Category Archives: General Life

General Life

The Things People Do.

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Yesterday evening I went to see the fireworks in Mayflower Park Southampton with a group of friends.  Shell managed to persuade me to go on the bouncy castle with her which was rather fun as I kept tipping her over.   Despite doing Tae Kwon Do she doesn’t have the knack of tipping me up.  Then Phil persuaded me to go on one of the whirly rides like we did last year at Hunstanton where we saw the fire work there.  Lots of arm waving this time and screaming by us to attract attention.

 Afterwards is was back to my place with Amanda (my lodger), Shell, Phil, Paula and Dave for some food cooked by me for a change and some Eye Toy action on the PS2. Paula, Shell and Dave were going full at it playing the Chef and Kung Fun games with Amanda and Shell looking on at them being silly.  

That was until Phil started talking about her friend being able to match the high notes on Singstar.  So I posed the question “So you’d do Singstar if it was here?” to which she replied of course she would.  Very fortunately I happened to have it in the bag there that very evening to Phil’s declaration, “I fell straight into that trap”.  So out it came and to my surprise every one there took a turn or  more.

After every one left myself and Amanda continued on with the Singstar for a while as Amanda has found something that she enjoys on the PS2.

General Life

Halo 3

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Just completed Halo 3 playing co-op with my friend John having been forced to play the Arbiter rather than Master Chief.  We had fun playing it but felt it was very much more of the same compared to Halo 1 & 2 and like many others felt we had to play it to complete the Halo Triology and finish the story.  In comparision Resistance: Fall of Man felt like a breath of fresh air with the wide variety of terrains such as Manchester, London, the Cheddar Gorge and the military bases and the many different styles of weapons such as the Bullseye and Augar.  Epics such as chase the scarab from Halo 2 were sadly missing.

They’ve obviously left the end of Halo 3 open to allow them to have a Halo 4.  Will Master Chief fall to earth somewhere and be treated like a god.  What will he do about spare parts?  Will The Arbiter decide to go and find Master Chief and rescue him.

Halo 3 was good but not that good.  A good analogy is that Halo 3 is to Halo 2 as Killzone was to Halo 2.  Killzone as a good game but the co-op mode made Halo and Halo 2 really fun to play.  I’m hoping that Killzone 2 when it comes out will give the Halo franchise a run for its money.

General Life

First OU exam

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Had my exam today for DD202 Economics and Economic Change.  Bit strange to be sitting down to do an exam after a break of six years.  Things appeared to go well apart from the last question I choose when I hit a mental blank on how to do it despite looking at the material for it yesterday.

Now going to have lots more free time and no deadlines until I find a course for next year with the OU.  Ought to go and start looking for a holiday now as I’ve still got 17 days holiday to use up this year.

General Life

East End Cycling 9 September

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For my birthday my sister booked me  onto an East End Cycling tour. So it was on a bright Sunday  morning after having gone to Proms In The Park that I set off from my sisters flat in Bayswater on my bike to Islington. The sight of  the large number of bikes chained up gave away where we supposed to meet  up. After having a cup of tea we set off. Quite a varied  bunch of people with a wide range of bicycles including one person who had hired one for the day.

Cycling along the canel path our bikes  produed a strange rumbling sound. It took me a while to work out  what was causing. What gave it away was the abbreviation CEGB on the concrete slabs making up the nice canel path. Obviously it along the canel are running electricity cables in a conduit under the canel path. A little less exicting than I would have like to have thought.

On our way we passed one of the house used as the home of the Channel 4’s Big Breakfast. Quite strange to think that it was on TV when I was at school over ten years ago but its still a feature. The area behind it has been ear marked for  the Olympic games so its rather quiet location may well disappear with all the new development going on.

Arriving in Canary Wharf by bicycle was a novelty as I’ve always turned up there in the past via the tube and the DLR. Got a better feel as to that there is something there =
rather than just offices.

Going past the ExCeL centre was quite  interesting for the warships moored up with the sea cadets out in their dinghys sailing past it. Guess it must have been an arms fair =
about to start there.

We had a stop off at 3 Mills Island which is now mainly a television study. Unfortunately whilst we  were there one of the group who had popped off to Tesco’s had his bike stolen sadly.

The Lunch stop was at an old American Diner imported from the US at the old Trinity House training and maintenance site. More fascinating than the diner was the homes that had been built out of containers. Quite strange to see containers with windows in them for a change. Some were balanced quite precariously. On the other side of the river had a good look at the Dome at eye level.

Final stop of the day was the The Narrow Boat for a drink before heading back home.
Have to say chatted the most to Sue, an accountant living up in Wandworth and working in Lambeth.  Certainly the most interesting of the lot and quite a keen cyclist. Unfortunately for me she’s already got a boyfriend.  Ce la vie.

An interesting day revealing parts of  London that I didn’t even know about.

General Life

Proms In The Park

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Dick and Dom seemed very childish with their antics trying to marshall the crowd.

Was quite suprised to find T-Rexstasy playing at Proms In the Park.

 Had a good time and even treated myself to a pair of bunny ears.  All I need to do now is to hold of a copy of the photograph from Frances to post.

General Life

Music On The Green

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Had an enjoyable evening out on Bearsted Green listening to some live music in the company of friends. Sat out on a rug all evening chilling out and spotting people we went to school with in the grand. Felt a bit underequiped this evening as we lacked; tables, chairs, wine glasses or gazebo.

First up was Briony Sparrowhawk. She did some charming covers as well as some of her own songs including Maidstone Boys.

Next was Sunrise followed by Rockin’ Rocket 88.

A great way to start the summer. Shame it’s nearly over already.

General Life

Mad Weekend In Milton Keynes 1-2 September

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Another year and another mad weekend in MK.  This years’ activities were Indoor Skydiving, Go-Karting and Ariel Xtreme.

Managed a bit better with the indoor skydiving this year, actuall managed to hover rather than career from side to side.  The instructor even thought I could control my movements.

Go-Karting. Helen Morton beat her brother.  However I need more practice.

Snowboarding was the same as last year but felt that I didn’t make as much progress as I did last year though we were a smaller group.  Perhaps I need to just get out on the real slope. 

Aeriel Xtreme is similar to Go-Ape but on posts not in the trees.  It’s set up with a lower level and above it a more challenging higher level.  Some of it was very unnerving with jumps and climbing along parrallel ropes. However I had the satisfaction of doing it all including the brief but exciting vertical descent.