Birthdays, bad reviews and a disturbing similarity to Scotty Pelk - 18/09/2006

Christ this traffic is getting even worse and work getting even busier, though the latter is not a bad thing. It's good to be busy and keeps the money rolling in. Contender was Steve Forbes vs Nic A? and it was a good fight. Steve is a very good fighter but Nick showed some real balls and took him to the wire. Nick wasn't as proficient a boxer as Steve and I felt that if it went to a split decision they would probably give it to Steve as he was the better boxer. Steve didn't show boat as much and did look knackered by the end of the fight. I think Nick had good reason to be pleased with his performance but it was fair that Steve went through.

Stayed late in the office on Tuesday and when I eventually got round to leaving it had started raining. By the time I was close to home it was seriously pelting down. I had the CD off as the rain hitting the car was so damn loud and the road so awash with water that it felt like I was driving in a river. There was no one else on the road and it felt like I was the last person alive. Out of nowhere there was this flash of lighting that surprised and genuinely unnerved me. I think because I hadn't expected it and there was nothing else on the road that I was suddenly very wary. I found myself looking at passing lamposts and trees and reminding myself that it the lighting came closer it would the higher objects that got hit rather than mine. I even found myself double checking in my mind whether it was an urban myth or true that if I got struck by lighting I'd be safe because of the rubber tyres. Would the amount of water on the road negate this? Childish really and I'm puzzled to describe why it spooked me but it did and I was relieved to park up and get indoors.

After having wrapped them in the office I stopped round at my bro's on Thursday night to give him his birthday presents. He was 21, so the big one and I tried to get him something bigger than normal. Needless to say that at soon as I gave them to him I felt guilty that I should have done more to reflect the special-ness of the day. I got him a 4gb nano which I think he was made up with along with the DVD of The Warriors, which he has liked for some time. I also got him a bottle of 89.9% Absinthe. The two of us have always had this thing of trying to find the strongest spirits that we can find. There's something about feeling unnerved and wary when contemplating downing an Absinthe shot and finding this baby has nicely raised the stakes. Even the label on the bottle warns about not drinking it neat, which we do, and keeping it away from naked flames. My bro had a shot and I had a tiny drop and it was awesome. It made every hair on my arm stand up 30 seconds after downing it.

Friday was my day in the office, as my birthday was on the Sunday, but unfortunately we were really busy but I still received a better share of cups of tea. Being my birthday meant I could choose the hot lunch and I plumped for some pies that one of my colleagues collected from a great shop next to London Bridge which is imaginatively titled Pie. We got the table out and enjoyed our respective pies along with chips, beans, mushrooms, runner beans and buttered rolls. It was then present unwrapping time and I did very well. Got Film Geek and The Matador on DVD, the Halo graphic novel which I'd asked for, Lee Greenwood's Greatest hits (it's got God Bless the USA on it, which is the song that was played at the Bellagio Fountains) and a designed T-Shirt specifically for our Barcelona trip.

My site was reviewed by another review site called Ask and You shall receive. They offer a more thoughtful and considered review than the other 'fuck off and die, you loser' one. Despite this they still panned the site which stung again. I know, I know, I shouldn't submit it but you put yourself on the web for others to read your thoughts so requesting someone to actually tell you doesn't seem that odd to me. They criticized the length of posts and basic template design. Some say it's confusing in layout and what it delivers to the reader.

I know I'm biased but surely it's the simplest form of design. If you visit my site for the first time and you want to know something about me you check the topics on the left hand navigational bar and then scroll down until you find a sub title of interest. Surely that's simpler than scrolling through archives of daily entries to find the ones where I moan about women or supply hugely important cooking tips. If it can't be all singing - all dancing then you need to make things as clear and simple as possible and I can't see how this could be any clearer. Isn't it also one of the purest forms of blog by allowing the reader to get into my head on a range of topics almost immediately.

I think it helped de-motivate me to getting these latest journal entries written. How can I be so mis-understood? Is my use of language so alien to everyone else. I concede that it isn't all flash and bang but as I've said before I think you can judge a person more by how and what they write rather than a flash picture or colourful font. Maybe I am boring, prone to waffling but I read other blogs to get inside people's head and I think a daily paragraph of copy does not allow this. I want my site to be an online representation of me and maybe to others this is what I am. Oh well.

My brother met me at the office and we headed into town to celebrate his birthday. I'd booked a table at my favourite Italian restuarant, which is in Wapping, so we grabbed a few drinks in Shad Thames overlooking Tower Bridge. The Thames and London are still very impressive and it was good to be relaxing with my brother, chatting about work etc. We headed over to the restuarant which was booked for 9.30. Whilst my brother went to the toilet I quickly told the waiter that we were celebrating my bro's 21st and could we not get a seat in the darkest recesses. He also offered to prepare a cake or something which was fine. Having been told recently that we don't look remotely similar I was also keen to let the waiters know that he was my brother rather than my gay plaything!
They do this cracking thin crust garlic bread pizza thing, which was excellent and despite having yummo garlic mushrooms as well for starters went for the tagliatelle with mushroom for the main course. It sounds very un-daring I know but I haven't been to this restaurant for a few years and this was always my favourite dish, so how could I not. Liberally doused in parmesan it was lovely and we had a nice chat and drank in the atmosphere while we ate. The football manager, Harry Redknapp, was eating a few tables away from and must have been tipped off that we were going to be there! They took away our plates and while I decided what dessert to order (I was already stuffed but what the hell) the waiters brought out a tiramisu with a candle. We sang Happy Birthday to thoroughly embarrass bro and then shared it with two spoons.

We did consider hitting the cinema afterwards but instead headed home to check out one of my birthday DVD's Film Geek. It's a small independant film and I had seen a trailer of this about six months ago. We produced a t-shirt using the films strapline and I'd even written to the director to offer my support and tell him that I was looking forward to seeing it. It was a good film. The main character was a film geek and shared quite a few similarities to me. I might not dress as dorkily as him but I certainly share his passion for films, breasts and my website. In some places it was done on the cheap which you expect for such a low budget arthouse film but the script displayed intelligence, I certainly made a connection with the main character and I really enjoyed it. After all the months have passed since seeing the trailer, it was good to see it and not be disappointed. The leads character wasn't hostile and his geekness was because he wanted to connect with others. Colleagues at work who also saw it thought there were many similarities and reckoned that I should have been a technical advisor to add another layer of geekness. Maybe I could have added a piece about the disparity between the size of the actresses breasts and scantliness of clothing on the cover artwork opposed to the size of breasts within the film. I mean really if marketing tells them that large breasted women are more appealing on the cover to the target audience then why don't the casting directors follow this same advice - there you go classic geekness!

Saturday was the midway between mine and my brothers birthday and it was kept lazy. We played a game that I'd got him through his dad called Spartan. I think I mentioned it before but it's this hack and slash game that is pleasingly violent, very well made, has excellent music and can be very frustrating. Cups of tea were interspersed with dramatic walk aways from the console accompanied by heated swearing and complaints that it was 'impossible'. Normally the other one of us would be laughing as we took the controller to have our go only to then be doing the very same thing five minutes later. Went up to collect my friend later on and I wore the 'FIRE' t-shirt that a work friend had got me. She knows my contempt for fireman and it is actually a branded piece of LBF merchandise but the fruit of the loom t-shirt is a really nice fit.

Brother and mate had a full shot of Absinthe which shook them up nicely and my mate later confessed got him pumped and ready to party almost immediately. He wasn't pissed but he certainly felt more chatty and sociable than he would at such an early stage of the evening. We headed to a local bar which had a great smattering of nice looking girls before moving onto our usual haunt with two female friends. Even though it was the first time in what was such an iconic place for me we didn't move downstairs and just continued drinking and chatting upstairs. I was driving so wasn't drinking but bro and friend were entertaining as they consumed a fair chunk of shots. I even saw one of the girls who I think used to work at the gym but when I was last there (yikes it was a fair few weeks ago) didn't look like she was working there but just using the facilities. She always used to look quite cute but brushed up and out on the town she looked very nice. I managed to articulate this to her as she walked out of the door and she gave me a beaming smile, so I hope she enjoyed receiving the compliment.

Dropped the girls off afterwards and as the Blackheath tea hut had a huge queue headed on to the all night McDonalds. Can you believe that they don't have cheeseburgers on their all night menu? I mean really this is McDonalds and you can't get a cheeseburger. Drunken bravado kicked in from my brother who proclaimed we could eat masses so we ordered 6 large quarter pounder with cheese meals and a box of twenty chicken mcnuggets. It sounds gross but it was the birthday weekend (like I need an excuse!) and we hadn't eaten much during the day.

Sunday was my actual birthday but most of my presents had come through at work. I think I suffered from the classic not knowing what I wanted to ask for my birthday until about two days before it. MotoGP was in Philip Island and it started raining which threw the cat amongst the pigeons and allowed Melandri to grab a win which was good to see. Disappointing to see Gibernau lose his nerve on the very last corner of the last lap to allow Rossi to sneek through and grab a place on the podium. We moved on to my Aunts in the afternoon for a family get together which was nice. I got a good family who I like and get on with and it was great to see my cousin who was back from her time in Korea, though she's only back for two weeks or so before clearing out to Honduras. Chatting to my cousins etc made a nice end to the weekend.