That's another Christmas out the way then, in a way I'm glad but also in a way a little bit sad, cos it is a nice time of year and it was fun to go down to my sister's house to the wee ones (my nice and nephew wreak total havoc of course!). I've got a bit of a cold too and wasn't feeling so great last night but I'm getting a bit better now. Thankfully we are starting to get a bit of a thaw also but we need a bit more aswell as the ice out there on the pavements is pretty treacherous, so hopefully in January things will turn tropical! Fat chance of course.
Onto other things, not much on the telly, about the best things I've seen where the Peep Show and Tell documentary about the comedy show eveyone (just about) loves with David Mitchell and Robert Webb chatting about the history of the series. The Christmas episode was also quite funny where Mark invites his parents round to tea with disastrous consequences, and poor Dobby his girlfriend (the ever strangely cute Isy Suttie) is subjected to Mark's thoroughly obnoxious father, but the end where he stands up to him is great (the best use of a shredder ever!).
On Christmas day we had the Doctor Who special A Christmas Carol, which to be honest was a bit disappointing, the specials tend not to be too great and this was no real exception. To be fair there were some funny moments, and Matt Smith is still very likeable as the Doctor (especially the bit where he fiddles about with the console at the beginning and he says "there is no such thing as isomorphic" then he tries to work it no avail and says "this is isomorphic!". But the story seemed to be lacking something that the series episodes have, an extra bit of spark and ingenuity. Michael Gambon does very well as the Scrooge part and Katherine Jenkins if nothing else looks rather nice (they had to work in a bit where she sings of course!). I also felt there wasn't enough of Amy and Rory, the Doctor really needs his companions too to keep the dynamics of the show going, and there presence was largely sidelined by the storyline.
Anyways that's it for now will be back soon with more blogging entries.
Monday 27 December 2010
Sunday 19 December 2010
Apprentice Finale!
The Apprentice Final tonight was very entertaining and a little bit surprising in a way too. The two finalists Chris and Stella, were given the task of creating a brand new alcoholic drink to bring to the over 25 year olds market. With the help of some ex-apprentices (notice the distinct absence of Stuart here!) the two finalists had a surprisingly good level support from their team mates, with little bitching, apart from during Stella's pitch rehearsal. But both of them struggled to come up with their ideas initially, admittedly though both of them were quite good, although I think Chris's idea of an unusual design of drink bottle (shaped like a sharp pyramid type murder weapon!) and the idea of a Prism showing different sides to your life was very innovative. Stella's advert was a little bit bland with her voice over, but during the pitch she did show to be a bit more endearing to the audience, while Chris resorted to his usual dull monotone, he delivered it clearly but it was that one note again, blu blu blu. Regardless both of them did well in leading their teams and pulling together their ideas.
However the surprise was in the final boardroom decision making, when Stella and Chris had to justify why Lord Sugar should hire them, and ok Chris sounded a bit arrogant in his defence and saying he's outperformed everyone and he's the man they come to for everything. But Stella in response launched into a rather personal attack on Chris by saying he wasn't passionate about wanting the job and she was, which I thought was really unfair and it also for me it soured Lord Sugar's decision to make Stella the next apprentice. I would have been a bit more appreciative if Stella didn't make things personal, and I think that really went in Chris's favour when he responded to Stella by saying I didn't talk about you, so keep it to being all about you and not me, he didn't make things personal. That aside though Stella was a very worthy winner as she worked very hard throughout and performed very well in every task. But I was gutted for Chris as well, despite his monotone voice and his own big headedness, he is a nice guy and he also showed plenty of flashes of humour and business innovation and creativity, and I was inclined to want to see him as the winner. But hey ho that's the way it goes.
So that's it for another series, it was a great one, with plenty of different characters and the legendary arrogance and cockiness of the annoying yet amusing twonk that is Stuart Baggs. So here's to next year's contestants heading for Lord Sugar's meat grinder.
However the surprise was in the final boardroom decision making, when Stella and Chris had to justify why Lord Sugar should hire them, and ok Chris sounded a bit arrogant in his defence and saying he's outperformed everyone and he's the man they come to for everything. But Stella in response launched into a rather personal attack on Chris by saying he wasn't passionate about wanting the job and she was, which I thought was really unfair and it also for me it soured Lord Sugar's decision to make Stella the next apprentice. I would have been a bit more appreciative if Stella didn't make things personal, and I think that really went in Chris's favour when he responded to Stella by saying I didn't talk about you, so keep it to being all about you and not me, he didn't make things personal. That aside though Stella was a very worthy winner as she worked very hard throughout and performed very well in every task. But I was gutted for Chris as well, despite his monotone voice and his own big headedness, he is a nice guy and he also showed plenty of flashes of humour and business innovation and creativity, and I was inclined to want to see him as the winner. But hey ho that's the way it goes.
So that's it for another series, it was a great one, with plenty of different characters and the legendary arrogance and cockiness of the annoying yet amusing twonk that is Stuart Baggs. So here's to next year's contestants heading for Lord Sugar's meat grinder.
Helmeeeet
There on Friday I finally managed to get to see one of my favourite bands of recent years (and maybe all time maybe?) Helmet, who played the Cathouse to a small but very enthusiastic audience. I loved their music since I heard them strangely enough back in 2004 when Grand Theft Auto San Andreas came out with Unsung on the soundtrack, and funnily enough that was the opening song of the set. If you want to sound cynical you could say that Helmet are now one old guy and three young guys, but that old guy Page Hamilton (now 50 and sort of looking it) is one heck of musician and still carries a great frontman presence, even breaking in some nice humour and camradarie with the audience
They play a great set with what must have been at least 20 tracks, some of my favs of the night were definitely the oldies from the original Helmet days, especially Ironhead, Wilma's Rainbow, Birth Defect, Milquetoast, and some of the newer songs from Helmet's comeback such as See You Dead and tracks of the new album Seeing Eye Dog. The only sad thing is that due to the Cathouse's opening hours for the nightclub peeps coming in to dance/mosh/drink they had to finish their set early, which left out so many good songs they could have played. To top it off I didn't bring my digital camera for fear of being searched, which I didn't, so I could have got some great pics since its a small venue and your so close to the band, so unfortunately I took some crappy pics on my shitty camera on my mobile.
That aside it was a great gig, and apart from seeing my brother's band a few times this year, its the only other gig I've been to. Hope they don't wait too long before they come back.
They play a great set with what must have been at least 20 tracks, some of my favs of the night were definitely the oldies from the original Helmet days, especially Ironhead, Wilma's Rainbow, Birth Defect, Milquetoast, and some of the newer songs from Helmet's comeback such as See You Dead and tracks of the new album Seeing Eye Dog. The only sad thing is that due to the Cathouse's opening hours for the nightclub peeps coming in to dance/mosh/drink they had to finish their set early, which left out so many good songs they could have played. To top it off I didn't bring my digital camera for fear of being searched, which I didn't, so I could have got some great pics since its a small venue and your so close to the band, so unfortunately I took some crappy pics on my shitty camera on my mobile.
That aside it was a great gig, and apart from seeing my brother's band a few times this year, its the only other gig I've been to. Hope they don't wait too long before they come back.
Friday 17 December 2010
Hand Baggs at dawn
My favourite episode in the run of any series of the Apprentice is Week 11 - the interview stage, and this year's Week 11 episode did not disappoint. It had plenty of enjoyable highlights as the remaining 5 contestants got grilled by four of Lord Sugar's interviewers, who were the ruthless bulldog Claude, incredibly shrewd Borden, litigation lawyer Alan Watt, and of course the surprise return of Margaret Mountford, Lord Sugar's ex-aide.
Again through the interview process the contestants skeletons were all well and truly dug up, Jamie's 3rd nipple claim, while ridiculous was quite funny but at the same time why bother put it in a CV???? Joanna who actually came off really well in the interviews she did show a complete lack of business knowledge and again she fell foul of the many candidates who do not do their homework and look into Lord Sugar's companies and their history. I mean it doesn't take much to google or look up Wikipedia for him is it??! Chris also came across quite well in his interviews although he did come across as being a bit too self congratulatory of his academic career, while he sorely lacked work experience in the real world, something which Claude grilled him on, but Chris did hold his own and gave very articulate answers throughout. Stella also came through really well as she was the only one who had a complete set of very good interviews, the only complaint was she was a bit of a cold fish and was maybe more suited to a corporate environment.
But I have to devote a whole paragraph to the last but not least candidate, the legendary Stuart Baggs, who throughout the previous 10 weeks showed incredible arrogance, immaturity, as well as some of the best TV cringe comedy moments of recent times. But here Stuart couldn't hide behind his cocky persona, as he got grilled on the comments in his CV where he said he would step over anyone to get ahead, also lying about telling the press about a competitor who went bust when they didn't. But worst of all he lied about having a full telecomms licence for his business, when in fact he didn't have one at all, he just had a simple ISP licence for broadband who anyone could buy for £350. It was great to watch Borden who is usually a very composed interviewer grow more and more impatient with the young Baggster as tried to bluff his way out of this one until he finally admitted he was lying.
Back in the boardroom of course things got ruthless almost straight off starting with Stuart as Lord Sugar berated him for lying about his telecomms licence and some of the arrogant comments he made in his CV, not to mention the stream of bullshit he presented last week in his boardroom BAFTA winning performance. I too felt quite annoyed for Liz last week when I saw just how much this little knob managed to lie his way out of being fired, when he really should have gone last week as he was the one who messed up the most. So after that Lord Sugar fired Stuart without mercy ha ha, good riddance, one of the most satisfying moments in TV this year. :-)
So of the remaining candidates, starting with Joanna, she came off really well when Lord Sugar commended her for starting her own business so young and advised her to stick with it and expand on it and regretfully let her go. Jamie to be honest didn't stand much of a chance with his 3rd nipple but also he was unable to articulate why he should be in the final, just blethered about being a vital cog in a wheel, also he tried to blame everyone else in his life when things went wrong, not exactly a good candidate for the Sugar, he was entertaining though but not apprentice stuff. Which left the two finalists Stella and Chris: To be honest I think they are both very deserving finalists, although I would like to have seen Liz in the final as well, its just a shame that Bawbaggs was too good a bullshitter to have let that happen. Stella while a bit wooden in personality, she is a very strong candidate is able to get things done, is very level headed and she also got commended as one of the best team leaders on the second task. Chris is on the other while being a bit cocky and having a monotonous voice (as Nick said he sounded like a heavy bomber flying home!) is also really good, quite shrewd and also has shown some flashes of personality throughout the process, especially his sob stories in the buying task and eyeing up the German girl and afterwards saying to Liz he'd like to give her some of his bratwhurst (spelling??).
So the final next week, not sure who is going to win, would quite like to see Chris win, but I don't mind which ever way it goes as they are both very good. So here's to the final on Sunday. :-)
Again through the interview process the contestants skeletons were all well and truly dug up, Jamie's 3rd nipple claim, while ridiculous was quite funny but at the same time why bother put it in a CV???? Joanna who actually came off really well in the interviews she did show a complete lack of business knowledge and again she fell foul of the many candidates who do not do their homework and look into Lord Sugar's companies and their history. I mean it doesn't take much to google or look up Wikipedia for him is it??! Chris also came across quite well in his interviews although he did come across as being a bit too self congratulatory of his academic career, while he sorely lacked work experience in the real world, something which Claude grilled him on, but Chris did hold his own and gave very articulate answers throughout. Stella also came through really well as she was the only one who had a complete set of very good interviews, the only complaint was she was a bit of a cold fish and was maybe more suited to a corporate environment.
But I have to devote a whole paragraph to the last but not least candidate, the legendary Stuart Baggs, who throughout the previous 10 weeks showed incredible arrogance, immaturity, as well as some of the best TV cringe comedy moments of recent times. But here Stuart couldn't hide behind his cocky persona, as he got grilled on the comments in his CV where he said he would step over anyone to get ahead, also lying about telling the press about a competitor who went bust when they didn't. But worst of all he lied about having a full telecomms licence for his business, when in fact he didn't have one at all, he just had a simple ISP licence for broadband who anyone could buy for £350. It was great to watch Borden who is usually a very composed interviewer grow more and more impatient with the young Baggster as tried to bluff his way out of this one until he finally admitted he was lying.
Back in the boardroom of course things got ruthless almost straight off starting with Stuart as Lord Sugar berated him for lying about his telecomms licence and some of the arrogant comments he made in his CV, not to mention the stream of bullshit he presented last week in his boardroom BAFTA winning performance. I too felt quite annoyed for Liz last week when I saw just how much this little knob managed to lie his way out of being fired, when he really should have gone last week as he was the one who messed up the most. So after that Lord Sugar fired Stuart without mercy ha ha, good riddance, one of the most satisfying moments in TV this year. :-)
So of the remaining candidates, starting with Joanna, she came off really well when Lord Sugar commended her for starting her own business so young and advised her to stick with it and expand on it and regretfully let her go. Jamie to be honest didn't stand much of a chance with his 3rd nipple but also he was unable to articulate why he should be in the final, just blethered about being a vital cog in a wheel, also he tried to blame everyone else in his life when things went wrong, not exactly a good candidate for the Sugar, he was entertaining though but not apprentice stuff. Which left the two finalists Stella and Chris: To be honest I think they are both very deserving finalists, although I would like to have seen Liz in the final as well, its just a shame that Bawbaggs was too good a bullshitter to have let that happen. Stella while a bit wooden in personality, she is a very strong candidate is able to get things done, is very level headed and she also got commended as one of the best team leaders on the second task. Chris is on the other while being a bit cocky and having a monotonous voice (as Nick said he sounded like a heavy bomber flying home!) is also really good, quite shrewd and also has shown some flashes of personality throughout the process, especially his sob stories in the buying task and eyeing up the German girl and afterwards saying to Liz he'd like to give her some of his bratwhurst (spelling??).
So the final next week, not sure who is going to win, would quite like to see Chris win, but I don't mind which ever way it goes as they are both very good. So here's to the final on Sunday. :-)
Wednesday 8 December 2010
The Apprentice Ep 10
Was feeling really bored today after so many days in the house, browsing the PC and watching TV can entertain for only so long and then you want to get out and melt the snow and take a wee trip somewhere nice and warm, well Clydebank shoppie had to do and it was bloody freezing!
That aside I watched Apprentice Episode 10 tonight and it was another very entertaining one, this time the two teams had to come up with theme bus tours in London. So the two teams lead by Stuart and Joanne went out and did their best to drum up business to get people on the buses. The two teams had different levels of success with the task as Stuart's team really struggled to get punters onto the buses as they didn't make a deal any of the tourist businesses, but Joanne's team did manage to make a deal with one of the tourist traders, as Chris secured a deal where they would take 20% of all their sales, this was a high risk strategy and Chris didn't bother to contact Joanne regarding this. Rightfully enough Joanne was annoyed about Chris's lack of communication over the deal, but she did make a mistake by then going back out to try and haggle a better deal with the company, which made them look really unprofessional. To top things off Joanne also got on Jamie's nerves by resorting to her usual aggressive self, by ramming her point home to her team mates without letting them get a word in edgways. Beside that though they did well on the task and Jamie did a really good job as the tour guide talking about the Ghost and Ghouls and giving a very graphic account of Sweeney Todd and how he killed his victims!
As for Stuart's team to be fair Stella did a reasonable job as the tour guide, she did show a bit more enthusiasm and she took her first party of guests on a very varied tour, both on the bus and on foot, even if she lost her way at one point! But it all fell down where Stuart and Liz really struggled to try and get customers for the tours, as they had no pricing strategy at all, and they had to resort to even trying to steal Chris and Joanne's customers too! Stuart made a big mistake in this one and showed one of his main weakenesses which is making snap decisions without thinking things through, he came up with a price of £35 which was way too high and then he had to keep chopping it down and he also failed to secure a deal with the tourist traders, he also sold the least amount of money and Liz sold twice what he did.
In the end Stuart's team took the least amount of money and lost the task, it really should have been Stuart in the firing line as he was in charge and sold the least, but it took an Oscar winning defence from Stuart in the boardroom and his field of ponies no less, to keep him in the contest. In the end Lord Sugar as usual thought he saw a surrogate son of sorts in Stuart, as he always seems to let people who mirror his arrogant youth off the hook. So as Stella showed a little extra flair this week he let Liz go, although I think Liz is a stronger candidate because she shows alot more character and enthusiasm than Stella ever could. To be fair Stella did well this week and I felt she got herself back on track after last week's show.
So that's it down to the final five and next is my favourite episode of the entire series, the interview stage in which the remaining five will be grilled by some heavy duty interviewers, this is the best part of the series, so really can't wait to see who will be knocked out and who goes to the final. I'm guessing it could be either Joanne, Stella or even the legendary Stuart, I don't think Jamie and Chris are quite apprentice material, but we'll see. Can't wait! :-)))
That aside I watched Apprentice Episode 10 tonight and it was another very entertaining one, this time the two teams had to come up with theme bus tours in London. So the two teams lead by Stuart and Joanne went out and did their best to drum up business to get people on the buses. The two teams had different levels of success with the task as Stuart's team really struggled to get punters onto the buses as they didn't make a deal any of the tourist businesses, but Joanne's team did manage to make a deal with one of the tourist traders, as Chris secured a deal where they would take 20% of all their sales, this was a high risk strategy and Chris didn't bother to contact Joanne regarding this. Rightfully enough Joanne was annoyed about Chris's lack of communication over the deal, but she did make a mistake by then going back out to try and haggle a better deal with the company, which made them look really unprofessional. To top things off Joanne also got on Jamie's nerves by resorting to her usual aggressive self, by ramming her point home to her team mates without letting them get a word in edgways. Beside that though they did well on the task and Jamie did a really good job as the tour guide talking about the Ghost and Ghouls and giving a very graphic account of Sweeney Todd and how he killed his victims!
As for Stuart's team to be fair Stella did a reasonable job as the tour guide, she did show a bit more enthusiasm and she took her first party of guests on a very varied tour, both on the bus and on foot, even if she lost her way at one point! But it all fell down where Stuart and Liz really struggled to try and get customers for the tours, as they had no pricing strategy at all, and they had to resort to even trying to steal Chris and Joanne's customers too! Stuart made a big mistake in this one and showed one of his main weakenesses which is making snap decisions without thinking things through, he came up with a price of £35 which was way too high and then he had to keep chopping it down and he also failed to secure a deal with the tourist traders, he also sold the least amount of money and Liz sold twice what he did.
In the end Stuart's team took the least amount of money and lost the task, it really should have been Stuart in the firing line as he was in charge and sold the least, but it took an Oscar winning defence from Stuart in the boardroom and his field of ponies no less, to keep him in the contest. In the end Lord Sugar as usual thought he saw a surrogate son of sorts in Stuart, as he always seems to let people who mirror his arrogant youth off the hook. So as Stella showed a little extra flair this week he let Liz go, although I think Liz is a stronger candidate because she shows alot more character and enthusiasm than Stella ever could. To be fair Stella did well this week and I felt she got herself back on track after last week's show.
So that's it down to the final five and next is my favourite episode of the entire series, the interview stage in which the remaining five will be grilled by some heavy duty interviewers, this is the best part of the series, so really can't wait to see who will be knocked out and who goes to the final. I'm guessing it could be either Joanne, Stella or even the legendary Stuart, I don't think Jamie and Chris are quite apprentice material, but we'll see. Can't wait! :-)))
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Snow fair is it???
I'm sure most of us, skiing and snow fanatics aside, are all truly pissed off with the current snow situation in Scotland and indeed in the UK, especially as yesterday we saw the worst snowfall and gridlock the nation has seen in quite a long time. I myself apart from going out to the shops today for a short while, have been stuck in since Saturday, so I'm going through my DVD collection and browsing the net to keep me amused, but I'm sure for all of us cabin fever will set in, just as long as we don't turn into Kathy Bates or Jack Nicholson we should be ok. ;-)
Kidding aside this situation with the weather really does show what a joke our country is when it comes to combatting snow at winter time, surely last year's heavy snowfall at Xmas and New Year was a good indication of how things would go for this year, yet nothing was done before it came down on us. Transportation in this country is also got to be the worst in the world, as soon as snow hits the train tracks that them all off, it really is a poor show how they can't get things sorted. But with all things it will come to an end, hopefully by Christmas we will have had a bit of a thaw, not unless its still an ice rink, but lets hope that the sun comes out melts every bit of snow from the face of the Earth, cos this goddamn snowfall is a major pain in the asshole. So I for one cannot wait for it to end, but like everyone else its take a number and get in the line.
Kidding aside this situation with the weather really does show what a joke our country is when it comes to combatting snow at winter time, surely last year's heavy snowfall at Xmas and New Year was a good indication of how things would go for this year, yet nothing was done before it came down on us. Transportation in this country is also got to be the worst in the world, as soon as snow hits the train tracks that them all off, it really is a poor show how they can't get things sorted. But with all things it will come to an end, hopefully by Christmas we will have had a bit of a thaw, not unless its still an ice rink, but lets hope that the sun comes out melts every bit of snow from the face of the Earth, cos this goddamn snowfall is a major pain in the asshole. So I for one cannot wait for it to end, but like everyone else its take a number and get in the line.
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Apprentice ranight!
Funny watching The Apprentice and thinking how I will soon be an apprentice myself! (not for Lord Sugar of course, that would take some doing!). But tonight's episode was another very entertaining one, where the two teams, boys against the girls, had to go and locate 10 items and do some discount buying and get the lowest price possible for the items. To be honest I was a bit suprised at the outcome as the girls team sold really well and got all 10 items, as the boys team lead by Jamie wasn't quite so efficient as they only sold 7 items, with Jamie who PM'd really struggled trying to find his items. But there was some comic fun on the way, with Chris and Stuart doing a double act going round giving sob stories to the sellers, such as my Nan just died and I need to get this for my sister's wedding, surely they wouldn't believe that!
But I was quite surprised that Liz's team failed, because they buy all 10 items, but I think they messed up on the pricing and got it wrong as they ended buying too high a price. In this task I felt Stella actually contributed less as she distanced herself from the hardnosed buying apporach and stood back in general, leaving Laura to try and get the bargains. In the boardroom however Laura got the brunt of the failure and Lord Sugar let her go, although to be honest she was up against with two very strong candidates, although I'm starting to go off Stella a bit, as she does come across a bit icy and she won't take any prisoners, but I think its important even though they are in the contest to win, they have got to try and show a positive attitude. I also think Stella has it in for Stuart, and Laura actually defended Stuart because they worked well together, to be honest Stuart is growing on me, he is if nothing else comedy gold, but he also gets things done, yeah ok is rather brash when in charge but he is just a young nipper so he's got alot to learn, and just maybe he could be the next Apprentice because he has shown an enterpenaurial edge so far. In the end though I think Laura had to go, she was as strong as the other two candidates, she was quite lippy but I did think she was fairly honest as well and held her hands up when something went wrong, and You're Fired she came across as quite a sweet person (and pretty cute!).
So we're down to the last six contestants and not long till the finish line, methinks it could be either Liz, Joanne or even Stuart in the final, but not so sure about the others. We'll soon find out.
But I was quite surprised that Liz's team failed, because they buy all 10 items, but I think they messed up on the pricing and got it wrong as they ended buying too high a price. In this task I felt Stella actually contributed less as she distanced herself from the hardnosed buying apporach and stood back in general, leaving Laura to try and get the bargains. In the boardroom however Laura got the brunt of the failure and Lord Sugar let her go, although to be honest she was up against with two very strong candidates, although I'm starting to go off Stella a bit, as she does come across a bit icy and she won't take any prisoners, but I think its important even though they are in the contest to win, they have got to try and show a positive attitude. I also think Stella has it in for Stuart, and Laura actually defended Stuart because they worked well together, to be honest Stuart is growing on me, he is if nothing else comedy gold, but he also gets things done, yeah ok is rather brash when in charge but he is just a young nipper so he's got alot to learn, and just maybe he could be the next Apprentice because he has shown an enterpenaurial edge so far. In the end though I think Laura had to go, she was as strong as the other two candidates, she was quite lippy but I did think she was fairly honest as well and held her hands up when something went wrong, and You're Fired she came across as quite a sweet person (and pretty cute!).
So we're down to the last six contestants and not long till the finish line, methinks it could be either Liz, Joanne or even Stuart in the final, but not so sure about the others. We'll soon find out.
Its....... IT!
Finally after 6 years of trying and applying for IT jobs and getting absolutely nowhere, I finally managed to get on an apprenticeship course with the company Whitebox Digital today, so really pleased I'm finally getting a chance to get a job in the field I initially trained in. Starting on 13 December which is also good as it gives me a wee reprieve before I start, and I'm in once a week then doing the rest of my hours at home studying, for national minimum wage, not too bad! Better than the dole for sure.
But it'll be great to starting something like this and I won't need to carry on looking for work in the meantime which was getting pretty tedious as well. So bring on the IT and we'll see how it goes. :-)
But it'll be great to starting something like this and I won't need to carry on looking for work in the meantime which was getting pretty tedious as well. So bring on the IT and we'll see how it goes. :-)
Sunday 28 November 2010
The Return of The Fed
Really enjoyed the ATP World Tour Finals finale tonight, with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal going head to head in the championship decider. To be honest I was a little disappointed that the match didn't play out as long as it could have and I was hoping it would be a tighter game like yesterday's amazing semi-final, with Federer dispatching the world No.1 Rafa after 3 fairly short sets in just under 1 hour and 40 minutes. It just showed that Federer is coming back into the game and he's been more vital at this tournament than he has been all year since the Australia Open back in January.
But it did show that Nadal has had a punishing tournament and he clearly showed signs of fatigue after his tremendous match the day before with Murray, but overall this has been the best year of tennis he's ever had winning 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. However it also showed that Murray and Federer can seriously go hammer and tongs with Nadal and between them they contributed to his defeat tonight, a shame but I was glad to see Federer come back into such a prestiguous win after having a tough year's tennis.
And that's it for the year, I'm really looking forward to the next season in January already, the French Open, which might see Murray's chances of winning a Grand Slam, but Federer looks like he's coming back in a big way, so the young Scot might have a big wait on his hands yet. Here's to 2011! :-)
But it did show that Nadal has had a punishing tournament and he clearly showed signs of fatigue after his tremendous match the day before with Murray, but overall this has been the best year of tennis he's ever had winning 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. However it also showed that Murray and Federer can seriously go hammer and tongs with Nadal and between them they contributed to his defeat tonight, a shame but I was glad to see Federer come back into such a prestiguous win after having a tough year's tennis.
And that's it for the year, I'm really looking forward to the next season in January already, the French Open, which might see Murray's chances of winning a Grand Slam, but Federer looks like he's coming back in a big way, so the young Scot might have a big wait on his hands yet. Here's to 2011! :-)
Saturday 27 November 2010
Nerve shredding tennis
This year I have really got into watching Tennis, as a sport on TV, nothing comes close to it,when you get a great game its just totally electrifying to watch.
And today I was totally on edge today watching Nadal and Murray go at it for a battle to win the semi-finals of the ATP World Finals 2010 in London O2 arena today. Funnily enough I was expecting Murray to at least get a tiebreaker in the first set and then lose the second set, but it was great to see the young Murray take the 2nd set from Nadal, who up until then seemed invicible, but it was great to see him put under such pressure to perform (not in a bad way of course, Rafa is a good fellow). And to see Murray go hammer and tongs with Nadal for a full 3 hours was nothing short of magnificent, finishing with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-8, he should be gutted but totally proud of what he achieved today, as I sure am. So Murray may be out but he surely won't hopefully be down, having achieved 666 today, you can't ask for more, except for winning but ah well, he was up against the world number 1, but he played him like he was world number 2. It was the best thing I've seen on TV in a while.
So the next semi final between Djokovic and Federer is on tonight, sadly I don't have Sky Sports, so I'll just need to follow the updates on the BBC website, I'm sure that will be a great game too. So tomorrow should make for a great finale whoever wins tonight.
And today I was totally on edge today watching Nadal and Murray go at it for a battle to win the semi-finals of the ATP World Finals 2010 in London O2 arena today. Funnily enough I was expecting Murray to at least get a tiebreaker in the first set and then lose the second set, but it was great to see the young Murray take the 2nd set from Nadal, who up until then seemed invicible, but it was great to see him put under such pressure to perform (not in a bad way of course, Rafa is a good fellow). And to see Murray go hammer and tongs with Nadal for a full 3 hours was nothing short of magnificent, finishing with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-8, he should be gutted but totally proud of what he achieved today, as I sure am. So Murray may be out but he surely won't hopefully be down, having achieved 666 today, you can't ask for more, except for winning but ah well, he was up against the world number 1, but he played him like he was world number 2. It was the best thing I've seen on TV in a while.
So the next semi final between Djokovic and Federer is on tonight, sadly I don't have Sky Sports, so I'll just need to follow the updates on the BBC website, I'm sure that will be a great game too. So tomorrow should make for a great finale whoever wins tonight.
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Lord of the Sugar
SPOILER ALERTTTTT:
Having just watched Apprentice Episode 8, usually Lord Sugar makes the right call with whom he fires, but on this one occassion I really have to say: what the hell were you thinking????????
The task being to go over to Germany to sell some new and exciting flavours of crisp to the German markets, and of course Chris's team lost the task, and so he took Christopher and Jamie into the boardroom and held them reponsible for the failure of the task. Now Lord Sugar decided to fire Christopher because he felt he lacked the entrepenaurial skills he was looking for. But I felt he did make a mistake, as they were clearly two other candidates that have performed far less well than he has. Jamie is an arrogant knob who thinks he's better than anyone else, and he clearly made a mistake on taking a later appointment i.e. 1pm instead of 9am, which cost them a big sale. So I think Jamie should have went because all he seems to do in the show moan and groan, at least Chris tried to do something and has shown some skill, but he is on thin ice, he might be gone next week.
Speaking of the other candidates though Stuart as usual was a delight, and despite being a prize knob, he is the most entertaining candidate the series has seen in a long time, his bantering with the Germans using his basic German skills was really funny, although I cringed every time he said "wuderbarr!". Stella's team did win the task but I felt they weren't very well organised either and she left Stuart and Laura out of the loop, especially as they missed out on a big sale at a hotel because Stella and Joanna arrived there first, thankfully for them Joanna was selling very well.
But it was a fun episode despite Lord Sugar making that big mistake, firing the guy that does everything right except be a bit of a bastard, doesn't seem right but he's the one in charge.
Having just watched Apprentice Episode 8, usually Lord Sugar makes the right call with whom he fires, but on this one occassion I really have to say: what the hell were you thinking????????
The task being to go over to Germany to sell some new and exciting flavours of crisp to the German markets, and of course Chris's team lost the task, and so he took Christopher and Jamie into the boardroom and held them reponsible for the failure of the task. Now Lord Sugar decided to fire Christopher because he felt he lacked the entrepenaurial skills he was looking for. But I felt he did make a mistake, as they were clearly two other candidates that have performed far less well than he has. Jamie is an arrogant knob who thinks he's better than anyone else, and he clearly made a mistake on taking a later appointment i.e. 1pm instead of 9am, which cost them a big sale. So I think Jamie should have went because all he seems to do in the show moan and groan, at least Chris tried to do something and has shown some skill, but he is on thin ice, he might be gone next week.
Speaking of the other candidates though Stuart as usual was a delight, and despite being a prize knob, he is the most entertaining candidate the series has seen in a long time, his bantering with the Germans using his basic German skills was really funny, although I cringed every time he said "wuderbarr!". Stella's team did win the task but I felt they weren't very well organised either and she left Stuart and Laura out of the loop, especially as they missed out on a big sale at a hotel because Stella and Joanna arrived there first, thankfully for them Joanna was selling very well.
But it was a fun episode despite Lord Sugar making that big mistake, firing the guy that does everything right except be a bit of a bastard, doesn't seem right but he's the one in charge.
Seeing Red
Yesterday I went and saw the action film Red at Cineworld, and it had a star studded cast so to speak, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Morgan Freeman who are in some way no strangers to action flicks, however then Helen Mirren steps in with her sniper file and heavy duty machine guns and starts blazing away.
Actually the film was fairly enjoyable and the cast were indeed very good, but I felt also they didn't quite manage to elevate the film above the usual action fare we get these days. Also the plot was somewhat difficult to follow and I don't quite know why they ended up trying to get the Vice President (OK as River Song would say Spoilers!). But Bruce Willis was his usual self and well at home in the action genre, and John Malkovich provided some pretty funny moments too, best of all was probably Mary Louise Parker, who is a terrific actress, and she was really engaging to watch in the film. And it makes for enjoyable enough for a action fuelled gunarma feast.
Actually the film was fairly enjoyable and the cast were indeed very good, but I felt also they didn't quite manage to elevate the film above the usual action fare we get these days. Also the plot was somewhat difficult to follow and I don't quite know why they ended up trying to get the Vice President (OK as River Song would say Spoilers!). But Bruce Willis was his usual self and well at home in the action genre, and John Malkovich provided some pretty funny moments too, best of all was probably Mary Louise Parker, who is a terrific actress, and she was really engaging to watch in the film. And it makes for enjoyable enough for a action fuelled gunarma feast.
Saturday 20 November 2010
Breathing life into the dead
Just back in from a very enjoyable night at the CCA where I watched the play Breathing Corpses, put on by Rekindle Theatre, a joint effort from director Gerry Hay and actor and fellow thesp Scott working as director and producer/actor respectively.
I really enjoyed the production and there were really strong performances from the cast, and it was nice to see the play acted out as when I first read it a while back, I wasn't initially sure what to make of its flashback structure. In a way it reminded me of Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, where it focused morely on the lives of couples and how the surrounding events of the murders that happen in the city affected them, as in here a similar thing with people hearing of gruesome murders in the press and how it affected their lives while it focused primarly on the personal struggles of their own. Overall the cast were very good, particularly Scott and Claire's scene (scene 3) was very potent with a domestic argument that spirals out of control, and it was great to see Judith performing again, as both her scenes were very entertaining (great overalls too! :-). The last scene was also a pleasure because it was both sinister and amusing with the hotel room cleaning girl finding a seemingly charming guest in one of the rooms. The play ends on a successful and ambiguous note where you feel you know what has happened and what will result after the end.
So a big well done to Rekindle Theatre, really good show, and here's to their next one. Back in the hoouse now, almost time fer bed. :-)
I really enjoyed the production and there were really strong performances from the cast, and it was nice to see the play acted out as when I first read it a while back, I wasn't initially sure what to make of its flashback structure. In a way it reminded me of Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, where it focused morely on the lives of couples and how the surrounding events of the murders that happen in the city affected them, as in here a similar thing with people hearing of gruesome murders in the press and how it affected their lives while it focused primarly on the personal struggles of their own. Overall the cast were very good, particularly Scott and Claire's scene (scene 3) was very potent with a domestic argument that spirals out of control, and it was great to see Judith performing again, as both her scenes were very entertaining (great overalls too! :-). The last scene was also a pleasure because it was both sinister and amusing with the hotel room cleaning girl finding a seemingly charming guest in one of the rooms. The play ends on a successful and ambiguous note where you feel you know what has happened and what will result after the end.
So a big well done to Rekindle Theatre, really good show, and here's to their next one. Back in the hoouse now, almost time fer bed. :-)
Friday 19 November 2010
Back to the Blogsphere!
Welly well, after well over a year's absence from the Blogsphere I've decided to come back and do some silly prattling of my own that doesn't involve Facebook updates. Its good to be able to flex a writing muscle even if it is inane chatter and Facebook only provides so many characters to do that, and Twitter (or Twatter as I call it) allows even less. Unless I mention people by name, ha ha, I wonder if anyone else will read this, but feel free as its open to all. But I will have to be careful what I say of course, ahem, so no back chatter etc, its forbidden!
Anyhooow not too much to report at the mo, its November 19, its sunny and most likely cold, still looking for work, and currently enjoying watching Doctor Who Series 4 again, which is one of my favs of the new lot. Tonight thought I'm heading off to see Breathing Corpses at the CCA, a play by Laura Wade, which features some thespian friends of mine, so looking forward to that, and just maybe I might put something up on this blog about it. Maybe. :-)
Well that's all for now, tara. K.
Anyhooow not too much to report at the mo, its November 19, its sunny and most likely cold, still looking for work, and currently enjoying watching Doctor Who Series 4 again, which is one of my favs of the new lot. Tonight thought I'm heading off to see Breathing Corpses at the CCA, a play by Laura Wade, which features some thespian friends of mine, so looking forward to that, and just maybe I might put something up on this blog about it. Maybe. :-)
Well that's all for now, tara. K.
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