Somedays I feel like this

Having a Complex

For years now I have told people how I have this thing that Security gaurds, customs officials, and general people of authority have it in for me. I dont know if its my face, the expression on my face, body language that says 'yeah i dont respect you fool' i dont know, but there is definately something that always seems to attract their attention.

Today there was another fine example of this, ok maybe partly brought on by myself, but nevertheless, I still feel it wasnt my fault.

I had just gone for lunch with my boss to the new building where my old company is now based, rather modern and very corporate, think angry military style receptionists, employees who arent allowed to smile, and think that wearing a pink tie is rebelling against the system. So the lunch was good, it had to be, theyve got one of the top chefs in London there, so we leave, and as with all big fancy buildings (and old decrepit ones) in London you need a pass card. You see, I have a pass card, but these people do things 'so well' that they actually make more hassel for themselves. My pass works at my building, but not at the other, exact same company, some peoples pass works others dont, you have to get it re activated (long inconvenient process), stupid people.

So upon going in I show them my pass and they let me through because it doesnt read on the scanners, upon leaving however, I motion to get their attention but the robots are so busy gossiping about lives that they actually may have that they fail to notice me. Fine with me, I've got long legs and really cant be bothered waiting, so one step and I'm over the barrier. Oh no! Its like Ive broken out of fort Knox. The looks which I was told by my colleagues could have killed me, a minute later and 'the head of security' is over questioning me. First off, hes not the head, having the job I have I know the head of security, and its not him, secondly I find this situation funny, so trying to contain my laughter I proceed to answer his questions with as small a smirk as I can manage.

Idiots, if the personality-less receptionists were doing there jobs they wouldnt have had to call the security gaurd to investigate that man who walked over the barrier, but is still standing right outside the building. If I had left a bomb in there would I realy still be standing there? Ignorant people, but I suppose if I had more patience to wait for the robot people to finish their conversation I oculd have avoided it all. Thing is I'm not that patient, and I wasnt in the wrong (not entirely) and I'll still do it again, ha ha ha.

Why wont they just leave me alone!?

100 years on Tuesday

A bit of useless infor for you all, did you know that Einsteins most famous equation E=mc2, turned 100 on Tuesday? Who on earth celebrates an equation? Good thing you asked, its the UN of all people!

Im sure we've all heard this equation, but I'd like to think that not all of us know exactly what it means. Well here's a summary:

In the equation, 'E' stands for Energy, 'm' stands for mass, and 'c' stands for the speed of light. The equation shows that matter and energy are, essentially, two aspects of the same thing, and that a small amount of matter can be converted into an enormous amount of energy. Nuclear reactions, including fusion in the sun and in nuclear weapons, are examples of large amounts of energy released from the conversion of comparatively small quantities of mass. (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Einstein's_equation_turns_100, 2005)
Yeah, like that made any sense.

He just looks like a genius... a sad genius

The English Patient

Who ever said this film was too long? That it dragged? Took forever to get to its point?
I watched this film for the first time 2 nights ago, and at the risk of sounding like an old fart, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Yeah sure its long, but thats the kind of movie it is. Its the same as going to watch 'My little pony' and saying that there wasnt enough action in it!

The English Patient is brilliant and deserved all the credit and awards that it got. If you havent seen it then got watch it... now.

Basic Story? Set in North Africa and Italy during WWII, its a story about a dude who falls in love with a married woman. The dude is weird, the woman is unfaithful, and they all dont live happily ever after, go watch it if you want to know more.

On a side note, I started watching the film with the Directors commentary last night, I cant do that, I put it off after 5 minutes, I feel like it takes the magic away, makes it feel less real.

Doesnt look very 'Super' to me

I've been waiting for this film for ages, not really finding interest in any other films being released lately. Of course I'm still watching a few, and buying tons of DVD's, but thats different, most of the films I watch these days are old films that I never got the chance to see before*.

So... I've been following the production and filming of Superman: Returns for some time now, and after seeing the first picture of Superman released many months ago (blogger is having issues, I'll post the pics later), I hoped that things would get better, now with the second pic flying around, I'm beginning to get a bit worried. He doesnt look cool! Maybe it'll work in the film, but right now I've got mixed feelings about the films success.

* more on that later

I knew there was a reason

For years now people have asked why I havent watched Titanic, back then I was a kid and had this thing against the pretty boy lead, now I think hes a reasonably good actor (stupid me). So you'd think that not having caught Titanic on the big screen, I'd at least buy the DVD, wrong. For years now I've picked it up and put it back down, I just couldnt buy it, I dont know what it was but I just didnt want it.

And now, the reason why I've waited so long, I knew there was something more to come. Within the next few months I'm sure that the re-release of Titanic, (either 2 or 4 disc edition) will find its way into my collection. Why? A nine minute long alternate ending, 9 MINUTES! (these editions to be released sometime in October)

As I said to my mom last night about buying 'The Boxer': 'I'm a sucker for alternate endings'.

Lost Season 2

If you're bored try this out: http://www.oceanic-air.com .
It's the official website for the Lost Tv Series, original.
Click around, see what happens.

At the bottom of the site, where it says 'Travellers', type in Hurley's "lucky" numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. Click on 'Find' which will take you to the flight's seating chart. Next, click on those numbers again in order right below the chart and the teaser will start.

The take over continues

Not that I'm opposed to them, why would i? I love google. But has anybody been following their activity lately?

First they became the worlds largest and most popular internet browser, a position that no one else even come close to, so no competition there.

Then there was google.earth, sure he craze has died down, but its still there, and people everywhere are still using it, its constantly being upadted with new sattelite images and I'm sure it wont be long before we get live images 'Enemy of the State' style.

So above all that, not only is google the most widely used search engine, its also the best, pulling up the most relevant sites and mroe of them for every search you make. The other day I was looking at the kind of jobs going at Google (for interest sakes obviously) and to work there, you need to be some kind of descendant of Einstein, Edison, or DaVinci, basicalyl you have to be a genius to get in there, I heard that even the cleaners are required to have PHD's in Engineering to better udbnerstand the physics of a broom. But even though these people have brains the size of a pineapple squeezed into their heads, its supposed to be one of the coolest places to work at, think your dream job (if you like IT) and there you go.

So now, the latest addition to Googles take over of world media is www.video.google.com . A brilliant new website that uploads everything from news reels, tv sitcoms, live comdedy, and any other kind of video you can think of to their website. The best part? Its free to watch... for now, but how cool is that? I get to watch the latest episodes of Lost or 24, months before theyre released on non-American soil.

To quote the Evening Standard (I hope thats legal) "Google is to begin broadcasting television programmes over the internet; programmes are stored electronically on googles servers; Users can pause,m rewind or fastforward at any time during playback" (Evening Standard, p16, 2005)

Missed the 3rd episode in season 9 of Friends? How about old episodes of the Thundercats? www.vidoe.google.com will have it, I'm getting too excited here, I'm gonna stop now or else I never will, check the site out, its still in Beta stage so very buggy and full of nonsense videos, but it wont be long now.

Minor Changes

Trying to put a pic up there is near impossible, ok its far from impossbile, but damn it was frustrating! Oh well, I did it, and its there to stay. The lovely Tower Bridge and accross the river the den of evil known as the Mayors office. These are the comforting sights I see every morning.

Soon

Isn’t it great when you can start the day off with a smile on your face? It feels like I’ve come across some buried treasure, like its my birthday (when I’m in CT), you know … anyways. So I got into work this morning, and noticed that a fellow blogger had asked what book I was reading, I knew the title but had forgotten the authors name, so being too lazy to look in my bag, I googled it, who wouldn’t? It’s right there at your fingertips, good thing I did. To my surprise I saw a link from IMDB, could it be?

Is there a film based on my new found book? (Written in 1984 though) There is! A few more clicks and its on its way to my doorstep, so as soon as I’ve finished the book, I’ll watch the film and let you know which is better. I have this nasty feeling that the book is going to better.

The other day my dad likened online shopping to infomercials and Home/TV shopping that bored housewives fall victim to. A funny comparison, but you see, I only buy DVDs online, and if I didn’t buy them online I’d be spending more money on them in high street stores.

The London Thinking Cap

Living in London (as I so often say) leaves you with much to think about. Living in Cape Town you kind of just get on with things, its life, the same thing everyday, wake up, have breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch a movie, visit a friend, sleep, wake up etc. You’re always busy on something, concentrating on something or other, driving, working, planning the weekend. There’s always something to keep your mind occupied. Its kind of weird to think about that, because London feels so much busier.

Everything is different in London, life is different, of course I eat the same food (although its flavourless most of the time), and go through similar routines but its different somehow. Instead of driving I’m travelling on the underground, most of the time reading something, either a book or the paper. Reading gets your mind working; gets you thinking about things. That’s one of the differences I suppose, I read more over here.

Then there’s work, its not as demanding as work was back home… wait, work back home wasn’t demanding either. So what is it then? Less activity in my life, that’s it, no, not a lack of friends, or things to do, or places to see, there’s just less general activity. So I think more, my brain isn’t occupied with other stuff, and it can’t be idle.
If idle hands are the devils playground, then what is an idle mind? The devils canvas?

So what is the meaning of life? How much I wish those words didn’t exist, what a silly question, trying to find an answer to that is likely to drive you insane. I have my own answers, and nope they aren’t entirely satisfying either but they’ll do. I remember when I was at university, I think it was my first year, I still had that unchallenged eagerness, there was a guest lecture one evening on the meaning of life. Back then I wasnt as mad as I am now, but was still interseted enough to go back to the university at 8PM after being there from 7AM that morning. My dad and I went, and both came out agreeing that its what you make of it, this dude spent almost 2 hours talking about his family, and family holidays, no religion, no philosophy, no scientology, just family. It was interesting, but majorly misrepresented on the advertising boards.

So back to London thinking mode. Its weird, you just think about things so much more, life, love, death, religion, philosophy, etc etc. A few things I don’t concern myself with too much are world politics, daily news, sports, you know the boring every day stuff. Every now and then I’ll actually read an article in a paper, most of the time I’m just flicking through headlines trying not to let my mind become idle.

So enough of that now.

On a seperate note, I stated reading a new book on the weekend, it takes something out of the ordinary for me to start reading a book, and this one 'The unbearable likeness of being' grabbed my attention. It's kind of on the 'meaning of life' issue:

What is it about love that gets you thinking, that can make you feel a kind of good that nothing else can, or can make you so damn miserable? A feeling that can keep one person on your mind 24/7, no matter what you’re doing, who you’re with, where you are, that one person is always there. I’m reading this novel and in it there are tons of interesting discussions and ideas, the one page goes on about how no matter how much science may prove that there is no such thing as a soul and that the body functions because of a few pumps and valves, how does love fit into this? Hormones? Chemical reactions? Yeah whatever. When I’m done reading it, I’ll blog more about it.

Books Vs Films?

Simple question, I know its not always the case, but I believe there are times (for me its more often than not) that a movie is better than the book. Oh the Horror’s you say!
How dare I say that movies are better than books. Take Cold Mountain for instance, a book I would never have read, why would I pick up a book with that kind of title, no chance. But I watched the film, and I loved it, does the fact that I am now aware of the book make the movie better? Or is it something else, as now I can go and find the book if I wanted to.

What about Fight Club, I’ve read about ¾ of the book, and it is in no way better than the film. How about the John Grisham books? How boring, but the films are good, weeks (for me) of reading condensed into a nice hour and 45 minutes, what more could you ask for? All the important bits are there, and sometimes the visuals are way better than your mind can create.

So whatever your argument is, which is better? Books or movies?
(I know I’m going be done over on this one)

Chuck Smith

I’m sure that most people reading this have seen ‘Fight Club’, or at least heard of it, if you haven’t then I suppose you don’t like violent films. Do you know that fight club, lie many movies is based on a book? Do you know who wrote that book? Chuck Palahniuk, a man with a surname I find so awkward to pronounce that I now call him Smith, much easier don’t you think? I’m kidding, just in case any of you thought I was being serious. I find it quite surprising that Chuck Palahniuk is not as widely recognised as say Dan Brown, his writing is brilliant, granted I’ve only read one and a half of his books, but they were really good, very seldom do I finish books as I lose interest but his books are worth reading. A good friend of mine will back this up any day, after all I don’t think there is a Chuck book that he hasn’t read.

If you’re going to start reading his work, then please don’t start with ‘Non-Fiction’, its good, but may be offensive if you don’t understand his writing. What with stories of ‘*** *** ***** *** ***** ******* ******’ I don’t think many people would approve, but like I said earlier, this man is good, they way he goes about his research is scary.

(did you know that MS Word actually recognises this surname?)

Not the end of Ralph

I find it quite strange that with the amount of movies I watch I have never taken much notice of Ralph Fiennes. Maybe its because I haven’t seen many of his films (running through his filmography on IMDB), but this weekend I happened to suddenly own 3 movies in which he appeared, 1. The English Patient (which I still haven’t seen) 2. The Bounty (very good for its time, and even now) and another one with Julianne Moore, pretty good too.

So there I am watching these movies this weekend and it slowly dawns on me, he’s really good! I love the guys acting, although he kind of makes me think of Richard Gere a little, a man I don’t like, he always plays himself no matter what movie he’s in, he’s not George Orwell, or Jack Bauer, or John Smith, he’s Richard Gere, in every film he’s in, always the smooth talking over rated, grey haired ladies man, why do they swoon over him? He’s old! Think about what’s beneath that silk shirt, OLD skin, wrinkled and weather, ugggh. Anyways back to Ralph, so yeah I’m going be following his stuff for a while, you should too.

A bit of interseting info, did anyone know that his name is pronounced 'Rafe', and not 'Ralph'?

A day without Access

Every day since starting at my current job, I have had unlimited access to the internet. Broadband internet, no less. After a few weeks of this, you start taking it for granted, why not? Its there every day, you get to use it whenever you want, ‘click’ and a few seconds later there’s 40mb of whatever data you wanted right in front of you, until… a day like today. ‘They’ moved the floor boxes to witch network cables are connected and mine wasn’t reconnected, not only was it not reconnected but all the wires were cut! Cut! Why? Because the floor box was outside the office before and has now been moved into the office, the only way of doing this is to cut the wires, but why haven’t they reconnected me?! It’s a nightmare, I know that sounds really bad when compared to massive blue spiky things eating you in your dreams, and falling of cliffs etc. but this really is a nightmare, where my spare time (lots of it) is spent surfing the net, checking email, updating and reading other blogs, and of course online shopping (not a good thing), I have now gone through almost an entire A4 pad of paper… by doodling!!!

Please please please reconnect me!?

Eventually

So after much time, Dayne has let people know that he is back in the land down under (that makes me think of a song played in walkabouts) and is safe and sound, ‘safe and sound’ what a silly statement.

Blog’s are a funny thing, Dayne tried his utmost to keep his trip home a secret from all fellow Australians, and asked very politely that us London people not mention anything on his blog, this was all fine until dayne didn’t post anything for a considerable amount of time, Marcia, good girlfriend that she is thought that Dayne had by this time done the whole ‘Surprise! I’m home’ thing but of course this was not to be, as was proven by a few posts after Marcia let the world know on Daynes blog that he was back home, ha ha ha ha. You silly girl, just kidding.

So I would say welcome back Dayne, but I’m not in Oz, so have a cool time dude, and no repeat performances of your last venture to the Spanish Bar (they were called depth charges, just in case you forgot the name).

Ufo’s in the morning

I was awoken rather earlier than normal this morning to a sound I’ve only heard once before, or at least think I have. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, my bed sucks, my mattress is so old I think it was used during the blitz in some underground station, somehow it found its way to my room. I’ve gotten used to bad sleep and restless nights, its become something of the norm to me, but this morning I was woken not from sharp bedsprings poking me in the side, but by some buzzing/ humming noise, and a faint light slipping under my blinds.

Hmmm… first thought that comes to mind is it must be a UFO, but what the hell is this thing doing so low, at least it sounded low, I try and look out my window but see nothing, of course im not looking too hard cause I don’t want to be abducted and taken off to some far away planet for weird experiments, so I lay there, listening, wondering, if that isn’t a UFO, then who in the dodgy East is mowing their lawn at 3:30 in the morning!? It definately didnt sound normal, humming is all I can remember.

So I got up, all eager to find mini crop circles in my back garden, but to my disappointment nothing expcept for cigarette buts and my dusty back yard, aaah! I suddenly realise, the UFO couldn’t leave ‘crop circles’ because a) there aren’t any crops, and b) if they wanted to leave garden circles, they wouldn’t be able to as there isn’t enough grass!

Mystery solved

Alchiohl and work is nota good idea

A yogurt, half a glass of fruit juice, a couiple cups of tea and nothing more is dfeinatly not enough to 'line your stomach' whatever that may mean, before druinking, so igo off to the pub, someones leabinv drinks, and i fdrink, thast what expected of you. so tweo pints of calring, a vodaka and coke or two and im bhack at work typing away at this keyboard that just cant splell!

stupid thing, maybe having lucnh would have bneen a good idea, cause i just cant be bothered to hit the back space anyumore. it was a good lucnh even though nothing was eating, does that stuill caount as a lunch?

at lweast its friday. :)

i forgot to asd that my boss had even mroe than me, so at leastr we're on the same lelvel

Brutal Honesty

There is a sight on the net that for some time now has been posting homemade postcards that people send in with their deepest darkest secrets on. Some are humorous, some are painful to read, some are interesting, but most are just someone's most intimate secret that they feel like sharing with the world while remaining unidentified.

This is one that I thought was nowhere near as offensive as some are, just to give you an example of what kind of things these people send in. The owner of the website that publishes these things actually has a book coming out on www.Amazon.com

Another funny email

I suppose you're wondering how much work I do in a day? The number of posts and ridiculous amounts of funny emails I dont post should answer that question. This email in no way refelcts my views on African politics, but I still thought it was quite funny.

DEATH BY FRUIT

Mugabe, Mbeki & Tsvangirai were lost in the forest and were captured
by cannibals. The cannibal king told the prisoners that they could live if they passed a trial.

The first step of the trial was to go to the forest and get ten pieces of the same kind of fruit. So all three men went separate ways to gather fruits. Mbeki came back and said to the king, "I brought ten apples." The king then explainedthe trial to him. "You have to shove the fruits up your butt without any expression on your face or you will be eaten.

'The first apple went in.... but on the second one he winced out in pain, so he was killed. Tsvangirai arrived and showed the king ten berries. When the king explained the trial to him, he thought to himself that this should be easy. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8... and on the ninth berry he burst out in laughter and was killed. Mbeki & Tsvangirai met in heaven and Mbeki asked Tsvangirai, "Why did you laugh, you almost got away with it?" Tsvangirai replied, "I couldn't help it, I saw Mugabe coming with pineapples ".

Another funny email

I keep getting these emails, this was reasonably funny, so I thougt I'd share:

9 Things I hate about everyone

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time...I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotchwhenI ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.
- ha ha, that is so me

3. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat ittoo". Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?
- makes sense doesnt it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of courseitis. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it?

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". NoLoser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really giveme a choice there, did ya sunshine?
- I always pick people out on that

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new,then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, so it couldn't be new.

8. When people say "life is short". What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9. When yo u are waiting for the bus and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

Psycho what?

Psychometric testing, very informative, and I think this site is fairly accurate, please do the test and tell me what you think, it only takes 2 minutes.

http://www.peoplemaps.co.uk

The age you feel... apparently

You Are 32 Years Old

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

What Age Do You Act?

What a Load of nonsense, who actually sits there and comes up with this stuff? I suppose people like me who actually waste their time doing this kind of things, so go on do the test, and leave your results in the comment section, oh no wait, your too scared someone else is going to read your comment, the shame, the horror of it all!

What am I drinking

Like most of you know I've held down the same job for more than a year now, and over that year I have used many of the little sandwich stores in the area, but like always I found what I like and give all my attention to them, ignoring the others completely. Temples has become my sandwich store of choice, why? Well not because theyre the cheapest, well actually yeah because theyre the cheapest, but also because they got me eating Tuna and cheese pannini's!

So today I'm looking in their fridge, trying really hard no to pick up that red little can of evil, so I opt for something that I havent seen before. Its green, says 'Sanpellegrino' on it and looks like it could be lemonade, its a rather satisfying drink but halfway through I think, 'Oh crap, what if its alchoholic!?' a quick search of the can and nope, no little alc/volume labels to be found. So what the hell am I drinking? I'm too lazy to google it, I'm just gonna tell myself its mexican lemonade.

A quote to live by

Was blog Surfing again, found some pretty cool ones and then just some way out weird ones too.

Found this rather thought provoking quote:

"Drink Triple, See Double, Stay Single"

Sounds good to me :P

Ready or not, here they come

Every country has there ‘national’ brand of potato crisps, London has Walkers, South Africa has ‘Simba’ etc etc. Last night I was about to open a packet of Walkers ‘Ready Salted’ crisps, when I couldn’t help but notice the name ‘Ready Salted’ say it again, does that sound at all strange? Is there going to be a time when the salted crisps will not be ready? Or is the ‘ready’ slang for ‘already’, because I’m pretty sure that if you just said ‘salted’ on the packet you would have the exact amount of sales, if not more from people like me who get peeved by silly things like telling me that my crisps are ready. Ready for what? To be eaten? Then why not say ‘Ready Salt and Vinegar’? Nope, that’s just Salt and Vinegar, no ready there. Who on this weird and wonderful earth is going to put more salt on their already ‘Ready Salted’ crisps? I know I don’t walk around with a salt shaker in my pocket.

The Language Student

Last night on the 104 bus (co-incidentally the identical no. as my house), the same bus I’ve caught home for the last year I couldn’t help but notice a little Asian girl, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, I don’t know, wish I did, but there’s a lot I don’t know. So there I am reading my book, when I here a pretty loud and not unnoticeable thud right in front of me, the little girl, with the sharp turn of the bus flew off her chair straight into the ground…face first, her legs to short to support her on the seat. I apologize now because I shouldn’t be laughing, but what a funny scene! She kind of gets up, more like is yanked up by her mother, who by this time is not sure whether she should laugh or scold her child for not holding on to the railing. Me? I’m laughing… but on the inside, the girl only starts crying afterwards because her mom has now decided that scolding her is the appropriate action.

Why does she start crying? To stop her mom from scolding? Because she thinks she should be crying? I don’t know, but shortly after she stops I hear what sounds like the alphabet being repeated by a drunk slurring 8 year old, only she’s not drunk and she’s not slurring, she’s repeating the sounds she was taught today, phonetically sounding out the alphabet, then comes the days of the week, wensdy, firsdy, saaaatrdy, firsdy, wensdy, firsdy, wensdy, satrdy, Sunday, I felt like telling her we also have mumdys and toosdys too.

In 25 years she’s probably going to be the CEO of some multi national corporation.

Listening to 5

At work at the moment, the boss just went home and I'm listening to 5FM online, I have to admit its ... rubbish! What a load of nonsense, Gareth Cliff is so full of himself I'm surprised he lets other DJ's in the same room as himself. The news reader just said that the rand is now 'firmer' against the US Dollar, 'firmer' !!!?? how about 'stabilized', 'levelled', 'settled', but 'firmer'?, what, if its not firm, is it limp? For the country's supposed no 1 radio station, the english isnt all that, maybe its a secret plot to introduce Zulu or Xhosa as the standard language at 5FM, with the way things are going now, would it really make that much difference?

I remember a time, before I had come to the UK, when Gareth Cliff was going on about people like me coming to the UK, all political moans and groans aside, with the way things are back home, why the hell wouldnt I come over here? I cant believe he's such a celebrity in SA, moron!

My Ride back

The worst plane trip ever, the new 'Airbus' which instead of making 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' instead got 'aaah, my legs!'. With absolutely no leg room I was forced to stick my legs out in the aisle, of course not the brightest thing to do when you know those annoying steel drinks trolleys are up and down the aisles every 5 minutes.

The dodginess strikes!

Imagine my surprise when I heard that it is not only in the dark alleys of London slums that dodgy chicken exists, but in my very home town too! A really good friend of mine, whose name we wont mention, recently returned home from London (aaah dammit Chris, I just gave it away!) oh well, so Chris is back home and he has this chicken, and its dodgy! Just like old times hey?

This is also a picture that Chris sent me, you trying to make me home sick buddy? Well its working, but I'm still not coming home anytime soon, so just so know one accuses me of plagarism, one Chris Lategan took this pic, pretty cool photo dude.

Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrells

What a good movie, the other day I bought the Directors cut, I've seen the normal version in the Stores but it just never jumped out at me, its a pretty boring cover, white with a bit of yellow and bad man Vinnie Jones on the cover. The directors cut however, comes in a nice clear pastic casing, with a completely diferent cover and the wrods 'Directors Cut' kind of stamped over the title. Now, I've spoken about movie posters and covers before, and how they sell themselves to me, well at £6 in a trade-in store, this movie was screaming my name.

Dayne and I watched it, with the odd interruption (big man banging on my front door), I love movies, but Dayne remembers movies, he spotted the odd added scene, and different soundtrack edits, me? I just loved watching it, and along with Daynes approval, the movie was most enjoyable, definately a keeper.

(Of course there was the added bonus that the movie was based just a few stops away from my house, so evey morning when I go over the bridge at Stepney Green, I look down and think thats where 'Big Chris' smashed some dudes head with a car door. Coool!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Sunday the 18th of September is my Dad's birthday, I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you guys, but only another year or so of London and I'll be back home.

One thing I've noticed is that every year my dads accomplishments seem to stand out more and more to me, maybe I'm getting older so I can actually see all that he's done, or maybe every year he just mangages to do more and more, either way I'm proud of my dad.

Kerrang!

Much better than MTV, as MTV plays everything from Britney to Backstreet boys, Kerrang! is strictly rock and metal. Last night they had the top 50 American Headbanging songs, or something like that, one of the best playlists I've ever heard.

Marilyn Manson - Fightsong
Greenday - Basket Case
System of a down - Chop Suey
R.A.T.M - Killing in the name of (completely uncensored)
Nirvana - Lithium
Guns n' Roses - Paradise City
Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff
Queens of the Stone Age - No one Knows
Korn - Freak on a leash
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Cant Stop

And that wasnt even in the top 10 yet, I was too tired so I went to bed. Kerrang! rocks.

Tourists, part 2

so to continue from yesterday...

I love tourists, theyre always happy, and they rarely leave central london, there arent really that many attraction outside zone 1. And theyre always in groups, never on their own, but this is the one thing that annoys me, only slightly though, they'll be walking around and then just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, now, when one person does this, it gets to me, imagine a whole group of 20 something non english speaking people just standing around blocking sidewalk traffic, craziness.

So its friday, but it doesnt really feel that way cause I'm working tomorrow, so I suppose this is my first week without a Friday since being in London.

On an entirely seperate note, I emalied a friend this morning, and one of his questions reminded me of something I tohught quite funny. He asked 'So how was the flight back to London?'
normal answer: 'Fine', my answer 'non stop turbulence', nothing funny there, I know, but then I remembered that I really 'had to go', and since the turbulence wasnt letting up, I had no choice but to disobey the 'keep your seatbelts on' sign, and proceeded towards quite possibly the smallest toilet area I've ever seen, I suppose planes are pressed for space though. So there I am, staggering like a drunk, when for the first time, the staggering has nothing to do with beer. I'm walking like an absolute monkey, almost crawling down the aisle, hoolding onto other peoples seats, and I reach my destination, it was only 'mid stream' that I realise that 'please keep your seatbelts on' sign actually is there for a reason, peeing during turbulence, is like taking a pee while jumping on a jumping castle.

London as I see it

I didnt know what to put as a title and that was the first thing that came to mind. I love London, although there are times when I hate it, but I think thats mostly because of the people you come into contact with. Some people are just so damn rude!

One of my biggeest irks is when I'm trying to get on the bus (completely empty at this point) at Stratford station and you get some stupid person forcing there way. Why? theres plenty room, no reason to push and shove, makes me think of cattle, cause thats exactly what they look at, I wonder what the bus driver must think?

The same applies to the underground, but its still not nearly as bad as the bus situation. What is worse about the underground though, is in the peak hour rush everyone is crammed into the tube, but there will still be some old fart who insists on standing right at the entrance reading his book, PUT IT AWAY FOOL!!!! Selfish, ignorant people, I think ignorance has to be a disease, people cant really choose to be that way, I mean why would you?

So other than the travelling bothers, London is pretty cool. I love tourists, I was walking around St Pauls area on Sunday, which in case anyone didnt know, is right next to the millenium bridge. So there we are, walking around, and I voice my thoughts, sometimes to my disadvantage, I love tourists, theyre always happy, every now and then you see some kid sulking because he couldnt get the latest wahtever.

If you think about it, tourists should be happy, theyve got absolutely no reason not to be happy, theyve saved up loads of money, taken time off work, and are touring a foreign country experiencing all the 'delights' of ...


... to be continued tommorrow, I have to go home now.

Getting paid to do this

I arrived back on Monday in the wonderful land known as the United Kingdom, I wonder if anyone actually stops to think about what the UK actaully means. United? other than the being paced at the end of most english football teams, this country is far from it. They say SA has racism? yeah sure, but dont point the finger if you're guilty yourself. The UK is no more and no less united than any other country in this world.

On a side note, if you havent seen the film 'Crash' I suggest you get off your ass and go watch it. I suggested to my dad that it might be a good film, so we went while I was still in Cape Town, debating the film all the way has to mean that it was good. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, its basically life on film. Racial prejudice in Los Angelos and how it affects its everyday citizens is what this film is about, nothing more need said, cause thats all the film is about, its defeinately gonna win some awards.

So anyways back to the title of this entry, after arriving back I remembered that i resigned from my old job so was forced to join the other thousands of unempplyed couch potatoes, which was actually quite fun for a few days, until I watched 12 episodes of Lost in one day and realised that I couldnt do this any longer. So I phoned my agency and said I would take anything that would get me off the couch, so a few minutes later I got a call back, there was a job at my old firm, not the same position but working with the same people. Only there isnt enough work to keep me busy, so today they kidnapped a work colleagues 'troll', you know those silly plastic things with bright neon hair,, and made me make a ransom note to be placed on their desk. I get paid to do this! ....Craziness