Bought Dead Island for the Xbox today. Not played it yet so keen to give it a go.
Couple of parcels arrived today. Both couldn’t fit through the letterbox. One was taken back to the Post Office in Holbeck, which wasn’t a problem, but the other was taken to the Post Office in the Nisa on Dewsbury Road, which is a problem as its only open 9-5:30, the same hours I am at work, so I will have to come down at Lunch tomorrow to pick it up. #Inconvenience
Work building up nicely for the Year End tomorrow, a Year End when hardly anyone will be in the office or one reason or another. Gonna be an odd one when just me and Trevor will be sat there at the end of the day!
Caught up on The Following and Coronation Street.
Pretty quiet one really. Looking forward to a long weekend and hopefully getting a few hours on Dead Island.
Euan, Lawlor and I were looking at them and picked out a few beta before I commented on the fact that if we knew someone inside the WWE who knew the results, we could clean up on this. After all, it’s all pre-determined. It would be like betting on whether Tyrone gets sent down or not on Corrie after the script has been written!
But then Lawlor made a very good and valid point. What if the betting sites waited until closer to the time and then informed the WWE where the money was and basically paid off the WWE to change anything they had planned in order to maximise their profits.
Obviously this would only work if it benefitted the betting company, but could it happen? Would it happen?
And would Paddy Power take a £100k bet on, say The Rock to beat Cena at 7-1 when the person placing the bet could have insider knowledge? It would be like placing a bet on a boxer you knew would be taking a dive!
As Lawlor said…food for thought…
In other news
15.5 working days left before wedding/honeymoon
Found out today that if you have a gift card for Game, bearing in mind you can’t use it online, you can go into a Game Shop and they will let you make a purchase online and take payment from your gift card…gonna do it tomorrow and buy Dead Island for £11 brand new!
Had half day at work today as it was the funeral of Frank Brining.
Frank was the dad of some of our close friends and an all round top bloke. I had only known him these last three years after Elle and I got together but from the very first time I met him I got along with him fantastically.
He was kind and friendly and always the life and soul of a party, loving a good drink and a good gamble on the Bandits. I even think he was shining down on us all today as the bandit in the pub at the wake was dropping! I took £65 out of it!
A genuine and family-orientated guy, Frank’s memory will live on through His wife and his Sons Matt & Dave.
He’ll be sadly missed by all, and the turn out at the funeral just went to show how much people thought of him.
I would like to think that my Grandad, also called Frank, is now sat having a beer with him, looking down on us all and smiling.
Finished LA Noire late late late last night. Wrote a review on the game – Click here to read
Been thinking about the next game I need to get. Undecided whether to go for something like the new Tomb Raider, or to plump for an older game like Dead Island, which I could easily get for the £20 voucher I have…decisions, decision!
Went up to the White Rose Centre to pick up my Wedding Ring from the Jewellers. It all fits nice and snug now ready for the wedding.
Headed over to Wakey to Elle’s Dad’s so Cait could try on the Bridesmaid dress. That went well too.
Did more clothes shopping at Asda (as I have said before, I am gonna change my name to George as its in all my clothes already). Picked up a few more T-Shirts. Ordered some more shorts no one too…should all be ready now for the Honeymoon.
Watched a shitload of CSI. Finished off Season 3 and into Season 4 now. Going well.
Amazingly, Ant and Dec’s Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble went into the charts today. As I write this, they are currently 2nd!!!!!!!
Oh, and Candy Crush level 79 is becoming rather annoying now!
Rockstar, famous for the thrilling Grand Theft Auto series, make a move into the gritty with LA Noire, a game set in and around a 1940’s Los Angeles.
You control Officer Cole Phelps, a guy fresh out of the US Marines following the war, newly gifted with bravery medals.
Phelps longs to make a name for himself and as you move from case to case, aiming for a promotion to the top is the game.
The game blends some of the best visuals I have ever seen, with some genuinely fantastic storytelling, especially towards the end of the game when cases tend to take on a life of their own and become large beasts. Face recognition is that good that when a new character turns up, you actually think “oh, what’s he been in?” and can actually recognise the actors playing the parts.
What the game does suffer from however is pace. There’s a lot of time spent questioning suspects and witnesses and this results in a lot of characters becoming prominent in each case. Sometimes this can be excessively so and the detective work takes a back seat to just trying to figure out who the hell is who.
Also, continuity riled me in this game. So, you pick up YOUR car outside police headquarters and absolutely trash it, setting it on fire, the lot. You have to abandon it and pick up another car and head to the case. You go through the case, then return outside and the car you had previously destroyed is sat there waiting for you all pristine and beautiful.
LA Noire is a decent game though and it is quite thrilling. You actually feel like a detective doing the work as you interrogate and question everyone involved.
Very linear and can fall into the realm of boring in places where you actually look forward to a quick chase scene.
So much so, the booking we had made for the Suit fitting for me and the groomsmen was a bit of a struggle so we’ve cancelled until next week. It was better all around as it was treacherous and too much of a risk asking everyone to get there. Should be OK for next week though…unless this snow is staying around for a while…
Took Elle’s engagement ring in to be resized ready for the wedding. I think she’s a little upset at not having it on…bless! I “re-proposed” to her using another ring as a temporary replacement. Hehe.
Played some more LA Noire today…soooooo close to the end.
Jess n Dave came around tonight for tea and a catchup. We had a good laugh. Elle whipping up a cracking Lasagne and the little mini roasties that I love…mmmmmmmmm. Got some Jamaican Ginger cake too in homage to Dave…he’s ginger ya see…!
Had to laugh watching Ant n Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway tonight. They had some of the reformed groups on from The Big Reunion. As they performed, the finished and then Ant and Dec came out as PJ and Duncan and did the full “Lets Get Ready To Rhumble” routine. Brilliant! It’s one of my favourite cheesy songs of all time…close behind my favourite…Chesney Hawkes’ One and Only!
Watched Short Circuit on TV this evening followed by The Proposal.
Did my ESTA application online tonight for the Honeymoon. Accepted first time, which is cracking. The last time I did one it messed up and I was left waiting to see if it would go through…just Elle’s to do now…but can’t do that until the night before the wedding, as it moves to after Midnight the night before…!
The snow really fell today. We’re meant to be in Spring now…madness.
Speaking of madness, yesterday the brand new Trinity Shopping Centre opened in Leeds City Centre and I was lucky enough to…well…not be there. It’s a frigging shopping centre. What can possibly be exciting about a 3-storey Next? Or a new Habitat? I’ve seen the photos of the opening and there were thousands there…just why?
Oh and this is the best bit…for three weeks, in the Trinity Shopping Centre in Leeds, there is a shop called 1D World. Yup, an entire shop dedicated to One Direction!!! Seriously! Does any city in the world really need a dedicated shop to a single band? I think not. There’s even been a press release put out telling people not to queue up before 6am as they will be made to join the back of the queue…! Jesus!
What can a One Direction shop possibly have in it? A Hate Corner with photos of Taylor Swift and anyone else that any member of the group have been seen kissing, where girls can Cyber-Tweet hate messages in an attempt to eradicate them from Twitter forever? Will there be a Love Room where doting fans can go and listen to the most romantic of 1D songs, whilst superimposing their pictures into situations such as walking down the aisle with their chosen One Directioner?
Seriously. This is messed up.
In fact, fuck it!
I say we open a Chesney Hawkes shop! In Leeds! There ain’t any others around the country, it would definitely be The One & Only (see what I did there…and for the record, that song is my favourite song of all time!)
Got home tonight to be greeted by a parking ticket for parking at the Cinema in Wakefield for too long. Yup, £75 fine increased to £95 if not paid.
I Googled the company though and they are dodgy as hell, much like the previous two “parking tickets” that I received and ignored.
Only council ones can be enforced, Private companies never go anywhere but rely on people accepting and paying them.
Money Saving Expert has extensive forums on the situation. The last two I got, I just ignored. And also ignored the letters that came through demanding payment. And the letters threatening court action…and then…nothing! The letters just stopped because the company NEVER enforce them. It would cost them too much to do so.
I’m gonna ignore this one too and wipe my arse on any paperwork that comes through. Let them waste money chasing. It’s not getting paid and its not getting enforced.
I will update when the inevitable next letter comes through saying the fine will be increased to something like £150…
Still no letter from the Queen.
Oh, and I really need to get my hair cut. It’s out of control. I wanna go to my regular barbers but now everyone seems to be telling me my hair looks shit so I will probably end up going elsewhere when it comes time for it to be chopped off.
30 days until the wedding!
Got a Tweet off Ben Shephard today too, which was nice :
Fairly standard day today. Not much to talk about and not enough time to put together my TV Time #2 blog. Haha.
Had a laugh with people at work about the video posted from last night’s blog.
After work, went over to Amy’s with Elle for tea. Ha a bit of a catchup before home for TV catchup on Coronation Street (to see the fire), The Following (to see someone get speared in a cafe) and CSI (to see a foam party go wrong).
Had a bit of a wedding fuck up tonight too. One of the companies we had booked for the wedding phoned us around 8pm to say they were at the venue and they thought the weddin was called off…we had to tell ten they had their dates wrong and it was April 20th and not March 20th.
Apparently, we’d booked April, but when they wrote it up on the invoice it said March, we signed it without realising and now it had all been booked for tonight. OOPS!
It’s a “Slow News Day” so here’s the first part of my “TV Appearance Story”
The start of my step into the world of TV participation began back on 7th January 2005.
I am a big Big Brother fan, and when I saw on a listing online that the E4 channel were looking for people to take part in “Celebrity Big Brother’s E-Fourum, I applied, not really knowing much about what was going on. I received a call and an invitation to go to Bristol to film the show. There was no guarantee of any air time or anything at all.
The night before, I wasn’t going to go. It was set to be a £75 round trip on the train, and just after Christmas it was £75 that I just didn’t have. But our Louise thought it would be hilarious if I went on. So she agreed to pay for my train for me.
So the next day, I set off down to Bristol. After arriving at Temple Meads, I jumped in a taxi, not really knowing where I was meant to be going (Hey, this was well before Apple Maps would have led me to the completely wrong place anyway). It turned out that coming out of Temple Meads, turning right and venturing about 500 yards down the road would be enough to get me to the Paintworks, a shoddy-looking industrial estate of such, with a book barn, an attempt at a bar, and some random shack-like buildings.
I met up with everyone else who was taking part in the show.
We all went through security and into a big room where we met with some of the producers of the show. Now, Celeb Big Brother had only just stated that previous night, and naturally I had watched the Opening show, knowing I was going to have to know something about the people in there. The housemates were ; Bez, Brigitte Nielsen, Caprice, Germaine Greer, Jackie Stallone, Jeremy Edwards, John McCririck, Kenzie from Blazing Squad & Lisa L’Anson…in all honesty, I knew about 4 of them…and had actually met Caprice on a previous occassion (I got a kiss on the cheek from her…amazing!)
So, we were all in this room, talking about the characters and what we thought would happen and the overwhelming thought was that Brigitte Neilsen would basically hop into bed with Kenzie and eat the young kid alive. We were nearing the end of the session and I hadn’t said much, so I stuck up my hand, somewhat reluctantly and said that I thought the opposite, that she would end up Mothering him. The producer said “That’s great, you can say that on the show…”
I was stunned…I was going to actually say something, on Live TV…
We went down to the studio. The show was set to be a live broadcast so we were on tight deadlines. We went in and I was surprised how small the set was. There were three rows of benches for us commoners to sit on, and a desk at the front for the guests and the host to be around. I was ushered into a Spot and told I would say my segment near the end of the show. The guests on the show were Jeff Brazier, Emma Kennedy and some guy who was an expert on all things Big Brother!
So…out comes Russell Brand, who back then wasn’t known to be the womanising, celebrity bed-hopping guy he’s known as today.
What happened next was that throughout the show, I was nervous as hell. Then it gets to the segment I know I am after. Russell is stood in front of me and needs somewhere to sit, except there is nowhere to sit for our segment…what to do…what to do…so he asks if he can sit on my knee…and you know those moments where you think you should say No, but you actually say Yes? It was one of those moments…the TV cameras come back on…and it’s time…
Fast forward this video to 20:16 and see just what happened…
Yup…I was on TV, with Russell Brand sat on my knee, arguing with Jeff Brazier before Brand kissed me on the cheek.
As you can imagine, I received PLENTY of texts from friends who were calling me all sorts of names afterwards, but I didn’t care…I’d been on TV…I’d said something…and I had absolutely loved it. The rush was great, it was fun, it felt right and it was a good laugh. Even better was that I actually won tickets to the final for having the best comment of the night, but couldn’t go. Gutted.
But that was it…I wanted more…I wanted to be on TV and experience other things…I would have to get looking online for other things that wanted people…
Leeds United Prediction League 