New Years Resolutions

I thought I would do a post about this today as I highly suspect I won't have time to do it tomorrow with it being New Years Eve n'all.

The actual word resolution means a firm decision to do or not do something, which fits perfectly with the idea of a New Years resolution because usually they are things to change in the coming year. Whether they actually happen or not is of course a different question all together.

I myself am a serial failer when it comes to resolutions, the first I actually succeeded with was last year to carry on with my blog for the entire year - and I did and it is still going! This year I will plan, to keep my blog going at a standard which I am happy with, like my last two months of posting. So it is more than a picture with a paragraph of text. Sometimes it is unavoidable but otherwise - I will do my best. Some of my other ones for example have been eating five a day, or getting fitter. Theoretically, perfectly obtainable things but when it comes to practice I never did.

Most resolutions will fail because people go 'too big' so in reality it is unachievable. My advise is, if you set yourself one and are steadfast about achieving it, start a bit smaller and make sure you have the tools to actually do it. So, me for example, I made sure I had the app on my phone for Blogger so I could do it when out and about if needed. I got myself set up on the Mac and worked out processes as to when I would blog and a layout of content. I stuck to this as best I could and now we are on day 547!

Another thing is don't set yourself too many goals, it is has been proven that trying to remember more things is stressful and hinders your ability to remember the important things of what you need to remember. So for me, last year I am pretty sure keeping up with this was the only one I set last year because I thought it was a biggie. I say this now, if I went back to last years blog I might be fibbing. Because it was a long time ago and stuff.. Maybe just give yourself one or two goals of varying size and work towards them. Other things that you may have been thinking to set as a resolution will then come naturally alongside it. It all works out eventually.

Remember, if you do have a set back, don't beat yourself up. Putting yourself in a negative mind frame when doing something sticks, more than you may first think. Every time you then went to do that resolution because of your negative reaction prior, you'll feel that again which can often lead to failure.

See what happens. I will try stick to mine if you stick to yours!

Day 547
Selfie?

So Amy totally bought a proclaimed selfie stick, actually called a monopod because it is a single legged pod for your camera phone. Technically. A great pose if I do say so myself. Even though I don't really like selfies, I can see the benefits of having this because you can get so much of your surroundings in to a picture and also more people if it is a large group. Then again, isn't the awkward stretch and pressing of the button part of the selfie experience? This is a nice fancy one, it has a bluetooth connector which means we press a button on the handle and the picture takes, clever stuff if you ask me.

I am already feeling myself doze of so I shall let you get on as well as I. Blog you later.

Feel the Burn

I am a bit of a plum. Well, definitely. No ifs or buts about it. I was testing some pasta to see if it was cooked and fished a bit out of the pan. I put it down, blew on it and gave it a flap. I assumed this would be enough, and picked it up and proceeded to dangle it over my mouth. The shape of the pasta included a tube which also held boiling water - which then ended up over my lip. Quite possibly one of the mos painful things I've experienced as I am terrible with touching anything hot. Needless to say that made a lowly appearance on my face which will be there for a while as a reminder to empty the tube first..

Totally linked my YouTube account to the Xbox, nice and simple, no faffing with usernames and passwords, just a link to follow on your chosen device and it logs you in straight away. It is much better than before as you have everything like subs and the history which I use a lot of at the moment to go back and watch the remainder of a video and then follow on to the next in the playlist. It's simple things like that which make it so much easier to use!

Day 546

A champagne bottle made out of ice cream, pretty darn awesome. Shame that the outer shell cracked probably where it was frozen but I still was very happy with the presentation!

Looking at it now, it looks like the top is all mouldy.. It wasn't, it was like glitter to make it look like it was dribbling out I'd assume. The corner missing from the label was my Dad testing if it was edible - yes it was. It was from Iceland and has been sitting waiting in the spare freezer and now we've cracked into it. It was surprisingly good in all honesty, happy times all round. We also proceeded to pull some Christmas crackers at the same time and I managed to guess what you would come out of mine, the classic tony padlock whose security is questionable. 

Thanks for reading, I've fallen a sleep multiple times writing this so I think I will go to sleep now. Better safe than sorry eh? Blog you later!

Another Weekend

Alas, as always, another weekend has come to pass and the work is ahead. I do have New Years day off though so it is not all bad. And as I am up for work in the morning, I shall head straight into the pictures and also coming off the back of another triple post, may will probably be a bit shorter.

Day 543
See really, I have been a bit of a plum and forgot to take any pictures and now I am in bed with the lights off so I guess Google will have to be my friend today. This day, technically speaking would have been boxing day. Right now, it seems odd to be that I can only faintly remember that day despite it only being a couple of days ago.. Honestly I think I spent most of the day on the Xbox between myself and my brother, he has been showing me some ins and outs of Destiny as I have not been playing it as much since having my Xbox One. I am now level 30 so I am happy, got the gear to get to 31, just need to upgrade it and the such. I did also then spend the evening watching this..

Which is The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2014. The line up I feel was not as good as usual, I like David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade and Jimmy Carr but the others aren't too high on my personal pecking order. Myself and Amy answered along and didn't come last or first.. I will leave it at that. I am looking forward to next weeks which is an anniversary version to celebrate 10 years of the quiz which has a much better line up which I am much more excited for. I am still glad I watched it because it is funny and is now an unofficial tradition I must say.

Day 544
And on this day, a Saturday, the first after Christmas, we decided to brave the Bluewater crowds for shopping. We have had better ideas, it was busy but we didn't take too long to find a space. I hate that as soon as parking is getting a bit thin, people start driving like idiots. We sauntered around looking for a space and then when we find one, waited and indicated but some idiot flew into the space as I started to turn in. I then honked and gave them a look, but of course knowing the were wrong wouldn't look back. The passenger, presumed to be a girlfriend did not look most pleased with the driver. Naughty people!

Anyway - we had a wonder. I wanted to go to Waterstones as I have a £10 voucher - which my Mum asked me to buy for 'a child relative' so I got one targeted at a young person, turns out it was for me. I am at the moment thinking about getting a graphic novel with it because I have been told they are all very good, it is just there are so many it is hard to pick, so much so that I didn't and will research first. The other problem is that if I start a series, I will want to get them all!

Amy bought this as she gets them every year, generally speaking.

I can honestly say I have never really sat down and looked through one of these.. But when we got it home, we sat and had a read through for a good hour and there are some really interesting things in there. Some of them I don't think should be in there because they are really random specific things to do which have no practical use.. Like chainsawing apples held in your mouth - legit.

We also went in Men Kind and bought some kitchen knives because they were awesome and 25% off. I will leave this link here for you of them with a review on a website called "thebestkitchenknives" because that is totally a thing:
http://thebestkitchenknives.co.uk/taylors-eye-witness-coloured-knife-set-review/
I think they are pretty cool and colourful. Plus the block moves around so you can have them arranged differently because that is also a thing. I just had a quick browse on there.. Some of the knives are worth £700. What are they cutting, gold?

We also had Nando's because Nando's. Pineapple on everything for me these days.

Day 545
And then there is today. I went to the cinema today with the famalam and we saw this!

I chose this poster because it is the classic stacking of characters on top of each other and it also has the dragon - he is my character for a game we play at work. He died. That sucked.

I really liked the film because it did a good job of tying in a lot of things to the Lord of the Rings films which would explain a lot of the story to people who haven't read the book. I have read The Hobbit but none of the others.. Maybe I should. I really liked all the battle scenes because they are always well done, it was nice to see some of the other wizards fighting using magic, because as much as I love Gandalf, he never uses any magic when he fights. And we know he can do it, so why doesn't he? Like pew pew and bang!

We also went out for dinner with some friends, we went to a Fayre and Square because of how cheap the menu is in comparison to other places. Saying that, the Taste Card will come back into life soon so everywhere will be cheaper again! Hurrah! I had a 16oz gammon steak, this came with: mushrooms, peas, chips, onion rings and pineapple rings. And it was only £8. Bargain if you ask me as hard as it was to finish, I did manage to invite people to try it successfully which helped. I probably only ate 14oz of it - not that that isn't a lot to shake a stick at.

I think I will leave it there. Longer than I thought it would be but luckily I managed to concentrate and get it all done quickly. G'night people of the internet. Blog you later!

Well This is Christmas

I hope you have all had a very merry Christmas, Eve and associated days of celebration. I have had a somewhat impromptu hiatus to my blog but I have been spending time with my family and the such.

So I haven't posted since the 22nd so that leaves three days including today. Obviously, all of my pictures will be of Christmas presents that I have received and greatly appreciate. I thought it would be nice to do a post on Christmas Day, I can't remember if I did one last year or not.. I could quite easily look back but.. Well.. Can't be bothered. I'm watching Goldeneye so I am totally preoccupied by that. I am also watching it thinking that I really can't remember a lot of what is going on - and I am pretty sure I have seen it before because Sean Bean dies. He dies in everything to be fair so I could be getting confused quite easily.

Something I will mention first is about Xbox Live and PSN being down at the moment.. Which sucks of course. Apparently it is  being targeted by a hacking group called Lizard? And another group called Anonymous is now combatting them to try and stop them from doing it. I know hackers like to show off what they can do, usually to expose things but this seems really pointless and petty. Of course, they probably did it today because so many new people would be setting up and trying to play for the first time and now can't obviously. You can't even log into your account in an offline state to play. The site states that all other apps are up an running - despite needing to be signed in to use.. *slow claps*

Day 540
I will start with this lovely thing I think.

It, if you cannot tell, is an outline of Stitch made up of a series of different words which were picked out by Amy. For example, our names, our anniversary and todays date. I really like it, it was something that I could never have guess. Amy showed me this wrapped up and thought it must be some sort of thin book or calendar but as you can see, I was no where near. We will be getting a frame for it so that we can pop it up somewhere. I of course got Stitchmas for Christmas but have had him for longer.

I thought I would have a look on the Disney store to see what stuff they have for Lilo and Stitch and now it is minimal. At this point in time it is one of their 'older' films so they obviously won't make as much stuff for it. One thing they do have is this mural type thing which was £70 which looked pretty cool. It had some other different characters on it as well and wasn't in the usual art style, sort of like a children's picture book. I think what I really want would be a tie with him on, I seem to be able to find a bow tie easily but otherwise, no luck!

Day 541
Which roles me over conveniently to this picture here, of ties. What type of gift receiving day would it be if I didn't at least get one tie?

Instead I got five. One of which, as you can see, is a piano tie which I have seen many in films or TV programmes but never thought I would end up owning one. It even comes with different tunes which you have enough keys to play on the back of the box but that is far too hard to translate when you have the tie on and facing a different way and it needs to be done with specific timing.. All that jazz is not meant for one man to handle. I can manage to play something which sounds faintly like Eastenders but I don't like Eastenders so how would I know?

This has taken my tie collection over the 50 tie mark I think it is safe to say. Worst part is I have now run out of room again on the racks that I have so I might need to get myself another. Or a draw, an entire draw where they can all be folder nicely and sit there waiting. I do quite fancy learning how to try different knots out such as a windsor, I have been putting of trying as I have been wearing my festive ties to work. These have pictures one which in the windsor knot would come out funny so I thought it wouldn't be worth it. I will learn. I will probably try and show you at some point depending on the success - if no pictures appear, assume all attempts have been epic failures.

Oh, the cheesy one lines or James Bond.

Day 542
I also now have a new winter jumper and matching hat for my previous cardigan, which I am not wearing to show the new jumper. It is very warm and comfy, it's from Next who I find seem to be one of the only shops where their sizes actually fit me! And that is James. HI JAMES.

I very 'subtly' mentioned to my Mum that I wanted a jumper that I could wear so I didn't have to where my suit jacket every day. I do very much appreciate the extra pockets but it doesn't keep me all that warm compared to other garments such as a jumper of cardigan. So that I try to add on an extra later and get too hot, there was no winning! Now, I have options. I like options. Plus I can wear this when I am driving and not feel restricted.

So Christmas dinner today was a little different - we ate with my Nan, which used to be the norm but she has not moved into a care home. They were offering to set up tables in their rooms and serving Christmas dinner so we thought we would surprise her - literally. She had no idea, we just turned up and there was a table in her room. It was pretty good, especially as they were doing it on mass, three courses and wine - not that I like wine. Had a prawn cocktail, turkey with carrots, parsnips, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing and even a Yorkshire pudding, finishing off with mince pieces and Christmas pudding - which I don't like. All in all, good stuff.

Just because it is Christmas, here is an article about Santa:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm
There are little bits and bobs all over the internet speculating about Coca Cola being the reason he is red and white, apparently he used to be green!

Thanks for reading. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Just Like Old Times

Good evening, good evening, good evening. I've just been playing some Destiny on the Xbox One and I didn't realise how much better it all looked so it's awesome. Haven't played it for a while so a little bit rusty but I'll get into the swing of things.

The reason I am saying it's like old times is because I am doing this from my phone! I know, right? Amy has the Max today so I am phone blogging. It is nice as I can just throw in the picture and not need to fiddle with it but I can never be sure of the formatting. I'll probably check it once I have done it at a later point. Be prepared for many auto correct fails, the problem is where I type quite fast it'll automatically 'correct' when I press the space key so.. I never notice it do it. Excuses, excuses.. 

Today, me and Amy went and saw Night at the Museum 3 as it was the last in the series and had recently watched the second, we quite fancied it. It was also the last film that Robin Williams acted in, not including voice acting. And it was really sad. Because the story of the film is that the magic that brings them to life was dying out so they would no longer live, and his character was talking about about dying and how much he enjoyed living. And then obviously he passed away and it was really sad when it came together as a bigger picture. They put a credit in for him dedicating the film to him and also another person, Phil Hoffman. I always think it is nice when they dedicate a film to people like that, keeps their memory alive.

We then popped over to Frankie and Benny's as we were at the Rochester complex with a little bit of everything. We haven't eaten there in a while, we used to love if before they changed their menu a lot and now they've put up the prices on some things.. Definitely the starters, averaging £6 now! We decided to have a sharing one which was the amazing potato skins with different toppers, that was £10 so more like it. I had me some prawns in the form of chicken and prawn Alfredo. It has chicken, prawns and mushrooms so I am a happy bunny. Amy had a pizza called the Boston 7 so it has 7 toppings, mainly meat and asked for a different base sauce. I like that they do that because then you know it isn't out of a freezer.

Day 539

Look at us looking like sirs.

We got little crackers at the meal we went to yesterday. Both me and Andy - the other guy without an amazing tie - got moustaches that clip onto your nose. At first the clip is far too tight to fit on a humans nose.. But we stretched it out a little then it for on nicely. And I must say I was surprised as it stayed on for a good long while. I was also very happy as it was one of the only Christmas hats I've had that has come close to fitting my overly sized head and hair. I have a lot of hair.

Well, thanks for reading. It has felt odd looking at my phone for this long.. To type stuf anyway. Videos don't count. Blog you later!

Winter Wonderland

All bar one of my images will be from Winter Wonderland today because I actually took a load of pictures for once! I don't usually do that but hey ho, why not? But of course, as with everyone weekend, it starts with a Friday.

Day 536
Wilson! So, it turns out, a lot of people I know haven't actually seen Cast Away with Tom Hanks. I obviously have and I assumed to be a staple part of the generic film diet, as are many Tom Hanks films.

So here is the story with how I came to have this balloon in my possession. It was lunch time, at work on Friday and I needed to go for a wonder to get some bits - my last Christmas presents. Barclay's were letting you have your picture taken with a football trophy, giving out free mince pies and also free helium balloons. Being the grown up 21 year old that I am, I obviously wanted a balloon. The guy looked at me funny but relinquished his hold on one anyway. I was a very happy man, I kept telling people I work with that I have a balloon.

I thought of Wilson, found a picture of him online and used the conveniently placed marker pen on my desk and got to work. Took all of 15 seconds. I then tied him to the side of my desk and went happily on my way with working. I took him home, I wedged him between the backseat and my seat so he wouldn't float around in the car while I was driving because that would have been a bit of a pain.. I then left him floating in my living room to go to bed - he deflated. Not completely, just enough to stop him from being able to float. I was looking forward to consuming his innards to have a funny voice shortly.

Day 537
Saturday was the day! Off to Winter Wonderland! I was rather excited because I had never been before, neither had Amy so it was a first for us both. Turns out getting group travel cards to London is really cheap in comparison. For three of us, it worked out to £35.40 which is cheaper than two individual ones which I don't really understand the math of..

Despite having the travel cards, we decided to walk as it was only about half a mile away, plus it was fun to look at bits of London that we had never seen before. We saw many a fancy car as well, including a Ferrari, some Aston Martins and the occasional large Bentley - such as the gold one that was inconspicuously parked outside the Park Tower Hotel/Casino. I guess that is a rich persons playground. It was nice though, because you could tell everyone was heading towards Winter Wonderland in their Christmas garbs and what not. I am surprised how packed it was, I knew it would be busy but it must have been the busiest place I've ever been.

This first picture was from the first bit that we walked around, it was basically a huge German inspired area with taverns and shops. At this point, we were super hungry as none of us had any breakfast before coming so we ended up having a giant sausage, easily a foot long. They had normal and red sausages for £5 and curry and steak for £6. Me and Amy both had red and they were really quite good I must say, slight hint of chilli but otherwise tasting like a saveloy. The ketchup/mustard dispensers were like cow udders hanging from the canopy, just squeeze it on. We were lucky enough to get a standing table, otherwise it was packed.

We then ended up in this giant canopy which was like a giant tavern, the beer in the picture was actually not ours because neither of us drink beer. We just had it for the purpose of the picture, it was £10 plus a £5 deposit for the glass even though it was made of plastic. It was basically a two pint jug. Where we were sitting, off the right in the picture was a stage with a rather odd choice of entertainment. It was like paid karaoke because they were both reading the lyrics off of a display but were clearly there to do that and only that - not like they were some randomers from the crowd. Fair enough to them for doing it but I don't really get it over all..

We then continued to have a wonder around the place - of course after returning the glass. We then did start taking the tubes around, we went to Leicester Square where there was some street performers and stuff. The reason we went there was for M&M's world.

Day 538
Which is where I took this!

It was also pretty busy in here as well. We went into an M&M world shop in America, which was pretty big. Well it was really long, not too wide and only one floor. This - as you can see, was spread out over many a floor, to be exact, four. I like looking around, but for the amount you have to pay for some of the stuff I seriously question if it is worth it. The most expensive thing in there was £2,300 which was a leather jacket with Swarovski crystals in it and stuff.. Craziness!

We had a nice sit in Costa to have a chat and stuff. Someone we were with tried their brownie hot chocolate which is basically.. A hot chocolate with cream and some brownie pieces on top. Genius as they can charge so much more for it! We then rode around on a load of tubes and trains to work out way to Bromley to go to a Weatherspoons for tea. I have never eaten at one before and for the price, I was really happy with it. I chose a mixed grill which came with a drink and was £9.90. That was crazy. We fed four people for under £35 which would be unheard of at a restaurant. Sometimes cheap and cheerful is the way to go!

Today, we did some general bits and bobs. Did some shopping. I bought Shadow of Mordor for £30 because I really wanted that when I saw it advertised and it was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. I also bought some new sauce pans which I am pretty sure I got far too excited about. Each one - the lid - has a colander built into it. I know, its genius. You just lift it out a bit and then tip it and it keeps all the food in! I know my enthusiasm probably wont't translate through the text to you but it was excessive for what it was.

This evening, we enjoyed a nice Christmas meal out with everyone. Ended up being 12 of us in all so a nice even number. We went to a place called the Royal Oak which is a Beef Eater. They had a set menu for the festive period, three courses for £20 so I did that. I had a prawn cocktail, a festive steak burger which was pretty chunky and also profiteroles. I also had a winterberry Rekorderlig because they were actually selling it now, I was very happy. It is now my cider of choice.

Pretty wordy today and well past midnight. So I shall leave it there. Blog you later.

Cumulative Costing

I often wonder why my mind works the way it does. This title, is something that I made up as far as I know because of a Christmas card with the title "wife" on it.

So. A nice card, say from Clinton's or somewhere like that for Christmas can cost anywhere in the region of £1-5. Or even more, depending on what you fancy. The fact that it says wife however just set my mind into overdrive thinking - wait, how much is the overall cost of that card really? Now, you will probably be thinking what on Earth is he on about? Thinking it over in my head, my sensible side is not agreeing either. Well, we can assume the following things.

• You will have most likely dated this person for an ex number of years.
• You will have possibly moved in with this person paying rent, mortgage, bills etc.
• You will have paid for a wedding which from what I understand can cost any where in the region of £10,000-25000.
• You may have kids, the average cost of a children up until the age of 18 in the region of £200,000, based on the standard plutonic family, we would then be looking at double that.
• Random unforeseeable costs and general living to get to this point.

All of this together, theoretically makes a Christmas card worth upwards of £500,000 to get you to that point in your life to be buying a Christmas card with the word "wife" on it. I really don't know where any of this came from at all, not even a little bit. Some odd bod like me out there will probably have quite enjoyed this. High five to you sir/madam.

Day 535

Stocking!

Last year was my first stocking. I had never had one before that, me and Amy now try and do one for each other every year. We have only managed to find one stocking at this point in time so everything is just chucked into this one, it may stay that way if we can't find the other one.. We were there when we got each other stuff so we could point out stuff we wanted to try and needed. I like the idea of it, nice to get stuff you really do need for Christmas. Pain the bum to wrap it all up though, mainly because I just am no good at it rather than them being small fiddly shapes.

I was thinking of a wish list of things that I quite fancy, and by things - I mean games for the Xbox One.

I think the one that interests me the most would be Far Cry 4 at this point in time because I really got in to the third one, I should probably go back and complete that at some point.. I also wouldn't mind getting myself Shadow of Mordor because that just looks amazing. The gameplay I have seen incorporates what I can only describe as Assassin's Creed movement and fighting but with a universe much more brutal and graphic. That gets all my nerd buds racing. I do want to upgrade Destiny to the Xbox One version just because I get to keep my character progression etc. The Masterchief collection is enticing but as I have mentioned before, it is a lot for a game which you'll have already completed numerous times and played the hell out of. Lords of the Fallen I am on the fence about, guess at a later date when the price has dropped then I would be well up for giving it a bash.

And 100% this one.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-25-dark-souls-2-heading-to-ps4-and-xbox-one

I am so excited. I am also glad I haven't yet bought the DLC for Dark Souls 2 as it will be heading to Xbox One with everything included, expanded story, lore, new enemies, new NPC's, better graphics, higher player interactivity.. OH MY LORD.

Thanks. Give me that now. Blog you later.