Condolences

My condolences go to Conservative party leader David Cameron and his family after the sudden death of his son Ivan this morning. I've not got any children, probably never will have but I can't imagine the pain of ever losing a child. Mr Cameron has always demonstrated a firm support for the NHS and their competance and has been vociferous about this on many occasions when referring to Ivan's care. There were very fitting tributes from both oppostion parties today and prime ministers question time was suspended. I wish the Cameron's well at this tragic time, and I'm sure they will draw strength from those supportive friends around them.

Riverside

Just a couple of photos I took last week whilst down by the river, I think spring is finally in the air! It feels warmer and there was a different tang to the air, plus the wildlife seems more active.

28 Days Later

Well it's 28 days today since I've had a drink of any alcoholic beverage at all. Probably the longest I've gone without a beer in years, maybe even a couple of decades. I do feel better for the break from it though, more fitter, a little less heavier perhaps and generally the break has done me lots of good, there's a new spring to my stride as I was feeling drained all the time.

I'm now pondering extending things a little longer, I'm not giving up on beer or enjoying a drink, in fact I've been socialsing a fair amount, just not drinking alcohol.

Stay tuned, time will tell !

New Toy

Well today I went and got myself a laptop/notebook. I've been looking for one for sometime and keep pricing them up and comparing them. A shop very close to me had one in the window and after seeing the same model online I'd thought I'd go in and ask the spec, see if it was the same as the one I'd been viewing online of late. It was and according to the guy the display model was the only one left. Haggling time and at first the guy seemed reluctant. I persisted, found a cosmetic scratch, told him I could get it cheaper online but ideally preferred to stimulate the local economy and small local businesses that needed trade! He started to cave in and rang his manager, and then came back with a further £20 reduction - result! off to the bank I popped to get the cash and now I have it, an acer aspire one. Not the best ever laptop but it's tiny, very portable and has a 120gb hard drive, dual core atom processor and 512mb ram, it'll be great for work and surfing whilst out and about.

Dairy Milk Commercial

I'm really love the new Dairy Milk commercial, great commercial in what is seemingly a sea of bland car insurance commercials these days. If you're wondering who the song is it's by Freestyle and the title is 'Don't stop the rock'.

Charlie Chuck

If there was one day last month that made me laugh so hard it was the night I saw veteran comedian and surrealist Charlie Chuck at ‘Just the Tonic’ at the Approach pub in Nottingham. I’ve long been a fan of Charlie from his stints on the James Whale show and later with Vic and Bob on the Smell of Reeves and Mortimer as ‘Uncle Peter’. I pretty much knew what I was letting myself in for as Charlie’s act is very tried and trusted but if it’s not broken, why fix it?

It’s the whole Charlie Chuck experience that makes you laugh, the facial gesticulations, the coughing, the wiping of his curly framed brow; it is pure comedy escapism of the surreal kind. I must also mention that the support act of Gary Delaney was also hilarious with some very topical and truly evil one liners.

Below is the 2001 commercial Charlie did for Cadbury’s Double Decker chocolate bar. Totally bonkers!

Iceland's New PM

I was reading this article earlier about the new Icelandic prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir who is open about her lesbian sexuality. Icelander's don't really think it's a big deal, yet I'm sure if it happened here........ hang on I doubt it would happen here, anyway if it ever did it would be a big deal and sensationalised to the maximum. Lets not go into how mental the religious fringe would go but I've never listened to their righteous deluded ramblings. The point is, in this day and age sexual orientation shouldn't be an issue, neither should we be judgemental about it.

Busy Month

Well after vowing to make January a quiet month it has in fact been totally the opposite. I've taken in a fair few movies, the latest two being Valkyrie and the Underworld prequel and seemingly I've been to lots of places. Gary, my friend who works over in Hong Kong came over last week, for just under a week's stay, it always passes too quickly but we fitted quite a lot in including shopping jaunts to Nottingham and London. Socially it's been hectic too with a fair few unplanned drinks with friends. I also went along to see Charlie Chuck at 'Just the Tonic' a couple of weeks ago, it was hilarious and deserves a blog of it's own, probably this week at some point. So as February creeps in I wonder what it has in store for me!