Page 195/365 : Don’t Stop Bereaving

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Dave On Film

Today, the entertainment industry lost another famous face, as Cory Monteith, star of hit US TV musical extravaganza “Glee” was found dead in his hotel room in Canada. The 31 year old played the part of Finn Hudson in the show.

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Monteith had suffered his demons, having struggled with a drug addiction from an early age and being in and out of rehab. But that doesn’t say that today’s tragedy is linked. No real details have yet emerged but all will be revealed in time. 

It still all adds up to another young life lost in the ritzy glitzy glamorous world of showbiz, and there’s absolutely no doubt that the industry is shocked and saddened by his death. Cory will be missed by family, friends and fans alike.

Rest In Peace Cory.

 

Went in search of a Fan today for the ever increasing heatwave, which is now surely being caused by us moving about 2 million miles closer to the sun…(Disclaimer : Don’t panic…we’re not really going to crash into the big yellow thing…)

Poundstretcher & Poundland didn’t have any at all…Argos were literally out of stock of every fan from the cheap and nasty £5 ones, up to the £90 super-fans which could cool the engines of an on-fire aeroplane (topical observation).

Then we went to B&M…still nothing…….and there way only one place to go……..THE RANGE!

Now, regular readers of the blog will understand why this was set to be a mission made in hell…and also why it was the last place we went to…if you don’t, then Click Here to read why.

In we walked…and I chanced asking the woman behind the Customer Service desk if they had any….and they did! Holy-moly…but they were in the DIY section??? I feared the worst…would it be a hand-fan that you had to waft yourself with? Hopefully not…

…and luckily, they were selling normal 9″ desk fans! Winner!

We bought and paid for it with absolutely no drama at all…has The Range turned a corner? They’re slogan of “If we don’t stock it, you don’t need it” came good…..we needed it…and they stocked it! 

Amaze-balls!

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Page 194/365 : A Wedding & A 60th

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Dave On Film

Hottest…day…ever!

Us Brits moan about the rain, so the heatwave comes…and we moan about that too! But by-fuck was it hot today!

And to make things worse, I was going to have to spend all day in a shirt, tie & trousers! It was Luke & Emma’s wedding at Weetwood Hall Hotel. It was an absolutely lovely day, despite the extreme sweating that was going on.

I held back from drinking until the night because I wanted to head over to Morley for my Dad’s surprise 60th birthday party. He loved it.

Headed back to the party after for a few drinks at the night do. Cracking day all around.

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Page 193/365 : Mass produced mess

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Dave On Film

Going to Frankie & Benny’s is always…an experience.

Tonight was to be another of those experiences.

It’s my Dad’s 60th birthday tomorrow, so as Elle and I are set to be at a friend’s wedding, a meal was organised for tonight.

Out Louise booked it and was told that they’d decorate the table for us…when we arrived, nothing was decorated and they’d not even sorted any specific seating out for us.

Then we went to the bar. Our order consisted of 5 pints of Diet Coke amongst other things. All 5 pints came out…and they were all flat…it was like flavoured still water…essentially rank, and as you know, I am a fine connoisseur of Coca Cola’s products and demand my beverage fizzy and cold!

So after my dad had paid for them, they said they’d bring replacements over. Until they came over and told us that the gas was gone. So Lemonade it was! Grrrrrrr!

To be fair, the food was alright in that bog-standard Pre-measured every item on every plate weighing the exact same weight kind of way.

Elle had asked for a glass of tap water…which took three attempts to get.

My mum’s dessert came out about ten minutes after everyone else’s.

Then they added onto the bill the £25 worth of drinks that had already been paid for at the beginning of the night!

Shambles! It’s like having a meal at The Range! (See yesterday’s blog for that tenuous link)

Was good to be together with the family though as I won’t see my Dad tomorrow.

In other news, it’s muggy as hell today. In fact, so much so, I’ve even indulged in a Pre-bed shower…so yes, I’m writing this naked…but hey, I do most nights…so no great shakes!

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Page 192/365 : You won’t believe The Range!

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Dave On Film

The Advert says it all : “You won’t believe The Range!” – and it’s true, you would not fucking believe it!

Went in after work. Bought a new one of those hidden object games from The Range tonight. It was priced up at £9.99 but there was a huge yellow sticker on it the stand saying 25% off…but in true The Range style, when they put it through the tills it went through at £9.99. So cue the woman (probably named Barbara) on the tills putting a call out for someone to come, even though she had another member of staff stood about a foot away not doing anything. Eventually someone I can only describe as “Norman” appeared and shuffled off to find the stand where the game came from. About a minute passed and he still wasn’t back and we were getting “tutted” at by the others in the queue who were clearly fed up by having the sheer life drained out of them by The Range…because that is what that place does…you go in looking for something, you come out like a Zombie!

Norman didn’t return, and fearing he had gotten lost up the Sodastream aisle, I went to find him. He was circling a stand of all the games, worrying about the price and whether the games were in Alphabetical order or not. I told him the sticker with the 25% off was up at the top and he turned and headed back to the tills to tell Barbara to knock 25% off. Barbara then told him that the deal must’ve expired and he needed to take the stickers off the display, to which Norman said he “didn’t really want to but would have to do”…there were 4 stickers to remove, each of them half-peeled off anyway. A spasticated goldfish could have done it!

Next up, Barbara attempted to put the game through just as young Victor tottered over, querying how much they should knock off an ornament someone wanted to buy that was chipped. The answer was 10%….the price was only £4.99 and the couple buying the ornament were disgusted that they would only get 50p off? FFS!

Eventually we escaped. It was like having flashbacks to the Zombie Run! I survived again, but I feel this may have been a closer call!

The advert also says : “If we don’t stock it, you won’t need it…” – its a shame they don’t stock escape hatches and Bigger exit doors for you to run screaming through!

This morning before work, went down to the Nisa in Heckmondwike to pick up my raffle ticket for Dixie & Gayle’s Grand Tour raffle to hopefully win £1,000 – it’s be nice if the cheques for the other two £500’s came through first like, but ya gotta be in it to win it (as my good friend Dale Winton said [see Balls Of Steel’s Alex Zane’s Heart Rate Game for that obscure reference])

They had a cracking setup on the tour bus.

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I can’t win another Real Radio competition……..can I?

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Page 191/365 : Leeds United are throwing cash away…!

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Dave On Film

Another cracking win last night for the Dodgers, 6-1 against division topping Diamondbacks!

Leeds United played their first proper friendly today against a Slovenian select XI. They won comfortably 3-1 but the main talking point was the way in which we’re now willing to throw money around.

According to reports, the Leeds fans were chanting to McDermott “Brian, it’s your round” so he walked over to the Leeds fans and gave them €50!

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Funnily enough, that’s our entire Transfer kitty now pissed up the wall by Leeds fans in Slovenia! Damn!

**APPRENTICE SPOILER ALERT**

It was interview week and that always brought about a lot of fun and games. As usual, the candidates were ripped to shreds. Jordan lasted about four seconds in the board room before Lord Shuggs banished him to hell forever. Then went Jamie and then unfortunately Morley-based Francesca was the last to leave the process! Booooooo @ Shuggs!

The two women who are left are annoying as hell. I hope none of them win….but by looking at the “You’re hired” shot from next week, whomever is sat on the right in the boardroom at the end will win!!!

Read plenty more of Dragon Haven today too. Wanna get to the end of Hobb ASAP now.

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Page 190/365 : TV Catchup

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Dave On Film

Work plodding along as normal. Nothing really to report there.

Tonight was a bit of a TV catchup night. Watched Raw from last night…Vickie Guerrero was fired…oops…caught up with Hannibal from last week ready for tonight’s episode. Also watched the Final Five show for The Apprentice, which Morley-girl Francesca is still in.

Downloaded a calendar for the iPhone to add all the Dodgers games to my Calendar so I can see what time the matches will actually take place in UK time…only issue is, it’s set them all up with Alarms, and I can’t turn it off…nightmare. I have tried posting on a Geek website somewhere to see if anyone knows how to sort but it’s not looking good.

30 people now signed up to my Prediction League. Cracking

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Page 189/364 : Sweltering & Referral

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Dave On Film

Back to work after the sweltering weekend…into a sweltering office. We had the windows open but it just wasn’t helping. I need to suggest a “Dress-Down-Season” to allow us to wear shorts and t-shirts during this weather. I much prefer the cold weather.

My chest was playing up massively again. Really painful. Booked in to go to the docs again. He checked everything and again told me its nothing sinister that will cause me to drop at any point, but that he can refer me to a chest specialist to discuss it. I said that would be good. Earliest appointment? September 2nd! Joy!

Hopefully the inflammation will go down and stop annoying me. That’s the problem, it’s annoying me more than anything else and the pain is really bad sometimes!

Watched Dexter, which was cracking, as well as catching up on more of the Dragon Haven book.

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Page 188/365 : Minions, Magic & Murray

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Dave On Film

Elle was working at Flamingo Land today on her Sports & Social thing so I went across to the Cineworld in Wakefield.

On the way I nipped into McDonalds on the road into Wakey. I didn’t want any food…I just wanted to check whether they had any Minions in that we needed. They didn’t. So I nipped to the one near the cinema and they had three of the light-up eye one. Woohoo! Bought those three for us at work. The others they had were all ones we’ve already got. I opened mine though and I don’t think it’s working…no light! Booooo!

Watched Despicable Me 2 (Click here to view my review) and Now You See Me (Click here to read my review)

Headed home and watched the Final of the Men’s singles title. Murray won with a straight three set victory to become the first British man in 77 years to win at Wimbledon. Although if you talk to some people, he’s not British, he’s Scottish…I just appreciate a decent performance that this was certainly it!

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Film Review – Now You See Me

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Dave On Film

Watched film #1,224 at icheckmovies.com

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WOW

I could leave the review there and it would sum it all up….just WOW!

Now You See Me is an absolute thrill ride that takes you to places never seen before. You never know what is happening, you never know if anything you are seeing is real and you never know how things are going to turn out.

When four magicians, from different fields, are thrust together by a mysterious person, their lives are transformed. One year after meeting, they pull off an incredible heist, stealing money from a bank in France from their stage in Las Vegas. How do they do it? Watch and see. 

The four lead characters are great. Woody Harrelson’s mind-reading character has plenty of comedy about him and Jesse Eisenberg’s showman is perfect. 

Hot on their heels, following the heist is Mark Ruffalo, an FBI agent hellbent on bringing the thieves to justice. He’s partnered with an Interpol agent from France who is also looking for the Four Horsemen to be exposed.

But chuck in Morgan Freeman’s debunker, a character who spends his life exposing how big illusions are carried out and the game changes. He knows how they pulled off the heist and also many other things about the foursome…but it always one step behind.

The film is fairly fast-paced and shifts from one spectacle to another. There’s one awesome scene where during a fight, tonnes of magic is used to move the fight along.

There’s twists, turns and at times you will doubt everything you are seeing and everything you’re not seeing…but I doubt you will come out of the film disappointed. It’s a thrill ride.

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Film Review – Despicable Me 2

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Dave On Film

Watched Film #1,223 from icheckmovies.com

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Despicable Me 2 is the sequel to the blockbuster animated success of 2010, following lovable villain-turned-OK guy Gru who has found his inner peace and put his evil ways behind him. Even the fun and frantic Minions have stopped plotting and carrying out evil, to make Jam instead.

But when Gru is taken in and told of a plot to ruin the world with a stolen transfiguration serum, it’s up to Gru and his new accomplice Lucy to save the world. 

But here is it’s biggest problem…Lucy…a new character voiced by Kristen Wiig…and a character who just isn’t funny. It just didn’t work for me. In the first film, Gru & The Minions, or Gru & The Girls worked….but Gru & Lucy doesn’t. I can see where they were trying to go with it, but the outcome is disappointing.

But the Minions save the film. They are as funny as ever and such a joy to watch. I always think that these films need rewatching and rewatching just for the Minions, just to see the hundreds of other mad things that are going on in the background.

But for me, even though the Minions were on top form, possibly funnier than they are in the first film, the whole movie just lacks the heart that the first had. This is mainly down to the Lucy character, but also partly aimed at a bad-guy who you just don’t really hate enough. Vector in the 1st was a nasty boy…but the baddie this time around is just…meh!

It’s worth watching if you love the first…just don’t expect it to be better.

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