Xmas wasn’t all that bad, I suppose. Actually it was quite good, despite the shitty letter I got through the post from where I work. It involves fat ladies singing. again. That’s all I’ll say about that, because I’ll only start off on a rant, then head out and murder three people with a spoon. More on that once I know more.

Sorry to all of the people I normally contact on Xmas Day, after the letter, I really didn’t feel like celebrating. So, maybe New Years, eh? :) Also, sorry to the people who tried to contact me through email. I’d set the size of my account to zero K.

Anyway, there’s a new feature on the site. The Gallery! Oh yes, it’s great. For those who saw it yesterday, I’ve changed the pictures. At the minute, there’s some pictures of Steetley being demolished up there, including some new ones Chris took a few months ago. They’re worth seeing.

The Snowcam is back!! It’s been hailing on and off all morning, and we’ve just had a flurry of snow.

None of it has laid/stuck/whatever you want to call it, but some other places in the UK have had a nice covering. You can click that image to get an automatically updating view, once every minute.

Technorati Tags: demolition, gallery, Snow, steetley, Webcam, xmas

You know, sometimes I have the weirdest dreams. I actually dreamt “I wonder if you can buy freshwater fish in a seafood shop, and if thats the case, surely it’s against the trade descriptions act”. And I thought about it so intently, it woke me up. This is, indeed, a strange thought for me, considering I can’t even walk past the seafood counter in Asda without holding my breath.

And I had another strange dream the other night too. I dreamt of a game where you have to think of a famous person whose name begins and ends with the same letter. By the time I’d woken up I’d thought of Yvonne Murray - ex scottish athlete, and Dominik Diamond…

There’s probably hundreds more.

I found some old photos the other day, while retrieving the Chrimble deccies from the loft. Over the next few days, I’ll be scanning them in, and probably making comments on them here. So… um… hooray.

Now I’m off to work. I’m going to hazard a guess that tonight is going to be “fun”. Argh.

Technorati Tags: Dreams, fish, seafood, the name game, yvonne murray

Well, the first inter-blog chess championship has kicked off. For you see, I have been challenged to a game by Big Bad Mick, the owner of recently added blog “Curried Books”, and regular commentator on this blog. As in, he makes comments on my postings, and doesn’t go around shouting “Ohhhh! Errrr, That’s quite remarkable!” . I somehow have a feeling that I’ll lose, but it’ll be good for a laugh anyway!

Last night, went to a do at The Goldmine… this used to be known as The Red Admiral, a pub I quite literally ripped apart in this post from November 2000. A lot has happened in the last 5 years, and it’s a vast improvement from my previous visit. Except for the smell… There was an overpowering smell of stagnant water from behind the bar. But the beer was delightfully cheap and plentiful.

In fact, everything was plentiful. The three-course meal laid on was something else. I’m not one for 3 courses, so I was stuffed after having the sodding starter. I took pictures. But the camera is downstairs, and I’m too lazy to grab it.

Chris took his camera, but I don’t think he took many pictures as his memory card was full. I’ll be interested to see how my pictures turned out now that I know my camera has that problem described earlier.

I took the camcorder too, despite having problems with it earlier in the day. The heads were clogged, and it kept flashing up a diagnostic error message asking for a cleaning tape, which I didn’t have. I did the old trick of playing a new tape all the way through, and that seemed to clear it up.

The picture looked something like this. Well, it looked exactly like this, because this is the picture I got while trying to play the tape.

To be honest, I’m not sure how good the pictures are anyway, seeing as it was far too dark in there. Highlight for me was singing “Summer of ‘69″, along with Hilda and Chris on the karaoke. Daddykins recorded the performance.

I WAS going to sing “The Way It Is”, seeing, as for the first time in my entire life, I saw it in a karaoke list. Actually, I was torn against that and “Snooker Loopy”, seeing as most of the people who were there I play snooker with whenever I’m not at work.

Well, during typing those sentences, I went down and got the camera. I don’t think there’s ever been a good picture of me taken. This one’s another to add onto the pile of shocking photos…

I was pretty pissed by that time, however.

I’ve just played the tape back of my karaoke performance. To everyone who was there, I’m so, so sorry. I apologise for having to endure the abomination that is known as my voice. Honestly. After hearing that, I feel like gargling with iron filings.

For those of you reading this who didn’t attend said event, click on the picture below to listen to a 13-second clip of exactly what I sound like, murdering a really good Bryan Adams song. (Don’t… it’s been removed for now)

Left to right, Me, Hilda and Chris.

Chris won a bottle of London Underground bubble bath in the raffle. Or rather, he won while he was otherwise engaged (i.e. out of the room, having a piss), so I chose it for him

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the tape fucked up at the exact moment I took a snapshot of the image, So, there’s half of the Queens getting demolished in that image. The battery ran out on the camera.

A good night, all in all. I arrived home with a pad of karaoke request forms in my shirt pocket. So it must have been a good night.

And, a very happy 26th to Narbi Price. Someone who I’ve sadly lost touch with over the years since school.

Technorati Tags: camcorder, camera, chris, goldmine, night out

Xmas. It’s the time of giving! So, I’m giving you a blog entry. There hasn’t been one for a while. I’m sorry. That’s as much my fault as it is anyone’s.

There’s been so much happening, I’ve neither had the time nor the inclination to sit and write for any period of time. It’s now Saturday morning, and I think I can finally squeeze 17 minutes of typing.

I shall briefly touch on some of the subjects that have ruled the last few weeks.

1. My birthday. I was 26 on the 2nd. Thanks for all of the email. Note the lack of plural there. Sob.

2. Polly died. I know I wrote a post about that, but thought I’d mention it again It’s strange without her :(

3. My aunt claiming “He’ll never get married”, referring to me…. 26 and over the hill. Great! :(

4. Chess. Versed Tetlow (aka Dropkick) at chess. Fucked it up majorly. Awaiting the inevitable. Speaking of which, I was going to join a chess club not so long back. Unfortunately I didn’t have my credit card with me, so I said to the doorman, “Will you take a cheque, mate?”

5. Ebay. Bought lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff. Far too much.

6. My camera is knackered. Not completely, but it’s getting hot pixel syndrome, where the elements of the CCD stick high, so a black image has little white dots all over it. Bugger.

8. It’s very cold. I might bring Snow Watch back.

9. Um.

10. I might have a new mobile number shortly. Got an Orange sim card this morning

11. There is no number 7. There was, but I deleted it.

Technorati Tags: bird, camera, chess, cold, Death, red hot pawn

Despite the jokey title, I’m really upset right about now. Polly, my imaginatively named cockatiel has died.

We acquired her from a family in Owton Manor back in the early/mid nineties. I can’t remember the exact year, it was that long ago. At that point, I was growing up. My nanna decided it was time to get me a pet. After flicking through the adverts in the local paper, there was one advertising a bird*cage*, and the plan was to get a bird to put in it at a later date.

So, I went over there, with my Aunt, and picked up the birdcage. Complete with resident cockatiel. Awww. She was a bit straggled when we got her. The family had dogs who kept jumping on top of the birdcage and scaring the shit out of the poor little bugger.

And, she remained with us until this morning.

I’d noticed she’d been a bit quiet the last few days. Not quiet as in dead quiet, but she’d spend most of her time at the bottom of the cage. It became apparent on Sunday, that the reason she was down there, was that she was nesting, with her tail feathers stuck in the air. And, this assumption was quite correct. On Sunday, there were three white, lovely, unfertilised eggs in the bottom of the cage. So, it was natural for her to protect them.

I can’t wait until 31st December. I can finally place a firm boot in the testicles of 2005, because, quite frankly, it’s been a shit year.

Technorati Tags: bird, birdseed, Death, polly