Home Alone

So Lisa's buggered off to Wales for 4 nights. Which leaves just me and the cat left to fend for ourselves!! She went yesterday and I already miss Lisa loads - just don't know what to do with myself. But that being said I can always find things to distract myself - I've got loads of little tweaks to do with the BV album mixing, I'm learning how to use Final Cut properly (God it's sooo fuckin in-depth and professional! FACTOID: The Coen Brothers used Final Cut to edit and colourize one of my favourite films - No Country For Old Men)



I've also got The Force Unleashed to play - which is totally frickin awesome! Absolutely love the storyline in this. If you're a Star Wars fan (which I clearly am) then you have to check this out because the story is mindblowing!



Last night I finished off watching series 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Woah, what a finale?!?!?! Battlestar is, IMHO, probably one of the the best sci-fi shows in the history of all TV ever - it's sooooo realistic and dark and the characters are deep and ... and... I could go on but I won't!

Before Lisa left we popped into ASDA to grab a few things and just as you walk in they had boxes and boxes of Carlsberg and Kronenberg (18 bottles) for a fiver each!! So we grabbed a box of each - there were loads of freshers there buying them by the trolley load! So, all in all, I've got loads to keep me occupied, 36 bottles of beer in the fridge and a chippy/chinese/indian take-aways just round the corner .... I think I'll survive!! :)

Eye eye

I can't quite remember the last thing I was dreaming about this morning but I know that I was about to apologise to someone in my dream before my alarm went off and woke me up. That annoyed me. So I hit snooze, went back into slumber land for 5 minutes so I could apologise to this guy and finish off my dream. I have such a guilty conscience that I even have to make ammends with imaginary people!! What's that all about?!?

Anyway, then I finally woke up properly my right eye was all blurry. I must've been sleeping on it. It's happened before and it normally corrects itself. But now it's nearly 10:00am and I still can't see out of my right eye properly! It's freaking me out a bit!!!!

(Lisa's just texted me saying that she'll have to get me an eye patch!!! Yaaarrrr Jim lad!!!)

Anniversary 2

This is a quick post to say that me and Lisa have been together for 2 years as of today!! Who woulda thunk it? I love her more and more everyday. Happy Anniversary baby. xx

Aruba Restaurant

Still on a buzz from the night before (ie, the gig at Kyps) I woke up in a real great mood. It was short lived though cos I had to go to work! Joy!

That evening I had a power nap and then woke up feeling real hungry. We had no food in so me and Lisa (sorry... that should be Lisa and I) went for a random meal at a new bar/restaurant in town called Aruba. I'd never seen or heard of it before but Lisa read something about it. It's basically a complete refurb of the Show Bar at Bournemouth's Pier.

Man, the food in there was really nice and the atmosphere was great. Best bit? The hot waitress in pigtails and hotpants!! Even Lisa said she would! (sorry, no pics of the girl!)

Lisa's Birthday

It was Lisa's Birthday on Thursday 21st. I had the day off work so we could spend the day together. I bought her a pink iPod Shuffle - she loved it! She couldn't wait to wake up on Thursday so I let her open it on Wednesday night after midnight. Everytime she looks at it she forgets how small it is!

Also on Thursday, Simone Hudsbith finally gave birth to her first child - Amelie Jane Hudsbith. Congrats to her and Gary. So that's two people I know's birthday's that fall on the Summer Solstice. Speaking of which I woulda liked to have gone this year but the nasty weatherman told us it was gonna rain... but it didn't. Nevermind, we had a great day anyway.

Simone's not the only one to have a new addition to the family. Me and Lisa got ourselves a kitten. She's a little bit older at 6 Months (she was born on the 29th January 2007 - 9 days after my birthday!) and she's a mental bundle of loveable fluff. Completely dizzy and has mad spells - but on the flipside she comes looking for cuddles. Perfect.

Last night me and Lisa sent out a round robin text go get some people to come out for a pint at the Malt & Hops to celebrate Lisa's birthday. It was a bit last minute - we were expecting rain - so it was a small affair. Rachel turned up first. We hit the pool table for a couple of games. Then Kate and Glen turned up - they got the taxi. Had a few more games of pool. We were just getting into the swing of things and ready for some serious drinking when they called time at the bar! No fair. So me and Lisa went back to Lisa's flat with Glen and Kate to have a couple more drinks and introduce them to our new cat and watch a bit of Rambo II on the tele. Top night.

Neglect is an ugly thing!!

Ok, it's 11th June, so here we go with what now seems to be a MONTHLY blog post! Why am I leaving it so long to actually post something I do not know. Will have to sort it out. The thing is, I've done sooooooo flippin much in this last month that if I sat down to go through it all it would be July 11th!

So let me summarise what I've done in real quick fashion...

. Me and Lisa were going to have kittens (YAY!)
. The Kittens died! (BOO!)
. Lisa's parents came down to stay for 10 days. It was nice.
. My band played a gig at 60 Million Postcards. It was nice.
. We've written some new tunes. They are nice.
. My mum bought a new TV. It's bloody HUGE! (47" HD-LCD!!)
. Mum complains that she STILL can't see the TV!! WHAT?!
. I'm growing my hair!
. Went to a local mini-festival organized by the Fire Dept. It was great!
. Went to bhone's all-dayer at The Gander before it closed down. That was amazing.
. Discovered Tarantino/Rodriguez's double bill film called Grindhouse! Excited.
. Enjoyed reading the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels vs Betika nonsense on solidair's message board. Ridiculously pointless but heart-stoppingly entertaining.
. Bought Tomb Raider Anniversary! Totally amazing!!
. And finally met up with Kim and Paul on Friday after work and had a wicked random night out in town.

There! Hope that covers it all. There are lots of pretty pics in my flickr account covering a few of the above events. Go check it out.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and keep this up to date.

Deeding the Fucks

Me and Lisa went to Poole Park on Saturday to feed the ducks! I also bought me a pair of flares from Topman.. and a scarf for a quid! They used to have a Topman in The Dolphin Centre but now they've reduced it to just a Topshop. So it's ok for girls in Poole to look good but the boys have no option than to buy their clothes from Primark or Burtons! I guess Topman's biggest downfall in Poole is that they don't sell tracky bottoms for the chavs!

The Christmas period.

Christmas was great this year. Normally, I have to make sure everyone else is happy and do lots of journeys to other peoples houses to make visits when all I want to do is stay home, open my presents and get fat! This year that was pretty much all I did. Ok, I went to my mum's in the morning for Christmas lunch and exchanged presents but we were back home by about 3ish. And I went to my dad's on Boxing Day to give him his present and had a pub meal. But other than that we stayed at home.

Lisa bought me a Nintendo Wii. I knew I was getting one (see?) but it was still cool to actually finally open it... especially after all the news reports about many people with pre-orders being disappointed with stock shortages. I've got to say that it is an amazing console and thoroughly recommend one. Everyone who came to my place over the Christmas period will have played it and loved it so much they're like, "I've gotta get one!". It really is sooooooo much fun!

It was also that time of year for the Glenigan Christmas Party! What a yawn that was. I only went for the free booze! Oh and the members of the board performing the YMCA! The rest of it was boring. Being in IT we always get put on the table right at the back somewhere - usually behind a pilar so we can't see the awards being presented. This year was no different. I eventually moved to a different table with Andy. The food was pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. After the meal was the awards. This always bores me cos I'm not in a department that can be given an award. After that there was a really bad covers band. I felt like I was at someones wedding. Yep, all the usual cover band sinners were played - Mustang Sally, You Can Leave Your Hat On etc etc etc. After that it was the moment I was waiting for...

...play it if you dare! After that I went home.

After Christmas me and Lisa went up to Newbury for James 8th Birthday (for those of you that don't know, James is Lisa's God-Son.) We stayed over a couple of nights and did a bit of shopping in Newbury. I bought myself Yakuza for the PS2 for £9.98...



New Years Eve was a big ol' party at Andy's in Three Legged Cross. This was Blind Voyeurs first secret warm-up gig. It was a warm-up for our first public gig at Centre Stage on the 5th Jan. We managed to practice the whole set before the guest arrived so when we played we were HOT!! I think we surprised a lot of people cos they were expecting something chilled out and ambient. It was our fault cos we did tell then that we were! Oh well. After our little half hour we DJed, got very twisted and jumped in the hot-tub. Good times had all round!

Blind Voyeurs DJ Set

AFter a bit of a geeky tech post yesterday, it's time to return to a normal post about that I've been up to. This weekend I was originally scheduled to go to Newbury with Lisa for Charlie's 30th birthday. This would involve leaving Bournemouth after work on Friday and staying in Newbury til Sunday. I was looking forward to it until my mum said she really needed me to do a few things for her that Saturday as it was so close to Christmas and needed to get a few things in. Anybody who knows me knows that my mum is agoraphobic and therefore needs me to do a few chores on a regular basis. Anyway, it's because of this I had to let Lisa and Charlie down. Charlie said she totally understood because she is a single mother (as is my mum) ... but I still felt bad.

Friday evening came, and Lisa set off on her way. Gary and Simone came round for a little catch up. Gary's been a bit on the ill side and has had a couple of days off work. Simone is pregnant and loving it. They'd emailed me a picture of her baby scan that she had a couple of days before. Introducing baby Hudspith...

After they left I got back to work on the film while Scott revised his half of the DJ set. There were a few new bits I wanted to edit into the film ... but at the same time I had to find stuff to take out cos it was running seriously over time! Lisa and all the birthday girl entourage wanted to send out a toast to me in the form of a picture message...

I toasted them back via picture message with the glass of wine I was drinking. Followed, shortly after that I was sent a picture of Lisa with a chocolatey hand-print on her chest!...

...they had one of those chocolate fountains, y'see! Girls will be girls!

Saturday, I went to my mum's as usual and did a few chores for her. She's been trying to decide what to get Lisa for Christmas for ages. I suggested something and she wanted me to get it (Sorry, Lisa. I'm not about to type what your getting here!) I also had to grab some stuff for Christmas Dinner.

I got back home at around 3ish. Had a very drunken phonecall from Lisa at about 5ish - she'd been out on the piss all afternoon with Charlie and was not about to give up now! Anyway, the problem with getting pissed that early in the day means that you flake out early. They'd stopped drinking a couple of hours later and gone for a chill/nap at the time I was just starting to pour out the wine for my night out. Because tonight is the night that James and Scott do their first Blind Voyeurs DJ set at Sixty Million Postcards. To say that they were nervous was an understatement. They were practically shitting themselves. I tryed to help by saying stuff like "Guys, you're only gonna be playing music on a big stereo like you normally do every evening!" It didn't really help but hey.

Anyway, the night went well. After getting very drunk at Sixty Million Andy suggested going back to his for an after-party. I'd never been there before but it was cool. Andy had been sober all night cos he was driving so when we got there he mixed up a mental cocktail for all of us with rum, vodka, crushed ice and mint. Jesus that stuff was strong - I guess he had to catch up. We then went into the hot-tub. I thought it was a ridiculous idea cos it was freezing outside. I was told that as soon as your in the hot-tub you don't notice! Man, it was so nice - I've gotta get me one of those! I had no idea what time I crashed cos I took my watch off ages ago but I was getting tired so it was time to crash out. Man, did I have a hangover the next day! Anyway, here's some pics....

...to see the whole flickr set click HERE.

Sunday, I was soooooo frickin hungover! I felt like I was gonna be sick for most of the morning. I wasn't but sure felt like it. I had nothing to eat except a bacon butty. I had to have a massive nap in the afternoon until 6pm when Lisa rang up and suggested we go for a Carvery down at Cooper Dean. Fuckin' mint idea! Scott woke up about 10 minutes later and we convinced him to join us. That sorted my head right out. Good times had by all!

...in other news...

Lisa's had a hair cut, yes it's a Pob!...




There was a fire behind the house at the end of the car-park at work. Somebody called the fire brigade but neglected to tell them that the fire wasn't actually here at work but in the road behind. 2 fire engines turned up!...





Lisa, Scott and myself went Christmas shopping in Southampton. They had one of those German markets like they have in Bournmouth. We stopped at the German bar to have a nice hot drink (I forget what it's called - sounds like blue-vine I think!) It was nice...




Me and Scott got talking about Tracy Emin and about how stupid some of her art was. Ooooh wow - a messy bed! Yawn! We decided to throw together some random articles onto a frame and call it art. It's called Headphonenumberpill...




On the Tuesday 28th November it was Lisa's Dad's birthday. Happy 61th Charlie!! We went to Ask for a meal. Me and Scott were saying how if you were really dumb you could have the following conversation for eternity...

Man 1: "So where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"
Man 1: "Ok, I will. Where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"
Man 1: "Huh? I just did! Where did you go for your meal?"
Man 2: "Ask!"

....... you get the picture! Speaking of pictures...

And now, headlines without pictures.
Lisa get's vertigo again! Is off work for a while to recover. Is seeing a specialist soon.

Kim invited us up to stay for the first weekend in December, but only if Lisa's feeling better. Lisa looked like she was getting better and then it's got worse again!

Our band is having some very constructive practices. It's finally looking like our work is starting to take shape. We have new tunes to fill gaps and old ones that looked like they'd be impossible to play live are starting to work!

Torchwood is getting better, gorier and scarier.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is boring/annoying this year.

X-Factor is addictive just because the public are messing with the voting system! I mean are people seriously voting for Ray and The MacDonald Brothers because they are good? I think not! People are just voting for them to mess with the judges heads and money. The winners have to have a record contract. I mean, Ray is an annoying little shit that looks like he's been raised by wolves! And the MacDonald Brothers look like those creepy porcelain dolls that have come to life in some sort of horror movie! MAKE IT STOP!!




Oh and Me and Scott have rediscovered our worms!

Anniversary

Last Wednesday was mine and my girlfriend's 1 year anniversary! I can't belive that one year has gone by already! It's amazing how time flies when you're in love and more so everyday (I know, I know... a bit sickly sweet for some of you to read.... if anyone ever does!!)

Anyway, we went for a lovely Italian meal at Ask in Lansdowne. We both had some Salmony pasta thing with a side order that I can't spell and scrummy afters (which I also can't spell) washed up with some Pinot Grigio (I've got no problems spelling that - it's booze!) Then for a couple of pints Caffery's in O'Neills just across the road. O'Neills was the place we had our first date.... sorry, I'm getting all lovey-dovey again! ... It was weird in there though cos they'd moved everything around and it was pretty empty. We only stayed for one beer cos we were so stuffed after our meal and was starting to feel sleepy.

Here's to another wicked year with my soul one.

Gig Preparations Underway...

After finalising a slot for Blind Voyeurs' first gig with Conrad of Solid Air preparations began straight away and now things are really starting to take shape. Up until now we were just jamming and writing new tunes constantly and now have, like, a million tunes and ideas just floating around in the ether. Now that we've actually got a date to work towards we're all a lot more focused of making a set number of tunes gig-able.

Word on the street is that Conrad is planning a new regular event for 2007 and beyond. The event will be more arty than the previous Solid Air with local talent showcasing not only music but other forms of art, such as films, photography, poetry, maybe performance art too. We've been booked for the first night and other acts are yet to confirm (wishlist: Sancho, Brenda, A&E Line) Scott and James from Blind Voyeurs are also going to be DJ'ing before and between acts.

On Friday 13th October, 2006 Blind Voyeurs got together to have a thorough think through (how many words beginning with 'th'??) about what we're gonna play. Although it wasn't intended we jammed a new tune for the intro to our set and then decided on what songs we should string together. We're gonna steer away from the 'play a tune then audience claps then play a tune then audience claps' approach. We're going to tie all tunes together in, what classical composers call, movements.

On Sunday Scott, Lisa and myself have started shooting for a short film which we're going to project behind the band. Ideas have been coming thick and fast since then and, after a couple of late nights, already have a good 5 minutes of film editted together nicely. We're going to edit the film to roughly fit the mood of the songs of our set. More news of this when it arrives.. in the meantime here are a few stills from the shoot...

Yesterday sucked!

Man, I had the shittest day yesterday. Everything went wrong! Ok fair enough it wasn't anything major like getting run over (although I almost did!) or getting blown up or anything like that. It was just all the little annoying things. I can handle one or two annoying thinges but it was pretty much everything.

I didn't sleep well the night before - it took me ages to fall asleep and I kept waking up.

Work bugged me - everytime I tried to attempt a solution to a problem I'd get a phone call or email about another problem. I was working my arse off and getting nothing done. I even put my phone on Do Not Disturb at one point and then people started ringing the phone on the desk next to me - when I picked it up the person on the other end would say "Do you know you're phone was on Do Not Disturb?" NO SHIT!!!

I was farting like fuck! Well, I would've been but I have a social morality issue about farting in the office so I hold it in. This causes me to have tummy ache! I had to either wait until I went to the loo or until I got home. It's cos I've been eating healthily - Oats for breakfast, Wholemeal bread etc. When I got home and finally deflated it was embarressing. I mean, sure everyone loves a home brew but when you find even YOURSELF offended you know you're in trouble.

There was also a weird atmosphere between me and Lisa (no, it wasn't the farting!) I dunno what it was but I just felt like I couldn't relax or crack jokes like usual. There wasn't any arguments but I just felt distant. She was cool though - we just needed the evening to ourselves. Everything's fine now though.

There was even niggly little things. Like everytime I had a cup of tea and dunked some biscuits at least one biscuit per cuppa would break off and land in my tea! How annoying?!?

I'm putting it down to SAD (or Seasonal Affective Disorder) I think we all get it to a certain extent but yesterday it kicked my ass.