Monday, June 25, 2007

Poker for the 3rd time


Friday 22th June, the 3rd poker championship and the third different winner! I arrived at the directed time of 8pm only to learn that Jason was going to be an hour late and Chris was stuck in traffic and lost! The good news was it gave me time to hang out with Lucy before her bedtime. Dave was nice enough to let me have some of his homemade pizza as I'd had no dinner.



When the others arrived the serious business of cards started. Each of us had wildly different fortunes during the night; I had a slow start and slow finish, but enjoyed and successful middle to the evening. Jason started well, but spiralled downward from there and had to buy back in for the 2nd event in a row and still ended the night with no chips. David had a good start, lost his way during the middle but rallied again at the end; and eventually winner, Chris again started well enough, tailed off during the night but found form just past the halfway point and held his advantage to the end, fighting off David's late challenge.




Well done Chris! Good cards. Until next time.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Robots in disguise



I eagerly await the arrival of the Transformers movie. It's out next month in the States and I hope the UK release is not too far behind. The trailers have looked totally thrilling and Micheal Bay always turns out entertaining movies. I've found an UHQ photo of Optimus Prime which has whetted my appetite further. I had to crop it to just the head shot but if you want the original it can be found here, at the bottom of the page along with 2 other Transformers.



thanks to usemycomputer.com

A little bit of this, a little bit of that..

On Monday this past week I finally won money on the Play Monday lottery. Started about a year ago, it promised more winners, better odds, bigger winnings for 3, 4 and 5 numbers, plus more of each pound going to real charities than the National Lotto. Despite this its taken all this time of semi regular play to win anything; it was only £10, but its restored my faith in this lottery. Also, at the moment they're offering 100 free lines if you buy 5 in one go! 105 chances to win 10 million: I'm in!

I learned this week that the game Manhunt 2 has been banned from sale in the UK as the BBFC has refused to give it a certification! The first Manhunt, which came out some 3 years ago, like Tomb Raider, was one of those iconic, memorable games for me that I go back and play occasionally just to recapture that original vibe.

For those not familiar with the game, you played James Earl Cash, a death row inmate, who's death is faked at the point of execution, only to find that while the world now think you dead, your actually fighting to stay alive. Similar in premise to the old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man, you have been thrown into a series of arenas;(whether they be graveyards or abandoned villages or old hospitals or shopping malls) with the objective of getting through without dying at the hands of the gangs of psychos, of ex army, or fellow criminals (on the promise of freedom), all patrolling each arena and all armed with meat cleavers, axes, baseball bat etc etc, and out to get you. By using stealth you could sneak up on these gangs one by one and kill them in varying degrees of violence. For example, with a carrier bag you could just suffocate the guy; suffocate, throw a few punches and a knee to the head for good measure; or suffocate, punch, knee and then twist his neck off! (and that's just with the carrier bag!)

I'm not happy! Manhunt 2! Manhunt 2!!

I tried out a new class at the gym called body pump. Kinda like doing an full workout in routine form with weights and music. It was very good, although my legs hurt for 2 days after from all the squats and lunges we did. Need to get that summer body in time for my holiday to Barbados at the beginning of August. Oh yes!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Rhianne and Ashley get Christened


I bought me a new camera last week. Nothing really wrong with the old one, I just thought it was getting a bit long in the tooth and fancied an upgrade. Got the Sony N2. A touch screen camera, because I thought a lot of the new cameras out there have a lot of tiny buttons or the back and/or fiddly functions wheels. The Sony N2 only has 3 buttons on the back, the rest are accessed through the touch screen viewfinder, given the camera nice clean lines.

The first time I got to use the camera in anger was yesterday at Rhianne and Ashley's Christening. Rhianne and Ashley are Gregg's niece and nephew. Neither of them were too happy at the point of getting Christened, both hanging onto their parents for dear life, not trusting the vicar one bit. A man in a dress though, maybe they had a point. Back at the house they were in their domain and the confidence returned; Mom? Dad? Who are they. They was also a bouncy castle which the abundance of kids there had fun on. Us grown ups had food to for our pleasure.

Got to see Dan and Bex (which was nice after such a long time) and their new son Harry. He is an absolute darling!

The pic at the head of this post is with the new camera. I've left it at the original size just so you can see the size of the thing! The others I've had to resize just to make them managable!






Friday, June 15, 2007

Phil the (Slag) Stag!


What with my Sunday last week taken up with motor sport (see earlier post) plus my nephew Tai being born Monday (my last post), this current post is a bit late.

Last Saturday was Phil's stag do. His best man, John arranged the night and transport home. Again as with John's stag do previously, I am gonna keep the early part of the evening secret to protect the innocent. However I will say that Wyclef Jean's song 'Perfect Gentleman' now has more meaning. You remember the tune;

Just 'cuz she dances go-go
It don't make her a ho, no
Maxine, put your dance shoes on
We going to the disco
We gonna eeelope to Meeeexico
Called up my mama, said I'm in love with a stripper, yo


Anyhoo... We all moved onto our main venue for the night, 'Sound' in Leicester Square. First we had dinner up on the 5th floor and once the food was over, the tables and chairs were moved aside and the room became the R'n'b room, with the split level floors on 3 and 4 being the main floor playing more commercial music. Phil had also invited his Dad along for the night plus 2 friends I had never met before, and Johnathon, whom we all went to school with but did get that close to.

I danced most of the night, as usual. I don't remember seeing Chris on the dancefloor, but everyone else shook their tail-feathers at some point. Dave and Chris had to leave early to get their last train home, the rest of us stayed till 1am when our preordered cab arrived to take us home again.







Tuesday, June 12, 2007

My new nephew!


** "Stop press!" **

I am an uncle for the 3rd time! Last night (11/6/7) at about 6.30pm lil Tai was born. He also goes by the name Sausage. So at the time of writing this he is just over 25 hours old. I haven't yet seen him in the flesh, but I hope to see him real soon!

Monday, June 11, 2007

The boy's done good! / The long haul


First off, a very big well done and congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for his maiden Formula 1 win. It a was remarkable win considering his immediate and arguably more skilled rivals all goofed up so much so the it was also the 1st podium this year not monopolised by Ferrari or McLaren. Even better, Lewis is British and will definitely win the World Championship; if not this year, then very, very soon. He is 8 points clear at the top of the Championship and has yet to finish outside the top 3, again something his own team mate and current World Champion has failed to do.

Keep it up my son! (N.B He is also the very first black Formula 1 winner!)

Unfortunately my love of motor racing wore heavy yesterday as there were 5 different disciplines on which meant 7 hours of tv (I had to pass on the last one which would have made it 9 hours!)

First up was the DTM (German touring cars), that started at 1pm.


Followed smartly by the Australian V8s (Australian touring cars). Luckily it was only race one, as race 2 and 3 take place today. [11/6]


I had an hour's gap before the Formula 1 started...


..and showing at the exact same time was the Indy Racing League (America's version of F1, but mostly on oval tracks). Which I then watched on recording once the F1 was over.


Lastly the Champ Cars (another American version of F1, but this time mostly on regular race tracks), but this started at 9pm and I really had enough of cars by then. Still, I've got it recorded!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

British pride!

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