Christmas is coming...

And I had the pleasure of spending most of the weekend shopping in various guises. On Saturday I relented away from my "I'm not going shopping at weekends between now and Christmas" stand that I took about a month ago, and regretted it the second that Lorraine and I were walking the streets in Glasgow. Ugh, just horrible.

On Sunday we got the bulk of our food shopping, plus we paid a quick trip into Pets At Home to get presents for Cookie. The price of dog beds now is phenomenal in my opinion, but we put money aside for him to cover him for presents/vet visits/etc. so it is covered. Plus he's eleven now and we want to enjoy him while we have him. Chloe's starting to really enjoy him, getting to be more and more gentle with him and giving him hugs. Pretty cute really.

I've got lots of photos I need to upload to Flickr at some point. I think when I do I'll try and put in a post here to give some background on them.

An alarming evening

Got a phone call from Lorraine while I was at work yesterday afternoon, saying that there was a problem with the house alarm which was causing it to beep incessantly. It had done this before and eventually stopped, however this time when I got home it was still going.

We ended up having to phone an engineer, who came out and diagnosed the problem - a flat battery. The battery was replaced and before you could say "I'm skint this month", I was writing out a cheque for £105. Ouch. These things happen, just part of life. The timing could be better though (isn't that always the case?).

Haven't mentioned it here yet - we've got a new car. It is a Vauxhall Agila, not the most heralded of cars (to say the least) but the price was too good to ignore. It is compact but it does the job for us, I just hope it will be reliable. There's a small part of me which is worried that we got too good a deal (if that makes sense). It is three years old, had 15k on it (when we bought it) and is silver. At the moment it might almost tempt me into the weekend car washing community.

"I hope you die soon!"

Stumbled upon this on the TV tonight. Not very politically correct, but imitated umpteen times at school the day after it was originally shown.

What's up?

Well, not much, as per usual, although needless to say I've been finding ways to amuse myself.

Prison Break, Series 2
After a few weeks of trying I finally managed to find some torrents that worked for this. I downloaded episode 1 (looks superb) and was downloading episode 2 when we had a power cut. This actually led to what I had downloaded being completely out of sync. Silas-esque! If it leads Tweener to eat some bread in a disgusting fashion the tribute will be complete.

The 2006 Ryder Cup
Ugh, I hate Sky sometimes. I'd love to be watching this over the weekend, but I'm not paying for Sky Sports to do that. Just... ugh.

At least I know the difference between foursomes and fourballs now. That's one good thing at least.

Blog tags
I've finally got these things figured out. Will have to go back over old posts and revise some of them. Hurrah!

Friends Coming To Visit
I've actually got some friends putting together plans for coming up here over the next few months. Neil's trying to organise something, while my old friend Claire and her husband James have confirmed a date but haven't booked their flights yet.

Can I be any more excited about this? Not really. I've got about three weeks holiday still to take at some point, so I've got loads spare for any visitors. Although I might need to use some of it to tidy up the office, which isn't looking too great just now.

A week off comes to an end

Been trying to enjoy a week off work this week. I'm not sure that "enjoy" has really been the right word to use. For one thing I've spent most of the week answering the phone for Lorraine. Even my parents called and said, "We weren't calling to speak to you, we were looking for Lorraine." Charming!

Tried to relax where possible. I've taken Cookie on a few walks. Had to drop the car off at the village garage tonight and walk home in the rain. Law in the soaking wet - that brings back some memories (not anything to write home about, just privately funny).

Anyway, my week off is nearly over. Back to the grindstone again, wondering what I'm going back to.

What's on my mp3 player

For no reason at all...

(Please note that for some reason I've felt the need to cheer myself up, thus the mixture of naff/amusing/uplifting music. Feel free to have a go at me with a comment, I almost certainly deserve it.)

Billy Joel - "River of Dreams"
Bubba Sparxx - "Back in the Mud"
Carter USM - "Rubbish"
Cher with Beavis & Butthead - "I've Got You Babe"
Daniel Powter - "Bad Day" (never listen to this in the morning, it's like tempting fate)
David Gray - "Hospital Food"
Delta Goodrem - "Lost Without You"
Dido - "White Flag"
Eagles - "The Heart of the Matter"
Eagles - "Wasted Time" (both from the "Hell Freezes Over" dvd)
Gwen Stefani - "Cool"
Hoobastank - "The Reason"
Hootie & The Blowfish - "Hannah Jane"
Hootie & The Blowfish - "Only Wanna Be With You"
Human League - "Together In Electric Dreams" (wasn't that just Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder? My track listing lies!)
Jimmy Nail - "Ain't No Doubt" ("She's lying!")
John Waite - "Deal For Life"
Lightning Seeds - "Life of Riley"
London Boys - "Requiem (Hamburg Edit)"
Mental As Anything - "Live It Up"
Mr T - "Treat Your Mother Right"
Oasis - "Cigarettes and Alcohol" ("Welcome outside to the sun-shiiiine!")
Paul Young - "Everything Must Change"
Richard Marx - "Now and Forever"
Rolling Stones - "Paint It Black"
Shakira - "Hips Don't Lie"
Usher - "Caught Up"
Usher - "Yeah"

Film Review: The Break-Up

Went out to see this with Lorraine last night. Just lately Chloe's been a bit cranky with strangers so we thought we'd try and get her more used to strangers by organising more nights out.

Anyway, we'd been looking forward to seeing this. I generally like Vince Vaughn films and Lorraine tends to like Jennifer Aniston. Overall - very disappointing. Really the film needed to go down the totally funny or completely tragic line, but for some reason it dithered between the two.

One small plus point - Jon Favreau's character was very funny indeed. Pity the rest of the film couldn't match him.

Updating for updating's sake!

Just a quick update, nothing too much to report. The World Cup is over, PTI and Around the Horn have vanished from NASN and Big Brother is always on in some form or another, so at least I won't be boring you with chat about what's on the TV at the moment.

I've been going through a bit of a thoughtful phase at the moment. The songs I've put on my .mp3 player are a bit more introspective, not the usual guff/comedy/wake-you-up material I normally have on.

Chloe is great at the moment, Cookie is good, Lorraine's sugars are all over the place (bit of a worry, to say the least). For the most part though things are good. I'm pretty busy nearly all the time. I should be even now, but this needs an update, so it is getting one!

Six years ago Lorraine and I were in Atlanta. Depressing to think about in a way. I know where I'd sooner be given the weather here lately.

Gamer's Thumb

Was over in East Kilbride at the in-law's last night. Graeme (my brother-in-law) was there with his Gamecube, so needless to say we had the opportunity to have a game of FIFA 2005 there.

I'm really out of touch with this game. Since I got Pro Evolution Soccer 4 my allegiance has changed, to the point where more experienced FIFA players (e.g. Graeme and my best friend Neil) absolutely wipe the floor with me. Of course sometimes I don't help myself by doing things like accidentally getting my goalkeeper to dribble out of the penalty area with the ball, allowing Graeme an easy goal into an empty net.

Anyway, I'm feeling the effects the day after. My left thumb, cut open by doctors at Wishaw General in January is a touch tender again. I can't help but think that the Nintendo game pad design with the grip on top of the left analog stick really doesn't help with this, although obviously I can't prove that.

(And no, that isn't an excuse for losing 3-1 and 4-0 in back-to-back games.)

Field of Dreams

Saw the end of this wonderful film again on Five yesterday. Lorraine was somewhat bemused as to why I had to see the end of a film I own on video, but it really is that good.

Of course it is also the one film that can also move me to tears, and a different line in it set me off this time. It would have given Lorraine a good laugh, had she not needed a nap at the time.

And the best quote of the film? Definitely this:

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."

<tingling>

And yes, I know that the film isn't ultimately about baseball, but I love it regardless of that fact.

By the way I'm really tired today. Not good this early in the week.