Posted by Chalky on Aug 6, 2010 in
Film,
Review 
Last night, myself, Mum, Anthony and Jill went to see Toy Story 3 at the Taunton ODEON cinema.
I was a little apprehensive as to how good this installment was going to be as I was disappointed with the latest Shrek film. However, I was certainly pleasantly surprised as to how good it actually was. I also thought that it was good that you couldn’t really predict the film based on the trailers which, annoyingly, seems to be becoming an increasingly the case. I found that for Daybreakers, the trailer was actually better than the film!
It was definitely worth going to see and, of course, it was particularly good in 3D! In fact, I found that Toy Story 3 was done so well as it wasn’t exaggerated, like Avatar, and therefore did not make me feel dizzy or nauseous.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, make sure you stay at the end for at least halfway through the Credit Roll for an extra treat!
Tags: Film, Review, Somerset, Taunton
Posted by Chalky on Aug 2, 2010 in
Holiday Yesterday, we made our, now annual, trip down to Somerset to see our friends Faith and Anthony. It was slightly different to the usual trip because, now Jill is insured to drive my car, she drove most of the way which was a nice change! It was also different because Faith and Anthony have moved house since last year, luckily only a few miles down the road so we didn’t get too lost!
After the conducted tour of the new house, we sat down to a lovely Roast Beef tea! Luckily, I’d saved enough calories by being good throughout the day to be able to treat myself to a sizeable portion and some Bakewell Tart afterwards. Unfortunately, I then didn’t have enough left to treat myself to a beverage but there we go.
Afterwards, we saw some pictures of the house when they’d just moved in. It was interesting to see how far the house had come on in such a short period of time.
Today, we’re off to Weston-super-Mare. Apparently, the Pier is still not quite finished which is a shame but I’m sure we’ll find plenty to amuse ourselves with!
Tags: Holiday, Somerset
Posted by Chalky on Jul 19, 2010 in
Life Stuff As most of you will know, I have finally decided to join the Gym to see if I can’t shift some of my excess baggage. I also want to try and build up my confidence and generally feel better about myself. I’ve been going for a couple of weeks now and I’m already feeling better in myself, I don’t think I’ve actually lost any weight yet but all in good time I guess. I’ve joined along with Jill and my Mum, the idea being that we’ll pester each other into going and also inspire a bit of friendly competition to see who is getting on the best.
We all started with the BodyFirst package which includes a pack with useful information in it and also, more importantly, 3 Personal Training sessions. I found these to be very valuable and gave me a very good head start. As a result of them, I am continuing to have regular Personal Training sessions with Liam who is particularly good as he already understands the problems faced by people with Asthma and is soon to learn all about Dyspraxia.
I was always apprehensive about the prospect of going to the Gym, indeed, it was my New Year’s Resolution last year to start at the Gym and it never really happened. This year however I hope the combination of the:
- expense
- fact that my family are also going
- the fact I can watch TV whilst working out
- I can use technology to help me
will all go towards making everything go smoothly!
I will be keeping you updated on my progress, my Personal Trainer has got me using the free MyFitnessPal website to keep an eye on my Calorie intake as well as my weight, exercise etc. The site also provides a widget that I will be adding to the sidebar of my Blog.
Tags: Gym
Posted by Chalky on Nov 5, 2009 in
Funny I don’t normally circulate things like this on here but this one really made me chuckle! It was sent to me by my boss at work, whom I do actually have as a friend on my Facebook, maybe it was sent as a warning! Time to check my Facebook comments!
Tags: Facebook
Posted by Chalky on Oct 13, 2009 in
Bad Luck There’s lots of Bad Luck! I really should have probably guessed that my trip to Sri Lanka wouldn’t quite go according to plan. I didn’t, however, expect it to start going wrong before I’d even left the country!
A couple of days before my departure, I received an e-mail with my Schedule for the week. The original plan was to leave on Saturday afternoon, arrive Sunday, work for 4 days, enjoy a day off in Colombo and then return Saturday afternoon. As it turned out, I was now working 5 days with no time to do much sightseeing. It was a bit of a blow but I thought I’d at least have the Sunday afternoon to play with… How very wrong I was!
On Saturday afternoon, I embarked on the trip down to London. We set off at about 12:45 and popped to Meadowhead Post Office before heading towards the M1. We were not due to Check In at Heathrow Terminal 4 until 6pm but I set off really early because I was expecting there to be a lot of problems with Road Works and general weekend traffic. I was pleasantly surprised that despite there being 4 lots of 50 MPH SPECS controlled Road Works that we managed to get to the Purple Parking (just a few miles away from the airport) in very good time. We arrived at Terminal 4 just gone 4 o’clock and was immediately greeted with the Departures board informing us that our flight had been delayed until 01:00,the original flight time being 21:35.
After the bitter disappointment and as the Check-In Desk wasn’t yet open, we decided to get some dinner before embarking on our imense amount of sitting around. We headed over to Cafe Rouge, which I’m pleased to say, went without a hitch. I know there is a Cafe Rouge in Sheffield but I have not been for many years, and even then, it was only for a Coke. I treated myself to a Leffe Blonde which I’ve not had since I was in France last Christmas. We also ate there, I had a rare Bavette steak which was lovely. I’m used to expecting sub-standard food from Airport eateries, but this was as I’d expect if I’d bought it elsewhere and reasonably priced!
After the meal, we headed over to the Check-In Desk which we were still expecting to be closed but we though we’d start queueing up so that we could get a decent seat. To our horror, the Check-In Desk had opened early and there was already a huge queue for the flight. By the time we had got to the front, all the window seats had been taken so we ended up being stuck in the middle of the aircraft. This certainly didn’t help matters as I often get Travel Sick unless I am next to a window and I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see the Maldives as we came in to land as I’ve been told the view is beautiful. But, never mind, I would much rather have had the meal in Cafe Rouge than have been stood queueing any longer that we had already.
After clearning security, we had a wonder up and down the Duty Free area to get our bearings and see what was about. It was disappointing to see that a large number of the shops were actually closed for refuribishment, typically the ones I would have actually like to have gone in too! I’m unsure how we managed to pass most of the time but eventually, we decided that we should probably go for a beverage. The terminal only has one Public Bar which, as you’d expect, was absolutely rammed! So we wondered around some more. Eventually, we were the only people left in the Terminal and I managed to sneak a quick pint of Gaymers in before Last Orders and the bar closing. But, it was still only 10pm so we had another few hours to kill. By this time, everything was shut so we had even less to keep us entertained.
The Depature Screen was updated to show that we were now expecting to leave at 24:00 so we were hoping that would lead to one less hour of sheer bordem. This was not to be the case because as we arrived at the Boarding Gate at 23:00 as advised, it was clear we were in for another wait. We didn’t actually start boarding until about midnight.
After boarding the plane, I’m happy to say that the flight went without a hitch and I managed to have a nice long sleep through most of it and then watched The Proposal when I woke.
When we touched down in Colombo, I was expecting to be bombarded with people wanting to carry my bags for me. I was pleased that this was not the case. It took a little while for my bags to come round on the conveyor belt but eventually I was wondering towards the exit looking for my chauffer over to the Cinnamon Grand. Unfortunately, with a mix up with the dates and the added delay of the flight, there wasn’t actaully anyone to pick us up. Luckily, there was a representative of the hotel at the airport who quickly called for someone to come and pick us up.
After returning from my evening meal, I found that my door kept ‘beeping’ at me. I couldn’t get to sleep because the door was ‘beeping’ so loudly. I went up to the door to see what was up with it; I opened the door to see if the light on the front was flashing. As the door closed behind me, I found out what the ‘beeping’ was, the battery had died in the Card Key lock! So I couldn’t get back into my own room! I went down to the Reception desk, but I don’t think they quite understood my explaination of what was wrong with the door. They issued me with another Card Key which after waddling 7 floors back up to my room, I found didn’t work. So I waddled back down and this time the Receptionist followed me up to the room with a key. He then sent for some Hotel Engineers to come and attend the door. Three sets of batteries later, I then had a working door once again!
Obviously, I have and will have a lot more to talk about, but with the amount of bad luck I had at the beginning, I thought it deserved its own post!
Tags: Victoria College of Music
Posted by Chalky on Aug 3, 2009 in
Holiday,
Life Stuff On Friday, I finally got round to having my hair cut. It was long overdue and was quickly coming out of control.
I normally get my hair cut at Scissors on Woodseats but, with me going away on Saturday morning and not having time, I decided to visit a hairdressers in Scunthorpe on Friday afternoon after work. I went to one that James recommended as I had never actually visited one in Scunny.
I normally have Number 3 on the back and sides and then just cut short with scissors on the top of my head. But today, for a number of reasons:
- I can wait longer before I have another hair cut, and carry on my lazy trend
- I was tired and couldn’t really be bothered to explain how I normally have my hair
- I have had pretty much the same haircut for the last 23 years!
I decided to have Number 3 all over.
Taken on the Open Top Bus on the Isle of Wight
I’m getting a mixed reaction to the new hair. My White Publishing UK Business Partner really likes it, The Cheif Executive of the Victoria College of Music commented on it too. My Mum however hates the new do and says it makes me look even more like my Dad than usual. I didn’t realise I had a big bald patch… Sorry Dad!
Anyway, answers on a postcard please!
Tags: Victoria College of Music, White Publishing UK
Posted by Chalky on Aug 2, 2009 in
Holiday So today was my first day of my holiday. I’ve embarked on a journey down to Selsey near Portsmouth with the Pashley family. Apparently my treat for putting up with them over the past 12 months is to spend 7 whole days with them with no means of escape!
The journey down was quite pleasant, we stopped off at the Chief Executive of the Victoria College of Music’s house in order to drop off some Examination Sheets that I have been working on over the past couple of weeks. We then headed down to St. Anne’s Cottage.
The cottage is inside a Bunn’s Holiday camp, which is, as you’d expect, rammed full of delightful Chavs and Chavette’s contemplated by a sea of prams. The cottage itself however is cosy and welcoming in its own little grounds. There’s a little cottage with its own Boat House which has been converted into further living quarters. So far, I’ve mainly explored the main cottage:
After taking these photographs, I noticed that I experienced a bout of bad timing, see if you can notice it. The interior of the cottage is okay, but the best bit is the view from the living room window:
I think I’m going to head over to the Boat House tomorrow and take a look around.
Today, we drove over to Southsea and hopped over to the Isle of Wight on the Hovercraft. We had to park over a mile away from the Hover Terminal because it was so busy but the walk certainly did me good. I’m going to try and keep up with my walking whilst I’m away this week, I guess we’ll see what happens!
It’s been a long time since I have been on a Hovercraft, I can only really remember going on one with my Dad when I was very young.
We decided to go for the Hover Rover offer which covers the Return cost of the Hovercraft and using Buses over in the Isle of Wight including the Open Top Tour Buses.
The crossing only takes just over 10 minutes and was pleasant enough if not a little choppier that I thought that it would be.
Once had arrived in the Isle of Wight, we jumped straight onto an Open Top Bus hoping that we would get a tour of the entire Island, unfortunately though, this is not the case.
There are 4 tour buses that cover different parts of the Island. However, I enjoyed the journey around the countryside part. It was nice to see some of the places that I had seen when I drove round the Island on some examining duties last year and it was a nice change not to be driving this time around.
We stopped off at Amazon World and visited The Adventurer’s Cafe for some dinner but decided not to walk around the rest of the place. We waited for the next Open Top Bus and finished off the rest of the tour.
When we returned to Ryde we then decided to hop on a train and take a quick visit to Sandown. The trains used on the Isle of Wight are hand-me-down London Underground trains and were very old and rickety. We didn’t have much time to wonder around Sandown before having to head back in time for the Hovercraft. We did however have time for a sneaky ice cream before jumping back on the train.
The journey back was pretty uneventful, we went back the more scenic route which was rather nice. We’ll see what tomorrow brings us.
Posted by Chalky on Jun 30, 2009 in
Funny This has long since been one of my favourite Billy Connolly quotes. However, tonight I re-found the clip of the quote and it attracted my attention even more than normal.
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been trying to lose a bit of weight, about time I hear you cry. I managed to lose 5 pounds in the first 5 days by doing nothing more than a big of light walking and not snacking quite as much. I was first spurred on by Jill buying the new Walk with Me! Do you know your walking routine? for the Nintendo DS:
I think it works well because it makes walking slightly more interesting in several ways. First of all, it turns the exercise into a competition between others in your household. Myself, Jill and now my Mum all have the Activity Meters to keep track of our walking and each day is a race to see who can reach their target the quickest. It also makes exercise a bit more interesting because there are games that can be played where how well you do is based on how many steps you have completed in one day.
When you couple this with the weighting and fitness aspects of Wii Fit, it does really help make trying to lose weight a bit more interesting and for people like me, who have to trick themselves into being healthy, has helped no end. I’m not saying I’m going to turn into a stick insect overnight, but it seems to work for me; I’m now I’m always going to be a bit bigger than everyone else but every little helps!
So, if any of that wasn’t a good enough of an excuse to get you going and needed more reasons to lose a bit of weight, here it is:
Posted by Chalky on Jun 22, 2009 in
Funny This is one of a series of videos by iJustine for Intel after a recent survey. Although exaggerated, they are very true to life!
Tags: iJustine
Posted by Chalky on Jun 21, 2009 in
Bad Luck,
Music,
Review 
I can’t believe it’s been over a month since this actually happened.. Anyway… After two cancelled gigs, on Wednesday 20th May Afternoon I finally ventured down to Nottingham to go and see Cobra Starship. I ended up having to go on my own but I wasn’t going to let this spoil my enjoyment too much.
The journey down to Nottingham was much quieter than I expected was going to be, indeed it only took me 50 minutes to get down there despite the roadworks on the M1 and the fact that the VMSs saying that there was long delays between Junction 27 and Junction 25. There wasn’t any traffic and I was getting off at Junction 26 anyway.
Nottingham greets its visitors by lining the streets with SPECS cameras and Red Traffic Light Camera which makes you feel extremely welcome(!)
The Premier Inn that I was staying in, the Nottingham Centre (Goldsmith Street), was pretty easy to find and was very convenient as it is on the same road as The Rescue Rooms. They were originally meant to be playing Rock City, but ended up in the Resue Rooms instead. This Premier Inn was the most expensive I’ve ever been to (when you include parking which is normally free) and is the first I have been to where you have to surrender your Car Keys. I’m sure I’ll do a more detailed post about it later.It turned out that most of the Cobra Starship Crew were staying in the same hotel.
After settling in the hotel, I decided whether or not that, dispite being on my own, I should stick with my original plan for the evening. After mulling it over whilst having a long soak in the bath, I decided that I might as well go for it. So I headed off in search of the Pit and Pendulum Errie Pub. After leaving the Premier Inn, it took me a little while to get my bearings as it’s been nearly a year since I was last in Nottingham. After walking past the, already, queing Cobra Starship fans (it was only 5pm and doors opened at 6:30) I managed to make my way over to Victoria Street, passing by the Hostel that I stayed in for the Paramore gig last year.
They had a 2 for £6(ish) offer on their Seven Deadly Sins Cocktails so I decided to treat myself to a couple before going for their Double Burger with Cheese and Bacon which also included a pint of Fosters, oops! The bar staff were very friendly however the burger was the greasiest thing I have ever eaten! Didn’t stop me polishing it off though!
I headed back to the Resue Rooms where there was now a long queue which remained civilised until it starting pissing it down whereby everyone rushed under the large umberella’s outside. Once in the venue, I noticed how small it is! I’ve only ever been in the other half of the Rescue Rooms and hadn’t been in the Gig bit before.
The first Support Act MiMi Soya from Brighton were OK but really failed to get the crowd going which made them a bit disappointing. I can’t really remember any of the songs they played. During their set, I started getting a tight chest which I first attributed to the drink but promptly decided it was a mini Asthma attack so I had to drag myself back to the Premier Inn, get my keys back for the car and grab my inhaler. I then sat back in the bar for a while with a glass of iced water. A good start to the evening(!).
By the time I’d finished expiring and got back to the Rescue Rooms, MiMi Soya had finished their set and it was the turn of Cash Cash. I did quite like Cash Cash, particularily their song Party in Your Bedroom. The upbeat tempo seemed to cheer me up somewhat. The song certainly got the crowd going and seemed to be more well known amongst the people there. If they come back to the UK and do their own tour, I’d definately get myself some tickets.
The final Support Act was Sing It Loud who were by far the most recongnised by the crowd. Indeed, some of the crowd in front of me got so excited that they started jumping up and down and managed to hit me in the face, leaving me with a nosebleed. At which point, I was beginning to think that the evening couldn’t possibly get any worse!
I had never heard them before, nor any of the other Support Acts but I will certainly be looking out for their EPs and Albums as well as Cash Cash. I’ll be looking forward to seeing them again at some point.
At 8:30, it was the turn of Cobra Starship themselves. As soon as they came out on stage, you could tell that the wait was going to have been worthwhile. Everyone at the gig were true fans and all knew the words to every song that was played. They played all of my favourite and was probably, despite the set backs, the most enjoyable gig I have been to.
Cobra Starship apologised for it taking them so long to get back to the UK and are currently working on their third album. I hope it’s not too far away and they get their act together next time round.
The gig ended with Snakes on a Plane from the movie with the same name.
After the gig, I stumbled back to the Hotel and had a drink in the Hotel Bar and then headed up for an early night after battling with the Key Card for the Lift for some time!
¡Viva La Cobra!
Tags: Premier Inn
