Bricking My Pants Time

Next month sees Leamington host the Regency Run, which is 10Km in total. There was talk amongst the group that we would apply for it, however with not being very fit these days, I decided to drop out, and then there was talk about John doing it, but he has to work in Japan. Debbie has shamed us all, by applying for it a while back, which made me feel a little guilty, but with the news that the race might be full, I felt a little better.

I decided to give it a chance and see if I could push myself a little more, and applied for it Monday night. With a clunk of the mail box this morning, I opened the post, to find my own race number. I've done myself proud lastnight, and considering I havent done any exercise in terms of long distance running for a while, I managed to do just under 4Km. Time to cut out some booze, drop some weight and eat healthy for a bit I think.

As the race is on a Sunday, I'll have to do the race (starts at 9) then go manage kids straight after - I'll be glowing red for approx 4 days after this.

Remember Een? Sahara Update ...

I had a text from the lovely Philippa earlier on, pointing me to a website where you can check on the progress of people in the race. Turns out, Een is currently 22nd out of 850 - nutcase & loon.

The website also has a select number of photos taken from the last couple of stages - and knowing what you need to do to be in races like this, you have to be at the peak of your health. However, this kind of scared me ...

Karma & Magic Darts

Having signed up for Friends-Reunited a couple of years ago, I've been in touch with a number of people I actually want to keep in touch with from up north. Sometimes I get messages from the website - about people getting married, having kids, moving to the States - that kind of thing. Last week, I got a bit of a funny one, KE who I used to go to school with had won an award for Undiscovered Author. KE is using a pen name of Holly A Harvey, the book is called Karma, and as another friend from school, Sarah, owned an independant book shop up north and is stocking it, I gave her a call to see if I could blag a copy. Sadly this didnt work, and I got talked into making a purchase - but you know, its helping two old friends, right ?

When I finished handing over £8.99 for a very interesting book, Sarah asked me if I wanted it signed by "Holly" so why not I said, incase its a classic in 200 years time. 2 days later, a book turns up - and looks very nice - just need to get around to reading it. It is of course, signed by "Holly" saying "To Stephen, 'Magic Darts!!!!' Love Holly A Harvey."

Magic Darts relates to a catch phrase we had at school, if anything was going the right way, we used to aim an imaginary dart at the imaginary dartboard, fire the dark and shout "Magic Darts" or "Championship Darts" - suppose you have to be there - but mildy amusing thing to do, in fact, I might re-introduce it again.

You can get the book from Amazon, or alternatively, phone up Sarah at her bookshop - she's nice and doesnt bite .. thankfully. You can also read Holly's Blog at the following address;

http://www.hollyaharvey.co.uk/

Buy it, read it, enjoy it.

Brass Monkey's

The Arctic Monkey's are about to tour the UK - however rather than giving everyone a nice hotline and taking down the phone lines in London, they decided that it would be better if you signed up to a website. All good and well really, you would think, but they're pretty much in demand, and its first come, first served. I had an email saying "thanks, but no thanks, or and you were to slow, you fat fingered geordie fool" - well, not quiet, but for the comedy value - it works in my head.

I didnt think anything else of it, then I had an email pop up on Friday saying "not all tickets sold - click this link and enter pin code". So, I did, and got prompted to which venue I was interested in - so I entered Brum. I was then asked to enter my credit card details - so I did, then had "Thank you for purchasing tickets" - EEEEK - I thought I was only registering my interest again - whoops.

Needless to say, the lovely Jess (sadly in Leeds now) - you know the one, cute smile, funny lass, makes me giggle - suggested that they werent actually that good live. Double whoops. I had a look on ebay - and the tickets are going for 150 quid - and there is still a month left! Crumbs, imagine what you can do with that. Friendly brummie man, Bellis, is into his music, after all, he's having a midlife crisis and trying to be hip and street, so told him about it. He couldnt get tickets either, so suggested if I couldnt make it, I would sell him the tickets for face value.

Relativity...

I was pretty pleased with myself lastnight. I decided to get off my arse and play 5aside football, with most of the students and a couple of IBMers - its a game I don't really enjoy playing, because its full of, well fast footballers. This means, when and if you get the ball (very rare) you have to pass it on, or run with the ball as soon as you recieve it. Its also a mechanism to find people's weak spots, and basically, for crap people like myself, to have the piss taken out of me. I felt lastnight I couldnt do anything right, and thats not me being negative, its the trust god damn it. I had my back on goal, had a ball passed to me, knew someone was free on my right, so passed it perfectly, only for him to miss, but - but - people shouted at me that I should have shot. Minutes later, I took a curling in shot from the left wing - and people say I should pass - meh - football for you.

Pete and Vince had invited me to play the slightly later game (8 til 9) so by the time I got home (7.15) I decided that enough was enough, and I wanted to take things into my own hands and I was going to play a 2nd game in 3 hours.

I do like playing this slot (although its a little late in the day for me) mainly because you do get the space, you do get the time on the ball (time & space = more confidence = more time and space .... etc etc ....). Its been a while since I turned up for this slot, but was met by loads of handshakes, welcomes and asking how "Geordie" has been and where I've been. So, we play, I megsy an old bloke, giving me more confidence, had a couple shots on target, and probably had the better game there, even tho I'd ran around for an hour already.

Anyhow, heres where the relativity thing comes in. When I got back, I had a call from a mate of mine, Een. I tend to only ever get calls from him, if his lass is up the spout (hi Sarah), Headley has managed to get himself into even more debt or Big Brother is about to start. Thats not to say we don't keep in touch, its to say, he reads my blog often and doesnt need to call me to find out whats going on.

Anyhoooo, turns out, he was at Gatwick Airport, about to take a flight. Where ? The Sahara Desert to run in a race.

The Sahara Race is a self-supported footrace across 150 miles (250 kilometers)
of the Sahara Desert in Egypt. The race consists of six stages, lasting 7 days,
with distances ranging from 10 to 50 miles (20 - 80 kilometers) per stage. There
will be checkpoints conveniently positioned along the course every 7 or 8 miles
(10 - 12 kilometers). Competitors are required to be fully self-supported
throughout the event and must carry all their own food, gear and clothing, which they will need to complete the 150 mile (250 kilometer) course. Water (including hot water) and a place in a tent will be provided daily. Generous cutoff times will be established daily so that anyone walking the course can complete it. A
limited number of three-person teams and individuals will be accepted.

Excuse me ? Isn't that just mental ? He's a 31 year old man, with two kids, lovely lass of a wife - and he's running 150 mile in the desert. Anyhow, after feeling good about myself, I felt a little deflated, that I've probably done like 0.03% of what he's going to do, in a better climate.

Good Luck Een!

What am I watching ??

Thought I'd update people with what I'm currently watching at the moment, both downloads and TV. Mainly because I havent blogged for a while and it makes a nice introduction to the magical world of me, at the moment.

• Heroes
• Lost
• Skins
• The Riches
• Castaway
• Shipwrecked
• Ugly Betty

There is alot of "which is best, Lost or Heroes?" at the moment, and to me, I still prefer Lost. Heroes took a while to get into it, with a very slow start, but now that Lost is on til the end of the series - it's getting more and more interesting. Really want Heroes back tho

Happy Birthday Tom.

It was Tom H's 30th on Saturday and I attended with Mr John and Miss Debbie. We ended up in Pizza Express, which has always been a fav of mine anyhow, but it was good to see faces (most of them sober too at 7pm). We had our food, loads of wine - and I felt drunk before we even left - which is a nice feeling. We them wandered up to the Lounge (we had a bit of a headstart) to grab a pint. Tom decided to buy champers for everyone turned up, while some of the others chattered, a couple of us watched the results of the UK Eurovision Contest.

After a couple more pints, we ended up in Rios - where we saw Sniffer, previously of Leamington FC fame. We had a couple of dances to the 70s & 80s tracks - had a laugh - sang loads - I say sang, I mean shouted - so much my brain was about to pop out of my skull.

Due to having the kids (not mine) on Sunday morning, I decided to call it a night, as did John and Debbie, we put Abbi in a taxi and walked back home. Spotting a couple of the other Leam FC people around and about. Fun night by all - loads of booze, champers and a boogie - Oh Rio's is still Rio's

Back to the Future!

After receiving some cack news lastnight, and Rich returning from "up north" he decided it would be good to get me out the house and have a couple of pints - and cheer me up in his unique way. Needless to say, after 10 minutes of him trying to cheer me up, I just wanted to get more booze inside me to block out his counter measures. After his, "at least you didnt get kicked out the vase yesterday, oh wait" line, we decided to join the fuzzy faced gonks in the quiz.

To be fair, we didnt answer many questions, but done our fair share on motivating the troops and taking the piss out of the opposition - which hasnt been done for a while - with comments such as "Sham", "you're a mess" and "you're rubbish".

When the final results came out, our "team" managed to win by 1 point, also managed to win 2 x 4 pitchers of carlsberg and a massive box of bottled beer. We sat with the fuzzy gonks for a bit longer and drank their free beer, til we decided enough was enough and Rich had to be at work in the morning.

Lovely!

Jugs

One of the Leam Fans contacted me during the week and asked for my email address, has he had something for me (he promised it wasnt a virus). He then uploaded it to youtube and shared it around the messageboard for all to see. Canny likeness really...

Wot No Blog..!?

Whoops, I kinda got busy, but didnt if you see what I mean. Its nearly been a month of no blogging, so to summarise, heres whats happened;

• I had 7 days off work (to return today, and finding out I have another 7 left to take before end of March)
• Andy Gregory came to sort my front door out
• Leamington FC lost TWICE.
• I celebrated my 32nd Birthday, receiving many fantastic gifts.
• NUFC beat Liverpool FC, but lost to Fulham.
• Beat Rich in RailRoads three times
• Helped produce a Fanzine for Leamington FC in less than 3 weeks (40 pages too)
• Flirted with someone
• Found a virus on my PC
• Lost Series 3 has started again
• As has Heroes

Wii Multimedia Station

I spent some time over lunch time working out how to stream video and audio over the network onto my Wii. Although I bought a HDD recorder over the festive period, it doesnt have a network link, which is a bit pants, but thats technology. Speaking to Rich, we knew there were ways of doing it, just needed a chance to think about it.

Anyhoo, after checking a couple of forums, the easiest way I could find was to use Orb, download the software, create an account and set the location on your PC where your music and video sits, let Orb go off and do its searching. By default, Orb sets up the Windows usual locations for these media types, including the default iTunes library location.

From the Wii side of things, you need to then go to the Internet Channel, use the Wii Browser, point it to mycast.orb.com - login with your user ID / Password, and select the file(s) from the different subsections.

The only annoying thing is the Wii Browser bar at the bottom of the screen - of which, I dont know if you can get rid of it, or at least hide it.

Wii're sorted

Saturday's training session got cancelled, so I used the morning to catch up with some well deserved sleep. Meanwhile, Rich decided to use his time more effectively and decided to take a trip to Birmingham on a Wii search. Annoyingly, he got lucky, and tried to contact me to see if I could get up there as the sales assistant said she could put one behind the counter, but couldnt sell a second one to Rich - incase he flogged it on ebay.

Since then, I've had a full weekend of him going on about how fantastic this Wii is, how great the games are, and how his Wii fitness is 83 years old. I admit, I was jealous, and a little miffed, but kept the mission in mind. I phoned up Game in Leamington yesterday, rather than walking up and wasting time, and they said they had nothing come in. Sadly then, I had to go into the office - the first time for 2 months, which is pretty good going.

I had a walk into town today, after rescheduling a meeting, and got to Game. I spoke to the sales assistant, which now had a restraining order on me for hassling him for Wii's, but rather than the traditional "no, and get out" I had "Yes, only got one in today, want to buy it?". So, 3 nanoseconds later, I was leaving the shop, protecting my carrier bag with my life, lightly jogging home to get it setup.

Have to say, its fantastic, and I've only played Wii Sports today, consisting of Wii Bowling, Wii Tennis and Wii Baseball - and currently a little knackered. Oh the fun!

CSI #2

Just by chance, I checked my bank statement this morning, and yes, I know I should do it a little more regularly, but I dont. Turns out my out goings over the Christmas period are larger than my incomings, so I've now declared a CSI (cost saving initiative) for the next couple of months.

As most people do, they join a gym, use the gym for about 3 days and then bomb it off, and fair play, so I took the decision to cancel my membership today. I wandered up, and expected that scene from Friends, where they bring out the pretty assistant and presses cleavage together, making you upgrade to gold level, however, disappointed tho I was, they pushed a form in my face, told me to sign it and oh, I can still use the gym til the end of the month, even tho they'll cancel the direct debit for the 15th - ace!

No more impulse buys from my current account will happen, I've decided, shopping, football and the odd Happy Friday will happen. Luckily, I now have enough TV and movies to watch for the next month or so, and with Heroes and Lost starting up against shortly, I'll have enough on my hands. On top of that, I intend on still eating more healthy and stepping up my "canal fitness" sessions.

The one thing that could be taken as none CSI, but in a way, will help, is this Wii sham that appears to be happening. I was going to add it to my credit card anyhow, but thought, bit of fitness, bit of fun, not really harming anyone, is it - just got to get my damn hands on one first. The tip off I was given kinda ended in a dark tunnel, and after two days, they've not had anymore in, which in my situation, is probably a good thing.

Wii're on a mission

Rather jealous of the new Wii, I have to say. I wasnt too impressed when the reports came out in mags and technical forums etc, so I'm the first to admit, I was wrong, and I should have put my name on the waiting list. Needless to say, Captain Headworth done exactly the same, thinking that come 2nd / 3rd week into January, they should be more available and maybe pick one up for even cheaper - ha! fools that we are.

Having had a sneak play at Wii Sports on New Years Eve, it gets better, and with Rich getting back from Tunisia, we're on the look out for a couple of consoles. We both refuse to pay inflated ebay prices of 350 quid for the console alone and we've spent the majority of the weekend researching areas where we can obtain.

Tomorrow is looking hopeful, and with a bit of luck, the wind blowing in the right direction, we might be able to pick a couple up, being in the right place, right time, and using our mason handshakes.

Of course, the only reason I'm after one is to increase my health ... guv

New Year, New Rules

We have MC joining a gym, John going off jogging & Debbie being generally healthy, so I thought I'd get on this bandwagon and sort myself out. Slowly at first of course, after all, I did get back from Newcastle full of cold thanks to my mum's storage heaters, that appear to have sucked every ounce of water out of me. First of all, I started shopping at Sainsbury's, to reduce my weekly shopping (see, bit of CIS too), and also get a wider range of healthier stuff. Yes, I bought some Haribo too, but you have to treat yourself once in a while. I dont know what it is, but of late, I've really got myself into peppers, so appear to be having them with anything that doesn't move. The Haribo thing is Philippa's fault - after the last visit, she had this massive tub of starmix, of which I had to eat the majority, still not making a dint in the mass pile - magic you see. Luckily, I cant find the tubs down here, but prefer SuperMix, less problems with my fillings - anyhow I digress, once again.

So yes, I've been eating a little more healthier, with salad, fruit and veg, and less ready meals and deep fried mars bars (that bit isnt true, snickers maybe). On top of that, having forked out for a nice fancy dan running jacket, I decided to take it for an airing on Monday. It was a little damp, a little rainy and windy, and was worried incase I fell into the canal, but you know, if you dont go out, you wont do it - so I did. The jacket is fantastic, and houses my nice nano pretty well, and to top that, I managed to do from our bridge to the goose bridge without stopping. Being full of cold that I am, I was gasping for air at the other end, with bits coming out of my mouth, which wasnt very nice (sorry if you're eating and reading this).

I'd already signed up to 5aside football on Thursday (which has now been cancelled) and the usual slot on Wednesday night and came back with a tight hamstring - so going to take it easy til Friday and hope I can stretch it out. I havent played football for around a month or so now, so was nice getting a couple of goals, even though I could have easily had a hatrick, if I wasnt looking at the ground while running at the same time - oh well.

Oh me too my monkey chum

Fantastic - Al and Monkey are back - funniest set of adverts from the now dead ITV digital, brought back to you by a different company. Even better, advert for Tea.

"What on Earth!"

Leo Sayer ...

.... in a room full of freaks, oddballs and a scary bird. No, not big brother.

New Year Party 2006/2007

Once again, a massive thanks to John and Debbie for a fantastic New Years Party, with loads of entertainment. This year's party was based around the theme of 2006, basic, but also hard to think of things, and I decided to go as a Cyberman from Doctor Who. Debbie went as the scary student nurse I had a fling with, so had to tell everyone the full story of being acused of many things. John went as Steve Irwin, Troy turned up as the Christmas Tree from the Doctor Who special (which linked in pretty well with mine), then there was Laura, MC and Super Gary who turned up as Come Dancing contenstants.

Some of the usual suspects werent there for different reasons, so was a little more calm than normal. After music, snacks and socialising, John got his Wii out and I was introduced to Wii Sports, which I laughed at, but after playing 6 rounds of Wii Boxing with Tom, I woke up on the 3rd with my arms completely strained.

Singstar came out, and I was talked into singing with one of the guests. I really do hate that SingStar game, not because its a crap game - its actually pretty good, its because I just cant sing, that being the object of the game, kinda ruins it for me.

As I was pretty lazy, and didnt take my camera, here is a link to John's Photos.

Nada Nada Nada Sleep

I thought I'd caught up with my sleep over the Xmas / New Year period and felt pretty healthy and after what was a fantastic new years party at John and Debbies - what could go wrong. Well, on the 2nd, around 10:30pm, I was about to head to bed, catch up on some sleep from the night before when the buzzer went, I decided to ignore it, thinking if it was important enough, and its someone I know, they'd call me - right ?

I went to go brush my teeth, get ready for bed etc etc, when I noticed someones feet on my side pavement. Knowing I'd been to Sainsbury's to do some shopping earlier and knowing I closed the door correctly, I paniced, opened the window as the fella was about to walk backout the door, and asked what he was up too. To be fair, I'm no policeman, but I dont think he was really dressed for breaking and entry - wearing a long scarf, with them tassles at the end, and he came up with an excuse he was trying to get into the Lock and Dock. I told him I was calling the police, he said there was no reason to and disappeared.

I did in fact call the police, which gave me fantastic advice such as, "make sure you're door is locked" and "if anything happens, call us back, use the 999 number". Meanwhile my heart was pumping so loudly and any noise was waking me up straight away, thus vr little sleep, putting me back to square one - dammit.

Historical Football

No real reason to this post, just found it and laughed. Even tho we gave the title to Man U, it certainly spelt out an interesting season for me.