Short update.

* Renewed my contract with Orange and have got myself an HTC Hero. Running Android. I am in love. More to follow soon.

* Lots and lots of picture of Amelia to upload and put on my flickr. And also lots of pictures of random scenery. Also, lots of my random retail stuff but I’ll spare you all pictures of fixtures and fittings!

But other than that I’m overworked and never get to touch the laptop in the evening as I’m either too knackered (week off soon!) or Bex is hogging it!

because thinking about it makes me sad
B

So, ANYONE that knows me knows that I absolutely love John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, the tale of massive carnivorous plants taking over the world. There was an awful film made of the book in 1962 and then a really good, if flawed, version made in 1981 by the BBC and which I was shown at school and became my entrance in to the world of Post Apocalyptic fiction.

The BBC announced earlier in the year that they were remaking the show and it was broadcast over Christmas on the TV. I assume hot on the heels of the success of Survivors earlier in the year (and the second series returns imminently, I think!)

It was a British / Canadian effort by the BBC and Prodigy Pictures. Maybe this was the reason why Canadian actor Jason Priestley was involved. And going into it, he was the thing I was looking forward to the most. I’ve never seen 90210 or any of his other ‘teen’ stuff so I’ve not been tainted like most people, but the one thing I’ve seen him in was the absolutely amazing episode of Jeremiah where he played a clever, yet ultimately, psychotic killer in what was probably the best episode of the whole series. And in Day of the Triffids he was going to be playing my favourite character, Coker.

Firstly, the effects in the show were pretty good for a British show with a not too unbelievable airplane crashing into the heart of London within the first few minutes. That’s definitely one area where it excelled the original series.

I was wondering whether Mr. Izzard was ever going to speak after spending the first few minutes wondering around and looking awesomely mischevious. I love that one of the first things he did was a Barney Stintson style “Suit Up!” I was actually quite surprised with his acting in this. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have to say too much really but it was good compared to the rest of the things I’ve seen him in. I think it was also the fact that he played it so over the top and, almost, pantomime villain-esque. Although I kinda liked that.

The show opened with (and KEPT flashing back to) Bill Masen’s mum getting stung and killed by a Triffid in Zaire. This explains why he constantly tells us that ‘with me it’s personal!” The flashbacks were almost as annoying as the amount of times the lead lady in Survivors kept going on about her son.

The lead characters Dougray and Joely had near on no chemistry, I remarked to Bex that this was probably because he’d not got a John Duttine-esque beard. But for some reason I just didn’t get them gelling together. In fact I would say that Josella had more of a relationship with Eddie Izzard and in all honesty I was willing him to make some move – which he did unsuccessfully. Darn!

Torrence’s role was hugely extrapolated, most likely, due to Izzard being in that role. And that sort of started the stem of where it wandered slowly away from (and on occasions returning to) the orignal story. While I liked Torrence’s role, it sort of relegated the prominence of the Coker character and meant that we never really got to see Coker’s transition from leading the gangs to realising it was a bad idea and setting up the Isle of Wight tearaways. Which I liked. We also never got to see the period where Bill and Jo were dumped in seperate parts of London and didn’t know if either were alive. But that was slightly replicated with the whole ‘Bill is dead, you stay with me’ bit I guess.

Things I liked with the show:

* Eddie Izzard filling the toilet up with life preservers and surviving the crash. Probably not realistic. But still, genius!

My irritations with the show:

* In a similar trend with the film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” we changed the main underlying theme to the fact that the Earth is going to die because of global warming.

* Considering that both Bill and Jo were so aware of the consequences of what a Triffid can do how many times did both of them venture out (and half the time in a DARK FORREST!) without eye/skin protection? Also, and this applies to other movies too… When you’re in a car, close the freaking window!

* The complete removal of the scene where Jo and Bill find a luxurious apartment to spend the night in, ‘liberate’ a nice bottle of wine, some nice clothes and spend the night chatting, getting to know each other and basically living. It was a nice break in the story, time to appreciate that whilst everything had gone to crap they still had company and also showed the relationship between the two. Because I, personally, just didn’t believe them getting all lovey-dovey with each other in the remake.

* The religious manor. Which I think was Tynsham in the original? In the original they were good people who were just way too misled. In this version they’d turned into sacrificing killers. Or at least the head Nun had. A pop at organised religion? Most likely. Necessary? Yes.

* The triffids… They were useless, cumbersome plants in the book. And there was a good reason, they didn’t really pose that much of a threat to the sighted as you could see them coming. But in this the triffids could pretty much kill everything as they moved with insane speed and had tentacles that could move up floors of buildings. They, obviously, thought that the originals weren’t menacing enough – I guess. But wasn’t that the point. They weren’t menacing, per se, just clever and knew how to get their food.. by disabling the human race’s sight.

* The ending… just no. Now they live amongst them? Oh, well, I guess it means it leaves no avenues open for further butchering of the story in further episodes. Yay?

Oh well.. I am probably on my own in not liking it.

I am Rapids Johnson
B

Okay, so I just realised that I haven’t posted for near on two months. I am so bad. I blame it on the fact that I so very rarely get to use my actual computer/laptop. As my main computer is now my insanely awesome Boxee/XBMC setup and my laptop is primarially used for Rebecca to play Cafeville or any of the other bazillion Zynga games.

Anyways, it’s that time of year. Christmas! I’ll admit, having a little kiddie does make it slightly more exciting and my 17 hour trip to Toys Я Us the other week sure brought back some memories of when I remembered walking round looking at all the new LEGO toys and wondering what I could build with my bricks! I also remember looking round all the bikes and cars and imagining driving around the backyard playing in a police car. Ahhh, t’was fun. Oddly TRU doesn’t seem to have changed at all in the time since I was used to go there as a kid and what I see now with my retail hat on was a store with awful fixtures and staff that were more interested in checking out the young mums, or in one case their own colleagues than providing any resemblance service. Anywhos!

This Christmas I’ll be doing the following:

Wednesday 23rd. Sam is coming to pick us up from Manchester to take us to Leicester where we’ll be spending Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Then Boxing Day morning we’ll be getting the coach down to London and spending the next few days with Bex’s family. The worst bit is the coach ride back for me will be over night and I’ll be going straight into work the following morning at silly o clock! Oh well, the things we do for love!

Seen as I haven’t posted for a while here are five four songs I’ve been addicted to lately…

The Yeah You’s – 15 Minutes
Hold on, it may be a rocky ride
Oh, I hope I’ll be satisfied
But I will try, give me 15

The new ‘Feeling’? Some cheerful music anywho. And somehow related to Crishna’s work or something. I can’t remember what it was, but glad that she introduced me to them. This was their first single but the other stuff is good. Although I have to wonder why there is so much bra showing in Getting Up With You! Is it me or is the talk show host in this video someone from TV?

Absent Elk – Poker Face (Cover)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)

An awesome cover of Lady Gaga’s annoyingly infectious song. Although this version is the one I play the most and it’s also got a SNAKE and a LIZARD that Amelia loves! They also do an awesome cover of Ace of Base’s All The She Wants.

College Humor – If I Were A Bro
But you’re just a bro
So you don’t understand
Why when you take a shower
You only get a job from a hand

Hilarious parody of Beyonce’s song by the awesome College Humor. Doesn’t hurt that Sarah Schneider is awesome!

Howie Day – Don’t Dream It’s Over (Cover)
Now I’m walking again to the beat of a drum
And I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only the shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief

I have a weird thing for Howie Day, I know I should hate him but I quite like his songs. Here he’s covering everyone’s favourite song by the awesome Crowded House.

Right, now I’m off to swimming! Yay!

the way you right and left it
B

So over the last two weeks or so I’ve downloaded and worked my way through the two series’ of the award winning BBC series Life on Mars. Now I’d never got in to Life on Mars when it originally ran a few years back, mainly due to the fact that I very rarely watch any TV through an aerial TV opting to watch downloaded stuff and also due some to the fact that I very rarely enjoy UK police programmes. What can I say, I must fall for the glitz and glamour (and unrealistic-ness) of the US shows. Are you telling me that CSI’s don’t solve the cases?

And I LOVED it, almost nearly all the time. At the other times I got really annoyed and wound up by it. But mainly love. Yay! However I’ve started watching the “sequal” The bits that I really loved were:

* Seeing parts of the show and recognising them as they are all ‘just around the corner.’ Well as around the corner as 10 odd miles is, but you know what I mean. I don’t know whether I would have felt the same if I didn’t know the area, but it just felt like a welcoming atmosphere. But saying that, I’m not even sure if it was just seeing buildings I recognised because when Sam returns to 2006 you see the Beetham Tower and I just didn’t like any of the 2006 (beginning or end of series) parts. Maybe it was just the allure of the sepia toned terrace houses, or Annie?
* Gene Hunt. What can I say… he’s homophobic, racist, a heavy drinker and smoker, misogynistic and a general all round bastard. An armed bastard as he frequently points out. And yet there is something about him that just makes me love him. I don’t think it’s the same reasons as Bex likes him, though. I think deep down I’ve always loved characters that bend the rules a bit, but are actually really decent people. Or at least we hope they are.
* The relationship between Sam and Gene, whilst I never found it ‘ship‘ worthy I really thought it made the show. Whilst at times it annoyed me that Sam would say things that were obviously just intended to wind him up… aren’t the best relationships like that?
* Annie. She was just so cute and adorable. And well, who wouldn’t love her in a nurse’s outfit!
* Spotting ‘future’ stuff in the past. I loved seeing either intentional or not CCTV cameras, new lightposts, boxes for NTL and other such things that wouldn’t have existed in ‘73.
* Time travelling.. I’m a huge time travel fan. If done right.. And up until the end, it pretty much was.
* I’m a huge fan of police procedural shows.

However, I really hated:

* The ever-constant and ever-increasing towards the end “breakdown” moments where Sam was cracking up. I just found them particularly annoying. Seeing things in his tv, hearing things over the radio.. Grrr! Yes I know that was due to the storyline, but it was just one thing I really didn’t like.
* The fact that the road to Annie & Sam’s relationship was so rocky and he just kept saying the wrong thing or backing away at the wrong moment. Yes, I know that is how UST works. But I hate UST. Just bonk and lets get on with the show! Find the bad guys and smile at each other in happy ever after!

Anyways, I’ll keep watching Ashes to Ashes for a few more eps and see if it gets better. Otherwise I will thank Bex for introducing me to this awesome show and forget about it’s sequel!

I must sleep. Love you all!

B

Wow, it’s been a while. I’m so crap at keeping things updated. But then I kinda blame the fact that I don’t really get a lot of time on the computer, with it being mainly used as a media centre to watch Gigglebiz and Timmy Time. For me that is, not Pud!

So, what has happened since the last time then?

* Bex and Pud have moved in. Three of us sharing the space of a matchbox. Not as cramped as we first thought to be honest and we’ve not managed to kill each other yet. Well, not through space anyway! My little flat now looks a little more homely, I have a proper freezer so can store food for more than three days and have many kiddie toys to trip over. But all in all it’s good fun.

* Went to Salford Quays, which was cool but also a little disappointing. It’s like Manchester’s answer to the Docklands, I’m guessing. And whilst the area is really nice and the Lowry / Imperial War Museum are imposing and nice buildings there just isn’t that much there. The main shopping attraction is The Lowry Outlet Mall which was pretty much a collection of shops which weren’t brand named and sold ’stuff’ at comparable to high street prices. I mean, the Cadbury’s Factory Shop had things at prices more expensive than Tesco. WTF? But other than that it was really nice, if a bit windy. But, hey, this is the north so what did we expect?

Apart from that my days are filled with work and the less said about that the better!

Oh and I’m now 27!

And of course the Office episode the other week (Niagra) was OMGADORABLE!

I am Captain Adorable
B

I apologise for not updating over the past few weeks but I have been insanely busy. No, really. I know, something is actually happening in my life for once.

* Work has been going okay. Better than it was earlier in the year anyway. I have a huge task that was undertaken over the past few weeks to get all the shops to 100% planogram and 100% SEL standard and it was probably 90% sorted so far and I’ve got till Wednesday to get the last few bits done before the area manager comes round and shouts at me at why it’s not done. The past few days have been absolutely shocking though as we’ve had sickees galore and the shops have looked like a bomb has gone off in them!

* Last week I had both Amelia and Bex up, which took up a lot of my free time. Or pretty much all of it! Which, of course, is not a bad thing. We took Amelia bowling with us which was much fun. I ever won a game! Chris and Emily both seemed really taken with the Pud and the Pud seemed to love both of them too. Which is nice as it means she wont be too upset if they babysit or whatever. We also went to a rather nice pub that was by the bowling place and had a lovely dinner. Burgers FTW, obviously!

* The next day Chris, Em, Bex and Pud picked me up from work which saved me the bike trip home and we went to see the Aviation Viewing Park at Manchester Airport as the Pud wanted to see some planes. All I can say is that it is a complete waste of money and absolutely useless. But then considering it’s a MAPLC venture should I be that surprised? £8 for the 5 of us to go and park in the car park. Once there you can walk up to 2 different planes that are parked on the grass. You cannot, however, go near enough to touch or look at them properly as you have to stay behind the fencing. We attempted to eat something at the at the restaurant (that surprisingly didn’t look like an SSP outlet!) and found that they didn’t accept card so we thought bugger that. There was an aviation shop which sold model aeroplanes. A small snack bar that sold drinks and bacon cobs. There was the Concorde experience where you can go look at Concorde and see it’s history etc. However you had to pay a further £5 each to go view this. So, basically, our £8 got us a parking space as there was nothing else that we got once inside the viewing park. What value for money!

* Me, Bex and the Pud went to the Trafford Centre to have a walk round and let Pud play with the fountains and what not. Was nice and we bought some Krispy Kreme’s from Selfridges and I got to see the new WHSBooks that we’d opened in Selfridges. They definitely don’t do as good a job as we do in travel!

* We all went house hunting as Chris and Em are looking to rent a place of their own at some point and saw a really nice 2 bedroom absolutely massive flat for £475/month. Bex wasn’t really a fan of it but I thought the fact it was massive (I’m not exagerating on that one) was really nice and could see myself living there but managed to curb my temptation to say to Bex move up here now and we’ll rent this!

* We walked to some letting agents in the Northenden area and found one which was quite helpful, one which was nowhere to be found and one who was literally a man behind a messy desk in an upstairs back room of a converted house-to-offices arrangement, no pictures up of what properties he had and a “I’ll be your mate and find you a house, I’ll definitely have whatever you’re looking for” attitude. I said to Bex, this really isn’t the kind of man we want looking after our lettings! He’ll lose our contract on his desk, for a start!

* After this, though, Bex and me did have a big conversation about her moving up here which she has been floating for the past few weeks and I’d told her before to make sure she’d thought through seriously as for me it’s great that I get the one’s I love with me 24/7 and I hate the fact that at the minute with my once monthly visits that I miss out on so much of Amelia’s growing up. But for her and Pud it’s such a huge move. She’ll be 300 odd miles away from her parents and Han who have been hugely supportive of the Pud and would obviously not want to lose their current “30 minute drive away” situation. It’s also a long way away from her friends (not that that is such a bad thing considering some of their influences in her smoking/drinking habbits!) But it IS such a huge move for her and (although I really don’t want it to) if it does go sour, she’s lost her flat and is stuck in the middle of northern-ness! But it does seem it’s going ahead, even if we all have to cram in to my little flat for a month or so whilst we find someone to rent this place and find a house of our own. Extremely exciting and yet extremely scary at the same time. I can only imagine what it’ll be like for Bex moving to a foreign land!

I apologise for any and all typing mistakes. I’m typing on my back with my laptop resting on my chest and it’s hard to see what keys I’m hitting!

one step I make an imprint, two steps is commitment
B

Here is some songs that I really love at the moment.

Chris Daughtry – Poker Face
I wanna roll with her, a hard pair we will be
A little gambling is fun when you’re with me
Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun
And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun

Chris Daughtry, the American Idol dude. Covering Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. A song I can’t stand but here I actually like it. Maybe it’s the way he says Poker Face, I dunno. There’s something sexy about it. That’s all I know The cat also really liked this song as she stopped pawing at the dressing gown and looked at the laptop. She knows.

Eskimo Joe – Childhood Beahaviour
I know it seems hard
To be around
But I know it’s going to change when the baby comes out
Headaches start when I try to stop

The lovely Eskimo Joe, from the new album Inshalla, apparently about the time that the lead singer decided to give up smoking and drinking whilst his girlfriend was pregnant. Wasn’t what I thought it was about, but once I found out I guess the lyrics makes more sense!

Jason Mraz (ft. James Morrison) – Details in the Fabric
All the details in the fabric
All the things that make you panic
All your thoughts, results of static cling
All the things that make you blow

This is one of them songs that I have in my collection that isn’t typically what you think I’d listen to and yet I love them and as soon as they are on I am instantly transported to some tranquil place where nothing really matters. I guess it doesn’t hurt that I am a fan of both Jason Mraz and James Morrison and find both of their voices melt me.

Lifehouse – Breathing
Cause I want nothing more than to sit
Outside heaven’s door
And listen to you breathing
Is where I wannhttp://www.buhsnarf.net/wordpress/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=821&message=1a be, yeah

Like the artists above, I could listen to Jason Wade’s voice all day everyday. Anyways, http://www.buhsnarf.net/wordpress/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=821&message=1this song is just lovely.

I Hate Kate – Always Something (or It’s Always Better (With You))
Cut the glamour and all the fame
all the big stars trying to make a name
I’ll tell you something else…
It’s always better when I’m with you

One of my never heard of them until Last.fm suggested them to me. I also like the song “The Thrill” which is a bit Killer-esque kinda. Good name for a song, although I don’t have any Kates that I hate, afaik.

bit all over, damn mozzies!
B

Whilst I’ve been looking after Amelia whilst Bex has been working this week I’ve been taking some photos of the cat, the pretentiously named Lucy Madison!

And my personal favourite one was as I got my laptop out to start putting some photos I had taken of my journey down (and to watch some TV *ahem*) she decided that I, obviously, wasn’t paying her the correct amount of attention. So she did what a cat does best….

And if you didn’t notice from that last picture I’ve got myself a new laptop. Well, I say got, but I’ve not paid for it. I’ve decided that on my renewal for my phone that I’d not get a new handset this time as there just anything out there that really grabs my attention at the moment. Android is still not mature enough, I don’t like any of the S60 5th edition phones that have come out so far (namely the 5800 or the n97) and all of the latest S60 3.2 phones are not really that much of a step up from my battered n85 so I’d be merely getting a phone for phones sake. So I’ve decided to get a laptop, or should I say netbook?, for myself instead. I went for the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v which is a beautiful little machine that weighs next to nothing, has a decent sized keyboard (I’m typing this on it now and the reduced 8% from a full size is not hugely noticebale) and I’m pretty much averaging the speed I’d normally get on my old laptop (The Dell Latitude D600.)

To be honest, the main reason for getting it was that my previous laptop has now completely died, wont boot, wont POST, wont do anything except for turn on the lights for a few seconds and then die. Oh well, it served me well and did a good job for what I paid for it what must be 2 or 3 years ago. And now I have a brand new one for free!

The specs of the machine are pretty much what you find in most netbooks:

An Intel Atom processor running at 1.66GHz/533MHz FSB.
1GB of DDR2 memory
Intel Graphics (GMA950)
10.1″ TFT with a max resolution of 1024×600
160GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Wireless 802.11g
3 Cell Battery

So far, the problems I’ve found with the laptop are:

The touchpad. There is a YouTube video on this saying why they came up with the design that they have. But I’m not a huge fan, I think I’ll end up getting used to it. But I’ve always used touchpads with one finger resting on the left hand button ready to click and I’d never really gotten in to the whole tap to click that is present on laptops. That doesn’t work on this netbook as the two buttons are part of the actual touchpad. So I’m trying to teach myself to use single tap for left clicking!

There is no status indicators on the laptop, except for power. The power light is very beautiful and all, but in terms of usefullness quite low down on my list. I mean, if the computer is on I kinda know it as I can hear the hard drive’s (actually whisper quiet) whirr and I can see the screen on. Scroll lock and number lock are fine without as there is no number pad and let’s face it who the hell likes scroll lock these days. However, the ones I really miss are wireless connection status and hard drive activity light. So if you see me putting my laptop to my ear it’s because I’m trying to find if the thing is writing to the drive or not.

The speakers. I know you’re not gonna fit huge booming speakers in a tiny little netbook, but the volume isn’t very huge even at full volume it’s not enough to fill a room whilst you’re doing the washing up.

The pre-loaded version of Windows that came with the computer was massively overloaded, but a clean install and it boots up loads quicker. I’m not sure whether I’ll put Linux on it or not, as I’ve heard that the power management on Windows is a lot better. We’ll see.

rocking
B

* Crishna is in America. So jealous. She’s in the same convention centre as Grace Park. Insanely jelaous! You can read about her comic-con adventures here… Good times.

* I got last weekend off, yay. Considering I’m meant to be working 1 in 3 weekends lately it’s been pretty much every weekend. Oh well. Guess it’s the curse of not having kids and/or being the big boss! In true me style I spent it down south and down there with the insanely cute Amelia and gorgeous Bex. Bex was working all weekend so I babysat Amelia both days for a few hours and it was insane amounts of fun. On the Saturday we went for a walk along the Thames, played on the park and ate a Subway. Pud loved watching the boats although was a bit irked when some random kid who was fishing decided to show her a full, live fish fairly close. Also some big tanker went by and blew it’s insanely loud horn which she loved and pretended to be a large ship’s horn for the next few hours. Which, thankfully, due to the park having a climbing frame shaped like a boat meant it didn’t look I was walking round with a psycho child. Well, not too much anyway On the Sunday we dropped Bex off at work and caught the train to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) and went to Whale of a Time which is basically an old warehouse turned into a massive kids play area. With massive tunnels, slides, bouncy castle and my personal favourite… a BALL POOL! The place is split into two sections a 1-3yr old and a 4-11yr old. Being responsible and knowing that Bex would kill me if I came back with a damaged child I thought I’d play it safe and plonk her in the 1-3yr old area (even though I’d been told she could go in the big bit.) After about half hour she was bored, having none of it and wandered into the 4-11yr old section… I looked up and saw a sign that said “Parents are allowed to enter – at their own risk!” Bonus! I spent the next two hours climbing up stairs that were way too small for me, going through tunnels, getting stuck and generally having an insanely awesome time. But BOY did it make me a sweaty pig. I spoke to the manager at the end of the day as I’d ran up a tab for my credit card for food and drinks and said that I didn’t mind if she charged me the £4 entry fee also as I’m sure I’d had just as much fun as Pud did! We then got into a really nice conversation about how it’s sad that some of the parents just sit there eating, drinking and talking and not getting involved with chasing the kids round and I have to say that apart from one woman who ran in to rescue her kid who was shit scared of a slide I was the only 11+ person in there. Obviously, that also meant I got my own little gang of kids who followed me around and thought I was insanely cool. Kids are great for boosting the self esteem! How the hell do these kids have this much energy, though?! I loved looking after her for the two days and didn’t damage her once! :p I also learnt how to do my first few nappy changes (!) and found out how difficult it is to walk around town with a buggy. I’ve also got a huge respect for the people, like Bex, who through no fault of her own have been left with a little toddler to deal with on her own. I mean, she’s had to do this for over 2 years and I can ONLY imagine how tiring it must be. Hopefully I can try and help on the days when I’m down, I mean really it’s the LEAST I can do. It’s a shame I can’t do more for her, because I know how much she appreciates the breaks. However, I’m still of the opinion that those that have a kid because it’ll get them the benefits and then sit everyday watching Jeremy Kyle whilst flat out not even bothering to get a job “because it’s easier to stay at home as I get benefits” should be forced to work. *rant* It was annoying that this weekend we didn’t get much alone time (me & Bex that is) but I knew when I’d booked the tickets that it was going to be a short, knackering visit as I would be getting the coach there after working an 8 hour shift, so woke up at 3am on Friday, worked 5-1, and got the coach to Bex’s arriving at 11pm. And then with Bex working on the Saturday and me walking about 600miles pushing the buggy I we both flaked out about 10pm. And then the 23.30 coach back to work and doing the 5.00-13.00 shift straight after jumping off the coach and boy did I look bad on return to work.

* Even though we didn’t get a lot of alone time we did get quite a lot of big and deep conversations in this weekend which (I think/hope) has let the both of us understand each other a lot more and try and work out what it is that we do that pisses each other off. I also found that Bex is struggling with the long distance thing big time, which is nice to know that I’m not on my own. But I think she’s got the shorter end of the stick as she’s never done it before whereas I have. And it’s weird (but very good!) that I’m in a relationship with someone who seems to be into me as much as I am into them and is not afraid to show it. This kinda freaked me at first but now I find it so comforting. It calms my paranoia and means that I don’t worry when she’s out, or the fact that I have a beautiful girl who lives that far away that I have no idea what is happening. With trust being the downfall of one of my previous relationships this is something that makes me feel incredibly happy and content. *ahem* Anyways, enough gush!

* On the Saturday night we went out with one of Bex’s friends and her boyfriend. We went to TGI Fridays which I haven’t been to in ages. The night was quite good, food was nice. The waiter was awesome and had a wicked afro! Unfortunately the company wasn’t brilliant. The boyfriend was great, pretty geeky like myself. The friend..? Well, really couldn’t get along with her. Very miserable and negative and I just can’t like anyone that can drink and drive, especially with a kid in the car. Yeh, she probably wasn’t over the limit.. but I think people should be strict tee-totallers when they drive. But that’s probably just me. Anyways, at least I got that over with and I did enjoy the dinner, although no dessert as all the others were full and Pud was getting a little tetchy as it was getting on for 10 o’clock.

* I’m finishing work on Thursday afternoon and am then off till a week on the following Monday. W00t! Can not wait. Will be spending some time down south for definite. Will hopefully visit Crishna at the beginning as had to cancel last time, see Bex & Pud after that and then on the Friday we’ll be driving up for my little sister’s wedding which I am insanely excited to be attending. She’s marrying Jamie who she has been with for quite a while and who are childhood sweethearts (Awww!) and also the parents of the insanely cute Lois It’s being held at a hotel in Hinckley which looks very nice and will start at 4pm which means at least I don’t need to get up *too* early to drive up! I think that Amelia is coming with us too, so it’ll be a chance for my family to meet Bex and Amelia which is both cool and scary. But hopefully everyone will be pleased all round and HOPEFULLY there wont be too many family fallings out. Although I’m sitting on a table with my Dad, step Mum, Chloe & Haydn and Syd. So basically the non-Colebourne side of the family :p Let’s hope it all goes well, anyway!

* Have just returned from Bingo with Chris & Em.. Really I played Bingo, I had to sign up and everything. It’s actually quite fun, but bloody expensive for what it is and smells of old people and there were people there that you could tell went in EVERY single day on their own and knew all the others that did the same and sat there with little portable laptops playing (bizarre!) Before that was a carvery and pudding which was so filling that we changed our original plan from Lazer Quest (which we are pretty awesomely crap at) as we wouldn’t have been able to run! It’s becoming quite a regular thing us going out though which is pretty awesome as they are both dudes

But anyways, I must sleep

in again at 5 tomorrow
B