New car, job, a trip to Cheshire.....and Monkey!

After a lot research, test drives, and stress, we finally organised buying a car today: a 2004 Ford KA 'Collection' with a 1.3 petrol engine and in vitro green - more silver than green. The deal is done with the people over at the Ford garage - we just need to pick it up next Friday. Then I can start driving around all over the place, certainly to work and back which is the main reason for getting the car. I like this little motor; I hope I will get to love it! The countryside is now open to us to explore, that is if we can afford the high petrol prices. (internet picture.)

Oh, I started my new job over a week ago and all is well so far. I'm doing some interesting things with geographic data organisation. It certainly looks like I will be able to expand my experience and skills in GIS. The car will help with the commute to Warwick and back. Only another week on the long train journey.

Last weekend, Carla and I went with our pal Mark up to the Wirral in Cheshire (near Liverpool) to visit our friend Mandy. The four of us attended the 'Space Port' attraction in Wallasey on Saturday: an interactive museum about space research. They were having a display celebrating recent science fiction/fantasy films. The thing that attracted me was that our friends Toria and Jo were working there that day. They are part of a group who dress up in science fiction costumes, such as "Star Wars" Imperial Stormtroopers, who move around the crowd at events looking cool and menacing and posing for pictures with the kiddies. Quite a fun way of spending the weekend I guess! Apparently they did a parade on the Sunday as well. As for merchandise, Mark bought a little snow globe with an astronaut in it. The displays were average at best, and the place looked a bit shabby, with some of the interactive displays broken and the sci-fi exhibits upstairs rather tacky. There were no original film props, and what was there were all rather poorly made. The Jar Jar Binks figure looked as if he was about to fall in on himself!

After that, we went for a very 'bracing' walk on the beach at New Brighton, a sea-side town at the mouth of the river Mersey. It was blowing very cold off the Irish Sea, so we left rather windswept! The rest of the weekend was spent at Mandy's house watching TV (such as the new episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" season 4) and eating, drinking and chatting.

There is a new piece of 'Monkey' merchandise out in the shops. In special packs of PG tips tea you get a 'Monkey' tea-towel and a fab little DVD where 'Monkey' explores the history of tea! A fun little movie to watch!

UK citizenship, Star Wars Celebration Europe and general catch-up

Wow, I hadn't realised how long it had been since I updated this bloggy! You know, it gets left a day, then another, and the next thing you know it's been nearly a month!!

A few things have happened so let's report shall we…

Carla's UK citizenship ceremony went a-ok on Friday 22nd June at the local register office. My sister Josie and our pal Mark turned up for it. It was quite good actually, if short: a concise ceremony consisting of a speech by the registrar, an oath for Carla to take, us standing for the national anthem, and then the registrar handing over of a certificate and well, that was that….done! Photo time. Oh, the register gave her a "welcome" present…..a pen! Wow!

Afterwards we went over to her workplace and she showed her excitable work colleagues her certificate. We were supposed to hang around for somebody's leaving do, but we made our excuses and went home to schlub around, eat and watch DVDs!

Here is a picture of us two (with our cuddly monkey - he gets everywhere!)

Oh, following on from this, she got her UK passport yesterday, so that's all done with now, thank goodness.

Carla's family fly in from America tomorrow for a week's holiday over here with us. It will be fun to see them but I feel a bit unhappy for them that the weather has been so awful, and it seems unlikely to change for the better. I guess Britain's summer will be a complete was out this year. Apart from our cultural visits next week, I can't wait to see the new "Transformers" film, and perhaps the new "Harry Potter" one in 3D with them!

I attended "Star Wars
Celebration Europe" last Sunday. This was the first official convention for "Star Wars" fans over this side of the Atlantic, following on from the successful "Celebration" conventions in the USA held over the last few years. It was at the huge ExCel Centre in London's Docklands. I had quite a fun time for those few hours on Sunday afternoon: getting a few autographs, looking around the stands, chatting to friends etc. There were lots of things I failed to do or missed but on the whole and from what I saw, I thought it was an impressive show. I loved the huge Death Star at the entrance for instance! That looked amazing. The "History of Palitoy" room was fabulous - definitely one of the best things there. It was great to see some old "Star Wars" video game arcade machines blinking away. The art alley was interesting. Most people seemed to be having a fun time so that was good. My pal Kerry-Anne went to the show on Friday and had the pleasure of getting Mark Hamill's autograph. She also managed to get on GMTV with a question for him. He even gave her a kiss! I think it made her decade! I believe other highlights included the LSO concert, Ian "The Emperor" McDiarmid's talk at the opening ceremony, some of the talks by the "Star Wars" cast and crew, and the general buzz of the place. There were lots of fans in costumes everywhere. Shame it was a bit expensive as of course, the emphasis on these events are to *make money*. Lots of money. It seems the event was a success, so I suppose there will be another show in a year or two, even if the current licence holder has now, well, lost that Lucasfilm licence!

Anyway, today I posted a huge pack of paperwork gathered at this event to my long time "Star Wars" fan pal in America. Hope she gets that lot soon!

Oh, speaking of sci-fi shows, I went to "Memorabilia" at Birmingham NEC the weekend before "Celebration", and it was, well, rubbish. The curse of the summer show! There were no guests that interested me, and only a handful of stalls to look around. So no real 'buzz'. The only thing I picked up were some film poster coasters, which are really nice. I think I will collect my favourite films on these. In fact, I asked the dealer if he could create some 1950's sci-fi ones, including "Forbidden Planet" and "Earth vs the Flying Saucers". Hopefully these will be ready by the November show.

Just to finish, work sent me on some ArcGIS training in Nottingham last week, which was very good and extremely useful! Everything went well with that. I look forward to using the software again on my next project.

That's it for now. I will write soon and tell you all about out little break with the family!

at home in Gorleston - sorting out toys!

As the title suggests, I did indeed go home to see my mum and dad at the weekend. Long journey over to the east coast but it was ok as I snoozed a lot of the way on the train. This was my usual "hello....your son is here to help!" type visit (so I did the shopping, cleaning etc) but I also did some 'attic' work, which meant going up into the dusty darkness at the top of the house and attempting to sort out another box of old toys/comics/junk. Some of it went to the charity shop, some to the paper recycler, and some will be up for sale soon, such as the Action Man and film related toys I decided I don't want anymore. (Superman plane for instance.) Quite fun when you get into it, this 'muckin out' lark. You find things from the past that bring back simple but nice memories. :) And of course, it was nice to see the parental units as well. I hope to go back soon with the Mrs...so she can help me sort out more junk. haha!

I got mum and dad a PG tips monkey, which are being sold as part of special packs of PG tips t-bags! They love him, and he now lives in the living room!

Watched episode 2 of "Primeval" on Saturday night and as it played, I compared notes about the episode with Carla via txting on our mobiles. I had to tell her what happened at the end as he mother phoned just as the giant time travelling millipede attacked our heroes. This is good, I like the sillyness of it all, For once ITV have produced something worth watching! I guess they are going for the Saturday evening "Doctor Who" market with this.

Carla and I are hoping to get tickets to see the musical "Chicago" in March. It would be fun to see Tony Hadley strutting his ex-Spandau Ballet self on stage, in the role of Billy Flynn.

Oh, I must type a big "good luck" wish to my pal Trudi, regarding her nearly completed Phd! :)

First (past the?) post...

Hi to all out there in bloggy-land,

Just a couple of lines to get this thing going. I think I'll use it mainly for DVD and film reviews, but I'm sure I'll write about some other things....err...when I can remember or be bothered to update it! ;)

We watched "Earthquake" this afternoon...part of last weekend's mega DVD purchase at Nuneaton HMV. Not bad...quite entertaining actually. It has a similar structure to "The Towering Inferno", released in the same year - 1974. (Introduce the characters, then waste a third of the film showing their relationships and situations, then start the disaster!) Charlton Heston was his usual hero self, swaggering through the script with several major stars of the time (George Kennedy, Lorne Greene etc.) The film features some good action sequences and matte work, and yet another great score by good old Johnny Williams. However, there was one effect that was so * B A D * it was funny - the blood splattering in the lift as it crashed down the shaft. Its an *animation cell*! Red paint blobs!! Oh. Dear.
Talking about shaft....Richard Roundtree was in it as well, sporting a groovy stunt biker costume. Can yu dig it?

We watched the new ITV series called "Primeval" this evening. Dinosaurs and other such CGI creatures find their way to suburban England. Cue team of experts to investigate and sort it out. Again, quite fun to watch, although very derivative of many sci-fi and fantasy series...we had some "Jurassic Park" mixed with some "Stargate" and "X-files. Hope it develops well. Next week the preview showed them fighting giant bugs in the sewers! More b-movie rip offs then....
It was nice to see Ben Miller as the cynical Government man. He does the voice of the "PG tips monkey" (or "mung-keh" as he is known.) We both liked Rex, the cute little flying dino. I'm sure if the show is a hit, a toy Rex will be in the shops for Xmas!

Thankfully the annoying snowfall of Thursday and Friday seems to have gone now. All that remains on the square at the back of our flat is a very disheveled looking snow man...his carrot nose fell out as he melted!!

see ya'll soon! :)