Rainy Day In...

Yesterday, I had a day off. And that actually meant, for the first time in a long time, that I had no plans with which to do with my day, and that it was raining and miserable the washing didn't dry...

But what did you get up to? I hear your proclaim at the top of your voices, as there is nothing more important to read on the internets than this very segment of my life. Well, in truth, and if you know me well enough, I can't be sitting around all day watching TV or Films - well not by myself at any rate. If I had company it would have been quite different.

I woke up, and watched the remainder of a Top Gear episode I had switched off the night before to go to bed. Then I made coffee, set up the washing to dry inside, hoovered (not well), and eventually I left the house in pursuit of some shopping.

I bought the River Island bag (Pill is convinced its a Handbag), and then I went to the market. I bought a loaf of bread, some eggs, sausages, beef mince, potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and a sandwich for under £15. And upon returning home I tucked into said sandwich and rummaged about on my laptop in front of the TV. 

I had hoped to watch Kingdom of Heaven, because I saw that it was on Netflix, but alas it must have been Tag's American Netflix (God Damn...summer in the city). Instead I watched 21 (a film about Blackjack. It was okay, but it spoon-fed you like Now You See Me), and then I watched a bit of Krod Mandoon (do you remember that crappy Fantasy proof on BBC2?). 

I also managed to buy the remaining clothes for my comic-con costume. All I need now is a few maps, and some shoes to go with it. Though Red had suggested broaches or something. I don't know. This is the most I've ever done for fancy dress, and it's actually starting to be enjoyable now that I'm getting to a size where certain sizes fit. 

So, all in all I managed to spend money and sit in front of the TV for a while. I tinkered about on my Laptop for a bit as well. Clareg wants me to download Lord of the Rings Online (I know I had it once, but that was a long time ago), and I downloaded Age of Empires Online and Civ 3. AOE wouldn't let me log in (I'll try that again later), and Civ 3 wasn't what I remembered it was, i.e. it's no Age of Whatever You Played...

A pretty staggeringly poor day, by all measures. And then Cherry text. Sherlock are in town! And I stood outside the film set, on the Hayes for a short while, telling Cherry everything I saw every now and then, and I would have some pictorial evidence although crappy HTC failed me. But I did see Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

A not bad end to the day indeed. Pill and I watch Atlantis, and watching Disney films with him is fun, because if he hasn't seen them before, he will analyse it and throw science at it. My simple response, it's a cartoon. 

I suddenly got an urge to go to Oxford. I'm not sure why. More on that story as it develops. 

Carpe diem...

No, I'm Spartacus!...

A day of cleaning, television, and writing awaits me, but first I started a new exercise regime. I think you'll agree the old one wasn't getting me anywhere, and I will admit that was mainly to do with eating out all the time, and not having any food in the house so falling for a takeaway, which is exactly what happened last night...

Pill and I have been working long hours, and despite getting home at 4pm almost daily he then spends a few hours working on his dissertation, so we basically do the same hours at the moment. So when I got back yesterday (payday) neither of us had done any shopping and our fridge was filled with drinks and condiments, and nothing worth making a meal out of. I offered to buy Pizza Hut and we slobbed and watched Pokemon Movie 2000, which was something Pill hadn't seen before. He enjoyed obvs. 

There's a TV Series we could all watch again, Pokemon!...

Gone are the days of Date Night Sunday, what're we gonna do without the Returned? Actual scary films or perhaps The Lord of the Rings?! Pirates?! But we should really finish Harry Potter before we try any of that.

Anyway, exercise... It's called the Spartacus Workout (google it) and Clareg recommends it for burning fat in the fastest way. You basically do a set of ten exercises for 30, 40, or 60 seconds a piece, and you repeat if you want a harder workout. And the exercises are mainly thigh related (the largest muscle group) so if I also start eating a little better than I am now, and if I reduce my drinking (occasionally) I might end up looking a little something like this... 

Only fatter, larger, and brilliant in every way, so probably a bit more like this...

...alright, gay...

But anyway. Pill got quite ill after the pizza, but he lives to tell the tale. I've brought the final things I require from Amazon, Pill's lending me a telescope which is awesome. I'm not sure I'll have a weapon, I can't find one I like. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but the end of the month cometh. Red has now marked us all down for her crew as well. The steampunk charms be awesome!

I wouldn't mind playing Game of Thrones again...maybe later. Today I must buy a bag and possibly some food, though I'm not sure how important food is compared to material goods...

Carpe diem...

Purge Me Now!...

*disclaimer: the thoughts and opinions in this blog are entirely my own and no one else's, unless of course they are Red's.

...that just looks painful. What did they do to deserve that punishment?...

FUCK! I just burnt my fingers on the Iron!...

First thoughts; what a bloody moron, he's just asking to be killed in the Purge because he's such an idiot. But when I say, I wasn't ironing, and the iron was left, abandoned in the living room, plugged into the wall, and switched on, I don't sound like such a fool. Okay, but how did you burn your fingers? You might ask. Well, this is pretty much the moronic bit. I stroke the iron plate almost every morning, to determine whether or not Pill has ironed, and how long ago it was. I know that's stupid/creepy/odd, but I think you'll agree, I'm quite a tactile person.

And apart from that little insight into my weirdness, my hair has started falling out, I think the dent in my head is getting bigger. Is this all a part of getting older?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I can be normal. When I'm quiet, mostly, but how rare is that? I've started restraining myself in the sickness, racist, any-kind-of-joke-way that I attempt to do when I feel there needs to be a laugh somewhere there doesn't really need to be one. I've done this mainly at the daily commitments, but every little helps.

I'm just having one of those weeks I think. I've been slaving all weekend, and now into the week, the general staff are all back and I think something strange has gone down because everyone's in a very focused life view of things. Even when I got into the back of Tag's car on Sunday I had managed to piss of everyone by being there, to be fair, I had been fucking with Red the entire time (do I mean that figuratively or literally? - again, too far? Ignore me). Then I was aggressively asked why I was looking at another menu instead of the one we were going to be ordering from? (the food wasn't quite right, you are correct in thinking that). I sat on the arm chair away from people, and watched The Returned. It was good, but it wasn't the grand finale I thought it was going to be, but it is somewhat going the way of Lost I think (i.e. Channel 4 has it now, but after series 2 Sky will buy it and force us to wait even longer for outcomes). We've also, now got to be friends in a year's time, as paraphrased/quoted from someone else. Which, if you think about it, a lot can happen in a year. For instance, this time last year, HB wasn't talking to me, I was on the dole, quiet, lonely, and living at home. Also LYMPICS! A lot can happen in a year. 

Apparently I need to be more confident. I thought I was confident, but maybe I've been straying into the land of arrogance and ignorance far too often. Am I a racist? Probably not, I think I hate equal numbers of everyone from every background and origin. I'm really pissed off that a Thief got away with something I and a few others stopped him doing on more than four separate occasions.

And after the Returned, we watched the Purge. I don't think I had much interest in the film in the first place, and I didn't know much about it, but when the opening credits bit occurred and told me the ENTIRE premise I was amazed it even got green lit. I don't like Ethan Hawke at the best of times, from Dead Poets to Daybreakers. He looks odd, he moves funnily, and he's always seemed slimy. SPOILER ALERT he dies in this film for a stupid reason too, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The idea behind the film being, just one night a year everything illegal, becomes legal, just to get the animal urges to kill, rape, murder, shag lampposts, and shit on lawns out of the way for the rest of the year. Oh, and this rule only applies to 'Merica! because why the fuck not. And quite frankly, as someone said, that sort of idea wouldn't even spring to mind in the the thoughts of Our Parliament. They'd just bring back the death penalty, easier, simpler, and the people who have done things wrong, get to pay for their crimes, and not the Purge. A film about the 1% killing the 99% due to increased funds, fun, and guns. Unemployment low, due to the unemployed and homeless getting killed every Purge Night lacking the means to defend themselves, economy okay due to not having the unemployed and homeless to support, way of life okay until Purge Night when you all say its okay until someone breaks in, tries to murder you and then rape your corpses. It's a stupid fucking film. Can we watch something actually scary/jumpy next week that gets us thinking there are things in the dark?

I don't know, maybe I'm just in a bad mood for some reason. Tag thought something was up, over coffee yesterday morning. I don't think anything's up, but now I've thought about it, maybe. I've had a night-out cancelled this week, but Pill's Friday Get-Together is going to be one, who knew?!

Who had bets on whether Pill would do the washing up and tidying from Friday/Saturday nights? I returned yesterday to the same state it was in when I left it Sunday Morning. Nut shells on the table, beer can discarded and empty next to that, (right where I left you) washing up littering the sink and oven top, towels on the floor in the bathroom (not where I left you).

Perhaps I'm just being a bit of a pushover buying people shit, doing things for them, and then being a dick about it the entire time. Or maybe I'm not. What, what? Anyone got any thoughts?

Carpe diem...

Change The Record...

So, Tag got me some Mumford and Sons and Of Monsters and Men music, and I think they're both a great accompaniment to Frank (as much as I'm sure you'll hate to hear that).

My iPod has been playing the same playlist since Christmas, I think, and I know its time for a change. There are songs I know and wonder what the hell they're doing on the playlist, there are songs I skip instantly, and there's just no fusion between the melodies; I've got the fast passed Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet next to How To Save A Life by The Fray - it just doesn't work. 

I need multiple playlists, because I'm not satisfied with just listening to one artist all the time, and it gets tedious switching between different songs I'm in the mood for. It's weird. I'll probably just sit down and go through all my music again, and see what happens. And the same can be said for my playlist titled 'EPIC Writing' (the former one being called 'Goodness'), which is essentially a mixture of really epic soundtracks, video games, and just epic music. If I played it in my car as I drove I pictured myself going to slay dragons and having loads of adventures, though the screaming singing when you're alone in your car at times was awesome. And I mean that as in singing at the top of your voice and not the screamy music most gothic metal bands seem to enjoy.

There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back

Well tell her that I miss our little talks

Soon it will be over and buried with our past

We used to play outside when we were young

And full of life and full of love.

Some days I don't know if I am wrong or right

Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear.

But anyway, moving on. I just checked up something Red was saying (a few times, the geek) about Age of Empires. I managed to skip the Empires games through my childhood, I had Age of Mythology, which I'm told was quite bad, though I enjoyed it very much with Arkantos and Ajax and Cherion - they all kicked Osiris' ass, and I do mean that. But I just checked on steam and the Age of Empires 2 HD is £14.99, though the none HD more cartoony version Age of Empires Online is actually free (what, what?) so I'm sure this whole Player vs. Player thing could go down in the near future if peeps want it to. 

Oooo! Let's LAN-Party it up! (hahahahaha)

It's Double Date Night tonight, and of course it's a double date! Tag and I have finally expressed our love for one and other, the Tostesterone filled afternoon saw to that, and Cherry, you can have Red, or Red, you can have Cherry (we don't mind the order). I had hoped you'd forgotten about the wine, but of course I'll bring it. It was gathering dust in my wine rack. Double-bill of the Returned time! The last two episodes! What are we going to fill Date Night with now?!

I hear Tag's got that sorted...

Carpe diem...

Winter is Coming, A-gain!...

Ba, ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, ba, Ba, Ba, Baaaaaaaa...

That's enough of that right now. 

The Game of Thrones board game isn't actually that bad when you know how to play. But it did get a lot like Monopoly towards the end as it had gone on for six-hours and everyone bar the winners had given up on life. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but you know the point in Monopoly when you start giving up? The one where just one person seems to have all the money and no one else can possibly win, but you've got to go around giving away your money, mortgaging (Death Gripping - not a Star Wars reference at all but a bit of Latin for your ears. Mort = Death and Gage = Grip) your properties, and then going through the whole bankrupting process. You know you're going to lose. No one, apart from Banks and J.K. Rowling has gone from being bankrupt to being wealthy again.

But I digress...

We gathered in our humble abode, after Tag and I had finished watching Fast 5 and Fast 6. It was one hell of a Tostesterone filled afternoon. Epicness, Splosions!, and Vin Diesel. I can't wait for Fast 7 (the final one) and Red and Tag have said they'd come with me to go see it. So why didn't we see Fast 6 in the cinema? Could you imagine the Splosions! on the big screen. Plus the ultimate heroic thing of catapulting yourself off a car, after you've just blown up a tank, across a bridge to catch a woman in mid-air (Superman-style) only to land, bank first into another car's windscreen, and for the woman to be the only one in pain. 

And then Pizza, Drinking, and Game of Thrones happened. 

The guy in the shop said that the game would be very good if you have 3-6 dedicated players to play with. Little did he know, that we were not reading the Game of Thrones, but were huge fans of the TV-Series (save one of us), and that we were in no way dedicated to the rules of play, nor to the facts and figures involved in playing. Red had no idea what was going on. No of us knew how to play, the 32-page rule book and numerous internet videos sought to that, but she had the added lack of Game of Thrones knowledge.

Pill was Baratheon, DarkHorse lingered as Lanister, Tag was Tyrell (pretty, pretty flowers), Cherry was House Stark, Red was Martell, and I was the Greyjoys. So we set about explaining to Red everyone's relationships to each other.

'First of all you should know, Pill is a cunt, you can call him that, it's fine. And that Cherry, Tag, Red, and DarkHorse are all fucking Pill. Tag is fucking Pill's brother, Red is fucking Pill's other brother, Tag's sister is fucking Pill, Cherry's sister was fucking Pill, Pill's father used to sleep with DarkHorse's Daughter along with everyone else. DarkHorse's Daughter fucks DarkHorse's Son (or vice versa), and the Greyjoys like to fuck themselves. 

Simple enough for you?

Either way, we toasted, we drank, we ate a pizza the size of Pill, twice, and we played the hell out of that board game. It would have been much better if we played it quicker than we did. A 3-hour game would have been long enough I reckon, if we ever all play at once again.

Now I'm looking forward to Date Night Sunday with a double-bill of the Returned! (squee!) But can it possibly top the levels of awesomeness from my Tostesterone filled afternoon/evening? I'll let you know.

Carpe diem...

The Crawl...

The Swingers and I went to watch The World's End the other day (Bacon Wednesdays) and throughout it, despite being wonderfully refreshed after spending the day with Cherry and Red drinking, eating, and shopping, I couldn't help but get the thirst desperado feeling only a man marooned in the desert gets as he stares at a glass of water he can't reach evaporating. I don't think it helped that the cinema itself was the same temperature as a desert, and the cornettos we had (kindly provided by Cherry) did not help the thirst. If you didn't know, The World's End is essentially (Hi Tag!) about a pub crawl. And if you want to know more you should probably go check out Red's blog here...

But it got me thinking, let's do a crawl of our own. I've not quite figured out the basics, but I think if everyone buys their own drinks it'll avoid arguing over who's round it is. Some generous souls might provide shots throughout (or halfway). And the ladies can drink their own girly drinks (or perhaps Gin and Tonics a la film?). Either way it's got to be the equivalent to a pint's content or whatever. But as for the circuit, I've been thinking about that too. And you know how much I love a good map...

View Larger Map

1. The Westgate

We'll start at the Westgate, not only an obvious starting point, as it is a few steps from our base (Pill and I's house), but also, symbolically, the doorway we all entered the real world and Cardiff from the West (i.e. Carmarthen, Big End, or Ponty).

2. The Gatekeeper

Obviously, as we enter the city, we need to pay the Gatekeeper, and where better to do this than at the home of the man himself?

3. The Queen's Vaults

And then, as we intend to get blind drunk, I think we should pay homage to our country's Royals, starting, obviously with the Queen herself. We should raid the vaults and wet the new Royal's head.

4. O'Neils

Moving swiftly to the Irish Quarter we'll show them what the Welsh are made of and finish our fourth drinks and walk out of there, heads held high, and arms linked in a River Dance.

5. The Prince of Wales

The second Royal to receive our blessing of the evening, the Prince of Wales, our Prince. He shall quench our thirsts and we shall move on.

6. The Great Western

Then we pay homage to the form of transport that carried most of us to this beautiful city. The Great Western, not only our main haunt, but the place we met.

7. Duke of Wellington

Now for the man who helped provide us our freedoms from Europe. A toast to Wellington, and his generals, one of which resided in Carmarthen (hence Monument Hill).

8. The Borough

Then we toast to the Borough we now call home. The great city of Cardiff!

9. The Owain Glyndwr

But let us not forget our past. We are Welsh, we are free, and Owain Glyndwr cemented himself as the icon of our Welsh identity.

10. The Rummer Tavern

A place to remember that we are an island nation, and a great one at that. We shall never forget that Britannia Rules the Waves! 

11. The Goat Major

Our Army's Mascot, the great welsh buck, Royal, Deadly, and Completely Welsh. A toast to that glorious beast.

12. Dempseys

And finally we finish in the oldest establishment in town. The talk of Cardiff since 1720. We finish on the very foundations of a city, and celebrate our triumph with a lot of music and dancing.

How's that for a slice of fried gold? (should that question mark be there?)

Carpe diem...

AWESOME FUN!...

Let's face it, I've had some pretty fun weekends, but last weekend took all the biscuits, ate all the pies, and generally stomped on that belief that life couldn't get much better...

And do you know why? Because I did something new, and I enjoy doing somethings new. I enjoy them very much, although there is the risk of disliking the new thing. For instance, I don't like high board diving, I've done it, and I don't like it - or falling in general for that matter. But last weekend, we the special chosen ones, ventured to the oldest pub in the Diff and sat in a stuffy upstairs room, paid to be there, and viewed a lovely acoustic concert put on just for us. 

We were mainly there to cheer on Cherry's Friend's Boyfriend, which we did. And then, as the evening went on, other bands started to appear, like wild pokemon, and entertain the hell out of us. If only there was a large room for dancing and not upsetting the band with your poor dance moves. Oh well. 

So we heard from Jack Barnett, Firewood Island, and Old Colours and they were all very very good. Tag and Cherry had to leave for a train about half way through though. But that left the drunk pair Red and I to enjoy the rest of the gig, and to then see another gig downstairs, wander over to Live Lounge for a dance, complain about the size of the bag she was carrying, contemplate seeing her boss in Pulse, walking to the Bay, getting Subway, trying to get into a rave tent, and then sitting in the moonlight getting blown about by a nice sea breeze. It was a good night out, and you don't get many nights out that start with a gig, so I'd be more than willing to try that again. 

I want to go proper dancing and clubbing again, but not in the crappy clubs. Payday is next week, possibilities and all that jazz!

Then on the Sunday, instead of Date Night, I had a shift that lasted 12hours until I was sent home purely because I had work in the morning. 2am is a funny time to be getting back from work, to say the least.

And Pill loved his present from me, and is now planning a Friday night in with Rocket Joes pizza (look it up), drink, and the Game of Thrones board game. Just to warn you.

The World's End is happening tomorrow, and I can't bloody wait. I'm sure it's been ages since Hot Fuzz, we need another cornetto, and I want to relive watching a WrightPeggFrost movie in the cinema, and rekindle some childhood memories (I'm not that old!)

Day off tomorrow, endless uncertainties to come. Bring it on... (Amandi!)

Carpe diem...