The Woman In Black

Me and my girlfriend didn't do anything on Valentines, mostly due to me being at work. We did, however, decide that we would make Wednesday night our date night. So Wednesday came around and we went out to see a film, after some debate we chose to see The Woman In Black. This film is excellent and by a classic name like Hammer you would expect it to be so, it's well written, well directed and, for the most part, well acted. It's rated 12 so there's no use of modern gore shocks or over the top violence, in fact nearly all the scares come from the general atmosphere of the film, which really pulls you into the story, keeps you focused and then when you're right there "boom" it gets you, it even succeeded in making me jump on several occasions, not an easy feat.

Now don't get me wrong I really enjoyed this film and, as you can see from the previous paragraph, I rate it highly, but it is far from perfect and by far the worst thing in the film is, unfortunately, Daniel Radcliffe. I really wanted to like him, I grew up with Harry Potter and have very fond memories of the films, but in this his acting was just out of place, out of time and, quite frankly, wooden. He was completely unbelievable in this role and right from the start I felt he was out of place and let the film down. He never really did anything wrong, he just stuck out like a sore thumb. My second, and pretty much only other, major gripe with the film is the last 15 minutes or so, it just seemed completely disconnected from the rest of the film and the explanations present throughout the rest of story seemed to be completely lacking in the last final portion. The story wasn't really wrapped up, it wasn't really left open either, it just kind of ran out. I felt as if the ending was just an after thought, rushed almost and after such a refreshing and enjoyable film I came away feeling slightly disappointed.

Unfortunately I have noticed that it is a common issue with recent films, for the last few years it seems that film makers have forgotten that the most important part of the film is the ending. It's the ending that makes a film believable, a good, well written ending will leave the audience feeling convinced of even the most fantastical subject matters and they will leave the film feeling satisfied and with a much deeper appreciation for the story and characters in it. Hopefully this will be a passing trend, speaking of bad endings this is where I am chosing to end my post... goodnight

Home, Sweet Home!

Yesterday was the big day really, everything was finally completed, all the money safely where it should be and we were finally given the keys to our new house. It was great to be in there again, we haven't been in since the viewing before we decided to make an offer, about 4 months ago. It actually felt like coming home, I'm not sure whether that is because its such a lovely little house or because it now our house, either way it's a great feeling.

More or less as soon as we were in we got too work cleaning and stripping wallpaper ready for when we bring our furniture in, we already have a lot donated to us largely by Kelly's parents & brother, all of which we are extremely grateful for.

There's one thing you don't realise about having your own place and thats exactly how much there is and how difficult it is to get set up, we thought we'd done a good job of planning it all out but now we're actually in there's so much we never really thought about. It's not so much the cost thats suprised us, we knew it would be expensive. Thats part of the reason we decided to buy in the first place, those setting up costs are there either way, buy or rent, but with buying you eventually have something to show for it. The thing that has suprised us is the sheer amount of time it takes filling out forms and making phone calls just to get the very basics in place and just to make sure you've covered all your legal bases, it's a nightmare. Thankfully Kelly has dealt with so much of that, for which I am extremly thankful, if I'd have had to do it then most of it would have never happened.

Anyway I could lay here and write on this all day, but that wont get anything done, so I best end it here................

Home Ownership

Well its now coming towards the end of the first day of 2012 and over three months since I last posted on here. This year will both be the greatest and the most terrifying year of my life, it is the year that I, more or less, enter the world of true adulthood and leave my current life of living like a teenager behind me. Don't get me wrong I'm 28 not 18, I've legally been an adult for more than a third of my life already, however this is the year that I settle down, this is the year that I take on one of the biggest responsibilities of my life. Within the next couple of weeks I will become a fully fledged home owner, I am about to become the proud owner of a 2 bed semi detached house and I am about to take on a mortgage for the next 25 years.

This year me and my partner officially become a family, admittedly only a family of 2 but a family all the same. It's a big step for me, one that I've never really taken before, but one that I know will be worth it.

My only real worry is how is she ever going to live with all my toys and books...

Just A Bit Of An Update

I've been meaning to write something on here for a while, but every time I start I realise I just can't be bothered. The only time I really get to post these days is at night and by the time I've settled in from work and feel relaxed enough to actually write something then I feel like I'd rather spend that time either with my partner, in person, via the net or what ever or doing one of the many things that bring me pleasure. Now I'm not saying I don't enjoy writing on here, cause I clearly do, I'm just saying my music, my books, my games, my films, my friends etc. etc. seem like a better way of spending my time so blogging ends up being treated like a second class citizen of sorts.

Anyways today my lady is busy preping her lesson plans for next week, she's a teacher, and I have a new phone to play with so have discovered the joys of having, more or less, round the clock internet access and figured I could drop in an impromptu update. Now me and my lady have been talking about moving in together for months now, but, as of yet have failed to make much of an in road, it recently came to our realisation that a possible reason for this was that renting a house didn't appeal as much to us as buying our own. I dunno maybe its just me but when I think about it, it seems you pay someone for the pleasure of looking after their house for them and then when they're sick of you they kick you out, perhaps I'm just being overly cynical. So basically after months of unsuccessful searches for rental properties we've come to the decision that maybe some intense saving with a look to putting down a good size deposit on an actual house of our own is the best way forward for us. It's really good to have something to look forward too, I just hope it really works out.

Anyway thats enough for now, its Sunday afternoon, its raining and I want to just enjoy the weather for a while. It seems the older I get the more I enjoy the bleakness of wet, windy weather and grey sky's.

England Prevails

Again its been a while, I'm not good at this blogging malarkey. I've actually done a hell of a lot since I last wrote on here, I've grown older, I've been to gigs, I've drunk WAY too much, I've been on holiday, I've visited many interesting places. None of that is really what I want to talk about tonight though, tonight I want to register my disgust at the current state of things in this country, I want people to know what I think and feel about the riots and the supposed reasons behind the riots.

To start with, the 'peaceful' protest and demands of justice from the family and friends of a 'victim' of a police shooting should NEVER have been allowed to happen. This so called 'victim' was a well known gang member, a criminal who was shot during a police operation against the organisation that he belonged to. For those of you that are unaware, ordinary police in the UK do NOT carry fire arms, we have specialist armed police units that are only used in circumstances where such force is strictly necessary. The police in question knew this man to be carrying a loaded fire arm, new that he was more than prepared to use it and there's even reports that he shot and wounded an officer prior to him being shot dead.

Now I'm not great supporter of the police, in fact quite the opposite, I feel the police are a largely ineffectual force that are part of a decadent past and, in their current state, are little help in society. However, I feel that the police involved in this operation should be commended for their bravery, not just by their colleagues in the force but by everyone. As it is they're being investigated by The Independent Police Complaints Commission. They're being treated like criminals for going in to face a criminal organisation, knowing full well that these people would be armed and more than willing to use those weapons. These people who were knowingly risking THEIR OWN LIVES in order to protect those of normal, law abiding citizens, it's a mockery of everything being English has ever stood for.

Now leaving that behind and on to the riots themselves, the first riot broke out during the peaceful protest, that should never have happened, on the pretence of being part of the protesting group. In reality the rioters are nothing but thugs and gang minded individuals looking for a reason and opportunity to cause trouble and damage to other peoples property. Very few of them would have had anything to do with and probably not even any knowledge of the actual reason behind the protests. These people, and the people involved in the subsequent riots and looting up and down the country, are nothing more than the dregs of society, people that we we would, in all honesty, be much better off without. It sickens me that we as a nation could sink so low that so many people have sought to involve themselves in this, so much so that towns and cities up and down the country have been forced to shut themselves up in fear. If you know anyone involved in the riots and looting it is you duty to humanity to turn them in.

I genuinely fear what a continuation of these riots and this behaviour could herald, if it continues, at some point, the government is going to start covertly removing our rights and freedoms in order to force us into compliance. The truly scary part is that the silent majority of people, who find the riots as abhorrent as I do, are likely to welcome these measures in the name of their own safety and the safety of their loved ones and treasured possessions. This could be the first steps to a Britain not far from the comic book pages of the likes of V for Vendetta, a place where the government has total control of our lives and any deviation or difference to society's accepted norms will be stamped out with extreme prejudice in order to ensure that actions such as we are seeing right now can never happen again.

Ok rant over, remember... England Prevails...

Urgghhhh, Just Urgghhhh

Isn't it wonderful how spending 5 days a week doing something you hate drains you of any creativity. I haven't posted on here since October and its not because I've done nothing or had nothing to write about, it's because the state of mind my job puts me in has killed all drive, ambition, creativity etc. from me.

Oddly this month I've had 2 4 day weekends, yet this is the first month since Christmas that I'm not arranged to really do anything. Since Christmas I've been to London, seen a rendition of hamlet, been to 4 or 5 gigs (some not entirely planned), been on several nights out (again some not entirely planned), seen 3 stand up comedians, been to the zoo, looked at places to live and spent £2000 on a car that I can't even drive. That's just the bigger things, I've done countless other less mention worthy things, been on excursions and spent many happy weekends with my partner.

Work is really dragging me down at the moment. I'd just kind of levelled out, found a rhythm that I could cope with, when my boss lands it on me that, because my formal review was due (early last month) meaning I should have gone on a permanent contract and gone up a wage bracket, he's decided that I'm on an indefinite probation and cancelled my formal review. This has effectively both frozen me at my current rate of pay and kept me on a temporary contract. This has left me in a state where I don't actually know what's happening or even if I'm keeping my job, it literally hangs completely in the balance and is completely in his hands, a point that he's made to me on several occasions by pulling me into the office to talk about how's he's watching me. I don't even know where I'm going with this rant, I just can't keep my mind focused, urghhhh I'm going to bed

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

I've been thinking a lot recently, mainly what I've been thinking about is that I'd love to get back into the writing of stories, poems, songs etc. and playing of guitar that I used to spend much of my free time doing in my late teens, early 20's. The biggest problem with this is that I just don't know where to start, I don't know how to restart the creative processes involved in doing those things. I know it's going to be impossible to just pick up where I left off, for one thing I just don't have the idea's flowing around my head the way they did when I was writing a lot and for another I don't have the finger dexterity or finger "memory" required to play guitar anymore. I know these are generally things that come with practice and being in the right mind set, but I remember being able to do these things, I know I should still be able to do them and that makes me feel disheartened and makes it harder for me to accept that if I'm going to do write and play again then I'm going to have to learn to do it all over again. I'm not sure I have the patience to start all over again, no matter how much I want to.

FUCKKKEEEEDDDDD!!

I'm tired and drained. For some reason after work I just never really feel like spending that much time online so I just don't get round to blogging any more. Anyways I've got the house to myself for a few days and I've made plans to go to Whitby for goth weekend, which should be awesome fun.

You guys need to check out the new Kronenbourg 1664 add, it's awesome Check it out via my lovely youtube link. Just a shame it's an advert for larger, fecking womans drink that it is.

Decision

I came to the decision earlier today that I'm aiming to spend no more than a weeks wages every month from here on. This is all in an effort to save enough money to be able to get some cheap starter furniture together and afford the deposit and the first months rent etc. on a small house with my lovely lady. I want to get out of here and move into somewhere that is, essentially, my own space as soon as possible. What I really want is to be spending Christmas in my own place with my own stuff, just me and my girlfriend our first Christmas together.

ART ATTACK

Had an awesome weekend, despite the weather and feeling generally ill. Saturday night we went out to see the legend that is NEIL BUCHANAN and his, quite frankly awesome, band Marseille. I'll be honest we only went to see them because of who it was and we thought it would be worth seeing for the sake of a nostalgia trip, but it turned out that the band were amazing and Neil's guitar playing was pretty much epic. I shall definitely be on the look out for them coming round again as well as watching for the opportunity to purchase their album. I would recommend them to anyone who loves a bit of late 70's early 80's style hard rock/metal, check them out on their website.