Impys View

Things looking Up??

2009-06-02T13:02:00.004Z

The BEST Medicine?

They say that laughter is the best medicine, and I couldn't agree more. But the second best medicine just has to be a nice little holiday!

Have just come back from my mums in Cornwall, and had a great time with the kids, played on the beach, went out and visited the Eden Project, which is well worth a visit for anyone down that neck of the woods.

The kids loved it, especially the Tropical Dome, where Adam had to take off his shire and Chloe's face-painted face smudged and melted to change from a beautiful pussycat to a beautiful mess.

Here are a couple of the flowers from the Tropics

More good news followed when I learned my Uncle has just aquired a property in Florida, so it looks like the kids and I will be off to Disney next year Wahoooooooo!

But when I got back home I did have a bit of a worry, I had a letter from the Letting Agent saying I was two months in arrears on the flat and the landlord wanted me out! Luckily the agent had made a mistake in the letter and was VERY apologetic.

Can't wait for tonight as it will be the first kipping on a memory foam mattress, now it arrived at around 9:15 this morning, rolled up like a rug, didn't look very thick at all, in fact it was more like a sleeping bag. But then after unwrapping it it began to expand, now it is proper thick and very squashy, feels pretty comfy, but we shall see.

OK so happy days are here again, next time I hope to put up a review of Coroline in 3D, and of Hannah Montanna the movie, which I saw with the kids.

Hard to take

2009-05-18T17:52:00.002Z

A bitter pill to swallow

Well I was on a bit of a downward spiral these last two weeks, after finding out the mrs had found someone else - married no less, after only 3 - 4 weeks of me leaving.
So the question begs to be asked "Just how long was it going on for BEFORE I left". At first it REALLY bothered me, but now, and the more I talk about it, the more I realise what an awful, awful woman I was married to for 13 years.

My biggest saddness is how much she has lied to the kids, and how she has wrecked another marraige with no care whatsoever for her boyfriends (STEVE WING of GRANTHAM by the way) wife.

Why am I blogging about it, well cause it helps me, and it sends an advance warning to anyone else out there who may know these two people, they are only concerned about themselves, they care nothing about anyone else.

I said I was on a downward slope, but not anymore, like I said my eyes have been opened and I can see just what everyone else that did care about me saw.
They are worth nothing to me, ONLY my kids count.

Better news next time I hope, Tamazipan pending, and divorce result pending!

Has Britain Got Talent?

2009-04-26T17:21:00.004Z

Britain's Got Talent - Or has It?

Once again on Saturday, loads of hopefuls set forward to audition in front of the 'wise' judges to try to get their face in the limelight and their shot at the bigtime. But after last weeks show (the 2nd one) it got me to thinking, just how staged are these auditions and just how many chances do these acts get?

The reason I question this? One act Shaheen Jaragholi

Now if you didn't see the audition Shaheen started to sing the Amy Winehouse song "Valerie", after only a few bars Simon stopped the audition (No Buzzing? Odd that!) and asked him if he knew another song, to which Shaheen said about an old Michael Jackson song "Who's Loving You", he then proceeded to belt out the number in a very good vioce that was totally different from the Amy song.

So questions to ask, Why no Buzzing? Why or rather How did Simon know this 12 year old could sing far better than the song he had chosen for an audition? And finally, Why did he get "a second chance"?

Granted a talent would have been missed if that had not happened, but it does get you wondering. Next on to this week and the 3rd show -DJ Talent(less).

This guy was buzzed 4 times yes 4 times which (and the itv bosses can correct me if I am wrong) meant the audition is over and you have to leave the stage. But this guy, stayed on talking his (rap) talk, looking a complete dick with his gold teeth, and then all four judges put him through - EH? Go Figure!

The thing that gets me is there ARE lots of people who have been put through at the expense (possibly) of more talented people, that have NO CHANCE of getting through to the live tv shows.

I can probably list a good number of acts that we will see in the semi-final right now;

Susan Boyle - Won't win, but will get record deal

Flawless - Won't win, can't have two dance acts win in a row

Diverity - Won't win see Flawless

Shaheen Jaragholi - Joint fav to win

Hollie Steel - Joint fav to win

Julian Smith - Saxophonoist extradanaire - a chance if the cute vote doesn't win the day.

So there you go, there will also be a crap act get through just for entertainments sake.

Judging by Appearances

2009-04-16T18:38:00.004Z

Did you Judge by Appearances......?

Because I know I did!

The person I judged? None other than worldwide singing sensation Susan Boyle. Come on admit it, look at her...

For all those PRIVILEDGED enough to see this frumpy, odd looking Scotswoman, their first thought was "Oh Dear" I know to my regret that is what I thought. Simon Cowell, the most opinionated judge on Britains Got talent and probably the most cutting in his remarks (no matter how honest they might be), rolled his eyes when she told her age, as if he was saying "Yeah right".

Cut to the audience, and a young girl looking at her as if it was a clown convention. Then the music played and we all waited.....you know the rest.

At the end of the song, my daughter looked at me and said "daddy why are you crying?" I just stayed silent for a while and then said "I didn't know I was, she has got one hell of a voice"

20 million hits on youtube, in talks already for a recording contract, but does this phase Susan, so far no. Lets hope it doesn't change.

Susan Boyle has given me something to remember, normally I wait until I know someone before judging them, but I forgot all about that with Susan, just expecting the worst. Happily I was proven wrong.

But one of the best things was Cowells reaction, he sat there head in hands and gave a noticeable dream like sigh, as if to say "This is what I call dreamland, heaven, this is the the voice I have waited for for years". Or was it the thought of the money he could make from it all?

Susan Boyle may not win Britain's Got Talent, but she has given hope to countless millions, joy to millions, and made us all look at each other in a different light. For that I say...

THANK YOU SUSAN!

A few things

2009-04-03T21:03:00.005Z

Nice to have thing the way I want

It has been an interesting few months to say the very least. I have gotten in touch with a mate I thought I had lost, have settled in to my new flat, have been away in the UK on countless jobs and managed to watch a few films, as well as design a new DVD cover! Like wow finally I have managed to do what I want, with nobody to have a go at me!

Here is the cover;

Yep it's Monsters Vs Aliens, Ok I know it has only just come out in the cinemas but what I like to do is try to anticipate what the DVD cover might look like upon it's release. It is also a film that I want to take my kids to see, but only when Chloe is out of her wheelchair!

The other cover I am working on is Terminator 4 : Salvation.

OK so what films have I seen, well there has been one that has been on my wanted list for a whils but to be honest I was disappointed.....

CLOVERFIELD

So here is the premise is of some friends at a party, and one guy is videotaping them, very soon something crashes to the ground, and the next thing we know the friends are on the run.

Lets cut to the chase, the first 20 minutes of this film are shite, nothing happens and it is sooooo boring, I was about to turn it off when the 'thing' landed and all hell broke lose. Except it didn't really, shaky camera action, glimpses of the monster, and to be honest not a lot else going on.

The glimpses you get of the creature aren't great so it keeps you guessing, and the acting is pretty believeable, but the thing that makes the film "better" is the use of shaky hand cam action. The clever use of this gives you the feel of being there. Aside from that it really isn't a movie I would have paid to watch at the cinema, especially the crap begining. OK there are some good things, but overall it just doesn't grab the attention long enough.

So 2*'s for cloverfield, next up I am hoping to watch Hellboy 2, and as I really enjoyed Hellboy, I am looking forward to this one!

How Quick??!!

2009-02-23T19:54:00.003Z

That is a National Health Service!

Well, having only written about my daughters operation a couple of weeks ago, I have to write now that she had the operation on Wednesday 18th February.
I also know the operation - a Derotational Osteotomy.
Basically Chloe had her leg broken at the top of her fema, and then a metal plate inserted with 6 screws holding it in place. All this for an 8 year old! She was OK, but as soon as I saw her lying in the recovery room, I was blubbing.

She was however, not in a cast. But after the pain killers wore off that night (my wife stayed with her, and only got two hours kip) they put a hip-spike cast on her.
The hip-spike cast has however totally restricted her movement. She left hospital via ambulance for home on Saturday, without the Physio and the Occupational Health visitor knowing. So they arranged transport for her to go to hospital today, and I went to collect the reclining wheelchair, camode and ramp. When I got there they told me the Physio etc were going to my wifes house to take the wheelchair etc to hers and Chloe's appointment had been changed to tommorrow. BAD mark for NHS.

True to their word they turned up bang on time with all the bits and pieces and let us know everything we had to do and how to do them. GOOD mark for NHS.

I feel a lot happier now, knowing that Chloe is on the mend, even though she can't go to school for 4 weeks at least, I know she is at least able to get about instead of lying about for ages.

Back Again

2009-01-28T20:23:00.002Z

It's Been Too long!

It has been a long time since I last updated my blog, but there has been so much that has happened I just have not been able to. Not only haven't I had the time but to be honest I haven't had the inclination.

Twas a difficult Christmas, but I made the most of it for the kids sake. The reason? Well finally me and the missus have separated. I am now (and have been for the last two weeks) living on my own in a cosy little flat. I still see my kids every weekend (no way am I not going to do that). But it has been pretty hard.

The worst thing was when I moved into my flat I took a day off in lieu, only to have to travel up to grimsby (130 miles) 30 minutes after I moved in, as I had to attend an induction at 8am the next day! Thanks for nothing Procal.

Not only that but the job has been getting me down to as it is not what I expected at all, in fact it is the most boring job on the planet. Shelling peas all day would give me a greater thrill, so I am looking for something else, and now with less limits on travel I am looking further afield.

But then the hammer blow came 8 days after moving out, before moving, we had taken our daughter to the hospital as one of her legs turns in when she walks. The results that came back have made me worried sick, especially me not being there all the time. She has to have an operation that will mean she is in a wheelchair for 6 weeks and then on crutches for 6 weeks. The only saving grace is that it should mean she wont permanently be in a wheelchair later in her life.

OK that is about it, think I have bought things up to date, next time I post it will be about films, entertainment or something CHEERFULL!!!

All the best

IMPY

Entertainment

2008-11-27T12:34:00.005Z

Footy Funnies

Had to share this with you as it made me laugh, it is a couple of videos featuring pretty inept stretcher bearers. First up is one where the guy seems to have a problem getting hold of the stretcher. The look on the footballers face is pure magic, as in "WHAT THE *@!*"

The next one is just as funny, unless you happen to be on the stretcher that is!

Hope you enjoyed them, I will be on the lookout for some more, so keep those eyes peeled.

Entertainment

2008-11-14T12:41:00.004Z

Heroes just gets better and better

The only problem with a show like Heroes is that is always ends on a cliffhanger, and here in the UK we can watch the next episode, almost straight away rather than wait a week. I haven't done so yet (what else would I do on a Wednesday night?) but I have been sorely tempted.

But the good thing is we are now starting to get a few answers like the meaning of the sign below;

This is the way up we always seemed to see this sign, but we now discover that it forms part of the logo for Pinhearst Industries - Arthur Petrelli's company - and Uber-villan.

If all this is no making much sense to you then I suggest you watch the first series to get you aquainted with it. I am going to try and put up a character breakdown over the next few weeks, to give my opinion to what the main characters are about.

I may even have to start a new blog on it if I have the time, in the meantime for all Heroes virgins check out Heroes at NBC to view episodes and get some stuff, or Heroeswiki for a load of info on the show.

A Welcome Break

2008-11-03T13:01:00.002Z

A Well Needed Holiday

Just back off my nice little break in Great Yarmouth, and it was indeed a needed break. had quite a good time, and the kids loved it which is the main thing.
My daughter Chloe entered the "Haven's Got Talent" contest, and she managed to finisin the top four so I was well made up with that. Her Talent? Telling jokes, so she takes after me a lot there.
When we got back we arrived to a new bathroom, which is very nice and seems to make the room a little bigger than before.

We also had a mate come round and fit the SKY+ at half the price of the normal installation cost. Don't know how we got along without it really. It is the bees knees, just to be able to pause a live show, have tea, and then come back and watch where you left off from.

Who needs a video recorder or DVD recorder???

I think the next thing we will have to do is change our Internet provider to SKY, as Tiscali is really pants at the moment. SKY would also be cheaper!

To top off a great month, my team Lincoln City only lost once in 8 games, I managed to get them to the top of the table in Football Manager 2007, and I have now got a lease car from work, a nice Vauxhall Passat Estate with keyless start and electronic handbrake!!

Good to be back

2008-10-07T11:39:00.005Z

Heroes and Villans

Yes they are back, Hiro, Ando, Claire, Peter and the rest and thankfully we have Sylar back again.

As I write this I am waiting with bated breath for episode 2 season 3, of one of the best shows on TV. Heroes is back, with a bang!

From all the excerpts I have seen this looks to be the best series yet, and already there are a ton of questions to be answered.

Why all of a sudden has Peter gone bad?

How has Sylar got back his powers?

How did Bennett wind up in the company's jail?

What does the formula do?

Where has Parkman been sent to?

What did Syler mean by "You can't die Claire your special"?

How is Linderman back???????

Syler Ubervillan or Saviour of the world???

So many more questions that are unanswered it is looking like this could be the best one yet.

Would love to hear anyones plot lines and thoughts for the new series.

Update

2008-10-06T12:22:00.002Z

A week on....

....and my eyes are still seeing lovely!
Went for my weekly check-up on Saturday, and was told by the optician that I must be an extremely fast healer, as she had to recheck my documents to see if I had had the procedure stated.
The Lasik, involves cutting a flap in the cornea, the Lasek doesn't. My 'flap' was hardly visible, hence the reason for the recheck of paperwork.

I even treated myself to a decent pair of sunglasses. Too late maybe for this year but not for next.

No Words to describe

2008-09-27T19:29:00.003Z

Better than 20 - 20!

Well it is over! On Friday at 16:15 I went in for my Laser surgery on my eyes, and by 16:30 I was sitting in the waiting room with a cup of coffee waiting for my mate to pick me up. With no pain and no discomfort noticeable at all!!

Optical Express have looked after me really well, if you want to check them out, click on the link here Optical Express remember they are worldwide!

So how about the operation itself, well here we go with all the details;

I was called in by the surgern, and he told me his name before describing the procedure, he then explained and demonstrated certain noises I would be hearing. On then to the 'Op' chair. A bit like a dentists chair but your lying down. I then had to look at a blinking red light whilst one eye was covered and the other (the one to be operated on) had anaesthetic drops put in. The surgen then clamped open my eye with a couple of weights (well that is all they felt like, and it was really, really not in the slightest bit uncomfortable. He then said I will feel slight pressure on the eye (a bit like pushing your thumb against your eyelid), and I wont see anything for a few seconds. Which I didn't! and this bit was the most uncomfortable of all - on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 1/2 seriously hardly uncomfortable at all.

Next up he put in like a cone device, and then a 'frosted window', all of which I could see (It's a bit like having a glass plate in front of your eyes and someone wiping things on the glass - totally weird!) . Next up the clicking of the laser, and in my opinion the worst bit, no there was no pain, it was just this smell of burning.

And after a quick wipe the job was done, and onto the next eye. The whole procedure took less than 5 minutes per eye, it was probably closer to 3. I then went back into the waiting room, and despite a bit of blurryness could see LOVELY!

When my mate picked me up half an hour later I was able to read number plates on cars at a greater distance than him, also the blurryness had gone. Of course prior to that I had been given my eye drops and the coolest pair of goggles (NOT!!!!!) to wear at night to protect the eyes. For the goggles think 'Charlie and the Choclate factory" Mike TV room. Honest!

And so today, the day after. Well I drove myself the 40 miles to the clinic to have the eyes checked for infection and to check the sight. No infections problems or anything else, and the best bit, the optition wanted me to read a certain line, but I could read two line below. She then told me the line she wanted me to read was for 20 - 20 vision. So happily my eyes are now better than 20 - 20 GET IN THERE!!!!!

OK I will update again when I have had about a week to recover, cheers for now, oh how does that song go......

..... Bom Bapa Bommm Bapa I can see clearly now the rain has gone, I can see all obstacles in my way, gone are the dark clouds that had me down, it's gonna be a bright, bright, bright sunshiny daaayyyyy!

Has it really been that long?

2008-09-22T20:08:00.002Z

A sight for Sore Eyes

Job is going well, training pretty relaxed (but I haven't done the hard stuff yet!!!), and I am just back from holiday in Majorca. A lovely little place called C'an Picafort, which has a great beach, clear water and shallow (up to your waist 200 yards out!).
But on Friday everything will become even clearer for me, as I am finally getting Laser Eye Surgery done! I can kiss goodbye to the specs for good, not long now which means the butterflies will be starting in earnest.
Here is what my surgery is about;

"LASIK stands for laser assisted in situ keratomileusis which refers to creating a flap in the cornea with a microkeratome and using a laser to reshape the underlying cornea.
In LASIK eye surgery, precise and controlled removal of corneal tissue by a special laser reshapes the cornea to change its focusing power. In this way, LASIK eye surgery can correct a wide range of refractive errors.
LASIK is a suitable procedure for correcting the most severe refractive errors."

Sounds gruesome, but if it means I don't keep having my glasses knocked into my face by my son, then all the better.

I have also checked on Wikipedia for the complications, and they still haven't put me off. So I will post again soon after the op to let you know how it's gone.

Didn't take long

2008-08-13T11:33:00.002Z

New Job

Well that didn't take long, I must have a half decent CV as I have got a new job starting at the end of August.
So I don't mind advertising on here, all thanks to Leom at Pioneer Selection, who got the interview for me leading to the successful job.

What will I be doing? I am going to be a Field Service Engineer installing, servicing and commissioning Gas Analytical equipment into power plants in the UK and overseas. Really looking forward to it as it looks like an incredibley interesting job.
The company's name is Procal, smallish company but very respected. So things are going pretty well for me at the moment.
Will update again soon!

New Things

2008-08-13T11:30:00.003Z

Blogger gets Better!

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will notice a couple of new features I have added to the blog. Thanks to those wonderful people at Blogger, you can now take part in a "Movie Quotes" Quiz. Also if movies aint yer thang, you can try the harder puzzles/riddles quiz.
The Movie quote thing, will only be up for a while though and then I will look to change it, nothing like a bit of variety!

Entertainment

2008-08-05T14:14:00.005Z

Movie Review - 28 weeks later

As I am now managing to get home at a reasonable time I can catch up on those DVD's that I have not yet seen, one of which was 28 weeks later.

As the title suggests the film starts 28 weeks after the RAGE virus has decimated London, and we see a group of survivors in a country cottage. A young boy turns up free of the virus, but with RAGE victims following him.

One of the occupants Don (Robert Carlye) escapes leaving his wife and the young boy to the fate of the infected.

We then move to a US military controlled London, and Dons kids are been shipped in both clean from the virus.

What follows is a rip-roaring blood fest and jumpy action across London and beyond, I wont spoil it to tell you how, but the virus is re-introduced, and in typical OTT response the US military have to wipe it out.

Got to say that the film relies more on effects than on the atmospheric 'scare' nature of the first film 28 days later, but it is still pretty enjoyable. Quite a few makes you jump moments, and some nasty gory stuff too, the helicoptor scene is a major example of this.

There are a few surprises as well in the film, and a few things that make you say "Oh, No Way!" but it still doesn't detract from the film itself, the musical score is also very powerful, especially the haunting melody running through the majority of it.

I think that a good tagline for the film could have been "Kiss of Death", but they went with something else.

So if you fancy a good fun film, watch it, just don't be like me and be too disappointed with the end. To me it ended too suddenly and in a rush.

Certificate : - 18

Starring : - Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack, Jeremy Renner

Rating : - ***1/2

Entertainment

2008-07-31T14:22:00.006Z

Can you beat the Classics?

This is a question that is going to form part of my poll, it stems from my daughter watching "Willy Wonka and his Chocolate Factory" before going to bed, that is the original one with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. She thinks(and she is 8) that it is the best one, because it is funnier and the songs are better. I have to agree, what's more it got me to thinking about these classic films that never lose their appeal whatever the decade they are seen in.

So how about these two;

I would say half the world must have seen these two films at one point or another and an awful lot of people remember the songs. Why? Because they actually meant something, were easy to follow and they were geniunely catchy tunes.

Can ANY film house improve on these or remake them? I doubt it.

Johnny Depp was a brilliant Willy Wonka, but the film relied to heavily on special effects, something the original had very little of, it relied more on the human factor.

Nanny Mcphee I suppose is a try at doing a Mary Poppins, but the 'magic' is just not there.

I geniunely believe that these are two films that could NEVER be remade, they simply cannot be improved upon, even with the actors of today.

I'd be very interested to know if you out there in the internet world wide web can think of any other truely classic films that can never again be repeated.

The Godfather 2 probably can, ET yep that can be done too, Star Wars? Compare the new films with the original trilogy = PANTS!

There are probably so many out there that I haven't covered, but these two really are timeless classics, that will never see the like again. Just don't forget to let your kids watch it, and then when they misbehave, threaten them with this;

Future not so bright

2008-07-31T14:12:00.003Z

It's all gone Pete Tong!

No not the film, but the fact I am now officially being made redundant! I cannot say too much at the moment for obvious reasons, but am quite dissapointed.
Still life goes on and I am confident of finding a new job soon.
So if there are any companies out there that are interested in employing a well motivated, hard working electronics engineer, have a look at my CV on this Dave's CV.

More to follow;

Movie Review

2008-07-14T20:43:00.004Z

The Golden Compass

OK, OK I know that this film has been out for quite a while now on DVD, but I got my first chance to watch it last week. Now it is classed as a family film, which in many respects it is, but there are lots of dark elements in it.

The story is based in a parallel universe, in which all the 'human' characters have their souls on the outside of their bodies in animal form. These souls are known as Demons for some reason or another. Lyra Belacqua ( Dakota Blue Ricards ) is unique among her kind for she is given an Alethiometer ( a golden compass that tells the truth) by her 'uncle Asreil' ( Daniel Craig ), her uniqueness is that she can read it.

The film follows Lyra to the kingdom of the Snow bears, where Lyra must rescue kidnapped children who are being used in evil experiments by the wonderfully wicked Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman).

Now the special effects in this film are pretty amazing, and I was blown away by the way the animal demons so closely followed the humans. The snow bears were awesome in effect, and the battle scenes very very well done.

All in all this is a very enjoyable movie, it may be hard for younger children to follow, but they wont care, as they will be too entranced by all the animals and fantasy elements. My 8 year old has seen it twice now, but still has loads of questions about why? and how?

However, one moment of the film TOTALLY ruined it for me, made all the previous spectacular special effects disappear into the ether, and made a joke of the word special effects. That moment was when Lyra is carried across the Ice by Iorek Byrnison the snow bear. Here's how it looks;

Imagine you get a large doll, like a tiny tears, or better still a cabbage patch doll, then tie it to the back of your dog, now get the dog to run around, then film the result. That is basically what Lyra on a snow bear looks like. I cannot describe how awful it is, and it was the ruination of a good film.

But taking that to one side I am still going to give it 4 stars!

Certificate: PG-13

Running Time: 113 mins

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Neil, Ian Mckellen,Freddie Highmore

Rating: *****

Joke Time

2008-07-07T21:54:00.002Z

A Rude Joke

Just thought I'd have a bit of a change and post a rude joke. Expect more to follow!

A posh hotel holds three weddings on the same day and at the end of the night the 3 grooms meet up at the bar to discuss the days events over a couple of shandy's. One questions the other two, "Listen, it's our wedding night and I was wondering - how many times are we expected to...um...you know.... do it?"

The other two look blankly at him, wondering if the usual 2 pumps and a squirt is enough, or if should they go for it twice, seeing as it is a special occasion. Eventually, they all decide to retire to their respective wives and see how the night goes, with the idea to meet up the following morning over breakfast to discuss what went on.

Suddenly one of the grooms pipes up, "Hold on lads, we can't discuss our first night marital goings on over the breakfast table with our new wives sat with us."

"No you're right. What we'll do then, is for every piece of toast we order with our breakfast, that'll be the amount times we did it" offers another groom.

They all decide it's an excellent idea and depart.

The next day in the hotel dining room, the grooms are all looking a bit dishevelled, but that's nothing compared to the brides, who can barely stagger across the room to their tables.

The waitress comes up to the first groom to take his order, "Hello, I'll have the full English breakfast with THREE pieces of toast please". The other two grooms smile at him and raise a glass of fresh orange in a toast to his fantastic prowess.

The waitress moves to the second couple, and the groom orders, "I too shall have the full English breakfast but could I have FOUR pieces of toast" The other two grooms turn to make pistols from their fingers to shoot a salute to the master swordsman.

The waitress gets to the last groom "I shall also have the full English breakfast please, yet I shall have..." he takes a deep breath "SEVEN, yes SEVEN PIECES OF TOAST" he calls for everyone's benefit whilst giving a big cheesy grin to his two wedding mates, who stare at him in disbelief at the thought how raw his poor corey must be.

"Seven pieces of toast sir?" queries the waitress. "Why, that's an awful lot"
"Yes indeed young lady, seven pieces of toast it is." She writes down his order and turns away, but before she can leave, the groom calls after her again

"And by the way love, can you make two of those brown?"

Movie Review

2008-06-05T19:10:00.005Z

I am Legend

Starring: Will Smith & a Dog

Rating: 15

Firstly let me say that I am a big fan of Will Smith,and think that he is a very adapable actor, so I was really looking forward to watching it.

How wrong I was! This has to be the most boring wrung out film recently made. It was just SOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW!!!!

I can sum up the film and rewrite the script very easily.

Man and dog walk about an empty city in the daytime, but not in the dark because of dangerous things. He thinks he is the only sane person on the planet and is searching for a cure for the dangerous things. He then walks about and drives about some more, with his dog. Something else happens, so he walks and drives about a bit more. Then something else happens and the film ends.

Will and his dog sitting down after walking for a bit

There is some action in the film, but the CGI is so poor that it really is not believable one jot. Honestly it is that bad.

The film is based on the Omega Man, which was far, far better, more atmospheric and frankly better acted. Will Smith does his best, but if I was supposedly the last man on earth I don't think I'd be as sane as he was.

Example- he still had the nonce about him to work on an antidote to the virus that wiped out the human race! Yet next minute he was talking to mannequins, sorry but how unreal and unbelievable can you get?

I cannot express how disappointed I was with this film, if you want to see a film with someone driving about or walking around get a bad road movie.

Sorry Will, but you've made a right turkey here

Star Rating : *****

Things are looking up!

2008-05-30T13:32:00.002Z

It's Good to Talk!

Glad that I have the opportunity to write finally, as there was a lot of negativity hanging around me the last time I wrote.
But all that has now lifted, and I am feeling a lot more confident and happy about the way ahead. What did it take? Well something that I am not proud of but something I felt needed doing, and that was an open letter to a director telling him of all my (as well as my colleagues) gripes and issues, and the way in which we felt. I have been made the spokesman for the engineers here, may be because I am not afraid to say things, and they got said propably a bit too strongly.

So if anyone who works at the same place as me is reading this, my sincere apologies for going about the 'issues' we had in the way I did.

But like I said this post is full of positiveness, for now I have a clear understanding of what sales are doing, what future products there are, where we stand as a company, and it makes me smile!

We now have a fragrance machine that can deliver fragrance in just about any venue you can think of, whereas before we were limited. We are developing a new portable unit that actually looks pretty smart, and our marketing is starting to take off as well.
To top it all last week we got our new uniforms - and very snazzy they are too!

So the future of Brandaroma is very rosy, I just hope that my over zealous letter does not have any repercussions as I am now looking very forward to all the work that will be coming our way.

So if you have a venue that stinks, give Brandaroma a ring and see what they can do for you!

Well I found Time!

2008-05-19T14:53:00.007Z

Has it Really been that long???

Now I have let my blog slip quite a bit, but only because I have been in and out of the country for the last few weeks. Jersey, Poland, South Africa and Ireland. All over the last 4 weeks, thankfully I now have a little bit of time to play catch up.

So let me see, Jersey was not too bad but it was a case of catch the ferry in the morning at some ungodly hour (I think I was up at 3am), then do the job, (which I couldn't do as there was no electrics, despite the fact that the engineer who went 3 months earlier said all was ok and working, GIT!). After that I caught the ferry home, and stayed in a hotel in Weymouth overnight before finally getting back.

Next onto Poland, and a trouble shooting mission, another early start, but at least I got 40 winks on the plane - bloody SleezyJet again!!!

The job itself was pretty straight forward, and should have been done the way I did it from the start, but it was a Frenchman who initially carried it out - think it was a case of "NON!!! I will do it MY way, I do NOT have time to put up a shelf, and do it properly!" French GIT!

So they were happy when I left and it makes a nice change an English guy going to Poland rather than the Poles coming to England.

I also got to stay in the 5* Marriott hotel I was working in, here is a view from my room on the 31st floor.

So after Poland it was off to South Africa, another eary start? No not this time, but it was an overnight flight, 11 hours by South African Airlines. I think I managed to get about 4 or 5 hours kip though. Then on arrival I was met by a taxi driver and taken to the Hotel in Jo'burg where I was to stay. On the way I saw a massive Roller coaster that I was thinking of visiting should I get chance, it seemed to get closer and closer, and then the taxi pulled into the Gold Reef Theme Park, and I realised joy of Joys this was where my hotel was!

So this is the Roller Coaster;

My room was aptly named the Blacksmith room, simply because it had a bloody great forge in the middle of it, mind you it was a smart room!

The 2 days and three nights I was there were very busy, and horror of horrors I didn't get the chance to go on ONE ride, NOT ONE BLOODY RIDE!!!!!! Despite having complimentry access to them. AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

As for Ireland, I will save that till next time.

Gotta go now Bosses checking up on me!

It never Rains......

2008-03-24T21:08:00.003Z

Lots going on

Again I find myself with less and less time to update my blog. I had hoped I would be able to change the 'weekly' question by now. At this rate it is going to be turning into a yearly one!

Still like I said a lot of things have happened since the last writing. to sum up,

I have been away to Wales for the night.

Been given a notice of Redundancy.

Had my 42 birthday.

Seen my sisters for the first time in 2 years.

Oh and had a ball making a snowman with the kids

So like I said quite a bit going on, the Wales trip was a pain, as it turned out I didn't have to do that much really, but I must have some sort of reaction when I stay in Travel Lodges (The equivelent of a Days Inn in the States). When I stayed in one in Manchester I had to get evacuated as there was a gas smell, we finally got back into the hotel at aroung 1 in the morning. Then in Wales I was woken up by the fire alarm going off at 2:30am. This time it was a test of the alarms from the night club next door! Yeah great time to test lads!

The notice of Redundency was going, but it hasn't been fully implemented yet, as they are still unsure on the 1 person they want to get rid of, although everything points to yours truely.

42nd (god I feel old!) went without the hint of a party, but I did get myself a decent digital camera - Fuji Finepix 610, reduced from £299 to £60!

I saw my sister at my nans for 1/2 an hour after working, and my other sister and her new boyfriend at Easter, as she came to see me.

So that is pretty much that, hopefully I will be back to normal soon with some nice quizes and weekly questions...who knows???

Time at Last!

2008-03-02T21:16:00.002Z

Keeping Busy!!!

Well I have finally managed to grab a bit of time and update my blog. Hard to believe that in my old job, I could update the blog twice a week. I did think I would be able to do it just as often with this new job, but well.... twas not to be.

Now I came back on Friday from one of the finest hotels I have ever stayed in, the Marriott Jordan Valley, in Jordan.
Left the UK Wednesday 28th February, and got to the hotel at around 10:30pm. Luckily for me it was the very hotel I was installing the fragrance machines in. As I arrived late at night I didn't really get a chance to take in the fact that I was at the Lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea.
But the following morning, after spending a few hours (5 at the most!), getting the job done, I managed to get some pool time, and we are talking luxury here. The place had 4 resturaunts including a truely aythentic Italian. Now I absolutely love Italian food, so that was the perfect place to eat lunch.

The other surprising thing about Jordan though, is just how free it is, women don't have to cover up, the internet is unrestricted, and the mini-bar in my room was FULLY stocked with beer and spirits.
To top things of the weather was fab, such a pity then I had to get up at 3:30am to get to the Airport Friday morning!

Hopefully, I will post a couple of pictures soon to show some of the luxury I enjoyed!

Update

2008-01-28T22:08:00.000Z

Back Again?!

Well have a little bit of time on my hands so thought I would just update a bit on the blog. It has been really hard recently to get any time to do it, but now work have given me a laptop, I should be able to update a little bit more.

Well Zurich was not as nice as I expected, people are OK, it's just the city is very bleak and industrialised, not anything like the Switzleland you see in the "Sound of Music"! Mind you I was only there overnight so I suppose I didn't get a chance to see much. It is however bloody expensive!

I am off to my mums for the night on Wednesday, as I have some work in Plymouth, which is around 1/2 an hour from her, well it is the way I drive anyway!

Tried Will's quiz, but don't think I did too well, I know some of them but others????
I am back down in my mums area in February (15th - 18th) as we are off on a free holiday, so that should be OK. The same week I have got an overnighter in Manchester, so hopefully I will be able to put together some sort of quiz for then, may be even a special Valentine one?!

Right am off now if you have some time try Will's quiz at Hilarity Ensues, its tough but good!

Cheers for now

Fun & Games

2008-01-09T20:42:00.000Z

Christmas Quiz Answers

Many thanks to Will and Mum for having an attempt at the quiz, and apologies for not updating sooner.
Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and very merry New Year. I was up until 04:45 playing bowling on the Wii, and my mate was none too happy when I just missed his highest ever score!
But I am back now after a hectic week back at work, and hopefully things are going to settle down to a point where I will be writing and posting as often as i did before. I am off to Zurich on Tuesday 15th for the day. Yep fly out at 7am, get to Zurich at 10am, do my job and fly back at 10am on the 16th!

Loadsa lovely overtime!!!!

Anyway on with the quiz, well if you had done the music (I know your bad at it Will, but I am thinking of dropping that round!) Will you may have sneaked a win, but with 51 points my mum takes the title, you got 32 Will, and I had to give you extra for giving me such a laugh in the Christmas cracker round!

So here are all the important answers!

Round 1

1) Blackadder’s Christmas Carol/Rowan Atkinson
2) Scrooge/Alister Simm
3) Die Hard/Bruce Willis
4) Ernest Saves Christmas/Jim Varney
5) Ghostbusters 2/Vilhelm von Homburg
6) Home Alone/McCauley Culkin
7) Jingle all the Way/Arnie
8) Miracle on 34th Street/Richard Attenborough
9) National Lampoons Christmas Vacation/Chevy Chase
10) Nightmare before Christmas/Catherine O’Hara

Round 2

1) Homer Simpson
2) George Clooney
3) Owen Wilson
4) Kirsten Dunst
5) Jennifer Connelly
6) Denise Richards
7) Ben Stiller
8) Cameron Diaz
9) Daniel Radcliffe
10) Emma Watson

Round 3

1) Thank God it’s Christmas/Queen
2) Last Christmas/Wham
3) War is Over/John Lennon
4) Merry Christmas Everyone/Slade
5) Do they know it’s Christmas/Band Aid
6) White Christmas/Bing Crosby
7) Silver Bells/Doris Day
8) Have yourself a Merry little Christmas
9) When a Child is Born/Johnny Mathis
10) Santa Claus is Coming to Town/Michael Bolton

Round 4

1) merry Christmas to Ewe
2) Your Teeth
3) The letter Y
4) Christmas alphabet has no-L
5) Merry Christmas Eve
6) Turkey
7) Cross Mouse cards
8) Mary Christmas
9) he is a Rain deer
10) Contract had a Santa Clause

Until next time then, don't groan too much!

Fun & Games

2007-12-19T21:24:00.000Z

Festive Fun Quiz

Well I have finally found a spare few moments to get the Christmas Quiz posted, it's taken a while and for that I apologise, but as the wife has bought enough off Ebay for this year I get to go on the computer again!!!

OK so here we go have fun with the quiz, and a very Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Round 1 - What Movie
Nice easy one to start with, all the images below are from movies that have a christmas theme running through them. Simply name the film. Oh and the actor featured.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

There not so hard was it??

Next up...

Round 2: - Santa Who
Those pesky make-up Elves have been at it again, this time they've dressed up some stars as Santa. All you have to do is name the star!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Another easy one Eh???

Now onto the round that Will hates, it's the music round!

Round 4: Christmas Carols
A nice round up of Christmas songs, simply name the song and the artist, a couple have been altered slightly (sped up) as it would be far too easy otherwise!

Christmas Tune 1
Christmas Tune 2
Christmas Tune 3
Christmas Tune 4
Christmas Tune 5
Christmas Tune 6
Christmas Tune 7
Christmas Tune 8
Christmas Tune 9
Christmas Tune 10

Finally we have the last round, that could be the hardest of all!

Round 4 - Christmas Crackers

Below are some of the worst ever Christmas cracker jokes, your task is to simply give the punchline or fill in the missing word.

1) What do sheep say to each other at Christmas time?Merry Christmas to ????

2) What's the best thing to put into Christmas dinner? ??????

3) What comes at the end of Christmas Day? ??????

4) What's the difference between the Christmas alphabet and the ordinary alphabet? The Christmas alphabet has ?????

5) What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? ???????

6) What is the best key to get at Christmas? ??????

7) What do angry mice send to each other in December? ????? ?? Cards

8) Knock Knock.Who's there?Mary.Mary who? ??????

9) Why is Rudolph always so wet? Because he ??????

10) Why did the lawyer have to dress up as Father Christmas? His Contract had a ??????

Awful jokes I know but that is why they belong in Christmas Crackers.

Hope the quiz was OK. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Update

2007-12-02T22:16:00.000Z

Back Again!!

At long last I have managed to get a bit of time to put a little bit on the blog. I really didn't realise just how long it has been since I last posted!
Well due to the fact I am not able to get on so often now, I am looking to do a bumper Christmas Quiz, to make up for all the weeks I have missed in not doing one.

I am off to Portugal again on Monday, the 2nd time in 2 weeks, but it's only for 3 days. Then around the UK for a while, and then the following week out to Berlin for the night. Although there are only 13 people working for us at the moment, we are really, really busy, BUT I still manage to get home at a reasonable time, and the company treat me far far better. I am well made up!

Hopefully, I will have enough chance in the next two weeks to put up the quiz, so until then TARRRAAAA!!!

Update

2007-11-02T22:06:00.000Z

Finally!!

Managed to get a couple of minutes of time to come on line. Have started my new job with a company called Brandaroma, that have an idea so simple it is untrue. Bung fragrance into air conditioning to make hotels, casinos and night clubs all smell nice. My job is to install them, so I have been busy, busy busy!!!

Will hope to get a new quiz up some time soon, but this is to let you know I aint dead yet!

Update time

2007-10-21T18:44:00.000Z

A lot has happened!!

Well firstly sorry for not posting earlier, but it's been quite hectic these last two weeks. I have had 3 job interviews (one with an offer), worked two days for the 'possible' new company, and had my expenses from my old job put on hold.
We have also had our holiday next week cancelled, then moved to a different place, and time, before moving to a different place with the same time!
To top it all I have had no real chance to put up the quiz, so for the first time it looks like I will have a quiz free month. Mind you November should be OK as it's firework month and also the end of October marks Halloween, so I might just get in a quiz for then.

I have also discovered a new website that is great for a TV and Movie freak like myself, it's called TVLinks, and I have convieniently put a link to it in the side bar. Loads of Tv series, Films, Cartoons and Music for you to watch, and best of all it is all free!!!!!!!

Have a look and enjoy!

Last Day

2007-10-10T09:45:00.000Z

The Search is ON!!

This is it, today (10/10/07) is my last day in work, and the hunt is on for a new job.

I had an interview yesterday, and it looks like it is a bit better than I the one I am in now, but with the latest Postal strike in the UK just ending, there is a huge back log of mail. Are there any job offers amongst them??? Have interviews been missed?? Who knows but the Post Office deserve a right royal kick up the preverbial backside for their unsympathetic views towards everyone else in the country.

OK I am in the process of doing the next quiz, and it should be up shortly.

Cheers till then!

Entertainment

2007-09-25T07:41:00.000Z

Is CGI what makes a Blockbuster?

The answers to the director's quiz are below this posting, but lets get on with the question in hand. Whilst coming back from Ecuador I managed to watch on the plane "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End". Now I really enjoyed the film, but couldn't help thinking, strip away the special effects and what have you got?? A film that is thinly plotted, and overlong. So do the special effects make the film or does the story??

Have a look at this photo below;

Now would Davey Jones look as good with a mask of rubber like they used to have, with the tentacles only moving when the actor moved his head??? No of course not.

"Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow" is a film that highlights just where films are going, it was shot almost entirely in front of a green/blue screen, with the only real action being a few of the air scenes. Yet when you see the film, you can't really tell that much, yes granted some of it is a bit ropey, but on the whole it knits together quite well. The storyline isn't too bad either, but the thing is the film didn't do that well. Doe's this mean that special effects aren't everything??

Now look at the new release of "Transformers", that is just one big special effects and CGI ride, and it is a blockbuster, so does this mean that special effects ARE everything?? Difficult to tell isn't it?

One of the all time classic films is "Psycho", and that had zero special effects in, it was good because it played on peoples fears and was one hell of a good storyline, if a little simple. Which may go to prove that special effects aren't everything, but then you take into account all the times you have said, wouldn't it be good if they remade that film with better effects?

Sometimes though that doesn't work, "Star Wars" was way ahead of it's time for special effects, but now they look a bit 'modelly', yet I think that the original trilogy is far in a way better than the new up to date films. So again we are questioning whether or not special effects are the most important thing in a film.

Just how many of the so-called blockbusters would have been blockbusters without special effects and CGI?? Not too many that is for sure! I though have to say that for low CGI related films that have been blockbusters, and that have had that adventure/action/comedy appeal, one comes top of the list in my view and that is "Raiders of the Lost Ark", a great film that relied more on story than effects.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Fun & games

2007-09-25T07:23:00.000Z

Director Quiz Answers

Only two entries this time around, and Will only managed a couple of rounds, but still ended up with a very respectable 26. So once again the winner was Keith, who just happened to set the theme of the quiz! With an excellent 40! Please don't blame me if there is some dispute with Hitch's fav film, I got it from the official biography!
So here are those all important answers.

Round 1: The Movie Link

1) Stanley Kubrick – The Shining
2) Alfred Hitchcock – Rear Window
3) George Lucas – Star Wars
4) Ridley Scott – GI Jane
5) Spike Lee – Malcolm X

All nominated for but never received a best director oscar

Round 2: Directors cut

1) Clint Eastwood
2) Paul Haggis
3) Steven Soderbergh
4) Stephen Spielberg
5) Martin Scorsese
6) Peter Jackson
7) Robert Zemeckis
8) James Cameron
9) Oliver Stone
10) Sam Mendes

Who are all incidently Best Director Winners!

Round 3: My Direction Music

1) Kim Wilde/Cambodia
2) Ultravox/Vienna
3) J Geils Band/Centrefold
4) Cock Robin/The promise you made
5) Limhal/Never ending story
6) Pet Shop Boys/West End Girls
7) Baltimory/Tarzan Boy
8) Call Me/Blondie
9) Jonah Luis/Stop the Calvary
10) Kelly Marie/Feels like I’m in love

Round 4: Quizzicles – Hitch

1) The lodger
2) An extra in the news room
3) Saint Ignatius College
4) Alma Reville
5) 14th August 1899
6) She was 1 day older
7) Benji!
8) Gave him a letter to take to the local police station where upon reading it the desk sergeant would lock him up for ten minutes!
9) He never drove
10) 7
11) Bowel Movement
12) Eggs
13) Luis Bunuel
14) True
15) Der Mude Tod

Update

2007-09-14T21:18:00.000Z

Travel and Other Things

Hi folks, haven't been able to get on for ages due to all the travel I have been doing, indeed I am writing this from an internet shop in Riobamba Ecuador!
A LOT has happend since my last post, apart from the travel of course, and I will be putting up the answers to the directors quiz next week I hope. The directors quiz can't be as hard as Will's Silver Screen Goddesses quiz, that's for sure. Go on check it out, using the Hilarity Ensues link.
Anyway where was I, Oh yes a lot has happened in the last week or so, for a start I have handed in my notice, so I now only have 3 weeks to find a job. But 2 of those weeks are taken up with Ecuador, and then my last week they want me to go to Saudi again! I feel a business class trip in the offing.
They are pretty desperate to keep me, even offering contractor rates if I will do some jobs for them should I not have a job to go to. But the firm is not the best to work for, and they do not really look after you, so I would have to think twice on that, unless of course they pay $50 an hour!!!
Funny thing is two guys who I work with told me to register with the same agency, which I did at around 9am in the morning before I left, at midday I had a phone call saying they had the perfect job for me....fast work or what!

So that is that, my next to last trip, and then I am more or less a free agent! Which means I should be able to post a bit more often, until next time then Adios Amigos

Fun & Games

2007-08-30T23:10:00.000Z

Directors Quiz

Well fun and games pretty much describes what has been happening to me over the past few weeks. I have visited 5 sites in the States going from Phoenix to Iowa, to South Carolina and then Miami and then back to South Carolina! That last trip being tagged on with the view of "go or else". Worse still the last site, who my work INSISTED I went to, was not ready!!!!! Good theme then for this week - Directors, as my lot have only one sense of direction, and that is down!

Hey ho, on with the quiz

Round 1: Movie Link

OK quite simple I just want the name of the film, and it's Director, then tell me what links the directors.

Round 2: The Directors Cut

We all know how film companies like to release director's cuts of films, well I like to cut directors, so here are 10 that have a shredded look. Just name them.

10)

Round 3: A Musical interlude

OK do you know how hard it is to try and find music that relates to directors?? So I yes me, I am the director of music for this quiz, and my directorial debut centres around music of the 80's, simply name the song and artist.

80s clip 1
80s clip 2
80s clip 3
80s clip 4
80s clip 5
80s clip 6
80s clip 7
80s clip 8
80s clip 9
80s clip 10

Round 4: Quizzicals on Hitchcock
OK a few questions now based on probably the best director of the lot, The Hitch, The Master of Suspense, yes 15 questions on Alfred Hitchcock.
1) Apart from directing many great films Hitchcock also reportedly had a cameo in them all, but what was the 1st film he directed and ‘starred’ in?
2) In relation to question 1 what part did he play?
3) Which school did Hitchcock attend?
4) What was the name of Hitchcock’s wife?
5) When was she born?
6) What was their age gap?
7) One of Hitchcock’s two guilty pleasure films was Smokey and the Bandit, but what was the other?
8) As a child how would Hitchcock’s father punish him if he misbehaved?
9) How long did Alfred Hitchcock hold a driving licence for?
10) What was his favourite number?
11) He often used the initials BM in his films, what did BM stand for?
12) What was it he had a morbid fear of?
13) Who did HE consider as the best director ever?
14) He appeared on a US stamp, true or false?
15) What was his favourite film?

Fun & Games

2007-08-21T21:50:00.000Z

Magic Quiz Answers

So by the looks of things you all know your Harry Potter stars, as all of you got 100% on that round! But who won the quiz this week??
Twice in a row that I know of now, the winner was Keith with a whopping 71 out of 75!!

Here are the scores on the doors;

Keith - 71
Mark - 69
Mum - 62
Will - 55

All very good scores, so I will have to try and tax you a bit more on the Directors Quiz, that I am preparing next.

Here then are the all important answers;

Round 1: Movie Link

1) Escape to Witch Mountain
2) Blair Witch Project
3) Narnia The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe
4) Witches
5) The Witches of Eastwick

Link all have a witch in the title

Round 2: Potty about Potter

1) Stanislav Lanevski – Victor Krum
2) Mirian Margolyes – Professor Sprout
3) Kenneth Branagh – Gilderoy Lockhart
4) Alan Rickman – Professor Snape
5) Warwick Davis – Professor Flitwick
6) Richard Griffiths – Vernon Dursley
7) Evanna Lynch – Luna Lovegood
8) Timothy Spall – Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail
9) Robert Pattinson – Cedric Diggory
10) Matthew Lewis – Neville Longbottom

Warwick Davis played more than one part.

Round 3: Musical Magic

1) Puff the Magic Dragon – Peter Paul & Mary
2) Every little thing she does is Magic – Ra (I accepted Police)
3) C’est la vie – Bewitched
4) Genie in a bottle – Christina Aguilera
5) The Power – Snap
6) Pinball Wizard – The Who
7) See my Baby Jive – Wizzard
8) Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles
9) Magic Moments – Perry Como (Accepted Frank Sinatra)
10) I put a spell on You – nina Simone

Round 4: Quizzicles of magic Some fiction some fact, but all Magic.

1) Wand lengths for Harry, Ron and Hagrid
2) Roy Wood
3) Debbie Mcghee
4) 62442 (MAGIC on a telephone pad!)
5) Quidditch
6) Dumbledore
7) Never tickle a sleeping dragon
8) Mark Wilson
9) It is part Kneazel
10) Tommy Cooper
11) “You’re going to like this not a lot, but you’ll like it!”
12) Give away his/her secrets
13) Claudia Schiffer
14) Opens locked doors
15) Pug
16) David Blaine
17) 175417
18) Kenmore Kestrals or Ireland
19) Ernie
20) Polyjuice Potion

Travel

2007-08-13T09:26:00.000Z

No let up yet!

Firstly thanks to all those who have entered the magic quiz so far, I hope to be putting up some answers next week, and then I hope to be putting the new quiz up a little after that. It is going to be based on directors, so get those thinking caps ready. All entrants have done brilliant in the quiz, and that is all I am going to say.

I have not posted so much lately as I have in the last month spent the majority of time in Saudi Arabia and have not had an internet connection.
In fact the last site I went to I didn't even have a mobile phone signal! Makes you realise that whatever we did before mobile phones must have been something special, cause now I find it very nearly impossible to manage without one.

Still I had been home a little over 3 hours when my fantastic company phoned and said I was to go away again. This time to the States, which I don't mind at all, especially with the dollar been so low. Ohhhh what to buy.......

Right I am going to get off and book my hire car, but before I do I will leave you with a little question.

Will BOTH Petrelli brothers be in the new series of Heroes???

Fun & Games

2007-07-26T12:51:00.001Z

Quiztime - The Magic Quiz

Here we go then with the new quiz, and this time around the theme is, as promised a magical one. Well all this Harry Potter talk, what with the new film and book, made me think that there couldn't realy be any other theme.

So without further ado lets get started.

Round 1: Movie Links
Dead easy this week, all you have to do is name the film, you don't even have to give the actors and actresses. But what I do want is the think that links them all together.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Possible total of 10

Round 2: Potty about Potter
All the following actors have appeared in the Harry Potter films,all you have to do is to identify the actor and tell me what character they played. Trouble is they have all been subjected to the Waviosa Imagara spell!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Now for an additional 5 bonus points tell me why picture 5 is the odd one out and the reason why, for a total in this round of 25 points.

Round 3: Musical Magical Mystery

We now have some clips of music that have a magical theme, simply identify the artist and song. But be careful some of the easier ones have had the Chipmunk Magic applied to disguise those voices.

clip1
clip2
clip3
clip4
clip5
clip6
clip7
clip8
clip9
clip10

20 points on offer here

Round 4: Quizzicles of magic

Some fiction some fact, but all Magic.

1) What do the lengths 11”, 14”, and 16” represent?
2) Wizzard were a famous Glam Rock band in the seventies, but who was their lead singer?
3) Paul Daniels a well known British magician, had his wife as his glamorous assistant, but who was she?
4) What code does Arthur Weasley type into the numeric keyboard to gain entry to the Ministry of Magic?
5) In the 11th century Queerditch Marsh was the place a new game was invented, what game?
6) It’s an old fashioned word for bumble bee, but also a character in the Harry Potter books, what is it?
7) Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus is the Hogwarts motto, but what does it mean?
8) Who was credited to be the first TV magician?
9) What is odd about Hermione Granger’s cat?
10) “Just like that” was a catchphrase of a magician turned comedian and sadly no longer with us, who was it?
11) Speaking of catchphrases, what was Paul Daniels’s catchphrase?
12) What must a magician never do?
13) David Copperfield had a famous partner, who was it?
14) Alohomora is a very useful spell, but what does it do?
15) One of the best fantasy novels around written by Raymond E Feist centres on a young boy destined to become the greatest magician of all time, what is the young lad’s name?
16) Born April 4 1973 he is one of the most amazing illusionists there is, who is he?
17) What does the guy in question 16 have tattooed on his left forearm?
18) What team does Seamus Finnigan support?
19) Who is the driver of the Knight Bus?
20) Lacewing flies stewed 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, shredded boomslang skin, a personal ingredient all form the making of what potion?

20 points available here too.

Harry Potter

2007-07-26T07:39:00.000Z

Thank's Harry

Well even though I am only on the chapter named after the book, The Daethly Hallows, I can safely say that this is probably going to be one of the best books in the series. I am only managing to read one hours worth a night at the moment, otherwise it would have been finished long ago.

Now when the book was released my home town of Corby had a special Harry Potter day, to celebrate the release. Magicians, owls and competitions abounded. One of those competitions was a Harry Potter trail, where kids (and adults) could win Severus Snape's wand. All they had to do was to go around the town, looking at the shop windows for posters containing objects from the books.

Well, there must have been quite a few people who entered, and the winner was drawn out of a hat (the sorting hat!). The winner??? None other than my son Adam!!! Now as he is only two, I have had to take the wand into my custody until he comes of age and can have it. Do you think 65, is a good enough age???

Now a question for anyone that can answer it. What do the symbols mean on the wand box? An example of this is shown in the top left of the picture above. I know the answer, but do you?

Fun & Games

2007-07-24T07:48:00.000Z

Quiz Answers

Just two people battled it out this month, and went head to head for the coverted prize of quizmaster of the month.
But each did very well, the results well here you go;

Keith - 43
Mum - 30

So Keith won by a long stretch, although my mum did get Ferry to Hong Kong right, and I didn't expect many to get that at all! So Keith if you would do the honours for me and suggest a theme for a quiz, I will get on it and try to create one on that theme.

As there is so much going on with Harry Potter at the moment, the next quiz to go up is going to have the theme of MAGIC!! Well it seems appropriate really.

Anyway here are the answers

Round 1: Movie Link

1) Speed, 2) Under Siege, 3) Airplane!,4) Taxi Driver, 5)Ferry to Hong Kong

Link: - All films feature different forms of Public transport (1-Bus, 2-train, 3-plane, 4-taxi, 5-Ferry)

Round 2: Roadies!

1) Abigail Breslin/Little Miss Sunshine, 2) Susan Sarandon & Geena Davis/Thelma and Louise
3) Duel, 4) Mel Gibson/Mad Max, 5) Tom Green/Road Trip, 6)Woody Harrelson & Juliette Lewis/Natural Born Killers, 7) Paul Giamatti & Thomas Haden Church/Sideways, 8) Sean Bean/The Hitcher, 9) Dustin Hoffman & Tom Cruise/Rain Man, 10) Peter Fonda/Easy Rider

Round 3: Anthems

1) France, 2) Serbia, 3) Canada, 4) Costa Rica, 5) Ecuador, 6) Mexico, 7) USA, 8) India, 9) China, 10) Saudi Arabia

All places I have been to with work!!

Round 4: Quizzicles

1) New York, 2) Goathland, 3) HeartBeat, 4) Angola, 5) Hawaii, 6) December 28th 1978, 7) Mark Thatcher, 8) Rob and Brennan, 9) Lawyers, 10) UK

Weekly Question

2007-07-20T12:49:00.000Z

Is this REALLY the last Potter Book?

There are now less than 12 hours to wait as I write this, for the most eagerly waited book in history. Well according to pre-realease sales figures it is.

Yes "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released at midnight tonight (20th July) and we will all finally find out who bites the bullet, if Harry, Hermoine, and Ron all live. And if Snape really is a goody or a baddie.

A lot of people aren't really bothered about the book, and will be just as eager to ruin it for the rest of us 'fans' by giving away plot lines and the ending. Which is why I am glad to be going away again soon, once more to Saudi, so little chance of my enjoyment being ruined.

But is this REALLY the end of the Potter books?? J.K. Rowling has always said she was only going to do 7 novels, all following Harry through 'senior' school. But is she really going to call time on such a hugely popular series? IF Harry has survived the encounter in the last of the books, surely we are gong to want to know what happens to Harry after leaving school? As well as all his school friends and enemies.

I think there is some truth in the fact J.K. has written her last children's book on Harry, as this is what it always started as. But remember how much the books have become a lot darker, and have grown as Harry has. May be there is a good reason for writing an adult book on Harry, we shall see.

Whatever happens, the gulf that is going to be left when the last of the books has been made into a film is going to be Vacuumous. What will there be to fill the void? Who knows what series of books will take the place of Mr. Potter, but I for one believe in all honesty that we really aven't seen the last of J.K. foray into the world of Hogworts.

Travel

2007-07-07T15:18:00.000Z

Stranded!

Just a quick post, to try and gain some sympathy. I arrived here at Heathrow airport at 8:30am in good time for my flight to Saudi at 11:45. Got on the plane, nice and comfy, when it got to around 12:15 we still hadn't moved. Captain came on saying the aircraft had a hydraulic problem, and they didn't know how long it would be. At 2pm he told us we had to get off as the plane needed a spare part that was to come from another airport.

Result : - Plane now due to leave at 6PM!!!, I am due to get to Saudi now, not at 8:40 pm which would have been lovely, but rather at 2am!!!!!! AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Will probably not be able to post for next 12 days so ADIOS AMIGOS

Rant time

2007-07-04T09:53:00.000Z

Wasteful Plastic Packaging

OK I am going to have a rant, and this just may be the start of something regular on the blog. After all there are so many things that you can rant about aren't there? So many things that get right up your nose, and have you swearing and cursing every living thing, and inanimate object around.

So what has got my goat up??

This has:-

No it's not the product itself, that is not a problem, the problem was getting into it, a totally sealed plastic package! You need a knife or pair of scissors at the very least to open it. Then you look a little closer and find that instructions are normally placed just where you cut the plastic. Result, the VITAL piece of instruction has been cut through and is now un-bloody readable!

But what if you don't have a pair of scissors or knife to hand? Worse still, what if the scissors aren't sharp enough, what then?? Then once you have got inside, or rather you have split the plastic to gain access, you run the risk of splitting your fingers open on the razor sharp plastic edges!

I have seen at airports people buy things like memory sticks and flash cards, then struggle and curse when they discover these aesthetically beautiful bits of packaging that so neatly hold their prized possessions. Are in fact evil mechanisms designed to invoke sheer rage on the consumer. Unless they have the type that you can pull open, but even then chances are you pull too hard and the contents go flyng.

What I do is to cut around the product with a sharp knife and then lift the cut plastic away, that way you don't destroy anything.

Then there is the things that the kids toys are packaged in. Toys wired to the box, so you have to try, and I mean try and get the things out for the little angels without damaging the box. You manage to do that and then discover to your horror that the bloody ties are threaded that tight on the toy you can't get the sodding things off! AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I don't know what sadist thought up this style of packaging, but whoever it was needs to be locked up with a roomful of products in it, and told to open them all, without the aid of a knife, or scissors, and with the proviso that for every set of instructions damaged he will receive another 10 packages to open. Let's see just how much the bugger likes that!

Fun & Games

2007-06-26T11:04:00.000Z

Travel Quiz
As I go way a lot, I thought it would be an idea to base this (new monthly) quiz, on travel. Plus you have got around a month to do it.

Round 1: Movie Links
Nice and easy to start this time, simply name the films and tell me what links them together.

1)

Possible Score: - 10 points

Round 2: Road Warriors
The following celebrities all feature in so called "Road Movies", the simple task for you is to name the star/s and the film they are from, except for number 3 where I just want the film.

3)
4)

10)

Possible score: 23 points

Round 3: Travel Anthems

Not really travel anthems in the rock and roll sense, more of the nationalistic pride sense. Yes folks simply identify the country by these national anthems, be careful though as not all of them are the start of the national anthem ;)

1)Anthem 1
2)Anthem 2
3)Anthem 3
4)Anthem 4
5)Anthem 5
6)Anthem 6
7)Anthem 7
8)Anthem 8
9)Anthem 9
10)Anthem 10

Possible score: 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

The last round now, and again it is the quizzicles, this time with a travel theme to them.

1) Which city is the most filmed city in the world?
2) What is the name of the real station that doubles as Hogsmeade Station in Harry Potter films?
3) What other TV series is this village station famous for?
4) Which country uses the Kwanza as it’s currency?
5) Which American state flys the Union Jack?
6) The Paris to Dakar Rally is world famous, but on what date did the first one start?
7) In 1982 a famous ladys son was lost for 6 days in the desert whilst competing in the Dakar, but what was his name?
8) The Amazing Race, is a TV show in which competitors race each other over the globe, but who won the first one?
9) And on the subject of question 8, what were their professions?
10) There are 52(in my mind!) sorry 50 states in America, but where is generally known as the 51st state?

Possible score: 10

A total of 53 points on offer then, the best of luck to you all.

Travel

2007-06-26T10:40:00.000Z

Saudi land of Sand,

So another trip beckons, this time to Saudi, and more than likely I am going to be away for a couple of weeks this time as I have a few places to go to.
What it also means is that I will be living on the site's accomodation, which isn't too good as normally there is no internet connections, and the accomodation is pretty ropey. But at least I will lose some much needed weight.

Which all goes to mean I am going to be putting up the quiz, either today or tomorrow depending on the risk of been caught using the net by the boss.

Joy of Joys though I still have Libiya and Indonesia (possibly) to look forward to, plus quite a few in the States (my favourite!), and some in Equador.

I just have to do a few more questions and then quiz will be posted, remember you have a full month this time to answer, not that a lot of you need it.

New Look

2007-06-23T21:46:00.000Z

OK it's a Start!

Only a short post this time, I have done away with a few of the things from the old version of the site, and no longer have the click to continue thing, which was probably a bit of a pain.

Colour scheme is different too. So hopefully it is not so painful on the eyes. But not a lot else has changed really.

I hope I can put up the quiz soon, and this will be July's quiz, it's going to be based on travel, so expect a few road movie questions.

Now I am off to Will's site to check his reviews.

Entertainment

2007-06-21T07:58:00.000Z

Sprucing it up

Just thought that I would change my blog, to make it a little more appealing. Also, I am getting bored with the same colour scheme all the time. Just wondered what would be a better one for the blog? It will be changed soon

But on another subject now...

Movie Review: - Se7en

It's been a while since I have seen the film Seven so I thought that I would watch it again, when it came on the TV recently. I also wanted to know if they would cut any of it, and if so how much they would cut it by. Thankfully it wasn't cut at all, although that may have something to do with the fact it went out after the water-shed. That is another thing that bugs me, why do some channels (BBC!) rip a film to shreds ruining it, yet other channels keep it intact enhancing our viewing pleasure - more on that later, anyway on with the review.

For those that haven't seen it Se7en is a film that follows 2 detectives Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman on the trail of a serial killer John Doe (brilliantly played by Kevin Spacey), who is intent on killing people and highlighting their sin, each of the seven deadly sins must be ticked off for John Doe to 'win'.

The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones with visual effects that made me think that I was glad I wasn't eating at the time.

Sommerset (Morgan Freeman) has seen just about it all, due for retirement this is to be his last case, so he researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while green Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer, which could lead to his undoing.

As the detectives close in on Doe, the killings become more and more graphic, finally they catch their man, but there is still one Deadly Sin that has yet to be completed. Gluttony * Greed * Sloth * Envy * Pride * Lust, are all there, only Wrath is missing, until a square cardboard box turns up for Detective Mills.

Overall this is a very clever film, and although I knew what the twist was at the end, it still didn't ruin my enjoyment of the film. Both actors play their respective roles brilliantly, although I don't think there is enough screen time given to Kevin Spacey, he truly makes you hate him, and believe he really is totally evil.
There are a few jumpy moments in the film and not a lot of humour. Hilarity Ensues certainly doesn't in this film.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Gwynneth Paltrow

Certificate 18

Rating: *****

Entertainment

2007-06-19T07:56:00.000Z

RIP Bernard Manning

One of the UK's most controversial comics died yesterday, at the age of 76. For some Bernard Manning represented a racist pig who loved the attention of the controversy he caused with his Politcally Incorrect jokes. For others he was a comic genius who did tireless work for charity, and was just misunderstood. In my mind both are true, but why should anyone be bothered he made us laugh, and that is all that mattered.

The reason I have put the photo up I have is not to try to be offensive, it is to prove a point. Bernard Manning stuck a finger up to those in authority, and those that called him racist, he didn't care what people thought of him, he just wanted to make people laugh. But when are jokes not funny, should we really be worried about causing offence, and why do we now rather than years ago worry about what comics say?

Read on please...

When I was a lad I used to love watching Jim Davidson, another of the UK's controversial comics. He used to have is own show, and had a character called Chalkie on it, now chalkie was Jim Davidson's take of a coloured man of West Indian origin. Indeed he released a record using the voice called "White Chrissy mass". Did people care then? No we all had a good laugh, and I suspect so did 80% of West Indians.

But if he was to do the same today, there would be an outcry, in my huble opinion Political Correctness, has gone mad, and is ruining the country and yes OK the world.

Now have a look at this joke;

"There was an Englishman, a Cuban, a Japanese man and a Pakistani on a train. The Cuban throws a cigar out of the window, saying they are "ten-a-penny" in his country. The Japanese man throws a Nikon camera out, saying they are ten-a-penny in his country. Then the Englishman throws the Pakistani out the window. "

That was NOT a Manning joke, it was said at an after dinner speech by Ann Winterton, an MP in the cabinet, she had to resign after that.

There is no getting away from the fact that jokes are designed to be funny, they are not a means to be offensive toward certain races, they just reflect a way of life, and life in general. In the above example substitute "Swiss" for Pakistani, and the joke doesn't have the same impact.

OFFENSIVE WARNING!!

Some people may find the following jokes offensive, they are from Bernard Manning, and I think it shows how we stereotype people, which is what Manning played on.

"A Jewish doctor gave a man six months to live. The patient couldn't pay his bills so the doctor gave him another six months."

To an elderly man making his way back to his seat: "Was it cold in the ground this morning?"

"I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included."

Yorkshire couple go to Majorca for their first holiday abroad. Being typical Brits abroad, they don't trust the local food, and as it's a Sunday they start cooking a roast dinner.

Unfortunately they've forgotten the gravy granules, so Maureen says to Geoffrey:"I'm sure the couple next door are English, go and ask them if they've got some"

So off he goes, knocks on the door, and sure enough a bloke in Union Jack shorts opens the door

Geoffrey asks politely: "Hast thou any Bisto??"

The bloke says: "F*!k off you Spanish t*!t"

Little pakistani bloke goes to heaven & knocks on the pearly gates

St Peter answers & calls out "Name?"

Mohammed

St Peter shouts out "Anyone up here call a taxi?"

I would say there is enough material there to offend a few people, but there is far far worse, and I don't want to be banned for putting up things that are more offensive. I have added a warning which I think should cover things.

The truth is though, no matter where you go there will ALWAYS be jokes that are offensive to SOMEONE, whether they are black, white, hispanic, jewish, gay, handicapped, whatever, but the comedien Frank Carson summed it up. "A joke is what it is a joke, made to make people laugh and people will always laugh beacause it's the way I tell em"

Quiz Answers

2007-06-15T09:55:00.000Z

Fantasy Quiz Answers

Well, unfortunately there were only 2 people who had a go at the quiz this time round, so to allow more time for people to post their answers, I am now gong to do the quiz once a month.
It probably makes more sense to do so.

So let see who won, well it wasn't my mum, she did manage to get all the quizzicles questions right, but finished on 12 out of 45. So the winner HANDS DOWN, was WILL who only missed one question, for an INCREDIBLE 44 out of 45.

The alien you missed will, was from the film Wing Commander.

Check the answers by clicking continue.

Round 1: Movie Links

1) Bridgette Wilson/Mortal Kombat
2) Milla Jokavich/Resident Evil
3) The Rock/Doom
4) Raul Julia/Street Fighter
5) David Warner/Wing Commander

Link: All started out as video games

Round 2: Aliens

1) War of the Worlds
2) Dark City
3) Pass the Salt or Slither
4) Wing Commander
5) Species
6) Star Wars
7) Alien
8) Men in Black 2
9) The Thing
10) Starship troopers

Round 3: Sound bites

1) 2001 a space odyssey
2) Aliens
3) Batman and Robin
4) Blade runner
5) The day the earth stood still
6) Dragonheart
7) The Fifth Element
8) Independence Day
9) Princess bride
10) Ghostbusters

Round 4: Quizzicles

1) Dragonlance
2) Jacob and Wilhelm
3) Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
4) John Ronald Reuel
5) Labyrinth
6) Between 34 and 64, no-one really knows
7) Tribbles
8) It was never finished
9) Ganymede
10) The Ankh Morpork City Watch, from the Discworld novels

DVD Covers

2007-06-14T13:58:00.000Z

DVD Covers - HEROES

The answers to the quiz should be going up tomorrow, as long as I have time to do so. Which at the moment I have got tons of!
To prove the point I have done some more DVD covers, this time for the Unsurpassed TV series "Heroes".
Now they may look the same, and the basic template is, but when you put all 5 of them together, they give you another image along the spines! Which hopefully I have got right.

See what you think...

Episodes 1 to 5

Episodes 6 to 10

Episodes 11 to 15

Episodes 16 to 20

Episodes 21 to 23

DVD and Other Stuff

2007-06-12T14:09:00.000Z

Quick Post

Well I am a little bit disappointed to be honest, so far I have had only one person enter the quiz, well you only have until Friday so get a move on!

I am away again the end of this week, either Saturday or Sunday (hopefully Sunday). This time it is to Egypt, but it's only a short one this time before the longer one to do 6 systems in Saudi Arabia oh the Joy of it all. Then not long after that I will be winging my way to yet another Middle Eastern country.... LIBYA!!!!!

So to keep my mind occupied I have produced another DVD cover (seem to be doing a few lately!) This one is for all you Harry Potter fans.

Do the usual and click continue to see it small size, then click on the image to see it full size.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

DVD Covers

2007-06-08T09:57:00.000Z

DVD Covers

As a few of you may know I enjoy making DVD covers for films, in the hope that one day a big company will spot them and sign me up to do some designs for them. Yeah and may be we will see the International Pig Airport for flying pigs be built soon too.

Anyway, jus click continue to see the latest ones;

At World's End

Transformers

Weekly Question

2007-06-06T10:21:00.000Z

Will We Ever Colonise the Moon?

I am sticking with the space/fantasy theme of the quiz this week for my question, as I wanted to know your views on whether or not we will colonise the moon.

One of my favourite shows when I was a kid was SPACE 1999, to see a base on the moon really fired up my imagination, and as I watched it in the 70's, I thought that it was only a matter of time before it happened for real. Indeed I was hoping I would be one of those piloting an Eagle Transporter.

So what happend? Why are we not there yet?

A lot of it has to do with money, and the huge costs involved in sending someone into space, it also has to do with the method of sending them. Although the price has come down an awful lot, is it still viable to spend the inordinate amount of dosh required? Well a few millionaires seem to think so, as more and more are orbiting the earth.

The International Space Station is being built, and loads of nations are committed to it, and willing to use it. But are any of them considering actually building on the moon? Will we be seeing sights such as the image below on our TV screens any time soon.

Somehow I don't think we will.

But I do think that we will be needing to look somewhere to ease the increasing population on Earth. It can't sustain us for much longer, so we ar going to have to look at alternatives, forget Mars, that is just a pipe dream. We need to concentrate on things closer, and that one thing is the moon.

I cannot see any way we will be able to be on the moon in my lifetime, but I hope there might be a way in my kids lifetimes. After all they are only 7 and 2, so there is a good chance. May be they will even be living in something like this...

So I would be interested to know your thoughts on it.

For further reading try;

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon

Fun & Games

2007-06-05T11:16:00.000Z

Quiztime - Fantasy and Space

Here we go again for the quiz, and this time it has a Spacey/Fantasy theme, so hopefully it will get the old grey cells ticking!
Now Rollo, if you finish top again this time around it will be 3 on the trot, and that will give you the right to choose the theme for the next quiz.

I would offer a cash incentive as a prize, but I am not that loaded, and I am a bit of a tight wad, so it's just for fun.... for now?!?
Oh and Will, no music questions this week, so you should be pleased about that, I do have some 'interesting' soundbites though!

So just click Continue for the quiz.

Round 1: Movie Link

Not too hard to spot the link this week I think, so for an extra mark after you have given the name of the actress/actor and film plus the link, can you tell me the order the films come in starting with the oldest and finishing with the newest?

Round 2: Celebrity Bugs

There have been tons of films that have aliens and creatures in them, here are just a few of those. All I want to know is the film that they are from.

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Round 3: Sound of ???

Now onto the music round, only this time there is no music. All I want to know is the name of the film that these soundbites are from. Click on the blue arrow to listen to it.

1) Sound 1

2) Sound 2

3) Sound 3

4) Sound 4

5) Sound 5

6) Sound 6

7) Sound 7

8) Sound 8

9) Sound 9

10) Sound 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

The usual set of easy questions to answer;

1) Flint Fireforge, Tanis Half-Elf, Tasslehoff Burrfoot and Strum Brightblade are all characters from which fantasy book series?
2) The Brothers Grim wrote many fairy stories, but what were the names of the Brothers?
3) HAL was the name of the computer in Arthur C. Clarkes ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ But what does HAL stand for?
4) What do the initials J.R.R stand for in J.R.R Tolkien’s name?
5) What fantasy film starred a 15 year old Jennifer Connelly, and a slightly older David Bowie?
6) How many known moons/satellites does Saturn currently have?
7) Little furry balls caused no end of problems for the Star Trek crew, but what was the name of these bothersome critters?
8) Long before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi directed an animated epic of Lord of the Rings, but what was unusual about the end of the movie?
9) What is the largest moon in our solar system?

10) Commander Vimes, Corporal Nobby Nobbs, Captain Carrot, Sergeant Colon and Sergeant Anguna are all members of what illustrious group of people?

Fun and Games

2007-05-27T19:34:00.000Z

Quiz Answers

I am back home now from the visit to Alberta and Utah, but as I go on Holiday tomorrow (Memorial Day), I am putting up the answers to last times quiz today.

Thanks to all those that had a go, and a special welcome to the 'newbie, quiz guys. Well I thought I could throw in a couple of stinkers, but you weren't all fooled. Pleased I beat you all on the link between the two gentlemen in the fuzzy pictures round though!

But, without further ado, the winner of the quiz for the 2nd time in a row was Rollo with 49! Brilliant score, and something for Will to watch out for, he now has competition!

Other scores were;

Rollo - 49
Agrajag - 37
Mum - 21
Will - 20

Mind you Will did say he didn't have much time.

OK click continue for those all important answers, and sorry about the fuzzy pic link!

Round 1: Movie Round

1) Bruce Willis/Sixth Sense
2) Milla Jovovich/Joan of Arc
3) Chris Tucker/Rush Hour
4) Lee evans/Magic Roundabout
5) Gary Oldman/Prisoner of Azkaban

Link: all starred in The Fifth Element

Round 2: Celebs

1) Brion James
2) John Ritter
3) Tim Allen
4) Pierce Brosnan
5) Hulk Hogan
6) Kate Capshaw
7) Amy Irving
8) Kim Basinger
9) Ruby Wax
10) Chaka Khan

2 links are: Brion James & John Ritter both died of Heart Attacks aged 54, and Kate Capshaw and Amy Irving who were married to Stephen Spielberg.

Round 3: Sound bites – Beat the Intro

1) Eternal Flame – The Bangles
2) Licence to Kill – Gladys Knight
3) With or Without You – U2
4) Drive – The Cars
5) When a man loves a Woman – Percy Sledge
6) Crash & Burn – Savage Garden
7) Hotel California – The Eagles
8) Millennium – Robbie Williams
9) Mmmbopp – Hanson
10) Stayin Alive – The Bee Gee’s

Round 4: Quizzicles

1) Which Conceptual artist wrapped islands in Pink plastic sheets to make the worlds largest work of art? Christo
2) Who received applause for a record 1 hour 20 minutes after an operatic performance in 1991? Placido Domingo
3) Which Italian actress spent 17 days in prison for tax fraud in 1982? Sophia Loren
4) Which actor was the first to become a Lord in 1970? Laurence Olivier
5) Who was infamous body snatcher William Hare’s partner in crime? William Blake
6) What was the surname of the brothers that collaborated to produce the first breakfast cereal? Kellogg
7) “Moon River” was a number one hit in 1961 for who? Danny Williams
8) Sgt. Pepper Anderson was a character in which TV series? Police Woman
9) Directed by Stephen Spielburg, and written by J.G. Ballard what was it? Empire of the Sun
10) Which queen was discovered to be bald at the time of her execution? Mary Queen of Scots

Next Quiz will be after my holiday around first week in June.

Thanks Again!

Movie Review

2007-05-17T12:53:00.000Z

Children of Men & Epic Movie

It has been a while since I wrote a movie review, so I thought I would do a couple. These are of the films that I saw on the plane to India, so you will have to appreciate the review is based on watching the film on a 7 inch screen with a pair of dodgy headphones. Surprisingly though it didn't spoil my enjoyment of one of the films, and the other one probably belongs on a 7 inch screen, and would be far better without sound at all.

If you want to read what I think just click continue, I welcome any comments, and your views if you have seen the film as well.

Children of Men

Based in a dismal future of 2027, where illegal immigrants are caged like animals, awaiting deportation, we find Theo Falon (Clive Owen). An ex-activist turned bureaucrat, who is not too happy with his work and hates the way the world has become. The news that has the whole world mourning is that the youngest person in the world has just died, referred to as a baby even though he was 18 years old hints at the sheer desperation of the world. For something has happened to make people infertile, although we never discover what.

Because Theo works in the right department and knows the right people he is asked by his ex-wife Julien (Julianne Moore) to get a free travel pass for a particularly important illegal immigrant, a Fijian called Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), who miraculously is pregnant.

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London

Something goes wrong however, and Theo has to escort Kee to the Human Project, a sanctuary from the world in which they are currently living.

I have to say I really enjoyed this film, although in parts there was dialogue that I didn't really think was relevant, and it could easily have been removed. The futuristic, dark and bleak view of London 20 years from now was superbly filmed, as were the handy-cam sections of the film, this included blood splatters on the camera lens that really added to the effect given.

A pretty reasonable cameo type role from Michael Caine as Jasper, gave a good background into Theo's break-up with his ex-wife, and added to the desperation and sadness of his character.

Children of Men was I feel left open, we did not see a few things, like what became of the midwife (Pam Ferris), or if the Human Project did actually exist. It would be nice if they made a follow up to tie up the loose ends.

Not a chick flick, but still a very well made film.

Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire Hope Ashitey

Rating: ****

Epic Movie

This is the other "film" I saw on the plane to India, now I use the term film very loosely when applying it to this PAP!

It follows the story of 4 orphans, who win Golden Tickets for a fantastic adventure. When they get to the chocolate factory they realise that Wonka has been adding human flesh for the flavouring and they are next on the list. So they have to hide. Oh wow they find a wardrobe that transports them to Gnarnia (the G is silent for copyright reasons). Cue Hlarity?? Well NO, the only good thing I can say about this drivel is the performance of Adam Cambell as Capt. Jack Swallow. The rest just didn't offer one single smile, one single laugh. It was utter, utter pants! Not as bad as Hardware but bloody close.

The only Epic about the film in my opinion is the Epic waste of time and money spent doing it.

Starring ; Come on be serious!

Rating: 1/10 of a * and that is been genrous!

Fun & Games

2007-05-16T19:37:00.000Z

Quiz time

Hi again ladies and gents and once again it's time for the quiz, now this week's theme is... there is no theme!

That's right it's total pot luck this time around although the celebrity painting round (Round 2) has the common theme of 54 running through it.

It was quite a hard one last week, so hopefully I have tuned it just right this week. So without further ado, click continue to do the quiz.

Round 1: Movie Link

Same job as always simply name the star, the name of the film it is from, and then tell me what links them all.

Round 2: Picture Celebrity

These celebrities have been given a touch up with an artists brush, simply name the celebrity, and for the bonus points name the two men that are connected in some way, and the two women that are connected in some way. Don't worry the men and women aren't connected (as far as I know!).

9)

10)

Round 3: Beat the Intro

This one is pretty easy, just click on the blue arrow to listen to the intro of a song, and tell me the name of the song and who the group/singer is.

1) Clip 1
2) Clip 2
3) Clip 3
4) Clip 4
5) Clip 5
6) Clip 6
7) Clip 7
8) Clip 8
9) Clip 9
10) Clip 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

OK so now lets test your knowledge of people and things with the infamous quizzicles round.

1) Which Conceptual artist wrapped islands in Pink plastic sheets to make the worlds largest work of art?
2) Who received applause for a record 1 hour 20 minutes after an operatic performance in 1991?
3) Which Italian actress spent 17 days in prison for tax fraud in 1982?
4) Which actor was the first to become a Lord in 1970?
5) Who was infamous body snatcher William Hare’s partner in crime?
6) What was the surname of the brothers that collaborated to produce the first breakfast cereal?
7) “Moon River” was a number one hit in 1961 for who?
8) Sgt. Pepper Anderson was a character in which TV series?
9) Directed by Stephen Spielburg, and written by J.G. Ballard what was it?
10) Which queen was discovered to be bald at the time of her execution?

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

Fun & Games

2007-05-12T21:12:00.000Z

Quiz Answers

Well finally I am back home from India, and so able to put up the answers to the quiz. Between you you seem to have managed to get the majority of the answers. Sorry if you all found it a bit too hard, but I thought I would try not to make it too easy. Better lighten up on the difficulty next time.

But the results are pretty interesting, because, even though none of you managed to answer all the rounds completely, you all did very well on the rounds you did answer. But we have a new winner, first quiz entered and they win...

Rollo with 32 takes the Americana quiz title!
Mum you got 27, and not your week Will, just 19 for you!

Click continue for the answers

Round 1: Movie Link

1) Bill Pullman – Rick
2) Morgan Freeman – Batman Begins
3) Jack Nicholson – Something’s got to give
4) Polly Bergen – Cape Fear
5) James Cromwell – The Queen

Link: They have all played the president of the US, well done to Rollo for even naming the films portrayed!

Round 2: Celebrity whirlpool

1) Edward Norton/American History X
2) Shannon Elizabeth/American Pie
3) Thora Birch/American Beauty
4) David Naughton/An American Werewolf in London
5) Richard Dreyfuss/American Graffiti
6) Matt Salinger/Captain America
7) Eddie Murphy/Coming to America
8) Matt Stone/Team America
9) Chloe Sevigny/American Psycho
10)Whoopi Goldberg/Made in America

Round 3: Sound-bites

1) Kiss Me/Sixpence None the Richer – DAWSONS CREEK AUS
2) I’ll be there for you/The Rembrandts – FRIENDS US
3) Searchin’ my soul/Vonda Shepard – ALLY MCBEAL US
4) I Quit/Hepburn – BUFFY US
5) Female of the Species/Space – COLD FEET UK
6) You woke up this morning/Alabama 3 - THE SOPRANO’S US
7) One Way or Another/Blondie – SUGAR RUSH UK
8) Just Looking/Stereophonics – BLESSED UK
9) Closer to Free/Bo Deans – PARTY OF 5 US
10)Wheels on Fire/Julie Driscoll,Brian Auger & The Trinity - ABSOLUTLY FABULOUS UK

Round 4 :Quizzicles

American Law – ALL actual laws but from what state?

1) Illegal to walk down the street with your shoelaces undone? MAINE
2) Illegal to buy alcohol without written permission from the wife? PENNSYLVANIA
3) A man has to remove his hat when he meets a cow? MINNESOTA or KENTUCKY
4) Illegal to threaten a butterfly? California
5) Illegal to take more than 3 sips of beer at one time, whilst standing? TEXAS
6) Illegal to spit into the wind? Nebraska
7) Illegal to eat cottage cheese after 6pm on a Sunday? Tampa Bay, FLORIDA
8) Illegal to peel an orange in a hotel room? California
9) Illegal to carry fishing takle in a cemetery? Muncie, Indiana
10)Illegal for a dog to chase a cat up a telegraph pole (the owner is fined) Minnesota

Will try and get a quiz up for the middle of next week. Theme yet to be decided!

Travel

2007-05-10T08:01:00.000Z

India Again!!!

Why is it the places you least like going to always seem to be the ones you go to the most??

Well this was my 5Th visit to India (I am writing this from the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi), and it will probably rate as my best and worst. My best because I stayed in two fantastic hotels in Delhi. My worst because I stayed for 6 hours in the cement plant hospital with a glucose and saline drip in me!

So what happened??

It all began pretty well, flight was on time, and I got mt at Delhi airport where I was taken to a 4 star hotel. On the way though they telephoned the driver and told him to divert to a sister hotel as they had double booked the room. I didn't mind this as the sister hotel was a 5 star one, so I was feeling rather happy. But then the driver received another call saying that someone had checked out, and a room was now available. "Oh well thems the breaks" I thought.
When I got to the hotel, I was told I had been upgraded to a deluxe suite at no additional cost - GET IN THERE!

So after a jolly comfy night and morning, I met up with my Indian colleague and took a taxi to.... the train station! The bloody train again!! 5 hours on a train to get to our destination and then another 2 to get to the site. Then at the site they wanted us to share a room with 4 others!! HA HA HA HA HA I started to say, but they were serious! Finally, we managed to get separate rooms.

The job was going OK, but on the 3rd day on site I was feeling a bit rough, well that night by God did I suffer, puking and other things too delicate to mention here all night! OK liquified comes to mind! So I had about 30 minutes kip, and understandably looked a little rough the next day. Keyur asked for the doctor, and she came about 20 minutes later, took temperature and measured my pulse, stating "he is Feverish, Dehydrated and Hypoglycemic we will have to put him on a drip". So loosely translated I wasn't very well! Keyur then asked about pills or other things I could take so I could stay in the room, to which the doc replied "It's not an option he has to go into hospital"

So that was that, on a saline and glucose drip, and then a bloody painful injection in the top of my thigh (which I had to have an ice-pack for the nurse hit bone or something, so I was in bloody agony!).
I then fell straight to sleep, 6 hours later I was discharged, and 20 minutes after getting out of my hospital bed I was on the roof of a building in 40 degree heat trying to get the job finished!

It's amazing really, everytime I come to India I lose weight, but I didn't really want to lose it the way I did!

The rest of the trip went pretty much as expected, and I am fully recovered now, even after a marathon 14 hours at work in the heat the day before yesterday (8th). So I write this in a luxury hotel ($425 a night!) just waiting to get back and see the family again.

One thing is for certain though I NEED A NEW JOB!!!

Until the next time then.

Fun & Games

2007-04-27T12:07:00.000Z

Quiz Time: Americana

As promised this weeks theme is on America, so our friends across the Atlantic should have a bit of an advantage. But, my mum has turned around and really thrown down the Gauntlet. She has stated that "just because Americans do a quiz on America doesn't mean to say they will win. I think I could very well do better!". Surely she cannot make it three wins on the trot?? Only Will has managed to do that.

As I am writing this sentance from the hotel at Birmingham airport, you will gather I am off on my travels again. This time it is India, so you have two whole weeks to do the quiz, you may need it especially for the quizzicles round.

Well let's see shall we, on with the quiz, click continue to, well, continue.

Round 1: Movie Link
Below are images of celebrities from movies, just give me the name of the celebrity and the movie. Then tell me what links them together.

1)

2)

3)

4) The lady's name

5)

Round 2: Warped Celebrities

All of these celebrities have something in common, they have all appeared in films with either America or American in the title. You just have to name the celebrity and the film. It can't be that hard I have given you half the title already!!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Round 3: SoundBites

Click on the blue arrow to hear the intro and then tell me what the song is and whether or not it is associated with an American TV show, by naming the show.

1) Clip 1
2) Clip 2
3) Clip 3
4) Clip 4
5) Clip 5
6) Clip 6
7) Clip 7
8) Clip 8
9) Clip 9
10) Clip 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

OK last up is the quizzicles, and this time we are talking American law. All of the following ARE actual laws, no mickey taking, these are for real! All you have to tell me is the State in which they are law. Have a think how many times you could have broken the law without knowing it!!!

1) Illegal to walk down the street with your shoelaces undone?
2) Illegal to buy alcohol without written permission from the wife?
3) A man has to remove his hat when he meets a cow?
4) Illegal to threaten a butterfly?
5) Illegal to take more than 3 sips of beer at one time, whilst standing?
6) Illegal to spit into the wind?
7) Illegal to eat cottage cheese after 6pm on a Sunday?
8) Illegal to peel an orange in a hotel room?
9) Illegal to carry fishing takle in a cemetery?
10)Illegal for a dog to chase a cat up a telegraph pole (the owner is fined) ?

Weekly Question

2007-04-24T10:21:00.000Z

Is this Guy nuts??

Yesterday and today there has been a lot on Radio 5Live and in quite a few papers regarding a certain doctor - Dr. Aric Sigman, who wants the government of the UK to take action to reduce the amount of TV that our children watch. Well to an extent I agree that too much television can be harmful to children but what Dr. Sigman is proposing goes beyond the pale. I mean this guys recommendations are off the planet.

This is what he recommends;

Children under three - no screen exposure
Children aged three to seven - 30 minutes to one hour per day
Children aged seven to 12 - one hour a day
Children aged 12 to 15 - one and-a-half hours a day
Children aged 16 and over - two hours.

Now can you imagine telling 15 year old Johnny 1/2 way through Heroes that he has to stop watching??!!! I DON'T THINK SO!!!

Here is what the newspapers said;

The amount of TV children watch should be rationed according to a "recommended daily allowance", an expert is due to tell MPs.
Dr Aric Sigman said the Government must take action to cut TV-watching among children as too much increases the risk of health and learning problems. He wants to see parents given recommended daily amount guidelines, much as they are for salt intake, and said "screen media" was a major issue for public health. Studies have shown excessive TV watching is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioural problems and increased obesity in children. One long-term study, published in The Lancet medical journal in 2004, found children who watched more than two hours of television a day between the ages of five and 15 saw their health suffer years later.
Experts made the link between childhood viewing and raised cholesterol levels, obesity and smoking in adulthood.
Dr Sigman will urge the Government to advise parents on the issue and suggests children under three should watch no TV at all. He also believes there should be no TV sets in children's bedrooms and new mothers should be warned of the possible effects.
He rejected claims that setting down guidelines constitutes a "nanny state" and said: "Parents need an ideal reference point, even if they choose to ignore it or cannot adhere to it."
Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Institute of Biology, will voice his concerns at a Children and the Media conference at the House of Commons, organised by pressure group Mediawatch-UK.

Now to me there are a lot of programs out there that are beneficial to the development of children, there is also a lot of rubbish, but in the end it balances out.
The odd thing is that TV viewing has actually gone down, as kids tend to concentrate more now on computers and games machines. Is Dr. Sigman going to target these in a few years time???

But getting the government involved?? Ludicrous in the extreme! How would they control it for a start?
It is down to the parents themselves to control how much our kids watch the TV, we have managed to cut down our kids viewing by doing other things with the kids to keep them entertained, so it isn't all that hard. But try doing it for teenagers HAH!

So there you have it, but what do you think of the idea?

Quiz Answers

2007-04-20T20:53:00.000Z

Cartoon Quiz

My apologies for the late posting of the answers to the quiz, but I have only just got back from a weeks Holiday at Butlins. Fun was had all round, even though I did end up in the gunge tank on the last night, and had freezing cold (we are talking Ice Age 3) water dropped on me for 30 seconds!
But I am back now and well, things are looking up for my mum, unbeleiveably she has done it again! Despite Will getting 100% on the soundbites round, my mum has pipped him to the post. I think it was the first round that did it!
By the way Will I did award you some points for the Simpsons connection, as the Simpsons CANNOT do without Santa's little helper.

So the scores;

Mum - 76
Will - 70

How about getting your friends to take the quiz, see if they can provide a little more competition, my quiz can't be as hard as Wills! May be you ought to try that one Mum the link is on the left under Will's world!

Click Continue for the answers;

Glad the sounbites worked out OK, will try to introduce it into future quizzes.

Round 1: Classic Cartoons

1) Professor Yaffle/Bagpuss
2) Windy Miller/Camberwick Green
3) Bod/Bod
4) Mr Benn/Mr Benn
5) Mungo/Mary, Mungo & Midge

Link: Only 13 episodes made of each show

Round 2: Simpson Guests

1) Takira the Waiter/George Takei
2) Miss Winthrop/Tracey Ullman
3) Mr. Begstrom/Dustin Hoffman
4) Leon Kompowski/Michael Jackson
5) Mindy Simmons/Michelle Pfeiffer
6) Malloy/Sam Neil
7) Stacey Lovelle/Kathleen Turner
8) Jessica Lovejoy/Meryl Streep
9) Number 1/Patrick Stewart
10) Grandma Simpson/Glen Close

Tracey Ullman as the Simpsons first appeared as a short in her TV shows.

Round 3: Cartoony

1) Princess Bala – Antz
2) Verne – Over the Hedge
3) Puss in Boots – Shrek 2/3
4) Wallace – Curse of the WereRabbit
5) Le Frog – Flushed Away
6) Shrek – Shrek 1/2/3
7) Sykes – Shark Tale
8) Gloria – Madagascar
9) Rapunzel – Shrek 3 (bit of a cheat there, but how the hell did u get it mum?????)
10) Sheriff Blog – Cars

Odd one out? Sheriff, as Cars was made by Pixar, others all Dreamworks.

Round 4: Sounds like?

1) Ice Age – John Leguizamo (Sid)
2) The Simpsons – Dan Castellaneta (Homer)
3) Toy Story – Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear)
4) Finding Nemo – Ellen Degeneres (Dory)
5) Shrek – Eddie Murphy (Donkey)
6) Shark Tale – Will Smith (Oscar)
7) Shrek 2 – Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots)
8) The Incredibles – Brad Bird (Edna Mole)
9) The Lion King – Nathan Lane (Timon)
10) Madagascar – Chris Rock (Marty)

Round 5: Quizzicles

1) In the Cartoon Dangermouse who provided the voice for Colonel K? Edward Kelsey
2) What is the name of the cartoon created by “The Snowman” writer, which tells of an elderly couple preparing for a nuclear war? When the Wind Blows
3) Who wrote “The Snowman”? Raymond Briggs
4) Pugh, Pugh, Barney Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub who are these men? Trumpton Fire Brigade
5) How did the Clangers communicate? By Whistling
6) What is the longest running cartoon series? The Simpsons
7) How old is Bugs Bunny? 67 this year
8) Name the Hair Bear Bunch ? Hair, Bubi and Square
9) In “The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy”, what are the names of Billy’s cat, and Mandy’s dog? Milkshakes & Saliva
10) Grim again, and what super power does Grim bestow upon Billy to help him defeat the Evil Empire? Shooting Strawberry Yogurt (partially hydrogenated) from his armpits.
11) In Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, what is Bloo’s full name? Blooregard Q. Kazoo
12) Where do Ed, Edd and Eddy live? Peach Creek Estates
13) Code Name Kids Next Door now, and what is the name of Number 2? Hoagie Pennywhistle Gilligan Jr.
14) What are the names of the PowderPuff girls? Buttercup, Bubbles and Blossom
15) How old is Adam Lyon from “My Gym Partners a Monkey”? 12

Weekly Question

2007-04-10T09:34:00.000Z

The Right or Wrong place?

We have at present in the UK, a bit of a debate brewing about smacking children. Now one store is thinking of implementing a ban on smacking in their store, and anyone caught disciplining their child for bad behavior will be removed from the store.

What next then? Chucked out for chewing gum? Chucked out for talking??? It is getting a bit silly now, and of course the only people who are going to win with this are the kids that misbehave and cause so much stress for their parents. Ergo, discipline is not going to be shown so our society suffers even more!

But what to do?

There is an advert shown in the UK, of a mum suffering from a bad cold and her son is on the want. When she says no, he throws down the thing he is holding and shouts "AAAARRRGGGHHH". So his mum, after taking the advertised remedy, looks at him, screams lies on the floor bashing her fists into it and kicking her legs, as the boy looks on in shock. She then gets up nods at the boy as if to say "Well, beat that!", the boy smiles and starts to behave lovely.

But would you do that to your kids, I mean if they show you up, would you do the same to them in return, or would you just be too embarrassed? Hard choice to make, but I am sure it would be pretty effective.

Now I am not going to condone smacking, I think that it is right to do so given the right circumstances to discipline a child. But what I object to is people telling me that I am not able to discipline my kids the way I beleive they should be disciplined.

Think about it, your kid is playing up because they can't have what they want, do you

1) Give then a sharp smack on their legs, and tell them to behave?
2) Buy it for them to shut them up?
3) Leave the store?
4) Say you may get it for them if they stop moaning and behave, for the next few days, then do so ONLY if they behave?

Well I would go with number 4, but in some exceptional circumstances it would have to be both 1 and 3. Trouble is the looks you get if you do smack your kids in public, and by smacking I mean not leaving finger marks or bruises!

Ikea has a good idea, where they provide a creche for the kids of certain ages whilst the parents go shopping. Nice idea, which is not implemented enough in other stores. In the States a lot of Malls have entertainment areas where kids are well catered for.

But it doesn't stop from answering the crucial quuestion, should smacking be banned in shops?

In all honesty I would have to say no, simply because if it is then we are been told how we should bring up our kids, and kids can use it to their advantage - don't want to go shopping so I will misbehave in the shop so mum takes me out - I can see the scenario now.

In the UK it really is turning into an Orwellian state, and big brother really is watching you, I mean they even have CCTV that has speakers so that the control can communicate to a minor offender to stop the unsociable behaviour!

So to smack or not to smack?
It has to be down to the individual concerned, not anybody else.

Fun & Games

2007-04-05T15:05:00.000Z

Quiz Time - Cartoon Heroes

Staying on the theme of Heroes, I thought I would make the quiz this time around based upon the theme of Cartoon Heroes. Now I know Will has another site or at least he did, on cartoons, so he may have an advantage here. But I think that even he is going to find it a trick one this time.

OK so on with the quiz then, just click on continue.

Round 1: Cartoon Links

As always you have to find out what the link is, with this I need you to name the character and which cartoon these appeared in on the BBC. So the Link is not the BBC!

Round 2: Simply Simpsons

OK now onto round 2, and what I have here is images of guest stars that have appeared on the Simpsons, along with the character name they played. All I want to know is the guest stars real name. For a bonus of 5 points why is guest star 2 so important to the Simpsons.

1) Takira the Waiter

2) Miss Winthrop

3) Mr. Begstrom

4) Leon Kompowski

5) Mindy Simmons

6) Malloy

7) Stacey Lovelle

8) Jessica Lovejoy

9) Number 1

10) Grandma Simpson

Round 3: Cartoon Wall

Simply name the cartoon characters and the film they are from, and then give the odd one out and why.

Round 4: Soundbites
This is the first time I have tried to do this so sorry if it goes awry, simply name the film the soundclip is from, the cartoon saying the words and the actor/actress playing them. Big score of 30 points available here. Just click on the blue play icon, and the soundbite should play OK, if it doesn't click on the link save it then play it through windows media player. The first time I tried this most of the clips were speeded up. But it is definitely worth trying.

Cartoon 1
Cartoon 2
Cartoon 3
Cartoon 4
Cartoon 5
Cartoon 6
Cartoon 7
Cartoon 8
Cartoon 9
Cartoon 10

Round 5: Quizzicles

1) In the Cartoon Dangermouse who provided the voice for Colonel K?
2) What is the name of the cartoon created by “The Snowman” writer, which tells of an elderly couple preparing for a nuclear war?
3) Who wrote “The Snowman”?
4) Pugh, Pugh, Barney Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub who are these men?
5) How did the Clangers communicate?
6) What is the longest running cartoon series?
7) How old is Bugs Bunny?

8) Name the Hair Bear Bunch ?
9) In “The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy”, what are the names of Billy’s cat, and Mandy’s dog?
10) Grim again, and what super power does Grim bestow upon Billy to help him defeat the Evil Empire?

11) In Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, what is Bloo’s full name?

12) Where do Ed, Edd and Eddy live?
13) Code Name Kids Next Door now, and what is the name of Number 2?
14) What are the names of the PowderPuff girls?
15) How old is Adam Lyon from “My Gym Partners a Monkey”?

Movie Review

2007-04-03T19:06:00.000Z

Heroes

Well I don't know if any of you watch this, in the UK it is on at 10pm on a Monday on the Sci-Fi channel, and we tune in religiously to watch it. Why the mainstream SKY channels haven't snapped it up is beyond me, for Heroes is a Phenomenom.

In the states and Online the episodes are well in advance of the UK, we have just had episode 8 screened, I think they are up to about 20 in the States.

So what is all the fuss about?

Heroes is basically about a group of people with special powers, powers that will eventually help to save the world. "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" is the message given to one of those (Peter, one of the flying brothers), by Hiro, the undoubted star of the show, who can bend space and time meaning he can go forwards and backwards in time or simply just stop it.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Not that Claire the Cheerleader needs any help, as the first time we see her, her friend is videotaping her as she jups off a 80ft gantry to the floor, then stands up, and her body just fixes itself. I wont even go into the autopsy table!

We also have a policeman that can hear peoples thoughts, a man who can walk through walls, an artist who paints the future, a woman who has a really wicked reflection, as in tear people apart wicked.

The Heroes

But there is a bad side, someone called Syla is killing people with special abilities, and he has a very special way of doing it (Slicing off the top of their heads and removing their brains!).

This is a well made series and I can't wait for each episode, I don't download them, as if I did it would give me nothing to look forward to, and to be honest spoil my enjoyment. So every week I feel a sense of AAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH, when it finishes on a particularly interesting part (rather like the X-files used to do).

If you haven't seen it watch it, when it comes out no matter how much it costs, that box set is mine!

Hiro the Hero!

Fun & Games

2007-04-03T18:41:00.000Z

Quiz Answers

I think Will may be regretting his choice of themes for the last quiz. By the way just got back from my trip, had a nightmare as I missed the connection in Miami due to AA's problems. But they did put me up in a hotel for the night.
I will put some details and photo's up on Barbados when I can. But onto the last quiz, and lets just say after the hours she put in a BIG well done to MUM!!
That's right mum, you have finally beaten the Champion of all quizzes Will.

Scores are;

Mum - 40

Will - 18 (but you did only answer 2 rounds!

Ok so click continue for answers;

Round 1: Movie Link

1) Gallipoli – Mel Gibson
2) Romper Stomper – Russell Crowe
3) The Piano – Holly Hunter
4) Ned Kelly – Heath Ledger
5) Proof – Hugo Weaving

Link: - All films were produced by the Australian Film Commission

Round 2: Antipodeans Celebrities

1) Cate Blanchett
2) Russell Crowe
3) Dame Edna Everage
4) Melissa George
5) Natalie Imbruglia
6) Kylie Minogue
7) John Farnham
8) Mel Gibson
9) Hugh Jackman
10)Nicole Kidman

Mel Gibson who was born in New York.
John Farnham who was born in Dagenham Essex.
Nicole Kidman who was born in Honolulu.

The others were born in Australasia.

Round 3: Waxing Lyrical

1) We gotta make ends meet before we get much older – The Voice/ John Farnham
2) Where women glow and men plunder? – Down Under/Men at Work
3) At 57 mt. pleasant st. – The Weather With You/Crowded House
4) So slide over here And give me a moment – Need you Tonight/INXS
5) Boy your lovin’ is all I think about – Can’t get you outta my head/Kylie Minogue
6) At what technology has found Is it what we need? Insania/Peter Andre
7) Hello, I'm just a fool who's willing to sit around – Hopelessly devoted to you/ONJ
8) Your arms are warm but they make me feel – Chains/Tina Arena
9) If you're lookin' for satisfaction I'm satisfaction guaranteed – Live Wire/ACDC
10)Don't you make me sad Our love could be deep as the ocean - Poison/Bardot
11)I thought I saw a man brought to life – Torn/Natalie Imbruglia
12)When superstars and cannonballs are running through your head – The Animal Song/Savage Garden

Round 4: Quizzicles

1) Box Jellyfish
2) Irakandji
3) Blue Ringed Octopus
4) Barrier Reef Cone Shell
5) The Scorpion Fish
6) Red back
7) 8
8) Inland Taipan
9) Funnel Web Spider
10) Marbled Cone Shell snail (it's the same family as number 4)

OK the next quiz will be when I can get to it again, and the theme is going to be Cartoons, which may just swing in Will's favour.

Travel

2007-03-21T16:55:00.000Z

Paradise???

Well just managed to get an Internet connection at the cement works here in Barbados, but wont really be able to post very much.
Just to say, this place is great! I am staying in my own 2 bed house, have someone come and leave me a cooked meal ready for when I return after work. Have a fully stocked fridge, am 50 yards from the beach, and it's sunny. The Barbadians are mad for the cricket world cup, and even watch it during work! Only thing missing here is my wife and kids, I really wish they were here, as what is the use in been in paradise if you don't have the ones you love with you. Till I can post again Cheers!

Fun and Games

2007-03-16T11:25:00.000Z

Weekly Quiz: Down Under Mate!

Well at last I have managed to make a bit of time to post the quiz, which is incidently my 100th post! So the theme this week was chosen from Will's list of suggestions, and is all about the lands down under. Think you know your Australian celebrities? Think you know your animals? Do you think you are safe in Australia????

Well try the quiz and find out how much you do know.

Round 1: Movie Link

OK we start of as always with the movie link round, something links all of these films together but what. Give me the name of the main actor/actress, and the film please, and then if you can the link.

Round 2: Fuzzy Celebs

All these celebrities are regarded as Australiasia's finest exports, just name them please, and for bonus marks there are a number of them that don't fit a point each for the names of those, and 2 points for telling me why they don't fit.

10)

Round 3: Waxing Lyrical Cobber

This shouldn't be too hard, songs by Aussie bands and singers, just give me the song and the singer.

1) We gotta make ends meet before we get much older
2) Where women glow and men plunder
3) At 57 mt. pleasant st.
4) So slide over here And give me a moment
5) Boy your lovin’ is all I think about
6) At what technology has found Is it what we need
7) Hello, I'm just a fool who's willing to sit around
8) Your arms are warm but they make me feel

9) If you're lookin' for satisfaction I'm satisfaction guaranteed
10) Don't you make me sad Our love could be deep as the ocean
11) I thought I saw a man brought to life
12) When superstars and cannonballs are running through your head

Round 4: Quzzicles - It's dangerous in Oz

The nice and easy quizzicles round now to finish with.

1) It can kill a child in minutes, and has caused more deaths in Australia than snakes, sharks and salt water crocodiles put together. But what is it?

2) It is only 1cm in length yet can kill a human, it is of the jellyfish family and is barely visible in the water, what is this smallest of killers called?

3) Another killer living in the water has beautiful blue rings on its body, but if grabbed will emit a poison strong enough to kill within a few hours, what is this creature?

4) A shell that can kill? This one will another blue spotted or zigzagged patterned creature what is its name?

5) Seems unsafe in Aussie waters doesn’t it? It’s also not safe amongst the coral, this killer fish looks friendly enough but the long spines on its dorsal are enough to kill related to the Lion fish and NOT the stone fish what fish is it?

6) Supposedly found in rest area toilets, this spider has a distinctive red mark and a killer bite, what is it?

7) How many of the worlds 10 most deadly snakes live in Australia?

8) It could kill 100 humans with one bite and is the most poisonous snake in the world but what is its name?

9) Unusually the male of this spider is the one with the dodgy bite but what is the name of the spider with around 40 toxins in its venom?

10) This is a picture of a rather ugly looking snail, now I want to know its name and if it is poisonous or not?

Excuses,Excuses

2007-03-15T12:49:00.000Z

Well first my mum was up from Cornwall, so I couldn't get on to post anything, then I got ill so I was in bed real early and didn't get to post. Now on Sunday I am off on my travels again, but this time it is somewhere nice .... BARBADOS!!!

I am working on the quiz, so should have it up quite soon, unless of course fate intervenes!

Weekly Question

2007-03-08T21:45:00.000Z

Who are the real Victims???

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while! I always seem to be saying that these days, but the truth is I have just got back from Costa Rica, my Internet connection has been down, and I have my mum here for a visit. So the quiz is cancelled till next week, when I think I am going to go with the Blue theme of Wills, but there again...

Anyway, on with this weeks question, who are the real victims. Now by that I mean crime ways. Why do I ask? Well, this morning in the UK there has been quite a bit of a kerfuffle over a copper hitting a black woman 5 times, and been caught on CCTV. Now this young woman was 19, drunk as a skunk, resisting arrest and assaulting the copper. I am not condoning the copper for hitting her, but if that was the only way to restrain her then...

But that got me thinking, why is it this woman has been made to look a heroine, and the copper who was only doing his job is now suspended and looks likely to lose his job?

Here is what I think...

..it is what I have always thought, we are too soft on crime, and criminals are treated far better than their victims. Victim support? Pah don't make me laugh, it doesn't work! Lock the guy away who did the crime without the luxuries of TV, computers, 3 square meals a day, access to the gym etc, and may be, just may be he will think about what he has done.

I have had this arguement sort of before, on punishment, but this time I am concentrating more on the victims. In the UK the crime figures have supposed to have fallen, but I think the reported crime has fallen, only because less and less people are reporting it. Why are less people reporting crime? Because they know damn well nothing will get done about it that's why! If the coppers turn up and get an arrest, the accussed's friends make sure that it isn't reported again. But most of all it is what happens after a crime has been committed that really grips me.

A crime is reported and the crime is given a priority, if it is a burglary that has happened during the night or something, and no-one has been hurt, you may see a policeman, that week. On very rare occassions, you may see one on the same day, but like I said that is rare. They take statements and then go away, before going they ask if you want councelling and they may give you a leaflet. Usually that is the last you see of them for weeks on end, so what is the point?
When we had some stuff stolen, we almost got accussed of wasting police time, as they said that it was a waste of time sending anyone as there was nothing they could do! They didn't even know the full details really.

Recently, I heard about a bunch of prisoners who had been awarded a set amount of damages as they had their TV or something taken away, and this infringed on their basic human rights. What a load of CRAP!!! What about the victims of the crime who are scared shitless to go to sleep in their own homes because they have been burgled, do they have any human rights?? Apparently not.

The other thing that grips me is the fact that during court sessions, the criminal is always made to look a victim - Oh he comes from a broken home, Oh he had no father, oh this oh that. WHO GIVES A TOSS!!!!!!! They bloody well committed a crime, they CHOSE to do so, what about all the other kids of the estate that have come from broken homes who HAVEN'T gone that way??
I am sick to the back teeth of criminals been made into so-called victims.

But by far the worst is the fact that if you smack a kid for been abusive and for smashing up your car, or causing criminal damage, or the like. YOU are the one that gets it in the neck from the police, they are not bothered about the good for nothing career teenager that has done the damage. All they care about is the innocent victim that used minimal force to stop it.

The Criminal Justice system needs sorting out big time, until the true victims are treated like victims, criminals of the world are going to carry on as they are.

Fun & games

2007-02-24T21:43:00.000Z

Quiz Answers

Well I have managed to get my PC back at last and so can put up the the answers to the Countries quiz.
Well I thought I had Will on the first round, but I think I DID give him too much information by saying he was on the right lines.
Yes Will all roads led to TOM HANKS!! But, the concord connection is with where he was born, I thought that it was easy to put a picture of Concord up!

Anyway, no-one got 100% this time around, but I have been a bit lienient in the marking, so here we go the winner, and by a margin of only 3 points was....

WILL!!! My mum is going to be berating me for giving you the clue to Tom Hanks, as she doesn't very often get the link, but did really well this time. Pleased I caught you out with the little mermaid though Will ;)

Will got 66 right out of the maximum 70, which again is fantastic.

MUM came second, with a stirling effort of 63! No wonder she picked countries, sorry about the flags, I didn't know they showed up wrong! But great effort mum, and you spotted the Concord link sort of.

KIM, You made it into the 50's with a great score of 55! That has been enough to win in the past, but your Bro' is just too good!

Answers:

Round 1 : 1)Lincoln Cathedral – Lincoln, 2)Liberty Bell – Philadelphia, 3)JFK Airport – New York 4)Concorde, 5)Space Needle - Seattle
The link is Tom Hanks as The Da Vinci Code was filmed in Lincoln Cathedral, Philadelphia was a Hanks Oscar winner, JFK was the airport in the Hanks film The Terminal, Concord was where he was born, and finally Seattle from the film Sleepless in Seattle.

Round 2:1)Arc de Triomphe – Paris, 2) Big Ben – London, 3)Taj Mahal – Agra , India,
4)Mount Fuji – Japan, 5)Sydney Opera House – Sydney, 6)The White House – Washington, 7) Leaning Tower of Pisa – Pisa, 8)Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco, 9)Jesus Statue – Rio de Janero, 10)Little Mermaid - Copenhagen

Round 3:1) Is this the way to Amerillo every night I’ve been huggin’ my pillow – Tony Christie
2) Black and whispering as the rain, on the streets of Philadelphia – Bruce Sprinstein
3) I’m just the Devil with love to spare, Viva Las Vegas – Elvis
4) Barcelona, Like a jewel in the sun – Freddie Mercury
5) On a cold and grey Chicago mornin’ a poor little baby child is born – Elvis
6) Cause London is burning and I, I live by the river – The Clash
7) As he carry’s me home to the Mull of Kintyre – Wings
8) Bangkok Oriental setting and the city don’t know that the city is getting – Murray Head
9) It means nothing to me. This means nothing to me. Oh Vienna – Ultravox
10) New York, London, Paris, Munich - M

OK change of order, Will get your thinking cap on, I'd like a theme for the next Quiz. And Kim can you give me one too, that way the next quiz will be one or the other theme, and it is going to be pot luck which one it is going to be.

I am off to Costa Rica tomorrow, so until the next time have a great weekend!

Travel

2007-02-23T00:50:00.000Z

In the States then Costa Rica

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but I am in Brooksville Florida at the moment and have been since Tuesday. Trouble is my computer has been 'commissioned' by the plant as their PC is bust, and mine is the only one available to them. I will put up the answers to the quiz just as soon as I can, get access to another PC (this one is a pay as you use hotel one!)
I am off to Costa Rica on Sunday, and will be stuck in Houston airport for about 4 hours, so if there is anything to do there Will let me know.
OK will post again as soon as I am able, so you have a few more days to think about the quiz, don't be to drawn in by the title, and Will you are on the right lines with the Link, I thought I was going to get you, but I think that you are going to get it!
Till next time!

Fun & Games

2007-02-14T19:47:00.000Z

Weekly Quiz : - Countries and Cities

Well this week's theme was chosen by my Ma, and is on cities and countries. I think she was secretly hoping I wouldn't be able to find any movie type ones, sorry mum no such luck. I have managed to do the usual movie link in the first round. Next theme is up to Kim to decide, and then Will. Even if you don't take part in the quiz, I am always open to polite suggestions of themes for my quiz.

So without further ado here we go;

Round One: All roads lead to......?

Just identify what is in the picture, what city it is if applicable, and then find the think that links them all together. ALSO tell me WHY they link are linked to the thing I am looking for.

Round 2: Where on Earth?

In this round there are a number of famous landmarks that have been whipped away by those fiendish landmark stealing aliens, simply tell me what is missing, and what city/place it should be.

10)

Round 3: Waxing Lyrical in the City

Know your music? Well you should be able to fill in the missing city or country from these lyrics, and tell me who had a hit with the song.

1) Is this the way to ______ every night I’ve been huggin’ my pillow.

2) Black and whispering as the rain, on the streets of __________.

3) I’m just the Devil with love to spare, Viva ________.

4) ________, Like a jewel in the sun.

5) On a cold and grey _______ mornin’ a poor little baby child is born.

6) Cause _______ is burning and I, I live by the river.

7) As he carry’s me home to the _________.

8) ________ Oriental setting and the city don’t know that the city is getting.

9) It means nothing to me. This means nothing to me. Oh _________.

10) New York, London, Paris, _______.

Round 4: Quizzicles

This time round the quizzicles are really educational, simply tell me what country the flag belongs to.

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

Weekly Question

2007-02-13T10:48:00.000Z

Is Religion the route of all Evil?

OK it's time to get controversial in the old weekly question post, and I just hope that I don't offend anybody by what I am about to write. That is not my intention, my intention is to highlight what I think is the cause of all the troubles in the world, and hopefully to give people that little bit of doubt when it comes to the so called greater good.

I am sick to the back teeth of turning on the news every day, only to hear of more atrocities in Iraq, of more killings of men women and children who's only crime was that of been a different religion to those carrying out the attacks. At first the attacks were carried out on mainly military targets, but now it's free game for anyone. Why?? Because like I said they are a different religion.

So is Religion the Axis of evil?? Well....

Lets have a look at a few things,

Hundreds of years ago, somewhere in the world Christianity was born. I don't know where it all started really, and I don't know who started it up, lets just go with what people believe and that it was started with the birth of Christ. Now the thing is there were also lots of other religions around at the time, but all of a sudden this 'new' religion was the thing to be, it was the hip thing of the time and if you weren't a Christian you were a heathen.
So how if this all started in Jeruselem did it spread all over the world, except in the very area it all started?

Move along a few centuries to the Crusades.

What was the whole point of the Crusades? Well Wikipedia has the following definition;

"The Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character waged by Christians from 1095-1291, usually sanctioned by the Pope in the name of Christendom,[1] with the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the sacred "Holy Land" from Muslim rule and originally launched in response to a call from the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire for help against the expansion of the Muslim Seljuq dynasty into Anatolia."

So in other words if you didn't join our religion and didn't like it, we are either going to forcibly convert you or kill you - your choice!

Starting to look like religion isn't all the good it is cracked up to be isn't it?

Now leaf through history and check all the wars that have taken place, a lot of them have some sort of religious overtones to them, once more religion is shown in a bad light.

So is the axis of evil religion itself?

Consider a world without religion, everyone basically has the same perspective and is brought up with the same views. There are culture clashes for sure, but not on the scale they are at the moment. Would it work? Probably not, so that means that we need religion to survive, and that makes it a drug, but aren't addictive drugs nasty things? Hummmm?

I could go on a lot longer but posting space is short and I would rather have your thoughts on things. Religion is to blame for a lot of problems in the world, but it also acts as belief and faith in a lot of cultures, and it is all some people have. I go to church occasionally, but I don't consider myself religious, and when I go to church I do get a sense of well being, but that is to do with me not the fact a church is seen as a place to worship a religious diety.

Is Religion the axis of evil then? Well I would have to say when it is taken fanatically it has to be, but when it is taken as an everyday thing? I have to say I am undecided.

About Me

2007-02-09T14:14:00.000Z

I've Been Tagged

OK it has taken me a bit of time to actually do what you are supposed to when you get tagged, but I have been a tad busy. Basically when you are tagged you have to post 5 things about yourself and then tag someone else.

1) I was born on March 17th 1966 in a little town called Kenley, which is in the London Borough of Croydon, so I suppose you could say I am a Cockney. I moved to Singapore a bit later.

2) At the age of 14 I won a Young Tarzan contest at Butlins Holiday Camp Bogner Regis, probably because I did the Tarzan call so well!

3) I have a concave chest, in other words it goes right in rather than been the normal 'solid' type.

4) My wife was only my 3rd ever 'real' girlfriend, and my 3rd engagement, god those rings worked out expensive!

5) In my time in the Air Force (12 years) I almost caused a diplomatic incident during the first Gulf war, thanks to a rather unscrupelous Saudi Warrant Officer. 10 years later I had to go to Saudi again, to the same place, and you guessed it the same Warrant Officer, only this time, I took no shit and he fawned all over me!

So there you have it, check your coments you may well have been tagged!

Fun & Games

2007-02-07T22:17:00.000Z

Weekly Quiz Answers

I am writing this from a little hotel in the sticks, in a small American 'village' called Harleyville. The quiz that was set on a theme by Kim, of Children, turned out to be a good choice by her. Now it could be because she was very good, or it could be because her brother Will missed the boat, but despite the fact she didn't answer the lrics round as I had asked, she still came out on top with 55.
However, my mum who herself will admit she is no good at films and that, finished with a magnificent 51, I got your email citing the Beatles link. (Well Done MUM!)
Now I am going to give my Mum a chance for the next quiz, I need you to come up with a theme for the next quiz mum.

Well done Kim, here are the answers;

1) Sean Penn in I am Sam
2) Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama
3) Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds
4) Denzil Washington in Man on Fire
5) Robert De Niro in Hide and Seek

Link: Child star Dakota Fanning, who starred in all the films.

Round 2: Child stars
1) David Duchovney
2) George Harrison
3) Halle Berry
4) John Lennon
5) Julia Roberts
6) Keanu Reeves
7) Mick Jagger
8) Paul McCartney
9) Tina Turner
10) Ringo Star

Four of these fresh faced youths went on to become The Beatles!

Round 3: Lyrics
1) and take a glance at the fancy ants - The Jungle Book
2) There’s magic everywhere -The Lion King
3) It’s the hard knock life - Annie
4) Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo - Cinderella
5) When I see an elephant fly- Dumbo
6) Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay - Song of the South
7) feed the birds, tuppence a bag- Mary Poppins
8) No request is too extreme - Pinocchio
9) On a magic carpet ride - Aladdin
10) But we don’t know what we dig ‘em for- Snow White

Round 4: Quizzicles
1) Piper Maru (Gillian Anderson)
2) Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones (David Bowie)
3) Kal-el (Nicholas Cage)
4) Elijah Blue (Cher)
5) Peaches Honeyblossom (Bob Geldof/Paula Yates)
6) Homer James Jigme (Richard Gere)
7) Makena’lei Gordon (Helen Hunt)
8) Tallulah Pine (Simon le Bon)
9) Sage Moonblood (Sly Stallone)
10) Gaia Romilly (Emma Thompson)
11) Diva Muffin (Frank Zappa)
12) Shiloh Nouvel (Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie)
13) Alcamy (Lance Henriksen)
14) Coco Riley (Courtney Cox Arquette/David Arquette)
15) Sailor Lee (Christie Brinkley)

Travel

2007-02-02T20:23:00.000Z

Venezuela Trip

Unbelievable! that is the only way to describe this, I got back on Monday 29th only to have two days off in Lieu, go back to work on 1st, to be told I am off again on Monday 5th! This time to a little place called Holly Hill in South Carolina, so at least I will understand the Lingo.

Anyway as promised here are a few shots of Venezuela,

This one is of the front view from the first hotel.

This one shows one view from the Cement factory

This is another view from that factory

These hulking great chunks of metal are the things that or product monitors

Finally a picture of the 5 star hotel I stayed 2 nights at.

There will be some more after my States trip

Weekly Question

2007-02-01T20:50:00.000Z

Mobile Phones or Digital Camera's

Well last times question raised the issue of whether or not 35mm Film was dead. Now I was very surprised at the results that turned up, I thought it would be a lot closer than it was, the results were;

Yes - 27.3%

No - 72.7%

No-one sat on the fence on this one. So to move the question on a bit I got to thinking, the new phone I have from the company is a Nokia N73, that features a 3.2 Megapixel digital camera, and has features that tend to concentrate around the camera more than anything else. So are digital camera's on their way out???

Some how I doubt it, but it does beg the question, why do we not have mobile phones any more that can just be used as a phone, or texting service?

It's ridiculous the amount of features that you get on phones nowaday's, I mean mine as well as a phone, is a good camera, an MP3 player, a handheld games machine, and a video camera!

What No phone?

As I have said the digital camera is here to stay, so to is the handheld game console, for now anyway, but what of the IPod, and MP3 players?

Well the company phone I have has a slot for a mini SD card, which at present can store up to 1Gb of information, given that the average CD quality MP3 song is about 5Mb in size, your looking at around 200 song storage capacity, plus you can adapt those songs for your ringtones. Now what format is in danger?? Apple have seen the light by releasing the iPhone, and other manufacturers are putting more and more stuff in their phones.

Do we use it? Well I have taken some photo's using my phone, which I will post next time, I have uploaded some MP3 songs to the phone, and I have made one of them into my ringtone. I have also spent some time playing on the game that came with the phone. Not all us 40 year olds are technophobes you know.

So it begs an answer to the question, will the mobile phone replace all our handheld gadgets in the future? Watch this space!

Fun and Games

2007-01-27T20:31:00.000Z

Weekly Quiz

Well finally I have managed to get a decent Internet connection, at the 5* hotel I am now at in Venezuela, I say decent, but every so often the blooming thing does keep tripping out all the time. The other problem, everything is in Spanish, which is a bit of a nightmare when you don't speak the lingo! Still I am going to perservere and try and get through this unscathed! I daren't run the spelling checker, just in case, so forgive any glaring errors, English was never my strong subject at School.

Anyway, Kim set the theme of this weeks or bi-week quiz, and she set me a toughy. Have you ever tried setting a quiz based on the Theme of Children?? HARD! or what! But I have managed it, and you are going to love the quizzicles part!

So on with the quiz then;

Round 1: Link Me

Yep, the old favourite is back, just give me the name of the actor/actress, the film it is from, and what links them all! Couldn't be easier!

Round 2: Child Stars

Well you can't have a quiz themed on children, without pictures of stars when they were kids! Give the names of the stars, and for a bonus of 5, tell me what links four of those kids together.

10)

Round 3: Kiddies Lyrics

Ok Here's the deal, I give you one line of the lyrics from these famous Children's films, and all you have to do is give me the NEXT line, and the movie it is from. This should get you all humming a few tunes!

1) "When you look under the rocks and plants...."

2) "The sweet caress of twilight......."

3) "Steada' kisses we get Kicked!......."

4) "But the thingamabob that does the job is......."

5) "I seen a needle wink it's eye, but I been done seen about everything......"

6) "Plenty of sunshine heading my way....."

7) "Their nest's are so bare all it takes is tuppence from you......"

8) "If your heart is in a dream......."

9) "Take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways and under........"

10) "A thousand rubies sometimes more........"

Round 4: Quizzicles

Well this last one is proof that our so called celebs, are completely heartless when picking names for their kids. These are a list of some of the poor unfortunates, just give me if you would the famous parent/parents, that gave them such bizzare names, and set them up for ridicule for the rest of their lives.

1) Piper Maru

2) Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones

3) Kal-el

4) Elijah Blue

5) Peaches Honeyblossom

6) Homer James Jigme

7) Makena'lei Gordon

8) Tallulah Pine

9) Sage Moonblood

10) Gaia Romilly

11) Diva Muffin

12) Shiloh Nouvel

13) Alcamy

14) Coco Riley

15) Sailor Lee

2007-01-19T21:40:00.000Z

Firsts and beginnings Quiz Questions and Answers

Will is the Champ yet again! He managed to get a fantasic 58/65, with just two mistakes, and not getting the link to the parts question. My mum got 36, which is pretty good.

Amazingly though Will actually practically gave the answer to the links away in his Star Wars answer. The clip shown was from the Original Star Wars film, that was entitled Star Wars Pt'4, later to be called A New Hope. It was the only one of the 10 that was an original put was not part 1!

No quiz this week as I am travelling, but the next one is going to be on Children, thanks to Kim!

OK on with the answers

Round One: Picture This

Star Trek First Contact, First Blood, First Knight, First Wives Club, 50 First Dates. The word FIRST links them all.

Round 2: Picture this as well

1) Saw/part 2
2) Superman/part 3
3) Pirates of the Caribbean/part 3
4) 101 Dalmations/original
5) X-Men/original
6) Men in black/part 2
7) Lord of the Rings/original
8) Police Academy/original
9) Terminator/part 2
10) Star Wars/original but now part 4

Round 3: My first Number 1 UK hit.

1) Didn’t know how lost I was till I found you. (Like a Virgin/Madonna)1st N0.1 album!
2) So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye. (Bohemian Rhapsody/Queen)
3) Some nights you’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before or will again. (I would do anything for love (but I wont do that))Meatloaf
4) Once I had a love and it was divine. (Heart of Glass/Blondie)
5) We-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de-de, we-um-um-a-way? (The lion sleeps tonight/Tight Fit)
6) Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past. (Eye of the Tiger/Survivor)
7) Everyone’s a super-hero, everyone’s a Captain Kirk. (99 Red Balloons/Nena)
8) Ya’ll act like you never seen a white person before. ( The Real Slim Shady/Eminem)
9) When it’s all over please get up and leave. (Independent woman Pt. 1/Destiny’s Child)
10) I’ve never seen a sight that didn’t look better looking back. (Wandrin’ Star/Lee Marvin)

Round 4: Quizzicles

The famous (surely by now it is!) Quizzicles round, just answer the questions, and remember the theme.

1) Nice easy one to start, Buzz Aldrin was second, but who came first? Neil Armstrong
2) “The Colour of Magic “was the first, but what was the second? The Light Fantastic
3) Who is credited with winning the very first Academy Award of Merit? Emil Jannings for Best Actor
4) How long did it take Captain Matthew Webb to do what he was the first person to do? 21 hours 45 minutes
5) In 1974, Stockholm, Kaissa won the worlds first what? Computer Chess Tournement
6) The magnifying glass is used throughout the world, but who invented it? Roger Bacon
7) At the age of 64 Annie Taylor became the first woman to achieve what remarkable feat? Go over Niagara falls in a barrel
8) Alice Wells became the first what in 1910? US Policewoman
9) In 1872, who became the first woman to run for the Presidency of the USA? Victoria Woodhall
10) Who was the first black US Secretary of State? Colin Powell in 2000

Travel

2007-01-17T21:10:00.000Z

First of the Year

Answers to the firsts Quiz will be up tomorrow, time willing. But on the subjects of firsts, it's the first trip of 2007 for me on Sunday. This time I am off to Venezuela, to a little town called La Victoria, well at least that is the nearest town to the cement factory I am going to be working at for 5 days. I get all the fun ehh??

So that means that there probably isn't going to be a quiz this week, but it will be back next week, and Kim has picked a Corker of a Theme - Children! I am leaving the weekly quiz poll open a little longer as it is pretty close at the moment in votes. I am going to try to post a new weekly question subject before I go to Venezuela, as I very much doubt I will be able to get on after Sunday, but the theme is going to be of a similar type as last weeks question.

Keep looking though I may be able to post up a Children Quiz by next week.

Chow!