The Long Weekend

Awww, blog, listen I'm sorry for neglecting you. Look at you, you are all withered and suffering from withdrawl symptoms. I'm back with an update to ressurect you. Sorry, I've been busy. Forgive me?

The weekend was a long one. I took off most of last week because I was asked to mind my son and my ex's son for her overnight mid-week while she went to see Pink in concert in Liverpool. Being the good natured fella I am, I agreed to help out. I originally booked off Wednesday and Thursday, but booked off Friday as well because whats the point in going into work for one day?

I had them overnight without so much of a cry, which involved me taking Rhys, her son to school on both days, which was cool. On the Thursday, I picked him up and we went the park afterwards and had a game of football.

Friday, I spent mostly playing Call of Duty: World at War. Addictive, Much! lol As with most games, I completed it on a few difficulty levels and wanted more. So curiosity made me try the multiplayer aspect of the game and Voila! It let me on even though I had not purchased a membership. I'm still a bit hesitant about it. Free? surely not. When I had Call of Duty 4 I had to pay full membership to go on it. Weird. I ain't complaining. I've been on the multiplayer now every spare second and have ranked up quite well to level 30, Sgt commander I think. I have once again developed a short fuse when teen americans/british whining kids start making stupid noises and stuff and also though getting killed quickly by snipers. grrr I'm doing well though, winning the war and battling on through lol

Saturday came and didn't do anything but CoD all day until around 5.30, when me and a friend set off to see The Fray live!. I know amazing right. It all started off well. I had written the directions down and had my navigating head on with high hopes that we wouldn't get lost. Only my friend had his independant-navigating-know-the-right-way head on and we got lost. We overshot our destination by a few miles and had to stop for directions a few times. An hour or so later, we got there and queued for a while before they let us in. It was an impressive venue I must admit, not the best I've seen though. We were amongst the first 50 to get into the place so we were quite close to the front. I had high hopes that my view wouldn't be obstructed by any gits or git-esses, but as soon as the opening act came on, said gits and git-esses started to side shuffle right in front of me. It tested my patience. I had to keep reminding myself that there are probably a dozen height impaired people behind me trying to see over my head to see the band.

The night went on and The Fray came on. Wasn't the rock n roll atmosphere that I'm used to but I enjoyed their set loads. The combination of vocal, guitar and piano talents from the lead singer, Issac Slade made the band what they were and he didn't let us down on the night. Overall, it was a brill night and I'd definately see them again.

I was hurting the next day from all the standing and stuff, and I felt as though I had the beginning signs of the man-flu coming on (still feel like crap). So I spent most of the day in sipping lemsips and avoiding contact with anyone. That night, I felt better so I went to a friend's party that I was invited to. I got there and was told that they'd be bringing Rock Band with all the instrument controllers!

The host of the party, Dave said that we were all going to be split into bands of three people. I naturally opted to play guitar every single time, but as the night went on I tired the singing. It went bad.... They chose Rio by Duran Duran for me to sing lol It was funny to say the least. I was more at home singing Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Slow (hey oh) and other songs that were more of a lower key. The highlight of the Rock Band experience was hearing people sing Pretty Fly for a White Guy by The Offspring (yes... even me). "give it to me baby, uh uh uh uh!". lol I loved seeing my old friends again and had a great time and even had one those philsophical conversaitons you have in the early morning when drinking about random insignificant stuff lol.

And on our Bank Holiday Monday, I spent it on CoD. Thats my big weekend in a bag. I'll probably be on CoD tonight too. Its addictive lol See ya.

Too much info can be a bad thing.

Theres me worrying about my own problems when something major is happening all over the world.  Swine Flue. Well I'm certainly paranoid, scared and freaking out at the moment.... mostly due to the scaremongering that is being created through the media regarding Swine Flu. This is what the papers have said recently....

Health officials learned over the weekend that more than 1,600 people in Mexico are possibly infected with the swine flu virus. With the first confirmed case in Spain, the disease has hit European shores. And the tally of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States has now hit 40, according to a statement by the World Health Organization on Monday. Health officials have warned that this number is likely to rise.

Papers and the news state that this pandemic could rival or exceed that of the 1918 pandemic where researchers estimated that 21.5 million people died as a result.

Amonst other things, my curiosity got the best of me and now I'm looking at the life feed of the spread of the outbreak via Google Maps, as shown below. I'm now quesitonning my own sniffles and coughs... I hope that we are all safe at the end of the day, I hope to god we all are. I am probably overreacting, but the facts are scary.

The flu is a mutated case of flu that infect pigs. .... Why Babe? How can you give us this deadly mutated flu!

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
Pink markers are suspect Purple markers are confirmed or probable Deaths lack a dot in marker 

Yellow markers are negative

The experts say there are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people

Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them. I'm sorry if I've freaked you out in the process, I didn't mean to, but hopefully, you'll see why I'm concerned regarding this outbreak. I sincerely hope no one catches it.

 

Musical Monday

OMG how great is Rock Band 2. Addicted much. There was me thinking Guitar Hero was the shiz, but then I decide to buy Rock Band and it’s twice as entertaining and loads more songs. Shame I only have it on the ps2 at the moment and not on the Xbox 360 where I could have shared my achievements and show off my guitar shredding skills. Over the weekend to keep me entertained and happy I’ve been playing along to songs such as Livin on a Prayer, Everlong, The Middle and White Wedding no less. I even sing along, now that’s rock n roll...... or sad, depends on how you look at it. Lol I’m currently working my way through the hard difficulty and might even set about mastering Expert, but after nearly breaking a finger trying to play Metalica’s Battery, I think I’ll just give that a miss.

Anyways, seeing as its musical Monday, I might as well share another song that has meant something to me from my past. This week’s song is Everlong by Foo Fighters.

The reasons why I chose Everlong, firstly is well because the Foo Fighters rock, secondly it reminds me of when I went to see them live last year. Wow that was a night to remember. When Dave Grohl stopped messing about as he normally does with his goofy humour (which is one of the reasons why he ranks so highly in my fave celeb list) he started playing Everlong while on his own seemingly floating above the crowd on the runway type thing that extended from the stage into the crowd. The entire stadium fell silent as he played the intro and the atmosphere was electric. When the chorus came about though everyone was rocking out and it was amazing. The song itself is amazing. One of my favourites in fact and I thought I would share it with you lot.

To my weekend update....

Nothing much happened over the weekend apart from having Kallam during the day, which went great as usual and going out on Saturday night.

Me and Kallam spent Saturday at my sisters, which would have been good if not for the tension that fills that house whenever I go. This is due to my sis and her husband always falling out. It’s like one big massive argument that has lasted for years and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. They drink to drown their sorrows, end up fighting most nights and are caught up in what looks like a destructive cycle of anger, tension and depression. Wish I could help really, as its hard seeing my sister go through it all. I’ve tried to give advice, but she will not listen. She said to me this weekend that she is going to be getting a place of her own soon and getting a legal separation. Maybe that is for the best. It’s not nice to spend time there when my sis is trying to put as much distance between herself and her husband causing friction and tension. I probably won’t go there again. It’s very uncomfortable and tense.

Saturday night came and I was glad to be out of the house and party on down without a worry in the world. Things didn’t go to plan though. We got into town early and most of the places were only just opening so we went to a pub which was fairly lively and set about getting drinks in. We hit the beer hard and when it came to going to the other bars in town, I was feeling sick and just not in the mood at all. Feeling sick and eating myself up inside like I normally do when my confidence gets in the way and not approaching anyone, I just was depressed.

There were many girls/women I could have approached a few who looked approachable, but something within was holding me back. Fear of rejection maybe. I get stroppy when I drink if things don’t go to plan I now see when looking back. I don't realise it at the time. I need to stop thinking the girls will approach me, as that just doesn’t happen. They wait for you to go to them. So, instead of just standing there gawping at any girls that walk past, I’m going to approach some next time and make an effort. It’s the only way to defeat my inner demons. At the end of the night, I had a dance with a few, but by then I just wasn’t in the mood so I told my friend and we got off in a taxi still feeling sick and depressed.

As usual, I got over it fairly fast the following morning with other things to think about; the boring day ahead, my head which was banging like a bass drum and the need for coffee. Its only when looking back at how crap I am on a night out that I pity myself and want to set about getting out of this phase. When I look deeper into myself I am unable to just have fun on a night out and seem to want a more serious thing, which I need to stop doing. I asked someone out that I met a week back and she said that she was only looking for fun having gotten out of a major relationship so I left it. Met her again on sat night and because I was still sulking majorly, I declined to dance with her and I feel really bad for it now. *sighs*. I’m just hopeless.

That’s my rant for today....god I went on a bit didn’t I lol Thats what blogs are for though ay. Now I'm working for the weekend again and I am looking forward to going to see The Fray with my good friend Sarah. Fun times.

Eight Things

I was tagged recently by a close friend blogger ♥♥♥ The Girl of Make Believe ♥♥♥ to do this meme. Check her blog out as its really good.

Eight things I look forward to:
1) Renting my own place and becoming independant.
2) Finding "the one". The single life sucks
3) Seeing my son every weekend.
4) The possibility of going on holiday to Wales later this year
5) Seeing The Fray in two weeks
6) Seeing Oasis in June
7) The weekend - I need another good night out
8) Driving perhaps...

Eight things I did yesterday:
1) Went to Work
2) Had tea - a luverly chicken dinner made by my step mum
3) Checked out some trial glasses I ordered to see what they were like
4) Tried on some t-shirts I bought. Very cool
5) Played on my x-box - Mass Effect
6) Went on internet
7) Watched TV
8) Watched a film - Be Kind, Rewind

Eight things I wish I could do:
1) Mind Read - I'd love to know what people really think of me and stuffs lol
2) Not get so attached to people to soon
3) Have more confidence
4) Time Travel
5) Fly
6) Have the ability to have loads of career skills for a better job.
7) Wish I had the patience to learn something new without getting bored
8) Stop looking into things too much and take things as they are

Eight shows I watch:
1) LOST - what a good show...
2) Heroes
3) Smallville
4) Reaper
5) Dexter
6) The Inbetweeners
7) Eggheads
8) Weakest Link

Thanks for the tag, I enjoyed answering them. Now I tag:

Astharis  from Breached Hotel

Chinkygirlmel

Emmie

Please Don't Eat With your Mouth Open

Feeling Fruity

I've been a bit tired lately, lasting over the past few weeks. (could be why I've not blogged in a bit) What could be the cause? Well, I dunno. It could be as a result of lack of vitimins, as I don't eat fruits often and foodstufs containing vitimins..It could be that I have spent the last few nights concentrating solely on editing photographs I have taken recently,  It could be that I don't exercise... ever lol or it could be that I am not getting enough sleep (staying up till past midnight and then getting up at 8am the next day could be having an effect on me). Whatever the problem, I need to fix it. I may go to my doctors for a routine check up. The last one I had was in 1996.....I think... lol I know for a fact he won't say something like I'm going to die or anything, but I just put off going to the doctors maybe because my dad does. He is a traditional bloke, like when he gets a cold, he roughs it out and just will not see a doctor.

Anyways, enough rambling on about health problems and on with the update-i-mi-bob (i enjoy putting stuff like that at the end of words. It makes it sound all funny).

NOTE: My main highlight was naturally having Kallam for the day, but its best to put things in chronological order when updating. Plus, I'm feeling fruity today, so I may overexaggerate a tad....be warned.

I finished work on Friday with more excitement then a kid in a candy store. I was to meet a real celeb, my first one. That night, if things went well, I was to be meeting an ex-member of Oasis, nicknamed Bonehead. Who, you say? Most people didn't have a clue and only die-hard Oasis/music fans knew who he was. Mr Bonehead, Mr Paul Arthurs as I now know him to be, was to be showing up in a nearby town, Runcorn with his new band Vortex. Yipee! So I headed along over the Mersey to meet up with friends with my camera in hand to get some band shots and hopefully to get an autograph.

I got there and there he was on stage sound checking... I went straight for my fellow Oasis fan, whos stage name is Dave Love (i know very gay), who is also in a band and we did the excited jumping stuff. I took a few pics of friends messing about and posing and then when the first band came on I went into photography mode. At the start, it wasn't that hard, but as the night progressed, I soon found that drinking alcohol when photographin caused me to snap random people who I thought looked funny, most of the shots were blurred and some were very close up lol I got a fair few decent ones though. I might sneak some links to the photographs on the bands myspaces and see if they pick up on them. Maybe I'll get a part time job from it.... wishfull thinking there ay. Got to do it. lol Below are some shots from the night I took.

Half way through the night, I ventured out into the back smoking area outside. Me and my friend Amy were doing the goofing around thing and squabbling over whether to approach Mr Head or not. Being drunk and full of courage, I walked over with purpose having gained enough courage through drinking and lightly tapped him on his shoulder with little regard that he was mid-conversation with a friend of his, possibly a roadie. Looking back, he seemed mildly irritated, but concented to providing me with two signatures no less and a photograph with Dave Love, who now cherishes the photo. Photographers will sympathise with me that we are alwys behind the camera and hardly ever get snapped, so I never got my photograph with Mr Head. *sad face*. I got the autographs though, which I'll undoubtedly lose lol.

I woke up on Saturday feeling way under par and thinking to myself, why oh why did I drink. That soon passed when I recollected the fun and good times of the night. I quickly got dress and set off to get Kallam. Two things that don't go well together is being in a hungover state and riding our local bus service number 79c. The 79c route is rollercoaster hell for hangoverees and goes along loads of twisty turny, vomit enducing roads. As the trip went on and on, I got dizzier, hotter, and stuff. Luckily, I managed to contain myself to the end of the journey and quickly departed the bus and round the back of a nearby bus stop for some alone time.... nice. After a quick trip to the shop for fruit juice and munchies, I felt right as rain again and made my way to collect Kallam.

We had a great day. I took him to get his mop top cut, which again he behaved so well, the hair dressers were shocked and I was soooo proud lol Then again, I think Kallam is just scared in them situatons as he wears the expression of a victim. As seen to the right. lol  We then went to my dads for a bit and then onto a kids play area in town. Its possible that I am the most proud dad in the world when I'm with my son. He means the world to me and seeing him smile and just being around him fills me with joy and happiness. I took him back and then set off for home where I proceeded to relax and laze about before going out on Saturday with my friend James.

Saturday night went well, we met up at our other friend, Al's house and then went to the local boozer where we did the usual game of  "drool and stare at any lady who walks by". I'm sure we've been spotted doing that many times, but none of us make an effort to approach anyone. We then headed off towards the more livlier places in town where we drunk shots, had a few laughs and towards the end of the night danced the night away. I must say hanging around with James has strengthened my confidence, because looking back a year ago, I wouldn't have had the confidence to go out on the town, let alone dance while out on the town. Not had any luck with the ladies yet, but given time I should be alright. Maybe its the glasses? I've ordered some trial ones to test out new looks, as its proven women while on a night out firstly look at the face and if its someone with glasses or something, they are put off. Sounds shallow, but it seems true.

No sign of a hangover on Sunday, and it basically consisted of relaxing, being lonley, seeking company with my pet dog Ivory and slobbing about. Then on with work, which brings me to today.

Hope you've enjojyed this blog as much as I enjoyed typing it.