There's this crude graffiti somewhere on my way to work which always makes me laugh (well, ok, I'm down to merely giggling now). It says:

"Rebecca, Liam fancies U! Yes! U!!"

The other day my itsy bitsy world became complete when I noticed that on the three Bottom DVD's I bought, ooh, about half a year ago and still haven't unwrapped, there is the beloved Bottom Fluff collection. I have nearly worn out my old Fluff VHS, so that was very lucky. It's a smashing 45 minutes of outtakes and extended scenes from the three series. *le sigh* I also noticed, since I simply had to unwrap the first DVD to watch the first two and most brilliant episodes, that the intro features what must be the building site for the shopping centre I now walk through on my way to work. Took me a bit of time figuring out which way they were facing, but once I spotted the tube station it was pretty easy.

I'm going to hear the Philharmonic Orchestra tonight. Bad planning, though, as the Jubilee Line is partly closed (the part I use), which means what would have been a quick trip home after the concert, now has turned into an all-nighter. Well, I may be exaggerating a little bit there. Still, after a long day at work I just hope I can stay awake through it all. I happen to know that the symphony in the second part (Mahler's first) can be both relaxing and exciting, so that's going to be interesting.

Labels: comedy, concert, humour, rik mayall, TV

Yes, I am officially in GTA IV mode. It'll pass.

Apparently, good news for Sony and the PS3; the PS3 version of the game outsells the X360 version three to one. Nice. Of course, the downside is it takes five minutes to install the game on Sony's console. But you know what? I have waited so long for this game another five minutes don't matter to me. Besides, shorter install times may be really bad.

I'll be really cross, however, if one or both of the following happens:

* The postman decides that for once he is NOT going to ring our doorbell at 8:30 in the morning in order to be let into the building (even though he may not actually have any post for us--idiot,) but rather wait until the end of the day to visit us.
* Sony releases yet another one of their firmware releases for the PS3, which means I have to wait another 90 minutes or so before it has been downloaded and installed and I can finally join the rest of the civilised world.

In other gaming news--fighting with lightsabers and getting fit on the Wii; it's about time I bought one of those consoles (now that they're actually AVAILABLE--Nintendo lost my custom to Sony because they couldn't be arsed to realign their machinery and spew out a few more Revolutions Wiis.)

Labels: gaming

The Tetris Effect is something which occurs when you have played perhaps a bit too much Tetris or any other, highly addictive computer game. You start dreaming about Tetris and try to move blocks in your mind when you're awake. When I have had bouts of playing Tetris, Talismania, Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest, I even picture moving furniture about in order to make an unbroken line, or I rearrange sentences in my mind so that three or more letters are next to each other. This is the perfect sign that you seriously need to do something else with your free time.

In other, gaming-related news, someone found an unreleased Atari 2600 game in a flea market and the city of Chicago pulls GTA IV ads because they are deemed dangerous. Apparently the ads have led to violence in the previously peaceful city. And the gamers are commenting away...

Personally, I have been looking forward to GTA IV for so long I have a feeling I will be exhausted and disappointed by the time it arrives in the post. But of course, playing it is the only thing to do when PS Home is pushed back to 2009 (AKA sometime between 2010-2020) and we're still waiting for Spore to arrive. In my desperation I picked up Final Fantasy XII again last night, about an hour before I really should have been asleep. I hadn't played it since May of last year, and I feel an urge to restart the whole thing, since I'd forgotten who everyone was. Of course, once I start playing ONE Final Fantasy game, I always want to play ALL THE OTHERS I HAVE (I have most of them, on different platforms), preferably simultaneously. Argh! Something for my holiday, I suppose, whenever that may occur.

In completely unrelated news, it seems we're getting a taste of summer this week! Nice. Let's hope it's not just a teaser for something which ultimately will be cancelled by the evil weather gods due to VERY popular demand!

Labels: gaming

George Galloway MP's bus just went past my window. He calls his party "Respect".

May I just remind everyone about who George Galloway is? Most people (i.e. voters) will remember him from taking part in Celebrity Big Brother...

Labels: current affairs, humour

I have no real plans for the weekend, but looking forward to it nevertheless. Probably because I actually have the whole weekend off for once. And because I bought some books today I'm looking forward to reading. I bought them on a whim, so hopefully they don't suck too much.

We tried a new curry place today and were pleasantly surprised. Will definitely order from them again, even though it took me four minutes to explain to them where we live.

Peter Serafinowicz was a guest on HIGNFY again tonight. Still waiting for him to actually say something when he's there.

And at work today we had a major fire drill which went well (they say.) Anything to get out of the office for a while...

Ta-ta for now!

Labels: food, personal, peter serafinowicz, work

Today has been a weird day. I came back home late last night after a long weekend at my parents' in Norway, and basically went to bed straight away, at around 1:30. Five hours later I woke up and eventually got up to face a new day. Someone had promised me that TODAY would DEFINITELY be the day when City Link would get a fucking grip.

So after a shower I went online to track my package. It had been sent back to the seller on the 12th. I was furious and typed an angry email to the seller, who shortly after promised me the world and gave me the choice between getting a refund and getting a replacement. I postponed my decision and watched an episode of Doctor Who instead.

After a phone conversation with my mum (yes, I did arrive safely, and so did all the crisps I had bought,) my mobile rang. The lucky buyer of my old telly wanted to know if I would be home a few hours later. Since I was foreseeing enough to plan my holiday in such a way I would have a spare day after my visit to Norway, I had no plans, so we made an agreement.

Then someone popped up on our intercom screen, stating they had a parcel for me. Since I wasn't expecting anything, I was sure it would be for my flatmate, and let him in. When he finally arrived at my door (after a prolonged trial and error in the lift, slowly figuring out which floor we live on,) I realised he was carrying The Long Lost Item Of Much Despair And Gnashing Of Teeth. I said "but it's confirmed as having been sent back to the seller three days ago!" He couldn't explain that.

Anyway, TLLIOMDAGOT (AKA "my new bedroom telly") is finally in da house. I celebrated by watching an episode of Waking the Dead (yum,) before feeling restless and wanting to re-install Windows 98 onto my computer. This turned out to be a BIG mistake. I had completely forgotten that I now operate with a sole SATA hard drive, which isn't even supported in that ancient operating system, and everything went haywire. So I have spent the past six hours (minus one hour for Waking the Dead again) reconfiguring my desktop through the tried and tested Let's See What This Does, As It Cannot Possibly Make Things Any Worse method, which, after all, had got me into the mess in the first place. Let's just say I was very happy I could go online with my trusty laptop computer when all I got on my desktop one was a "Missing Operating System" error, LOL!

Must remember to make backups of the system more often, just in case.

So I wasted half of today on stupid things (although I did learn a few new things about computers.) Back to work tomorrow, but luckily it's half a shift only, so I'll actually have the whole weekend off, yay!

Labels: computers, online shopping, technology, TV

7am - I get up in order to have showered before the post arrives.
Some time after 8am - City-Link miraculously manage to find my house, use the intercom system and deliver a parcel which they should have delivered more than two weeks ago.
9am - I start looking through some of my recordings from this last week (which has been completely insane, work-wise, and I'm knackered!)
9:24 - pondering breakfast. Pour cereal into a bowl, grab milk from fridge.
9:25 - phone rings, Mum. Milk back into the fridge.
9:40 - postman rings the doorbell; couple of parcels for my flatmate.
10am - I hang up phone and pour milk on my cereal. Breakfast time! Watch half an episode of Boston Legal. Denny Crane.
10:30-12:30 - skip between Boston Legal episodes and the interesting bits of This Morning. George Clooney, Honeysuckle Weeks. Not in the same interview. Honeysuckle says something about "getting laid", on breakfast telly. Brilliant.
12:30 - Seeing Tom Selleck in a couple of Boston Legal episodes has made me want to watch In & Out. Rummaging through my DVD collection I finally find it and start watching the film. Even the intro music makes me feel good. I must have seen that film about 15-20 times. "She was too old for Yentl!"
2:30 - Having watched In & Out I now want to watch The Birdcage, so I go on another hunt in my collection, only to remember after a while that my flatmate borrowed it a few weeks ago. I steal it from her room.
3:30 - I suddenly have an urge to do the dishes, and turn off The Birdcage (which, incidentally, I must have seen at least as many times as In & Out.)
3:31 - Toilet break. Remember to bring the mobile and cordless, just in case City-Link stop by just as I am on the loo.
3:33 - Some shouting outside our living room window (meaning, on street level, some ten storeys beneath us.) I look out of the window and see three teenagers/young men (hard to tell; they're hoodies) walking in the middle of the rather busy street, at least one of whom is carrying a sort of a bat which he is using to hit the others and a car which is parked by the pavement.
3:34 - My first thought is very frighteningly not to ring the police, but to film the incident in case the police need evidence afterwards. 20 seconds later, the police arrive. The one who seems to have been the worst offender is rendered immobile by a policeman's tazer gun, twice.
3:35-6:something - commotion and investigations going on. Half of the neighbourhood cordoned off.
5:20 - I call City-Link, asking for when my parcel will arrive. The girl I speak to calls the driver and can confirm that he is five minutes away, give or take a few mins due to traffic. I turn on the TV channel which shows the four security cameras covering the various entrances to this building.
6:30 - I call City-Link again, asking why it takes so long for the driver to reach me, whereupon the operator, Francesca, says that she doesn't know why I've been told that he was only five minutes away, as the item was never loaded unto a van today.
6:50 - I get off the phone after having spoken to a rather self-obsessed supervisor who basically says they have fucked up again, but that there is nothing they can do about it. The item will be sent back to the sender tomorrow.
8pm - My flatmate comes home, we go to get a bite to eat, and see blood on the pavement where the guys were fighting earlier. Classy.
8:30 onwards - Watching telly.

I have spent so much time these past six days on the phone with City-Link and the sender of the item I am waiting for, and I am very, very fed up of them. We came to the conclusion earlier tonight that City-Link have managed to deliver only ONE parcel to us since November, even though we should have had at least five delivered, and that one was today. It was confirmed to me once on Tuesday and twice yesterday that the item would definitely be delivered today, but trust City-Link to fuck up the one thing they're supposed to be good at. I have wasted so much time on them, and their sheer arrogance when dealing with me is just beyond all belief. Amazingly incompetent people.

The sender now say they have arranged for yet another re-delivery next week. I don't care anymore.

Anyway, I am going to bed; going to Norway tomorrow for a long weekend (haven't seen my family in more than a year.)

Labels: film, hank azaria, kevin kline, nathan lane, personal, TV

Today:

*Olympic flame shuffled around London. Much glee and gnashing of teeth.
*Lots to do at work. Missed the live online coverage of the flame in Stratford because someone needed my help. Bloody customers. They're just so selfish.
*New Michael Ball show on Radio 2, great fun. Dame Judi Dench his first guest. Good chums.
*New comedy show on ITV1: Headcases. Part very funny, part meh. Dame Judi Dench featured as a chav (this was to be considered a highlight of the programme.)
*Snow.
*Paid some bills, little money left in the account. All is normal.
*Rang my mum for about two minutes while waiting for the tube train to arrive. Happy birthday.
*Lovely tigers on BBC1. Fabulous nature programmes on that channel (as if we didn't know already.)
*I think I may have found a few favourites on I'd Do Anything. We'll see.
*Looking forward to a little bit of time to sit down and write a couple of long overdue emails. Has to be done properly.
*Really hooked on Melanie C's newest album these past few weeks. Can't find a dull song on the entire album. Also reignited my love for Briskeby's album Jeans for Onassis (Hey, Harvey.)

Tomorrow:

*Long day at work.
*No snow.
*Seymour the Fractal Cat on BBC Radio 7.
*The Gadget Show on Five (I am such a geek I'm actually looking forward to that show a week in advance.)
*Hopefully reading a bit more of Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn (it is hilarious.)
*Watching yesterday's episode of Doctor Who on the iPlayer.
*Buying soap.

My life is so glamourous.

Labels: comedy, greg proops, lists, literature, music, personal, radio, technology, TV

Let's all just jump up and down with glee for a while.

This is not a good day to be working in the betting industry, unless you're on the top of the hierarchy. When, of course, you wouldn't actually be working on a Saturday.

Since I'm watching a lot of Boston Legal these days, I am on stupid law suit alert and some of these people really should get a life.

I think I'm going to start watching Doctor Who for the first time in my life. Never found it remotely interesting before, but I'm afraid the notion of the very funny pairing of David Tennant and Catherine Tate has lured me in. Tennant has been brilliant hosting The Friday Night Project twice, and it was great fun listening to Tate interviewing Tennant for Radio 4 some weeks ago. Oh, and I actually watched the Christmas special two years ago when Tate's character was introduced.

I dunno, maybe I'm just procrastinating. Or wallowing in my loathing of all things City Link. Yes, four times in a fortnight they have lied about coming around to my house to deliver something. I swear, the next time some online company tells me they shipped something via City Link (much to my protestation), I will tape everything that happens on our security cameras all day long, to prove that NO ONE from City Link goes anywhere near our house. Strangely enough, on the same day, Royal Mail (bless'em; at least they're trying) manage to deliver parcels twice without any problems. The pizza and Indian takeaway people have no problems finding our doorbell, either. But City Link are incompetent bastids who can't be arsed to even try, and I have a feeling they're deliberately not delivering anything so that I'll have to spend time and money ringing their "automated telephone service" to arrange a re-delivery...which also, lo and behold!, never turns up.

I have taken to giving City Link vans the two-finger-salute on impulse, so I feel a very deeply-rooted hatred for that company, apparently.

In other news, look out for the first few series of Whose Line is it Anyway (especially the one with Peter Cook, if you are a masochist) on Dave (the channel) starting next week. Also, a re-run of Seymour the Fractal Cat on BBC Radio 7 on Tuesday night. AND Michael Ball's new radio show begins on BBC Radio 2 tomorrow.

OK, chop, chop, back to work. The plebs await.

Labels: comedy, greg proops, personal, radio, time wasting, TV, work

OK, this is one of my favourite episodes from the UK Whose Line, with Eddie (Izzard) and The Proopster. The first part of this video is The Creature from Essex (which is very funny for anyone with a vague knowledge of UK society), and then there are funny Moving People and Party Quirks games thrown in for good measure at the end. Well worth a look!

I went to see 27 Dresses yesterday, which was slightly more amusing than expected, but not by much. Not a disappointment, though, as I went in there with very low expectations. I do believe Katherine Heigl has good comedic potential. I really liked her in Knocked Up (and no, I don't watch Grey's Anatomy.) And Judy Greer is always great to watch. Hmm, I want to see 13 Going on 30 again now...then why don't I? Nothing stopping me. I've only seen it four times before. Ahem.

Labels: comedy, eddie izzard, film, greg proops, TV

The perfect virus.

Well, I guess I'm off to the cinema. Wish me luck.

Labels: computers, technology, time wasting