Archive for category Life
Star Wars: A Musical Journey
I forgot to post about this at the time, but myself, Paula and Chris went to see Star Wars: A Musical Journey at the O2 Arena in London on April 10th.
Discussions went back and forth about the best way to get down there, who was going, whether we were staying overnight, who was going to look after Evie, etc, etc. At one point, it was turning into a mini family holiday, with my mum and dad coming with us to look after Evie while we attended the concert, us all stopping in a hotel overnight, then coming back the following day. In the end, Evie stayed at home and my folks looked after her, while Paula, Chris and I went to the concert by car, mainly because that was the easiest and (more importantly) the cheapest option. The 8+ hours of driving weren’t ideal, and we didn’t get back home until around 2:30am, but I coped better than I thought I would. The tiredness that I was expecting didn’t hit me until the following afternoon.
The concert itself was excellent. Anthony Daniels (yes, that Anthony Daniels*) was the narrator, and introduced the various musical sequences. While the orchestra was playing these, clips from the six Star Wars films were shown on a large video screen behind the orchestra. Some of the clips were silent, while others had dialogue and sound effects. Certain sequences worked better than others, but there’s nothing quite like seeing an orchestra and choir in full flow, especially when performing music that you know and love. Oh, and there were frikkin’ laser beams too!
We saw a couple of famous faces there (famous in Star Wars circles, at any rate): Warwick Davies (Wicket the Ewok) and Jeremy Bulloch (the guy in the Boba Fett costume). The only bummer from my point of view was that George Lucas apparently turned-up on the second night, hence we missed him. :O(
* Mr C-3PO, for the uninitiated.
C’mon!
I have a bit of a chequered history with cars. When I first met Paula, I didn’t have one, and hadn’t even passed my driving test. Needless to say, with her living in Blackburn and me in Chester this wasn’t an ideal situation. By the end of that year I managed to scrape through my practical test, and bought my mum’s old car off her. This was a Nissan Sunny, first registered in 1983 if memory serves, and was second-hand when my dad first bought it. Given the Sunny’s age and the weekly trips up and down the M56/M6 between Chester and Blackburn, it wasn’t long before I’d basically run it into the ground and the brakes started to lock-up (or something: my knowledge of car mechanics is somewhat sketchy). Luckily, by this time Paula and I had moved into our own place, and were able to share the use of her car, a ‘99 Toyota Yaris. (I bequethed the Sunny to our Chris, who tried (and failed) to get the brakes working before giving up and selling it to some guy for scrap.)
When Paula became pregnant with Evie, we knew that a small 3-door hatchback wasn’t really going to cut-it and that we’d have to buy a larger car with at least five doors so that we’d be able to get Evie in-and-out easily. After looking around at various MPVs, we got an amazing deal on a brand-new Renault Scenic from a dealer near Sheffield. At this point, I inherited the Yaris as my ‘work-and-back’ vehicle.
That was mid-2007. Little more than a year later, it was becoming clear that the Yaris wouldn’t last us much longer. It failed its MOT on a number of points, and it cost several hundred pounds to sort those problems out. Added to that the engine had started making strange noises, and seemed to want its oil replacing all the time. Whether it had been my driving that had killed the little car I wasn’t sure, but it seemed obvious that it was going to start costing more and more money each year to keep it on the road. I felt we had no choice but to start looking for a replacement vehicle.
And so it was a few weeks ago that we took delivery of a new ‘09-plate Vauxhall Corsa. I wasn’t specifically looking for a brand-new car, but we again ended-up with a great deal that wasn’t much more expensive than buying second-hand. We traded-in the Yaris for recycling, which also saved us some money.
Having driven the Corsa for a few weeks, first impressions are mixed. I like the styling of the vehicle, both inside and out, and it’s got all the stuff I’d consider essential for a new car such as power steering, CD player, leccy windows and air con. However, for some reason it feels quite sluggish to drive: it takes ages to get up to a decent speed, and going uphill is particularly painful. I can easily lose 15-20mph going uphill on a motorway or dual carriageway, even when flooring the accelerator. I know it’s only a 1.2 litre engine, but still. Personally I reckon there’s something wrong with the car, but the dealer said to give it 1000 miles or so before bringing it in for them to look at, so we’ll see.
At least I know why they use the “C’mon!” slogan in their advertising: I’m muttering that under my breath all the damn time now!
Money’s too tight (to mention)
The Rands family budget is seriously stretched these days. On top of all the usual household bills, we’re having to replace Paula’s trusty Toyota Yaris with a new car, and we’re also looking to get Evie into a nursery for a couple of days per week. We don’t have an extravagant lifestyle by any means, which means we’re having to economise in other areas.
First to be trimmed was the Sky subscription. We’ve gone from having the full package (basically all the channels plus movies and sports) to just the Variety and Kids packs. This means we still get the free-to-air channels plus stuff like Sky 1 (important for Lost, BSG, etc) and all of the kiddie channels that Evie watches. We’re still paying for HD, so the subscription is now £27.50 per month as opposed to £57, but it’s a reasonable saving. The only thing I’m really gonna miss is the occasional Liverpool match on Sky Sports (crappy timing given the trip to United this weekend, but there you go).
Next on the list was our broadband service. We’ve been with Zen Internet since we moved here in 2004, and although I’ve been totally satisfied with their service it’s well known that Zen are one of the more expensive ISPs. Then again, you get what you pay for, and I didn’t fancy the idea of switching providers to save a few quid only to lose our rock-solid connection. So I decided to stay with Zen, but switch from our current unlimited product to one of their capped services. At home we mainly use the internet for email and web browsing, so the capping isn’t going to affect us much, if at all. Added to that, the capped service is not only cheaper but also faster: we’ve gone from paying around £24 per month for a half-meg service, to paying just over £17 for a 3½ Mbps service. No complaints so far: the regrade went without a hitch, and our connection seems as reliable as ever. Kudos to Zen! No surprise they’ve won the PC Pro Best ISP Award for the past five years in a row.
Reducing the amount of money we spend on TV and broadband is a start, but we’re still looking to make savings elsewhere. Even then, Paula’s still going to have to go back to work part-time so that we can afford to place Evie in a nursery. When did life get so damn expensive?
What to make of the new Anfield?
The official Liverpool FC site has today posted a video about the new Anfield stadium design. Be aware that the majority of this video is just talking heads stuff: the stadium fly-by simulation only kicks-in around the five-and-a-half-minute mark.
To be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of it. Call me a traditionalist, but I kind of preferred the old design from before the Gillett and Hicks takeover. Sure, the new plans are bold and certainly different, but my worry would be how well the design would age. Are we going to be looking at the stadium in twenty or even ten years and saying “what were they thinking”? Will it be viewed as a bit of an eyesore, an embarrassment even?
(And pity those fans on the new Kop come a sunny day, with that enormous glass window behind them!)
Still, the really important thing is what happens on the pitch. We’ve made a solid if unspectacular start to the season, but the real work starts on Sunday against Chelsea. I hope Gerrard is actually fit enough to play despite his foot problem; if not, we could be asking for trouble in more ways than one. Also, it would be nice if Evie could manage to stay awake during this match after sleeping through the entire Villa game last weekend. 
It’s a girl!
Our daughter Evie was finally born at the end of May, a week later than expected. Paula had quite a difficult labour, the details of which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say, an emergency Caesarean was required, together with a short stay in hospital to recover. However I’m happy to report that Paula is now back to her old self (minus a few pounds!) and that we are the proud parents of a beautiful almost-three-month-old girl.
Oh yeah, the blog…
I knew I forgot something.
So yeah, I’m back. Just when you thought it was safe, etc, etc. A lot’s happened since my last post in — when was it? (shuffles papers) — October. Boy have I been slacking. Anyway, here’s the juice:
Home. We did manage to move back in just before Christmas — three days before, to be precise. It was a huge effort from all involved to get enough of the kitchen and bathroom ready in time, but we made it. The place was a bit of a mess for a few weeks afterwards, but things are coming together nicely now. The kitchen and new staircase, in particular, have turned out really well. It’s finally starting to feel like a real home.
Work. Is okay. In turns engaging and frustrating. I’ve not worked for a company with this many employees since I was at Cheshire County Council back in the early ’90s, and the bureaucracy is somewhat annoying after having become used to more direct code ownership.
Expecting. The really big news: Paula is pregnant, and we’re expecting our first child in May! We’ve been trying since we got married, so although it was not entirely unexpected it’s still took a bit of getting used to. There are big changes ahead, and a few uncomfortable decisions that will need to be made, but I’m really looking forward to becoming a dad :O)
Well, consider yourselves updated. Sorry for the long delay between posts, normal service should hopefully be resumed from this point onwards.
October status report
I’ve been a bit lax on the blogging front lately*, so an update is long overdue. Things have been so hectic, I hardly know where to start.
The pit. Funny how progress on the house seems to ebb and flow: seemingly little progress for weeks on end, then suddenly a few jobs start to come together and it almost seems worthwhile. Then one of your water joints fails, floods your cloakroom and writes-off several hundred quids worth of furniture. Stuff like that. Anyway, the new target date for moving back in is Christmas (that’s Christmas this year, you comedians). Most of the plumbing and drainage is in now; the bathroom and en-suite just need tiling really. Our new staircase will hopefully arrive by the end of this week. Then the final major outlay will be the new kitchen. We’ve ordered the appliances (online, to save some money), but not the units as yet.
Time off. My employer was gracious enough to allow me to take a few days unpaid leave. Coupled with my remaining holiday for this year, that meant a two-week break to allow me to work on the house, place orders, accept deliveries, etc. This is the start of my second week. It’s been very useful: there’s certainly no way I’d have accomplished as much during lunch breaks and at the weekends. I could have done with an even longer break (say a month or so), but two weeks is better than nothing.
Other stuff. I’ve been concentrating so much on the house recently that there’s been little time for anything else. Managed to squeeze in a visit to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy (most excellent!), but other than that, nothing. I haven’t spoken to some of my friends for months, which is really bad. I’m hoping that things will calm down a lot after Christmas, and my life will get back to something approaching normality.
* Like I’m so prolific usually, ha!
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Myself, Paula, Chris and Mum went to see the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy at the Chester Gateway Theatre on Friday night. Canadian actor Charles Ross basically condenses the original trilogy (New Hope, Empire, Jedi) into one hour, playing all of the characters (Jabba the Hutt and Admiral Ackbar were my favourites!), humming the music, making the sound effects, throwing himself around on stage like a lunatic doing the spacecraft… you get the idea. No props, no sets, just this one guy.
It was bloody fantastic!
Really funny, probably moreso for the big Star Wars geeks, but I think that most people know the general story beats anyway so it would go down well with any audience. The capacity crowd (350 people?) at the Gateway certainly appreciated it!
The other cool thing was that as this was his last performance on the UK tour they had some people there from one of the costuming fan groups, dressed as stormtroopers, biker scouts, Jedi Knights… even Vader and the Emperor. The costumes were really impressive. Oh, and they had a remote control Artoo there as well! How cool is that?!
Apparently he (Charles Ross, not Artoo, duh) is due to appear in London sometime later this year. If you get the chance to go and see his show, then do: I guarantee you’ll enjoy it
Portmeirion
Last Monday (31st July) was our first wedding anniversary, and as a surprise I whisked Paula away for a couple of days to Portmeirion in Wales. I’d rented a car for the trip (a Ford Focus, with CD player and air-con), and we left on the Sunday afternoon. We hit a snag almost immediately when we discovered that the CD player wouldn’t play our copied CDs (I don’t like taking the originals in case they get nicked). Fortunately, inserting a brand-new original CD (hastily purchased at Tesco in Mold) seemed to fix the problem, and we didn’t have any trouble after that.
After a pleasant 2½-hour drive through the rolling Welsh hills (we only got lost the once!), we arrived at Portmeirion, and our home for the next two days: Castell Deudraeth. Our room was on the second floor, and looked out onto the hills in the distance. A great view, and a fantastic room: reasonably spacious, with comfortable and contemporary furnishings.
We’d arrived mid-afternoon, so after unpacking we went for a brief walk around the village. The weather — which for the previous two weeks had been nothing but glorious sunshine — was starting to turn: it was still sunny, but the wind had picked-up and the clouds were gathering. I’d been to Portmeirion once before when I was a kid, so everything seemed vaguely familiar. It’s a very pretty place, and I wish we’d had more time to explore, but we had to get back for dinner. We decided to have a proper look around the following day.
Unfortunately, the weather on the Monday was awful: cold, cloudy and windy, with occasional rain. We’d only packed “sunny-weather” clothes (shorts and T-shirts), and there was no way we were going exploring in those. So instead we went for a brief trip to Pwllheli in the car, where the weather was a little better. On the way back we stopped in Criccieth (gotta love these place names!), but it was blowing a gale so we didn’t stop long. Hopefully, our last day would bring sunny skies and we’d finally be able to wander around Portmeirion.
Waking on Tuesday our hopes were soon dashed. No change in the weather, and as we had to check-out by 11am there was no point in sticking around. So although we’d had a great time at the hotel, we were never really able to make the most of the village just down the road. Still, it was nice to get away for a few days, away from work and the house and everything, just the two of us. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back one day when the weather’s a bit better!
Musical fireworks
We (that is, myself, Paula, mum, dad and Chris) are off to a concert this Saturday evening: a “fireworks concert spectacular” at Cholmondeley Castle near Malpas. Nick was invited but politely declined on the grounds of musical taste (or lack thereof).
I mainly wanted to go because much of the music this year will be from Tchaikovsky’s ballets The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, which are both favourites of mine. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about ballet (“strewth, mate, there’s a bloke down there with no strides on!”), but I love the music!
It’s one of those “take a picnic” affairs, which is a bit of a shame as many people seem more interested in eating and talking as opposed to listening to the orchestra (if you’re gonna do that, stay at home and have a barbeque, for crying out loud). Maybe if we sit close enough to the stage it’ll drown-out the noise of the riff-raff!