Anything and Everything from the annoying to amusing
Has my fiance changed her gender or has the person who sent me the e-mail (header pictured below) just decided that Jo is a blokes name and I’m therefore their gay youth worker? haha!
Disclaimer: I am definately straight, Jo is a female and this post is very much tongue-in-cheek
So this morning I went to pick up a parcel that I missed on Friday and whilst gone missed another!
That perfect example of sod’s law aside in my post this morning I had an unexpected delivery in the form of this little critter…no idea that it is or why it was clinging to my co-operative membership letter but he/she is no longer in my house.
Anyone know what it is?
It’s been ages since I last blogged proving once again that my blogs come in mass or not at all…which probably means I’ll think of loads of things to blog in the next few days.
Veggie Update!
I’m in the last week of my veggiexperiment and next Monday I can eat meat again however other than having the freedom to eat anything again and not have to mess around finding the ‘V’ logo on things I’m not looking forward to it, nor am I dreading it…the thought of meat is met with apathy which is probably the biggest surprise of my experiment…I am however looking forward to fish and chips!
SPARK
On Saturday Hunsley Christian Youth Trust launched SPARK, a monthly inter-church youth service and we saw a full youth band and 35 young people attend the first one which was brilliant, I’ve almost run out of the 250 leaflets I had printed and I’m looking forward to decembers (more info here).
Amish Grace
I’m currently reading a fantastic book called ‘Armish Grace’ looking inparticular at the Nickel Mines shooting and how the community responded with forgiveness that shocked the world…review to follow!
UP
Finally a couple of weeks ago myself and Jo went to see Disney Pixar’s latest offerings in the form of ‘UP’. I love Disney Pixar films and they’re always pretty good and up was no exception however it’s probably the most depressing Disney film I’ve ever seen dealing with the issues of Infertility and death within the FIRST TEN MINUTES!
It had a great storyline though and tackled the issues really well and although I left it feeling sad I was glad that I’d gone to see it and shall eagerly await the DVD release.
2 and a half weeks into my experiment and I have managed to not touch meat and I havn’t really missed it, actually the most difficult thing is the lack of fish and chips (not that I have it often), walking past the shops is horrible…it smells so good.
I think the biggest challenge of this whole thing is not so much everyday living but when you’re out. Jo and myself went to Frankie and Benny’s last week and I didn’t realise how limited the options were for vegetarians. I also found it really difficult to find a non-meaty or fishy sandwich on monday in Market Weighton without having to have a plastic bowl of rabbit food.
I guess the biggest eye-opener so far in my experience is the difficulty faced in finding food out-and-about for vegetarians, the easiest place to find food out and about was during my first week as a veggie in York where I found ‘El Piano’ (thanks to Caroline) which served completely vegan food…here’s me tucking in!
Back when I was living with the Pummells before they departed to New Zealand I experienced a Wii Fit and my little Mii experienced some tough exercising and some running injuries from the comfort of my home (the running injuries were also experienced by the real me!) and alongside this games such as Shaun White Snow Boarding impressed me and along with the options to buy the classic Mario games I was sold to Wii’s.
So in the summer when I was asked to build St Andrew’s Church a new website (and paid for it) I decided that my earnings should be used for something I wouldn’t buy otherwise so I purchased a Wii complete with Wii Fit board.
The concept of Wii Fit is brilliant and Nintendo have really hit the nail on the head however my motivation for Wii Fit (the game) dropped as time went on and so with the release of Wii Fit Plus last week I decided to see if my motivation would increase with Nintendo’s latest offering!
Wii Fit Plus is very similar to Wii Fit but adds a few new features including a calorie counter, routines and a host of new games. On initial thoughts I’ve used it the last 5 consequetive days and really like the routine section because you can create routines based on focus points (legs, arms, tummy etc.), choose the length you want to spend on the Wii Fit and then it chooses the exercises and games for you which is fantastic for me as I was always left with no desire to pick something on the old Wii Fit…but with this one it makes the decisions for me (and I grown accordingly).
The calorie counter doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to me as it doesn’t particularly interest me but I do like the new games…skate-boarding and cycling are especially fun whereas Judo is a little weird.
I’m aiming to use it every day for around 30 minutes to see how my motivation lasts…will keep the blog updated with that and veggie news (tonights tea is: fresh spinich, brocolli, cauliflour, jacket potato and weird chicken replacement thing)
On Friday night Jo and myself headed to the 02 Academy in Sheffield to see Texan punk-rock band Bowling for Soup who were being supported by The Leftovers, MC Lars and Zebrahead.
I first saw Bowling for Soup live when I was 17 in Norwich and they were infact my first gig so seeing them is always special and with their new album ‘Sorry for Partyin” seeing them return to true-form (I shall blog on this album later this week) I was really excited about this gig and even more so when hearing that the incredible MC Lars would be supporting them.
So we queued up outside the venue at half 6 waiting for the doors to open surrounded by a mixture of students and 14 year old emo’s all eagerly awaiting the gig. Upon entering the venue which I’d last been in during a Ben Folds gig it seemed very full in comparison and the balcony was open this time so we headed upstairs to get the best view of the bands.
The Leftovers opened the gig with a set of their high energy pop-punk which was let down by unbalanced vocals but they were good and having since listened to them on their myspace page they are better live than on their empty-sounding studio recordings.
Next up was ‘post-punk laptop rapper’ MC Lars who I’ve been following for a few years primarily thanks to ‘Download this Song’ which he recorded with Jaret of Bowling for Soup. MC Lars gave us a high energy set of catchy rap songs including ‘Hot topic is not punk rock’ all accompanied by some fantastic video/animations on the screen behind before introducing Jaret and concluding his set with a live version of ‘Download this Song’.
Third up were Zebrahead who I first saw live (and disliked) with Bowling for Soup back in 2007 and once again I was not impressed by them, their performance although energetic was hindered by a constant bass buzz that had Jo and myself clutching our ears and despite their best efforts Zebrahead still don’t cut it for me…even with an awful cover of ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne.
Finally Bowling for Soup came onto the stage kicking off their gig with ‘The Bitch Song’ which was the only song from ‘Let’s do it for Jonny’ that they performed…surprisingly missing Belgium out of their set list. They continued playing a fantastic set of songs from all their other albums including the songs ‘Punk Rock 101′, ‘Come back to Texas’, ‘Girl all the bad guys want’ and ‘This song sounds like a dance song’ before concluding their encore with ’1985′. Unusually they even played their song ‘Two Seater’ which I’ve never heard them do live.
Their set was, as usual filled with energy and funny remarks to each other and as always they invited everyone to their houses in Texas. Bowling for Soup are one of those bands who in spite of their commercial success always seem to have fun during their gigs and never seem bothered about messing around a little bit, making them one of the most fun bands to see live.
During the gig I managed to take a load of photos which I was really happy with, here’s a couple:
One of the band
A while ago Goywonder whose blog I read set himself 2 targets, firstly to give up alcohol for 6 months and secondly to blog everyday, those targets/experiments have since finished however they got me thinking.
Alongside this thinking of blogs with challenges I seem to know more and more people who are vegetarians and I’m usually flippantly remarking to ‘just give them a carrot’ when it comes to feeding.
Finally the residential I was on a couple of weeks back fed us 3 meat-filled hot meals a day (although one day I did have 1 veggie meal!) and so the thought of meat has been on my mind.
In light of these thoughts and a little bit of curiosity I have decided to set myself a target: to give up meat for 30 days.
That’s right, until the 23rd November I shall not be eating meat, I shall be laying my carnivorous side to rest and seeing how easy it is to be a vegetarian, I’m not doing this for animal welfare or any of those ‘but it’s too cute to eat’ reasons but I’d like it to achieve a few things for me.
Firstly I hope that my experiment will make me more aware of what I eat and more aware of the choices we have when it comes to eating. I hope the experiment will encourage me to experiment more in the kitchen.
Secondly I expect this experiment to open my eyes to the challenges a vegetarian faces, how easy or hard it is to avoid meat in products…this means that the jelly will be staying on my top shelf for a few weeks!
Finally I wonder if I’ll find myself missing meat or not noticing, I wonder if this experiment will change my diet…we shall see!
As I start…
As I start today the target seems daunting, I don’t really know exactly what I’m going to be eating or how I’ll be approaching a sandwich without a dead animal between the slices of bread but we shall see (I’m being hardcore and giving up fish too!).
I’m confident that I can manage it but I think it’s going to be a challenge…tonight I shall be cooking vegetarian moussaka with the help of my Delia book and I’m thinking stuffed peppers sometime this week but other than that my mind is blank!
I shall keep blogging updates to let you know how I’m getting on and what I’m learning!
I seem to have a load of other things to blog at the moment so in the next few days expect blogs on:
- The BNP leader Nick Griffin on Questiontime
- Bowling for Soup, MC Lars, Zebrahead and the Leftovers: My gig experience
I’m off on a Schools Work training week with Scripture Union this week so will probably be away from blogging…I have no idea if the conference centre has WiFi but I’ll be taking my Macbook just in case!
I’m sure I’ll have plenty to blog on when I return!
Last night Jo and I went to see ‘The Invention of Lying’ in the cinema. I went to the film largely because of Ricky Gervais being the writer, director and main actor in it so held high expectations as we entered the cinema to catch the start of the film (and the Orange adverts which don’t beat the ones from a few years ago).
The film starts with an introduction to a world where there is no such thing as a lie and you see Mark (Gervais) going on a very honest date, arriving early to pick up his date who informs him that because he was early he cut short her ‘me’ time and has no hope for this date….Ricky informs her that he knows he’s out of her league and is likely to be sacked the next day.
Sure enough he is sacked and after being evicted from his house for not having enough money for rent he goes to his bank to withdraw his final money and upon hearing that the computer is down lies to the cashier (the first ever lie in the history of mankind) so he can withdraw extra money…the computer comes up and shows up his lie but because lies don’t exist it must be a mistake on the computer.
The film shows Ricky Gervais’ writing and acting at his very best with a very dry sense of humour running throughout the film. Ricky incorporates his atheist views as a key part of the film when he lies to his dying mother that she won’t just have an eternity of nothing but will go to her favourite place in the world…following the nurses overhearing the whole world gathers on his doorstep where he invents ‘the man in the sky’.
Alongside this the film has a love story running throughout in a world where people only look for equally matched partners.
Gervais said in an interview that he expected a ‘revolt’ in America because of the atheist side of the film but as a Christian I didn’t take it that way at all, it was a funny, dry-humoured film in true Gervais style, with a fantastic concept running through and some good sub-plots (if plot is the word!) and actually had some good messages to take away.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would recommend you go and see it, hopefully this blog doesn’t contain too many spoilers too!
Every so often I find myself bored of my blog template and for the last week have been toying with new, slightly more ‘news’ orientated templates online and have finished my search with this new look.
Not a lot has changed on here to be perfectly honest apart from two minor things!
Firstly ‘Featured Posts’ – The featured posts section contains some highlights of my blog from recent weeks.
Secondly ‘Social Networking’ – My posts now have the option for you to share on myspace, facebook and twitter!
Finally in theory my blog should update my twitter when I make a new post…I shall find out when I click publish!
Enjoy!
I’m not a fan of Big Brother (infact very happy it’s been axed!) nor am I a fan of those who go into the Big Brother house. Alongside this much like Russell Brand I have a love-hate relationship with The Sun newspaper although 9 times out of 10 alongside the BBC news website I read The Sun’s website too.
Clicking onto The Sun yesterday I saw an “article” explaining how Big Brother’s Sophie Reade had bravely opened a new Ann Summers in Oxford Street and modelled some of the stock.
It wasn’t this that interested me but that Sophie has a slight difference from the usual models you see demonstrating underwear….she isn’t completely stick thin. We seem to have this stupid attitude where somehow this country or rather the media has made girls feel like they need to be thin, feeling that a size 8 is fat and it drives me crazy so I think it’s good that someone who isn’t ridiculously thin is being shown like this and it’s so much more attractive than the stupidly thin models. If we can get this message of curves rather then stick-then out there then perhaps girls will begin to be more confident and have more self esteem.
The other reason I’ve chosen to show this skimpy picture of Sophie on my usually family friendly blog is because of the middle-aged man in the background not so discreetly taking a photo of Sophie’s bum using his mobile phone…I wonder if his wife will notice him in this photo!
(This blog will go down in history as the only blog post I’ll ever do that says something positive about Big Brother or it’s contestants!)
It’s so tempting!