Easter Weekend

You can't beat a 5 day weekend. However I should have taken the rest of the week off and really worked on my mojo.

On Thursday it was my Dads birthday. We ordered some nice take out and relaxed over some wine. Afterwards I joined Keith at Ian and Suzys house as Brian was house-sitting while they were in Donegal for the easter weekend. After a few beers we ended up watching The Stand. What we didn't realise was that it was a TV adapted film and was 6 hours long. After 3 hours of the first DVD it was 1am and no one was in the mood to watch the 2nd disc.

On Friday Lou picked me up from Keiths place and I returned an ethernet hub I bought at Maplins and we ordered wireless gadgets which should arrive today - huzzah!

On Saturday Keith had a house party and we played a good game of something that Bert knew involving double guessing who is who in a game of mafiosa and sherriffs.
I was relatively sober throughout but enjoyed it more so because I could follow the game without cheating or asking for the rules again.

On Sunday we went to see House of Flying Daggers. It's a much better film than Hero although it falls short of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in strength of storyline or depth of characters.
I would give it 3.5 crates of daggers in a house made of daggers. That fly.
Lou and I watched The Ring Two that evening and I can confirm that it is a no-brainer piece of crap. The first film borrowed so much from Ringu and Ringu 2, the original Japanese movies, that the sequel had to think for itself and it was in a coma from the get-go.

On Monday I had a great lounge about the house and hooked up with Feidelma and her boyfriend Sean to go and see Mr Scruff at the Spring & Airbrake. I danced for 3 1/2 hours to some great music and my legs are still suffering today! Feel the funk fools!

Yesterday was a relaxed affair. The landlord came and fixed the bathroom light, Lou and I played a few games of pool at Laverys and then we had dinner at the folks place. Afterwards we watched Hotel Rwanda. It's based on a true story so follow the link to find out more!
I would give the film 4 refugees out of 5.

And back to work today. Boooo!

Gamespot #9

I realise that with holidays last week and this week, there wouldn't be anything to keep you plebs entertained on Friday so I've decided to break with tradition and post a game today.

This time it's a vilolent game called Tuer Tuer Tuer. You basically have 3 guns and have to waste people. Brilliant.

Post your high scores. Winner gets to live.

The Art Of War

Spent most of last night playing Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War. It's a real time strategy game like that of Command & Conquer. It's pretty straight forward build up your troops and attack your enemy. What sets it aside from the competition is simple. I haven't played it yet.
I haven't played enough of it to decide whether it's a long-distance player yet. I'll let you know.

Cooking night tonight and I think Colin mentioned fillet steaks. Will be buying a copy of The Bourne Supremacy tonight for my Dads birthday tomorrow. He loves all that spolitical thriller-action stuff and this has it in spades.

Nice sunny day today and the office fan is on first thing and it's not even April yet. This place is going to get worse in the summer so I'll have to purchase some shorts or find another job. Both would be nice.

Have a nice day folks and I'll catch you later.

Long weekend #1

It was nice to get that time away. Getting back to work today was truly an effort. It was a busy and boring day. The good news is that this coming weekend starts early with a day off on Friday followed by next Monday and Tuesday off because of Easter. I'm hoping for a BBQ or two but we'll have to see how the weather holds up. Winter hates letting go and April is known for its showers.

Last week ended with some colleagues in work heading out for drinks at Fibber Magees. It's a small little bar that runs off the back of Morrisons and we took over a large table at the back. One drink turned into two, turned into six and I didn't make it home until around 10pm. It's my hope to keep up the momentum and make hitting the pub at the end of the week a regular thing. It's good to blow off steam and the pub is as good a place as any.

Nice lie in on Thursday and lunch at the flat with Colin and Don before heading out on a mini pub crawl through Auntie Annies and Katys before ending in a place we hadn't been to before, Red Square. It's a hotel, bar and restaurant and has a colonial style which suits it fine. We scooped a prime seating area with seats you can sink into a couch you can curl your feet up on. Cue several pints. We shot the breeze and even finished the crossword before 6pm hit and we jumped into a taxi for Keiths house, leaving Lou behind to meet up with her friends for a hen night.

As with afternoon drinking leading into the evening, if you keep on going, you don't seem to get drunk. Your body moves into a lucid state of being and if anything you're just plain knackered. Colin and I got a taxi home around midnight and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow but a lie in was out of the question as NTL was being installed at 8am on Friday.

No sooner had I got out of bed there was a knock at the door and the technician came up and did the job in no time at all. Back into bed 15 minutes later. Got up at 10am and set up broadband. A few teething problems and it was done. Problem was my not-so-old ADSL modem/router was redundant. What I needed was a cable router. For the life of me I can't remember if we went to Mapln on Friday or Saturday but I bought a ethernet hub instead of an ethernet router so once again it didn't work and will require a return trip this Saturday. God damn technology.

Rented Spartan and Inside I'm Dancing.
Spartan is a political thriller starring Val Kilmer whose recent efforts have been impressive and I wasn't let down. Solid performances throughout. 3.5 spies out of 5.
Inside I'm Dancing is a comedy drama set in Dublin about 2 cerebral palsy sufferers who get a new lease on life by moving out of their godforsaken home for the disabled and into their own flat with a young blonde they chatted up in a bar who quit her supermarket day job and provides home help for them. It's a great film full of laughs and tear-jerking drama. I would give it 4 wheelchairs out of 5.

Saturday was a day for taking it easy. Ireland fought Wales for the triple crown and lost in embarrassing style. IMHO they should have taken O'Gara off after the last match and put Humphries on because his kicking was appauling besides the whole team only putting 60% effort into the game.
Colin and Don came over later in the evening and we went to the cinema to see Hostage. It's a good action thriller where Bruce Willis reprises his old Die Hard style fuck-with-my-family-and-i'll-fuck-with-you role to great effect. It has some good twists for the film that it is and if you're looking for something to spice up your evening, you can't go wrong and wont be disappointed. I would give it 3.5 rounds of ammo out of 5.
We got back home and got stuck into the booze. Watched some South Park, Teen Titans and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas before hitting the hay at 4am and was asleep before tucking myself in.

Sunday was a nice relaxing affair. Don and I played some Age of Empires 2 and then Lou joined us for a pub lunch back at Red Square. Man, that's a tasty burger they do.
Spent Sunday evening watching Commando. It's a kick ass 80's Arnie film and the thing I noticed watching it this time around was the 80's music with a calypso jingle-jangle. Arnie is breaking some guys arm in a dis-used warehouse and the music sounds like I'm watching Weekend At Bernies.
This was followed up with The Motorcycle Diaries and then sleep, sleep, sleep.

Living The Dream

Last night Tony, Brian, Keith and I attended an information session at the Wellington Park Hotel. To summarise, we had to pretend we didn't know each other, we got 2 free beers and £30 to sit in a room for 90 minutes and discuss beer, especially Stella and Carlseberg.

As you can imagine it was the easiest £30 I've ever made. We have our name down for further sessions and she mentioned an upcoming beer tasting session. Huzzah!

Afterwards we had a one-hitter at the Parlour and then played some pool at Lavery's. I read a recent article, obviously sponsored by Lavery's that it was no longer the spide-hole it once was. *cough*bullshit*cough*. The toilets look like a converted prison block. It's like they part-renovated the Maize and put in pool tables and beer taps.

It's St Patricks day tomorrow and I'm off on Friday so this will be the last broadcast for a few days.

Enjoy yourselves and drink responsibly (yeah right)

The Weekend: Reloaded.

What a weekend. It's a short 2 days but this one seemed to last a little bit longer. I think this boils down to going out on Friday or not. If you do, the weekend somehow feels longer because you've packed more in. If you don't it seems to skip past like a pigeons fluttering heart during a panic attack brought on by a passing car too close to the pavement.

Friday evening began with a bottle of wine at Ulsterville. Cheryl came up from Bangor and Brian kick started the liver by passing out some mead. Jenny encouraged us to go to the Students Union which I hadn't been to since I was 21. It hadn't changed very much in the last 4 years except I was 328% less nervous about milling around inside. It took far too long to get served and I imagine Chinese dynasties have come and gone before we get a round in. We settle in a seating area beside the long bar and Keith manages to scare off some guy and we have complete comtrol. We natter away and the pints are drunk in no time at all. I lean around the partition and contort myself to wave at the barman to try and get served before the other 200 people pushing their way forward along the bar. A young acne-ridden "bouncer" approaches me, wearing a bright yellow QUB Staff T-shirt and tells me not to do that. I tell him fantastic, three pints of Tennants please. He looks somehwat bemused/unamused and mutters something. I slap him on the back and say again, oh yes, I'll have 3 pints of Tennants, there's a good lad. He saunters off. I get disallusioned at not being able to goad him into getting me beer and Cheryl, Colin and I leave for a final pint at Ryans. We probably talk a lot of BS and the lights come up. 1am already. Colin invites me back for a nightcap but I decline. I'm already aware I cannot walk in a straight line so I zig-zag myself back home and fall into bed.

Woke up feeling good on Saturday morning due to my fantastic lie-in. There's nothing in the cupboards so it's shopping time. We make our way to Tescos and we buy a few odds and sods for the house, plants and placemats etc. I feel far more at ease in the new place which is probably because there's no complaints and I actually love living there. The house is always nicely warm when it needs to be and is close to everything. Leaving the house at 8:50 to get into work is like being back in Ulsterville again except I only get 30 minutes for lunch so I can't nip back and make a cheese toastie.
The plan for this afternoon was to meet up with everyone at Vaughn's because Keiths work, Halifax, had booked the top floor for friends and family for the match at 4pm. However, the match at 4pm is England vs Italy and no-one cares about that. It's the Ireland match at 2pm we're interested in, so Lou and I, blissfully unaware of the gaff until it's 2.15pm, turn on the radio and find out it's 6-6 10 minutes into the game. Get home, drop the shopping and turn on the TV. It's a good match but Ireland keep dropping the ball and make other vital mistakes and we lose the match. There goes the Grand Slam but we're still on for the triple crown if we beat Wales next weekend. Fingers crossed.
The rest of the afternoon and evening is spent with Wanda and her friend Dave from England. We swan about from bar to bar and have dinner at Benedicts before finishing up in Bar 12. Drinking for 8 hours really takes it out of you, so Lou and head home and crash out. Let's draw the line under that one.

On Sunday, it's another great lie in followed by some trashy US sitcom watching, coffee and lunch. Lou is working from 2-9pm so I have the afternoon to myself. I mosey over to Ulsterville and we watch the new series from Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, American Dad. I think it's quite a good first episode as it sets up the characters and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. We visit the recycle center and get rid of a hundred weekends evidence of booze and then come back and watch series 1 of Spaced. It's still fantastic viewing and I wish they would make a third series.
On my way home I pick up a bottle of wine and while I'm waiting for Lou to get back I watch a Bill Bailey DVD. Good stuff. Lou gets back around 10pm and we watch Code 46. It was an OK film but we talked a little bit over it and the plot seemed a little convoluted so a repeat watch might bring a little more depth to it.

I give it 3 quasi-futuristic objects out of 5.

This week should be good. Thursday is St Patricks Day and I'm off on Friday so bring on the 3 days working week. Hurrah!

Gamespot #8

This game reminds me of a late 80's Amstrad title of which I can't remember the name so if you can then post your answer.

Enjoy!

Salmon Hot-pot And Negima Yakitori

What a feast last night. Top notch grub. I couldn't resist coming back for seconds! All recipes were made using the Wagamama cookbook. [Two separate links there!]

We also watched Star Wars II: Attack of The Clones in preparation for the premiere in May. What a total stinker of a film. You have to look at the film as a kids film. If you think it's an adult film then you are sadly deluded and should get out more. From a kids perspective it's a yawn-fest because it really kicks its heels and the love interest is laughable. There are some decent fighting sequences but the CGI looks really dated even though it was only made a few years ago.

I would give the film 1 1/2 light sabres out of 5.

Dream On

I've been having bizarre dreams lately. Do you ever get dreams where the reality is obviously different but taken as a given at the time? For example, in my dream on Tuesday night, some girl, presumably Lou, was pregnant, and of course I was having the secondary baby. Of course this was a given in the reality of my dream. However, the baby turned out to be a protruding face like that guy in Total Recall. WTF? Really.

Last night was the first time I've actually got out of bed still half in my dream in order to do something in the house. I reached the bottom of the bed before I woke up and thought "How embarrassing. I can't just go back into bed now, I better go to the bathroom and drain the lizard to at least make this faux pas worthwhile". I'm not sure what's causing these dreams as my lifestyle pattern hasn't changed over the last week and I'm not suffering from any anxieties. I'm just going to chalk it down to weird-dom and move on. Any amateur psycho-analysis comments welcome.

Looking forward to tonights dinner. Salmon hot-pot with fried rice and negima yakitori for
starters. Yay. At least if I get strange dreams I have something to blame it on.

Kill Or Be Killed

Here's an amusing story. It's about a guy who was too scared to take his own life and paid two enept friends to do it for him. Guess where this is going...

If he can afford $10,000 to pay people to kill himself then he could have used the money to dig himself out of whatever hole he was in. Even if this were not the case, he could have bought some hardcore drugs rather than prescription and O.D'd on that instead. Clearly he was a few tablets short of a full medicine cabinet.

Still, ya gotta laugh.

Bob's Your Uncle

Visited my Aunt and Uncles new house for dinner yesterday. They've moved from Ards to....Ards.
It's a great big open plan house with lots of doors inter-linking each other so you're a bit disorietated on first walkabout and instead of the bathroom I ended up in the cloak room.

Keiths main purpose was to put together their new PC. I was there for moral support and to sample their wine. However, due to a new monitor I gave them and their Dell PC, they were a main wire short so Keith will have to come back today and attempt it again.

We ended up watching the Chelsea vs Barcelona last 16 football match and much to my initial chagrin, it was the most enjoyable football match I'd seen in years. 3 goals in 20 minutes putting Chelsea ahead, then Barcelona bringing them back ahead due to away goal difference and then a late minute goal by Chelsea sending them through. Does this mean I have a renewed interest in football? Hell no.

I've also made an appointment with the dentist. I used to hate going, who didn't?, but I've looked after my teeth in recent years so I don't fear having any work done. I have developed a slight brown lining to a few teeth which I put down to the real coffee I drink in work to keep me from developing a keyboard indented forehead so a little clean up will be good.

Remember, it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown and fewer still to ignore someone completely.

Bowled Over

Good weekend. Spent Friday night playing AD&D. I'm playing a half-orc barbarian called Sqiush Brenning who moonlights as Lord Marquis of Embarassment when he's not stomping snakes into peoples skulls as a sort of bloody paperweight. Finished around midnight and went straight to bed and had an excellent lie-in before going shopping, having lunch, cleaning the house and watching a Billy Connolly DVD from 2002. I had heard some of the material before but it' still funny.

Hooked up with the Ulsterville posse at 3pm and we went bowling as part of the birthday trifecta. I won 1 out of the 3 games we played which is good enough for me. Then back to Ulsterville to get slowly hammered. We pretty much sat around getting drunk and shooting the breeze until I fell asleep spilling a pint over myself and waking up in a pile of wet signifying that I should go home.

Woke up on Sunday sans hangover. BAM. I watched the rest of the DVD and went home for Mothers Day. Keith made excellent stuffed peppers with roast potatoes and I made a bowl of salad. I also managed to get a spare Power Supply Unit from him which was the reason my PC wasn't working. Happy days. Time to play some games.

Have a good week peeps, catch you on the flip-flop.

There Is No Monday

Here's a little comic kickstart to your Monday. It's updated every Sunday so check back every week for an update.

Lou and I watched Matrix: Reloaded last night. I certainly enjoyed better the second time around and the motorway sequence still kicked ass. If you thought it was a disappointing follow up, maybe it's time to give it another go.

Weekend update will follow.

Gamespot #7

The goggles! They do nothing!

That's right. Todays game has a radioactive theme to it because it's time to play Radioactive Snakes!

It's an updated version of the old snake game. It's playable as 1 or 2 person so goad some chump into having a go or if you're very ambidextrous you can play with yourself. Just you and your snake. Ha-ha.

Quick Spin

We had a problem when we tried using our washer/dryer on Tuesday. For some reason after putting a wash on, the door jammed so the clothes remained trapped inside. Also the drum inside didn't spin so nothing was actually being tumbled. I phoned the landlord in the evening and when I came home from work on Wednesday the drum was spinning away. Next day service for landlords has never occured to me so I was pleased. However, when the cycle finished the door remained closed and I was back to square one. I phoned him again and he said he would try to fix it or replace it. My clean laundry was at an all time low and I was contemplating increasing their longevity by pulling a Lister and turning my boxers inside out. So imagine my surprise when I arrived home yesterday to find a brand new Hoover washer/dryer installed and in the middle of a cycle. Fan-freaking-tastic. I am in awe of the speed of my landlord. Most would fob you off for a couple of weeks looking for "parts" or spend days trying to locate a serviceman. Not my landlord. No sir'ee.

So, with the first week of tenancy approaching, everything is going nicely. Any complaints dealt with quicker than a whippet with a bum full of dynamite. TFI Friday because work has been a total drag this week and tomorrow is a triple birthday celebration so I can't wait to party.

Lou and I settled down last night to re-watch Gothika. It's a film where Halle Berry is a repressed female psychiatrist who wakes up as a patient in the very asylum where she worked with no memory of committing a terrible crime. The film itself is almost a terrible crime but it manages to separate itself from absolute drivel just enough to keep your attention. I'd give it 2.5 padded cells out of 5.

Fridays game will shortly follow!

All Quiet On The Western Front

It's been a pretty quiet week so far. Monday in work always goes in quickly which is a good thing and in the evening we went to the Ascot in Carryduff for Keiths birthday meal because it's his birthday today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH!

I had the smoked cod which was delicious and Keith and I split our desserts of Strawberry cheesecake and Chocolate fudge cake and ice-cream. Mmm.

Last night Lou and I had a quiet night in and re-watched The Matrix. I wouldn't mind watching the sequels again because I was expecting so much more from them when what I should have enjoyed was the mindless action as that is what the films arerather than intellectual mind-benders.

I also found out my PC has died on its transportation to the new flat so that's a real kick to the crack as I was looking forward to playing a few new games.

Well, I'll keep you informed as to the weeks progression. 10-4. Out.