Gareth Young

Not only did she take a bottle from my lovely Mother-in-law, she guzzled it, and seemed to want even more - shame I didn't have any more to give her.

At some point in the next few weeks I might try her with a little formula - not as a permanent thing - just to see if she will in case anything unforeseen happens and my boobs break ;)

I see Dwain Chambers has failed in his attempt to overturn the ban on his competing in the Olympics, which was imposed after he was found to have been taking performance-enhancing drugs. Good! I'm definitely with Daley Thompson on this

He's a cheating bastard who shouldn't be allowed to compete. He knew what the rules were. To be prepared to break them and then not be prepared to take the punishment is even more underhand. What he did in the first place was pretty low down. It's cheating. I think that him and all the people involved with him shouldn't be allowed to be in sport.

After over a two month break we've managed to get DinkyMinky to take a bottle(ish)
Hoorah!   (I'd like to add that obviously this pleasure at her varience from the regular feeding habits has nothing to do with my last post - in fact I think it disproves it somewhat!)
Two from me and a really big one from badminky a relief for both of us, as it is the first step to a little more freedom (and the occasional lie-in for me)
We're still not quite there yet - to do that we need to get her to take a complete feed from a bottle, and for her to take a bottle from someone other than us.
The first we can work on every night, the later we're going to try to do with the help of the 'Grannies' as they are the most likely people (other than badminky) who will need to look after her whilst Milk is still the only food going in.
As they visit almost weekly - even if she gets used to having a bottle to play with on their laps, then moves onto proper feed, then that will be a big help. 


Especially for Jen - hope you're not waiting too long for your little one.

for Watchmen.

The look seems right to me for most of it. I'm not convinced by Silk Spectre, but Doc Manhattan, Rorschach and Comedian are spot on.

So the Rock n Blues is cancelled. Again.

But on the bright side, those of us who were going for the music should still be able to see Molly Hatchet and Blackfoot at JBs in Dudley next Tuesday. Woo hoo!

These bands don't come over very often, so it's a rare chance to see them. They're both good southern rock, very much in the same vein as Lynyrd Skynyrd and I would particularly recommend them to those who like a lot of good guitar (without being too self-indulgent). I've never seen Blackfoot before, but I saw Molly Hatchet (a band name not a girl's name, for those not in the know) a couple of years ago and they were excellent.

I am very much looking forward to this. I might even pre-order tickets.

(PS I'm obviously more than happy to meet up with people if anyone else wants to come out for some good ole southern boogie too).

... I am procrastinating. Rather than kncukling down and starting I am talking about starting :o)

This is my next assignment outline:

Part 1 (75 marks)
Either:

Write a short story of 1500 words that includes some use of time-shift and some dialogue.

Or:

Write a 1500-word chapter of a longer work that includes some use of time-shift and some dialogue. Sketch out the plot of the novel in no more than 50 additional words.

Include in your story or chapter one or more of the following subjects:

honour | shame | passion | abandonment | hair | a knife | music | prison | a market square | a letter | a musical instrument

Part 2 (25 marks)
In about 300 words, describe and give reasons for your choices of:

the narrative point(s) of view
the tense
any particular genre it might be written in
the point at which your story begins
the particular emotion or overall mood you are trying to convey

-----

I want to write a fairy tale. I prefer fantasy and, so far, haven't been able to write in that genre during this course at all. However I don't think that I can write a story of only 1500 words in the fantasy genre and while I have an idea for a longer story am not sure that I can do it enough justice in 1500 as an excerpt.

The only other idea that I have is 'mundane' - there is no fantasy in it. I am toying with the idea of a man getting out of prison after serving a lifetime inside for murdering a busker when he was young (late teens, early twenties). He will find that the World has changed so much that he doesn't fit in anymore, he can't find any work and the only thing that he is able to do is busk himself - he will end up sitting, playing the guitar, in the same place that he killed the busker all those years ago.

... it isn't fantasy though ;o)

I just found out that GoDaddy sold my 'ringhype.com' domain to someone else!

Now, admittedly, the domain had lapsed so it wasn't mine at the time but I have just gone back through ALL my AOL emails - and spoken to AOL themselves - and despite GoDaddy telling me that they send numerous emails before, during and after renwel is due I never received a single one of them ... I didn't get a hard-copy letter from Nominet either (which I regularly get for all the other domains). I simply lost track of when the renewel was due and became reliant/complacent on being informed about it as I am for all the other domains.

So my lovely RingHype domain is now being used for someone in India to sell engagment rings! :o(

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!

Premiere of Battle of the Bone tonight - I am SO looking forward to it!

http://www.battleofthebone.com/

Battle Of The Bone is the epic tale of how one country's national day of trouble became known, as it's day of peace...

When two opposing sides face-off in one of Belfast's worst ever riots, fate casts a nasty spell as an army of drug crazed zombies descend on the capital forcing the enemies to join as one, and stop this new threat from taking over the city.

Caught in the middle, are three friends trying to escape to the East, only to find themselves surrounded by bigoted thugs, burning bridges, and high testosterone! Using hard-hitting martial arts, and constantly on the run, the three young heroes soon find out that the fight-loving thugs are only the least of their worries!

A first for Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK, Battle Of The Bone is one of a kind, blending Hong Kong styled martial arts action, with fast-paced zombie action, and local banter, topped-off with a bevy of fresh talent from the hottest Independent film-makers in the North, Yellow Fever Productions!

This year, the 12th of July is going to be very, very, messy indeed ...

Managed to...

Pack for the event
Do all the washing up
Put on washing and hang it out
Watch Shoot Em Up (bloody brilliant)
Beat Lyn in Dawn of War twice (once as Imperial Guard, once as Space Marines)

Oh yeah and I'm now permanent at work

So the Doozer has been on a bottle-strike for a couple of months. Mostly due to Dad laziness relying on ali_ra's awesome boobies :D and me not trying to feed her more often.

So we devised a cunning plan to get her back on the bottle (all though if I find the Doozer concealing cow-and-gate under her mattress it wasn't my fault!) by getting her to play with the bottle as a toy.

Again Ali's done most of the work - me being at stoopid-work-placeTM - and she has now drained a bottle for the second night running.

Can't describe how much of a relief this is as it brings us one step closer to getting our folks to baby-sit. A couple of weeks of this and we'll be sorted.

Happy Birthday jul1et

Just a tad anxious, okay, quite a lot anxious. My twin sister has had to go into hospital until she gives birth to her baby, about 4 weeks early than her due-date. She's several centimetres larger than she should be AFTER the birth, which is being caused by excess fluid. She had a similar problem when she was pregnant with her first child, but she was 25 then, and is 40 now. When she had her mastectomy (yes, this woman has really been through it, as some of you will know) she produced a lot of fluid then too, like her body was trying to mend itself or something. Anyhoo, she's being sent to Bristol tomorrow (from Devon) and they're going to do further tests. She's so uncomfortable she had to stop driving about 3 weeks ago. She stopped sleeping properly about 3 months ago, and now can only sleep about 10 minutes at a time. There are various theories coming from the doctors, but they wouldn't even let her visit Mum on Monday for her birthday for a couple of hours.

I suppose all I'm doing is off-loading. Just a bit worried about both of them.

Typing up the service sheet for the wedding next week, I've just noticed that the hymn "Give me joy in my heart" contains the line "Keep me loving 'til the break of day."

And people think the Church of England is stuffy and boring...

http://jayphoenix.livejournal.com/193784.html

Well, Greer was buried yesterday.

As weird as this sounds it was an excellent day. Rain (heavy, heavy rain) was orginally forecast but it was a wonderfully dry and warm day instead.

There were literally hundreds of people gathered outside his house (and at the CHurch ... seating for 500 but there were people standing inside, in the entrance and even outside the Church!) as well as something up to 100 bikes and 25 or so trikes too.

This is the hearse that he was carried in, which was VERY apt indeed:



The procession was led by a trike, then all the bikes, then the trikes; the hearses (regular car hearse took all the flowers while the trike hearse carried Greer) followed after that. Pauline - Greer's partner - brought up the rear on her trike as she wanted to follow Greer on his last ride.

We rode through the country, past his old house and even past the spot where the accident happened (which was the worst bit for me as I didn't really want to be there) and the doubled back on ourselves to get to their Chruch ... with the police stopping traffic on all the junctions along the way. If it hadn't been for the erason of the ride it would have been one of my favourite days out ever ... even with the reason it was wonderful to be part of such an amazing send off for Greer!

I will try to post some photos/videos later.

For now, though - bye Greer, have a great ride!

Happy birthday jul1et

Cheers guys and gals for all the words of friendship and support it is really good to see what an amazing amount of friends i have.

on a better note i have found my emergency back up hairbrush.

athena25 was right. Wanted is dreadful.

(We're going to leave aside the physics. See, I have learned to rise above that sort of thing.)

I've never read the comic - I really only read the comics that get pressed into my hands by enthused friends, and that's a limited number - but I've gained a firmly formed expectation that it's probably quite intelligently written, with a good plot, interesting characterisation and probably good art. The film made a good attempt to copy all of those, and failed to realise that making a good film out of a good comic requires you to do some things differently.

Summing the film up in a word - callous. The collateral damage is enormous - one particular scene must have killed five hundred nameless people, which fact is entirely glossed over. The final message of the film appears to be "I have a gun and the skill to use it, and am therefore better and cooler than you." I say appears to be - the ending isn't especially subtle about it.

I shouldn't be terribly surprised. It's a comic book movie, and I didn't go in with high expectations. But I can't help but feel that the comic probably worked at a higher level, which the film aimed for and fell flat.

At least the lighting was pretty.

On the 14th December this year, the Race of Champions is at Wembley. Last year the event was a bundle of fun, with Schumacher stalling, Kovaleinen binning an Aston, and lots of other on track action. So I plan to go again.

I don't fancy the really cheap seats, but there's an early booking offer open for a week or two, and so the reasonable seats are £30 each.

Anyone fancy joining me?

Well thats the road tax paid for the year.
I now have a £185 shaped hole in my wallet.