Happy New Year - 8 days late!

NYE was fun - we went to Scotty & Lottie's flat to hang out with them and see the new year in. Got wasted and had a general good time. I've got pics somewhere, I'll put some up on my flickr when/if I find them.

Xmas in general was good. How was yours?

Radiohead played a NYE gig which I missed. If you missed it too it's here...

Bill Bailey

Me and Lisa went to see Bill Bailey at the BIC on Saturday. It was amazing. I'd completely forgot that we'd bought tickets until about 2 weeks ago. We ordered the tickets in May after we saw him on the Jonathon Ross show and he was talking about his up-coming tour.

The German Market is in town again for Christmas. We had a steak burger and 2 glasses of Glühwein before we went to the concert. Glühwein is mulled wine and is great when you mix it with a pint of strong German lager - get's ya pissed quicker!

I'll upload a clip of Bill Bailey later on.

Friday's Day Off

I took the day off work on the 26th. I just fancied a long weekend and a trek into Southampton with Lisa. We did a bit of Christmas shopping and got a few odds-n-sods for ourselves. Southampton was full of loads of school kids 'hanging out' in the highstreet and the shopping mall on their half-term which was a tad annoying. One of my missions on this journey was to buy an external hard-drive. I had a budget of £100 and wanted to get at least a capacity of 500gb. First stop was the Apple Store - they sold them for about 160 quid!! Couldn't believe it! I came out a bit disheartened but I was spell-bound by the new iMacs. I ended up buying an external hard-drive from Argos for just under 80 quid! Brucey-bonus!
Lisa's mission was to buy a generous sized vanity case. Now I'm no expert but I was surprised to find out how hard it is to get one. Out of all the department stores and other such places like Superdrug and Boots we found just 1 vanity case that was the right size... but the pattern on it was really granny-fied! (Is that a word? Hmmm, it is now!)



I also bought something I've been meaning to get on DVD for a long time - Escape From New York. That film is sooooo flippin' good. And it still stands the test of time. It was on TV a while back but I only caught the end of it. I absolutely LOVE the feel of the film mainly thanks for John Carpenters inventive lighting and excellent soundtrack (which was scored by John Carpenter himself - something he's done quite a few times) I also bought Fisher King and Look Around You series 1.



After a long day shopping we headed back for the car via West Quay. We passed the Apple Store again as it was on the way but this time it had the shutters half shut, staff outside (except for one staff member polishing the surfaces), and queue of about 50 people with their macbooks in their hands. I had to find out what was going on so I asked one of the staff. He explained to me that Apple's new operating system, Leopard was about to be released as of 6pm. As soon as he started to say "Apple's new operating system..." I instantly knew what he was talking about. This was a relief to him cos before I asked him I saw him explaining it in full length to nosey OAP's with glazed looks on their faces. I felt sorry for him. I mean, how do you explain to someone what an operating system is to someone who has never even used a computer?!

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!

Hate Sprouts?

As you know, it's December. Therefore it's nearly Christmas. THEREFORE it's nearly that time of the year when we eat sprouts! Now, I love sprouts... didn't used to, mind. I used to hate them. I thought they tasted of sick! But now, I don't know why but I actually find them quite tasty. Maybe it's cos I've grown up a bit - I dunno. Anyway, today I was emailed this game where you squash sprouts and try to avoid them getting to your plate! Those sprout haters out there among you will love it. Enjoy!...

...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!

Nintendo Wii

Lisa has put the deposit down for my Christmas present!! It's a Nintendo Wii. I honest can't wait and am so excited. At the moment I'm not interested in the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 because they're both extremely expensive and being corporate bullys. Both of them are employing a non standard technology to store the games on (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) - it reminds me of the old VHS vs BETA days when video's first came out.

Let's look at the pricings for both using play.com: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

As you can see, the 360 is retailing here at £279.99 with game and 20Gb hard-drive. The PS3 comes in at £549 with a 60Gb hard-drive, NO GAME. Now, the 360 has been out for over a year now so the price has come right down to a reasonable price for a new-ish console but in order to appreciate the games fully you need a HDTV... so that's gonna be another £400+ on top of that!! Same with the PS3. Also, I've seen comparison screenshots for the same game on both consoles and the PS3 looks so much better ... but it's much more expensive.

But that said, the original Playstation was £499 when that first came out and that too was a huge leap in console technology. I didn't get my first Playstation until about 2 years after it came out. I'll probably do the same here. In the meantime, though, the Nintendo Wii is a great console that doesn't demand you have the latest TV to play it. It's not a 'next generation' console like the other behemoths, it's more of an 'in-between generation' console. Besides, it's gonna have Mario and Zelda on it! Check the vid...

Now, in case you were wondering why the people in the video were flailing their arms around like novice gamers the Wii has a very unique control system with it. It can detect motion! So, if you're playing a game where you have a sword you can swing your arms around to swing the sword. This is a huge innovation with gaming technology, much more than just higher resolution graphics and the ability to throw billions of polygons around the screen in a fraction of a second.

Nah, I'm really happy with my present. I haven't had a Nintendo since the day's of the Super Nintendo. I missed out on owning an N64 and the GameCube - played them both and loved them but never actually owned one myself. I can't wait for Xmas.