Happy New Year! Here comes 2009!

2008 is pretty much over and done with and 2009 is just around the corner and knocking at the door. I'm struggling to raise my head above the duvet, flu and sickness has struck at Shaw Towers, yesterday I had the squits so much that I had to leave work, today the blocked nose, aching limbs and sore head of influenza has taken over and in typical 'man' fashion, I think I'm going to die! But, before I huddle under the covers with a hot toddy and suck a fishermans friend, I wanted to wish you all a very happy new year, may 2009 bring you all you wish!

New Year Auckland, New Zealand style

New Year Sydney style!

New Year Singapore Style! New Year Taipei Style! New Year Hong Kong Style! Happy New Year

New routes, old masters!

Strange but true, I love strange news, odd bits of bonkers stories from around the world and around the corner! It really makes me smile, here's a tiny selection of headlines recently - John Lennon makes TV commercial 28 years after his death! 6 officials sacked in China for falling asleep in meeting. Russian companies top the world bribe index. Australian man plays with electricity for a hobby. Bakers in Bucharest set a new record last Sunday for the world's heaviest cake, weighing in at 281 kilogrammes! They like things long in Bucharest, for last Saturday they completed the worlds longest smoked sausage - 1286 feet long!

Another strange odd and crazy thing I saw recently was that story about poodles! I hate poodles, I hate them with a passion. Actually I'm not being fair, it's not the dogs themselves that I have anything against, it's their owners, who preen their animals so sodding much. I mean we've all seen those poodles being walked along the street with sill hair-do's in pinks and blues and the like, well honey, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Take a look at these pet pouches, groomed beyond all recognition, would you wanna take one of these dogs for a walk in the park? Hold on, is it actually a dog, or is it a turtle or a camel?

Enough is enough, a woman has given birth to her 18th child, all under the age of 20! No, you fool not the woman, her children! She comes from Arkansas, and has no plan's to stop popping out the kids. Indeed the very very religious couple have decided to have as many children as "God saw fit" I wouldn't want to have to remember all those Birthdays!

German authorities were called to a flat in Berlin just before Christmas by neighbours worried about the noise and small coming from a two bedroom flat occupied by a single 60 year old man. It turns out the chap was sharing his home with......... 1700 budgies!

Boris Johnson, the new(ish) mayor of London and a committee have picked the new replacements for the old routemaster buses that were consigned to the dustbin of transport in London by the former mayor, Ken Livingstone. What really surprised me most but the new designs that had cost a fortune to produce, was just how similar they are to the old ones.

The Routemasters were a popular sight on London's streets from the 1950s to 2005, thousands gathering to watch the final regular-service journey of the bus back December 2005, although the old double decker buses with an open platform at the rear are still used on a couple of routes, mainly aimed at tourists. Blundering Boris said the design was "the shape of the future" However, Transport for London (TfL) said the plans failed to answer the problems of safety and accessibility that led to Routemasters being phased out in December 2005, the bus operators also think it's a bad idea - Mike Weston, London Buses director of operations, said "conductors would have to be re-introduced at a cost of £600m per year and the costs of a new design would be onerous" Onerous, now that's a nice word! I'm not sure, I liked the old Routemasters, they seemed to help symbolise London as a unique capital city, full of traditional charm, known around the world, just like red post and phone boxes - very errm British. As for the new design, well it's not much different, but times have changed and moved on, perhaps it's the old adage - 'Everything new was once old!" But who was it that once said that only a moron would axe the Routemaster? Oh yes, it was Ken Livingstone! .

The recession maybe taking it's toll on us, with retailers going bust every second, however there is one shoe maker that's doing record business. The head of Baydan Shoes said business is booming after some unexpected publicity, "Between the day of the incident and 22 December we have received orders totalling 370,000 pairs" Baydan shoes make model 271, which has been renamed 'Bush shoes' and the incident he's talking of that's so boosted his business was the time that a journalist threw his shoes at George Bush at a press conference. At last George Bush has proved useful and done some good!

Lastly the 'High School Musical' star Zac Efron snacked on some cupcakes his girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens had left on the table, but was shocked to discover she had bought them for her dogs. A source said: "Vanessa bought her pet dog Shadow some cakes from upscale pet store The Wagging Tale. She left them on the counter, and Zac ate a few. Now that's what gives him that nice shiny coat and wet nose!

The sales! Global economic crisis or mass media hype?

Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you had a wonderful time, I hope Santa emptied his sack at the end of your bed on the night. I was working all night and didn't finish until the 8th hour of the day, just as light was creeping around the clouds. The morning of Christmas was kinda busy at work, not as busy as last year, but busy enough for my liking. Soon it was homeward bound to a bottle of bubbly and Matty and that's where Christmas began. We enjoyed ourselves with our first Christmas together, opening presents, snuggling, watching TV, eating, drinking and just simply enjoying being together and the time of year. Of course the obligatory calls to the parents we completed and duties discharged and another bottle of bubbly was dispatched along with other beverages of an alcoholic nature. So to you all I sincerely hope you had a great time, whether you were in the bosom of your family or alone or enjoying spending time with your friends, or down the pub, of in the case of St James Street - down at the Pizza place! So, the presents have been unwrapped, the good ones kept and those jingly novelty socks throw behind the wardrobe. The only thing left in the Quality Street tin are the toffee things that no one likes, not even old granny Whipple. The leftovers have been mashed beyond all recognition in a curry and those new fairy lights you bought to last the next 10 years have fizzed fused and gone bang! All that means one thing and one thing only - Christmas 2008 is over! Yes, my friends, one and all, the celebration that is Christmas is now complete. It's done, finished, ended, ceased, over and passed! And you know what that means, don't you? Yes, sale time! Well, OK, each previous year it would mean that, but this year with the economic crisis that is crumbling the retail world as we know it, it's just the start of even more discounts. All the major stores started their 'January' sales before Christmas, now that that special day is, for this year, passed and over, they've further lowered their prices for the post Xmas sales. Matt and I ventured further today, across the Old Stein and up to Churchill Square, the focus for retail in Brighton. Even before we entered that palace of purchases, I know it was busy, very busy. We had to fight and struggle our way in, passed the hoards of people milling about like ants on a rampage. There was even a line inside the shopping center to get in to one retail outlet, Zavvi, which is, sadly become another victim of the climate of economic woes. We did jump the Que and bopped into the store, however 6 deep before the shelves was too much for me and we battled out and found a breathing space by the railings of the balcony area. We looked left and saw a wall of people, we looked right and saw a wall of people, we looked down and saw a wall of people and we looked up and saw seagull poop! It was, busy, very busy, in fact it's the busiest I've ever seen Churchill Square, far more jam packed with people than any date prior to the celebration of materialistic modernist commercialism - (Christmas!) However, the one thing that did strike me as strange was, no not the fat slags chain smoking outside the front doors, whilst shouting in their mobiles, nor was it the Whitehawk Chav's swapping their sovereign rings from H Samuels, and it the spotty teenager hoping no-one would notice the Christmas Jumper that Auntie Nelly had bought him with Santa on the front that he was trying hard to hide under his trendy 'Le Coc' trakkie top! Nope, the thing that was most odd, was the fact that despite the number of good folks of Brighton out and about, milling here and there, hither and dither, was that not one of them was loaded down with shopping bags. Yes, there were the odd person with two and even fewer with three bags, but the vast majority of 'shoppers' had none, not one! All those people, all those shops, and those products at discounted prices, up to 70% off, which were, it seems staying on the shelves! With all this doom and gloom around, the economic crisis, the downturn, is it any wonder that people are not splashing the cash as much as they once did. But, is it real? Is this recession an actual event or just media hype? OK, so yes there was a little bit of a flutter in the banking system, but was it really going to shake down the whole worlds fiances had it not been for the mass media hysteric's? OK, so I'm not a banker, nor am I an economist, in actual fact I know naff all about economics, the global banking systems, the libro and all that jazz, I just know that until very recently, this economic crisis had little to do with me in real life, other than being bored silly with it by the media. I'm not an ostrich, I heard the rumblings of problems after the Northern Rock fiasco, but they were just rumblings. It was the collapse of Woolworth's that kinda bought home to me the problems with the worlds economy that the media was doing a very surprisingly accurate job of predicting. Now, Whittard's the overpriced and crap coffee retailer's has gone the same way, as has MFI and Zavvi and there are far more on the way, indeed some people, who apparently know about that sort of thing, claim there will be as many as 7 major high street chains going bankrupt before the end of next month! Another reason I've noticed that the global economic crisis is getting closer is that fact that recently the company I work for made 700 of it's UK workforce redundant, yet over on the other side of the pond it's just had a $3.9 billion investment, just to make sure it implode on itself like the US car industry. Oh yea, and the price of a loaf of bread has gone up, the bloody cheek! Here's Matt! As Jason said earlier, Christmas has come and gone, and all too quickly if you ask me. Time has worked in it's weird and funny ways, and as stolen another Christmas day from me. Our Christmas was wonderful this year, we enjoyed a lot of festivities, like champagne which was amazingly priced at 10 pounds a bottle, Quality Street tins, which I have eaten most of the toffee pieces out of, which are my favourite, but apparently no one else's (Hehe), and Mince Pie's which Jason loves, but I am not too hip on. I surprised Jason with a new Disney Dopey plushie, which he loved and was extremely surprised about because I was naughty and put him in a hard plastic case and has paperclips inside so when he shook and felt his present it would throw him way off track as to what it was. I also got him so new scent of Cologne which he likes a lot I think since it's all he has worn for the past two days. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of different types of candies , from Toblerone chocolates to Haribo party packs, and have been munching down on all of them gradually. I was also extremely lucky to get the complete series of Six Feet Under, which I was always wanting to watch but missed the episodes since they were on at the usual time I had online classes. I have to say that I have really enjoyed the first season, as it has almost ended already. Jason says that the second season gets weirder and weirder, but I am sure I will still love it. Here is a small trailer for those of you who may be wondering what in the hell I am rambling on about. Today Jason and I took a small stroll about the Churchill Square mall, which was overcrowded with what we Americans call "Mallrats" which were all of the people that went to the mall to see the excellent prices on everything, but really just ended up going inside with friends and having a great time looking at all the pretty coloured signs and wandering though the maze of people. As Jason said, there were a sea of individuals flowing thorughout the mall, but few people had bags with merchandise in them. Even though the prices are extremely low right now, people still seem to be leery about buying those good deals, probably in fear that at this rate, the item they are after will decline in price further and further until it's much cheaper later than it is now. Cheers for now, enjoy the rest of the month of December, and stay warm. Look out for those good deals, which might seem to be a little bit too good to be true, but it may just be your lucky day. More soon, that is unless the global economic crisis attacks even further and I can't afford the 2000 worth of lemons needed to power this laptop for half an hour! Till the next time, take care of yourself and each other and remember it's nice to be appreciated, but it's far more appreciated to be nice!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wicked - the musical

Second row back from the front, in the middle, seats don't get much better than this, well OK, the right hand seat on the flight deck of the first commercial space flight might have slightly a better view, but you know what I mean. Matt and I had great seats for the smash musical Wicked in London town on 17th December 2008! For those that don't already know WICKED is based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. The stage musical adaptation is packed full of wonder and enchantment as it transports audiences to a fantasy world of witches and wizards to tell the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, and how one came to be called 'good' and the other 'wicked' How the lion had no courage and how and why the tin man became the tin man! It's a story that is interesting and entertaining to both the young and old alike. First impression is there to last, the green signs, green lighting and whole green feel to the foyer of The Apollo Victoria theatre really sets up the atmosphere wonderfully well as you enter the world of the business they call show. I always find my stomach tingles with anticipation as I enter the auditorium of a theatre, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I love books, TV is great, as are films, but there is nothing quite like a stage show or a musical for entertaining the whole spectrum of senses and emotions. Settling into our seats was easy, more leg room than I remembered from my last visit to this theatre at the beginning of the year. The lights dimmed as the music roused all around to the fact the show was starting and attentions were all faced forward to the rousing and evocative music. I've been turning my mind in somersaults trying to select my best bit, the part I most enjoy about the show to tell and share with you. But, I can't, I honestly can't, each part is crucial to the whole, without any part of it, the story will now be the same and thus nor will the enjoyment. I do, however, often find myself singing "No-one mourns the wicked" from time to time! But, pretty much all the musical numbers are fitting to the story and the feelings the story has on oneself at the moment of telling. I found myself transported into the land of Oz and really didn't want to be shoved back in the real world of school parties, foreign tourists, fat ice cream slurpers and rapid alcoholic drinkers during the intermission, however, I suppose 20 minutes isn't too much to take of the real world before the magic starts again for the second half! The last time I saw Wicked, Idina Menzel was in the lead green role as Elphaba, she was superb, simply wonderful, her voice amazing and her portrayal captivated my soul as well as my heart. Therefore, Kerry Ellis, the 'green-one' had a lot to live up to, I'm so delighted to say she succeeded. Her performance was amazing, she moved around the stage as if on air, especially the defying gravity moment and sung her heart out. Wicked without a strong Elphaba is like a cheese and tomato sandwich without the cheese or tomato, we were lucky to have the best cheese, the freshest tomato and a luxurious garnish on the side. Matt says, I really loved Wicked, from beginning to end. I saw myself categorizing that wicked witch who I always feared as a child into a character that was not only relateable on some levels, but extremely endearing. The writer of Wicked could be categorized as nothing short of a genius. The story was so out there, and so ... perfect. Tried as I might, I never found any plot holes that would have suggested any mistakes. I really really enjoyed seeing my first musical, as I have never been to see a real musical since I was in all of the ones that were ever presented to me. The stage wowed me from the first time that I saw it, all the way until the end, when I was still amazed about the amount of detail that went into making an enjoyable experience. I was used to the flimsy wooden backgrounds that we would have to cut out and paint ourselves for the play, and the boring props. I didn't realise that they could do a lot of the things that they did for the play, from the green makeup that Elphaba wore, which didn't smear or wear off as the play went on, to the backgrounds which shifted and changed in astounding ways. The Apollo theatre really wowed me the first time that I saw it. The green Wicked sign made me think about what I was getting ready to watch, and made me wonder and imagine what it was going to be like. Kerry Ellis was amazing, I loved Defying Gravity, as it was my favourite part of the whole musical. All of the actors were incredibly believable. I had a spectacular time with wicked, and I would love to see it again.

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Homeward bound!

Wow, amazing, wonderful, entertaining, jolly, fantastic, delightfull. Just a few of the ways to describe last night's Hairspray. More details to follow, but for now, we're on our way back to dear old Brighton!

Duck-here comes Matt!

An early start was managed, despite Matt's moans and groans of not enough sleep, and we hot footed it down to Shaftsbury Ave. Once we got there we were lucky enough to bag front row tickets for Hairspray. Yes the front row on less and whats more, those two tickets cost less than one for Last nights Wicked!.. . . . . . . . . We then checked into a different hotel and shuffled down to the London Eye place to jump on a duck - to start the London Duck Tour. More later, with pics - unless the duck does not float! Glug glug glug

Wicked, Matt's trip to London

It's happy birthday to Matt, 20 at last! We are up in London, having a blast, first thing we've done is go to Wicked the musical telling the untold story of the witches of Oz!.

We then checked in to our first hotel, a cheap and basic one, yet Matt still had time to check out his dance moves on the internet before we headed out for a cheap, but lovely meal at Pasta Plus!

Jason in the Hotel room looking a tad bit shy!

Yes, we're back!

It's been a long while since I last posted here, sorry about that, let me make it up to you and do a flying thru time update. Oh where do I start? There's been so much happening and yet so little as well, I'm completely lost at the chronological order of things, so I'll just battle on with the random thoughts of things that have come and gone since I was last bashing the keys of this old laptop! America has a new president, Mr Obama stormed ahead of Palin and the Tortoise to became the first black guy to be elected to such high office over that side of the pond. Will he do a good job? Only time will tell, but less face it, he probably couldn't do a worse job than Bush.....can he? The economy has pretty much crashed as far as the media is concerned and the Global Downturn Credit Crunch has well and truly shown it's ugly head and is starting to snap at the heals of the normal people like you and I. Well actually it hasn't really bitten my arse too much so far, in fact the it's had the opposite effect on my life, the VAT rates come down by 2.5% which, be honest, doesn't sound a lot does it. But, as a certain supermarket proudly claims, "Every Little Helps!" Also, I love going to the check out/tills thinking It's one price and finding out it's a little bit less. Another good thing about the global recession for me personally is that pretty much all the shops have got their January sales on now, everything seems to be 10, 20 or even 30% off, now that it a result! The only sad fact is that Woolies is no more, yep, sadly the great discount store Woolworth has not survived the first bite of this dark economic time and gone belly up. Matt and I took a visit up to the Brighton store in Western Road which felt more like Western Bhagdad, it was without a doubt the a war zone, I was scared for my life in there, caught in the cross-fire between the bunting and the pick 'n' mix! Anyway, folks, jingle, jingle, jingle all the way, Christmas is coming at such a fast rate that I'm almost knocked arse over tit. Are you ready? Have you done all your shopping? Is everything all sorted? I've done all the presents, I've got all that side of things done, but the food, well, we'll do that at the last moment, so it's nice and fresh, after all l I'm working all the way up until 8am on Christmas morn, oh I'm so looking forward to those sprouts and mashed roast potatoes!

Here's Matty!!!! It had been ages since the last blog post, although it really doesn’t seem like it has been such a long time. Time has really flown by since the last posting. Jason and I haven’t been up to too terribly much. We have gone out a few times to Mo’s for dinner which was nice, and we also went to Portsmouth, which was a unique experience for me. Just last week Mo had us over for a veggie bake before she took her winter holiday to Oz. There is just something about her cheese sauce that reminds me of home. Maybe it’s because it tastes a lot like white gravy in America, but just a little cheesier. Mo was doing fine along with everyone else in the family, and we had a lovely (Few) bottles of wine and the excellent dinner she made. Portsmouth was a few weeks back and was a really neat experience for me. The train ride alone was worth it all. It gave me a really great insight into how different England can be, one minute your in the middle of a busy city and the next, your in the middle of farm country. Jason took me to various places in the mall of Portsmouth and around and along, and eventually up the Spinica tower, which we spent most of our time on. Halfway up the tower there is a glass panel across the floor that you can step on, and while I was treading over it almost nonstop and looking down, Jason stood quite the long way away from it, that is until I pulled him over it and made him stand on it for at least a little bit. I can’t think of a more unique building like the Spinica tower in the states. It’s really one of a kind. A little bit after that Jason and I had our movie and Television series spree where we watched a few seasons of house and went to the pier to see the starlings fly around in their flocks. They almost look like a giant ink blob that is oozing throughout the sky. Jason won me a Piglet plushie and I got him a Dangermouse set. I also found out that I cannot play the game Dance Dance Revolution, Or Dancing Stage for you Europeans anymore. Kind of a shock since I was #1 in America for a while online, and could handle anything really with no problem, only to find that now I tire and fail at even the easiest of stages. I guess if you don’t use it, you DO lose it. Hehe. Lately Jason and I are having our first Christmas together, Advent calendars, Christmas tree’s and all. The rents have sent out the majority of the packages that I will be receiving thus far, as I only have 34 days left before I have to head all the way back to Yankeeland (Shudder)… We received a lot of cake mixes, one of which I made a few hours ago for Jason and I to enjoy before he gets home. Along with that was an unexpected birthday present which was a game card and the expansion of World of Warcraft. Being the gamer/geek/nerd that I am I had played that game a lot in the past and quit from boredom. However there is plenty for me to do now, and I was surprised to find that Jason even likes to play a little bit, but if I told you he had a level 13 Blood Elf Warlock, he would probably kill me. (It’s our secret right?)

Other than that I have been working on a few things here and there, attempting to work on a game that I have been making for 1.5 years now which is seemingly becoming more and more unlikely that I am going to finish coding, and writing a collection of short stories that are told like campfire stories which revolve around six teenagers and shows just how fragile people are, regardless of their sexuality and skin colour. Last week Jason and I went out to the front to get rid of some stale bread which we threw to dozens and dozens of pigeons, and I had a little surprise of one who was so brave that he (or she) perched on my arm and ate bread right out of my hand. I am pretty sure that is the first time I ever held a bird for more than 2 seconds and the first time one ate out my hands, usually I am not so hot with animals. On our way back we ran into an elderly woman who asked us if we could get her some items from the co-op, which Jason and I happily did and brought them back to her. I wasn’t sure what had happened and why she was left alone, but it worried me that she wasn’t getting enough to eat, and I also wondered how many people took her money and scrammed. Hopefully she rested with a full tummy and everything will be alright for her. I think that we are going to check on her later on today as well just to make sure. Other than all that nothing else much has happened. We are still just happily living life as it comes, and are happy to have each others company while we can. I can see the nocturnal amiss closing up the gates of time that I have left here, and even though I don’t really want to think about it and refuse to most of the time, there are some times where I have to think of how I am going to handle getting a New apartment, job, etc when I get home. It’s a lot to do for a 19 year old (well -20 tomorrow), but I know I will be able to handle things fine as I always seem to. Don’t sweat the small stuff, just live life as it comes and smile.

on the glass floor!

An old relic!

Yesterday we travelled up with a massive suitecase to see the old folks, that are my parents, who, apart from bringing me into the world and are completely mad, were full of fun and happiness and filled us up with egg sandwiches. Tomorrow, Matt and I are off up to the big smoke that is London on Matt's Birthday treat. I wont say too much, as he'll be casting his eye's over this shortly and I don't want to let the bag out of the cat! Ok, now for a little bit of fun, I saw this on Stephen Chapman's fab blog The State of the Nation UK! and thought it rather jolly and fun, good for a giggle.

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Matt and I often discuss the cultural differences between our two nations, bu I'm proud to be British, and here are just a few reasons why. Only in Britain... can you get a pizza to your house faster than an ambulance. Only in Britain... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while people can buy cigarettes at the front. Only in Britain... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a DIET coke. Only in Britain... do banks leave both doors open yet chain the pens to the counters. Only in Britain... do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage. Only in Britain... are there disabled parking places in front of the ice skating rink. And just because it Christmas, here's some more reasons to be proud of our country folk! 3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue. 58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers. 31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in. British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker pulling accidents. 18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth. 5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of control Scalextric cars. And finally.........In 2000, eight Brits cracked their skulls whilst throwing up into the toilet. More soon my little fruit bats!!

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Getting away with it? Take Two

My, my how times have changed! If you are someplace between 35 and 45 you'll remember a classic British kids TV show with George, Zippy, Geoffrey and Bungle - yep I'm talking about Rainbow! It was a classic, I loved it at as a kid, but, obviously I was a lot more innocent in those days, we;; weren't we all? I thought it was all innocent fun, but looking at it again these days, I'm not so sure. How did they get away with it back then.