This is a first. I’m typing a blog whlst completely in the nude. All I’m wearing is a pair of glasses. You’ll also be glad to know that, for that very reason, the webcam is currently disconnected. Well, actually, it wasn’t for that reason, it was for a totally unconnected issue to do with my hard drive, but that isn’t worth mentioning. I just thought that I’d scare everyone away by either grossing them out, or scaring them away with utter nerd talk.

Um.

For the rest of you who totally ignored that last paragraph, yes, this is another installment of my life, being typed at a time when I really should be sleeping. I am happy to say that I am back in touch with everyone who I want to be. It turned out that Coatesy’s mobile was indeed disconnected… unfortunately, I had forgotten that I’d actually had two numbers for him, and yes, I’d sent it to the wrong one I didn’t even know I had two, until he popped up on messenger the other night (for the first time in months) and informed me about “stuff”. All that concern, and it was of my own doing. Grrr. All this was sorted out on Friday. I went round his house, had a few (um.. .quite a few) beers. I can quite catergorically say that his beer fridge is remarkably cold.

Firstly, he introduced me to his laptop. A perfectly normal looking leptop, except it has a green line going down the screen. This is cured, however, by the use of a bulldog clip on the top of the screen. This made me smile immensely.

The first part of the night was spent wrestling with his wireless internet connection. The reason for this is that there are plans to visit Blackpool some time in August, and trying to find the hotel he wanted to stay in was an even longer job.

He had seen it (or stayed there, can’t remember) some time last year for a stag do, but he couldn’t remember the name. The hought it was “The Royal [Something] Hotel”, and could remember its red front… Well, that Firstly, it was narrowed down to the area of Blackpool. Using Google Earth, he managed to get it down to the street. Great, all we had to do was type the street name into Google, and surely we had the hotel…?

No.

This road isn’t even a particularly long road. A few dozen properties, nothing more, nothing less.

Turns out that this was, strangely, incorrect, and it wasn’t that one that he was thinking of. there was another one, which we had to find by typing the individual numbers of Hull Street into Google, and eventually we found the correct one. I’ll post more on this in the future, as although we have dates, nothing has been booked yet.

After that, we had a go on his xbox, and the game “Buzz” - one of those quiz game things. Normally I’m quite good at these, but this one was about films. Not exactly my top subject. I still enjoyed it despite getting absolutely trounced.

Next, however, was my turn to be the trouncee. The night was completed with a purchase of good old “Track + Field” from Xbox Live. It’s the first time I’d actually seen Xbox Live in action, which is quite surprising, obviously, considering I spend my working life around the bloody things.

Anyway, Track + Field did appear to be the same as the original arcade game, and not some cheap remake. According to some of the high scores, there are also a few bugs (a few people completed the 110m hurdles in 0.2 seconds) and they’re removed the “Chariots Of Fire” music at the end of a round. As I mentoned, I did actually win this one. (EDIT: fixed typo)

Not that I’m gloating, or anything…!

I then came home, and pouched an entire bag of Asda’s sublime Jalapeno Pepper flavour “Party Snax”. They are, quite literally, a complete bag of awesome. Sorry for the bad English, but I can’t think of any way to describe them.

Chris also left a comment on the site too. It doesn’t look good for his job prospects. I’ve yet to speak to him properly due to the shifts I’ve been working. the taxi driver the other night, who happened to be a friend of mine and Chris’s thought he had moved away…

Moving off on a tangent, you may also notice I’ve had a bit of a shuffle around on the site. I’ve moved the categories and the adverts around. Glen also mentioned a few days ago that he was having problems with the site, possibly the adverts causing a crash, unfortunately, he wasn’t forthcoming with any further info, and seeing as nobody else has reported a problem, I don’t know what’s causing it. If it’s widespread, and it turns out to be the adverts, I’ll (reluctantly) take them down. Feel free to contact me through email should you experience any issues.

EDIT: I am 100% unhappy with the positioning of the banner when it comes to sub pages. This will change shortly.

Right, that’s my update on the last few days. And, for those who have been spending the last three minutes thinking about me naked, think yourselves lucky…

Oh my. The crap photo CD makes its first appearance, and it’s a corker.

EDIT THE SECOND: As always, there’s a little bit of an update. Remember I posted the other day about seeing a fox outside of work? Well, there’s now a dead fox outside of work, presumably knocked over, as my place of employment is on quite a busy road. I’ve not seen it yet, so this is how Colin from work described it…

“A few days ago, it looked like a ginger carpet, now it just looks like a muddy ginger carpet”.

Poor thing. I might sneak out and get a photo or two, unless the council clean it up by then.

Technorati Tags: blogging, chris, coatesy, crap photo, dead, fox, ginger carpet, naked, nude, redesign, run over, splattered, track and field, xbox live

Well, thanks to everyone who turned up to my get together last night.

Both of you.

Despite my mass amount of texting and mass amount of spamming forums, I managed to get TWO people out. So, a personal thanks to Phil and Ian, to everyone else, well, thanks a lot.

It’s probably typical that I would take this lack of interest personally. Maybe I was just unlucky, and chose a weekend when everyone was busy, but maybe I didn’t. Maybe everyone read my text and thought that I wasn’t worthy of a night out.

Admittedly, even though there were only three of us, I must admit to having a good time, though I really would have liked to have seen more people out

Technorati Tags: Birthday, king johns, night out

Well, I’ve finally passed the age of 27. You might notice that, unlike other years, I didn’t make a big fuss on the eve to my birthday. This was because a) I really can’t be bothered with birthdays anymore, and b) I was in Darlington, at a wedding, having what could possibly be described as the best night out I have ever had in my entire life.

As a bit of an experiment, I wanted to see how many people actually took notice of this site over the years, and wanted to see how many would actually leave a comment or drop me an email wishing me happy birthday, without me having to advertise the fact and practically beg for comments.

So, how many comments did I recieve, None. My birthday went entirely unnoticed. Not one comment. Saying that, I did manage to have a 2-page thread dedicated to the anniversary of my birth, on Glen’s website. And seeing as I was a Ceasarean birth, I shall shut up about the subject now, and make a sharp exit… through the window. Anyway, yes, I can’t really complain as I also got a few texts wishing me all the best, so thank you all! No word from Wayne, however. Traditionally, he is the first to send me some type of response, usually seconds into the day, but for the second year running, he hasn’t. Oh well. C’est la vie. (EDIT: My mistake, he did send me one last year, so THIS is the first year he hasn’t contacted me)

For those of you who don’t know me personally, you can ignore this bit, but I’m planning a Birthday Bash either on Friday or Saturday. Should you wish to attend, leave a comment, send me a text or email, and I shall provide you with the requested information.

Chris and I went for a bit of a night out at the Wok Inn. You may know, that this used to be The Touchdown, on the corner of Warren Road and West View Road, Hartlepool. Recently, it was converted into a Chinese restaurant, and I have been meaning to go there since it reopened, but the question is… was it any good?

In a word, yes. Expensive, but good.

You enter through the door, and you’re greeted with a corridor, with wallpaper that looks like a pair of pyjamas. This theme continues throughout the whole building, as you follow the corridor. At this point, you can either enter the bar /takeaway place, or you can turn tright, and enter the “main” room. We chose the main room, clearly.

There were already a few people in, which looked like a group from the post office. Apparently, whoever they are, they get a Christmas box of 50 first class stamps. Now that’s a practical present.

Er, moving on. The room itself was actually quite small despite it was the main room. It could probably hold a party of 30-40 comfortably, but after that, you’d struggle. It is, however, very nicely laid out, with granite floor tiles, decorative… stuff on the wall, and yes, the pyjama-like wallpaper. The windows still have “TOUCHDOWN” wrote into them, but it would have been a bit daft to replace perfectly good glass just because of that.

We were seated, and ordered drinks. Chris got a coke, priced at £2.40ish, and I got a Kroenenburg, priced at £2.80. Hardly a cheap pint. Needless to say I only had one in my time there. Onto the main meal. We got given the menus, and, naturally, I flicked through to the curry section, and so did Chris. We boh ordered the chicken curry. priced at something like £6.50, probably a touch more.

The meal arrived, and although it contained mushrooms which I am not a fan of, these were easily separated from the rest of the dish. I have had experiences where it is almost impossible to distinguish the mushrooms from the meat. Apart from that, the meal was very nice, and don’t count that as a downside, unless you don’t like mushrooms.

If I did have one criticism, towards the end it sort of felt like they were trying to get rid of us. Halfway through the meal, I stopped eating just for a few seconds. The guy, who I presume was the owner, came over and asked if I was finished. Er, no. I paid enough for it, I wasn’t just going to force it down my gullet. I kindly replied to the negatory, and he wandered off. Eventually, I did finish, and before we had the chance to ask for another drink, we were presented with the bill. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the price of the drinks was a little OTT, so we didn’t want one anyway, but it would have been nice to have the opportunity.

Overall, the price of 2x chicken curries, a Kroeny and a Coke came to £19.60, which we rounded up to a tenner each.

Alongside the bill, however, you get the usual warm lemon-scented towels which are always a bonus, but instead of mints, you get oranges cut into segments. A nice touch.

So, in conclusion… the Wok Inn is nicely done out, food’s nice, it’s easy to get to (for me, anyway), but the beer is expensive. Soft drinks even more so. I think it’s worth a trip down just to see its new green roof, which is all lit up on a night.

Technorati Tags: Birthday, chicken curry, chinese, chris, food and drink, hartlepool, night out, review, touchdown, wayne, west view, wok inn

Yes, exactly as the title says. Coatesy passed his driving test this morning. Congrats to him. this meant that there was a slight change of plan with our evening activities as mentioned earlier, and commented on by a certain Mr. Bananas. We went out for a spin in his (borrowed) car, and we ended up at Wynyard Services….

Amusingly, there was a pub at a service station. We went in, and apparently, he’d been there before, as he knew some of the games on the gaming machine.

Now, considering this was a service station, the beer was reasonably priced, at £2.10 for a pint of Carling. I’ve paid more in normal pubs, so that was acceptable.

However, Coatesy admitted that he no longer reads this blog, so that was a disappointment. Booooooo. Despite the fact that he passed his test today, he was still a perfectly confident driver, which was a relief. I expected to be head-first in a ditch or a crash barrier by now.

Speaking of crashes, the BBC finally released the tapes of Richard Hammond’s crash, now that Top Gear’s back on the air. I think I commented on that on the last posting. Either way, it looked really nasty, and it’s good to see him alive and well. They’ve promised to never mention it on the show, yet there’s still 5 weeks of the series to go. I wonder how long it’ll take them to mention it again.

Anyway, today, other than the trip out with Coatesy, I’ve spent the whole day tidying. It was about time the front room got cleaned properly, including the sofa. We’ve got rid of the lion-motif rug that emblasened the centre of the floor. It’ll be rolled up and delivered to Lynne tomorrow, as me and Daddykins both decided that the room looked better without it there.

I also fixed the hoover. Well, when I say fixed, I actually mean “cleaned the filters” It was an unpleasant task, and one that was reminiscent of fitting the new stair carpet, for the amount of dust floating around. In fact, that’s probably where the majority of the filter-clogging dust came from.

Daddykins had to pick up a microphone for his beloved ham radios from South Bank, so naturally, it was a chance for me to take irrelevant pictures. Some of them didn’t turn out too bad

Technorati Tags: carling, coatesy, driving test, flickr, Photos, wynyard

Well, yes. My internet connection has gone south for no reason at all. I suspect NTL have pressed the magic button in order to do some “maintainence” of some sort.

So, it’s approaching the end of another 3 days off. There’s just over 12 hours to go before I force myself to endure 3 days of utter pain again.

Though, this should spare an entry in the “Work Stuff” category, as I plan for that to be the only mention of that place. Except for a little later on in the post.

So, the three days off. Monday was spent mostly sleeping. I went around the Marina on the night with Coatesy.

We walked from Coatesy’s flat,to the bar, all of 50 metres. 25 metres into the fucking journey, I bump into the guy who runs the offy down the road, who had obviously been out on the tiles. He questioned me on how I didn’t go to his shop any more. I said something, not that it was important, because by the time I’d finished, he was introducing me as *the* computer god to all of his friends.

Imagine my dismay when one of his mates, who I’d never seen before, ever, came up with the the most generic of all questions in the whole history of the world ever….

“I’ve got this Windows and it gives me fatal errors”… Despite the fact I’d known this person for all of 6 seconds, he expected me to give him a full diagnostic of his PC.

“Oh, I dunno…. viruses?” I said. “Do you have a virus checker”?

“Er… yes. McCaffrey”, he replied. I did my best to not burst out laughing. Instead, I just said something like “Make sure it’s up to date and do a full virus scan”.

At that point, I think it became clear I was out to enjoy a night out, and not fix complete strangers computer problems.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter”, he said as he caught up with his friends, and I switched my brain back into living mode.

For the rest of the night, Coatesy’s phone never stopped ringing. His social circle has expanded to the level where he’s on first name terms with Paul “Goffy from Century FM, but he’s quit now” Gough. I’ve dreamed about status like that. Gone are the days where we sit, getting pissed to Burnout 2, with Bruce Hornsby blaring out of the nearest music playing recepticle.

So, I returned home at approx. 11:47 (the taxi was late and don’t forget, Powlett Road is blocked off), and I signed in to messenger. I can’t remember if there was a reason or not, but within 37 seconds, I was invited to Lisa’s birthday bash at Lloyds on Church Street the following evening. Without hesitation, I said I’d be there, and you’d better believe I was.

My sleep pattern was all to fuck, so I fell asleep on the sofa at about 1AM, and woke up at something like 7AM. I put some CDs on ebay, and no sooner had I listed about 20, Daddykins informed me that Wednesday and Thursday were 10p listing days. Grrrr, fuckers. I watched some more episodes of “Robot Chicken”, a show I’ve only just became acquainted with over the last 6 days. It’s the Family Guy writers/actors, with animated footage of action dolls. Sounds shit? It isn’t. Anyway, I laid watching that until 4PM, eventually, I fell asleep, even though I didn’t actually intend to. I was meant to be at Lloyds by 7:30!! Would I manage it? Luckily, yes. I’d told Daddykins to get me up in case I fell asleep.

I donned a fine shirt (my favourite one, blue and white, short sleeved), and I headed off to the bus stop, where it absolutely pissed down. Luckily, the bus shelter has a roof, so I stayed dry until my transportation arrived.

Just as I was about to get off the bus, my mobile rang. It was Dan, getting money out of the cashpoint next door to Lloyds.

I started it off… “Look behind you”.
“Behind me”? Dan replied.

“Yes, you see that bus?”

“What bus?”

“The one I’m about to get off… waaaaaaaaay, see me?”

The “waaay” means I’m frantically waving, for no reason at all.

He frantically waves back, and after I negotiate the zebra crossings, I also get money out of the cashpoint, and we enter Lloyds. There were already a few people out. Within minutes, I was already taking the role of the absolute fucking twat who owns the camera.

For taste and decency reasons, I won’t discuss the rest of the night, though I returned home at about 3AM.

I awoke at 9, the sound of my own breathing woke me up. How strange. I made use of the ebay cheap day and listed a load of CDs again. Usual URL.

I also spent the morning watching the athletics. I’m absolutely loving the theme music The Beeb have used for the European Chamionships coverage. I’m going to see if they still have that “ask the theme tune” thing for their sports shows.

Technorati Tags: coatesy, dan, Ebay, lisa, night out, robot chicken