Advent: Dec 3rd

Work was alright today, had two customers in and just did some cleaning. Glamourous i know. Work was overshadowed by my friends birthday and the impending trip to Cosmo. Which i fucking love that place. So much food and so much choice to have. I stuck mainly to Sushi as i havent had any in ages. After a long meal and good fun i popped into Sahara for a digestif, which ended up with a few drinks and a trip to Sakura for Skint Mondays. Now this is a moan so skip if you like. Sakura used to be good, wholesome fun. Now its shit. Why would you stop people taking drinks on the dance floor, just odd. Very odd. The music upstairs was a bit too dubby for me and the music downstairs was a generic Metal playlist which just didn't appeal to me. Got in, cracked open a bottle of red wine and did some internet research.

Cereal Killer

One thing growing up I enjoyed. Breakfast. Whether you ate it with your family talking about the days activities or you're sat discussing the news or like me you sat watching cartoons, it is usually a staple diet for most children and adults. It starts the day. Be it toast, porridge, cereal, coffee, tea, fruit, yogurt.

As your tastes change from being told what to eat and what you want to eat in the morning (Cold pizza is damn good in the morning) you forget the little things that set you up for the day. That cartoon, that comic or that toy. Wait, what? Toy? At breakfast? Are you overdosing on vitamin C, you don't have toys at breakfast, your not in hospital. But wait, that happened when I was a child. Was it a dream?

NO.
No it was not.

The time was when you raced to open a new box of cereal, either to cherry pick the toy or just for that chance. The older you got you realised that you could just reach in and grab the toy. Yes toy, I keep saying this word, but what do i mean toy?

Well back before retarded children started to put anything and everything into their mouths you were able to find toys in packs of cereal. Admittedly not as cool as American kids toys like decoder rings but still pretty awesome. The picture at the top is something most children in the UK must have seen/had as a kid. I have some toys in the loft I have seen recently and some were water squirters from The Mask and some Simpsons ones too. You got figures, reflectors, stickers, tazos. Lots of things were on offer to the breakfast children. But alas not anymore. The best you get are offers that give you money off other things.
I remember once there were three toys connected, the cutter obviously malfunctioned, it was Christmas, Easter and my Birthday all rolled in one. Three toys in one! AMAZING.

Fuck, I opened a bank account when I was 10 with Barclays, this offer was with Shreddies... You opened an account with something like 75p and Barclays added 25p to make a solid £1 and there you had it, one shiny new bank account. I still have this bank account, albeit it rather overdrawn, but this is the power of cereal. 16 years later I have this bank account, this was offered to me by a cereal company....

What has gone wrong, why do we not have toys. Surely parents should say "No Timmy don't put that replica of Nelsons column in your mouth, its not edible"

Kellogs, I implore you. Add toys back to your boxes of cereal. It will be the best thing you can do.

Advent: Dec 21st

Lay in cut short due to me going to Woodley and meeting my mum to help with the shopping. Though due to not paying much attention i had no idea whether it was 12:30 or 1:30 she finished. So i chose to go earlier.
Walk there wasn't too cold but still icy so just walked along the road all the way there, turned out i was early so went to a cafe and had an All Day Breakfast and a large pot of tea.
Was walking around killing time and saw an old school friend, had a little catch up and mentioned the plans for Christmas Eve which he was on board with. More the merrier really.
While we were chatting i saw another friend of mine i hadn't seen in awhile so little catch up and mentioned plans for Christmas Eve again :) I do like Reading for that reason. You could be walking round town and see old friends, customers or family.

Went and met my mum and chatted to the staff at the shop, i used to work there years ago, then went to get food/drink for Christmas. Had to wait ages for the bus but that's usual in Woodley. It is quite a desolate place these days, why does one little place need TWO card shops, 3 cafes and numerous hairdressers? Pointless.

Found out that my friend i met, the first one, got clamped outside the Chequers pub. Which was shit as he had to pay £100 for a release fee. But to be fair its only like 40p to park in the actual car park...

Anyway came home and sorted everything out, sat down with a nice bottle of St Helliers cider and spent the afternoon doing nothing. Was going to go into town but it started to snow, briefly, and i was comfortable.

So another lazy and late night in. These will get boring soon.

Advent: Dec 15th

Today i was meeting a friend for lunch and Christmas shopping and was looking forward to this as i hadn't seen her in about 4 or more months. So i met her around half one and we went to Las Iguanas for some Tapas and 2-4-1 cocktails, nice long chat and nice food. Being the gentleman, and i had no cash, i picked up the bill which wasn't too bad i suppose. Had a walk round for a good 6 hours, going to this shop and that shop to pick up various make up items or presents she needed for the boyfriend or mother who is coming to stay. Most of the time we just had a laugh while walking round, not really taking it too seriously. Come on its Christmas shopping, if your that anal you would have had your presents bought and wrapped by November.
She went to get her nails done so i took this opportunity to do my shopping the way its always done, walk into random shops and find something in there that appeals to both myself and the person i was buying for. It worked and i bought two items :D Also saw a few people, one of whom i used to work for and had a chat. His granddad is in the hospital so not doing too well and work are being a hard ass on him to work Boxing Day, i told him to phone in ill if they expect him to work during a hard time at home etc. No compassion at work, none.

Presents bought and nails done we proceeded to Starbucks to get some caffeine and in the Starbucks there was a beautiful girl who had an air of Kat Von D about her. When Kat Von D wasn't cut and shaped to what she is now, in other words when she was pretty.
Anyone Peppermint Mocha, not bad till you get halfway down the cup in which case it was disgusting. Bluergh. Otherwise it was good.
It was the time to get her on a train back home and on the way stopped off at a great shop in the Station that sprang up. Sells home made ice cream and treats and has old sweets too. So i picked up a few homemade mince pies, expensive (£2 each) but my god they were absolutely Delicious. Screw buying like 12 from Sainsburys for 80p, spend that little extra for those you love. They were amazing.

With my friend gone i went to a friends, played some Wii (badly, well not on my part. Yes I'm talking about you!) and had some lovely cottage pie that was cooked. Yum. Came home, watched a bit of Lethal Weapon 2, back when Mel Gibson wasn't psychotic, cracked open a bottle of wine and have pretty much sat here writing this here post.

Listening to iTunes pondering certain things. A more contemplative end to the night tonight.

Ah yes my phone, turns out it doenst charge whatsoever. So they have to send it back to Dell to get another replacement, so thats 4 weeks without a phone. Wow great service there Dell/o2.

Oh and snuggie chairs, the ones that are round and can fit two on.... They are fucking awesome, expensive, but awesome

Advent: Dec 11th

Woke up a little late today, still managed to get to work for 8:50. Enough time to get changed, get a tea and get the machines up and running. The day went like most Saturdays during peak period, roller coaster start. First theres a few people, then the shop is packed then theres a few people. Rinse and repeat for the whole day.
Didn't sell much, a few things here and there, a couple of big sales with all the trimmings. It was mainly talking to customers about presents or new cameras for themselves. Everyone left happy.
About midday the manager asks me to go speak to the Regional Manager who was upstairs, and after a chat about being late again (I had a disciplinary about being 5-10mins late for work) i was also questioned about things i have posted on here/facebook and twitter regarding work and any issues i have regarding it.
Thing is apart from this blog, where no mention to what company i work for, the rest of the social media sites are set to private. So the only people that can see it are people i work with, friends and family. The general public cannot see any remarks i make. So I'm not saying anything, but 2 + 2 =....

Nevertheless we had a brief respite where i could just wander around pondering such things before going back in. The regional manager came to such conclusions that they were suspending me from work until further notice and that i was not to talk to any employee of work and not visit any branch.

Silver lining being that i have time to shop for presents and I'll probably be able to have some sort of Christmas this year.
Bad part being I'll probably go back for a disciplinary and lose my job.

Certain members of work have been blocked from Twitter and taken off facebook so my musings can't offend them anymore, ah well only work colleagues.

So i was escorted off the premises, not like with my hands behind my back but in case i kicked off or something stupid. And with that i went to lock my bike up.
As i was doing so my mates came round the corner and i told them what happened. We walked around a bit and discussed what lead to my suspension and what would happen next. They had the 'we told you so' look and also said i should have got a new job ages ago anyway. Which is true.

We walked around for a bit and talked, then we bumped into our other friend who's flat warming it was. So we broke off, they went to get lunch and we did too. We talked about the flat warming and again about my suspension.
I got my bike and he went to pick up some other friends, i cycled to the Oakford and handed in the camera i found on Thursday.
I then cycled home and emailed a friend what happened at work and if i can appeal against the decision etc while it was fresh in my mind.

My friend came to pick me up and we went to Asda to get supplies for the nights activities. Lots of alcohol and some food from Iceland. Back to his flat where the girls proceeded to put the tree up, decorate it etc while we sat back and had a beer or two.
With the tree looking pretty damn impressive we connected it up so it would stay up and not fall over. We cracked open a few more beers and sat around listening to music and playing a ping pong game on the xbox. The girls then cooked some Rocky Road, which was amazing, and we put some food in the oven.
Finished playing ping pong when everyone came in and we watched Elf. A pretty festive film if i may say so and Zooey Deschanel is gorgeous as ever. We played a DVD interactive game of Family Fortunes, was fun but we didn't really play it properly.
We couldn't decide whether to watch Inception or something light hearted, so we watched Team America: World Police. I hadn't seen this film in ages so was just as funny, half the people left during the film and only a couple of us were left. We finished drinking and watching the film and then i got a lift home.

Got home quite early considering it was a party, though i was pretty tired after the days goings on.

So i probably shouldn't have talked about what was going on at work, but there is an element of freedom of speech i like to have. And again nothing mentioned on where i work.

I now have to wait for my disciplinary hearing and the outcome of that. Though i can see where it is heading.

Advent: Dec 6th

This picture pretty much sums my mood up, not explosive but dry and irritable.
The day started out pretty good. A lay in which was lovely and an egg sandwich made for me when i got up. A nice walk to work with some equally nice music, some new bands suggested by a friend on Twitter and some classical music i downloaded.
Got to work and had a cuppa tea. Immediately it was apparent this day was going to take some bull horning, which is probably the wrong phrase to use if it is even a phrase. Basically i had to take charge of the day. Which didn't happen, much. Everyone was stressy at work, i mean it was a working day so why wouldn't they be.
For the most part the working day was good. Talked to lots of customers about cameras, pictures, gifts and gadgets. No arsey customers which is always a bonus. I was just counting down the hours till i could go pick my bike up from my mates flat. If you recall i had some issues with my bike on Saturday (See Advent:Dec 4Th) and i really don't like walking that much, not when i can cycle.

I'm pleased to report that the doors stay closed for the most part, as soon as its about 18 degrees the doors are open till it gets below 16 then the doors shut. Its a compromise i suppose, one i really cant be bothered to argue, also the placement of the thermometer is also a bit stupid but loop holes are there to be made and used.

So the day goes past without any complications and i trotted off to pick my bike up from my friends, stop off at Primark to get some trousers (too small) and i forgot to get some Icing Sugar so my friend gave me hers. Stayed for about 30Min's and chatted then left. I get my bike get on it and start pedalling, as soon as my left foot puts any weight onto the pedal it only goes and fucking comes flying off sending me down onto the frame of the bike and scratching my thigh all against it.

Cue a 5 minutes of me trying to work out how it screws on, neither normal 'lefty loosey, righty tighty' or the opposite work, so I'm guessing its something less trivial than that. So I'm pretty pissed off with that, not only the bike but the bike shop ACTION BIKES IN READING. The first issue was the pedal wasn't screwed in properly and about 2 weeks after buying the bike i took it back and had to get the entire crank replace, which on Saturday completely fell off. Now the pedal fell off after i had to pay and get a new one attached.

So 5 weeks of owning a bike and i have been back three times. The chap who did the road safety inspection on my bike, who also changed the crank the first time after the person who did the road check did the pedal wrong (himself). Funnily enough i learnt on Saturday that he no longer works there.... Hmm wonder if it has anything to do with failure to fucking sort out a bike?

I'm not unreasonable am i? My old mountain bike lasted two years. After i purchased it i forgot to get the 6 week check sorted and had no problems. About a year later i go to Action Bikes and get a service where they find my brake pads need replacing. Which was fine but then i had to pay for each pad to be fitted, on top of the service and purchase of brake pads. Then about a week after i get the service my back tire feels really dodgy when riding. So i take it back and low and behold i suddenly need a new tire fitted as the axle was broken. Something i would have thought they would have spotted during the service? So then i had to pay for that to be fitted and a whole new tire.

As strange as that was i had no complaints because it had lasted a fair long time without ANY problems. Then it got nicked.

So tomorrow i am going to have to go to this bike shop and get arsey. I hate arsey customers because they get nothing accomplished but when i went in Saturday and i was being nice i was basically told that the reason the crank came off was my fault. Now i don't get that. Again i don't want to go back to a bike shop unless i need a new tire, or handlebars or brakes... Not because of what seems to be failure to put a bike together...

No doubt Advent:Dec 7Th will have either a happy ending or an enraged rant/open letter to the people of reading regarding bikes.

Time to swot up on the Sales of Goods Act 1979.

Advent: Dec 5th

I woke up pretty hungover but couldn't get back to sleep at all. Kept drifting in and out but nothing substantial. Having Radio Two and Terry Wogan didn't help much. He has a nice voice but its not half annoying.
So got up about 2ish i think and made a breakfast consisting of egg on toast and a very large mug of tea. Didn't really get up to much, played with my ipod and watched TV, caught up on missed TV shows and flittered trhough the movie channels before getting ready to go out to our work Christmas party.
I was looking forward to it as Christmas parties are usually good. Usually. Last year we had ours in Wetherspoons.... Yeah cant get much worse. It was fun as there was lots of people, but it was a Wetherspoons. We were in the company of drunks, perverts and vagrants. Also there were people not on our table.
So this year was Las Iguanas which is a brilliant venue, really nice food and on Sundays and Mondays its two-for-one cocktails. Which is amazing. Though because work really don't like their employees they not only reduced how much they were giving us for a Christmas meal they also told us we have to pay for it first then they reimburse us in our wage slips... Now i know some companies don't pay for Christmas meals but that probably would have been better.
So due to that not many people wanted to come to the meal which meant there was only a few of us, so we didn't bother doing Secret Santa either.

Started round a friends and had a few drinks, played some Wii Party too to get in a good mood and it worked, was alot of fun.
Got to the meal and sat down and i promptly got on the cocktails to get into the festive mood however it didn't really work. Either the fact i was still tired from the night before or the fact i ate alot of good food, the cocktails didn't really do much.
I'm not going to say the meal was boring, the company was OK, but maybe i was expecting too much? Having had such a good night before and wanting something similar maybe that was too much to ask? A Meal with colleagues then a night on the town. Meh hopefully my last Christmas there anyway.
So that was pretty much that. I tried to get drunk, i failed and ended up tired. The night kind of fizzled out so we all went home. I walked home with a colleague and met a former workmate outside Mr Cod. Had a chat and went home.
Chatted on Facebook and had a night cap. Pretty unadventurous for a Christmas meal, but I'm looking forward to both Christmas Eve down the Bull and Boxing Day whatever i do. Oh and yes New Years Eve too.

Advent: Dec 4th

December Fourth started out pretty shit. Well it was a day off so a nice lay in was had. I cycled into town to source out a new coat for the nights outing but on my way my pedal came off. As in the entire crank arm fell off. I had only just left the house. So i had to walk into town pushing my bike, defeats the object of having a bike. On my way i stopped off to buy something from a guy down an alley, but realised i had lost the £20 from my back pocket. He looked at me weird and i left. So far I'm 2 for 2 on bad happenings.
Got to town and took my bike to Action Bikes to get them to put the crank arm back on, the week before i had trouble with my pedal (it hadn't been put on right by the guy) the person i spoke to, Rich, constantly told me it was my fault, i should check my bike routinely. Now I'm in the persuasion that if i spend £300 on a bike i expect it to work at least until the 6 week free checkup, not fall to pieces. The person that did the road check on my bike no longer works there, so when i asked "was it due to failure to sort bikes out" the guy just shrugged off that comment. So for all i know my bike wasn't put together properly the first time, and all these happenings are due to his failings.
Nevertheless i was charged £13 for the bike part and again was spoken to like i am a bike geek and i should 'bed in the crank with a tool like this"..... I ride a bike because its quicker than walking, no Lance Armstrong am i.

So now I'm 3 for 3. I put my bike in my friends bike shed at his flat and went about shopping for a coat. Christmas shopping is why I'm pretty harsh towards Christmas. Its filled with people walking around blindly shouting "I MUST BUY EVERYTHING EVER AND WRAP IT IN SPARKLY PAPER IN ORDER TO SHOW MY FAMILY I STILL LOVE THEM" Whatever happened to the notion of a zombie magician being born and doing good deeds like the guy from Kung Fu, who failed to resurrect might i add. Though before that asphyxiwank in the cupboard David Carradine could indeed have been compared to Jesus, well the Kung Fu Carradine not Kill Bill. He was a dick.
Anyway i digress.
Walking around just grates me. Especially when people in front of you just stop. Look at their shopping list, then move on. Do people not have a regard for others? How bout taking the Christmas blinkers off for a second?
Shopped round and the cheapest i could find a nice coat was £35 from Primark, everywhere else was like £76+ even TK Maxx.... I know.
Coat bought i then paid £45 for a pair of Jeans. This is why i don't shop. I could have easily got a nice pair like like £20.
Munched on a Egg baguette while sorting out the nights plans. Hopped home to get changed and prettify myself and headed to my friends flat for a pre drink drink.

I have to say i was looking quite good, though i made a risky attempt at styling my hair and gave myself a side parting. Yes i looked like a handsome version of Hitler, or a man sporting a comb over but i liked it for the beginning.
My friend had a mug with his face on printed at my shop for his tea habits at work but it smashed the other day. Luckily due to an error at the printers a duplicate was made so i wrapped it and gave it to him. It was like Christmas or something.
We had a few tins of Strongbow and chatted in depth about our enterprises that we are trying to make happen, interesting stuff from both of us.
We popped along to Pentahotel for a few drinks while we waited for the birthday girl. And may i say Pentahotel is a really nice place. Drinks are normal price for town but its very elegant inside, pool table, wii and really nice bar staff to boot so i thoroughly recommend going there as i hope ill be there soon again.
We had a table booked downstairs in Sahara so we started the cocktails quite early, bout 8pm and £8 cocktails may sound expensive, but they are lovely; full of alcohol and got me rather drunk rather quickly. It was like New Years all over again as i was pretty gone by half 9.
Lots of drinks and laughs were had and after alot of cocktails we trotted along to Sakura and danced it up. I don't think i brought a drink at all in there and we stayed for about 2 hours at least, if not longer. I just sipped other peoples drinks and just kept my alcohol levels topped.
I still don't like Sakura for a night out. Dogma is a good place, good music but its always full of kids and the dance floor bounces. It may be because i really cant dance, or that the place is shit, probably a factor of both.
A couple of friends came in to say hello, one sporting a very nice 60s style bob and leather jacket but didn't stay long. Saw a girl who works next door who after i said hello kind of ran away, left me feeling a little perplexed and worried I'd done something.

After Sakura we tried to go to Purple but the queue was massive so we had a Subway and decided what to do. Most went home so i went back to my friends new flat which was near my house anyway. Had a beer and chatted, had a look round and helped decide where to put things etc then i left about 3am and walked home. My new coat paid dividends as it was really warm and the hood comes all the way down.
Walked in, climbed into bed, turned on the radio and drifted off. I seeked a good night out and that was what i got.

I love my friends, very rarely do we not have fun in each others company.

Advent: Dec 3rd

Well where do i begin? Today has been an awesome day for food and victory. Spose I'll start at the beginning.

Again waking late was really nice, i do like starting late, i however hate finishing late. So once again it was freezing on the cycle to work. I have a routine at the moment of slamming the back break to get my brain used to the back wheel fishtailing so when i eventually do hit ice i know how to correct myself without falling over. So far so good. The Kennet was once again frozen for about 50yards. Its getting to be a good base on seeing how cold it is.

At work there has been an ongoing battle at work in regards to having the front door open/closed. Management want it open pretty much all the time, which in most scenarios is a good thing (Open door is more inviting to the customer) but when its 0 degrees outside or snowing or freezing fog, then having the door open is stupid. We have a small electric heater and a semi functional air con unit, which when the door isn't open heats the shop up to a moderate temperature.
So it being so cold you can see your breath should ring alarm bells in the common sense receptor that most people have. Dogs and cats can work out how to open doors, I'm pretty sure the public can too.
So everytime i close the door, a supervisor closes it pretty much as soon as I've closed it. Cue a Tom and Jerry moment where we are both back and forth opening/closing. Finally i had enough after about 3 weeks of "Neil just put on the fleece we have provided" "Neil you don't know what your talking about when you say we are in breach of Health And Safety" "Stop complaining" so i contacted Reading Borough Councils Health & Safety Dept and they got back to me about 2 hours later. Spoke to a very nice guy about what is and isn't acceptable and turns out i was right all along, the store was in breach of Health And Safety guidelines about working temperature and for anyone working in retail it is:

The store temperature should not fall below 16 degrees

As stated by The Law so at least if you want to complain you have a leg to stand on. I used this card only as a last resort and it worked ok :)

So with that done one of the supervisors left with a face like thunder and promptly returned with a Thermometer (Something which you should have on the shop floor anyway) and the doors remained shut for the rest of the day. I chalk that up to not only a personal victory but also one for common sense.
We shall see if it stays that way. If not then they are breaking the law, officially ha ha

So with that i had a smile a mile wide inside. After work i had a quick dash to get home and changed and back to Reading for my friends birthday. We went for an all you can eat at Thai9. Recommend as it was gorgeous food, was really busy so we were in the karaoke room (no karioke) so had the place to ourselves. Lots of food was consumed and was back home about 11pm which wasn't too bad as it was freezing outside and we were tired after eating :)

So i cam home, decided to watch Walking Dead and have been sitting drinking Sailor Jerrys (half a bottle so far) listening to copious amounts of classical music. Its amazing how much of this i remember from childhood, either walking into assembly in primary school or just from films/TV shows or just naturally listening to Cd's/Records/Radio and having it rooted in my memory. Its something that people forget. Listening to that #1 pop track is fine but its probably just some lyricist and a drum machine. Listening to a symphony play one mans vision is mind blowing. Its not just a guitar and a drum its a whole goddamn orchestra. That to me is the epitome of genius. Well musically anyway.

I will sit here for a while longer, listening and pondering my own thoughts. Dangerous i know but its soothing.
Till December 4Th, a night on the tiles and a most regrettable a hangover that will be seldom wanted.

Advent: Dec 1st

I'm going to try something, i might not fulfill it everyday but I'll try. Like many others i too have an Advent calender. Its a Dr Who one. I opened today and had a car.... Of which i though there was no correlation to Dr Who, according to my Dad Jon Pertwee had a Model T Ford in the TV Show.

Anyway i digress, the chocolates bad and has no meaning to Christmas.

For the next 31 days i am going to try my own advent thing. Every day i shall post what ever i have done, will do etc. Sort of opening a window into my life. No chocolates or crappy pictures. Just crappy insights and grammar. For this i shall google 'December First/Second/Third' with that exact wording and choose a picture from the first page. At the top is today's.

OK so there might be crappy pictures.

Today was a pretty ordinary day. Again i awoke to no snow and bitter coldness awaiting me. What made it worse is the shower is fucked. It doesn't have much pressure and it goes from hot, to boiling hot then freezing cold. Have to turn it off and on about 4 times this morning.
Cycle to work was so bloody cold. No frost but bloody cold. The past few days cycling i have noticed part of the Kennet has been frozen over. Quite funny seeing skid marks where ducks have landed on the ice. Nice way to start the day.

What else, er we had two new starters today. One is the fiance of one of the Team Leaders, nice girl but i am against any kind of family persons working together. Be it mum/dad/sister/wife etc. Its hard enough to leave your life problems at home when you go to work and vice versa. I've worked with my mum years ago and my brother too. Both pleasant but the whole work thing changes when its not just work colleagues/friends but family members. The other girl has worked for magazine publications, taking photos of bands etc and seems to know her stuff. I'm sure the harsh reality of working in retail will soon become aware, as it does to all of us.

There is an ongoing issue at work with the apparent 'open door policy'. I know the psychology behind it (A closed door isn't as inviting as an open door to customers) but when its December, Winter, and freezing outside or sometimes snowing then there is no reason whatsoever to keep a door open. Especially when the heaters rarely work and customers in the shop also complain. Its not the best environment to try and find a camera for someone when they are wearing gloves.

I think I'm winning the battle since the past few days the door has been open a short period. Small periods throughout the day, yes. Not all the time.
I have an idea to put some outdoor L.E.Ds on my bike, attach with cable ties. Should be a laugh, or i might look a prick. Either way ill be happy.

That's about it i suppose for my Advent: Day One.

I managed to get my brothers phone working, my Dell Streak phone is with o2 getting fixed i hope. It's weird, i haven't had a phone for two days and i have been edgy. I needed to converse, to text or twitter or email, and not being able to was really annoying, especially as it wasn't by choice.

Looking forward to this weekend. Friday is my friend Kat's birthday. So lots of happenings. Drinks at the weekend which will be messy, and i have really been looking forward to this. I need a good night out. Sunday is Christmas meal at Las Iguanas.

Now i know some people don't get Christmas parties at work, or at least the work do not pay for them. But ours does, which is the nice point i suppose. Every year we have been given on average £20 per head. Which is adequate for a nice meal. The first year i started work i had a Christmas hamper, it was amazing and i had only just joined. Then we got a 'Staff discount booklet', then every year since is special staff deals on cameras etc.
Anyway we booked Las Iguanas due to it being nearly £20 but now we are only getting £15 per head. The kicker? We have to pay for it ourselves, then send in an expense claim form (individually) then they give it back to us in our wages, probably in February.

Right well Home Alone is on TV now. Its on Sky Xmas.... a channel which shows Christmas movies i guess, then why the fuck is Starship Troopers on later..... Get it right at least.

Hope you enjoyed the first day of advent.

Alls well that.... No that doesnt make sense

So we near Christmas once again and the inevitable shit storm that is consumerism. Working in Retail has, as usual, quashed any sense of cheer i had in me. Working all over the holiday period and working late just kills me inside every day.

Other than the horror that is work i do have things to look forward to. This Friday is my good friend Kats 25th birthday and with that LOADS of drinking opportunities which, having had no money for the past week, i am looking forward to so much. Not only that but my work Christmas party is on Sunday which offers more fun times at Las Iguanas and 2-4-1 cocktails.

Then we have Boxing Day and New Years Day. Boxing Day for me used to be sitting at a relatives house watching crap TV or attempting to join in with the adults and their Trivial Pursuit game. But now it involves as many friends all coming together to have a fun day chilling with one another and watching films, playing games and just enjoying each others company.

All this leads to one big question i am asking myself.....

Do i give up drinking again next year?

And i still don't know. On one hand i did enjoy giving up. Testing myself to see if i have enough willpower to forgo the calls of alcohol and just enjoy myself otherwise. I was healthier, financially better off and felt good.
On the other hand i wasn't myself. I wasn't good company if we went out, i didn't have many adventures or random nights out and very rarely stayed out at all.

Yes there are drugs to compensate the alcohol but that's not always the answer now is it.

Yes i know its trivial but to me it matters a lot. I love my nights out and my friends and part of that is drinking. I miss peoples birthday nights out, random nights out, BBC Introducing and St Patricks Day too.



Watch this space.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

The year has come again where the massive droves of teens with their parents cash descend onto Reading, for Reading Festival has announced its lineup. At the moment the phones are clogged, the Internet is clogged and at this precise moment in time, the entrance to HMV in the Oracle is clogged.


Now if you've seen my Festival reviews and what not you will know that I'm a fan of the festival. I love the atmosphere, the music, the people and the five stages of Tring.

All in all, the picture at the top (of my friend Ed) encapsulates all that Reading Festival is. Notice he has a bottle opener on a necklace. He is covered in mud. Its late. But look at that face. He is having the best time in the world. THAT is Reading Festival. Queueing up for 24hrs outside a music shop isn't. Queueing on the phone/Internet for 4hrs is not. And paying extortionate amounts on websites like Viagogo or eBay is not.

Word of warning kids. The cost should be around £180 give or take service fee. If your paying £200+ you need your head sorted. Reading Festival is not the best in the world. It used to be. But look at European festivals for a change. If your parents are willing to send you to Reading Festival, I'm pretty sure they'd send you to Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, or any other festival in England...

I've seen a lot of shit happening at Reading. Stupid drug,drink and boredom fuelled shit. And I've never been to a festival that's so irresponsibly run. The stewards are nice and friendly, the Security are heavy handed. They turn the music off around 12pm due to the noise, and the tents that stay open 'later' have the music on low. The only entertainment for you after midnight is taking 2 hours to walk to your tent, drinking lots and going walkabout to see what is happening in the festival camp grounds. More often than not its people burning everything/anything in sight and general violence.

The violence isn't aimed at anyone, its just boredom. Because there is a silent disco or a pikey fun fair to amuse 70,000 people.

Its stupid.

Still one of the best festivals i have been to. That's largely made up from the people I'm with. One of which is covered in, hopefully, mud in the aforementioned picture.

If you get tickets, enjoy and be safe, the lineups not too bad. If not, then don't pay too much!

Not sure what my ramblings are about. Confusion. Irritation. The longing for a ticket?

Tales of a Drunkard: The Prequel

So following the odd pint of alcohol over the past week and a bit i decided to venture out on a proper night out of sorts. Gathered a few people and hit a wetherspoons for some cheap strong cider. For some reason they were checking the ID of everyone coming in, which unfortunately for Ed meant he couldn't come in. So we met them at the Turtle for a continuation of drinking.
Sat down at a table drinking snakebite is pretty much all i want to do on a night out. Chatting bollocks about, well, bollocks. Not in the literal meaning, we didn't talk about male genitalia, but the conversation came close at times. One of our friends got cracked onto by a guy, that pretty much set the next hour of conversation.

The night went well, had a few walks round to see what was going on and finally settled at the Table Football by the front of the pub. Had a few games between ourselves, then joined by a girl named Shaz or Gee and her friend Alex. She was quite cute but had recently been dumped over the phone, and previously over Facebook and then text... Really? Do some guys just not have any balls/decorum?

We also played a couple of people that appeared good, they had a couple of good tactics to playing table football. While Geordie and mark were playing i sparked up a conversation with some people sat near us, as you do when your drunk and people look bored. Though with such witty remarks like "Your opinion means shit to me" i realised my efforts were wasted in conversing with him. Apparently having long hair, baggy jeans and wearing black automatically makes you better than everyone else and you can be a dick to everyone.
So to that guy, fuck you. You ruined what was an average night out. Thanks. Twat.

So my first real foray into drinking in Reading was by and large a success. Though again it just reiterates the fact that a small portion of the world become cunts when drunk.


I'm still not 'officially' drinking again, i mean i havent visited the Murco yet.

March off the plank

Well three months is good, right? RIGHT? My endeavour to go without drinking alcohol for 6 months came to a brief stutter this past week. Firstly i went to a funeral and at the wake i had a few drinks in memoriam. 3 Guinness and one double jamesons and coke. Which oddly went down a little too easy for 3 months no alcohol. That would have been a one off just for the wake but then i agreed to go into Reading on Saturday for a friends birthday.

Now usually I'm fine with others drinking but the way it worked out we had two tables of friends and i made the mistake of sitting slap bam in the middle of the two. Which ordinarily wouldn't be too bad but i was sat staring at Gordon Brown in the middle east and the story on James Bulgers killers. So all in all enough to make anyone drink.
I decided to bail out early and on the way home stop into another bar and see a friend. While waiting with her to buy a drink it popped into my head.... Why the fuck would i not drink?

The main reasons were to lose weight and to gain money, and who wouldn't want those two things? Though at what cost? I love going out and having random encounters with people, sometimes continuing to know them for awhile, sometimes they are just a figment of a night out on the tiles.

This is why i had a few ciders, and a snakebite, tequila and a double Johnny Walkers and coke. And surprisingly i had an amazing time, met some girls, chatted and got a phone number from one of them as she was really fun to talk to. Married/engaged though but people are people, doesn't matter if they are married or whatever, as long as you get on with other people.

So yeah, I'm not officially back on the alcohol but I'm also not being sober. I think I'll drink in moderation till June, when it suits me. And then come June I'll be more inclined to drink.

Till then drink lots, meet lots of people and above all. Have fun.

Tales of a drunkard Pt 6

Recently I went up to London to see my friend Jemma perform at the Blag Club in Notting Hill and once again both her and Nick Bates were on top form. There were other bands too, of which i didn't get any names, which annoys me as there was this one female singer who was awesome. Quirky voice and lyrics akin to Joanna Newsom. I will find out who she was.


Then a couple of days later there was a night at Sakura in Reading that we all went to as it was a Hed Kandi night, so we hyped it up as a few of us have and do listen to Hed Kandi Cd's/Records both the chilled music as well as the more upbeat kind.

The night was pretty average, most of the people went into the club around 6pm for two-for-one cocktails before the night. I met them about half ten after drinking a bottle of Bacardi with a friend. The night was pretty average, which was a shame because we all wanted it to be a good night, hell it was a Hed Kandi night.

Alas it was not meant to be, not all the cocktails or averagely price alcohol in all the land could have made that night better. And to think people would have had to pay £10 just to get in for what was essentially a normal night in Sakura.

Not sure if it was because Reading Festival was on, therefore people were either at the festival or didn't want to come into town because they thought it would be busy, or the fact that it was Bank Holiday Monday and people were away for the weekend, but the whole atmosphere of the place sucked pretty big.


Hopefully when i go out on Friday it will be better. Seeing Jemma play at the Rising Sun Arts centre in Reading, so if you want to see a few bands play and performers then pop along.

Hey that's.....

I'm beginning to hate TV. Well American TV shows to be exact. Especially ones like CSI, Numbers, Criminal Minds etc. And there's one reason to this.

I watch too much TV.

Yup I do, its like being in AA but theres no one else here, and if i do stand up and say "hi, i have a problem" I'll look a little crazy, even by my cats standards. But its not just that i watch too much TV, its that i have a good memory for faces.

So your sat there watching your new episode of something or other and you recognise someone in the first 10Min's that isn't in the regular cast, so chances are they have something to do with the plot line, and in more cases they are usually the killer.

Its annoying that any show i watch i can see who the episode is about just from the first 15Min's or so. Is it my fault that i watch too much TV, or let me put that better, the fact shows are predictable.

It follows the old rule of horror films. If a character says "I'll be right back', 'I'm just going to the cellar', 'candy man candy man candy man' then chances are they will die shortly after.

But if films don't follow these cheesy and utterly crap rules, and TV shows dont have guest stars who are always part of the main plot, then would people still watch them?

Some of the great and exciting new shows always get cancelled way too early, mainly because they are different and the mass market don't like different. They like the easy to follow plotlines like House. Someone is ill, House nearly kills the person in order to diagnose the person with some highly obtuse and rare disorder, then cures them with a banana and a hammer. Much like MacGuyver, but with a stethoscope.

Though don't get me wrong i like House.

Er my point is that i'm tired of predictable TV, i want something different, and in order for me to satisfy my selfish needs for good TV, i need YOU to start giving TV shows a little slack. You wont get a hit TV show on your screens if you don't give it a few shows to impress you, wait till episode 6 or even 5 and then say if you dont like it. Pilots are good, but they cant give you as much depth as a few episodes.

Please. I don't like talking to my cat all night.