Rolls Royce, Chavving it Up and Rhyswynne.co.uk
Sorry those effeminate types, but this post is about cars.
Like almost everybody on the planet with a Y chromosome, I love Top Gear. I find it's politically incorrect boy humour a breath of fresh air on mid 00's television. This year's series came to an end this weekend with an excellent episode involving vans (which you can watch online thanks to the Beeb). There was only one thing I disagreed with.
Behold the Rolls Royce 100EX, the new Rolls Royce concept. I admit, my knowledge on the internal of cars are a bit poo, but just astetically it looks horrible. They showed some of the features, such as the aluminiium hood, a glass Spirit of Ecstasy, and a million lights in the ceiling. Richard Hammond and James May loved it, but Jeremy Clarkson didn't. I agree with Clarkson, it's a vile piece of enginerring. It's a chavved up version of the Phantom. I've spoken to Han and my mate Tim (who graduated with a masters in Engineering and Design, so he knows what looks good and bad), who said it looks amazing. Myself and Guy disagree. What do you think?
In other news: rhyswynne.co.uk is progressing nicely, with lots of work done to it. It's nowhere near ready yet (today and tomorrow I have been slacking on it). It's looking pretty nifty, and I have been busy searching all my all my old sites for everything I've ever made. Maybe I'm being to ambitious, but this is going to be huge.
Finally, tickets for the cricket are still available. Saturday and Sunday Ian has first dibs on them, but if he doesn't go then they will go to second dibs. Everything else is as you were. If you want to go, let me know.
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The eBay Challenge, Antique Tables and Pub Lunches
Juan Pablo made a comment a few days ago about the progress of the eBay Challenge, and an update on it. Well I'm still 2-0 up. I should of been more, but I bought
Twisted Metal 2: World Tour (one of the best PS1 games ever. Bar none. Seriously, it's THAT awesome) a few weeks ago. It's a bugger to find, so I'm so happy to find it. Anyway, I included a letter with my cheque saying "do not leave generic feedback". So what did he do?
EXCELLENT BUYER A++!!!!1111oneoneeleventy.
I shouldn't whinge. He did actually send me the game before the cheque was cleared. Nevertheless, my desire to beat my mate (who I think has forgotten about it) has all but ebbed away. I need to get back in the game, but I have nothing to sell, and no money to buy things.
In other news, I survived the week with my mum being away! So did the dog! It would of been perfect week until last night, when - whilst ordering enough chinese to blind small children - a big globule of grease fell onto an antique dining table, staining it. We tried everything, Fairy Liquid, Cillit Bang, Everything. It wouldn't budge. Big huge grease stain on this table. I was going to get a bollocking. This was made even worse that the dog started humping a pillow as she walked into the house. Oh. Shit.
Luckily neither my mum or my dad kicked off, in fact they're taking me out for a meal. Though, as regular commenter Laura said to me on MSN, they're probably going to get me lagered up and feed me with a surf 'n' turf until I'm physically incapable of discussing anything else except the greased up table.
Righty ho, I'm off for a few days designing a website for rhyswynne.co.uk. I'll let you know when it's done, so you can snoop around, though at the moment this blog isn't my main focus. So don't cry when you don't see an update!
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Anyone for Cricket? Free Tickets to Glamorgan vs. Worchestershire and Glamorgan vs. Wawrickshire in Colwyn Bay
Question: What has
Lea from Big Brother, my ex Headmaster
Clive Hampton and yours truly got in common?
Answer: We're all in this weeks North Wales Weekly News!
Lea's in by saying "Glyn To Win!", referring to Glyn Wise, from Blaenau, who is looking pretty good to win Big Brother this year. Clive's in because he's going into semi-retirement, leaving the school in the very capable hands of a Birmingham City fan. I'd love to say that I was in it because I run the greatest blog in North Wales, alas no. Instead it's because I entered a competition, and I won!
Woo! Go me! More impressed that one of the other winners is a bell! How cool is that! I danced around the house with a glee when I read that, until I read the article: "all five days".
Fuck. All five days? I can't give up a week of work like that. Who'd go with me too? Rick's unable to, Aled can't be arsed and all my mates who like cricket are in different areas of the country.
Sure enough, when the post came today, I saw them. Ten tickets.
Shit. I thought it was for one day, not all 5! Anyway. This is an open invititation to anybody who wants to share the tickets. Basically, it's for the 4 day test of Glamorgan vs. Worchestershire, and the Pro15 match Glamorgan vs. Wawrickshire. Don't worry if you don't understand - I'm just going to get pissed. The tickets I'm prepared to give away are for the following:-
Day 1 - Pair
Day 2 - Pair
Day 3 - One
Day 4 - One
Day 5 - One
If you can make it to Colwyn Bay for any of those days, well you're quite welcome to them. For days 3-5, you don't have to spend time with me, you can grab the tickets and fuck off for all I care. But if anybody's interested, well, email me at rhys@gospelrhys.co.uk.
Cheers.
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Home Alone, Stairway Golf and Sexy Bikini Parties
Last week, I was a bit apprehensive with my mum and dad going away on holiday. Something about me thought that I wouldn't be able to cope without my mum, that I'd starve to death or something would happen to the dog/plants. But we're half way through the week and I'm still here! So's the dog! So's the plants! Do you know what the best thing is? Now that RIck's back from Russia and I have some help around here I'm actually beginning to enjoy myself. Whilst we're not kept under a severe cosh around here there are things that we're not allowed to do. So we've been doing them.
Stairway Golf - a game that involved practicing your Sand Wedge shots by propelling a golf ball up a flight of stairs.
Dog Curling - Propelling your dog along laminate flooring so that she slides. She wags her tail, she loves it.
Dinner Table Talk - Before: "You never guess what I did at work today?", "Did anybody read that story in the Daily Mail?", "The house next door but one got valued today....", Now: "Fuck, Shit, Arse, Wank, Bollocks"
No Daily Mail to pollute our minds.
Music until late.
Peeing with the door open.
Using the bannister as a clothesline.
Generally, turning a 3 bedroom semi in Welsh suburbia into a house of trouser. I'm thinking about having a Sexy Bikini Party tomorrow night, and you're all invited. But before that, any other ideas for what I can do?
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Technorati's Latest Website Redesign and Rhyswynne.co.uk
I logged onto
Technorati for the umpteenth time yesterday. I love Technorati, it's awesome and - like newlywed
Fern - I'd probably spend my last waking seconds checking my rank when I depart this mortal coil. Something about me wants to be top, though I know I never will be.
Anyway, as I was saying, I checked it yesterday, and lo and behold they have tarted it up something proper! Well, it looks different. Anyway, in my opinion, there are pros and cons. First the pros.
The Profiles look a lot cleaner now, instead of being all on top of each other.
The Blog profiles have a little more information on it. However, if you're not in the top 100,000 Alexa sites, some of it is useless.
Favourites seem to have a more prominant spot. Favourites when you specifically say you like a blog, instead of linking to it. Technorati now have included a list of the most recent posts from your favourites on the home page, plus also handy importing tools. To take advantage of favourites, I've added a link at the bottom of each post, plus you can also click here to add me to your favourites.
Another nice idea that utilizes the favourites it the "Popular" links - this lists the top 100 blogs in terms of "most favoured" as opposed to "most linked". I think it gives a better idea of which blogs are actually popular, as opposed to bloging services that appear in the top 100.
Finally, should you blog about certain subjects, there's Discover, which looks at your tags to categorise your post. I have been getting a lot of traffic to my last post because I tagged football. Trouble with tagging? Well, you can use a tool such as Technorati Tag Generator - it's awesome.
It isn't all rosy - some problems do exist. Well, one is nothing I can do with, one is me being bitter, and one is a genuine problem.
The genuine problem is that it's not as usable as the old site. Well, not in my opinion. Sure, it's not terrible, but at times today I was tearing my hair out to find something. Maybe it's just me. Let me know if you disagree with this statement.
My bitter gripe is with this page. There's no Technorati Tag Generator! Okay, there is a Technorati Tag Generator, but it's not mine. Boo!Well who said being a bitter yet arrogent Welshman doesn't pay - my tag generator got added to the tools page. Yay!
Final gripe is with the discover page. With some classic America/rest of the world ambiguity. Have a look at the top two posts on the "Discover Football" section.
Oh america, when will you learn.
In other news, I'm now the proud owner of rhyswynne.co.uk! After a discussion earlier today about cybersquatting, I thought it would be best if I bought it, just in case I ever make it big. Question is, what can I put on it? I'm thinking a portal style site to pull together all my interests. This blog will be prominantly featured, but not overwhelmingly so. Any ideas chaps?
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Panini Premier League Stickers - Early 90's Nostagia, when Sheffield United were last in the Premiership
Remember Panini Premier League Stickers? They were all the rage back in school, and many a pocket money was spent on them. Soon I got swaps - first was when I got two Nick Barmby (Barmbies) in one packet). Luckily I had plenty of people in school who I swapped them with. The best was when I got Paul Ince and Sheffield United Kit Shiny for West Ham's Programme - completing both Manchester United and Sheffield United in one swoop. I also collected the World Cup 94 stickers, and was one Henning Berg short of completing that book. But there was one person I never saw on a sticker.
Me.
Oh sure, I'll never play in a world cup, not even in the Premiership. But I would of thought it'd be brilliant for Panini to come up with some custom stickers. Luckily for me - 12 years later - they have.
Mypanini is a site that allows you to design your own panini esque football sticker. Upload a football, then add shirt, name, team you support (sorry Welshie's, but there is no Wales. So pick Portugal instead). You can then buy them for about a fiver, but a quick Alt+Print Screen jobby puts it into your favourite paint package. Resize then put on the internet.
Now, I'm thinking of getting a "Gospel According To Rhys Readers" team together, to be blogged at for a later date. So, this may be amazing, it may be pants, but if you create your own sticker (use whatever pseudonym and photo you want if you're shy) and e-mail it to me, including general information (website URL, preferred position), to rhys@gospelrhys.co.uk. When (if) I get 11, I'll bung it up on the site, linking to them.
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The New MSN Messenger with Yahoo! Plus Pubs and itBoxes
This weekend has been nice, if uneventful. I did manage three trips to the alehouse. Friday night, which at one point had me lying face down on the floors in weatherspoons Colwyn Bay with a beer bottle in hand. Don't worry, I wasn't drunk, I was reaching the switch to switch the itbox off after it crashed when we won £2. They have two new games on it: A shite "Deal or No Deal" clone called "Take it or Leave It", and a matchy colour game called "Monkey Business", which I proceeded to win £4 off. Result! I also went Saturday lunchtime for a bit of lunch, and Saturday night we went to the Fynach. We sat outside watching the boats, and it was all tranquil and peaceful - until the person I was drinking with started going on about arses. Bless him.
I got an email from Microsoft advertising the beta program of MSN Messenger with Yahoo! (or something like that). Being a geek, I immediately signed upto it. Until I remembered I have no friends on my Yahoo Friends List. Well, I do - but I haven't talken to katherine_the_seductress since she cyber cheated on me when I was 16. It still hurts. A lot.
So, in my lonely moments, I've been cyber talking to myself. Mainly with the strong, 22 year old MSN side of me mocking my sensitive virginial 16 year old Yahoo side.
This is why I shouldn't be left on my own. To remedy this, add me to your MSN list: rhys_boy84@hotmail.com
Mum and Dad are going on holiday tomorrow to Folkstone - officially the oldest place in the World; so I'm officially man of the house. My mum's being trying to domesticate me since she thinks I've forgotten "All you've learnt in your 4 years in Liverpool.* Sarah gave you a good home econimics education, and you've pissed it all away**". Hell, I probably have. So, if by Friday I'm 3 stone underweight, resorted to cannibalism and marinating in my own feces, ring the authorities for me. Cheers. I'm not allowed a poker night too, on the account that "Poker scares the dog".
* Her exact words.
** Not her exact words, but the jist of it.
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Doctors, Golf and The Open Championship
I went to the doctors today, as mentioned yesterday. It was for a new patient medical (the fact that I'm living back in Colwyn Bay as opposed to Liverpool mean my GP is a fair way away, so I changed GP's). I was a little scared to be honest, as - although I was discharged from the hospital - they filled me with no confidence "We're going to discharge you, but if it ever happens again" was the gist of what they said. Luckily the nurse who did me today filled me with a little more confidence. "You're losing weight" she began (and I was too, 4 kilos - 9 pounds in old money - in just over 3 weeks, dunno what women are moaning about, weight loss is a piece of piss) "drinking less and getting more exercise. Everything about you is fine. No diabetes, blood pressure fine, everything is okay. You don't have AIDS too.".
Reassuring to know.
"If it happens again, we'll check you out, but - in my professional opinion - looking at you you seem okay, and I don't think we'll see you for a while."
Get in.
So, after providing my sample (which had to be wrestled from bonnie as she thought it was a chew toy), walking down, appointment, bus up the hill and some lunch, I sat down for an afternoon of watching the The Open, which is in Hoylake, near to Liverpool. I wasn't really paying too much attention to it (Tiger Woods just hit an amazing shot to grab an eagle), when the phone rang. It was a mate of mine asking me for a game of golf. He got inspired by the golf on the telly so fancied going to the Great Orme Municipal Pitch 'n' Putt, Llandudno. £4 for 9 holes. Bargain.
Dressed in attire that would make even Ian Poulter cringe, we headed out for a spot of Golf. Nothing hugely impressive, except for one shot on a 63 yard, par 3....
A HOLE IN PISSING ONE! How amazing is that? I never get holes in one. In fact, I'm pretty much crap at every single sport. But this is by far my greatest sporting achievement since 2nd in the Liverpool Trios. As it's customary with people who get holes in one, I have to buy the rest of the party a drink. So, I'm off out tonight to the pub. Have a good weekend!
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Brunstrom, Blogging And The North Wales Police
Vicky sent me a story from the BBC yesterday, which confirms my greatest fear: I have increased competition because there is now three bloggers based in North Wales. Myself,
Ally and Richard Brunstrom - head of North Wales police - who launched his blog
much to great fanfare on the BBC.
I was kind of expecting it, due to the increased Google Searches I'd be getting wanting our esteemed head of Police. They are directed to a story here, about how he intimidated the local drinking establishment to ID us. I haven't liked the guy since.
According to him, "There has been a suprising response so far", well - lets see the page ranks...
So, Ally on a deserved 5, myself on a 4, and Brunny Boy on a 0, and with quality blogging like this, I can see why.
"On Saturday I spent the day (should have been my day off, but my wife’s away, so I can sneak off to have some fun) out near the Wakestock Festival at Abersoch with our ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) team. We did a twelve hour stint on the A497 in the outskirts of Pwllheli, in baking sunshine. This part of Wales is one of the nicest places on the planet in good weather - shame it doesn’t happen more often! The camera read 5891 numberplates, from which we had 321 “hits”, resulting in us stopping 109 cars. During the course of the day the team arrested 22 people, mostly for possession of relatively small amounts of cannabis. Nowadays all we do for simple possession of cannabis is seize the drugs, issue a formal street caution (dealers get different treatment) and let the person go almost immediately - the whole process takes only half an hour or so, at the roadside. The ‘prisoner’ (because they are actually arrested, contrary to popular rumour) does still get a formal police record though, which will last the rest of their lives."
Fun? Well I've got a Number Plate for you: G3T 4 L1F3.
Tomorrow I'm off to the docs again - for a new patient medical. According to the letter, I need to bring a "sample". What of though?
Sweating Like....A man running in a chicken suit
Bleugh, it's too hot. I know it's traditional British to complain, instead of enjoying the weather. But it's hard to concentrate in this weather. With the exception that it brings a whole new meaning to
Tit Monday,
this hot a weather is not pleasant. We've even got the worlds best air conditioning unit in work, but alas, it's not perfect. I need ice cream, I need a holiday to the antartic, I need
something to cool me down.
I've got tons to blog about too, but I can't really be arsed. It's just too hot to think, plus you guys are probably out enjoying the weather, and not going to read it.. So I'll just moan about the Weather, as it's been the hottest here in Wales ever in the history of the world. The hottest UK place is Gatwick Airport. Why are airports always so hot? It always seem that the hottest places in the UK are airports. Maybe it's lulling visitors to the "usual" British summer into a false sense of security.
Right, I'm going to sit in the garden topless with a beer. I'm going to make the best of this weather.
Back in winter.
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World Firefox Day
Sit down with me for any length of time, you'll know how much I love Firefox. It's a beacon of free software goodness in a sea of crap. I even put up with it's memory leaks, useless extensions (come on, why do you need forecast fox? Why?) and the whole fanboyism surrounding it. That's probably because I'm a fanboy myself.
I'm fairly influential on people too, as all of my now ex housemates use Firefox, as did Sarah for a while (though she's since traitored back to IE), I also assume that since all of my readers have a brain, they all use Firefox. But there is a reason that I hope one of you don't.
September 15th is World Firefox Day, on this day there'd probably be a cake or something. Hell, I'd eat a cake or something. One of the features of the day is it's the last day to get your name into Firefox 2. Basically, if I convince one person to download Firefox, I'd get my name into Firefox 2. How cool would that be? The only time I've ever had my name on a piece of software is through my software. Your name would be in it too, and will also go on the Mozilla "Virtual Wall", to say you have been converted probably.
But I need somebody. This would make me a very very happy man. Anybody want to help me?
Failing that, there must be a way to scam it (which I'm not planning on doing). I just can't imagine how many "Ben Dover"'s and "Phil McKrackin"'s there would be.
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World In Reunion
First off, did I really piss off so many girls for that last post? I didn't intend to, sorry! Women are awesome, what with all their jiggily bits.
Right, yesterday was a very nostalgic day because we had our school reunion. I'd be honest, was expecting a load more people, but in the end there was around 15 of us who showed up. Nevertheless, we started at half 4ish in Colwyn Bay Weatherspoons, me being a bit of a pansy I had two orange and passionfruit J2O and a very nice chicken wrap to begin with. At this point it was only really 8 of us - all lads - all talking about football mainly. We did do some reminiscing about school and retold stories that have been told over and over again. Was fun, and had quite a bit to drink.
We arrived in Llandudno at around 8:30 ish, the time of the reunion was due to begin. I was about 3 pints to the good and was beginning to get very loud (I don't get obnoxious when drunk, but I get loud), almost getting chucked out after bitching to my mates about the bar staff being generally inept. I felt it was justified - I asked for a Pint of Carling to one barman and he interpreted it as a "Pint of Bacardi". Why would I want a pint of Bacardi?
After about 6 pints to the good, we wanted a change of scenery, so we headed to Fountains, a poshish bar in Upper Mostyn street. More lager and more loutish behaviour. I injured my back whilst recreating a famous Soccer AM sketch with a mate, so sore this morning. We also got some half price tickets into Broadway - result! I was umming and ahhing about going to Broadway, so this swayed me into going.
Regular readers would know how much I detest Broadway - the only club in Llandudno which is by and large populated by under 25's, but last night I had no such complaints. Somebody in the 3 months since I last went must of said "You know what, the 'music' we play is causing a lot of people here to spontaneously combust. Why not change it to something a little more rocky? Not too heavy, but a bit of Guns 'n' Roses, Queen. Hell, really confuse them with Pulp too! It'd be awesome.". So, if anybody from Broadway is reading this, keep the music going, okay - some of my mates who are into their Dance 'Music' didn't like it - the arguement being "How can you dance to this garbage" (the garbage in question was "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers), I retorted simply with "Well, there's 250 people down there doing a pretty good job".
Alas, the night wasn't all good, there is still idiots who fester in Broadway. One of them was directly responsible with me not pulling. I was dancing with some girl - small thing, quite pretty - and her back was against my chest. Can't think of the technical term for that sort of dancing, but you get the drift. Anyway, some little shit with a bald head and a Ben Sherman shirt shoulder barged me out of the way, and took my position! How cheeky! He was not her boyfriend as she just turned around and left at some point. It kind of put a downer on the whole night, and I couldn't be arsed chasing her.
You know, maybe all the female comments were right yesterday: men can be such arseholes.
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Girls Girls Girls
Early last month, I went on a date
with a girl. Despite the inital first date going well, I heard nothing for two days, then a quick "I'm going to the pub tonight if you fancy coming.". Turns out it was her and her mate there, so I rang up Jason and he met me to even the score. The chemistry just wasn't there, and she made an excuse "to buy some cigs", and I never saw her again. I have been kind of avoiding her - deliberately not going into the shop she works in, a large well known chain of newsagents, stationers and book sellers. Probably because I don't want to seem like a stalker. Probably because I don't buy newspapers, I don't use stationary, and all (but one, which we'll get to later) of the books I've bought within the last few months have been off
Amazon.co.uk.
Until today.
I went to Llandudno to buy an ace shirt for our school reunion, and saw a book on offer that I wanted (for the curious - The Wisdom of Crowds
- apparently a must read for bloggers and open source fans. I'll let you know), dirt cheap as well. It was in the shop which she worked in, so I took a deep breath, and walked in.
No sign of her so far, good. Right upstairs, to the book department.
"Rhys? Is that you?"
Oh shit.
"Yes."
At this point, she launched into a massive tirade against me, why I didn't call her after our second date (which I did), why I'm such a shit boy (which I'm not) because I don't seem to care (which I did, for a little while). I'd love to say I told her to sod off, but I didn't. I just apologised and left. I couldn't be dealing with it.
See, this is what I fail to understand about women - the whole "men should make the first move.". Okay, now traditionally we do make the first move, and we don't mind it. But when she believes that she shouldn't speak to me until I speak to her, I feel that's sending women back into the dark ages, and it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Besides, if I was in her shoes, and she went to all that effort to get a first date (believe me, I was apprehensive to begin with) which she enjoyed, I would of made sure we'd have a second date. Maybe I attract the wrong sort of women (discounting Sarah).
Speaking of hormones affecting women - Bonnie's on the blob at the moment, meaning that all my clothes are suspended 4 foot in the air around places, in case she takes them down and "mothers" them.
Right, I'm going to a school reunion tomorrow - it's nothing fancy, we're just going on a pub crawl starting at half 4 tomorrow. I bought a new shirt for it eventually, so I'll talk about it more on a very hungover Sunday or possibly Monday. Have a cool weekend.
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The Great eBay Challenge
I was sitting in the pub a few weeks ago with a good mater of mine. We were talking about stuff - world cup, ladies bits and god knows what else before the conversation inevitably turned to computers. He's a web marketer, and his business involves search engine optimisation, marketing & PR stuff, plus he sells things on eBay. Conversations with him generally revolve around boasting about what we've achieved, and the technologies surrounding them. He began.
"Oh yeah, I sold a rare 1930's Steiff Fox on eBay today, made a fortune for my client."
"That's great mate, but....doesn't it feel a little impersonal?"
"What? eBay? Nah, just buy and sell, leave feeback, everybody's happy."
Should point out at this point I'm very much believer in the social side of the web, such blogging, and he isn't. He loves the anonymity. Hence why he's not being named.
"It just seems so impersonal. You're sending a package to somebody else on the other side of the country. It would be kind of nice to get like a letter or something with it. Even the feedback is A++ this, and A++ that. What about a B-?"
"Tell you what, if you can make eBay more personal, I'll give you a tenner."
"Beg your pardon?"
"Well, you said it yourself. If you can get - say - 10 people to leave you feedback which is a bit random, such as 'The package was nice smelling', or 'thanks for the biscuits', something you wouldn't expect. I'll give you a tenner."
"Deal."
"But."
"But what?"
"If I can get 10 before you can get 10, then you give me a tenner."
So it's on. The Great eBay Challenge.
My gameplan was quite simple. For every item I buy and sell on eBay, I'd include a letter, saying "this is my bet, if you could help me out with this, I'd be most appreciative.". Hopefully, good decent people would see my plight and respond to it.
I had sold two items within the last week. One digital camera and one WWF video. I drafted a letter and included it, and crossed my fingers.
I was not disappointed.
RESULT!!! 2 items sold, 2 random comments. Bonus points to Emma (at least, I assume it's an Emma), who managed to fit in an innuendo and gave me a random comment and complemented me on the size of my "interesting package". That should be worth 3 right there.
It isn't, I already checked, but it's still 2 to me, 0 to my mate.
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EX TV turns into HD TV
Because I was so busy watching the
world cup world, blogging about the world cup final and - most importantly,
designing humourous animated gifs about the world cup final and posting them on b3ta, I forgot to mention something quite dramatic that happened in the Wynne household. Three seconds after Cannavaro lifted the trophy, the televison exploded.
Well, not technically exploded, but made a bit of a noise, then went dead. It was the cheapest widescreen you could get from Tesco's three years ago, and we've been having problems with buttons not working, sound not working, things like that for the past few years, so we were due a replacement. Cue massive arguement between my mum ("We NEED a replacement! You expect me to watch TV with buzzing in the background, and no picture?") and my dad ("We're FINE! We didn't have any TV when I was growing up!"). If you know my family like I know my family, mum won, and - without my expert advice - she buggered off to Argos to get one.
Hate to say it, but she did well.
I'll be honest, I was half expecting her to come back with a very big toaster, but no. It was a TV. Flat as well. The HD was just the icing on the cake. Admittedly, it was after the world cup, so HD Technology would be limited to Bargain Hunt and Malcolm in the Middle repeats, but by god - come South Africa 2010, I'll be ready to see Craig Bellamy lift the World Cup after Wales hammer England in the final 24-0.
But I digress, we got a stand for the TV which looks all futuristic but is only available in flat pack form. The flat pack was very similar to my software - it takes four hours and three attempts to build it. Bloody instructions aren't very clear. We finally got it up and switched it onto BBC HD.
One word for it.....oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhh. Was very pretty. However, it was showing repeats of Hannibal, so I switched it onto Challenge.
I'll be honest, I'm not to keen on the colour, it's very "60's Cheap Sci-Fi". Nevertheless, you don't really notice it when there's something good on. Another bad thing is that I really now want an XBox 360, just to take advantage of the the HD-ness of it, and to play Street Fighter II on XBox Live.
Soon, this house will be my own personal bachelor pad.
Technorati Tags:hd technology, hd, televisions, hd-tv, challenge, world cup
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Blogmeet in the Old Harkers Arms, Chester
I've been blogging for over four years now, and I've never met anybody through blogging. It's a bit of a shame really, as I think there are some amazing people on the links bar, who I would quite happily go for a few drinks with. Nevertheless, I've never actually plucked up the courage to go on a blogmeet: primarily because I've never been near one.
Until now.
You see, surfing through blogs at Blogadvance (note to all, it pisses over Blogexplosion from a great height), I came across International Andy's blog. The blog is about a guy who has travelled the world (hence International) and is called Andy (hence Andy). He has settled in Chester, and is organising a blogmeet in The Old Harkers Arms in Chester. I think it's near the station, looking at the map on their website. It also appears to be owned by the same people who own the Pen Y Bryn.....
The Harker Arms
The Pen-Y-Bryn.
Anyway, the only problem I can see is that it clashes with my school reunion hangover. We've organised two reunions, one next weekend, one a month later. The one a month later is the day before this reunion. Ah well, I'll go for a bit, and forsake Broadway. That will be a shame. Honest.
I guess the real reason I'm posting this is to let everybody know I'm going, and to try and drum up interest. Anybody else fancy going?
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World Cup 2006 Final Notes - Le Pouquoi?
In an absorbing match - Italy beat France 5-3 on penalties after Extra Time finished 1-1. The game was very watchable, but it will forever be remembered as the night when Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest players of a generation, headbutted Materazzi. Headbutted is an understatement. Remember the running headbutts that the Bushwhackers used to do? It was that. I was supporting France up until that point, as it would of been a well-deserved fairytale ending for a legend. However, after that, my alligience switched to Italy, and was actively supporting them.
Even then, I expected France to win, as Italy - like England - cannot win penalty shootouts. Until now. With 5 of the most perfect penalties ever struck, Italy win the World Cup.
Meh, I'm happy for them. I wasn't holding out much hope when the tournament began - saying they were whiny cheating bastards - but their style of football has been a lot more positive than previous years. Cannavaro has made an excellent captain, and - due to the fact that Wales beat Italy less than four years ago, officially makes Wales the greatest team in the world, ever.
Come on, it makes more sense than the FIFA Rankings, doesn't it?
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Beautiful Betws-Y-Coed
Today, me, my mum, Aled and Bonnie took a trip to Betws y Coed, which is a small village in the mid, North Wales area, about 15 miles outside of Conwy. It's very popular with three types of people: people who enjoy walking, people with Kawasaki Motorcycles, and school children. Seriously, if you did Geography to GCSE level in the UK, you would at very least talked about the "Honey Pot" that is Betws y Coed. I seem to remember one of my regulars actually visiting there on a field trip, can't remember who though.
Part of Betws y Coed's beauty is the fact that this village is by-and-large untouched by the outside world. There is only one pelican crossing, no cash machines, and the only "branded" services there are a Spar, a Shell Garage and a Best Western Hotel. Everything else are local businesses and craft shops, hell bent on parting with your hard earned cash.
Two areas stick out in my mind when I think of Betws: the village green and the bridge over the river. We parked just past the train station (which only local people know about, it's awesome) and walked to the village green where me, Aled an Bonnie had a kickabout and posed for photos.
I was actually almost impressed with my football skills. Generally I'm a bit poo at football, but no, I seemed to do well. It was only a kickaround mind, with a smaller ball than my gorgeous T90, but still was mightily impressed. We worked up an appetite, so we headed to the chippy, and then onto the river bank.
The riverbank in Betws, if you have never seen it, is a work of sheer natural beauty. It is comprised of a number of craggy rocks that the water weaves through, producing very impressive rapids and tranquil rock pools. It is a massive climbing frame for little and big kids alike, and I am no different, though I didn't make it to the island n the centre of the river due to the fact my trainers were brand new, I did manage to scale up and down some quite trecharous areas to take some phots.
Sorry for the poor picture quality on the last two, they were taken on my mobile phone, as opposed to the camera. Mum was looking after it whilst I was exploring. Don't believe me, well have a gander at this....
After a while, we headed back to the car, and home. One of the best things about living here is that we're not too far from places like Betws so we can drive there in around 20-30 minutes. We've beeen there at some random times of the year (they go all out with some fabulous decorations at Christmas), times where Betws is a very different town, peaceful but not depressing.
No blog post could be completed without a rude town name, so here's todays: menin-y-coc.
I thank you.
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World Cup Update: True Colours
With all my going into hospital and lisps and whatever, I have missed updates on this year's World Cup. It's approaching the end of the tournament now, and - with the final on Sunday, let me give my 2nd to last world cup update.
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When Doveth Cry
Last night I went to a quiz. Every Tuesday, a varying number of us gather together, have a few beers (or, in tonights case, not) and talk about stuff, and try our best to win. Usually we don't, as often the "Regulars" win (the teams such as Anglers Den, Tetris or Just the Two of Us), the quizmaster smiles when the regulars win, it's a conspiracy I say.
Anywho, this week, our esteemed quizmaster was absent, so in his place was this blonde girl (not wanting to say too much, but the questions began far too easy). The funniest thing was that she had a lisp, so that her s's were pronounced as th's. We only realised it when the first question was "In fashion, which accessory shaped like a cylinder is specifically designed to keep the wrists warm?". This amused me greatly (even more so when the answer was "Muff". Christ I'm so mature.). I managed to calm myself down from giggling until the very last question. The question was "Which musician in the 1980's swapped his name for a symbol?". With the lisp, it sounded like "Which musician in the 1980's swapped his name for a thimble?".
This got me thinking, mainly about Prince. Could you imagine the situtaion, if Prince went into a china shop looking for a thimble. I dunno why, he needs to do some sewing or something.
"Excuse me sir. I'm Prince, I am looking for a thimble."
"Sure, here you go, it's a nice little one, with a picture of a little dog on it!"
"Great! That's brill!* How much would it be?"
"£2.40"**
"Um......I'm sorry, I'm Prince, I don't carry around any cash."
"Well I accept cheques, visa, mastercard and names."
"Great, you can have my name!"
"Oh okay, thanks for your purchase, have a nice day!"
I seriously need something worthwhile to blog about.
Anyway, I think we finished third. The Angler's Den won.
Bathtardth.
* Bet you didn't know that Prince uses words such as "brill!", "cheers!" and "top bollocks" on a daily basis?
** I have no idea how much thimbles cost.
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Sexually Dangerous
Yesterday I headed to the hospital, as previously mentioned. I said I was all clear. Well it's not strictly true.
They wanted to give me an echography, to make sure there isn't any disease. However, that wouldn't befor another few weeks. I convinced them that I was okay, and I had changed my lifestyle so they decided not to bother. However, should it happen again, then they would insist on it. However, they seemed happy with my progress, and the fact I've changed my lifestyle from a beer drinking, work hard - play hard son of a gun to a moderately fit, eat well, exercising yet sexually dangerous individual.
Yes, sexually dangerous.
You see, apparently there's a bit of an epidemic going around, and we're causing it. Males, straight, 18-25, and drop dead gorgeous (such as myself) are getting infected with all sorts of std's. We - as the doctor said - are "a ticking time bomb". He said he wouldn't discharge me without examining for STD's. So, after telling him my quite frankly rather depressing history, I weed into a cup, and he gave me the all clear.
Nice to know I have no diseases.
The doctor then asked me what sort of "sex education" I had. I decided not to mention the fact that in year 8 the head of year got the videos mixed up (long story short, I now know how to put in a tampon), and instead went for the hilarious "Oh, plenty of theory, not enough practical".
He didn't laugh.
Instead, he talked to me about why I was targetted (what you read above), and used the phrase "you, Rhys, are sexually dangerous!". It doesn't mean I'm a rapist, just I'm more likely to be unprotected. He then gave me enough condoms to start my own brothel.
So, if anybody wants any, I'm quite willing to send a handful out to people - providing they make me laugh in an email - go on, send your funnies to the usual address.
I'm also accepting requests from ladies who wish to help me though this mountain of contraception. Send me an email with vital statistics, turn ons and fastest lap on Daytona USA to the same address. Cheers!
In other news, yesterday's post was supposed to read "All clear", but the "l" key was broken on my keyboard in the internet cafe. I had to google my name, go to my old site, click on the blogger link to get to blogger (luckily my password has no "L"'s).
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Two Words.....
...I'm fine
Why does my heart feel so.......great???
Tomorrow, I'm heading to Liverpool. I wish it was something fun, but it's not.
I'm going into hospital.
Newer readers may not be aware, but in April I had a very nasty health scare. You can read more about it in this post, but the basic jist of what happened is simple: I woke up, my heart was racing. It was scary, very scary. Eventually, I went to a doctor, who immediately sent me to hospital. One course of drugs six hours later, I was sent home, and caught the end of "Deal or no Deal".
Over the next two weeks followed a bit of an emotional breakdown. Yes, I didn't document it, but I was at a very scary place, and - I'll be honest - I did cry myself to sleep some nights. Thanks to my mum, who kind of took the "Rhys. you're not dying, snap out of it" attitude with me, I picked myself back up. I changed my job for the better, drank less, ate better, got exercise, and - horror of horrors - actually went on a date. But - even after all that - there's still this in the back of my mind. Something that will be addressed tomorrow.
I mean, I feel fine, and as my mum says - the fact that they've booked you for what seems like a 15 minute appointment nearly 3 months after the inciddent sort of suggests that they're not too concerned. But I'm still a little frightened - what if they find something? I've thought about cancelling the appointment purely out of not wanting to know what's wrong with me, if there is anything. It's only that both my mum and my boss at work have persuaded me to go.
I'll keep you posted with what happens, but for the first time in my life, I'm actually wanting to go back to work.
Send me good thoughts.
Postman's Shock
Three days ago, I was sitting in my room, internet on, looking rather bored. I'm 22 and male, and need things to do otherwise I'd get bored. When I'm bored, I'm dangerous, no two ways about it. As such, I've learned to keep myself occupied. I suggested to Rick that we go for a kickabout. He was up for it, but there was one huge problem.
We didn't have a ball.
It was written in the bible somewhere "a man who is devoid of balls, is barely a man at all", and I'm not "barely a man". Oh no, I'm going to put this right, thanks to eBay. After a quick search, I found this ball - which was quite cheap, full size, and not going to fall apart at the first opportunity.
I bought it on thursday, and was praying that the Royal Mail got their arse in gear and it'd be here yesterday. No joy. Ah well, Saturday it is.
I was dreaming about - for some reason - watching a film which was a hybrid between Monty Python and The Wicker Man filmed in Llandudno, when the door knocked. Immediately Bonnie jumped up and started yelling at the door. Reluctantly (it was half 7 for pete's sake) I got up, put on my dressing gown and got up.
I trudged downstairs, opened the door and it was my football, curteosy of Royal Mail. They're brill, aren't they. Also, nice guy on ebay sent it recorded delivery, so I got the form to sign, and signed it.
However, Bonnie at this time was getting more and more excitable, and was jumping up, grabing parts of my dressing gown with her teeth. To gain my attention, she faced me straight on, jumped up, and managed to grab hold of my boxers, and pulled them down.
Poor postie.
I'll be honest, I think I managed to conceal my shame. I'm not some guy who randomly flashes people, I'm a good man, I just had a dog/wardrobe malfunction. Think the postie didn't see anything (thank god), but I'm sure he's seen worse.
Anyway, I now have a football. I am a man.
Bare-ly.
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Secondly, whilst I am de-fucking-lighted that England are out the world cup (I felt dirty cheering them, luckily the pain of losing in the sweepstakes in work wasn't too bad), I do think that the whiny little piss artist to the right - Cristiano Ronaldo - is a cancer on the sport of football. Seriously. He whines, he cheats, he's a dirty pretty boy who's been brought up the wrong way. Luckily, there was an angel named Zidane who showed him a footballing lesson, though Wales play Portugal in a friendly later this year, and I hope Robbie Savage sorts him out good and proper.
