Mikeys Blog

Tomorrow, I'm having a lie in. . .

2010-03-08T21:38:00.000Z

I'm not getting up until 8am tomorrow. That's a three hour lie in and i think I deserve it. I'm getting a bit fed up of 10 and 12 hour days, for no extra pay. By 7 o'clock tonight i had a bit of brain ache. I think I'll start claiming some overtime. . .

Painting

2010-03-07T22:09:00.000Z

I bought a couple of canvases today and started a new painting. At the moment I've got a green thingy going on, so it's green and that's about it. I'm off to the Egg on Wednesday for the latest opening and to pick up Karen's Cannibals :)
This time I'll be driving, so there's no chance of me falling asleep and waking up in Manchester. I'll just be drinking orange juice.
Forthcoming Exhibition

I wonder if I. . . .

2010-03-06T12:45:00.000Z

. . . . should delete my MySpace account? Does anybody still use MySpace these days? How long will it be before Facebook goes the same way? What will be the next big social networking thing?

New fastest month of my life. . . . ever!

2010-02-28T10:42:00.001Z

I know I said this last month, but THIS has been the fastest month of my life ever . .. It's March tomorrow??? What's going on? It's still freezing and there's more snow forecast for next week. Everyone's saying that this has been the longest, coldest winter for years, but I think it's going really fast. . . I feel like time has been whizzing by since November, it just doesn't seem real.

My super fast weight loss seems to have levelled out now. I feel a lot better for it. I'm still having an 80's retro clothing revival :) I've got bags of stuff that fits me again and still looks ok, by todays standards. I went shopping yesterday and it was like 'Back To The Future' All the stuff I used to buy back in '82 is in the shops again. The biggest difference is, I don't have to bring my jeans home and sit in a hot bath with them on to shrink fit. I don't have to get my sister to take 'em in and make them skinny. And I don't have to attack em with a bottle of Domestos and a 2 inch paintbrush. All that's already done before they sell you them.

No car until Tuesday

2010-02-25T20:57:00.000Z

I was looking forward to picking up the Lardmobile MkIV on Saturday, but have just been informed that it won't be ready until Tuesday :( . You watch the weather. It's bound to start raining for the next 4 days and I'll get soaked every day . . . I suppose I'll just have to make do with looking at photo's on the internet. My train pass doesn't run out until the 8th of March anyway. . ..

I just bought myself a birthday present.

2010-02-21T16:58:00.000Z

I just bought a car. I didn't mean to, I just did. I just got myself a KIA Soul "Shaker" 1.6CRDi. I pick it up next week. I cant wait! It's like something that the ant hill mob would drive. I think its cool! :)

Happy Birthday To ME!!!!

2010-02-19T17:23:00.000Z

Hello stalkers. It's my birthday and I'm writing this on a stolen internet connection. I'm off out for some food with the family and then I'm off to the pub with some of the people from work. I'm bunking in on somebody's leaving do.

Then tomorrow,if I'm still alive, I'm going on an all dayer with the Lardy Boys. . . .
I feel younger on this birthday instead of older . .. .

:)

iPlayer Downloader

2010-02-16T22:21:00.000Z

The BBC have made it possible for you to download shows to view on your iPhone, but iPlayer on your mac, PC or PS3 only allows you to watch and not record. And then you can only watch if you have quite a fast internet connection otherwise it just won't work.

About 18 months ago I discovered 'iPlayer Downloader' while I was Googling for ways to download programmes from iPlayer. Seems that a couple of geeks had the same idea and wrote this cool app for the mac.

Basically it allows you to download most TV and all of the radio programmes available on BBC's iPlayer. That's probably why it's called "iPlayer Downloader".I was quite chuffed to find it works perfectly and now I can watch all-sorts of stuff on my mac or my iPod when travelling to work on the train. I love it :-)

Click here to download it

When Annie Met Sally

2010-02-14T22:28:00.000Z

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

I'm just watching "When Harry Met Sally" on Comedy Central. and I've only just realised that the reason that I like it so much is because there are loads of bits taken straight from Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and "Play It Again Sam". The references to Casablanca, The split screen phone conversations and the back story that men and women can't be friends because the sex part gets in the way. And even the theme song is the same as in Annie Hall ("It Had to Be You" - It's an instrumental in When Harry Met Sally and in Annie Hall Diane Keaton sings it. It's also on the soundtrack of Casablanca) In a couple of scenes in WHMS Sally dresses like Annie. Even the credits are straight from a Woody Allen Film, plain white text on black. There are probably another hundred or so references, in there, that I haven't mentioned.
I'm not saying it's a rip off, it's definitely a homage. It's one of my favourite films but for some reason I've never realised this before. What's been going on in my head for the past 20-odd years?

This weekend . . .

2010-02-14T11:35:00.000Z

I've mostly been building this website, whilst laying prone in my bed. Only getting up to visit;

a. The bog, b. The Kitchen and c. The pub.

I've just had an automated phone-call from Santander Credit telling me I must immediately pay the sum of "Zero Pounds and Zero Pence" to clear my outstanding credit card bill?
I was then given three options, none of which, was to talk to a humanoid. I chose button 3 "I have already paid" . . . Some robot's going to be pissed off, when she finds out that I lied and haven't made the minimum payment of "Zero Pounds and Zero Pence".

Expensive night out :(

2010-02-11T21:05:00.000Z

Last night I went to The Egg for the opening of Karen & Jazamin's joint exhibition, aptly titled Karen and Jazamin :)
I bought one of Karen's pen and ink "Cannibal" drawings. "Something To Stew About" Initially I thought that the evening was excellent value for money. Free wine and a framed pen and ink drawing for £35. Then we went to the pub and had a lock in. But I had to leave because the last train to Warrington was at 11:30.
I made it to the train with seconds to spare and was soon on my way home with chicken and chips for my supper.

But then things went a bit wrong. I closed my eyes . . . When I opened them the train was just leaving Warrington Central. . . . Bollox!!!
I was expecting to have to get off at Birchwood (About 3 miles from Warrington) and have a short Taxi ride home. Unfortunately the train didn't stop at Birchwood. It didn't stop until it reached Manchester Piccadilly and my 3 mile taxi ride home ended up being a £65 trip down the M62.
Karen , I told you last night, that you had set the prices too low. I should have kept my mouth shut. I ended up paying a hundred quid for those little cannibals. . .

Eggspace

Today I feel GREAT!!!

2010-02-08T21:46:00.000Z

Today has been great!. . . I feel great.
I haven't done anything great in particular (Is that how you spell it? It looks wrong to me)
My dad told me that he has thrown a load of my HiFi equipment out, because it was "broke". But I know it wasn't and he just hasn't ever learnt how to use anything even slightly more modern than a record player. And it cost me about 700 quid and in reality that should detract from the greatness that I am feeling, but it doesn't. I still feel great.
I FEEL GREAT . . . .
A Chinese Sky lantern has just flown past my window as I was typing this . . . If you're reading this Lesley, how weird is that??? :)

Fastest month of my life

2010-01-31T18:08:00.000Z

Yep, time is definitely speeding up. It's February tomorrow and less than 11 months till Christmas. :)
I still haven't had the results from my CaT Scan, but I'm feeling 100% better than I was a couple of weeks back.
The weight loss is still happening, but not as quickly as it was just before Christmas. I'm about 68Kg now. I was 81kg in November. In my medical, last week I was told that I'm still 16lbs overweight. So I'm aiming for around 60-61kg to be my ideal weight.
I've tried loads of diets over the years and have always found it really hard to keep the weight off. But now I've discovered the easiest diet in the world. and it costs absolutely nowt. I just drink loads and loads of water. About 3 litres a day. I don't feel the urge to eat a snack or make a sandwich. I think I used to eat out of pure boredom. I'm not even that hungry anymore. Now when I eat, it's because I need to and not because I'm looking for something to do.
The only problem is, none of my clothes fit me now. I need a load of new stuff.
Anyway, I'm fed up of being mistaken for a hobo.

CAT Scan fun

2010-01-18T20:20:00.001Z

I went to Halton Hospital today to get a scan. I was expecting to be there for hours and also expecting to get some sort of dye injected into my veins.
I waited for about 20 mins and then my name was called. I went into the scanner room and was told to lie on my front on the scanner bed. I was put into the scanner, arse first and a robotic voice told me to hold my breath. I was scanned and then the whole thing was repeated. I was on the bus home, less than 10 minutes later. No injections or anything. I didn't even get undressed. How cool is that?

New Year, New Website.

2010-01-14T22:58:00.001Z

Seeing as it's a new year, I thought I'd build myself a new website.

At the moment it's just this blog and is a bit boring, but I'll try and make it a bit more interesting, in the future.
It's been a bit of a crap start to the new year. On NewYears Eve I got myself some kidney stones, which basically meant I was in bed until Sunday the 10th. I went back to work on Monday but by Monday night the pain was back and I was up all night, feeling like crap. I stayed in bed all of Tuesday and quite a lot of today. I feel a lot better now, so I might go back to work tomorrow.
The weather has been great for the past three weeks. Great if you like snow, but I've only been out of the flat 3 times since boxing day and that was to buy some thermal underwear & a bit of food and a visit to the doctors.