Summer Lovin', had me a blast

Last night was the Summer Ball of the University I work at and I was lucky enough to be on the VIP list plus guest, in this case Jonny. I had spent the actual friday daytime helping with preparations such as putting up fencing and generally sweating away on a very hot day (34C), and wasn't actually in the mood for partying from 8pm till 4am but I made it and had a cracking time. The acts headlining were Electric Six, Kosheen, Thirteen Senses, N-Trance, and DJ Steve Sutherland, along Lee & Bombhead from Hollyoaks presenting inbetween acts.

We actually went to the Chicago Rock Cafe for a few cheap drinks as they were doing a pre-ball party. It was very quiet there but we did get a few champagne cocktails down us, although there wasn't really a way to drink cocktails named 'Cherry Blossom' without raising the camp factor, and if you're gonna do that then you've got to do it with style. (see picture below. Jonny and myself had already been labelled 'gay' as he came as my guest, laydees I can assure you that is not the case....well not for me...I do sometimes wonder about Jonny.)

As part of my VIP status (a perk of working there) I was allowed into the VIP area which was a kind of chill-out room......with free booze between 8pm and 10pm. We got there at 9:40pm so in that time we had 3 bottles of Bud and 3 glasses of Rose Champagne each...not bad....shock...Electric Six were starting at 10pm and it was 10:10pm! Off we ran to see what was to be a brilliant act.
The hall they were playing in was like a sauna and from the following pics you can see that Dick Valentine is a wee bit sweaty.

(notice the demon eyes)

Dick Valentine who provides the vocals for Electric Six was amazing and had a real stage presence, constantly encouraging the crowd and showing amazing energy in what he described as "the hottest gig I've ever been to". as the sweat was dripping off him. I knew how he felt, as the sweat seeped through my suit. Obviously the highlights were the singles, Gay Bar and Danger! High Voltage, and you can click here to see a video clip I took of Gay Bar.

Up next it was N-Trance, who provided tunes such as 'Set You Free' and 'Stayin Alive'. I must admit I had a 'rave moment' and was throwing shapes when the played 'Set You Free', which is an absolute classic, and I was happy that the two vocalists provided some interaction as the problem with getting some DJs and MCs is that they sometimes just whack a CD on and go through the motions.
I've actually just visited their website (http://www.n-trance.co.uk/k) and they've got a trivia section with a few facts, the best being that: When on 'Desert Island Discs', Tony Blair picked N-trance's version of 'Stayin' Alive' as one of his choices.

The Fun didn't stop there, and up next were Kosheen, a late replacement for Akon, who had pulled out of the gig with one weeks notice (resulting in posters around Uni stating 'What A-Kon'). I'd rather see Kosheen who's album 'Resist' I actually own. They were brilliant with Decoder and Substance doing their magic on the decks and synths, and vocalist Sian Evans bellowing out the lyrics.

Now I hate to admit it but I really like Hollyoaks, and find some of the charactors hilarious, the best two being Lee and Bombhead, so when I found out they were gonna be presenting I was quite excited. Sadly they seemed to be missing and we hadn't seen or heard about them all night then at 1am, by now I was a sweaty, adrenaline-pumped, drunkard, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Lee Hunter (Alex Carter). I thrust the camera into Jonny's hands and went and asked if I could get my photo with him ( how could he refuse when confronted with a large shaven-headed man? Notice the unbuttoned shirt...very cool Adem.)

This was at the same time that Thirteen Senses were on, and they r-o-c-k-e-d! I had run out of space on the camera and so only one picture of them. I've actually only heard one of their songs before('Thru The Glass') but I'm sure I'll be hearing more of them.

It was now around 2am, a time when the bars were closing, so we took it upon us to buy more alcohol, and stockpiled it in a bush to last us for the last two hours before our transport home arrived at 4am. In this time I bopped to the tunes of DJ Steve Sutherland who, along with 2 MCs, played a great set, really working the crowd.

I finally got home at gone 5am, collapsed, and sadly woke up at 9:30am.....I'm quite tired now but usually when I wake up I stay up. I think I'll have a lie in tommorrow...

All in all it was a classic night and the depth of the acts was amazing, with no rip-off, miming, ego-inflated stars to be found. Pure Quality.

*this picture is for jonny.

I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has met for its annual meeting and has condemned Japan's plan to increase the scale of its catches to 1000 in the name of science.

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling dates from 1946, a time when I think there were more things to worry about, i.e. rebuilding after WWII, and on the subject of scientific study it states:

"...any contracting government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorising that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the contracting government thinks fit..."

After the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, the Japanese embarked on the Japanese Whale Research Programme in Antarctica.

Fortunately there are a few people at the IWC with a bit of sense, who have suggested that it might be worth analysing this 'scientific data' from the past 18 years before they can justify increasing the number of whales caught....I can see the Japanese backtracking now and having to cram on their homework from the past 18 years...."Sorry Sir, my dog ate it."

The Autrailian delagation (lovely folk) put forward a motion that the Japanese would have to cease killing more whales, or switch to non-lethal modes of study, until the data has been collated on the 18 year study.

The motion passed by 30 votes to 27 votes, a narrow margin. Luckily not all the developing countried that Japan had bribed enlisted turned up. (See this post about all those shenanighans)
Sadly it seems that this will not do and Japan will hope to reverse this decision at next years vote, hoping to enlist more nations that would side with them.

"It's time for Japan to respect an international forum which has said for the 41st time in 18 years that there's no justification for this research programme," Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) told BBC News.

I've been on the IWC website and had a look at the recent additions to its membership. In a previous post I put maps up to show that many of the countries Japan had enlisted had no actual interest in whaling as they had no coastline. Click on the following names, all of whom have joined in the past year, to see their non-exitant coastlines: Luxembourg, The Slovak Republic, The Czech Republic, Hungary.

I must admit that I'm a bit biased and that I am a bit cynical in thinking that every new country that is joining has been coerced by Japan and is in favour of whaling. Maybe, just maybe, these countries are joining so that they can have a positive say against whaling. I can dream but it seems that people are only willing to join something if they have an alterior motive and want to get something out of it. I am so cynical.....

Blog Anniversaire

I was scouting a few blogs and someone mentioned they'd missed their blogs anniversary.....shock.......I had missed mine too! The Big Blog first came into being on Monday 10th May 2004 and has been going for over a year. So as a belated birthday present here's what the first post was.

Just Started Blogging

My friend Dave told me about blogging so I thought 'Fuck it' and am gonna give it a go. We'll have to see how long it lasts. Hmm now to find stuff to put on it. - adem

posted by adem at 7:28 PM

I'm sure that this is the way that many start but I've seen many bloggers lose their way and fail to update their blog after the first few months......how sad. In fact this is the case for Dave's blog, which has a grand total of eleven posts, and shares the same birthday with the Big Blog.

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle

Whilst I'm on my self-righteous tip, I might as well tell you that I've been recycling. I must admit that I didn't really do that much until about 6 months ago. Previously I only went to the recycling centre every so often (usually after a large party with a car-bootfull of bottles) but now I'm well up for it.

As you can see from the picture, I collect Newspapers, glass, and tins, and every 2 weeks the 'green' waste (stuff from the garden) is picked up by the special binmen.
The only thing is that there's no provision for plastics, which to be fair are a lot more prevalent nowadays in our throw-away consumer lives. I think it may be because there are so many types of plastic that it would probably cost too much and take too much energy to collect it and thus it would negate the whole recycling ethos. Who knows? I could probably look it up but I can't be bothered (just look here).
I still don't understand why the whole 'returning bottles to where you bought them from and getting a few pence thing' was discontinued here in the UK. I do remember having to take back lucozade bottles and getting a few coins back sometime in the 80s, and local kids would see if they could take other people bottles back (and obviously keep the return coinage.)
I was in Canada a few years back and they still operate that kind of system, and I'll tell you, people are less likely to throw away their bottles (When you buy the drinks your receipt tells you how much deposit you paid for your bottles adding actual value to the receptacle you are using.) Any that do get littered are soon picked up by tramps and they get a few cents their way. Still having plenty of homeless isn't good either.

Well I'm off to bed as I 'm tired and have been working at the pub, and I sure this post has started to ramble a little at the end.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When will I see my picture in the paper? I can't answer, I can't answer that.

I was in Yahoo, just about to check my email, when the headline "Goss claims he knows where Bin Laden Is", my immediate Goss association was that from the former boyband Bros!

Strangely it wasn't.........silly me.

Something fishy's going on! (I mean mammaly...my bad.)

I love whales.....but I couldn't eat a whole one!! ha ha ha! Well apparently this wouldn't really go down as a joke in Japan, Norway, or Iceland, as they seem intent on overturning the 20 year ban on Whaling. In past years the votes in favour of whaling have gone up, with there needing to be a 75% majority of the members of the IWC to remove the ban.

How can this be? Well since the International Whaling Commission (IWC) set up in 1947, the membership has more than doubled from 30 to 66, with 9 new members joing in the past year. Japan has been bribing recruiting poor developing countries and securing their support by offeing incentives such as large aid packages. Many of they countries have had no previous link to whaling and a few, namely Mali and Mongolia, have no coastline to conduct their apparent wish for whaling from! A bit naughty if you ask me.

Excuse me, Mr Mali, where's your coastline?

Excuse me, Mrs Mongolia, where will you be whaling?
I hope that the ban remains as many species of whales have been almost harpooned to extinction, but even if the ban remains there will still be those countries who simply decide to ignore it and make a sham of a system put in to protect our wildlife (Japan hunted 400 whales last year for 'scientific reasons' and the Norwegians openly defied it by giving its whalers a quota of 670 whales in 2004, up to 797 this year.)
Still we can't talk can we? Don't even get me started on the poor Cod!

In fact it was a little bit fright'ning, but they fought with expert timing

Now that's better, Eddie Murphy Raw has just started on Men and Motors. I didn't know it was going to be on but I was watching K1 - Ultimate Fighting, which is ultimate fighting and a little bit like Mortal Kombat, and once that finished , Eddie's stand-up video came on. It's got some very funny bits in it but it's definitely not as funny as Delirious, which is absolutely hilarious, if not very PC.

Scent and a sound, I’m lost and I’m found, and I’m hungry like the wolf

I watched Teen Wolf Too (1987) last night, the sequal to Teen Wolf (1985).....that's 91 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

"a big steaming pile of shit" - me

The greatest gift they'll get this year is life

I've moved my 'Make Poverty History' from the right of the screen to the left and made it HUGE. Do you think it's big enough? Hopefully it'll attract a bit more attention.

---------
Also: I joined Flickr today and whacked a few pictures up and put the 'flickr daily zeitgeist' on the sidebar to the right. It should be scrolling through a few of my pics.

Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a man of wealth and taste.

Football, football, football. I am partial to a spot of footy, both playing and watching. In the words of Jimmy Greaves "It's a funny old game". Over the past decade or so it seems that players are getting the upper hand and contracts don't really mean anything. An example of this is that Cristiano Ronaldo (or actually his agent) has declared that unless he gets a massive wage increase he'll look to move to another club that will be able to offer what he think's he's worth. He's 2 years into a 5 year contract with Manchester United worth £18,000 a week.

Football is constantly changing after the Bosman ruling (freedom to move once a contract has finished) and now maybe the Cole ruling (opportunity to meet potential future employers whilst still under contract to current employer). Many argue that it's ruining the game, but at the end of the day the Clubs are employers, Players are employees, and we the Spectators are the consumers, that's the way it is and Football can't be expected to be treated like anything other than a business, at the end of the day there is profit/loss and the aim to be a successful market competitor.

Show me a job where you, an individual, cannot give notice to your employer and are not allowed to look at or meet prospective employers or business oportunities. I can't see where the future of Football will be when football players gain parity in their contract status with other employees in different fields (excuse the pun) of employment. They will be moving around will-nilly (I have never written that word before, a first, wow!).

In all fairness if another club wants to offer more money to Ronaldo, then he should be able to give a period of notice and move on after that time. But hey that's not the nature of the beast.
I don't doubt that players will gain their 'freedom' sometime in the future, and transfer fees will be scrapped, with the players going to clubs who can afford to pay them (Chelsea anyone?).

Maybe the only solution would be to impose a team salary cap, i.e. all players are free to move as they want but each premiership team can spend a maximum of £40 million on wages a year (See what they already pay). It's be a bit like fantasy football, and the managers would have to decide where the wages will be going. It would also mean that players would keep their wages lower so that they don't price themselves out of the market, and won't ask for huge wage increases.

I do think sports players get paid too much money, but we, as the consumers, are constantly buying the 'product' so why should anything change?

Ticket to ride, white line highway, tell all your friends, they can go my way.

Ian dropped by a CD containing photos and video from the stag weekend in Bournemouth. Apparently after a few drinks I think I can breakdance and will show off my 'style' if I've had enough drinks in me and my so called mates coax me on.

This picture is not of me, but luckily you can check out an mpeg by

clicking here.

It's pretty shocking stuff, and I hope I don't end up like that kid in the email attachments pretending to be Darth Maul (Starwarskid.mpg).

With the briefcase empty and the holes in my shoes. I try to stay friendly for the sugary abuse.

I've just pooped popped up to Westwood Cross and had a look around. It opened on Thursday but at 2:20pm on a Monday it wasn't that busy. Saturday was a different matter when it clogged up the whole area. Anyway there seem to be 3 shops up there that I may actually like! They are...

1. Burtons (I like simple cheap clothes and some of the stuff they do fits the bill, or Adem in this case).

2. Waterstones (wow, a place you can buy books! It's not the biggest one I've been to so they've had to chop out a few categories. But I picked up Angels and Demons by Dan Brown for £3.49, I'd read his others ones already but that one had eluded me.)

3. HMV (I went to a friends brothers gig at the Brittania pub in Margate, Ollie Hodder, and I must say the boy's got talent. His opening song was a cover of Underdog (Save Me) by Turin Brakes from 'the Optimist Lp' of which I used to have a copy of (now long lost) so I bought that album plus Psyence Fiction by Unkle, which I only have on cassette, in a 2 for £10 double whammy... fantastic!)

ba ding ding ding ding di di ding ding bah bahbeday

Have you ever gone out, not think you've drunk that much, and then woken up in the morning not remembering much of the previous evening? I couldn't remember the places I'd been too and sometimes who I was with!
Now either someone's been dropping the old rohypnol into my pints (I did wake up with a funny taste in my mouth...) or I was just drinking a bit quicker than normal.
hmmm I'll have to wait till next weekend to see if the results can be replicated.

On another note last week I decided I wanted to go fishing but no one else could be bothered apart from Big Gay Tom, so we set off to Deal Pier at 11:30am on Sunday (would've been earlier but Tom had to clean out the rabbits hutch). The weather was a bit cloudy and windy but it was still a good day and we carried on till 6pm as I had to get back home for a session of Dodgeball at Pfizer where Jonny had booked the sports hall. I've realised that I'm not very good at Dodgeball (although it was my first time) but made my own enjoyment by being juvenile and putting my fishy fingers under people noses and saying "your mum!".....ah school days......and MILFS......

Tom casting out his big rod

The ugliest fish ever....(looks a bit like blinky from the Simpsons)

Memories of the day....1. me constantly singing Ordinary People by John Legend (it started to annoy me after Tom had committed suicide) 2. Me constantly going on about "how shallow the water was" (I said it about 50 times).

Maybe we'll live and learn, Maybe we'll crash and burn

A strange thing happened the other day. I was listening to the radio and I heard a great song from an artist I had never heard of before, and then on Top of the Pops (I honestly never watch it but it was on the TV before I went out) I saw him again. The artist in question is John Legend (not too sure if that's his real surname) and the song was 'Ordinary People'. A great song and great lyrics too.
I've just had a look at his website johnlegend.com (obviously) and his biography reveals that his real name is John Stephens (I knew Legend wasn't his real name) and that Lauryn Hill and Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green and The O'Jays are among his primary influences, a fact that is evident from hearing his music.

Legend demonstrates a rare ability to fuse the "feel" and vibe of classic old school soul music with the edgy flavor of 21st century hip-hop. While the romantic themes of traditional R&B permeate John's Get Lifted, there's also a street-worthy hipness and confidence: the sensuality of Marvin Gaye and the sincerity of Stevie Wonder merging with the directness of Snoop Dogg and the wit of Kanye West. Yet, John Legend is very much his own artist, gifted with singular talents and a unique sensibility.

There's nothing like a label bigging up (how hip am I?) an artist, but in this case I think they may be onto something. I think the best thing for you to do is check out the website and click on 'media' to see what it's all about. Hopefully we'll hear a lot more from him, and as he has made it into the 'popular' media I'm sure he will. Even if he falls out of the limelight I think he'll still be successful as a songwriter and musician as he has done session work with Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Eve, Common, the Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West (whom co-wrote his current album). By the way....whatever happened to Jamie Cullum?

A blog a day helps you work,rest, and play

Wow, two posts in the same week! I've got to let people know I'm still around. I do like looking at certain people's blogs, I only comment on a few but I'd like them to know that I'm thinking of them s oI think I'm going to put a blogrolling links list on the Big Blog. I've got a paltry list of 4 blogs on the sidebar that I apparently 'Like' but I do read more, although not religiously, but there were a few I used to read that ended and were never updated again.....a shame.

This week has been fairly chilled, and I think it's helped that the weather has been nice. I've even managed to get a few bits and bobs done at home. I mowed the lawn on monday (looks nice, and becoming a habit), and even did a bit of carpentry on tuesday and yesterday. In the hallway there's a coat cupboard, which had some fairly flimsy doors on that kept popping open, so I got some timber out of the shed, some hardboard (from homebase), and got out my workbench, jigsaw (the tool, not the puzzle), drill, and a variety of screwdrivers, and built a set of new doors. They look good and only need to be painted but the only annoying thing is that the house isn't straight! My doors are perfect but the actual frame is not, which means there's a bit of a wonky gap between the doors, but don't worry (ha! like you were) as a bit of beading will sort this out! I know it's cheating but it's certainly easier than putting in a new frame.

Well that's then end of this DIY post.

Still no updates on the holiday (remember to comment and tell me good places to go in reference to a few posts ago)

If we took a holiday. Took some time to celebrate

I'm thinking of going on holiday this summer but to make a change I want to do nothing. Whenever I go away, I like to actually get something from the different culture, try new things and experience something completely different from my life in Britain.
This time I want to make a change, I want to go on a crappy sun-drenched holiday where I don't have to do anything except order cocktails from the beach. It goes against everything I usually do but I'd actually like to be a brit abroad, speak none of the lingo, just laze on the beach, and maybe, just maybe, relax, and return with a tan. I don't want too many ravers there, maybe something in a Magaluf stylee, where the flights are cheap, and maybe I could stay in a hotel (I'm sick of busy hostels), and I don't want to go sightseeing!

So I put this challenge to you! Tell me where I should go! Just post a comment, and maybe, just maybe, you could change my life! What an incentive!

London Sevens

It was that time of year again, The London Sevens. I went last year to twickenham to watch the Rugby and had a great time, so this year I decided to go again. I can't really be bothered to write too much about this but just have to say that I got the train to twickenham at 8:20am and got back to Ramsgate at 11pm, another long day, and another busy weekend. Anyway here are some of the pictures I took....









The seats were quite good so I'm quite happy with the photos although as I was using the 6x optical zoom most of the time to good effect it seems a shame that I've only got 2 megapixels. I've see some cracking digital cameras lately that resemble the old SLR type, great for actual photography but not too practical for going out with...and they're well expensive too! Maybe next year.

But I would walk 500 miles, And I would walk 500 more

It had been a tiring weekend and I knew that the following weekend would be tiring as it was the weeding on the saturday and I was going to Twickenham on the Sunday, so what did I do? I went to Scotland on Thursday, ON A DAY TRIP!
A few months ago I mentioned that I'd booked a trip to Edinburgh as EUJet were doing cheap flights. I got the day off work but it was a every exhausting day. The flights were at 6:15am so I got up at 4:55am! Luckily the airport is only 5mins drive away. I went with my Mum and Sister on a bit of a family outing and we saw the sights, and a nice dinner, bought a few knick knacks and by the time we got home (around 8pm) I was knackered.

Roll on the weekend!

Who ya gonna call?

Last weekend (28th/29th may), It was my friend Andys Stag Do, and for this a dozen of us took a trip down to Bournemouth. Over the week myself, Dan (the best man, and twin of said Andy), and Ian, had bee working on Ghostbusters costumes for us all as dressing up has become a tradition for Stag-Do's and occasions such as New Year.
As is always evident the anonimity that a uniform/disguise provides is amazing when it comes to slf confidence, stupidity, and the attention of the opposite sex. Even the most usually shy member of the group will gain new confidence bouyed on by the praise of members of the public and the attention received from 'laydees'. Amazing.

It was a good time, but geting up at 8am and going to bed at 2am took its toll over the weekend, and was yet another reason for me to be tired.

I don't like mondays, tell me why?

It's been over a week since my last post. I know it's a bad thing to do but I just couldn't gear myself up do doing anything as I have been too knackered. I seem to go from extremes of thinking my life is wasting away to doing everything I possibly can and then being knackered. I can't seem to find a mid section between it, a compromise of too little and too much. I like to think that no day is wasted and that if I died tommorrow I'd be happy that I had lived a full life and tried to get as much out of it as possible, but the reality is (I hope) that I'm more than likely to be alive tommorrow.
This morning I got the photos from my camera and uploaded them to my site. In the next few posts you shall see what I've been upto in the past week. My usual week consists of:
Monday: Work 10am-2pm + 7pm-11.30pm
Tuesday: Work 10am-2pm + Squash 8pm-9:45pm
Wednesday: Work 10am-2pm + 4pm-10pm
Thursday: Work 8am-10am + 10:30am-2pm + 5-aside football (varied times in evening)
Friday: Work 10am-2pm + 7pm-2am (Night Out)

Saturdays and Sundays are a mix of leisure sports (golf, football, etc) and drinking, going out, or trips arranged by me.

If you add up the working hours then it only equals 32 hours ( a few less than the typical working week, but the thing that makes it seem much longer is that my time is divided between two jobs, one daytime, one evening, which makes it seem like I'm workin the whole day as there isn't that time to 'switch-off' and relax. I'm always thinking that I can't stop as I've got more things to do. It's the same with the evening sports that I'm committed to doing, which are fun but can at sometimes seem like a chore when maybe I've had a hard day.

I know I've been moaning but as my weeks are crammed full, then I seem to think it'd be great to do something at the weekend and maybe getaway for the day.
My next posts will detail these, but usually the weekend will finish, I'll be even more tired and then the week cycle begins as it's monday.