August 2009

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London International : Finals Day

August 31, 2009 in Bowling, London | 1 comment

Hoo, can there have been a bigger let down than finals day at the London International?

Not the organisation, I hasten to add, but my own performance.

For any reader who doesn’t already know (and I’m sure you all do as only my friends visit this!) I play tenpin bowling to a competitive level. Or at least, I attempt to compete. The London International is a great tournament, with several different ways of qualifying for the finals day, which were today. It is re-entry.

My first entry was let down by a poor first game, but other than that, it wasn’t too bad, so I decided to go again. This turned out to be a good thing as I averaged 208 for the 9 games (213, with tarts bonus) which was pretty good going, especially as the condition was pretty hard. Although I re-entered yesterday as I wasn’t sure if this would be enough, it did indeed turn out to be enough to get me through to finals day.

So, after a sleepless night because apparently I don’t sleep anymore and am in fact a vampire, or at least, an insomniac, I got up at the literal crack of dawn and public transported it to the Airport Bowl, with the help of my friend, Rob. Public transport and bowling balls are never fun and my muscles are now protesting too much.

Lined up really well in practise and felt great for the match, but proceed to throw it away. Lost the first game 224 (I think) to 193 (198). I wasn’t too bothered about this, as although I missed a ten pin, it wouldn’t have made a difference and it wasn’t such a bad game. The next game, however, I just couldn’t cope with the heat and as a result wasn’t throwing the ball fast enough, nor was I throwing it in the right place. I thought I was out of the competition at this point, but then a window of opportunity was offered – if I struck. Sadly, I stupidly tugged the ball and it went sailing left and out of the comeptition I went, shooting a rather measly 160 (165).

I hate bowling.

Nunhead Cemetery

August 28, 2009 in Geekage, London | 1 comment

So, being that I am currently suffering from insomnia, after paying some bills and doing some general website stuff, I decided to take myself off for a walk around Nunhead Cemetery and take some pictures. You can see the gallery on my Flickr.

The cemetery itself is rather large and very beautiful and it was quite peaceful walking around. Until I had a disagreement with an old lady who felt it disrespectful that I was taking photographs. Needless to say, we did not agree and I carried on regardless.

I was quite fascinated by the old graves, many of which had fallen into a state of disrepair. Interestingly, the older the grave, the bigger the stones seemed to be. It’s strange to think that so many years ago, these people were mourned, yet now, their graves sit, covered by the growth of weeds; many of them falling down and nobody seemingly caring.

There was, for me, another point of interest. I’m quite interested in History, especially the History of London. There was a time when I did consider taking a Higher Certificate in the Studies of London. Once again, I digress. Anyway, there was a memorial to a scout group, whose members had drowned. I’m going to google this later as it sounds quite interesting, in a morbid way. The engraving on the memorial said that it replaces the memorial designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Sir Giles was the architect who designed the Battersea Power Station, Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern) and the red telephone kiosks.

Fascinating stuff.

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“Chewing gum is really gross, chewing gum I hate the most!”

August 27, 2009 in Rants, Shopping | 5 comments

The above quote taken from Johnny Depp in the wonderful Tim Burton remarke of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Yes, chewing gum. Yesterday, I bought myself my first digital camera. I know, I should get with times, but I finally have. It’s a rather cool little thing, purchased from the Currys clearance sale. It’s a Samsung PL50, in pink and set me back a rather meagre £89.99. Not bad for a 10 megapixel camera. It’s very lightweight and dinky, and best of all is very easy to use. I am also loving the ‘red-eye’ fix.

Anyway, back to chewing gum. The woman who served me in Currys was chewing gum. Not just chewing it, but chewing it with her mouth open, jaws spread wide as she chomped down hard, which added to the squelching sound effect. Lovely. It’s disgusting and it’s bad mannered and it makes Currys as a company look like they only employ idiots. Oh, wait. They DO only employ idiots. To be fair to her, she was actually very nice, but I couldn’t wait to get away from that gum chewing. That was her warranty sale for the day, out the window.

Although I personally don’t like chewing gum (I’d have it banned, myself), I understand why some people chew it. Off to an important meeting and you have coffee breath? Chewing gum helps to freshen you up. I also believe that there is evidence that it can help to make your teeth stronger.

However, is there really any need to move your jaws apart as far as possible and chew with your mouth open? I don’t wish to hear you chew gum. I certainly don’t wish to SEE your already-been-chewed gum. You wouldn’t eat with your mouth open. Well, most people wouldn’t.

So, for the good of all mankind, CHEW YOUR CHEWING GUM WITH YOUR MOUTH CLOSED.

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Important Lessons Learnt from Teenage Fiction

August 25, 2009 in 1990s, Books | 1 comment

I have absolutely no idea what the youth of today are reading, other than Harry Potter, but back in my day, it was all about The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley. Everyone had their favourite sitter and everyone had their favourite twin in Sweet Valley. Unless you were just a fan of The Awesome Lila, the spoilt rich-biatch. But, I digress.

At the time, I loved these books. I read them avidly and I could never wait for the next one to come out. Of course, they never taught me anything – or so I thought. Sure, there were a few ‘issue’ books dealing with anorexia, divorce, etc but these were rarely done well. The only exception springing to mind is Claudia and the Terrible Truth, a BSC book dealing with child abuse. Heavy stuff, indeed, especially for the targeted age group of these books.

No, with the exception of this book, SV and BSC in general taught me a big, fat, nada. Unless we’re counting some useless bits of trivia which may or may not come up in a pub quiz. However, on reading back over these for nostalgia’s sake, I have, in fact, learnt many lessons. Though, not necessarily the right ones. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome and Technical

August 25, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

After many months (well, years) of putting it off, I have finally got my act together and put my website back online.

Sadly, due to poor planning and disorganisation on my part, I lost my original domain. However, this has made for a new start. I used to be very interested in web design, however I have now fallen beyond the times, though I know enough to realise that CMS is where it’s at. This site is powered by WordPress and I have merely edited the Simply Grey Lily theme. Eventually, I will knock up my own original design, but this will suffice for now. The header was created by me. Please do not knock the quality – I knocked it up without a mouse in Microsoft Paint and I have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever.

The purpose of this site? Naturally, for me to rant and rave as I see fit, leave my opinions and possibly some good old snarkage of the 90s and all that came with it.

Thanks for visiting, I promise future blogs will be much more exciting!

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