Tuesday 22 December 2009

Michael Stahl-David: Behind the Star

I can't believe I have only just found this. It's extremely funny.

Monday 21 December 2009

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Still stuck for Christmas presents? Not got a ruddy dime on you? Well check this out kids. Look what I made this afternoon...

A HANDY PEN STORAGE UNIT!

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All you need is about a gazillion train tickets, a free afternoon and serious doubt as to why you've opted for a creative career. And all for free*! What more do you need to brighten up this festive season.

Merry Christmas!

*If you actually calculated the amount of money I have spent on train tickets, it does take the piss somewhat. Not to mention the time involved in making such a creation.

Sunday 13 December 2009

Long live Little Chef

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Coming home from a less than enjoyable weekend in Wales, we decided to divert from the M25 as Ray has work Monday morning. So we got stuck in traffic on the A34 instead. Things were looking bleak, the iPod had hit Elton John and Bev looked weary, but then we spotted a Little Chef. We either killed ourselves or had some fun at the nation's favourite diner. We took the latter.

There is something about Little Chef that you just can't describe. I'm not sure if it's the music from 2003, that is so inaudible that it's pree much Morse code, or the 'Mock Living Room Style' lights, but I just can't get enough of it.

I opted for the 'Jubilee Pancakes' (tasty as) whilst Bev and Ray went for a jacket potato with coleslaw and fish and chips respectively. I think we can all say we felt thoroughly nourished and satisfied post eating, and were ready to hit the open yet slow-moving road.

I'm glad silly Mr Blumenthal failed at restyling Little Chef. We do not need any more coffee shop style 'eateries', instead we call for naff paper napkins and reasonably priced all day breakfasts.

Here here. Long live Little Chef.

In other news...

Oh my god, the sky's on fire.

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Sunday 6 December 2009

Sunday 22 November 2009

I may or may not have put up Christmas decorations

I may or may have put up too many photos of this occasion. It was just so damn festive.

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Tuesday 20 October 2009

Pigeon Watch

Ok ok ok I'll write a blog. Calm down lads. << Could I sound anymore arrogant?!

Soz, been busy and all with meeting new friends, staying in touch with old ones and general life in the capital. And how wonderful it is too.

Did everybody see Life last night? Well you should have. It's your absolute British right to watch Sir Davey Attenbo.

Now I don't have no reptiles to show, BUT there was a larger than normal pigeon sitting outside my window not 10 minutes ago. So I grabbed my camera obscura and snappy snapped away.

Said pigeon.
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Pigeonus extralargus, which of course is Latin for large pigeon.
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In situ, complete with window frame.
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The money shot.
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Oh no, it flew away. (Please see pigeon in the top right hand corner)
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Right must dash. Got some emails from the BBC wildlife department to reply to.
Au revoir
x

Sunday 27 September 2009

IDent

Ident from Rhian Smith on Vimeo.

Daddy pays the bills

Ray and Bev attended a fancy dress party last night.
Dad didn't know what to go as. So at work his colleague suggested as such:

"You should put a condom on your nose."
"Why?" replied my Dad
"Because when someone asks you what you've come as, you could say 'Fuck knows'"

He's 56 years of age ladies and gentlemen.

Friday 25 September 2009

Cecil Beaton

I've always been a tepid fan of Cecil Beaton. I saw some of his photos at the Tate last year and I really enjoyed the light and the Wizard of Oz / 1930's thing going on with his photographs. So on the train this morning I was flicking through my guide to London Design Festival and saw a small small advert for Cecil Beaton Fabrics - sketchbook collection launch. So I thought oh cool I'll be able to see his sketchbooks and his influences and work out where he got the idea for the light from. N'no.

Firstly it was at the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is on a street adjacent to The Mall. Very peculiar. Anyway so I went in and was shown where to go, and this woman asks me, 'are you here for the Cecil Beaton thing?' Yes I replied. This was no time for lying. She ushered me along a corridor introducing herself. (Susie? Jan? Maybe Andrea?) So we get to the room after coming up a rather beautiful staircase, and announces me to the room. Thanks Susie. So there were like 4 people and were obviously involved in the exhibition. I say exhibition, there were about 5 pieces on display. I had a gander, making an extra attempt to tilt my head to the side, to make them think I was super into it. I think I may have even gone 'mmm' at some point. Then some rather sharply dressed man bounds up to me, declaring himself the photographer. Photographer for what now? "Oh you must, you must, We have the most divine set up next door. You must, you must." I am ushered once again into another room where there are three photo shoot set ups. "Which set up would you like?" Oh um, that one. "Right now peeeer through the muslin dahhling, peeeer." So I'm standing on a role of white paper, in very flattering light, being told by some photographer (let's call him Marvin*) telling me to "peeeeer" through the muslin in Central London, on my own**. The most surreal moment of my year. Most def.

The photos are supposed to be racking up on this www thing soon. Watch this space.

Here is the kind of thing I was looking for. AZ does not tell you these things.



* I'm being mean. He was nice and not as dandy as I'm making him out to be. Sorry Marv.
** Apparently they were trying to recreate the light and poses that Beaton had done. And I'm pree sure they'll come out like this one ^^

Thursday 24 September 2009

GOLD (gold)

Some lads?boys?manfolk from my year posted this video on Youtube. And it is hilare. It includes my former Head Boy, Leon the singing one, who ACTUALLY received a phone call from Gary Kemp. NO LIE! Anyways go watch and watch GMTV tomorrow, Spandau Ballet are on and they may mention it. GOLD!!

Sunday 20 September 2009

Come Dine With Me Me

I refuse to write about my own night. Guest writers are welcome *I'm talking to you friends*

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Starters: Bruschetta with various spreads and delights, all courtesy of Jamie O << Official sponsor of our Come Dine With Me 2009.

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Main: Baked pasta with shit loads of basil. Can I just say I made the tomato sauce and it had to simmer for AN HOUR. That's a damn lot of simmering. Thanks again to Jamie.

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There was also linguine with prawns, chilli, garlic and ginger. My own recipe.

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There were also Meatballs, WHICH I made from scratch. But I shan't be showing you those as they were really rather turd like. But they tasted nice. I shan't be showing you the dessert either. All I can say is FAIL. (It was nasty nasty choclit mousse, but did provide a lot of lolzzz)

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Then we danced to Thriller. Standard.

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Shit I'm going to miss them all SOOOOOOOOO much,

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And that was Come Dine With Me 2009. Currently listening to One Day Like This, and I'm feeling rather teary about the whole shananigan. This was by far the most productive, wholesome good fun we've ever had. I suggest you follow suit. Thank you Come Dine With Me 2009, and stay tuned for our winter warmer special; "COCKTAILS OF PREFERENCE: which one will get us most pissed?" Things change.

Saturday 12 September 2009

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Who needs friends

You're all guilty of it. I had one of those gross photobooth sessions with interesting results. Happy 09.09.09 day by the way!

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Tuesday 8 September 2009

(500) Days of Summer ++ The Temper Trap

Yay we went to see (500) Days of Summer on Sunday? Yeah Sunday? After a long shopping day at Westfields and the cow of a woman behind the ticket kiosk*, made me pay for a full price ticket, I was less than in a mood to waste money on a crap film. But by gum was it good! I have absolutely no love for Zooey Deschanel. She was so fun and 'quaint' in Yes Man, but in this she makes me soo angry! He's rather attractive and mopey and lol. Everybody keeps going on about the split screen reality bit, and it is very good, and made me wanna cry at the end of the it. Ladies go see it. Boys maybs give it a miss, tis a chick flick. Unless you have a thing for Zoooooey. Which will be irreversibly squished forever and ever amen.

*Yes ok, maybe my NUS card had expired, but she could have been pleasant.

The soundtrack to the film was fan-dally-tastic and included such tracks by The Temper Trap, which leads me to my second item. All hail The Temper Trap. Cannot tell you how gutted I am they have sold out Heaven in London, but I may haul my ass up to Birmingham they are THAT good. They're kind of a mix between old U2, Snow Patrol, Take That, Phoenix, The Shins. Eek I'm running out of references. And the singing kind of reminds a bit of Mika, BUT don't let that put you off. Ha! Poor Mika. Anyways try for yourself.

And go see the film. Good day.

Monday 31 August 2009

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Have just rediscovered Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I'd forgotten how much I loved this show. I now intend to buy every episode. Pree sure they'll sell it at the works. Ahm brings back memories.

Friday 28 August 2009

MEALS OF NOTE: Cream Tea O'Clock - Time for Tea

Is a cream tea a meal or snack? I say snack.

SNACKS OF NOTE: Cream Tea O'Clock - Time for Tea

Stuff your Boots meal deals*, we do lunch old skool. This was supposed to mine and Griff's weekly run. As you see, going strong on the summer fitness regime. But it rained. And we don't like to run in the rain.

LOCATION: Garden Centre
TIME: 12.24
NOTES: Superb

1. Wet whistle (Griff doesn't like tea)
1. Wet the whistle

2. Apply shit loads of cream. And butter by the looks of things.
2. Apply cream

3. Apply jam (preferably strawb flavaaaa)
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4. Eat the thing. Go on Griff. Get stuck in.
4. EAT

Perfectly British.

* So so much love for meals deals. I didn't mean it. Really sorry.

Thursday 27 August 2009

Look around you - maths

John Mayer put this up on his twitter this morning and it is high-larious.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Come Dine With Me: Come Dine With Griff

So here we are again friends. For those that pay attention you would have noticed that Kathryn Waldron was supposed to have her night on 12th August, but a little reschedule here and little facebook messaging there, and we have Griffindor's grand ol' evening of pleasant delights.

First, a bit of admin to begin. Our thoughts, best wishes and get well soons go to Han who isn't feeling so well and unfortunately could not make it last night. Get well soon Han! This feels like a full on WI meeting. Cool.

Rightyho on with proceedings.

This was our first Come Dine With Me in a month, so we had a little catching up to do. This was done in the kitchen. We then moved on into the dining room, where we had our own place settings, with wonderful little labels and menus. Just look at that cutlery sparkle.

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Just before we begin, 1, 2, 3, everybody lol at Griff's appron. LOL.

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So to start we had Butternut Squash Soup.

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No I'm full on excited for Autumn. Call me crazy or whatever, but I love nothing more than a chilly October day, wearing hats and coats and scarves and argh! LOVE IT. So this soup got me fully into the mood for Autumn. For some reason we kept on mentioning on how it reminded us of a Chicken Korma?? If anyone else has had the same experience, please write in to share your thoughts. Anyways the soup was de-lish, and yeah cheers I finished mine.

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And no I did not lick it clean you animals, there was tasty tasty Kaiser Rolls to do so. (Little reference to previous Kaiser Roll experience)

So next we had Stuffed Chicken Breast wrapped in Prosciutto Ham, New Potatoes and Green Beans. And shit me there was cheese in the middle. EXCELLENT.

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It was really good. Guests were advised to remove the cocktail stick before eating, but I left mine in just to add a little danger to the meal. Exciting. So yeah it was scrummy, cue pretentious food talk. The ham and cheese really flavoured the meat beautifully, and the ham did exactly what it was supposed to and kept the chicken super moist. Ponce over.

Yeah cheers finished mine.

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NB: Stick still remains.

Hahaha then we had some lols with name tags and such. Haha look at Kathryn, haha what a joker. Doesn't she look like she's really haha having a good time. Hahaha...

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SHE'S A NUTTER!!

Now I was going to keep this to myself but I figured I'd share it with you. I swear to God that when Griff bought out the next course, I heard angels sing. Just kind of a choral arrrrrr, and when you see the next picture you'll know why.

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Look at it glow. I present, or rather Griff presents, New Zealand Cheesecake. It was so regal looking. We all had a slice, measured by how many grapes we wanted, and was beautifully accompanied by whipped cream, which I think Hattie liked a little too much. It was a cheesecake of the Philadelphia variety and tasted goooooood. It was a New Zealand cheesecake on account of the added grapes FYI.

So yeah meal over.

Then Griff had a little surprise lined up for us. She bought us Bucks Fizz to celebrate our results last Thursday, in a right classy manner.

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It was a lovely touch to finish a lovely evening. Keyword here lovely.

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So next up is Kathryn on the 6th September, then I'm 13th September. Which reminds me to see if the farmer has my goat ready.

Good day!

Sunday 23 August 2009

Taking Flight

I had my first flying lesson today. And it was awesome.
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