Sigh

Okay, so I've been away again, and this is why:

- I now look after my niece every Tuesday, from 8am til 5.30pm - it's a LOOOOONG day!!

- I've had a couple of band rehearsals and really needed to learn some songs - this takes hours!

- I've been ill again, it sucks, but it happens.

- I randomly got asked by my friend to be a food critic for Food & Drink magazine, so I spent lots of time panicking, and then researching restaurants, before doing my first one, and then fretting in case what I'd written was rubbish. I'm doing restaurant number two on Thursday!

- I've been reading the Dexter books, AND watching series one of the programme.

- I've been trying to cook stuff, which, though it has worked out well so far, has proved time consuming, chopping is a laborious but necessary task.


And that's pretty much it, aside from the usual daily duties I perform, of cleaning, washing, looking after Ozzy etc. Ooh, I also went to the dentist, and am delighted to report that I'm still able to perform the old 'zero fillings' hand sign from the old Colgate adverts (circa 1980s).

So there you go.

And today, I went to see The Dark Knight. It was an utter farce to begin with. They dropped the film or something, so we had to wait an extra fifteen minutes for them to put it on, and then when they did, the first three minutes were without sound. Let me tell you, I have always been obsessed with Batman films/programmes (and Batman), I have loved them all (except Batman and Robin, I have standards), and certainly in the instance of Batman films, the beginning is VERY important to me. I NEED that build up, so to watch the bit where Batman is propelled through dark flames (it's at the very beginning, I'm not spoiling anything here) with no sound, meant I didn't get off to a good start, and I felt slightly cheated. I now have to see it again JUST for that bit, which probably makes me seem ridiculous. Anyway, I have been very excited about this film for a long time, because I loved Batman Begins.

You know what? I rather liked it, it was pretty good, there's no doubt that Heath Ledger was frikkin awesome, but I think I need to see it again, because I came away, still feeling slightly cheated. I'm not sure if it's the psychology behind missing the beginning that has done this to me, but I just don't feel right. I expected to come away with a feeling of 'Oh my god! That was wickedace, I must see it at least three more times!' And I can't stress enough, that I really DID like it, but I must have missed something because as I say, I just feel like it was lacking. My initial problems seem to be:


- I found the plot to be a bit predictable. I'm not going to give anything away, but the twists weren't twisty to me, and I had several eye rolling moments where I knew what was going to happen and wasn't surprised when it did.

- I feel like there wasn't enough fighting, I can only remember a couple of fight scenes, which to me, is not enough, but if there were more than that then I should spot them second time round.

- Harvey Dent annoyed me all the way through it.

- I'm not sure Batman was actually in it that much? Again, when I watch it second time round I shall pay attention to this, but I can't recall him putting in a lot of appearances.

- I'm looking forward to Bruce Wayne's mansion being rebuilt, because a Batman film without a Batcave, just isn't cricket for me. I've spent years trying to convince Hefty that we should build our own Batcave, and I don't want to see all my hard work undone just because some dude thinks the floor of an office building will suffice. Similarly, however corny, I expect to see bats at some point. Real flying bats. I don't know, it's a symbolic thing.

- The overall flow just didn't flow to me. I felt there were many unresolved things that just made it all a bit messy, and they weren't important enough to ever come up in any future films.


So again, I MUST STRESS!! I really did LIKE it, I did! I just need to see it again because I didn't love it, and I feel like I've missed something. Incidentally, I didn't think it was too long, I didn't even notice, so I'm not completely evil.

There you have it then. I have probably just opened myself up for being the most hated person in the world, but I needed to get this off my chest because it's really bothering me. I'm not going to apologise, it's not my fault! Maybe when I see it again I shall return and write a whole different post, but for now, it is what it is folks.

I'm off to watch Batman and Batman Begins now, I need to restore my faith in my favourite hero (after Hefty of course).

I can be found hiding in the co-ordinates of D2 on page 33 of the AA Road Atlas. Send your firing squads there, and I'll try to make it easy for them.

iP :0(

Ozfest

Okay, I know I posted ten photos and a video of Ozzy, just four posts ago, but I have this new one, and I just love it so much that I simply had to thrust it into the ether.



Gotta love the fluffy little fella!

:0)

In the night garden....(well, in the garden, at night)

Last night, we had a visitor in the garden of Pandah Palace. Young Ozzy discovered our new guest, and they were obviously having a good old chinwag cos we couldn't get him back inside! He then helped himself to what was left of Ozzy's dinner, before bidding us farewell and shuffling off to sit behind the hose reel.

I'd love to say we got a picture, but alas, we didn't, so this is the best I could do!



That's about as much news as I have I think? Ooh, though I do have another band rehearsal on Sunday, yay!

Which reminds me, I need to practice!!!

iP

A ha!

Hefty solved it, it's to do with tags. We downloaded Acorn - yay!

WALKTALK

Okay, so today I participated in something called WALKTALK.

When the London bombings happened, the last person to be pulled out was a lady called Gill Hicks, who lost both her legs in the attack, but still managed to walk down the aisle 6 months later. She really is an amazing woman, unbelievable, and I got involved because my friend Kimberley helped organise the event. The idea behind it is that Gill and her husband are going to walk from Leeds to London in a month, and people can join in along the way, but they must talk as well as walk. It's about people who would never normally meet or mix, just talking to each other as equals. Gill's philosophy is that there's too much of a 'Them' and 'Us' society these days, and perhaps if people communicated a bit better, there wouldn't be so much hatred and misunderstanding. The first part of the walk, which was launched today, ended up in a place called Beeston, and it's actually the place where the bomber came from. I'm not normally sentimental or anything like that, but I thought that was quite profound. I can't imagine being in a terrorist attack (and I hope I never am) or losing my legs, but then reaching out to the community that raised the guy, well I just couldn't do it. It was very poignant, and as I don't normally do anything like this, I actually felt quite proud to be involved. I know it's corny, but I did, so there. It's going on for the next month anyway, they'll be working their way down the country, which again, I mean, she's got prosthetic legs, I only walked 5 miles and I'm knackered!!! Here's the link to the website anyway if anyone's interested:

WALKTALK

When we reached Beeston, we had lunch, and then Colin Jackson appeared out of nowhere (just like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn), because he's been following the initiative on Sunday LIVE, a programme on BBC1 (think it's on at 10am tomorrow). I didn't speak to him, but I noticed he had some nasty tracksuit bottoms on. Still, that's not really important! See, I had a moment of compassion and now I've slipped back into my evil ways....
Anyway, we then let a load of balloons into the sky, which looked really cool! And then everyone went on to the next bit of the walk, where there was a picnic going on, but me and Kimbers headed off. It was really interesting though, and I did talk to loads of people who I would never talk to normally. I discovered how dull I was, as I didn't think that saying I was a Lady of Leisure would be a particularly good barrier-breaking conversation topic, so I just told people what I used to do, and let's face it, accounts isn't a talking point in any social situation! But it was still pretty cool, even if I am not!

Right, have to go, dinner has arrived!

Ciao for now peeps!

iP

I'm now recovering from doing the most exercise I've done all year, by having Chinese food and watching Dexter.

Photomographs

So, I thought it was about time I posted some more photos before I move onto the serious business of writing about what I've been up to.

Firstly, for the benefit of Tim, these are the best shots I could manage of Ozzy in his cat tent. They're naff quality (camera phones, tsk) but will have to do:





And here are some more gratuitous Ozzy shots.

These are a couple of shots of Ozzy assuming his favourite lying down position. I'd have to dislocate both my hips to achieve anything like this:




These are random pictures of cuteness, the pink bandage he got from the vets, and an arty shot involving a Habitat garden chair!






This is me having a bath, or rather, taking a photo of Ozzy whilst in the bath! He comes to have a nosey at what I'm up to, and then spends ten minutes just walking sideways along the bath (in this position), and squeaking because he can't get in!



And this is a video clip of him being clipped by the groomer. He waves at people as they go past, as if to say, "Help me, I don't like being clean!"



And this is something I saw today in Leeds City Centre - a place I don't frequent - a real-life proper Mini, glued (or possibly something stronger) to a billboard. Crazy!



I did have a rotated picture of it, but Blogger NEVER uses these versions, so my pictures always come out squiffy! Any ideas Tim? Surely you have to rotate pictures sometimes, it can't just be me?!!

Here's another one. I pulled into the Junction 27 retail park (a distinguished place) to go to Boots and Costa Coffee (the Starbucks is in Borders and has a separate and ridiculously small car park), and spotted this ostentatiously decorated Fiat Punto:



God how annoying!! ROTATE, ROTATE!!! Anyway, in case you can't see, it's a delightful bottle green shade, with neon pink stars all over it. My immediate thought was, 'This is the kind of random shit Tim would take a photo of, so I must do the same.' And as if by magic, a red Mini pulled up in the spot next to mine. A sign! He wasn't in it, but that's not the point!!!

So there you go. Random photos and ramblings. And as this is all very random, I feel now is as good a time as any to say that I'm watching Cadfael on ITV3 and Johnny Lee Miller's in it. Whatever happened to him?

Right. Now I shall move on to the blogging...

Nightmare

We had no Internet yesterday, ALL day, can you imagine?!!

Oh hell. BRB.

News and Reviews

Well it looks like my new blogging average is about once a month, impressive....not. Best make the best of it then!

I have now decided to split my posts up into sections under little headlines, so they're more flowing and readable, as opposed to the usual amount of incoherent nonsense. It'll still be slightly chaotic, I've decided to dispense with any kind of time-line of events, and just spout off what's gone on, in no particular order. So, it's probably going to end up like a text version of the camera work in Cloverfield, but with less nausea (maybe).

Dexter
Dexter has become my new obsession. It started off because I saw an advert for the TV show and liked the music. I didn't really pay any attention to what the programme was about, until one day, it was on, and Hefty said "It's supposed to be really good that series." Well, I immediately Googled and Wikipediaed it and decided that it was right up my street, having, as I do, an obsession with murder/crime/stuff like that, though not in an 'inspired to kill' kind of way. So, first port of call was to read the books, as I like to be a purist about these things. I ordered 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' and, because we now have the totally awesome Amazon Prime thing going on, it arrived the next day. And I pretty much read it in a day. SOLD. I passed it on to Hefty who prefers reading O'Reilly books normally, or so it seems, and he also read it in a day. So, straight onto the DVD rental site went I, and managed to procure Disc 1 within about 3 days. When it arrived, although I should have waited for Heft, I sat and watched it all, and LOVED it. So, I went back on to Amazon Prime, ordered 'Dearly Devoted Dexter', and then went to Play USA to buy the complete series (cos it was £17.99 on there and 30 squids everywhere else). Brilliant! I've watched half of the series so far, twice, I sat through it again with Hefty, and I really do love it. Am halfway through the second book too and I also really like that. So I'm entertained out at the moment, which is nice, because as I'm waiting for new BSG to come on (even though I have a feeling I'll be sorely disappointed, maybe even horrified like I was with the ending of series 3) I currently don't have anything to watch. Hurrah.


Ozzy
On Sunday, Ozzy found and ate half a bunch of grapes, the little swine! Luckily, Hefty caught him in the act and we managed to get him in at the emergency vets. He was in overnight where they made him sick (didn't have to pump his stomach thankfully) and had him on a drip. Phew! In case you didn't know, grapes and raisins are extremely poisonous to dogs and cats, worse than chocolate, and they can die within a couple of days from renal failure if you don't act quickly. Scary! Apparently, not a lot of people know that (why am I suddenly thinking about Michael Caine?) so the vet was very pleased. I went to pick him up yesterday and he was sporting a neon pink bandage on his front leg, cos they'd run out of blue! He looked like an 80s dog, it was very cool. Anyway, he seemed okay when he got home, but today he's been very jumpy and squeaky, so I took him back to the vets (thank god for pet insurance). It would seem he's got a rash on the spot where they took blood samples from him, so we've got some cream! She reckoned he was also feeling sorry for himself because he's a moody dog, so I've left him to it. He's been in his little cat tent for most of the day, sleeping (or maybe plotting to take over the world Tim), and generally looking miserable. I feel bad, but he won't come out so there's not much I can do. Sigh.


Band
Had another band rehearsal last week, and I was initially a bit worried, because the male vocalist left cos he got a job in London, so that meant I suddenly became the lead singer! I wasn't nervous, it's really weird, and slightly corny, but it's just the best feeling in the world doing this, so I don't feel nervous, just excited. However, I was worried in case the rest of the band thought I was crap, cos I'd only done backing vocals so far. Luckily, it was a HUGE success!! I had learned all the songs, as you might expect, or so I thought. Apparently, none of the other singers in other bands they'd been in ever learned songs properly, they just half-heartedly attempted stuff. 1-0 to Pop Star Pandah. Also, I just sang really well, and everyone seemed really impressed, and told me I was awesome, which was even better! 2-0 to Pop Star Pandah. They could have been lying, but I really blasted out You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette (love it or hate it, it's a good song to sing if you're in a covers band), and when it finished, the lead guitarist and founder just laughed (in amazement, he explained), and said 'F*cking hell we need to do more songs like that." 3-0, game over. Yay!
They wanted to rehearse again on Friday, which I was well up for, but Hefty says Fridays are 'our night', and he doesn't want to sit in on his own. I was really disappointed, and am still a bit gutted, but I know what he means. However, I'm hoping that maybe the odd Friday, he won't mind, if I ask very nicely. It's the best night for everyone else which is just typical. Oh well. Sigh :0(


Film and TV
Today on iPlayer, I watched a programme that was on on BBC3 last night (I missed it obviously) called 'Sasha: Beauty Queen at 11'. It was very car crash, but one of the most entertaining things I've seen for ages. I'm sure it was callously edited, but that's not my fault, I can only judge what I saw. Basically, it was about this self-obsessed mother who'd wanted to be a model and failed, so decided to make her kids do it instead. Her main focus was her daughter Sasha, and it was actually really sad. This girl was talking about stuff, but she had no enthusiasm, there was no sparkle in her eyes, she was just empty, dead, talking about how she'd describe herself as 'Pretty, blonde, and dumb - I don't need brains.' She seemed to like some aspects of the stuff, but I think it was more to do with the attention she was getting from people, and not her Mum. Her Mum just pushed and pushed, threatened, belittled, god it was awful. I can only recommend that you get on iPlayer and watch it, because it's just unbelievable. Really sad, but thoroughly watchable, which probably means I'm sick in the head or something.
Have watched a few films recently too, and these are my thoughts:

No Country for Old Men - Cracking film, Spanish guy - well scary! WATCH!!!
Knocked Up - Would be better if the annoying, horrible, vapid, whiny women weren't in it, but as it's about a pregnancy, they have to be (well, one of them does).
Hallam Foe - Really interesting idea, likeable characters, bit sad, but I thought it was good, on a par with The Chumscrubber.
Superbad - Hilarious, I'm actually going to buy this, the 2 main characters were just brilliant. George Michael from Arrested Development is in it. Wickedgood!


Floors
We're currently having the floors I blogged about put down. Hooray! But that means I have to go, as Hefty's just got home.


Ciao for now.

Life etc.

I'm going to dispense with the usual apologies and reasons why I haven't written anything for ages. I'm ill and busy, that's as much as I can be bothered to say!

Kitchen is all done, just needs a lick of paint and some shelves, pictures etc. Shower taps are a revelation, I wish I'd had one five years ago when I first started washing up. Garden is also pretty much done, we just need some plants. I tried to take pictures, well, I DID take pictures, but Hefty must have turned my MacBook Bluetooth off so I can't connect with my phone. I don't know the admin password or any of that malarkey he set up when we got it, so I'll have to wait til he gets up to ask him. Bah!

We've ordered flooring now which is jolly exciting. We went for this product called Karndean, which is essentially vinyl tiling, but it comes in many different effects and thicknesses. For the kitchen we're going for a Limestone Tile in 'Jersey' from the Art Select range (I don't know what any of that means but it sounds impressive):



And for the lounge and dining room, although Hefty wanted real wood, I managed to convince him of the practicalities of Karndean, and how new puppy + real wood might not be a winning combination, so we're having American Oak from the Da Vinci range:



To say it's not real wood, it's really amazing, because it looks very realistic and feels pretty woody too! Hefty was surprised by it, and I think the quality spoke for itself, so we should have it in the next couple of weeks! We ordered some sofa's too, and did rather well as Heal's were having a 50% off sale, so we essentially got two for the price of one!! Yay! They should arrive in six to eight weeks, which is the longest we've ever had to wait for a sofa (or anything actually) but it'll be worth it:



I was worried we'd have a generic looking lounge; wood floors, leather sofas, but once we get the gold curtains and Roman blind (currently being made, I hope!) it should actually look pretty wicked.

In other news, a fox got into my sister's garden and made a beeline for the rabbits!! They've managed to up the security and so far so good (!), but now, the Biz is obsessed with foxes. If she hears a noise in the house it's "Is that the fox?" But perhaps the most hilarious thing, is that because she's never actually seen the fox, she thinks it's the one my sister pointed out to her on TV as an example. The fox from the Foxy Bingo adverts!!! So Biz thinks a fox in a purple suit is getting in the garden! Oh how we laughed!! :0)



Going to have to get Barkbusters back, as young Oswald is being a royal pain in the ass! He's reverted back to being a little punk, so I'm relieved we paid for the lifetime policy!!! His fluffy little ass needs a good whooping! >:0(

Need to take him out actually, before the storms come (where oh where is Summer?!), so I'll have to scoot.

Let the hayfever commence, atchoooo!

Part 1 - Housey stuff

Well, it's been quite a couple of weeks, I don't know where to start. Hmm....

I think I'll start with the house. We now have blinds up everywhere and curtains ordered for the lounge. We have bookcases in the study, and the kitchen units are in. You may recall the kitchen units being in quite a while ago, we were just waiting for the worktops to be made and delivered yesterday? Yesterday came and went, so Hefty called up Customer Services who said it would actually be NEXT Friday when they were coming. WTF??!! Needless to say, 'off' was kicked, big style. We WERE told 13th of June when the guys came to measure up, but the worktop company tried to say we made a mistake. Luckily, the kitchen fitter was there when they said it and also had the 13th down. He was due to come on Monday to finish everything off, and now has to come next week, which is a pain for him as he's got other stuff to do!! Those punks. Yet another complaint for the list of 'Things that have gone awry with our new kitchen.' It's the fact that they told us that date, and never contacted us to say otherwise, we're not effing psychic!! Hefty took the day off work too, because they said they'd need his help carrying the tops up the stairs. So he's going to bill them for a day's pay as that's what he's lost for no reason. I'm just really pissed off cos I'm SICK of having to use the utility room. Carrying stuff up and downstairs is a real pain in the ass, not to mention the fact we've not had any proper food for two weeks. Hefty made an executive decision; we can't live on microwave pasta and beans anymore. We're going to go out for dinner every night instead. Sounds good, but it'll probably result in horrendous weight gain, for me anyway. V annoying people!!!!!

The garden landscaping commences on Tuesday, so we ordered a BBQ and a table, chairs and parasol from Habitat. Ooh, and some groovy sun loungers. We got 20% off too, always a Brucie Bonus! The BBQ is awesome, we used it the other night even though it was freezing. It's a beast of a machine, but worth every penny!! Behold:



I now have brown hair agin which is good news! I feel much better, it always makes me feel more confident, and I don't get heckled in the street or patronised by people in shops. Yay for brown hair!!!

We're getting SKY soon, which we were originally getting because Hefty was going to get broadband from them, but he's not anymore so I'm not sure why we're still getting it. Anyway, B&O are coming to install it so that it's done properly, and not by SKY who are notoriously bad at that kind of thing. But, our local B&O shop have closed down, so they had a 25% off sale, and Hefty bought lots of things with silly names. I wish they'd just call stuff by its name, cos I don't have a clue what they're on about. For example, we have a new pilot (remote control, don't know why I call it a pilot but I do), and it's just called a Beo5. Why?!!! I can't work it anyway, it's touch screen or something, but it looks silly so I just use the other one.



Over-complicated if you ask me, but what do I know. We're getting some speakers and stuff too, but no doubt they won't be called that.

I have to go and pick Hefty up from work, I shall have to continue this later. Oh the anticipation....

Doh!

I just watched The Chumscrubber again, and Hefty brought an error to my attention. In an earlier blog, I said it was like a cross between American Pie and Donnie Darko. I ACTUALLY meant American Beauty!! Good god! Bit of a difference. Clearly I am a tard. A hot table-wiping tard (for the benefit of Tim)!!!

:0)

Separated at birth?

The Tunnel

I've realised why Ozzy gets so dirty when he goes outside, today I found....the tunnel! Yes, that's right, young Ozmond has been digging himself a tunnel into next door's garden. Now, here are some things you should know about Ozzy:

- He can open bolts, he got into my sister's rabbit's hutch twice, and she definitely locked the door.
- We have used his old pen to fence off the dining room as all the kitchen stuff is in there, but no matter how we arrange it, he always manages to find a way through.
- He can jump over baby gates.
- He's exceptionally good at digging, on any surface.
- He loves cats.

Bearing these things in mind, it should come as no surprise that not only does he dig his tunnel, when he's finished, he moves a spare plant pot over it. Genius! He does love the cats next door, but they taunt him through the fence, so he obviously felt the need to take action. But I had no idea he was so close to achieving his goal. I almost feel bad for blocking it off, part of me wants him to succeed, but I really can't let him get next door, because:

a) They don't have a gate so he might get onto the street, and then work his way towards the road.
b) The cats'll have 'im.

So I moved the hose pipe reel over it, as well as some other plant pots. We're having the garden landscaped in a couple of weeks and it'll be made dog-proof then. But, despite my raining on his parade somewhat, I feel the need to congratulate him on his achievement. Well done Ozzy!

I'm currently watching 'This is England,' but it's quite hard going. It was okay at first, but the racism is really hard to watch, so I've turned over a couple of times, unable to watch. There's a Goth in it though, and she's a pretty good Goth at that. Speaking of which, I'm getting my hair dyed back to brown on Saturday, and I can't wait! I know my parents will moan, and a couple of other people will express their disgust, but it's just hair for Pete's sake! And I'm much happier with dark hair, I hate being blonde, natural colour or not. So sod em all!

Ooh it's got horrible again. God really horrible.

:'(

Filth

After feeding Ozzy, I let him stay outside for half an hour as usual, and look what happened!! Look at the state of him?!!!! What the hell was he doing?!! Mentalist.

Stuff and nonsense

I feel really sick today. Before now, I was laid flat out on the floor doing that 'Oh my god I'm going to die' thing. Now I am upright again, but still nauseous. Course, it's all in my head, so I don't know what I'm worrying about >:0(
With regards to the old doctor situation, last night, because Hefty's working these shifts at the mo and my nights are lonely (sob), I wrote a very long, very detailed letter of complaint. Edited highlights include paragraphs such as these:

"To be told that very real symptoms are all in your head is quite distressing, and yet again, I went away from the ENT department feeling angry and upset. I accept that maybe on paper they can't find anything, but is tact completely beyond these peoples' capabilities? If she'd said, 'I'm sorry, we've done all we can but can't find anything' I would have still been disappointed, but at least I wouldn't have felt like a liar. After four years of a debilitating illness that no-one can diagnose, to be told it's all in your head is just unacceptable. I don't need to be patronised or fobbed off, and frankly I don't appreciate it. There are so many posters up around hospitals saying that verbal abuse or bullying toward staff will not be tolerated, but it seems that Doctors can talk to people however they wish! "

"Not everybody expects to find a solution to their problems, but they do expect, and have a right, to be treated with dignity and respect. And perhaps a little understanding and sensitivity. I hope never to see these unpleasant and unprofessional people again, frankly, I'd rather continue to live with my illness, as my experience was both stressful and upsetting."

I can't imagine anyone will give a shit, but it makes me feel better, and I'll send it to as many people as I have to!

Young Ozzy has been a bit of a punk today. I had to reprimand him for jumping on the sofa (he's not allowed on the sofas) and chewing my Megatron. So now he's in a mood, and decided to hide in his tunnel, before skulking into his cat tent. He may be a fiend, but he's uber cute!




I watched Barbarella last night, always amusing, then Blade 2 was on Channel 4 so I watched that too. I want to watch The Chumscrubber again, so Hefty can see it, but I have to wait til he's not working nights, and I've no idea when that will be! I don't know if I mentioned it, but Hefty bought me the 'Murder, She Wrote' boxed set for Easter, of the first 5 series? Well, I've been watching it for the last few weeks and I'm now halfway through series 5. Which means I've watched a hell of a lot of JB Fletcher, though when I've finished, I'm pretty sure I'll start all over again! I need to finish watching Babylon 5 too though, and we've got Death Proof on the pile as well. So little time, so many DVDs!

When we were in the US, we went to see the Blue Man Group, who were spanktastic! I sort of knew who they were, but didn't really know what they did, so I went in to the show with an open mind. I wasn't disappointed! It's like a cross between music, art, comedy, it's all just completely random, but brilliant! Very clever, and entertaining, I can't wait to see them again. We bought their CD and DVD out there too, though the DVD is different to the show we saw. Here's a taster:

Blue Man Group

I hope the link works, I tried to post the video but I can't figure out how to do it. The instructions aren't very clear!

Well, got to feed Ozzle before he completely falls out with me.

TTFN

A brief encounter

The Chumscrubber is such a good film! It deals with communication issues between parents and teenagers, America's reliance on prescription drugs to solve problems, and a video game. This probably sounds rather bleak and harrowing, but it's not. I'd describe it as a cross between American Pie and Donnie Darko. Jamie Bell is a stonking good actor, I'm going to watch some of his other films, he really blew me away. And that's about as much as I can say without giving too much away. What I can say, is that the soundtrack is also pretty good. There's not a huge amount of music in there, but what is in there is nifty stuff. Except for Placebo. I really don't like Placebo.

I also watched A Very Long Engagement today, which I also enjoyed. Initially I thought it was some kind of romantic comedy, so I put it off, but it aint! It's about a girl who's convinced her fiance didn't die in WWI, and her quest to find him based on some information told to her by an ex-soldier in hospital. She spends the film trying to unravel the mystery of him and the four other soldiers he was with at the time (they were all sentenced to death for self-mutilation). I'm sorry I put off watching it for so long. That'll teach me.

The kitchen is all done! Well, the units are, the worktop is due on the 13th June, and I can't wait! We've been using the espresso machine today though, which was super! It makes wickedace coffee, it's bean to cup, less hassle and mess all round! The froth wand is good too, often a challenge on home models. Yay for Siemens!! :0)

I'm just on me tod, Hefty on night 2 of his funny shifts. Need to practice some songs for the next band rehearsal though really so I think I'll do that! Am dying my hair back dark again next week and I can't wait!

Have a good weekend folks!

Holy freakin' moly!

So my kitchen is coming along brilliantly! I can't believe it! Check it out!






Hefty's doing shifts of 3pm til 1am for the next week, starting from today, so it's just me and Ozmond. I'm just watching 'The Chumscrubber', which is pretty good so far. I did a massive clean of the house earlier then watched Transformers. I must have seen that film 20 times, but I really love it. So there.

Watch this space for film review....

A substantial list

One of my friends asked me what we'd bought in America. I had to think about it, and then decided to compile a list on here, so if I get asked again (there's a distinct possibility, I still haven't seen a couple of my friends), I can print out the list, or, cut and paste it into an email, which is obviously very lazy, but there are some people who I speak to more via email. Also, it might be interesting to someone, and it'll be a nice reminder so that when we go back next year, I'll remember to pack less initially, so that we don't have to buy two extra cases again (oh yes, we had to buy two, and bearing in mind we went with two, that's 92kgs of stuff!). So here we go, in no particular order:

CDs

Korn - Untitled ~ how I love this album! It's a lot better than I thought, and tres cheap!
Paramore - Riot ~ not as good as the first one, but for £3.00 it seemed a bargain.
Adema - Kill the Headlights ~ my current favourite album, always on in my car, it rules!
Flight of the Conchords ~ this was Hefty's purchase, he seems to like it.

DVDs

Bender's Big Score ~ it's common knowledge that I love Futurama more than a lot of things. Well, I STILL do! It's super!
Death Proof ~ brilliant!
Grindhouse ~ haven't watched it yet, but am confident it will be as good as Death Proof.
Flight of the Conchords ~ another of Hefty's purchases. He loves it, I'm not quite sure. Some bits are funny, but I find it kind of depressing. Hmm....

Games

Grand Theft Auto Special Edition Boxed Set ~ Hefty's, I don't know much about GTA, other than it has a rockin' soundtrack, but I was very impressed with this. It came in a safety deposit box! And had some other cool stuff in it, but the best thing was, it cost £40.00! It did cost £150.00 over here, but has dropped to £69.99 - either way, a saving!!

Clothes

Well, I bought the following t-shirt from Virgin (the best Virgin in the world!) in Downtown Disney:



And I also bought another one by the same people, but I can't find a picture. But, imagine a cartoony blue mobile phone saying 'I'll text u later" to a cartoony blue old bakelite style phone with little pointy teeth, who responds with '?'. Amusement all round!

Having discovered the company's website whilst searching for the above pics, I discovered this, which I must have!



Anyway, I digress. I also bought a vintage looking Iron Man t-shirt (Iron Man being my favourite film of the year so far, we saw it on the day it came out and it ruled! Though I haven't seen I-J yet) and a ton of Roxy ones, varying styles.

Hefty bought out an Abercrombie & Fitch store, he now has t-shirts, polo shirts, jeans, thundercrackers, flip flops, aftershave, all kinds of gubbins!

I bought a couple of bags too, a Harajuku Girls one and a Juicy Couture number.

I also got some awesome new Vans! They sort of look like this, but there's not any paisley stuff on 'em!



Let's see, what else? Um.....ooh, I bought a stand for my DS Lite, so that if I'm playing something like Scrabble (which is pretty much all I play, despite having so many games), I can sit and look at it, rather than having the bother of holding it. God I really am lazy!

Hefty bought a new camera too, a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, which he says is awesome!



We bought a fair amount of gifts too, including a large Ariel doll for the Biz (Ariel from The Little Mermaid), and a ton of American chocolate and sweets. Hershey chocolate is rank apparently, but one of Hefty's friends loves it so we got him a fair amount.

We also bought some coffee, Mickey's Real Swell Coffee, which we've yet to try, but we liked the packaging and thought it'd look good in the new kitchen. Ours is blue, cos it's not decaff, but I couldn't find a pic.



And that's about all I can remember at the moment. Though I'm sure there's more than that. Well, if it comes to me, I'll be sure to note it down.

Le kitchen

So here is the kitchen, before (entirely inadequate for a 4 bed house on 3 floors), and during. Can't wait for the after! I did rotate the last ones, but for some reason, Blogger will only put them up sideways. Meh. The last shot is the new stuff, it might look the same as the other, but it's not! One's crappy veneer, one's solid oak.

Time flies

Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned, it's 25 days since my last confession.

Well, actually, it's 25 days since I should have last confessed, but it's been a manic few weeks.

Firstly, Florida was excellent!! We really did have the best time ever! The weather was hot, the food was outstanding, and we shopped til we dropped! It was so good, and we miss it so much, that we're going back again next year for three weeks! Only 10 months and 20 days to go! According to my countdown timer widget anyway!

Since we returned, a number of things have kept me from my trusty blog:


- Ozzy's behaviour was horrendous whilst we were away, and he was so naughty when we got him back, we had to call a dog whisperer!

- We're currently having a new kitchen fitted and had to clear the house to make room for the units prior to fitting, and the contents of the old kitchen now that the new one is being fitted.

- I had to look after my niece a couple of times as my sister had to work unexpectedly.

- My singing lessons have been more challenging of late, and it's taken a lot of time to learn new songs (especially the Italian operatic numbers!) and practice them, as well as going to the lessons which takes nearly three hours including travelling.

- I've had my usual bouts of illness, which never helps.

- Our internet connection went all cockaskewy, and on the couple of occasions I was going to write something, I couldn't get on the flipping net!

- I had band rehearsals, fabulously exciting, but take up a whole day!

- Have been nipping back and forth to shops trying to get finishing touches for the house, nightmare!


So you see, it's all been rather chaotic, and I'm not really sure where the last month has gone!

So, the current news is that Ozzy is now a reformed character thanks to Janet from Barkbusters, and the kitchen is nearly in situ. The units will all be done by Friday, which is when the resin worktop people are coming to check their measurements are correct, and then we should get the actual worktops on 13th June. So, by the 15th June (my rough estimate), our kitchen should hopefully be all finished!! Hoorah!! I've taken some pictures, a sort of before and during (after pics coming soon!)
which I shall put up after this.

In other news, today I went for yet another appointment for my ongoing ear/sickness/dizziness problem, and as per usual, it was an utter waste of time. Apparently, because I've been ill for the past 4 years, I'm anxious, and this is what's making me ill, because there's nothing wrong with me, it's all in my head because I've been seeing so many doctors for the past 4 years. If I ignore it all and gain more confidence it'll all go away. Interesting theory, the concept of the chicken and the egg comes to mind, but as the doctor was clearly in no way sympathetic to my cause, I didn't bother arguing. I did try to point out that I HAD been ill initially, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to the doctors in the first place, and that I still AM ill, whether in my head or not, so she palmed me off with a leaflet on Acid Reflux, and told me to follow the advice contained within. Based upon said leaflet, I shall be abstaining from the following:

- Heavy smoking.

- Heavy drinking.

- Eating chocolate, pastry, fried food, Indian food, and drinking fizzy drinks.

- Wearing tight clothes like corsets.

- Lying on my back to go to sleep.

Oh hang on, I don't actually do/eat/drink/wear any of these things anyway. Interesting......maybe that's why I'm lacking any of the main symptoms; a hoarse voice, a cough, heartburn, a mucus-ridden throat....hmmmm.....

Maybe the doctor I saw is a specialist in the wrong area. As far as I can tell, she'd be far better suited to another part of the anatomy, one she can clearly talk a lot about.