New Home, New Life and New Friends

Ok first post of 2009!
First off I apologise for anyone who has been trying to find out what i have been up to recently; i have only just unpacked the pc from the pile of boxes that used to clutter my boyfriend's hallway

From that i hope you will gather that I now have my own space to call my own: before the questions start to fly i will point out that my poor other half has a very poky flat and there simply wasnt enough room for all of our stuff combined....it does not mean im going to break up with him but i have wanted some room for myself should disagreements become inevitable!

I have moved into a lovely bed-sit near the city centre of lincoln....unlike most bedsits this one consists of two rooms one that has been converted into my living room/study and the other which is my bedroom.

The last three/four weeks have been taken up with decorating and furnishing the living room; when i moved in the walls were a pale green and looked seriously unpleasent (well to me anyway) we repainted it a lovely sky blue and painted the skirting boards chocolate brown

There is a bed setee in the living room...perfect for guests and friends should they decide to pay a call (hint hint).

secondly with christmas out of the way ive managed to break the ice with my work colleagues, they're very nice although i would be lying if i said they are better than my old mates and i have forgotten about my teignmouth pals...far from it!

Anyways as soon as im all sorted ill add more posts...until then!!!

almost a year gone!

First i apologise for not blogging for almost a year, but so many things have happened and i havent been able to get myself time to write.

First off this will be a sort of round robin (sic) of the year to date but some things may be out of order so i apologise.

Well at the beginning of the year i attended a civil ceremony reception for two of my friends ho got spliced on valentines day no less :-) i hope they're happy and still going strong, last i heard they had been forced to retire from the jobs they loved and were looking at working as a private courier service, i cannot be sure if this is accurate but if so i wish them many successes.

the next climatic thing was my plans to move (gasp) from teignmouth after living here for over 17 years (8 of which i spent in the local co-op supermarket) i left in july with many tears from my mates and friends but more of that anon

before that i celebrated one of my mates 21st birthday, well i say i celebrated but i had 2 drinks then escorted a young lady back to her bed, (alone, before the suggestions start running)

then in july i bid a tearful farewell to my home, i decided to move upwards to be with my partner, who must for his own wishes remain anonymous, however we are both happy and are enjoying our time together. i miss my mates obviously and i stay in touch whenever possible.

after a hiatus of roughly 8 weeks i got a job working in a shell garage on a major roundabout...40 hours a week! good i suppose except that the hours were long, busy and on occasion solitary!, my partner was worried for my safety and therefore when the lincolnshire co-op offered me a job i cant say i agonised over the decision to leave.

i'm now working as a sales assistant for the co-op and i'm ion training for my keyholder/supervisor stauts which is quite a privilege :-D

well that's about it for now, i might have missed some details but i will add more when my mind is capable.

Christmas Joy!!!

What a week it's been for thos of us who work in the retail industry; My heart goes out to the people in stores like Argos, GAME, Gamestation, Debenhams, Virgin etc. you must be shattered with dealing with the christmas rush like thos of us who work at the local supermarkets!
Yes as you can see here we are working hard as usual (!) NAH! I'm joking as usual with this time of year it's the time for festive cheer and as usual our bosses didn't not disappoint!

As you can see we all had a lovely time!, although some of us had too much of a good time (and they know who they are!)

Electronic Mayhem

Well, in a rare occassion I'm blogging again in the same month!

Now, those of you who know me and read this will know im an avid (some might say obsessed) console gamer, others who dont will no doubt be wondering "what's a console gamer?"

Well to those who have only just arrived into the 21st century, allow me to give you a very brief(ish) history of gaming from a fan's perspective.

I was born in the 1980's during which time the only computers available were from either BBC or a company know as Acorn computers (nothing to do with a certain Ms.Wood and Ms.Walters) the rest were know simply as `mickey` mouse computers that plugged into your tv via the areial box and used either cassettes or big floppy disks that were square and (unlike todays obsolete models) floppy, these used a language called BASIC and a slighlty more advanced language called ASCII.

then a japanese company arrived called nintendo, they originally developed games for another minor games firm called Atari, the most famous model from Atrai was a console called the 2600 and was one of my first console machines, it played pac-man and donkey kong, two characters that now remain in our hearts and (to some) our memories.

Now, A rival company sprang up called Sega; they developed a machine which like nintendo used a cartridge based system, theyre also famous for giving us a rather unsual sight back then....a blue hedgehog that ran on two legs and wore a ridiculous pair of red sneakers (trainers to those unfamiliar to americano) called Sonic, rival to nintendo's main star....A plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses from monkeys and overgrown dinosaurs going by the name of Mario.

As the years rolled by the two companies battled it out for control of the teenage market by introducing new and more advanced systems, as this progressed other companies rose to try to unseat these two powerhouses from their thrones as the top console producers but only one managed to cause a furore.....Sony

Yes! Sony, the company that first introduced the CD to our world now decided to try and enter into the fray after an unsuccessful attempt with nintendo to develop a CD based console nown then as the PSX.......

They developed a major selling product that caused consternation to Sega and Nintendo, namely the Playstation.

This little machine is still selling despite the fact that its two younger brothers have pretty much taken over the mantle of financing Sony Computer Entertainment, although that being said its selling relativley cheap (£20 will buy you a brand new one).

Sony decided to try and bring more to the forefold by introducing a variety of characters to its world and allowing the market to bring in the adults with a range of more......`grown up` titles to the world and so sega and nintendo retailiated by designing abd releasing their own CD based machines, although nintendo did not release their version till much later.

Sadly Sega was forced to give up its console development after a while as sony and nintendo were out-selling them in temrs of the hardware, and reluctantly they became sofware developers and publishers toi the other concoles, including a new rival to challenge the rest.

while the main war had been between Sony,Sega and Nintendo and fourth rival had been biding its time and now struck into the struggle for dominance......Microsoft released its first games console....namely the Xbox.

The xbox was released roughly about the same time as the successor to the original Playstation...the unoriginally named Playstation 2 and Nintendo's first widely known CD machine....the Gamecube and boasted a unrivalled amount of detail and performance by utilizing actually PC technology as part of its circuitry.

Only one thing hindered the Xbox; its size, for while the xbox was powerful it was also the size of an old VCR and weighed something similar too!

now the battle continues with the Playstation 3, the interestingly named Nintendo wii and the sequel to the xbox....the Xbox 360!

who will win? it's upto the buyers!

The Christmas Countdown!

Well! The dreaded christmas is creeping up on us and with it is coming the annual round of madness that comes with it; namely, the mad rush around the shops, the terrible christmas songs both past and present and the demands for toys, gifts and presents from all and sundry!

From reading that you'd think i hated christmas........Not so!
I do love chirstmas its just getting harder to think of it as anything but an excuse fopr kids to demand all sorts of things that they'll play with for approximatley 2 hours (if youre lucky) and then declare "I'm bored!"

Although i'm not exactly know for religion or my beliefs I would like to think that we should try to remember what christmas is actually about......You'de be surprised to realise most small children these days think only of it as a chance to get great pressies! Plus with all the political nonsense around, most people are afraid to remember the correct meaning of christmas for fear of offending muslims, jews, buddhists and all the other major and minor religions out there.

May I point out that these faiths share their own versions of celebrations for the coming season, in fact if my memory serves me correctly, the muslims religion has just completed or is celebrating divali (apologies if the spelling is incorrect; i dont not mean to offend anyone but my memory on these things is a little rusty) which I believe translates as `festival of lights` and around the same time of year as christmas the jewish community celebrates hanukkah, they have no problem with celebrating these and not offending christians, agnostics and goodness knows who else! so top the PC brigade I say.......Put up or shut up!

Ok tirade over, next thing on the agenda.

So christmas is coming, which means absoulte chaos to anyone thinking of venturing out there to shop for their loved ones......my advice: Plan about three weeks in advance and have everything written down in a special christmas diary or notebook, that way when the event gets closer you can do it all in one fell swoop and save agonising over whether aunt Ethel would really like that mauve jumper or if cousin Mark wants the nintendo Wii or the remote controlled interstellar death blaster that you saw in toys r us.

Of course this would be hypocritical of me if i didnt admit ive had christmas in my head since the end of October and given thought to what i would like; problem is theres loads id like but like most people i have to try and stick to a budget! so right this point id like the new harry potter film (Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix) so santa if youre reading this from lapland or wherever you happen to be, please note ive been a REALLY good boy this year!

After The Party's Over

Hey everyone! sorry I haven't been posting but a couple of things have been keeping me busy.


First off, when I came back from my holiday, I had a major problem which prevented me from posting.......My dear computer crashed beyond retrieval so i had to fork out £40 for a new hard drive (not the nicest thing to do when youve come back from a relaxing holiday)


Anyway, its now working fine and im back to blogging.

This gentleman next to me is my mate in Lincoln, Gary. Here we are about to order dinner from a very nice pub restaurant with two other friends, in a rare occassion i was able to match appetites with him (but only just!)

Yes, I went back to Lincoln, Don't know quite what it is about the place but something about it makes me keep going back over and over again.


Secondly, a few weeks after coming back I ended up partying again!


Yes I Know I'm putting a little weight on, but frankly, given what I was like when I was younger (thin as a beanpole and hardly ate anything!) I dont really mind!

No! im not pissed in the bottom left photo I always close my eyes before a picture because i end up with red-eye!

In fact I was a very good lad and left them to it at 11:30pm as I had work the next day! The poor guy in the top right however had work, he looked like death warmed up and probably felt worse!

A Birthday To Remember

Well time for some scary news........In less than two weeks time I'll be 25!

Yup 25! I must confess I can't quite believe it myself, to have reached the first quarter of the hope-to-reach century!

Given my family history, I haven't really thought much about growing old, the mere fact scares the living daylights out of me! I prefer to focus on the here and now, I'll worry about the future when I have to!!!!

Still, 25! a nice easy to remember number and in fact I'm stretching this one as far as I can, although my birthday isn't until the Saturday, I'm starting it from payday, the 13th September and working it till the 23rd! in fact it works like this:

Payday: Thursday 13th September
Day off: Friday 14th September
Birthday: Saturday 15th September
Party!: Sunday 16th September
Holiday: Monday 17th September

Cool eh? looking forward to it!