Maz's birthday bowls us over

Well I promised a post a week and look here I am. Okay so I am cutting it a bit close to the end of the week but nonetheless here at least is the post I promised. I would have written it earlier today but to be honest I was nursing a hangover and then stuffing myself with a venison burger. Why the hangover? Because this weekend we headed out on the town to celebrate Maz’s birthday as she creeps ever close to the big 30.

Where have you been?

As winter approaches more and more things are in short supply. The sun is falling behind the skyline earlier, the frost is forming and the countdown to Christmas is getting closer and closer. It also seems that Blog posts are following suit since there hasn’t been one for a while. Sorry about that. Here then is a quick catch up on all the stuff that has been going on with me and the people in my life.

Face up to being grown up

Last  year I went to see Kate Nash play at a gig in London. I had a great time but the whole experience did leave me feeling rather old. While there was a real mixture of age groups at the gig a large majority of them were around the late teens early twenties bracket. I wouldn't go as far as saying that I was jealous of them but as they danced around without a care in the world singing at the top of their voices and spilling beer over their friends I was stood with my hands in my pockets worried that someone would nick my wallet and pondering about whether we would make the train home in time. I felt kind of self conscious about being there. Most of all I felt a sense of sadness knowing the period in their lives they are living through was well and truly behind me. It is said that youth is wasted on the young and certainly at the time I didn't really appreciate just what a great time I was having. Of course maybe I shouldn't be longing for the past. Maybe it is time to admit to myself that you're not 18 anymore.

Another one of us hits the big 30

It is that time again as yet another one of us hit’s the big thirty. This time it was Louise’s turn to celebrate and maybe cry a little in private as her twenties were left behind her. To mark the occasion we all gathered in a local pub where Louise’s sister Sarah works. Maz and I stopped the night at Louise’s house and then next day eat pizza and watched the F1 as Jenson Button romped home to victory. As it has become the norm I had with me my trusted video camera to capture it all. Here then are the highlights of the day

The story of Princess Hayley and her magic coat

Last weekend was Louise’s 30th birthday which you can read about and watch the video for here. To celebrate we all got together in a pub. It is always great to see everyone and have a laugh. The biggest laugh of the weekend however was making fun of poor Hayley who had let Mark borrow one of her t-shirts a while ago and had finally returned it to her. This morning while walking around town Tom, Maz and I got to talking about how it would make the basis for a great kids story. Here then is the tale of Princess Hayley and her special coat. See if you can read between the lines and work out why we found it so funny. Enjoy.

Me and a girl called Kate

I have a bit of a confession, there is another woman in my life other than Maz and her name is Kate Nash. For anyone who doesn't know Miss Nash she is a British solo singer and I have been bigging her up for the last few years. She broke into the UK charts a few years ago now and last year she released her second album. I however have been following and raving about her since she first appeared on the scene with her Myspace profile way back in 2007. In short I love her to bits (sorry Maz).  My love for Kate is not something that many people share with me though. Tom in particular doesn’t really get it and I have to admit that her singing voice and vocal style is a real love it or hate it affair. That all said I am firmly in the love it camp and if you are not or have never heard of her then here are my reasons why.

Booze, underwear and perverts. All in a weekends work.

Two main things happened to me this weekend. Namely I completed the game Mass Effect on the trusty Xbox and secondly I got called a pervert. The first of these is pretty simple to explain even if it did take several months to get around to it . The later however is a story of a night full of booze, women in their underwear and partying. All of which I just happen to have on video. 

Welcome to the thirtysomething club

This week we have a new member to the thirtysomething club as our friend Paul hit the big 30 on Saturday. To celebrate this landmark of aging his girlfriend Lou organised a surprise party for him at their local pub complete with party games and sumo suits. I was there of course with my video camera and caught the whole thing which you can watch below.  Now that Paul has joined our ranks I feel it is only right to offer some advice. What words of wisdom can I then impart to Paul with  three decades of life under my belt ?

Becoming a grumpy old man

Every second Tuesday I have to take a walk into the local town to sign on at the job centre. It is about a 6 mile round trip and while there is a bus I refuse to pay the £5 or so fare. Besides I could do with the exercise. Since Tom has recent joined the unemployment scrapheap he has taken to joining me on this little trek. It is great to have some company and why I would like to say that we talk about breasts and football on our journey in reality we sound more like two grumpy old men.

Royal weddings, bank holidays and hot tubs

So on Friday the 29th of April 2011 the world was gathered around the television to watch as Prince William got married to his university sweetheart Miss Catherine Middleton (see this post if you somehow missed it). To celebrate the UK got itself an extra day off work and Maz and I shot up to join my old university friends Jacqui and Fran in their new hot tub for the weekend. This was of course after we popped out to join Tom in a few drinks to celebrate him escaping from his most hated job on Thursday. However now that the dust has settled what have we actually learned from the whole experience that has been forced down our throats for the last few months?

Welcome to the scrapheap Tom

Today then marks a new start in the life of my friend Tom. Today he is quiting his job. I quit mine a few years ago and have been stuck in limbo ever since. However unlike me who quit because I was really unhappy Tom at least a plan to start a new business. Well good luck to him I say. I am sure it will all work out in the end. Meanwhile I continue on the fast track to nowhere. So what is life like when you are unemployed?

For sometime now I have been unemployed and to be honest it is horrible. There are plenty of people who are happy to live off handouts and who see being on jobseekers allowance as a career choice. Then there are the rest of us who all try really hard to find work but seem to be fighting an endless up hill battle.

The royal wedding. Who cares?

As if my average day of disappointingly searching through job sites, playing poker on the Xbox 360, cleaning up, cooking and watching daytime television was not exciting enough today an electrician came round to put a new light in the bathroom. As is the great English tradition I offered him a cup of tea and as he sipped it we made polite small talk about that other great English tradition; the weather.  After ten minutes of chat about how unusually hot it was our rather difficult conversation turned to the subject of that latest all encompassing news story of the moment, the royal wedding.

Now unless you have been living under a rather large rock for the last month (and even then I doubt you would have escaped from the news) you will be aware that Prince William is getting married to his university sweetheart Miss Catherine Middleton (there is even an official website just in case you missed it). Well good luck to them I say and I hope it all works out for them. Providing the young Kate doesn’t piss the Queen off and stays out of Paris all should go well. But as the country and even the world whips itself up into a mad frenzy I can’t help but ask; who really gives a shit?

Summer time and the barbecuing is easy

The summer is here, the sun is shining and the burgers are grilling. A few beers and a few friends. What more could you ask for? Isn’t it always great to get together with a few friends and slap some meat on the grill when the weather is glorious? Well this weekend that is exactly what we did. Maz and I met up with Tom, Louise, Mark, Lou, Hayley, Chris and an assortment of others cracked open a few cold beers and burnt some burgers to a crisp.

You can’t beat a good BBQ when the weather is good. When British summer time rolls around we usually find ourselves in one of two situations. Either it is raining or we have a hosepipe ban. Well this year it looks like we could be facing the later as the sun has been shining upon us all week long. So being a bank holiday weekend I found myself at the first BBQ of the year (hopefully not the last). The day was spent in the company of good friends lazily munching my way through a weeks intake of meat while putting the world to rights. I could not think of a better end to a bank holiday weekend.