Cheddar or not.
1. What do you do with your spare change?
I Put it in a large bottle and at the end of the month I put it into poppy's Bank account.

2. What prompted you to give some money to a stranger recently? If you have given money to a stranger recently, of course.
Unfortunately I run a total bastard policy, Bristol has a serious homeless problem which is matched only by it's drug problem and I can guarantee on being asked for change at least 10-15 times a day and for fag's about the same and I feel if I give to one I should give to all, so I don't give to any. I do however buy the big issue.

3. What charities do you support and why?
The lifeboat, we live on an island and I grew up in Cornwall whose main industry is the sea plus the lifeboat are totally charity funded (no subsidies).
Action for M.E because my mum has had it for about 30 years.
And apart from that the occasional collection tin for the salvation army, the red cross, guide dogs for the blind and the N.S.P.C.C.

4. What's the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?
Pull out his warrant card and tell the guy that was hassling me for money at 11pm on the bus stop to piss off as he new that the guy was a known drug addict and if he didn't stop hassling people he would nick him.

5. Do you wish people a "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", "Seasons Greetings" or something else? Why did you choose it?
Happy Christmas and I choose it because it is Christmas and I am happy.

6. What's your most memorable moment of 2004 online? Offline?
Kicking the ass of some American kid at UT2004 after he spent 30mins bragging about how good he was.
My daughter being born (sorry to keep going on about it but it kinda sticks in your mind).

7. What is your hope for 2005?
To take lots of drugs, To get some sleep, For Vicky to get some sleep, to move house and for poppy to start walking and talking.

- posted by J @ 22:43

 
Christmas points.
First of all Markiss gets 250 points for answering For answering My question.

What is a Thunder roll?

It is indeed a wooden trough in the roof space above an auditorium, that a stage hand would roll a cannonball (More likely a wooden ball) down to create thunder.

And in my prezzies section

Kelvin gets 500 points for his frolicking timber wolves and Kel and victor get 250 each for there Jumpers and Picture.

Congrats to all.

(I am intrigued about the handcuffs kel)

- posted by J @ 17:07

 
Another one bites the dust.
Frank from Albino neutrino seems to have gone off the air.

Good bye frank I hope all is well and that you may re appear at some later date.

- posted by J @ 23:48

 
Who ate all the pies.
T'was the night before Christmas (eve) and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.

Except for the combi boiler that was making the most horrendous noise. Yep that's right folks My boiler broke down. I arrived home after work (10pm) to find our boiler making an awful racket and had to switch it off. After a couple of phone calls (We have a boiler call out package that means they come and fix it for free) explaining that we had a six month old, they were sending someone out. At Midnight the guy arrived and 20 mins later was gone, basically the fan is knackerd and all he could do was spray some WD40 on it. Never mind it worked.

On into Christmas.

Christmas eve was lovely (although I had 2 shows). I got home around 5pm and had a lovely eve with vic and a glass of Champaign.
Christmas morning was great opening presents, Trying to convince poppy not to eat the wrapping paper and general Christmas stuff, at about 1pm a friend of vic's arrives (he was on his own so we invited him for crimbo dinner). All is in place.
5Pm Poppy throws up (Poppy has not vomited since she has been born) And the rest of the evening continues in the same fashion.
Me running round trying to prepare dinner while changing sheets on poppy's cot and Vicky consoling a puking child that is very tired and wants to go to sleep.
To cut a long story short vic and poppy were up most of the night.

Boxing day (Sunday), Poppy is a little better and has a small feed, The boiler breaks down again. The man comes out, Yep still the fan and he cant get a part till Wednesday (Mon and Tue being bank hols) so he shows me a way to keep it running till then. I get ready for work and then realize it is Sunday and boxing day and the chances of there being any busses are about the same as the US finding Osama in Afghanistan.
No problem I will take the car, Parking will be cheap and no traffic, 10 mins later I'm ordering a taxi because the car wont start. Of course being boxing day taxis have surcharges and it cost me 14 quid to go to work for 4 hours GRRRRR.

Any way when I got home poppy is no better and we are trying to decide if it is a good idea to take her to hospital when she falls asleep, so we decide to leave it and see how she is later.

Bank holiday Monday, Poppy is better, The boiler is being odd but with a little coaxing is running the RAC told us what's wrong with the car (Dead battery 48 quid for a new one) and we are off to ikea to buy a coffee table (I don't know why).

All in all after this holiday, I need a holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL.

- posted by J @ 13:46

 
Happy christmas.
Happy Christmas to you all.



- posted by J @ 08:47

 
Prezzies.
Christmas day is only a couple of days away and that means prezzies. Yes I know good will toward men and all that but we all know it's the prezzies.
Well I have been thinking about presents that I have received over the years and all the bizarre or strange ones that I have received. You know the ones I mean, the socks you receive from auntie Doris that just about fit your dog or are lime green, that sort of stuff. After all this thinking I feel the oddest thing I received was a "How to fill in your tax return 2001-2002" book, Now I'm not being ungrateful as it is a good idea But just not for Christmas.

So what I want to know is what bizarre presents have you all received over the years, Come one don't be shy. I want to hear about all those presents that come out of the loft once a year when granny comes or the choice items that have long since been consigned to the charity shop/dust bin.

There are some crimbo points in it for the best ones.

see ya.

- posted by J @ 18:55

 
Christmas.
Well Christmas is almost upon us, What little shopping I had to do is done. The food is bought and the tree is up (Which poppy seems to love).
So apart from having to work it is time to resort to my child like persona and start enjoying crimbo.
This week started with the Christmas doo for the theatre on Monday and much fun and frivolity was had by all with the usual spattering of gossip and intrigue and a rather subdued show on Tuesday eve (due to most of the cast and crew being VERY hung over). Disco Dave was a typical British mobile disco which management seem to hire (we work in a theatre with a shit load of sound equipment and they hire some doggy dj).
He played the standard tunes. S-club, steps, Bon jovi etc. You know, the ones that are resigned to the bargain bin at petrol stations.
But all in all it was a good laugh.

We shall see what the rest of the week brings.

- posted by J @ 17:13

 
Time to start a new week.
But first I thought I would tell you about the old one.

Things that made me happy:
David blunkett Resigning, WHOOO.
Vic making shortbread.
Finally getting some photos to go on my gallery page (Not up yet).
discovering a great hot dog place.
Putting up crimbo decorations.
Snow.
Poppy chuckling like a nutter when I blow raspberries on her tummy.

Things that made me sad:
Rain.
Not having an umbrella.
Arguing with vic.

Things that got me stressed:
The tiny fogger breaking down during a show and having to fix it.
The projector for the show not working.
Rain or more accurately the lack of an umbrella.
Christmas shopping crowds.

Things to look forward to:
The delivery of my 7 disc DVD, original series of Battlestar galactica (Shut up I like it ok!).
Ordering my new hard drive and possibly an umbrella.
Christmas day.
Work Christmas party tomorrow.

Things that make me want to hide under the duvet just by thinking about them:
Working boxing day.
Rain and the serious lack of an umbrella.

Other than that it has been a pretty standard week.

- posted by J @ 23:42

 
Review time


Underworld.

Kate Beckinsale in leather what more can I say.

Going away from the usual story of vampires Vs humans, this is a story of vampires Vs Werewolves.

The basic story is this Kate B is a death dealer, a sort of vampire soldier elite, that hunts werewolves. A war has been raging between the vampires a Lycan's (werewolves) for ages (the Lycan's started it) but there leader has been dead for about 600 years and they are on the verge extinction. But there is a twist maybe the war was not as black and white as first thought.

A fairly good film especially for a lazy Sunday afternoon The plot is not bad and does'nt seem to have many holes, Kate B is good as the gun shooting, ass kicking death dealer and it is a nice twist to have a vampire being the sort of good guy for a change (I know! Blade). The dialogue is typical Hollywood stuff and all pretty easy to follow. The two leads, Beckinsale and Speedman, have very little chemistry but this is made up for by the great photography and the computer-generated nasties that appear.

I give it 6 out of 10.


- posted by J @ 12:06

 
Oldies but goodies
If you get offended by any of these you are very odd, because they are funny.

I likes a nice bit of prawn.
Lego is fun
How much?

and lastly a very PC game.

Enjoy.

- posted by J @ 13:54

 
Tech corner final.
11) Now wire one end into the choc bloc/strip connector matching the wires Earth to earth etc.
Your circuit is complete all you need now is to wire on your plug.

12) Wire up you plug as shown below.
NOTE: Below is the wiring for a 13A UK plug this will inevitably differ from may countries please obtain wiring diagrams for your own electrical systems before wiring.

E (Earth) being your Yellow and green wire
L (Live) being your Brown or Red wire
N (Neutral) being your Blue or Black wire.
Make sure your Fuse is 3A-13A (A 3Amp fuse may blow if this happens use a 13A)

That’s it you are finished DO NOT PLUG INTO THE WALL YET.
Plug you starter into its holder and pop in your bulbs then plug in your plug and switch it on.

Pretty ain't it.
That’s how we make a telly or a fire flicker.



- posted by J @ 22:06

 
Points mean prizes
The total emails checked was

1624

Kel was the closest and wins 1000 points

Edmund loses 101
Markiss loses 102

This weeks question is a little early so you have till Sunday next week.

Q. What is a thunder roll?

300 points for the correct answer.

- posted by J @ 22:01

 
Mr wiggles and friends.
Well just a round up today.

Mr wiggles seems to have taken over kel's blog.
Rob seems to be hiding
Markiss is scaring me.
Kelvin is strangely quiet.
and leeann is having family troubles.

All in all a rather odd week so far.

- posted by J @ 18:57

 
Another year older.
Well it was my birthday yesterday so I am another year older and still none the wiser.
unfortunately work was the order of the day yesterday but I had a lovely morning at home and did the whole prezzie opening thing, racking up the Van helsing extended DVD from vic, The best of Ralph Mctell from poppy and cash from the rest of my family which is always a bonus.

When I got to work I got a Virgin gift voucher and card for the guys so after the first show I went shopping and thanks to virgin for the 5 for 30 quid offer I purchased my self The Italian job (new one), 51st state, underworld, equilibrium and Jay and silent bob strike back I also got myself Anastasia new album. So I feel some reviews coming on. After work was drinkies time and then home to bed.

Now however is Tax return day and I have finally finished it for another year.

Will sort points later as I have things to do.

see ya

- posted by J @ 10:18

 
Mr wiggles.
I have just learned the Mr Wiggles has arrived at his first destination.

His movements are traceable via his page which can be accessed on the above link.

- posted by J @ 23:27

 
Reasons not to go shopping online when drunk.
You could end up buying...

A new phone.
A new surround sound system.
A new TV.
or a new watch.
or even more hard drive space (put the credit card down rob).

- posted by J @ 18:48

 
What goes around....
Life is funny sometimes, One of the things I can remember as a kid (about 4/5) was my father playing the guitar and singing to me and he had two songs that I used to love one was dock of the bay by Otis reading and the other was Streets of London by Ralph Mctell.

Now dock of the bay I have heard a lot over the years but streets of London I haven't heard, sung or thought about for 10 years and while I was trying to calm poppy yesterday I started singing it straight out of the blue and she went quiet almost immediately.

Now this may have been due to my awful singing and her trying to work out how to shut me up or because the song calmed her but either way it made me think about how everything we see, hear and do as children has some effect on our lives.

see ya.

- posted by J @ 22:52

 
Why Buckets of sweets, orange juice and children don't mix.
Here is a little tale recounted to me by our follow spot opp the other night during the interval.

Let me set the scene.

Our Our illustrious opp was settled in at his position in the gods (the seating right at the top for those who don't do terminology) the first half of the show was in full swing and if to his right he hears a little voice from the seating.
"mum what's going on" (the opp had to strain to hear)
"Shurupp" Came the reply (Loud enough for the entire gods to hear)
a couple of mins later
"Mum what's happening"
"Will you shurupp"
"Mum what they doin"
"Shurupp there dancing"
a few mins later
"Mum"
"Shusssh"
"Mum"
"Shurupp"
"Mum.....BLERGHHHHHH" Yep you guessed it all over his shoes, Poor tyke.
At which point the helpful woman behind leans over and says "Is he alright"
and gets the reply of "He's Just Puked up if you really wanna know"

Our poor opp then had to try and do his best to Keep his light steady, Not wet himself laughing and try not to retch as the smell of warm vomit touched his nostrils.

So folks the moral is don't feed your kid large quantities of sweets and drink and them make them sit in a hot environment, you are asking for trouble. Oh and if your kids are asking you what is going on TELL THEM at least they are taking an interest.

see ya.

- posted by J @ 21:45

 
Points mean prizes.
The questions were:

Q1. How many spam emails did I receive while I was on holiday.
Q2. How many were offering me Rolex watches.

The answers were
Q1. 138
Q2. 49
And the closest was Kelly with 142 and 37.

Well done 400 points are yours.

Ok slightly different rules on this one.
To answer the question you have to bet and amount of your points (Max 500, Min 100).
The person closest to the answer wins.
If you win you get keep your stake and gain 1000 points.
If you loose you loose your stake.
If you get the number bang on you keep your stake, gain 1000 points and pick a prize.

The question is:

I have a spam filter on my machine As of today what is the total number of emails it has processed, to narrow it down the number is between 1000 and 1800.

Good luck.

- posted by J @ 21:10

 
Tech corner part 3
9) You now need to wire it all into the choc block

Take your earth wires from both bulb holders and wire them into the left connection, Both Neutral (Blue/Black) wires into the centre and both live (Brown/Red) wires (1 from the starter one from first the bulb holder) and wire them into the right connector.
It should look like this.

This gives you the fourth part of your circuit diagram.


Your circuit is almost complete

10) Take your Long piece of three core and strip the ends as in step one.

Part 4 soon.

- posted by J @ 11:49

 
Mr wiggles.
Forgot to say, I have de-commissioned the Under the sink page due to lack of interest and have replaced it with the Mr Wiggles Page (At the top) where you can track his movements From place to place.

It is my eventual hope to try and get him all around the world So please put out on your blogs, shout from your rooftops that I need places for him to stay and we shall see what happens.

Cheers

J

- posted by J @ 17:45

 
Phew cont.
Ok quick theatre update.

The flutterbox is still cut thank god, The heavy fogger has been repair at a cost of £700 and has now been cut (doh!), The house problem has been solved and we have finally reached press night (show starts at 7.30) which means no more fucking about.

Other news:
As a girl pointed out it is December, although I am still in denial on this fact, and as such it is the time to start hemorrhaging cash from you bank accounts in order to buy that gift that in approximately 1 months time will be half price in the sales. I do however love Christmas and I normally regress to the age of around 5 on Christmas eve generally bugging the hell out of vic and making a complete nuisance of myself, but this year Christmas presents are going on a back burner (apart from poppy) for several reasons:
1) I cant afford it (This is actually the main reason),
2) I don't have time to make them,
and
3) The people I buy presents for I never see till after Christmas so I may as well buy them after Christmas.
Now this may seem a little bah humbug but it has a practical side as well, For instance if I was going to spend £50 on a present for someone before Christmas then I could probably buy them the same present plus another one for the same money after Christmas.
The main reason however is that I am broke at the moment (get paid on the 21st), so vic and I are taking the money we would usually spend on each other and buying lots of lovely nibbly bits for the Christmas period and having a quiet Christmas. If I have your email/snail mail addresses you will get a card though.

Being December also means that my birthday is coming up WOHOOOO *cough* the 11th *cough* and this morning I received my first birthday card. That informed me I was scum, Cheers T.

Will post more soon

J



- posted by J @ 17:34