Kayeso's World

World's worst crazy golf...

2007-08-02T13:58:00.001+01:00

The funfair in Bangor gets more depressing by the year. :(

The 34 year old me

2007-06-12T21:01:00.001+01:00

I love my phone

2007-01-01T01:50:00.000Z

How good are the frames on this thing?

Change of image time!

2006-11-07T13:20:00.000Z

Looking at the previous picture it's easy to see why i shaved the head.

Relax ladies...

2006-10-28T00:10:00.000+01:00

I'm still single, so don't be worrying. Gotta love the way this pic highlights the receding hairline. It's not that bad though, it's been pretty much like that since I was 16!

The aftermath of a saturday night.

2006-10-15T01:34:00.000+01:00

Some doormen are better than others. This saturday nights' are just about the soundest we have. You'd be amazed how much they can ruin a night just by getting on their high horse. Happily tonight there was little incident, and most people would go home with no bad memories of another night in Wolseys.

Ducky

2006-08-13T01:08:00.000+01:00

It was his last week doing the quiz this week. No-one can hack it as long as i did!

Another day, another delay...

2006-07-26T18:35:00.000+01:00

I fucking hate trains. Not as much as i hate buses though! :(

Weekends are more fun if you get paid...

2006-07-23T00:01:00.000+01:00

This is what i do for extra money, now i no longer do the quiz. I do it badly needless to say, but i still get paid occasionally. And it's fun to get to choose what music you get drunk to!

So where do i put the bbq?

2006-07-17T19:40:00.000+01:00

Space is kind of limited in my backyard. No taking advantage of the sun for us!

DJ ken-e

2006-07-16T17:05:00.000+01:00

He's a twat...

Apropos of nothing...

2005-01-11T10:29:00.000Z

After my e-mailing Martin Samuel as detailed below, I went looking for one of his non-sport commentaries which he mentioned were usually on a Tuesday. Without further comment this was posted today; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1434764,00.html

Coincidence I'm sure...

He still has the common touch, you know!

2005-01-11T01:43:00.000Z

So, I was reading Martin Samuel's latest column on the use of video technology in football following the latest saga (as of last week) involving Man Utd, and I thought he'd expressed himself so well I should send him an e-mail saying how much I appreciate his writing. I pointed out that I really missed his non-sport commentaries which cheered me up no end on a Friday morning on the bus or train to work. I should say that at this point I don't usually send people e-mails like this. I always think they would treat such contact as potential stalkers in waiting, and would ignore if at all possible. But then there's the other part of me that thinks of people slaving away wondering why since they've published their e-mail address, no-one ever contacts them apart from to try and sell viagra and dodgy Russian porn, which is the usual result of publishing your e-mail address on the internet...

Anyhoo, the end result is that I got a slightly cagey response from the great man thanking me for the kind words while implicitly not inviting me to be his new best friend, and (more importantly) pointing out that he still does publish the non-sport stuff, just not as a regular comment page, but under his own byline in the Times weekend review, as well as occasional pieces for the Thunderer column, which I was previously unaware of. So, happy days! I just need to figure how to link to his non-sport output and we are officially laughing as he is a very funny man, with a similar liking of Bill Hicks to myself, as well as possessing a particularly cutting insight.

So, that is my contact with the stars for now. Next time, I'll recount my contact with Jon Ronson, the author fawned over in the post below, and how it didn't end up with his taking out a court injunction, which is nice...

Goat Starers Of The World Unite!

2005-01-08T01:36:00.000Z

I've been meaning to add some new ones for a while now, so here goes the first batch. A brief explanation as to who they are and why I have added them follows:

Jon Ronson - He is the author of two of my favourite books of recent years, the best selling Them: Adventures with Extremists, which I don't think I can recommend highly enough. I got his new book (The Men Who Stare At Goats) for Christmas and I'm still reeling from it's revelations it but it has also inspired me to dig out 'Them' again as well as post a link to his website. He also has his own (far better designed) blog at http://fromronson.blogspot.com/ which is worth a look. You may notice he updates his regularly, albeit with very short posts. Maybe that's where I've been going wrong in waiting for some earth-shaking events to happen to prompt me to post. Actually given the devastation caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean caused by a massive earthquake, that was maybe not the best terminology to use. Ah well....
James Randi - One of my pleasures in recent years has been on a Friday evening checking the weekly commentary by this renowned magician turned international skeptic. His views on the surfeit of new age mystical bullshit that seems increasingly prevalent in recent years, particularly with regards to health matters, have rarely failed to enlighten me. I first remember him from a half remembered TV series in the late 1980's in which he displayed all the talents that psychics claim to have while showing how all of it could be done without any of the supernatural powers they claim to have. I would recommend anyone to read his commentary archive which can be found here... http://www.randi.org/jr/archive.html

That'll have to do for the first batch. I'll be adding a few more soon, as well as weeding out those that aren't really in use anymore. Obviously that means the Wolseys and Flange ones, but I'm not sure I'm ready to cut them out of my life just yet!

Just noticed that both of those people have the same initials. Weird or what!? Watch out Jonathon Ross or even Jennifer Rush!

Not with a bang, but with a whimper...

2004-12-27T16:53:00.000Z

So the pub quiz ended on Monday 20th December 2004. An historic day as it will hopefully be the last quiz I ever organise.

People have asked me reasons why I'm giving them up and whether I will miss them and, to be honest, the answer is no. However come January and when I'm not heading out on a Monday night or worrying about getting everything organised for the long day ahead, who knows? Maybe I will miss them. I know I'll miss the banter with Craig as it was only the pub quiz that kept me in touch with him for the last few years, although with the advent of poker in our lives at least there's something else to keep in touch about now! Also, I've hating writing quizzes for a long time now, and it was only the fact that I genuinely enjoyed presenting them and feedback that I got from people who took part, that kept them going for the last two years, especially going up against Cafe's big Monday nights for the last few years. With that and Craig going to Australia for a year, it just seemed a good time to call it a day.

Unbelievably, I've already had one offer to do a quiz somewhere else. I haven't said no yet, as the offer is not yet concrete, but the answer will be no. I only hope that my friendships with some people will not be harmed by saying no to them. They certainly seem to have got their hopes up judging by how far along their proposal is with my name being bandied about already. I will write some other time with the details if it all pans out...

Anyway, tonight is Craig's last night in Wolsey's so me & him and I suppose a few others will be DJ'ing to what promises to be a reasonable crowd. There should hopefully be a few people down to say their goodbyes from friends and staff of Wolsey's who have known him over the years, so should be a good one! All the other nights this Christmas have either had too few people I know out, or just way too many people out for it to be comfortable. Bloody-once-a-year-out-partying-taking-all-the-seats-and-cold-beer-from-those-of-us-out-all-year -round-bastards!

That took a while...

2004-12-19T19:47:00.000Z

Yet again no post for ages. Sorry, but I lost my password, and just couldn't get round to sorting everything out since I couldn't post from work which was where I was doing most of 'my thang'. Finally got round to it today though, so will try and get a few posts going over the next few weeks, which is of course the busy Xmas holiday period, so I'll leave it up to you to realise what the odds are of loads of posts happening...

So to recap on what's been happening since August;

The Wolsey's Monday Night Pub Quiz in association with Sho'Nuff ends forever tomorrow night! I decided to pack it in as I couldn't be arsed doing it without my co-host and good friend Craig who's packing up and moving to Australia for a year. I am trying to do a special one for the last one ever but you can probably tell how it's going by the fact that I'm on here yakking when I should be writing or gathering stuff together. Still only the current affairs round, the picture round and the music round to do... :o(
I've received word that my transfer to Bangor is imminent, although have not heard anything official. I was just given the heads up by my big boss a while back that approaches had been made.
Jenni's still in England. Contact has been minimal to say the least...
Man Utd have been shit. It's only in recent weeks have they been getting back to anything like the standard of only a few short seasons ago, but they still look short of the level that Chelsea or Arsenal are operating on. We REALLY need a central midfielder. And they really have to be a world beater, coz we've been drawn against AC Milan (the favourites) in the Champions League knockout stages. So ideally that worldbeating central midfielder will not have played in European competition this season already. What are the odds?

Hope this does as a first post back. If I can think of anything else I'll try and post it as soon as I can think of it.

See y'all soon!

Recent Events

2004-08-14T16:41:00.000+01:00

An interesting week in Wolsey's has just passed. Last Thursday or Friday a representative from Snow Patrol's record company rang the bar, asking if they could play a gig on the next Thursday (12th). While the guy who originally took the call thought they were taking the piss, he did pass on the request to Simon, the bar manager, who phoned back and said yes, they'd be happy for them to play. Apparently it was to be an acoustic performance to be recorded and included on a future DVD. Needless to say since Wolsey's holds about 150-200 for a band night, and Snow Patrol have sold out 2 nights at the Ulster Hall in less than 2 hours (capacity approx. 1500), keeping all this a secret was a priority, because it was thought they would cancel if it all got too hectic.

Therefore it was somewhat of a surprise to know that practically everyone in Bangor seemed to know about it by the Wednesday afternoon. Rumours of it were mentioned on the forums of the band's website, and apparently some eejit sent an e-mail around MM Group, Bangor's largest employers telling everyone all about it. It was even apparently mentioned by Colin Murray on his (national) Radio 1 show, although by this stage the record company had already phoned to cancel. No reason was given, but I read today on the website that they have cancelled several gigs this weekend due to their lead singer Gary Lightbody being unwell. Although the bar did get some some cancelled posters made up, it was decided that since it was never officially to take place, officially canceling it would be slightly odd!

So, approx two hours after the phone call from the record company, people started arriving in Wolsey's. I was off on the Friday and was planning to head down to the bar about 7.30 to see what was happening, but first made up a CD for the bar featuring Snow Patrol as the first and last track, just to wind people up a bit more! By the time I arrived, the place was almost full, with rumours going round the place like wildfire. Anyone who asked the bar had been told it was cancelled, yet most didn't believe it. I think they thought it was all a huge ruse to get them to give up their seats! One of the best rumours was the band were actually hiding upstairs but were waiting for the crowd to thin out before coming down to play! As if!

All in all a top night, just a shame that they didn't actually play. Although if they had I think there would have been about 1000 people outside the bar. I felt a bit sorry for the Flange having to come on and try and entertain that crowd, but once it was made clear that Snow Patrol weren't playing they accepted it readily enough. Although I don't think the band helped themselves with some of their comments slagging them off for not turning up, especially if the guy was genuinely ill, but there's no telling some people.

Signs Of Society's Imminent Collapse Pt. 285

2004-08-08T00:42:00.000+01:00

Big sodding Brother. Thankfully over for another year, I still fail to see why a perfectly sensible human being would choose to watch this programme. It's rubbish, it's boring, it's pointless, it's artificial, it's a fraud, and yet this year's has been a record breaker by all accounts. It's certainly set records as far as I'm concerned. Never before have I seen less reason to watch this than the parade of dimwits, wannabe's, slappers and arseholes whose every witless utterance is foisted upon us by the tabloid press as if it were Moses himself delivering God's laws from Mt. Sinai. Who cares? No-one would except the programme is relentlessly hyped up for weeks before it starts and then used to fill pages and pages every day while it fills our screens. The only way to prevent this is yet again to not buy tabloid papers, be they the Official Big Brother Paper, the Unofficial Big Brother Paper, or the Official Anti-Big Brother. It all means the same thing. They are full of worthless shit, stealing space away from real news stories, because editors and proprietors aren't willing to trust their readership, and credit them with any sort of intelligence above that of plankton. In saying that you really do have to wonder when you read the 'thoughts' of Daily Star 'readers', and their texted in opinions on the upcoming football season:

'Kick out eriksson the geezers a sex maniac' - Speros hutchins, Bromley.
'Put evil saddam in the efc frontline. Scumbag must neva b allowed 2trouble ne1 agen' - TUX LFC4EVA
'I thought kenyon was a good business man 2 me buyin playas not heard of ayear ago and payin 5 times over the odds 4 them doesnt sound good business 2 me hope he nos what s doin?' - James
'2 amos you remind of a bin full of rubbish leeds 4 the title' - huggy.
'NUFC, last chance saloon 4 ur team coz once mary poppins retires uv got the mecenary n sicknote firing blanks' - BAZ OV BORO.
'only 1 van the man this season van persie mancs watch and learn' - slippery
'is it me or does every1 just hate wolves! We r premier league enough said' - Matt
'why watch black white when you can watch in colour' - pj safc
'3 words 4 u all liverpool liverpool liverpool enuf said' - mk 1 lfc'

Frankly, if you're texting your ill-formed opinions and enemy baiting to a newspaper, then you don't deserve to own a phone. When you do it in finest fuckwit text-speak, you don't deserve to breathe. With predictive texting it can be far quicker to type the word than it is to think of an idiotic abbreviation, then type it out character by character, especially when it takes four key strokes to type a letter 's', one of the most commonly used characters in our language!

I don't want to get all snooty about this but it really annoys me when people use that abbreviated language. To paraphrase something I read recently on the same subject, 'The written word is the finest weapon we have in the battle against ignorance. We should take better care of it.'

Right. Another rant over, another post, errm ... posted. Going to go and have a lie down now!

Hurray!!

2004-07-29T21:05:00.000+01:00

Well, a full month later I finally got round to sorting my password out, and so without further ado, we are BACK!!

I know Christine will at least be happy, as she's been bugging me constantly about getting this sorted out. She even complained about the football posts. I mean, how can you not like football? I hate to think about what she's gonna make of the blog once the new season starts, and Man Utd are gloriously romping their way to an unprecedented quadruple! Ah, I can but wish...

So what else is there? Jenni's apparently due back this week possibly. It was hard to tell from the impossibly short conversation I was able to manage on Sunday between getting cut off due to a lack of signal. I mean honestly, in this day and age, getting a poor signal is just not right. I know people worry about the masts causing hideous deformities in children and frying us all from within over many years, but the fact remains that I can't get a fucking proper signal which is far more important than the lives of other people's brats.

Kids are shit, it's official. And if further confirmation was needed it was in our newspapers this morning, with the 14 year old who was supposedly obsessed with a video game and went out and killed some 17 year old. Here's a rundown on certain points:

Firstly, what sort of idiot gets obsessed with a video game to that degree? Just how dumb or fucked up do you have to be that nobody notices (including yourself) that playing any computer game for more than six hours a day on a sustained number of days is just NOT FUCKING RIGHT! I mean I'm all for buying a new game, and not leaving the house all weekend while playing it. That's fine, but if you're doing this week in week out on the same game, how long before someone notices?
Secondly, the game in question (which looks awesome from the screenshots I've seen of it) has been removed from the shelves of major sellers like Dixons, Comet and other chickenshit knee-jerk reactionary stores, in what has to be year's biggest shutting-stable-doors-after-horse-has-long-since-bolted situations, meaning grown ups who are entitled to vote out governments and stand in judgment of their peers in a court of law, are rendered incapable of making their own decisions as to what video games they want to play. When you think these things through it just makes you despair, it really does.
The game was certified 18, a 14 year old was playing it and for some reason I haven't seen a single picture of this cretin's dumbass parents being kicked to death by a screeching lynch mob, which is surely some mistake. Who bought him the game? If it was the kid himself, who sold him the game? Why aren't they being made to answer for their actions? In a perfect world though, the kid would have bought it himself from Dixons, thereby giving their post-event moralising an even more hypocritical edge.

Anyway, I think that's a reasonable attempt at a first post back. I try not to get too angry at times, but then I read sites like Maddox http://maddox.xmission.com/ and listen to my Bill Hicks stuff, and it just winds me up about stuff no end!!

Hopefully Christine will be happier for this, and it should definitely not be anywhere near as long until my next post. Unfortunately I still can't post from work, due to certain 'issues', but at least I can post at home now. See you soon.

Euro 2004

2004-06-16T13:26:00.000+01:00

Football fever is with us again. Gotta love the big tournaments. Everyone gets so wound up in the anticipation looking forward to seeing the very best in the world or in this case Europe pit their wits against each other, then despite a plethora of dull negative football, people will happily sit and watch the Czech Republic vs Latvia when they would pay good money to avoid watching that fixture at any other time. Still it's all good, even I'm maintaining a excel document tracking all the results, like when I was a kid and dutifully filled in my wallchart for Espana 82 or Mexico 86. Fan-bloody-tastic!!

In other news, we're moving offices this week, going from nice central Belfast to horrible in the middle of nowhere Business park. Pain in the arse. As if the job isn't shitty enough, we don't even get the benefit of being able to go shopping at lunchtimes anymore. It's got me thinking though. I really should chase up my transfer. I've been in the Northern Ireland Civil service for almost 9 years, and I can honestly say I've never had or even seen a public sector job that looked genuinely interesting. How damning is that? I wonder if the private sector is like that...

It turns out I'm a lying bastard. So sue me!

2004-06-11T16:03:00.000+01:00

Here goes for that promised big update...

Things that have happened recently including Wolsey's closing for a refit for a few days. It meant I managed to stay out of the pub all week including a Monday night sat at home seeing all these programmes on television that I didn't realise existed. My first free Monday night in years except when I was ill. Turns out I was missing nothing. The programmes were all shit.

Before the refit though the big news was that we (Wolsey's) organised an auction to sell off a lot of the bar memorabilia and to raise some money for charity. I wasn't sure how it would go but it worked far better that any of us could have thought possible. We raised over £3,000,which considering there was almost no external advertising prior to the event was a phenomenal effort. I was auctioneer for the event, and I was amazed at just how much people were getting into it. The three big items, the tractor stools, the old film posters, and the picture of Kirsty (one of Wolsey's barmaids) recreating that Athena tennis player pose had the crowd oohing and ahhing with each new bid when it got to the serious money. £290 for the picture of Kirsty. I reckon the guy who bought that was going to have a lot of explaining to do the next day to his wife, girlfriend or bank manager!

After all that I was determined that bar wasn't going to piss away the opportunity of some publicity for this, so told Simon and Steven that I would draw up a press release for them to send to local media outlets. It was pretty good for a first time effort (I know self praise really is no praise at all, but cut me a little slack, I've been learning loads of new stuff like this recently, and I'm all proud of myself for it. Yay, go me! Anyway I still haven't seen the promised write up in the Spectator (local paper), so it remains to be seen whether it will have worked.

Okay gotta go now, will post again soon. I promise, no really I do promise this time. I'm not shit you know...

Long time no post... (Again)

2004-06-01T13:38:00.000+01:00

Wow, almost a fortnight since my last post. I had no idea it had been that long. Lots to write about but little time, so I will give you some detail to follow up from where I left off and leave the recent stuff until tonight when I promise I will post a proper update!

So to recap, it turned out that I couldn't find anyone to do the quiz for me and had to do it myself. Turned out it was a very good night for them, with plenty of people turning out. Also Neil O'Driscoll (a former Asst Bar Manager from Wolseys and a genuinely nice guy) was there so we ended up walking back into Bangor together where I went to Fealtys to meet with Gail and Simon (current Wolseys manager and Gail's brother) and of course our French visitor Ryan. Well it was a pretty good night. Neil's mate Brendy (a former barman in Wolseys) has joined the Flange Band as their new singer and although he missed a ton of cues and was slightly unsure of himself at some points, he can definitely sing and I reckon will do the job very well with a bit of practice behind him. Unfortunately I missed his second gig last Thursday due to the stinking cold I've had for well over a week now. Well it turned out that after all that build up that couple of hours was all I managed to see him while he was back. I was supposed to go up to some guys house to watch the FA Cup final with him and a few others, but I got stinking drunk on the Friday night and was in no fit state to start drinking again so early in the day.

Still at least the glorious Man United won the Cup (comfortably 3-0 winners against a very poor, no disgracefully poor, Millwall team. A real shame, but they didn't even seem to try although Cristiano Ronaldo in particular simply destroyed them. That boy is going to be the best footballer in the world in a few years if he carries on at this rate. He was comfortably our best player in the second half of the season, and is developing physically as well as mentally. I don't think he ever stopped running on what looked a very hot day.

OK, enough for today as I need to get back to work! Will post a major follow up tonight including some important birthday news....

Quick update...

2004-05-19T13:34:00.000+01:00

Still no word on whether I can get Paul to cover for me tomorrow night. Don't want to phone him and ask. I might just break down and start begging! I really do need to get out of the quiz though, so not a good situation!

New link added...

2004-05-19T02:07:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention. The Flange Band have a website, though hardly anyone ever visits it. In case you want to there's a link available. There's even a photo of me on there. I'm the one DJ'ing wearing a 'Foley Is God' T-Shirt in reference to wrestling's hardcore legend Mick Foley AKA Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love.

Hmmm...

2004-05-19T02:04:00.000+01:00

That last post really sounds as if it ends with me in tears doesn't it? To be honest, things aren't that bad, just a little down. I haven't been able to contact Jenni since she went back to England. Are these two things connected? I couldn't possibly comment...

Long time no post...

2004-05-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since my last post as nowt really worthwhile has happened, or at least nothing that seems worthwhile when I get round to sitting down and get ready to type. I've lost count of the number of times I've felt guilty for not posting, immediately thought of something to write and then forgotten all about it by the time I get round to actually writing it up in my diary. Ah well here goes...

A reasonably good weekend. I've fallen into the habit of taking Fridays off. I did last week and plan to do so again this week. Thursday nights are pretty good although the Flange Band doesn't seem to be pulling in quite the same size of crowd it once did, although what in Wolseys does these days? I don't know what the deal is but the bar is undergoing a real downturn at the moment. Hopefully once the refurbishment happens there will be a bit of a turnaround, as it really does need a kick up the arse at the minute. Everyone seems to have settled into a rut with little sign of anything happening to counteract the lethargy that consumes the place. Upstairs is in the middle of trying to sort out what they want to play, downstairs nobody seems to make a real effort (even Dodds is simply settling for things as opposed to forcing the issue). Not like him at all. Even the Pub Quiz flyer I mentioned below isn't even put out on the tables unless I'm there to remind them. That bit actually does piss me off a lot. When there is a general refusal to spend money on external advertising, to not even bother telling the people who do come in what is happening in the place is such a big missed opportunity. Not only that but it means I'm wasting my time even trying, and I hate it when anyone but myself wastes my time...

While on the subject of the bar there's another thing that's weird about me though. If I hear anyone criticizing Wolseys I feel obligated to defend it, and I generally take any unfair criticism of the place personally. Just another quirk of my personality.

Anyway I was going to type about what's happening before all that. So this week sees the return of Ryan from Paris where he's been working for about a year now. Of course the Thursday Night Club (A loose social gathering that started from me meeting up with an old school friend Glen for a social pint) was always a big thing for him coz there was a bunch of us who went from Wolseys to Fealtys and then back to Wolseys to see the end of the Flange Band. At one stage there was about 7 or 8 of us heading out every Thursday and he used to comment about how "this was how Manumission started!" Anyway, what with him moving away and the Flange Band moving to Friday nights for a while, it started to peter out mostly although me Glen and Jamie and usually someone else would end up out. Anyway, so Ryan's coming back and Gail, Simon the bar manager's sister and a very good friend is really looking forward to this coz she really liked Ryan (quite how much I'm not too sure if you know what I mean...). Of course it turns out that I have a quiz booked for this Thursday night. The only outside engagement I've had for months, and it turns out it clashes with the one Thursday night I really wanted to have off, if only to try and keep Gail from jumping on Ryan! What are the odds of that? So now I'm trying to get Magic Paul to cover for me if I write the quiz, providing he's not too busy with work, and I don't know how to phrase it to the people of CRUSE (the charity for whom I'm doing the quiz) without making it look like I'm dropping them in the shit for the sake of a few pints. Not that Paul wouldn't be capable of doing an excellent job...

So this is my life at the moment. The quiz sucks, I'm going to look like a complete git to someone this Thursday night, and I'm going to a dead bar to go through the motions again this weekend. A maelstrom of shit indeed...

Today in Belfast... (and Bangor)

2004-05-13T00:04:00.000+01:00

Bit of an odd day today. In Belfast it was such a beautiful day that I started ringing round to try and get someone to go out for a few beers in Donegan's beer garden. Couldn't get anyone, although a good bit of that is coz it wasn't anything like as nice a day in Bangor, at least according to Simon and Steven, although they are both possibly lying gits who just didn't want to hurt my feelings by pointing out that I had no mates!

Did manage to get Jamie and Simon to meet up for a few after work which included a nice dinner in Donegans, the first time I've ever eaten there. Only a bacon & cheese burger but it was very nice, and the spicy chips were good too. Then we went in next door to Fealtys for the match between Southampton and Newcastle. Southampton scored with 5 minutes to go to seal Newcastle's fate and even though they got an equalizer in injury time it means Liverpool will almost certainly finish 4th barring an unheard of miracle. Liverpool need to lose 6-0 at home to Newcastle while Aston Villa win 6-0 at Old Trafford. Not very likely at all then....

Spoke to Christine though which was nice. I know she reads this blog so here's another hello!!. Wonder if there is any way of figuring out whether any other person in the world is looking at this page? I know you can put counters on web pages, but whether they'll allow them on this is another thing. Will have to give it a go sometime though...

Check out the time of this post...

2004-05-12T05:17:00.000+01:00

So tired. So very tired!

What's been happening recently...

2004-05-08T15:36:00.000+01:00

Sorry it's been a couple of days since the last one, so here goes...

Actually it's been hard enough thinking of what to write on this. Once I'm logged in and all I can usually think of stuff to say, but to actually go out of my way to start typing stuff is usually a bit more difficult. The other thing that annoys me is the fact that despite the fact that there is a perfectly good spellchecker, I automatically go and correct any keying mistakes i make. It's actually quite infuriating, and thanks to my stubby fingers I always make loads of mistakes. Well I'm going to try and leave them from now on and let the spellchecker do it's work unless it's stuff I know it won't pick up on, like typing so instead of do. Oh and grammatical errors as well. I'm not sure it'll pick up on things like that!

Anyway, I was going to tell what's been happening recently. Well, on Thursday I didn't do anything as I was knackered, so didn't bother heading out. Watched Newcastle Utd get beat by a poor Marseilles side, complete with our man Fabien Barthez. Who would have thought getting bombed out of United would see him have success in Europe this season? I think that sums up how shit our season has been...

As for Friday, got word from Jenni that she'd arrived back in the country, and was heading out Friday night. Hurrah! Anyway, so Jenni, Karen, and later on Jenni's sister Danielle and her mate (Louise?) headed down. I got bored quickly (I have very poor hearing and find it impossible to hear people talking in pubs) so started drinking vodka as quickly as possible. Got quietly hammered. At least i didn't end up too bad, as at one stage I was getting a new drink every 15 minutes!

Anyway, feeling a bit rough this morning, so didn't bother heading out for the football. Doing it all again tonight anyway. Have to do a copy of my dance cd that i did for Gail for Kenny so he can play tonight. Plus I want to do a new one for the bar as it's been a few weeks. Still haven't got paid for the last few though...

Ooooh, check this out!

2004-05-05T23:39:00.000+01:00

Added a title field as I think it would help distinguish my rambling posts from each other. Hope it works!

2004-05-05T23:02:00.000+01:00

Not much to write home about today. Had planned to watch the football tonight, but I forgot it was on Sky and couldn't be arsed heading out to watch it. No word from Jamie or Simon about it either. I'm assuming they ended up going to the cinema as they had mentioned earlier in the week. Ah well, Chelsea went out as it turned out. the worst thing was that for one glorious minute, they had the scoreline they needed to go through. So a Monaco vs Porto final. Wonder what the odds would have been on that at the beginning of the season? No English, Spanish, Italian or German teams for the first time in nearly twenty years!

Oh there is the new Viridian Room, the sequel to the Crimson Room puzzle that did the rounds a few months ago. It's excellent fun. I'll have a go at entering the hyperlink here.

Viridian Room

Hope that works. it a good wee puzzle though. Wasted a good hour trying to figure it out. then gave up and started looking for cheats. Turns out the game was only released on 28th April and there's a full walkthrough already available! What's that about? Some people (myself included) just have no patience!

Apart from that, not much seemingly happening in the world tonight. Might phone Jenni after posting this, just for something to do. Dunno whether to bother though. I haven't been able to talk to her on the phone properly for way too long for someone I was so close to only last year, when I could really talk to her about anything. Hopefully when she gets back, things will go back to how they were before last year when I think between the pair of us we managed to fuck things up pretty good. I keep having the dreaded feeling they won't though! Let's hope though...

2004-05-05T01:34:00.000+01:00

Damn, I'm getting good at this stuff! Check out the links on the right hand side of the page ---->

Have figured out how to edit them. Of course the fact that it turned out to be really simple, doesn't put me off my celebrations at all!

2004-05-05T01:25:00.000+01:00

Needless to say, I managed to fall asleep at about 8.30 for about 3 hours. So much for watching Kill Bill! GI Jane is on telly tonight again. Why do they keep showing this film? It's at least the third time this year it's been on. ITV really is the biggest pile of crap going. I noticed an advert for another Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes this weekend, a full week after their last edition. Are there any bloody celebrities left who are yet to appear on Stars In Their Eyes? They must be running short by now. Of course this is in addition to the edition of Kids Stars In Their Eyes that aired earlier THE VERY SAME NIGHT! Honestly. Two episodes of the same tired old program in prime time on a Saturday night. And they wonder why so many people go out on a Saturday. ITV should be fined by the regulators for such a lack of ambition. While they are at it they could impose heavy fines for generally offering garbage to the viewing public. Bad Girls and Footballers Wives are an absolute disgrace to programming, and anyone who enjoys them should have their televisions forcibly removed. Trashy and entertaining they may be, but the standard of acting and production in them is little short of embarassing.

The same goes for their Sunday night programming. Heartbeat is still on for some unknown reason. Considering they originally moved forward a year with each new series, they should be up to the 1990's by now! Heartbeat for those lucky enough to not know it is also king of the 'musical prompts for idiots' that always accompany truly bad drama. For example, a new dawn on screen will always be accompanied by Here Comes The Sun, or Sun Arise or something similar that immediately reminds even the most retarded viewer of what's happening on screen. Honestly check it out for yourself. Once you spot it, you'll realise how incredibly insulting and unimaginitive it is. And it happens with nearly every new scene. After a while you could turn the sound off and start thinking what song they are likely to use for each new scene. Better yet, turn the television off, or at least change channel. I remember hearing about people whose parents banned ITV from their home when they were growing up, and how it was such a snobbish thing to do. Honestly speaking, the more I see of ITV, I have to say I would very happily do the same. I know it's not all bad but what little decent fayre is on offer I could quite happily live without if it meant never (even accidentally) seeing another epsiode of Emmerdale.

Oh and while they are at it could ITV bosses please stop automatically using Davina McCall or Ant 'n' Dec for every new program idea they have. Give someone else a chance, for God's sake. it's getting very very boring.

2004-05-04T15:54:00.000+01:00

www.you-at-wolseys.com

Above is the link that should appear in the post below. I don't know why it didn't originally. The tags and text all seemed present and correct when I went to post the message before, but it just never appeared. Who knows? The dark arts as these things are often referred to as completely baffle me, as you will see more and more of in the future. Bear with me, though I'm sure I've something interesting to say in the middle of all the fuck-ups!

2004-05-04T13:37:00.000+01:00

Good quiz last night. Pretty busy and some stunning women in the bar. If you were one of them, congratulations, and sorry for staring quite so much! Not much blog worthy happening the rest of the weekend except for the end to Sunday night. All was going well in Wolseys with a lot of drink being taken and good banter, until some bright spark (me) decided that we should go up to Donegans to see what the karaoke was like. Needless to say I owe everyone apologies, and the fervent promise that we will never be going anywhere near there again on a Sunday night. What a nightmare. It was busy, warm and you couldn't really move anywhere, which would have been unpleasant enough coupled with Donegan's too-low ceiling and their well-founded reputation for pisspoor warm beer, but all this combined with the incredibly shit steeky beats dance music that they were playing when no-once was singing, made it one of the least enjoyable experiences of my life, made only tolerable for seeing the lovely Louise and Rosie. Simon ended up standing hiding at the front door, Magic Paul ducked out early and generally everyone stood around wondering why the hell we ended up there.

Anyway, I said Jenni was home this week at the end of my last post. It turns out I'd buggered up my dates. It's the end of this week when she gets back. And I will post some details on Jenni at some point. I promise. I'm not sure as yet how comfortable I am posting it here yet. Needless to say I'll get drunk one night and blab it all (in blog speak at least). Anyway tonight is football and Kill Bill vol 1. At least it will be if I can stay awake that long. All the best...

I wish I could figure out how to edit the links at the side of this page. Can't see how to change them anywhere!! Anyway for the time being I lurk here occasionally. I wrote the Wizards Sleeve a long time ago, and loads of my messages appear in the boards. Hardly anyone uses it now which is a shame. I am supposed to take it over from the original designer (the afore-mentioned Magic Paul) but have never quite managed to get round to it. Story of mine and many others lives...

2004-05-01T13:31:00.000+01:00

For anyone who may actually read this, I'm 30, I live in Bangor, Northern Ireland, I work in the civil service, and I organize a pub quiz in Wolsey's Bar every Monday night. Really I should just link to my friends reunited profile, but I'm not so au fait with posting stuff yet. I've had a website designed for ages, except I can't figure out why it won't appear on lycos. It just says this site is under construction, and I can't figure out any way to have someone talk me through what bit I'm doing wrong. So I ended up just leaving it and pretending as if it doesn't exist, which I suppose it doesn't really since no-one else can read it. It's like that old puzzler, if a tree falls in the forest and there's no-one there to hear it, does it make a noise?

So anyway, I did a new flyer for the pub quiz this week. First one in 3.5 years. It's pretty good even if I do say so myself. If I can figure out how to create a jpeg of it and then somewhere to host it for nothing I'll post a pic of it. I hadn't realised how long it had been since the last flyer until I realised Simon didn't even realise I used to do my own advertising. Man that's bad. I used to be so committed to it as well. I did a new one practically every month. And as for all those specialist rounds.... It went from one every week to one every other week, to one every whenever the hell I feel guilty about not having done one for ages. I couldn't and still can't remember when I started in Wolseys either which annoys me, coz I'm usually so good with that stuff. Maybe I'm getting old. It's particularly irritating because as someone who places such store in self-mythologising I can't remember such a key year in my life. Anyway, that's where all this was supposed to start (writing a new flyer), except I got bogged down in actually providing some detail about my life. No doubt over coming posts I'll let you know a bit more about my 'exciting' life.

By the way, if anyone does ever read this, please e-mail me at kayesoATyou-at-wolseysDOTcom, just to let me know what you think of it so far. Good or bad I don't really mind. I just have strong suspicions that even though I would actually like to be the next Belle Du Jour, I don't know how anyone would ever come across my stuff. Oh and I'd like not to have to sleep with quite so many people for money. Actually that bits not true at all. I wouldn't object to getting paid!

Oh and this bit's for Christine, coz she was the first person I told about this blog. She wants me to write more coz I'm good at it. I don't generally want to because I find it difficult to write without a real burst of inspiration. Anyway, Christine, you were right. Today hasn't been very tough at all. Whether it will be like that normally is another matter though. That makes it sound like I've just knocked out a masterpiece really instead of just some junk about my life and the micro-interesting things that happen in it.

Oh and Jenni comes home this weekend. More on her some other time...

2004-05-01T13:02:00.000+01:00

chipmunks

This little (only 7megs!) animation asks what would happen if like all other child stars Alvin & The Chipmunks ended up getting ripped off by parents & managers and ended up on drugs and shit. Very funny...

2004-05-01T01:47:00.000+01:00

2004-04-16T20:25:00.000+01:00

Songpeople.com - Watch music videos, movies, listen and rate music.

Songpeople is great. I think it's excellent that I can proclaim my views on current and future pop trends, and have my opinions go straight to the ear of the producer. At least that's what it says! And I've won £20 and got at least 3 cd's off them as well. All in all, thanks to Magic Paul for sending me the link!

Anyway, this week it's Ronan Keating. He must have a greatest hits compilation coming soon, and they are trying to sort out a track listing. For someone whose records I have never sought out or bought there are a hell of a lot of songs that I recognize and don't think are complete crap. 26 songs they sampled, and I recognised at least 23 of them. A lot of covers though, although a couple of his solo songs are surprisingly strong.

Well sod this. I'm heading out tonight to meet Gail and Jamie. Gail seems determined to get plastered. I may have to oblige!

2004-04-13T14:26:00.000+01:00

Football news, fun, results, fixtures and features from Football365.com: "k"

The continuing fall out from David Beckham's did-he-or-didn't-he 'affairs'. Honestly, does anyone anywhere, actually give a shit? If you are one of the people avdily buying the Sun everyday hoping for new details you really ought to be ashamed of yourself. And if you buy The Sun normally you really should use this opportunity to decide whether this is a newspaper you really want to associate yourself with. By buying you are encouraging them to write this drivel...

2004-04-09T22:37:00.000+01:00

Football news, fun, results, fixtures and features from Football365.com

2004-04-09T22:30:00.000+01:00

Arsenal have beaten Liverpool 4-2.

Thank Christ. I have no particular respect for Arsenal, but the more teams beat Liverpool the better. It's an irrational hatred I know, but they are the only team/city I would happily condemn to the pits of hell for all eternity....