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‘Tis The Season…

To be sad maybe? Sad as in “I have no life!”

I really do look forward to this time of year, although heaven knows why! I live thousands of miles away from my immediate family. My partner is not exactly in what you would describe as a “close-knit” family. We have LESS than no money (we exist primarily on credit cards). I could go on, but I’ll only depress myself. Does the Christmas period account for more suicides than any other time of the year? If it does, I can well understand why. Despite all that…I’m STILL looking forward to it!! I’m a freak, I know!

OK, here is why: The Pros…

Lovely food! I like to spoil me and Em at this time of year. Usually that would mean some M&S food as well, but probably not this time. What it will mean is roast dinners, chestnuts (the best nuts on the planet), deserts, alcohol and lots of warmth.

Presents…when you can afford them. We don’t really do gifts for each other much these days, but rather splash out on a big joint gift. Last year it was a Freeview box with recordable hard drive of 40gb. This year it has been jumping up to a 26″ LCD TV. But I still love getting little personal gifts.

Christmas TV. A chance to see all your favourite old movies and lots of Xmas specials. It’s a dead time for Australian TV, but absolutely prime in the UK. I suppose it’s the weather that makes it that way.

The chance of snow at Xmas!

New Year…an excuse to p!ss up! And have lots of prayers that the New Year will be a better one for all.

The Embassy World Darts in the New Year!!! I LOVE IT! It’s like WWF, but darts! I love the “walk-on’s”, they are brilliant! My two favourites are Ted Hankey, who dresses up as Dracula (he has a darts nickname – The Count), cape and all, with spooky music and sounds playing (he even has the receding hairline – but not a widow’s peak, it’s too far gone) and he picks out plastic bats from under his cape and throws them into the crowd – it’s pure pantomime!!! My other fave is Martin “Wolfie” Adams. He comes out to Duran Duran’s Hungry Like The Wolf and howls and the crowd howls back!! I assume he’s called Wolfie ‘cos he has a lot of facial hair?!

The cons…

We feel compelled to buy presents.

We have to worry about decorations. Normally I’m the first to put them up, but I haven’t got a tree up yet. I’d love a fibre optic tree, but money dictates.

You can’t really be with the ones you love…or you are forced to spend time with family…depending on which side you look at it. I haven’t had a Christmas with my family for 8 years now.

There’s probably actually TOO much to watch on TV.

No snow and just horrible, cold, wet weather.

Running out of some kind of foodstuff and having to go to the supermarket on Xmas eve! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh

Sending cards by snail mail.

For those of you getting into the spirit, here are my two fave Christmas songs….

[youtube=http://youtu.be/P8Ozdqzjigg]

[youtube=http://youtu.be/DiXjbI3kRus]

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Out!

The MacDonald Brothers.

SANITY PREVAILED!

The MacDonald Brothers are out of the X Factor!!! Yay!!!

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Tittybangbang2!

I LOVE Tittybangbang. Everyone loves stuff like Little Britain and the rest, but I really love this show.

I loved 3 non-blondes when it was on and never thought that BBC3 would have anything on that would top it, but I adored the first series of Tittybangbang! And now a new series just started 3 weeks ago and I am loving it. My absolute favourite character is the Italian maid dust-bustin’! The very first show was brilliant. They had her singing Nut Bush City Limits in a crude Tina Turner stylie. Just the whole “Don’t look at me! Don’t look at me nut-bushin’ and dust-bustin’! I’m really shy!” is great.

I’m going to try and get the clip of it, but in the mean time here is some 3 non-blondes to enjoy.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/eHsx15AykUw]

I am finally getting into the new Killers album. Took me long enough. I’ve had a copy of it since September!!! It’s really good. I SSOOO fell in love with Hot Fuss that I am not quite as impressed with Sam’s Town yet, but there are certain songs that I do love so far. I love Read My Mind and Bones for starters…it’s very quickly growing on me!

Here’s Read My Mind (taken Later…with Jools Holland)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/4E8jy94j1HE]

And here’s Bones

[youtube=http://youtu.be/4Ot4sQoCJDY]

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I fell for the “shop-brand” er…bargain.

So I see an ad in the Daily Mail (newspaper…trust me, I do not buy it, it’s my in-laws) for Currys own brand Matsui MP3 player 2gb for £24.95. Too good to pass up me thinks. I have a 1.5gb MPman, but it has its own built-in battery, so it needs charging with its own charger. I hate that, so wanted to get one that takes 1 AAA battery. So I see the Matsui and think great, for that price I’ll have that. We go to Curry’s on Friday afternoon, in the pissing rain! Plenty of stock (just not on the shelf, so had to ask for it at the service counter). I checked that it indeed took a AAA battery, which it did, and bought it.

Get it home, test it. Already pre-loaded with some tracks, so was easy to test. Sounds OK for the price. Seems to be able to deal with varying bit rates, even tells you the bit rate of each track. Then I see what the major let down of the product is when I load some of my own tracks onto it! It doesn’t really have a proper folders/files structure, so it doesn’t create a list of albums/artists to play. There’s no folder hierarchy. Anyway, that slightly pisses me off. Some other people out there in Internet-land tried to rectify it by formatting the hard drive in the player, but then it stopped working all together. Other people just took it back to Currys to get their money back. I’m gonna keep min, but I’m going to dupe it by using software to change the ID3 tags (the code used to name mp3’s for players to recognise the songs). At the moment if I do nothing to the ID3 tags, the player will just be like a huge shuffled jukebox because it plays all the songs in alphabetical order. So I’m having to change the ID3 tags so all the songs are by artist first, so there’s a little bit of structure.

Nothing’s ever straight forward is it?  Still, I suppose I can ask myself what do I expect for £25? I still would rather spend £25 on a Matsui system than £129 on an iPod. As much as I love Apple and Mac systems, I don’t think I would ever own an iPod, unless I won one.

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British “Reality” TV, Saturday night feast.

OK…

So we were “spoilt” for choice tonight. We had X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing (aka Dancing With The Stars in other areas of the world) and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

You can’t watch everything in one night, so I plumbed for X Factor (which I’ve only been watching since the final 12 acts were chosen) and Celeb. Strictly Come Dancing I can watch in highlights form tomorrow night (as I would never waste my money to vote anyway, not on any of them).

Am I the only person out there that agrees with Simon Cowell about the MacDonald Brothers?? I mean, seriously! There is just no contest between them and the other acts! If it’s all to do with Scottish votes then all I can say is WAKE UP SCOTLAND! If it’s patriotism influencing votes, you (Scotland) had a great act in Nikkita, why waste your votes on the MacDonald’s? Tonight they performed one of my pet hate songs…Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet. It was abominable! So then they survive the public vote by SO MUCH they’re not even in the bottom two! I was astounded! The bottom two were Eton Rd and Robert. And then, despite of the two, Eton Rd giving the weaker performance, they survive and we say goodbye to Robert! It must be bloody rigged for the MacDonald’s to carry on surviving week after week. Just so all of you out there in blog-land can see what I’m talking about, here’s the MacDonald Brothers performance for you to endure.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/q4v93_2iBRY]

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I finally got the bush-tucker trial I had been waiting for with the arrival of an extra celeb to join the others’ in the jungle, Dean Gaffney. A rather sad person at any other time. Has been actor that was in Eastenders for a number of years, that would turn up in the odd celebrity reality programme like The Club, with Samatha Fox. So I didn’t really hold out much hope, but give him his dues, he stuck to the task at hand, and probably managed to surpass Paul Burrell’s BTT on pure entertainment value! Here is a highlight package of Dean Gaffney’s trial. If you are squeamish, take heed, there is a bit of retching to be endured.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/iZsk_vch434]

Dean Gaffney’s Bush Tucker Trial

They are all going nuts in there man. The only sane ones seem to be Matt Willis and Myleene Klass. Jan Leeming is just about the most annoying moaner ever to be put in there. Still, until she’s booted out, she’ll be put through more BTT’s so there you go. Tonight’s one that Jason and Phina had to do was back to lameness. Jan’s one that we’ll see tomorrow sounds promising, if she even starts it! Tell you what, I wouldn’t want to be bitten by a bunch of angry snakes, non-venomous or otherwise!

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I’m a celebrity (are you?), get me out of here!

OK, I’m not a TOTAL reality TV junkie, but I do find myself falling for “celebrity” each year. Mostly because I find Ant & Dec’s presentation so entertaining. It is a bit of a Z-list fest this year though. Here’s the rundown.

OK:

  • Most “famous” celeb – David Gest, freakazoid ex-hubby of Liza Minnelli.
  • A bit down hill from here – Jason Donovan, Oz ex-neighbours/pop star.
  • Matt Willis, ex-Busted star, now solo pop artist (recent stint in re-hab).
  • Myleene Klass, former Hear’Say (first winners of UK Pop Stars) member, classical muscian and TV presenter.
  • Lauren Booth, journalist and more famous for being the half-sister of Cherie Blair and hence Tony’s sister-in-law. That’s a bit of a clutch at the “celeb” straw…but it only gets worse.
  • Faith Brown, some 70’s female impressionist that has not been on TV since, well, since long before I moved to the UK.
  • Phina Oruche, some X-list celeb, pretending to be famous for doing a bit of acting, recently seen on The Bill (for about 2 episodes).
  • Toby Anstis, former children’s TV presenter, now radio DJ…nope, I’d never heard of him either.
  • Jan Leeming, an ex-news presenter, long before I moved here seemingly.
  • Scott Henshall, some fashion designer that probably IS remotely famous in the right circles…possibly.

I have to say, I only am familiar with the first 4 on the list, and only vaguely remembered Phina Oruche because I was watching The Bill around the time she was in it, but it was only on seeing her did I know who she was. I didn’t know by name alone.

Having said that, it still should be good to watch, I hope. Although so far the bush-tucker trails have been lame. Jan Leeming did the first which was going down a long pit and piercing covers over holes in the pit and having to put her hands into the holes to retrieve stars. She got 3, but dropped 1, so was only declared to have 2 (each star equals an evening meal for the camp). The next trail was David Gest’s. He had to get into a tank, which was slowly going to be filled with water, and all manner of creatures, whilst he had to get 10 monkey wrenches to fit 10 different sized bolts. Each would open to let in water, creepies and would give you access to a star. He was quite good. Wasn’t overtly scared and got 6 stars. The last one was Scott Henshall’s. It was called “Jungle Boogie” I think. Anyway, a pair of giant plastic pants that you had to be dropped into, then you had to dance to songs whilst all different kind of creepy-crawlies were put into the pants. He had to last out for 4 songs. He lasted ONE. Granted the song did go on for about 3 minutes and he had to dance non-stop so he was getting pretty tired ‘cos he was basically jogging. But they only dropped mealworms and crickets into the pants and he gave up after getting only 1 star.

The next trial is lame too. A heights thing which is gonna have both Jan Leeming and Scott Henshall together. The camp is gonna get pretty hungry!!! I hope the trails improve though. The scarier the better I say!

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Two sides of the “C” tale.

Welcome back Kylie!

It’s great to see her back, picking up the tour in Oz. I was there last year when she was diagnosed. It was literally a few days before she was due to perform. I saw a little of the concert footage and although she seemed to be taking things a little easy (as to be expected), I have to say she is looking utterly fantastic. If anything, healthier than she did before the diagnosis. Bono joined her on stage the following night for a duet, as U2 are touring Oz as well at the moment. Here’s a little taste…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3db54sbD6mM]

Goodbye Belinda:

Former Home & Away star and wife of TV personality Rove McManus, Belinda Emmett lost her 8 year battle with cancer over the weekend. She was just 32 years old. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer at just 24! It seemed as though she beat it and was given the all clear in the late 90’s, but by 2001 the cancer had returned. This time to her spine. She was acting again and was in the Channel 7 hospital drama All Saints and had to put a halt to her acting career once again. I saw her on the TV last year at the Logie awards and she looked very frail then. I can’t believe she battled on for another 18 months.  She must have had an amazing fighting spirit.

R.I.P. Belinda

[youtube=http://youtu.be/J4DUQrCfxMY]

What Cancer Cannot Do:

It cannot take souls
It cannot take spirits
It cannot stop laughter
It cannot remove smiles
It cannot stop fun
It cannot remove warmth
It cannot stop love

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No one won.

So…naturally enough I didn’t either! Well, not the big one, but I did match 3 numbers, so it gives me enough to play again next week, which now stands at £120 million! Last time it got this big they said that if the jackpot rolled again it would be divided between the next set of matching numbers. Not sure if that’ll happen with next weeks draw. It would be lovely though. There doesn’t need to be a single winner of money on that scale. It would be nice if a figure like that could be divided up to share between several winners – as long as they all have good hearts.

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Euromillions! 100 in fact…

I nearly forgot! I nearly forgot to put my entry in. It was only a story about it on the BBC news web site today that reminded me of it. The jackpot stands at an estimated £100 million! I can’t even put that into context, so the BBC tried. They say on their web site, that figure would buy any of these:

  • 1.6 James Bond films (making-of)
  • 2.2 paintings like Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer II, which sold for £45 million this week
  • 3 private 2,000 acre islands in the Grenadines in the Caribbean
  • 454 Roll Royce Phantoms
  • 67,000 nights in a suite at the Burj Al Arab 7* star hotel in Dubai (that’s 183 years worth!)
  • A days food for 250 million people in the 3rd world.

It’s mind-blowing! I’ve just put my entry in, so fingers well and truly crossed. I don’t think I’ll be buying 2 paintings or 454 rollers with it though. It would be lovely to do something more akin to the item on the bottom of the list. I wrote it as the list appears on the beeb. Sadly I think most greedy people in the world would put being philanthropic with the money way down the list. I might not extend my generosity to THAT degree, as I would want some of the money for myself and my family. But I would definitely NOT keep £100 million to myself! I would probably use 1/4 to 1/3 of the money for me and my family, then do good deeds with the rest. I mean, you think 1/4 of that some would be £25 mil! That would be more than enough for me and my family. I would only want a few for myself. I think any more than £3 million I’d probably struggle to spend it. I have one sister and three brothers, then all my nieces and nephews (11). One niece has a son and my other nieces and nephews will have families in time. Then there’s Em side of the family – her parents and brother.

I could dream spending it all day! That’s the kind of thing I’d like to do though. Not just piss off to some private island and live like a millionaire, I’d want to do good with it. Splash it around – in the right way!

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Thanks Guido!

Hooray for Guy Fawkes! I love the man! If it wasn’t for good old Guido, we wouldn’t really be enjoying fireworks this weekend! Only in England could what was a plot to BLOW UP the houses of parliament be CELEBRATED by letting off fireworks and having bonfires!!! Brilliant!

Our local fireworks display is on tonight. It’s usually quite a good display, and it’s free (always a good thing). I think we might go tonight, if not all the way to the park itself, at least somewhere closer so we can see the bigger crackers go off. Then tomorrow night we’ll go to the home of Big Brother UK, to Borehamwood for their fireworks display. We’ve been going there for the last 3-4 years now and it’s quite a good (& free) display.

I do get worried that fireworks are available to buy for the general public. I don’t think that is very safe. And I don’t understand why people want to waste their money on fireworks. Don’t get me wrong – I mean obviously by the subject of this post, I would expect it is obvious that I love fireworks, but I’d never buy them. Maybe a pack of sparklers, that would be it. But I don’t even buy them. I find sparklers WAY too dangerous. I just think buying fireworks are a waste of money to get for private use. I mean it’s like burning a £50 note. There are SO many professional displays put on around here, no one needs to buy fireworks really. But people do. More money than sense as far as I’m concerned.

I shouldn’t really say this, but we have done something INCREDIBLY daft lately. The weather has turned recently and we have been starting to get cold. We haven’t had any heating going to our central heating system. We were waiting for the estate agents plumber to come back from holiday so he could come and look at the central heating. Then this morning (after relying on other heat sources for the last 3 days), Em had a “eureka” moment and realised that what had been happening with the central heating was…

WE HADN’T ADJUSTED THE THERMOSTAT!!

Em felt like a total prawn for not thinking of it earlier and I felt even worse because I didn’t even think of the thermostat AT ALL!!! If we had a brain cell between us, we’d be dangerous sometimes! lol

So, needless to say, we now have heat. How damn embarrassing would that have been if we’d not have twigged and the plumber had come and went ‘click’ and adjusted the thermostat. Talk about wanting a crack to open up in the ground to swallow us!!!

Great minds think alike – soul-mates don’t think at all!