December 2011
20 posts
Reflections
The year 2012 is just a few short hours away. I’m sitting here waiting for the clock to chime in the new year. I’m also doing the same thing I do every year as I wait for the new year to arrive. I’m looking over the last year and reflecting over some of the events. 2011 was the year of the “BIG BAD” being toppled. This was the year that played out like some kind of...
Triggers
So Christmas has finished, in my mind at least, I’ve never celebrated the “12 days of Christmas” thing. We started taking down the decorations today. The tree is the last decoration standing at the moment. With my work schedule, it will be late in the week before we take the tree down and put the bits and bobs back up into the attic. The funny thing is, we started talking about...
I'll Be Home...
Christmas always makes me a little maudlin. I think mainly because the last time I spent it with my family was in 1978. I know I’m a little old to want to spend this time of year with my parents and my brother and his family. But I always miss them badly this time of year. It has been 33 years after all. It would also be nice to spend Christmas with both my kids. I’ll be with my...
Games
Way back in July of this year The Today Show stated that “It’s weird for men over thirty to play video games, unless they’re playing video games with a child.” Okay, for those more observant of you out there, yes I did paraphrase the quote…a lot. But that was the bottom line message from television personality Donny Deutsch. Gee thanks Donny. I guess that puts me so...
Baggage
Talking about relationships with my daughter the other day, I stated that I was in no hurry to enter into another one. She was a little concerned about this turn of events and said so. She opined that surely I did not want to arrive at my dotage alone. I have thought about this and I have decided that I am not bothered. It’s mainly because of the baggage you see. Let me explain. Everyone has...
Freezing
So today a bunch of my “mad” colleagues decided to jump (and in some cases actually swim) in the North Sea. This madness was in aid of a very worthwhile charity - Cancer Research. I use the words “mad” and “madness” only because of the temperature. Both the air and the North Sea were bitterly cold. The air was about 38/39 degrees Fahrenheit and the North Sea had...
Rushing
I’ve been in a hurry my whole life. When I was a youngster (that’s teenager, really) I was convinced that if I didn’t hurry up and “grow-up” I’d somehow miss the boat. I also wanted to do as many different things as possible. I had the usual suspects in my itinerary, travel, fame (or a monetary equivalent), freedom, and of course the all important career. I...
The Remake Train: Oldboy
I have just read that Spike Lee is re-making Oldboy. To say I’m angy and dismayed is the understatement of the century. I am not too surprised as there is apparently some sort of loophole in the Korean film system where the owners/creators of a Korean film have no rights. Anyone can take their film lock, stock and barrel and remake it. This is the second time (that I’m aware of) where...
Waiting
Today was a day off for me. I had a whole load of things I was going to do on this free-from-work day. But as they say, “The best laid plans…” Why did my plans go awry? Well let’s work that out shall we? First I was up ridiculously late last night - that actually translates to the wee hours of the morning - then as a consequence, I overslept. Oversleeping then made me late...
Watch
What’s your favourite scary movie?
A little something different for today. Now just to set this up I have to explain that I love films. Especially horror films. Most especially Asian horror films. And top of the list are Korean horror films. My daughter shares this passion with me and she found this little gem of a horror film - White: Cursed Melody. She has literally been banging on...
Dreams And Time
We all have dreams. I don’t mean of the “I dreamt last night I that I could fly” type dream. I mean dreams of what we want in this life. Our aspirations, our hopes and our preferred destinies. Some people dream of fame, stardom, or success. Others dream of keeping warm in the winter, having a full belly, being free from fear.
Often our dreams change. They have to. Life has a...
Bits
I realised today that the loft boards I bought for my old flat’s attic have been left inadvertently for the new tenant. I’m not bothered. The thirty odd pounds I spent to floor a small part of my attic was money well spent in my opinion. The investment cost of the boards more than paid for itself, just in letting me store my possessions that little bit closer to where I was living....
Paying Up
I’m supposed to be paying bills at this particular moment. But as is obvious by this post, I’m not. I will do, I promise. I still have a few days left before they are due. So there’s no real rush.
Instead I am taking a break from the hustle and bustle of settling in. I’ve found homes for just about everything that was laying around on the floor. I’ve separated my...
I got the little van??
Okay so I tried to rent a big van, but, they didn’t have any. I was a little annoyed. I figured that the big van would allow me to move everything from storage in one go. Little van equals many trips. Bummer. Then I go to the storage place and they don’t have a hand truck (trolley) for me to borrow….yet. So the big van wouldn’t have been a better choice at all. One trip...
Hidden Treasure
While putting stuff in the attic of our new house I came across a hidden treasure. Lying on the attic floor, face down, was a cardboard cut-out of Buzz Lightyear! I mean, seriously, how cool is that? Okay, maybe I’m a little old to get so excited about what is obviously an old video store sales promotion sign. But I have to admit to loving Buzz, Woody and the gang from the Toy Story...
Happy Birthday Meg!
On this day 22 years ago, my daughter was brought into this world in a hospital full of foreign extraction. When I looked down at her, I burst into tears and said, “She’s a girl and she’s beautiful.” The nurse who was helping to deliver her looked at me and said, “Wat seg U?” Meg started talking early and she hasn’t stopped! Unfortunately she gets this...
A Post A Day...
I decided not too long ago that I would do a post a day to my blog. The reason for this was three-fold; first, I would get in the habit of writing something daily and second, this daily writing exercise would get me in some kind of shape to start re-writing an old screenplay I’ve had kicking around for years and third, as I haven’t had time to do any videos for ages, this seemed...
Where the hell is my internet!
Well, we are still moving. It’s taking a long time despite being right next door to my old address. Yesterday I came home from work to find my new internet wasn’t working. All right, I’ll admit it right up front, I got a little annoyed…Well, a LOT annoyed.
Not so much at the beginning, but as the night wore on my irritation began to take on epic proportions. It probably...
Don’t try to do too much at once! This is my new credo. I am setting here in my new house, amidst boxes, packing rubbish, and my entertainment centre trying to think of my next task. Somewhat unsurprisingly I don’t know which task to start first… Let’s see, the sun is shining so I could get a load of laundry done. Or I could start bringing more bedroom things over from the...
“Reach out and touch someone.” Old adverts on the telly used this catchy phrase to flog telephones. But in this age of social networking, folks are “reaching out” via facebook, twitter and other networks.
In a time when the people closest to us often seem not to care, or worse, notice; it seems that we can get that touch of empathy from the people we’ve connected...
