Red Sky

Beautiful Morning

Woke up on Friday morning to THE most beautiful morning sky views I have ever seen since living in this apartment.

The making of a Blockbuster

On a lighter note, my video production group and I went out looking for a location to film some more of the video film we are doing. It was the best fun I have had in years.

Thought for the day....oh.....to win the lottery!

Voxpops!

I spent a good part of today (Saturday 10th-Nov 2007) in Ipswich. I was trying to get as many people as possible to voice their opinions on the subject of Street Art (aka: Graffiti or Urban Art)
It is probably an easy thing to do for most, but seeing as I am definitely NOT the most self assured or confident person in the world, for me this was a mission in itself. So far I have around 10 individual voices recorded (with permission) for use on my website as the background to one of the Street Art videos I put together.

I will never understand why I don't have much confidence as I know I am not a horrible monster or even a miserable old git. But when it comes to talking to people I find it so damn hard. I never used to be like that. In the past I have been heavily into writing music and getting involved with bands as I have always played the piano and keyboards and always enjoyed being the semi centre of attention. But I guess as I got older I hid myself away somewhere.

Anyway. Enought of the sad self indulgent "please feel sorry for me" talk. Things can always be a lot worse. I think the worst thing of all is the fact that....actually I am going to shut up and leave it there as there are people far worse off than I feel I am.

Bye bye for now Blog.

Oh and for the record, I met someone today who seems to have stayed in my mind all day. I am not going to divulge any details as theres no point. But rest assured if I would have had the will power and had had a drink I would have bought this person the biggest bunch of flowers and had them delivered to where she was at the time. Thanks to this person for helping me out and giving me a metaphorical kick up the bum which allowed me to start the ball rolling with getting more people to answer my questions. xx

Dentist

GOODBYE TOOTH [AT LAST]
======================

About to go in...

Going going gone.....

Last Thursday after months of waiting I actually had a tooth out that has been bugging me painfully for sooo long. I had some bad experiences a while back when 4 teeth were removed at the back for the sake of possible future problem solving and in an attempt to stop some pain I was having. After all that and too much pain, I was left gutted to find the same problem was still there. Rest assured it left it's mark and I have taken ages plucking up the courage to have this tooth out. I do not hate going to the dentist and am regular in my attendances, however whenever injections and that "if you feel any discomfort please raise you hand" line comes out, I get a little scared. But this time after filling the tooth in a few times over the past few months it was time to get it fixed for good.
I had put the appointment out of my mind for a long time. Luckily I was reminded recently and all is now done thanks so much to my dentist Dr.Browne. I've been seen by many dentists in my life, but this chap has the magic touch so to speak. I even kept the tooth as to me this has been a turning point.
I was well aware I'd feel crap for a while after having the tooth out as it always takes a few more than normal (injections) to shut me up. But I felt sort of a mixture of shakiness and overwhelming shock at actually going for it and getting this done, so I ended up taking things easy for the rest of the afternoon. Only thing that bothered me a little was that it wouldn't stop bleeding for at least 2-3 hours. Not unheard of apparently..but still worrying. Anyway, a momentous and cool day to remember. To others it is a normal day at the dentist, but if you bear in mind the hassles my history book shows from a previous dentist in nr Colchester you'd understand why this is a day to remember.

Next on my to do list is to get a lifetime of electronic repair scares removed from my two front bottom teeth. (using my front teeth to strip the plastic from wire before soldering.)

Purple Shop: Recommend
==================

I also recently had my lip pierced.
A warning to anyone considering this is although its not painful and is quick, EATING IS A BITCH! Maybe I am just stupid or perhaps naive to not have considered this, and being a born worrier, but trying to eat is hard at least for a week or so. The bar used has to be long to start with (about 12mm in long) to accommodate the original lip swelling. Once it settles a smaller bar can be used which obviously sits in the lip flush.
You have to be careful when eating as its very easy to bite your swollen inner lip or worse as I found out, is getting into a nice chocolate biscuit and biting down on the inside inner half of the new additive (bar).

Looks great though and am more than happy. I am very much looking forward to having a small normal size bar put in.

The day the Urban Art simply vanished

Really peed off today. I had everything planned, and arrived in Ipswich to begin getting some video shots and photos for use in my video short for use in my dissitation.
Every week whenever I am in town I find new and not so new and some really dated works of art (along with some default black pen work..not my favorite but interesting all the same)


Anyway, with video camera in hand and bag of vid supplies along with new blank tapes and the last of the Sony "normal-life"[2 1/2 hrs recording time]
I must have walked for miles this morning. I got the 9.19am bus from near where I live and headed into Ipswich with a really good feeling in my gut. Trouble is, wherever I went, the Urban Art had been disintegrated by those above (council treated with default yucky pink or worse colour they can usually find).

So I ended up going back to where I remembered there was some artwork scattered around an old building site, an old church yard and behind a Supermarket in the car park area.
To be honest, I at least got some footage for use in the work I am doing, but all the really great art has been vandalized and has been painted over. I understand that to some (and I DO agree that certain work is not that cool) but to remove the works that I remember being up on specific places is a travesty. When you stop and consider what the council or whoever has done this has put in place of the work it is laughable. I have a few shots that I will try to unload of before and after shots.
Just glad I live in Suffolk as some of the artists are more talented that mere words can describe. Some work I have seen in particular, the stencil work and a small percentage of past ups and stickers have been really nice to bump into whilst walking the streets heading to the shops or wherever I have been going.
Anyway. I guess I will have to leave it a while and try and hunt down some new places where artwork has been "hung" upon the concrete gallery of Urban Life and start from there.

One Last Time

I've never seen the corridors so chockablock before!
So many new faces!

I came home feeling both elated for various reasons and somewhat strange having taken nearly ten minutes to get my head around a room number (ok so even after all this time I forget where certain rooms are) which turned out to be ten feet away from the sign I was reading. Stupid was the operative word at 1:30pm yesterday.

PASSED!!

One step at a time and all will be reachable

All good things come to those who wait

Chess and Chips

"Apparently..I was taking too long to take my turn"

A video from my own"WONDER YEARS" which I found on line recently.
I used to love Roller Skating to this song at the then "rink" at Langer Park in Felixstowe. They ripped the place up and now its a parking spot for council vehicles and various bits and bobs. Life can be so sad. But thats pen pushing progress for you...!

Classic Car Rally

I stopped along the road the other week to watch the classic cars driving past. Every year they come from miles around and head along the High Street to the seafront, where they all park up in a line from one end of the beach prom to the other. Great to watch. My favorite has got to be the ZZ-Top Eliminator look a like.

Ride like the wind

Bought my little angel a second user battery operated motorbike she'd been after. I had to replace the old battery with a new one and now it is as good as new.
The crash helmet I bought her she hatted so we swapped it the day after this photo was taken and now she uses the new helmet for riding this and her push bike.

_______Day trip to Norwich________

Spent the day in Norwich of all places thanks in part to a spur of the moment thought and the fact that I couldn't remember the last time I was there.
It was quite a memorably day in all. We did a spot of shopping (for therapeutic reasons you understand) a spot of lunch, a good look round.

I took several photos. The first, below is one I took of a Brain sculpture which became on reflection the high-light of my day. I'd never seen anything like this before and I doubt I ever wil again. There are actually numerous sculptures in and around the City Center of Norwich, and this (the Brain) was the most bizarre and mind blowing.
My second thought after being quite literally shocked was thinking that where I come from in Suffolk: that no council around here would ever dream of being so cool and so original as to allow or commition an artwork like this.

The Brain Sculpture in Norwich City Center

I have to mention the House Of Frazer Center. By car we entered an underground car park which without exaggerating was THE cleanest, sweetest smelling and most well looked after car park I have ever seen. It would have been almost perfect had it actually had a litter bin somewhere and fresh pumped in air. The air was sweet but still too hot.

Underground Car Park

Coming out the car park, the lift or escalator takes you right into the House of Frazier. Even the floors are much the same as the actual car park, in that the impression is that one could almost eat you dinner of it. Entrance

The next photo shows what I felt was the most abstract......no, make that "bizarre" way of utilizing mannequin's I have ever seen. To take the heads of them after setting them in place and removing their heads was something I had never seen before. My immediate thought and one that I do not use in a derogatory way, is that it came across as thought removing the heads and getting the dolls to rest the odd arm or two on the balcony / rail came from either a student who had only just started work at the house of Frazier, or from the mind of someone who had lost a love that same morning and was having difficulties removing their negative thoughts towards their now "ex" partner and was instead finding Solis in removing the heads that way.

...and those Mannequin's

We had a good look around and it was extremely difficult to move away from the chocolate shop. I almost bought my daughter a rather nice sweet dispenser but realized that it would probably end up with me using it more than her. (Truth being that it was a subconscious thought really that I was wanting it for myself and just trying to excuse the fact that it would add even more pounds of weight onto my already fat body)

Cafe Zest

We stopped off to have a relaxing coffee after a long drive. I found a beautiful cafe called "ZEST" It is situated on one of the highest levels of the shopping mall which gave for great views of the shopping strip and walkways. The coffee was £2.50 each which was in my book more expensive than any local Felixstowe or Ipswich Cafe would dare charge (correct me if I an wrong) But in all it was worth it.

That View!

The Norwich city center was jam packed and we both agreed that Norwich people in general lack manners. If theres one thing I like about where I live and Suffolk on the whole, its that when people accidentally knock into you or over shoot their personal space, they react to it and will either give a polite gesture or an apologize. Unfortunately in Norwich manners are definitely a no no. The best way to describe Norwich is to describe it as a wanna-be London. It's certainly busy and people are certainly in a hurry to get to where they are going. But it doesn't seem quite real. Its as if people have read a book that teaches those with inadequate lives "how to look like you have somewhere to go"

Apart from that, the artwork in the city centre was certainly a welcome surprise

Phoneography

Technology.......

I was looking back at some of the many cellular / mobile phones I have owned. Heres the last few. Its interesting to note that although the size of the phones across the board, has not been a factor that can be used to accurately show the technology advancement, it is only the amount of memory, the look (ergonomic and form factor) and the functions that show how we have advanced to the present day. My point is best proved by the picture of the Motorola M66. This still is one of my all time favorite phones. Not because it had a ton of features, but because it was and is so damn small. Its footprint is still unmatched even today. I have not seen many other phones that are as attractive and as small. If I remember the ring tones that were available, I was more than happy with it. Its only the phone I now own called a Hermes, which is released under the Orange network as an M3100, that has since become my favorite phone. This is simply because of the amount of expandable memory, the video and photo software and many other functions and applications that have made it something more than just a phone. The Hermes is with me so much as it is as handy to have to hand as a laptop would be.

Below is a pictorial time line showing the phones in order of there place in my phone-history.

Look who I found on YouTube

The next big thing?




I found the following music Video on YouTube this morning. The musicians name is Calvin Harris and the track is called "The Girls"
I hadn't heard of him previously but from a little bit of Googling I found out he is more than just a rising star.

http://www.calvinharris.tv/

Anyway...Theres several tracks that he has uploaded in video form, but the one above is by far the most commercial due its catchy baseline, funky rhythm and repetitive chorus.
One things for sure, this track has definitely got a summer groove right the way through it. You've just got to hear it once to pick up the summer feeling that literally "drips" from the sexy synthesized upper base line which I might add has the added bonus of sounding remarkably like a late 1980's electro / pulse bass sound. This can only be a 100% good thing ("THANG") as it will rake in those like me who were and still are 80's lovers.
I digress: now go on and press the play button and see what YOU think....am I right or am I right....
...oh: and he's based in the United Kingdom too

Good luck Calvin on the Channel 4 recordings and future touring. You deserve all the fame you get as you work kicks!!

Ripped Off & Angry

I bought this battery 2weeks ago from a USA Company on the grounds that it had been linked to from another site I go on dealing with PDA type issues. I waited and waited and when it finally arrived I was really a happy chappy. Its supposed to be as it advertised: a longer lasting battery than the one that comes with the type of PDA Phone I have called a Hermes (Orange SPV M3100)
BUT...on tests and trying out its capacity over the space of a week, it has proven to be totally useless and unreliable. It is supposed to be a 1500mAh battery which is slightly more than the default battery that comes with this phones which is 1350mAh, and is advertised to be up to 40% better up time.

Heres a quote from the site:

Replace your Cingular 8525 Battery or Keep an Extra Battery on hand as a backup. This is a Super High Capacity 1500 mAh, Lithium-Polymer Battery that offers up to 40% more up time than your original. Works in your Cingular 8525 unit. Simple, Easy and Inexpensive! You get a New Battery AND You also get a full ONE YEAR Money Back Guarantee exclusively when you purchase from us.

http://www.ipods99.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=CING8525SL

Never again!

Fresh Bread and Coffee

Good morning world.
Well, at this moment I am sitting with a coffee and relaxed mood waiting for my driving instructor to turn up. I have half an hour yet so thought I would add a small post as I don't haven't had the time recently to write.

Things have been a little difficult on the weight loss front. Why? Because there have been so many other outside influences that seem to have taken presedence over everything else. Rest assured thought, I have still managed to put my half an hour down on the treadmill. Usually at night I'll put the headphones half on my head and chill out to some 80s music or some acoustic material from unsigned artists of the net.

Anyway, the ironic part to the "loosing weight" bit, is that I have managed to to get down to 18st 7. Yesterday it was 18st 4! It fluctuates for sure. But its a start. I have weighed a little over 19st and a bit for over a year. And to have your doctor tell you that according to medical terms and charts I am medically obese was the turning point. That happened several months ago. Since then I have got so fed up being out of breath and feeling off in the morning that enough was enough.
I certainly feel better already. Its a mix between seeing the weight gradually come off and the feeling that it has at last sunk in that I am in complete control and it IS my lifestyle and comfort eating that has done this and NOT because I am an old fart! This is actually what I was putting it down to for so long. That I was simply past it. Ahhhhh Don't ever want to feel like that again. Its crazy what our mind tell us.
I must watch too much Hollywood based media material because only last week I found myself in deep conversation for the second time with another friend about plastic surgery, and in particular: liposuction!!!






I never use to believe in it, and thought like so many others, that even with the funding in place and money was no object: that I would NEVER have surgery for vanity only reasons.
Guess as we get older and are forced to go through life changing situations to do with our own self esteem and bodies, that some of us change out outlook and attitude.
I certainly understand how short the ticket lasts for this "One way Earth existence trip"

Life catches up with all so damn quickly. Having a child full time (except for the weekends, when my little one has to go stay with her mother "for the moment anyway"), makes one realize damn quickly how short life is and how precious each day is. I need to get fit and healthy not just for myself but for my daughter too.
After all, you can only sit on the rug with you child and play floor games like "Garage and Cars, Dominoes, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, My-Mini-Laptop, Drawing etc" for so long. Going to the park is getting more fun now as its becoming ME...yes ME that stops last when we run down the hill at the park. Not so long ago it was me who came out with it first "Daddy has got to stop for a few moments."
The best thing I ever did was completely stop smoking over six months ago. It's hard to put into words how much better the quality of life is. I never realized how stinky my clothes were and the apartment was before. Now it smells clean and fresh!!

Sophie my daughter and I have started baking out own bread recently which as you can imagine fills the place with the most wonderful baking smell. I also love filter coffee. So you can imagine how nice the whole place really smells now. I appreciate coming back to a nice smelling home now as does my daughter.
I've also been using a Glade PlugIns Scented Oil Light Show.

I bought it several months ago. It plugs into the outlet with the included adapter and lights up all different colours which show it is on and reflect on to the wall behind. Some are better than others.


But these are great to. The best one I think is called Vanilla & Cream something like that. I find that it aids restful sleep and it really does make you fell good when you wake up.
Also I recommend Raspberry Rain & Watermelon Rush. Both are worth trying.



Anyway. That's enough scent talk for today.

Life IS what you make it

Thought for the day: life is what you make it. Wish I'd have realized the truth of this many years ago. But it's never too late I guess.

BREAKFAST TODAY

[the following to be edited]
Breakfast today:

4 x Malted Milk buscuits.








2 x cups of coffee (2 sweeteners, full cream milk)







2 x slices of toast with just Marmite on top.

Still a way to go but...

I have now finished rebuilding the guts of a "heart-light" which I bought at a car boot sale recently. Knew my little one would love it and she does. But I had to wait to obtain the correct bits which I did and have and as you can see, in the photo I was testing it out. I have to now finish a couple of bits off, and find a safe place in which to put it up, but I think it's great as I hadn't seen one like this before.


Couldn't resist sharing this photos. Freddie called from below wanting to come in this morning. I'd only just woken up at about 5:30am. She must have superb hearing.


Took my mountain bike into the shop yesterday.It needed a little sorting out where I'd not been to kind to it. Got it done and dusted and went off on a bike ride along the seafront. I actually ended up going from one end of the seafront to the other. Had my headphones on a very large bottle of mineral water so the trip ended up lasting a lot longer than I had planned. It's pretty good though as my body sure need the work out.

Wish I had had the presence of mind to bring some bread for the ducks, as I ended up so far out that I found myself stopping of at the duck pond on the other side of town. It's great the locals got together with the local farmer and rebuilt the pond several years ago, as it was crying out to be cleaned up. Now it is one of the quietest and nicest spots to go when one is in need of a chill out pill so to speak.

I think the only thing that annoyed me yesterday was that having a new armband to carry my media storage buddy (PDA/PHONE) was supposed to make it easy to have constant wireless music. Didn't turn out that way. Everytime I changed any tracks I didn't like, the damn PDA switched itself back on from where I'd left it on standby. Point is, that I am now putting a new selection of mp3 music on it as I was making do with tons of MTV music videos. This way the new software player that works just like an iPod, allows changing without switching the screen on. I am rubbish at explaining myself but I hope that that made some sense.

My daughter comes back home today (5pm) so I am just finishing off this blog, finishing off loading the PDA and am off out for a bike ride for a few hours.
Incidently, I did ok with the new diet yesterday. I had decided to sort out my food intake. So yesterday I ate wholegrain bread, fresh meat, coleslaw, 1 pack quavers, lettuce, beetroot, several cups of coffee. Oh, and I lost count of the amount of water I bought from the shop every now and again and downed during my out and about.
Am not a great fan of water but know I have to get used to drinking a whole lot more if I am to get myself back into shape.
It was only recently that I realized just how fat I was getting. I comfort eat and comfort eat too much. But its now stopping. If I do need a snack I'll start having fruit or carrot sticks.

Biggest lesson learnt of late is simply this: if you feel hungry, stop, drink pleanty of water. If you are still hungry after the water then you are legitimately hungry. Paul Mc'enna said this recently as did a friend as well as a paragraph in the Atkins diet book. It makes sense anyway.


Byebye for now.

Slowly but surely

Got really carried away today. Watching music television videos on my PDA with my bluetooth stereo headphones. Beautiful...
Using this type of setup which is called "A2DP" can be a pain as many people complain of poor quality sound or problems with the music skipping as the phone or pda and HPhones loose the signal and have to reconnect.
Me, I have managed to sort it out and its perfect. It helps forget clock watching whilst on the treadmill anyway.

Little Steps

Absolutely fed up to the back teeth with being fat. So am now on a daily workout schedule. More determined than ever now to shed at least 4 Stone in Weight before I get much older. Just need to define a specific diet plan for using along side the fitness plan.
So far so good. Each day a little more time spent on the treadmill. I'll get there.



7:00pm Saturday 21st July 2007


8:00pm Friday 20th July 2007

I LOVE A2DP

No more wires, just beautiful stereo seperated bluetooth super charged music,

"True Ear Candy"