

Yesterday | So the girl I work with is in. First thing she says is “Can you do a shift swap?” This isnt all that bad. But Ive had my plans in my head of finishing at 430 all this week, it feels nice finishing at 430. And for the second time in my first week back Im having to finish at 6. This plays about alot with my plans.

Last 12 hours | First I did poor on Wii tennis. Not just poor, crap. Wii tennis is my favourite of the Wii sports games. It’s the one I play the most. For those that have played it I got to “Pro” rating with my Mii. Last night I was destroyed by everyone of the computer opponent’s I played, even the easiest ones. I lost my “Pro” rating and dont know if I’ll ever get my form back?
Also I think I broke the house alarm. I forgot to switch it off when I got in last night, this was due to me singing along to Nina Simone. That was until i started to hear the whoop whoop whoop of the alarm. I switched it off and thought nothing of it. Until I tried to sleep last night. With lights off and lying in my bed my walls started to illuminate bright blue as the house alarms light was silently flashing right outside my bedroom window. This was very annoying and kept me up for a while.
Also my pants are broke. This morning as I went to iron my work pants I noticed that the cuff at the bottom of the pants had come undone. This isnt my first pair of work pants with this problem, but my second. Which is a bit annoying. The way around this is to selotape my pants, but my work wardrobe is in dire need of an update. Its not just my pants, but my shirts are looking a little worn. But in ‘Man Years’ these clothes are practically new at about 4 years old. The last thing I wanted right now was to spend money, but unless I start getting a good deal on selotape of the next few months I think it may be time I invested in some new work pants. If only my clothes could manage to hold out a few more weeks I’d of been much more happier.
People have said that there is some ’super web’ stuff I can get which is good at this stuff. But people, I’m not Spiderman. Where am I going to get web from?
And finally, I have the mother of all zits. Right on my nose. Its red. Its sore. Its big and I dont know if it will go away. People have noticed it. The man the lives oppostire me waved hello and I know I dont know this person. He could of only been talking to my zit. Arse!

*ps the jeans in that photo are not the pants in question, but are in fact a pair of my pants my friend ripped while we were out one night.

Well 2006 is almost about to close in on us like a fat man sitting down real fast. But 2007 is about to start, like a fat man in a candy shop.
Fingers crossed no fat men see me soon otherwise I won’t be seeing the end of 2006.

The boy who likes to live.

So the things that I am looking forward to next year, are;
London
Top of my list. This has to be moving. To the Big Smoke. London. Can’t wait. Despite trying to reassure the missus that the move isn’t just for her, it is. I love her much and I can’t wait to be closer to her and spend more time with her.
Although (to make the missus happy) moving to London has other advantages to it. Make new friends. Get in touch with old friends that have moved there. And more oportunities for work and pleasure, concerts, gigs, nights out and nights in with the missus. And everything that comes with living in the 24 hour, busy, lively Capital that is London.

Wii.
Next is my Wii. Yes I got this this year. But it’s new and it’s not all there. Its the kind of thing that is going to grow as it get’s older. A bit like my own little baby. Except I’ve given my a stupid name.
But at the moment there isn’t much to do. There is limited games as it is new, and limited technology. But only the other day I got a “Forecast Channel” on the Wii so I could see the weather. How I arrrrrhed at it, like a proud father would. I even made the missus listen to its “cute little noises” down the phone.
But I guess this could really be titled “Playing more with Wii.”

Holidays
I have two of them in the pipeline. First is Scotland. Somewhere very remote. So remote its going to take me two days to get to the cabin from the car park.
The other is Spain (I think) Somewhere hot. The missus needs her Sun light and tanning. I’m not complaining as she likes to go topless on the beach. I’m all for that! Best keep a towel handy to cover up an embarrassing “happenings.”

Radiohead
I’ve spent almost as long waiting for a Wii as I have for the New Radiohead album.
Yes, Thom Yorke did bring out a genius piece of solo work. Yes, I may of already heard some variety of all the songs off the new album played live, thanks to downloads. Yes, I did go and catch them at V it what I described as the  greatest performence I have ever seen. But that doesn’t mean they can slack of and not bring me an album next year. It’s been taking them ages now. I’m getting a little impatient.

Seinfeld
Series 7 finally came out. After waiting almost a year for it. And each time I watch it gets better and better. I found my sides killing while watching The Gum episode the other night.
So what next? Well there are two series left for Seinfeld people to release on DVD. Not only that the missus has finally caught on to how funny it is. She has even had a few laugh out really loud moments thanks to Kramer. (It appeared that the old and dull looking sets put her off the show) That can only mean watching them all again from series 1.
If anyone is looking for a new box set I highly recommend any Seinfeld series. For those that aren’t the biggest of fans anything after series 4. But they are being sold in lots of places at half price. Go buy two.

Other mentions go to;
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah gig – Possibly my last night out in the North for a while.
Faithless gig – The missus was almost mad at me for catching these live at V. They were awsome. Possibly my first gig in London
More holidays – I got a taster of a weekend away in Vienna last year. Very much looking out for cheap deals again next year.
Games – Apart from Wii ones, I can’t forget about my DS. Although now I wont need to do any long journeys to the missus anymore doesn’t mean I should abandon this cute piece of hardware. And there are some decent games coming out for it.
Football – I’ll be closer to Stamford Bridge. I can go to any weekday games that haven’t sold out on the spare of the moment. Very much looking forward to this. All I need is someone to agree to come along.

Well I think this is about it from me for 2006. I’ll be off soon to head to the missus for Christmas and New Year. Not looking forward to the train Friday evening. Yikes. But things may be a little quiet around here until the New Year (unless something really exciting happens that I need to tell people).

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Its Monday morning. I’m tired. Sore. And want to be at home.

The boy who likes to hate Monday’s.

Well I’m home. There were no problems with the train ride home, which was good. Although I have learnt that I can put down travelling hours to and from Scotland on my work time sheet. Which is good. Now means that 88 minute delay I had wasn’t for nothing, but I made a few quid from it. Nice.

I picked up my Wii. Not without it’s problems though. After getting to HMV for a little past nine I was eagerly waiting to pay for my Wii and games. But I kept getting told my card was delclined. No idea as to why as I had used it a few minutes early in M&S.
After calling my card company it appears that the hotel had tried to charge my card. But when I explained that the room was paid for by a company card the receptionist agreed that the company card was used to pay for my room. So this other charge which was over £600 was for something else. After speaking with my bank more it turns out this charge was placed on Sunday when I checked in???
I have cancelled the pending charge with my bank, and Im waiting for the hotel accounts team to call me back to explain, and to make sure I dont get charged again by them.

Luckily for my, my great, wonderful and gorgous girlfriend offerd to help me out by paying for the Wii until the hotel sort themselves out.
This little action was made even more amazing as the missus was tucked up warm in bed and braved the frozen weather (and nearly slipping) to help me out.

So I got the Wii home and switched it on. And now I am as close to being in love with a piece of machine as possible.
Its so much fun, and Wii sports is so much better and fun then any other sports title I have ever played.
Although the reason I am sore is from all the swinging on baseball and boxing. Shows how unfit I am haha
So unfit that on my exercise age I scored an age of 54. Thats not good at all!

 Plus I am glad to be at my office now. I get free tea and there are dozens of different places nearby for me to eat instead of having to trek like last week for food.
But Id much rather be home playing some more kick ass Zelda.

If any of my readers have a Wii and access to Wiiconnect24, drop me an email at theboywholikesto@googlemail.com if you want to swap Friend Codes.

Although what wasnt ideal was coming home to learn that there is a 1 day bus strike today. Haven’t a clue how late I’ll get home. Damn