The look on Brucie's face!

Just "found" this photo.

Dear oh dear, what are we doing!

Hospital

My mum's in hospital at the moment. She's been suffering from a trapped nerve for the past year and recently, its been getting worse and has really affected her mobility.

So, today, she'll be having an operation to relieve the pressure on her nerve. From what I understand, they'll be donig something to the bone that's pushing onto the nerve! Sounds a bit complicated to me, but from what I understand, its quite a routine operation, and the hospital does loads of them everyday, so fingers cross Mum.

Anyway, onto another subject, I found this on my Internet travels today.








It's a "Hello Kitty" chess set! Ok, normally, I groan when I see stuff like this, but I have to admit, this one looks very well designed.

Althought, you should see the price of it - $330 USD!

http://shop.sanrio.jp/cm/cmc-910457/

Have a good weekend everyone, and Julie, enjoy your Paris trip - hope you managed to get knocked up my dear!

" all you wish for and all you seem "

Just a little review of one of my favourite songs "In the Sun" by Joseph Arthur.

Actually, you may have heard this song before - a few years ago, it was featured in the advert for Davidoff aftershave, Echo. Due to the length of the advert, only a first 5 lines of lyrics were used I think.

Then last year, Tim gave me the Joseph Arthur CD, telling me to look out for "In the Sun".

From the quiet opening of the song, to the beautiful orchesetral ending, the raw lyrics paints an image of a broken man. A man, who's lost someone very close to him. A man, regretful that he took this special someone for granted. And now because of this loss, he's a man struggling to find some purpose in his life.

Personally, I think this song can be viewed from two different angles - it could be viewed as

• a song to give hope and some peace to those having difficulty letting go of someone they once loved
• a heartbreaking song - a song sung with such raw passion is bound to remind someone of a past loved one

There's a point in the song, which I always find stunning - towards the end of the song, Joseph Arthur is singing " may gods love be with you", and he repeats this a few times - in the background, there isn't much music, but then BANG! The music comes back to live with a magical glory, and he sings " cos if i find - if i find my own way, how much will i find ... ".

I personally think that a good song should be like a story. There should be high and low points, and the lyrics should snare you in and take you into a journey of discovery.

And I think this song does this perfectly.

Ode to Julie

Apparently, Julie feels left out, because no one has mentioned her finer qualities in their blog yet.

So as her number 2 fan, I'll try and make an eloquent dedication to our resident style guru.

I first met Julie in February 2004 in All Bar One in Leicester Square. I had come out that evening to meet Johnny, who in turn, was there to meet Julie, his ex work colleague, who in turn was there to be hooked up with! So, after being introduced to her, I finished that evening, with a good impression of this not so young lady. She had seemed polite, funny, quite intelligent and very well spoken.

Also, she had a face and body, which, some people in the Middle East would exchange 10 camels and a pot of Arabic coffee for.

I next met up with Julie again in June. This time, we were in that classy establishment, Moon under the Water in Charing Cross, in order to perform our usual "lets get drunk on a Friday" ritual.

After that, we started chatting a bit more often - she would treat me as her temporary gay best friend (unfortuatenly, not like Will and Grace, more like Batman and Robin - her being Batman), and would nag me about my lack of basic hygiene skills.

I soon found out that she was hiding a very big stick, which she would occassionally pull out and stir the proverbal pot with. This witch would put many an evil ingredient in her pot to stir - such as Mike's "so gay, it makes even Julian Clary look like Stallone" phone, or Johnny's "so old, they were using that phone in 1837" phone, or Biff's "so big, you could stick your phone down your trousers and make the ladies smile for a change" phone. But, I've learnt to appreciate and even enjoy her bitter and evil comments.

Our Julie is very special and possesses skills with a stick that I've never seen before, and everyone who meets her comes out with a great impression of her.

Except for Mike, who had to get a new phone because of her.

Oh I so want this phone!

As I look at you, I sigh with pleasure. The sheer beauty of your face sings a beat to my heart which sounds better than any symphony that I've heard. I touch you, and my fingers start to tingle, and I feel like a man who's love has no limits, yet restrained by the vast distances between the two of us, I can only weep at the injustice of it all. By Andrew Man

Reading the above paragraph, you can imagine the sheer passion involved between the two parties mentioned above.

But, er what does it mean, when this passion is between a man and a mobile phone?


Look at the phone on the right. You may think its a normal Motorola V3 RAZR, but its a bit more than that. It's the 3G version of it.

If you've known me for at least the past two years, you would have seen me with some pretty hefty phones - phones which, if used as a weapon, would pretty much give someone a concussion for the next week or so.

So whats special about the V3x? Well, its a little bit thicker than the V3 RAZR, which still means its thin like hell. Yet, feature wise, it has far more in terms of spec.

How does this sound?

• 2MP camera
• 256k colour screen
• upgradable memory (up to 512mb)
• 125 grammes

Oh I do so want this! The last two years, Ive realised that I haven't had a phone that could do all I want (great camera and music player with decent memory), yet come in a compact format.

On paper, this phone looks like it has all I want. The downside may be the Motorola user interface which really bugs me. Using Karen's V3 RAZR drives me nuts, especially as I'm a prolific text messager!

You can read more about it here

http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_v3x-1120.php

So, Julie, my style guru, does this phone meet with your approval?

"I have lived a thousand lives........"

I found this book by accident.

I was on Amazon, looking for a book (can't remember the details), and on the side panel, there was a message saying that Amazon recommended this book.

So I click on it, and find little about the book, besides from five star ratings and recommendations to read it.

The intriguing thing about this, was that this novel won the World Fantasy Award in 1988, which is like a major sci-fi book award, yet I had never come aross this book - probably because it was out of print, hence the difficulties.

Anyway, after "obtaining" a copy of this book, I started reading it on the tube on the way home. And then I read it while eating my dinner. And I kept reading, until I put it down, around 12am, in awe.

In awe of the ability of a man to write a book with such passion, emotion and heartbreak.

At this point, you might be asking, whats this book about?

Quite simply, its about a man named Jeffrey Winston, who dies at 1:06pm October 18 1988. He wakes up, in 1963, in the body of his 18 year old self. And he's been giving the chance to live his live again.

And it "replays" over and over again - each life lived differently, and with different repercussions on the "reality" he lives in.

I don't want to reveal too much about the book - i started reading the book with little idea about the plot and I think thats the best approach to this book.

Ken Grimwood has managed to sculpture a beautiful novel - easy to read and very thought provoking. I feel like it has inspired to change my outlook on life somewhat.

Heck, even Mike agreed with me, and we never agree on anything!

Terminator 2

Just watching Terminator 2 on ITV2 at the moment. God knows why I'm watching this, as I've got it on DVD already!

But.

I love this film. I watched it when it was first released in the cinema in 1991, and it just blew me away. Even now, 14 years later, some of the effects still look better than the stuff you get on "normal" television!

I guess in terms of shakspearean character development and movie symbolisms, its certainly no Citizen Kane or Gone with the Wind. But I found both of them quite boring anyway.

Should be going to sleep soon - long day ahead - car is going in for a service, and then going to my sister's for a bit of harassment!

Stealing a Nation

Watched Stealing a Nation, A Special Report by John Pilger last night on ITV (this documentary was previously shown last October 2004).

In the Indian Ocean, lies a group of islands near Mauritius, called the Chagos Islands. These islands was a British Crown Colony, much the same as Hong Kong once was.

In the 1960's, the British Government made a deal to lease these islands to the US government - the US wanted to convert the island, Diego Garcia into a military base, and this base is now its biggest overseas installation.

Unfortunately for the British and the Americans, over 2000 people lived on these islands.

The Americans wanted the islands to be "swept" and "sanitised" (in other words, the people removed).

After several attempts to remove them, they were eventually hereded onto boats and dumped into the slums of Mauritius.

John Pilger and producer Christopher Martin have acquired hundreds of astonishing official documents which, in the words of officials and ministers, reveal how the conspiracy was hatched, then covered up.

“The documents show clearly that the conspiracy to expel the population rested on a big lie,” says John Pilger. “This claimed that the population were itinerant workers, when the government knew this was a population that went back generations. Most had never left the islands.

“One Foreign Office document is headed, ‘Maintaining the fiction’. Another says, ‘We propose to certify these people, more or less fraudulently, as belonging somewhere else.’ We have secret memos that propose how the government should lie to the world. I have never read anything like them.”

Here's a quote from a report in the Guardian.

The behavior of the Blair government is, in many respects, the worst. In 2000, the islanders won a historic victory in the high court, which ruled their expulsion illegal. Within hours of the judgment, the Foreign Office announced that it would not be possible for them to return to Diego Garcia because of a "treaty" with Washington - in truth, a deal concealed from parliament and the US Congress. As for the other islands in the group, a "feasibility study" would determine whether these could be resettled. This has been described by Professor David Stoddart, a world authority on the Chagos, as "worthless" and "an elaborate charade". The "study" consulted not a single islander; it found that the islands were "sinking", which was news to the Americans who are building more and more base facilities; the US navy describes the living conditions as so outstanding that they are "unbelievable".

In 2003, in a now notorious follow-up high court case, the islanders were denied compensation, with government counsel allowed by the judge to attack and humiliate them in the witness box, and with Justice Ousley referring to "we" as if the court and the Foreign Office were on the same side. Last June, the government invoked the archaic royal prerogative in order to crush the 2000 judgment. A decree was issued that the islanders were banned forever from returning home. These were the same totalitarian powers used to expel them in secret 40 years ago; Blair used them to authorize his illegal attack on Iraq.

So basically, in order to crush the judgement made in 2000 which deemed the expulsion illegal, the government use the Royal Prerogative to overrule this judgement.

The actions of the government, in order to appease the Americans is just amazing. You can't help but feel anger at the treatment that these people have suffered at the hands of the British, and the Americans.

Its all very well, our government bleating on about human right abuses in Iraq or China, when in fact, they've trampled all over the rights of the Chagos islanders. And to think, that these islanders are in fact, British citizens.

Its a sordid story, which makes me ashamed of Tony Blair and his government.

If anyone wants to watch this documentary, give me a shout.

Further reading can be found here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3177682.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3583927.stm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1027.htm

http://pilger.carlton.com/

http://www.irr.org.uk/2004/september/ak000014.html

The state of beer pipes, and the state of MY pipes

The thought of going up 30 miles of the A3 last night, and bursting to go to the toilet to do a dump scared the heck out of me.

It usually starts with a little sweat. Things get a little bit warmer.

Then my stomach rumbles, and I feel an urge to loosen my belt a bit.

And then it hits you, BANG! A shot of pain, shoots from your stomach to your bottom at the speed of thought, and you feel your bottom is about to take off into space.

Luckily, this didn't happen. I decided to go back to my house instead of going back to Woking, so that I could be ready for the forthcoming eruptions that I knew was inevitable. Like Anakin becoming Darth Vader, it was my destiny that night, for me to duel with the toilet.

How did I get to this stage?

I really don't know. I don't think I ate anything too funky yesterday. My menu for the day was:

• morning: bacon roll
• lunch: thai noodles salad
• dinner: pork and duck fried crispy noodles

So its not like I ate anything too complicated.

As I was sitting on the bog, contemplating all this, I came up with a new theory.

Beer

Last year, I remember going through a phase when I had to do a dump everytime I had a pint, so I started drinking other stuff - couple of months later, this problem when away. But then I realised that actually, we started going to another place more regularly to drink.

Yesterday we went out for some drinks, but we didn't go to our "normal" place (I dont want to name "names" just in case! I can't afford to be sued!), nor did I drink my usual beer (I usually drink Stella, but I was drinking Carling Extra Cold. Which was a bit bland actually)

Could beer be the case as to why I suffer from such a sensitive stomach? Could it be that one place has cleaned beer pipes than the other? Can the bacteria residing in dirty pipes give me the "runs"? But then if it was dirty pipes, how come no one else had a dodgy stomach? Or could it be that im specifically sensitive to these bugs?

I don't know whats to blame. I really don't. But its put me off drinking beer for a while (ok, until Friday that is). Just another thing to add to my "you're getting old Biff" list .

Luckily, this story had a happy ending (er, in that I didn't have to sweat for 30 miles up the A3, waiting to get home to use the toilet!). But I'm dreading having to go through all this while in Prague.

Live your life by the dice

Currently in the middle of reading the dice man by Luke Rhinehart.

I've been meaning to read this book for sometime now. It was recommended to me around 3 years ago by my friend Lee, and he told me it was "one freaky book"!

So on Monday, whilst browsing in Whsmiths, I noticed that if you brought a copy of The Times newspaper, you could also buy this book for 99p. So I snapped it up straight away. (I love a bargain).

By the way, The Times does this every week in Whsmiths, so keep your eyes open ok?

So whats it all about then?

Well, its about a psychatrist called Luke Rhinehart, who, bored with life and his daily routine decides to live his life by the dice. Every action he takes is decided by the roll of the dice. For example, in deciding what his behaviour patterns would be like in the next month, he would make a list of six options and whatever number the die would come up with, he would go along with its decision.

The book was written in the 1960's, and its kind of strange to be reminded about the "commie's" and other such remainders of the state of politics in that era.

I'm only halfway through the book, and to be honest, I'm finding it very interesting. Some of the issues raised by Luke, regarding the rules that society dictates or our behaviour patterns are very though provoking.

Instead of conforming himself to what society expects from him, he breaks out and does the complete opposite - for example, he tells his patient that he is Jesus Christ, because the die told him to spread love for a month!

I'll have finshed reading the book in a couple of days, so I'll be able to talk about the ending in more depth.

Why can't chocolates win me love?

I was thinking back to the first girl that I fell in love with.

Picture the scene. A young boy of 13, innocent in many ways, yet wise enough to know that girls had to be impressed in order to get them to notice you!

Back in my youth, I had to attend Chinese school in order to learn the ways of the Cantonese language. The school I went to, was in the basement of St Martins in the Field church in Trafalgar Square, and it was quite a small school compared to the other ones in London. I had been there for a few years now, so I pretty much knew everyone there.

So one Sunday, I noticed a new face there. And then it hit me - here was a girl that I wanted to get to know! Up to that point, I had pretty much treat girls as the "enemy".

But this one was different - she wore pretty dark clothing, and looked incredibly moody, which I found to be very appealing.

I thought about her for the whole week. Usually, I dreaded going to Chinese school, but this time, I was really looking forward to it.

I guess that I thought I was a bit of a smoothie - I was heavily influenced by T.V and thought that my slick approach to winning her heart would "seal the deal"!.

So, the following Sunday, armed with my box of Dairy Milk chocolates, I ask my sister to give them to Wendy with my hand written note.

"I think you're the one!"

2 minutes later, my sister returns with the box of chocolate, along with a verbal message

(for some reason, my sister always quote this in a northern accent! I didn't even know she was from up there!)

"That does it, tell him to get lost!"

My approach had failed. She had scorned my love, and thrown it back at me with a northern accent.

Still, at least my chocolates weren't wasted. I think one of my cousins asked if she could have the box if I didn't want it!

It's oh so quiet in here.....

Monday morning. 9.04am. And it feels like ghost town here at Chohung Bank London.

Its strange to think that at one point, there was 40 odd people working in this branch, and now we have only 6. Of which, 4 have taken a day off today.

If I had known, I would have gone back to bed at 7am for another hour or so!

I've still to make an appointment with a solicitor, in order for him to sign my redundancy agreement (and then I can get my hands on my lovely money!). As I've never been in trouble with the law, or being sued, or made a will, I have no idea as to how to find a solicitor, so if anyone can help me, I'd very grateful!

Was listening to the new Charlotte Church album this morning on me Ipod. Actually, it wasn't too bad, but maybe that was because of my own misconceptions as her as a "pop" singer. There are a few duff tracks on the album, but nothing too bad. I guess its early days, in deciding whether she'll make the transition from child opera singer to hot chick pop singer, but give the girl credit for making the move anyway.

p.s I want a Ferrari F430. If you watched Top Gear last night, you'd have seen the review of it, and one thing stands out more than anything else - the noise it makes! My god, if I had this car, I would never ever use the stereo - i'd be listening to the engine roar through the revs all the time!

p.p.s Oh my gawd - I've been on the internet today for 8 hours! My eye balls are ready to explode, and worse of all, I'm running out of interesting things to look at!

Chinese stares, Jam toast and bloody Brucie!

Its starts with a stare - it lingers for a bit, and they have a look on their face which resembles one of a person with serious constipation.

I'm sure you've (er that is if you're Chinese or of some Oriental origin) had it before. It happens when you walk past a Chinese person.

Why do they do that? I mean, I might pass a quick glance at them (especially if its a really beautiful girl!), but thats it - I've got better things to do than to stare at another Chinese person!

For some strange reason today, I came across loads of Oriental people - first some individuals on the underground, and then when I came out of the station, there was a whole flood of Japanese or Korean folks in business suits - each and everyone of them glared at me like I had taken the last piece of sushi or something!

Next time, I might smile back!

After that, I went to go and buy my daily breakfast. Since coming back from Barcelona, I've been trying to watch what I've been eating. Out went the daily bacon rolls, and in came the jam granary toast. *sigh* I miss my bacon, and the feel good factor that comes with it - I can understand why Jo loves her chocolate so much, and why Simon loves his gyming (and i thought it was because he loved to wear lycra!).

I don't care what anyone says - food thats good for you (salad, pasta, toast) is incredibly dull and totally against my princples as a food loving binge eating junkie! Why can't anyone make the a healthy "bacon" roll! We can perform all kinds of miracles such as DNA sequencing or nanotechnology, but we can't make the healthy "bacon" roll yet.

I think one of the reason why I needed a bacon roll instead of jam toast, was because bloody Brucie texted me at 1.20am last night! I had just hit the sweet spot - that moment just before your body finally relaxes itself - and I heard my phone beeping to inform me that someone had sent me a text message! I had forgotten that earlier on in the evening (about 10pm), I had texted Brucie to see if he was coming out for a beer!

Bah! And it took ages to fall asleep after that! You owe me a beer Brucie!

p.s Wedding Plans - me and Karen have both informed our respective local councils, of our intent to marry. So we now have to wait 16 days to pass before we can pick up our license to marry from Wandsworth council. In the meantime, I'm still trying to find a photographer, a venue for our party, and a place to hire some suits! Will keep you guys informed.

Did you keep silent today?

Today, there was a two minute period of silence for the victims of the last week's bombings in London.

Sometimes, I do wonder - what are we meant to be thinking off, during those silent moments?

• Are we suppose to think about the people who we've never met before, and the life they lived?
• Are we suppose to think about the horrific way some of these people died?
• Should I feel guilty that I was thinking about the stereo I was going to buy for my car

Don't get me wrong - I think about what happened on Thursday 7th July 2005 a lot. I think about it when I hear a strange sound on the underground. I think about it everytime I open the newspaper in the morning. I think about it everytime I watch the news.

And I grief for the people, who were simply on their way to work. And in one split second flash, nothing in their lives, would ever be the same again.

Thats probably why I didn't spend those two minutes thinking about whats happened - because i've spent the last week thinking, about that one hour of hell.

p.s I've decided to get the Alpine CDE 9845RB. Pretty soon, I shall relieve my chav days of past - blasting the stereo up, and pretending to look cool!