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(Late) Summer Holiday

Monday, September 25, 2006

Richard and I visited the registrar this morning and have sealed all the details of our ceremony. Now we all know where we need to be, what we are saying and how long it'll take.

With this and my visit to the florist this morning, everything is set (he says checking notes).

There are a few little bits left to do such as purchasing candles for the ceremony and putting together a gift card box (!), but apart from that we're all set.

Now we can concentrate on jetting off to Spain tomorrow. Now, where did I put my trunks?

[Listening to: Happiness - Will Young - Keep On (5:16)]

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Looking tired

Sunday, September 24, 2006

I keep saying in my pod cast that I am tired and I am sure I write about it here too.

Looking at this picture from Paris last weekend I think I am starting too look tired too.

I am sure the trip to Spain at the end of the week will help remove the bags from under my eyes.

If that doesn't our honeymoon will :)

I guess at some point we need to think about packing! I think the meeting with the registrar tomorrow is at the forefront of our mind though. We'll pack after that - honest. We will!

The weather is a tad autumnal today, just as well we have some friends over for afternoon tea. It's been a while since we have done that but it's a great (and very English) way to catch up ;)

[Listening to: daybreak - Janet Jackson - 20 Y.O. (Japanese Release) (4:21)]

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Rolling with the stops...

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Well I am rolling with it... It's Saturday, we have our meeting with the venue for the Big Event today and I think everything is on target.

The menu's are selected, the numbers are set and we have an idea of the music for the party... I think it's all done :)

Richard and I now have the week off. We have a few bits and pieces to sort for the Big Event but after this we are off to the Costas for a couple days to chill. Hopefully we'll enjoy plenty of late summer sun.

I am really looking forward to taking off to foreign climes (again!).

[Listening to: roll witchu (bonus track) - Janet Jackson - 20 Y.O. (Japanese Release) (4:30)]

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One month to go...

Thursday, September 21, 2006

[Listening to: take care - Janet Jackson - 20 Y.O. (Japanese Release) (4:21)]

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S H O me!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Oh my god - 20 Y.O. is much much better than I first feared.

There are a few Jermaine Dupri R&B road accidents (Get It Out Me tries to sound like the Black Eyed Peas and I think that's a bad thing), in here but on the whole this is an excellent album.

Of course I cannot reveal my sources but I will say that you have to get the Japanese release of this album as the bonus tracks are top notch.

I cannot see the huge fuss about playing on 20 years in the business, I was expecting the album to be full of samples, it isn't. BUt that isn't a bad thing. The second single So Excited even sounds better when it's placed in the context of the album. Still not sure about Call On Me though.

Highlights: Show Me, Enjoy, Daybreak, Days Go By and Roll Witchu.

Welcome back into the bosom of my music collection Janet!

[Listening to: show me - Janet Jackson - 20 Years Old (3:38)]

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I was just pissing threw!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Well we're back from Paris, very tired but glad to have met up in the city of amour!

I still had the worst of my bug whilst in France, not helped by the incredibly humid conditions on the Metro on Saturday (nor helped by the power cut which meant we were stuck underground with lots of sweaty Parisians for half an hour!).

In fact the transport to and from Paris was a bit of a nightmare.

On the flight out, we landed but were not allowed to leave the air craft due to a security alert at Charles de Gaulle. The police blew up a suspect package. Returning on Sunday we had an hours delay to board and then sat on the plane for a further hour due to baggage problems! GGGRRRR

Never mind. We've been and that is the main thing. It was nice to visit Paris again and this time we made it up to the Sacre Coeur which gave us new views of the city. We had a lovely dinner at our favourite restaurant on the Saturday evening, before taking a stroll across the Seine. Sunday was spent around the Marais and the Lourve ;)

Richard bought me a Fantasia Mickey Mouse whilst he was at Disneyland and we have decided to take Mickey around the world with us... Look out for Mickey's Global Adventures!

On a less than positive note though, this visit to Paris really stood out because the city was absolutely filthy. I used to think the French took a lot of pride in their captial but it seems like they don't any more. Every street corner stunk of pee and there was so much litter about. There seemed to be a lot of Afro Caribbean's too, all of whom seemed to be making to most of congragating outside all the Metro stations causing a complete nuisance. Come on France, what's going on?

Photo's are available on Flickr.

[Listening to: Tour De France - Kraftwerk - Tour De France Soundtracks (5:10)]

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Sick and tired

Friday, September 15, 2006

OK Trunk Cast 57 is live - you will now get to hear how ill I am :(

At least I have comfort in the knowledge that I will be in Paris tomorrow and the arms of my baby ;)

Look out for pictures etc next week.

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Sniff :(

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Commemorative photo from New York fell off the wall shattering glass all over the bedroom - check

Richard in Disneyland Paris on business - check

At home cause I feel like shit thanks to a flu - check

Rudely awoken by the washing machine as it blew up - check

Dosed up on enough drugs to knock out a baby elephant - check

Really hoping I can shake this fever before the weekend so I may at least enjoy Paris - check

Heading back to bed cause I still feel like shit - priceless

I need a hug :(

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Relaxed...

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Today has been a much better day. The weather has been lovely and we have made the most of the dry sunny spell.

We didn't really know what to do with the day at first but decided a walk around the estate would do us good. It was great to get some air in our lungs and to stretch our legs, even if it meant having to inhale all that country air (there were a lot of horses around). I jest, the fresh air was a welcome tonic.

To capitalize on our lovely day in the country we decided to find a local pub where we planned to have a restful meal. Unfortunately the surly staff put paid to that and the whole Sunday Lunch took them two and a half hour to serve. Needless to say theye didn't get any tip.

It's not spoilt our day, we had a lovely time and there is a great selection of moody photos on Flickr to help us remember it when the weather changes.

Does anyone else use Bloggar or Ecto with their Blogger account? For days now it's not being working properly and I am having to resort to the web engine. I wouldn't mind but the programs offer me more flexability. Unfortunately I have had no success with either software company or Bloggers support. :( I don't want to switch blog programs but if this keeps up I may not have any choice.

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I Like the Way Jenny Scrubs

Just wandering around the web and came across this entertaining little mix:

What will they think of next? LOL

It's been a fairly quiet weekend for us. We spent yesterday sorting out the house and the garden. We've not planned very much as we know we'll be in Paris next weekend.

I did manage to post the latest Trunk Cast yesterday. It was meant to be a quick upload and it was meant to be more structured than the final version. Still at least it got published. I'd be interested to hear what you think... the video took a while to edit and the compression to web quality loses something but I still think you get the general idea.

Remember you can contact me at Skype (why not leave a voice mail), join my Frappr map, browse through my Flickr albums or just email me. Any time you like!

My Brain Age took a dive to 67 yesterday, not my best result! I didn't get a chance to play on Friday and I only really had a stab at it, on the off chance. I don't think I was really that focused.

I am still enjoying Animal Crossing WW, but I do wish something exciting would happen, I am getting a little tired of the same old thing. I am also very annoyed that I can happily play whilst enabling friends to join but if the connections closes (for reasons beyond my comprehension), the game not only shuts off, but I loose all my current progress :(((((

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Numb

Friday, September 08, 2006

A chilling video, a stunning ballad. I hope, a sure fire hit.

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Chugging along

Today has been horrendous, my 20 minute commute took nearly two hours.

There was a major incident which meant the trains were screwed.
En route the trains stopped at Kentish Town.
I feel down the stairs on the escalator as they broke down as we were all running down them.
The train ahead broke down on the Northern Line causing further delays.

All in all a very long and tiring journey in to work. Coming home wasn't much better either.

So no Brain Training, no DS, no news, just one tired Trunk Guy!

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Better Days

Thursday, September 07, 2006

File under London Lunchtime Walks:

Today has been a much better day.

In fact the late summer weather has really lifted my spirits.

It's a little cooler than it has been but there is a great little cool breezes. You can really feel this along the bank of the Thames. I capitalized on this at lunch as I took a stroll along the South Bank right as far as the National Film Theatre.

I had started out just going across to the Oxo Tower and taking time to relax, sit down and watch the world go by. Of course I got restless and decided to go for a stroll.

I was enjoying myself so much I almost forgot I was on my lunch break. That said, I didn't rush back and still managed my leisurely stroll in 50 minutes.

It was great, I got to play tourist and to really switch off in the middle of the day. I felt really recharged when I got back to my desk.

Little did I know we'd have a security alert in the building mid afternoon which saw us all evacuating and walking down the North Bank to our fire zone!

Oh well, these things happen.

And it's nearly Friday too - hurrah!

[Listening to: Better Days - Janet Jackson - All for You (5:05)]

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Happy People!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

You'll be glad to hear I am in a much better moo d today (see yesterday for more).

Although my day didn't start that great... I noticed we must have had a power cut yesterday as Richards' bedside clock was flashing. Mine as ever appeared to be fine and was working.

What I failed to register was that my alarm was 45 minutes fast!

This morning, the alarm went off at 6 as normal. I got up, had a wash, cleaned my teeth and and had a shave before getting in the bath. It was only then I noticed the bathroom clock said 5:45. I thought it must have stopped so I checked the clocks in the kitchen and the dining room, all or which said 5:45.

The power cut must have taken place around 11:15 yesterday so my clock looked (whilst glancing), nearly right. Sadly it was right enough. So I got an extra 45 minutes to kill this morning and as a consequence am dog tired :(

At least I have finally sold my PSP. I certainly won't be buying another one of them. The DS is much better. On that note... I had great Brain Age results today, I am down to 35 ;) Woo hoo!

Happy People from the album "Happy People" by R Kelly

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The return of "Mr Angry"

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

OK so I acknowledge straight away that today has not been a good day.

It has been very warm and muggy all day and as is typical, First Crapital Connect manage to reduce my normal train down to four carriages (from 8) so everyone has to cram together and bake.

This also happened on the way home but at least I managed to get a seat.

Unfortunately at Farringdon some fat assed, menopausal woman decided to sit against me and proceeded to spend the entire journey trying to squash me against the side of the train. Not only that but she was incredibly hot, smelly and sweaty and jabbed my in the ribs for the duration of the journey. She also managed to catch me across the face with her newspaper and obscure the view of my DS.,

I tried to counter act but didn't seem to get anywhere. I knew I was in a bad mood so I decided not to say anything. I bided my time and waited until I had to get off the train. I knew she wouldn't move out of the way and I knew she would aim to slide into my seat and hers (lets face it her ass was that big she needed two seats). So what did I do? I made sure as I lifted my leg to get over her bulk, that I caught the sole of my shoe along the top of her white jeans. It's juvenile but I felt better for leaving her with muddy prints on the top of her legs.

Bitch! Some people no idea of personal space.

Other people don't seem to know when to shut up either. There was a guy who tried to spend the journey shouting at his mobile, as my commute takes me through several tunnels, he wasn't very successful.

And then there were the Australian tourists/students. And what I am about to say may offend but it's MY OPINION. You chose to come to the UK to travel/teach/learn/work/bum off the state. If you don't like, fuck of back to where you come from. The railway etc will be a lot less crowded without you.

And while I am ranting about foreigners... Why is everyone so amazed that Steve Irwin croaked it yesterday? He was an idiot. A man who made a living by upsetting animals in their natural habitat. At some point in his career something would have killed him. And thankfully for us and the rest of the human race, the sting ray managed the job quite successfully.

Now would you please shut up about this Crook-a-dile Dun-don't and give the sting ray it's own gold plated tank with all the fish it can eat...

At least I have something to look at whilst waiting for the train...

My Brain Training score for yesterday was 57, not good... ~~I have yet to do mine today (cause I couldn't really use my DS thanks to the woman on the train (see above)).~~ Todays score was 42 - a bit of an improvement over yesterday!

[Listening to: Integral - Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental (3:53)]

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Hunting in London

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Saturday was a really interesting day out. Robin and Ste. invited us to participate in a Treasure Hunt which is organised by friends of theirs. It would involve solving clues and making our way around the capital.

This sounded like and excellent idea and even the poor weather couldn't dampen our spirits.

We decided to do two of the three zone (it wasn't compulsory to do all of them), simply because we didn't want to tire ourselves out racing from place to place.

The first zone lead us to Westminster and eventually into the Cabinet War Rooms. This Zone was very interesting and actually quite a bonus for us as Richard and I had been planning on visiting for sometime.

For those of you who don't know, the Cabinet War Rooms were a set of underground offices where the government would retreat to during the Second World War to run the military campaign.

This exhibition is very interesting and does include a museum devoted to Winston Churchill which was very through and interesting.

We spent about two and a half hours here, solving our clues and picking up lots of information about Churchill and WWII as we progressed. We even managed to find a bit of time for tea and cake (oh and to ogle the rather attractive tall, muscular, young man who was visiting with his parents. Letches, us? Never!)

Once we vacated Whitehall and Westminster our next clue took us to Bond Street where we started our adventures through St Christopher's place and on to Manchester Square. This area of London is known as Fitzrovia and it's another part of London that I have never been to. The trail led us to The Wallace Collection which was a little overwhelming to say the least. I am a fan of Rococo but this was just a bit more than I could digest in one viewing.

Again the visit to the museum took the best part of two hours and you just cannot imagine how big the town house is until you get inside. Of course, for me, the ultimate gem was seeing The Laughing Cavalier in the flesh. This is a very famous painting and yet I had no idea it was housed in London.

We finished the clues for the museum and the area and decided we really didn't have the energy to continue with the final zone. We did however have the energy to make our way to Covent Garden where the London's Fittest Firefighter contest was taking place.

Boy were there some sights! I tried to catch a shot of this incredibly handsome fireman we were all watching (can you spot a theme for the day developing?), but sadly my trigger finger wasn't quick
enough :(

We had a browse around Covent Garden, typically trying to avoid all the tourists before heading off to Brown's for afternoon tea.

And there you have it, a very full, tiring, educational and enjoyable day out in the capital with friends.

Once again this proves how much there really is to see in London.

How did we do with our questions? We will never know as we decided it was too late and we were too tired to catch up with the rest of the bounty hunters... I am sure we're not that disappointed about it!

I have collated all the photo's from my phone and the camera and have created a set on Flickr.

Yesterdays brain age result was a disappointing 57, today I got it down to 34 - hurrah! I think my day out really has paid off :)

Alan, thanks for the note regarding ACWW, it'll be great to see you in Trunkvil or Newtopia, sometime :)

I'm On Fire from the album "Q Covered - The Eighties" by Catherine Feeny

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Do terrorists look like me and you?

Friday, September 01, 2006

I had a rather worrying journey home this evening.

Some of the seats on our trains are single seats near the door and you face another passenger.

I took such a seat as, although cramped it means you get some space to yourself.

The guy sat opposite was suited and booted and looked every part the city gent. He did look a little nervous though.

Shortly after the train left Blackfriars to go under the city for City Thameslink he got up, placed his bag on his chair and disappeared. I assumed he went to the toilet but I couldn't see where he went when he disappeared through the crowded carriage.

I started to worry. What was in his bag? If it was his laptop (it was a laptop shaped bag), why would he leave it behind? Was he saving his seat? Is he not aware or too arrogant regarding security procedures? What if it's a bomb?

I tried to convince myself it wasn't but I noticed nobody else seem really bothered, or had even noticed. I started to wonder what to do and rather selfishly I moved further down the carriage to another seat. The thought of being sat opposite this bag didn't please me.

I didn't realise how worried I was until I sat down and noted how much I was sweating.

Of course the train pulled into City Thameslink and new passengers got on. A lady did call out to ask whose bag it was and the confusion started. I did call out to explain I thought I saw hi go the the toilet but I wasn't sure.

Now i don't know if this is quiet English reserve but no one moved the bag or said anything. No one attempted to raise any sort of alarm and when I thought about it I wasn't entirely sure how you are supposed to do that.

After what seemed like an age (we had made it to another station), the city gent returned to his seat and was greeted by a barrage of people seriously telling him off as they were worried or joking that "they were going to get his bag blown up!".

I wonder what the reaction to the guy would have been before and after leaving his bag if he wasn't a smartly dressed city type?

Why do we behave like this? Has the media got us that rattled that we worry but we don't do anything? And if we were to do anything, what are we supposed to do?

I feel foolish for not saying anything but then again would I have felt foolish if I had said something and it was a bomb?

The guy was very arrogant though and ignored everyones concerns... He got off at St Albans and I was thinking of saying something to him but I thought it best not to.

How many times a day does this kind of thing happen? How many open opportunities do we leave (globally) for terrorists? And should it have such an affect on our lives?

What a horrible world we are living in.

This mornings brain training score was 55, I am obviously still recovering from yesterday! For those of you into Myers Briggs, I had my assessment today and am ESTJ - what are you?

Winter In July from the album "Winter In July" by Bomb The Bass

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