Best thing I've seen today!

Check out this link - Thanks to Mr. Steve Wilde for sending me this!

Click here!

Drag artists

Drag artists
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Sunday was Southampton’s multi-cultural attempt at Chinese New Year. On paper it sounded great with a 120 feet long dragon and a ‘street parade’ – perfect photography material. Quite a crowd had gathered with the same idea as me equipped with digital cameras. Missed the acrobats but came in halfway to the 2 man lion prancing about. Next were some shiny yellow trousered Chinese guys showed off their kung fu skills. Then some local lads did the same in a group but weren’t quite synchronised and wore the standard chav outfit of pub shoe trainer, jogging bottoms and sweatshirt.
Finally the dragon, which was as long as advertised came to life and would have looked like a giant game of mobilephone Snake from the air. From the Civic Centre, the long dragon winded its way towards the shopping area scarring a few 3 year olds along the way picking up red money wallets from restaurants. By that time the fun of standing outside in single figure temperatures had gone and the warmth of HMV beckoned.

A life less origami

After Hiroshima winged art
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Managed to find an honest builder thanks to Carman, who I do karate with. Her boyfriend quoted us half the amount the Capricorn gave us. This means our hall and stairs will finally get its make-over it deserves. Bit of quiet one for Friday evening with Celeb BB in the background. Glad to see Mr Barrymore didn’t win. Whilst putting up with the Big Bro I flicked through the new Argos catalogue to find out they now sell wheelchairs and stairlifts!

Saturday day started off with an Oriental theme. We booked a place on an origami workshop through the Millais gallery in Southampton. It was to support the ‘After Hiroshima’ exhibition. Before we arrived I guessed at the potential other attendees: Poncey art students up for a freebie; Old arts and crafts women who are retired teachers; primary school child families who vote Green. Those who did turned up were...drum roll please….Ta-dar! One art student (although a bit too ‘Miss Selfridge’), two retired teachers that enjoyed arts and crafts, one Green party voter with origami expert child (how annoying) and an ex-art student wearing a Moroccan outfit who probably voted Green. Not the biggest turn-out but at least we weren’t on our own.

Before we got stuck in with the origami we looked around the gallery at the Hiroshima art and photos. For the size of the place it was a bit sparse and slightly disappointing especially after seeing the real thing last year. Didn’t have the patience to see all the film but it did highlight that the Americans didn’t help the Japanese doctors with leukaemia in any way.

Anyway back to the paper folding where the exhibition curator introduced herself and the concept behind the workshop. We were to practise creating origami cranes. The story goes that a little girl tried to make 1000 cranes after receiving radiation from the bomb but died shortly after and had only completed 650. Legend has it that cranes live for 1000 years and have life-partners. Sweet story and we saw the evidence last year where trails of paper cranes are sent to Hiroshima every August to mark the anniversary. Our own paper folding contribution would be sent to Japan as the exhibition toured the UK! So, two hours later we were crane experts and found a new party trick.

That night we went to the Leisure Shed for the Odeon to see Memoirs of a Geisha. Bit of a girly one I know but Kerry had read the book and we’d seen clips to show a few places we’d been in Japan. The film itself was okay and would have scored more if it wasn’t the crap seats that sloped forward, numbing your arse so you couldn’t feel your waist down. Visually very nice and there were a couple of scenes from Kyoto (Fushimi and the oldest Zen Garden) used. The biggest surprise though was spotting some of the garden scenes were shot in San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Gardens which we saw back in 2003!

Snacking, slacking and stitching up

Something's happening to me recently which I'm wondering if its to do with getting older or just simply a winter thing. Since Christmas I've had an appetite of a hungry-hungry hippo. Normally I laugh at overweight people's urges to eat another packet of crisps, have extra large fries or a King sized Mars bar but these urges are affecting my concentration. Is it my body saying that my normal diet needs more? Eating more fruit is just a pain in the arse, boring and a little expensive.

Weekends are getting weird as my body demands I do something physical to burn off calories otherwise I start off Monday in a haze of blurred sleep and a bad mood. Caffeine is the easy answer but I don't really drink much coffee. Another vice I'm proud of not overdoing but nearly everyday I've needed that cuppa in the morning. Read the other day that a man drank 20 cans of Red Bull and went crazy, driving through Norfolk being chased by the local nick. He did have a history of mental illness but the guy must have a bit of spare cash to do that! BBC news story

It would be great to have some sort of dashboard to say how your body's performing though can't think where you could grow it if you could. Obvious one would be your energy levels but a better one would be something to monitor your calorie usage where at any certain time you can see if you're under or over the normal. That way you know you need to do some exercise to burn off the excess or eat alot less at the next meal. Come on boffins! Stop wasting time on cloning and get busy with a bit body attachments. Maybe Mr. Dyson could use his vacuum cleaner attachment experience.

Over the past few weeks we've been getting quotes to improve the house. Our main worry was the kitchen external wall. Apparently we had rising damp according to Capricorn Building Services who quoted a Chemical DPE injection plus other work for over £400. We also asked for a quote on plastering the stairs with painting them - Over £700 for the plastering and £600 for decorating. This didn't amuse our bank balance. Not satisfied to take out a second mortgage I started ring around other builders and services. Just had a specialist come round and blown away that damp theory saying that we didn't need anything like that at all. Another Capri-con was the plastering - one guy I called said under £200 so guess who's not getting the job?!

Whale news

Click on picture to see the original size so you can read the detail - its worth it!

Quiz F*ckwits

Had to share this with everyone! Received via email from my sister-in-law, Donna:-

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
Bamber Gascoigne: What was Ghandi's first name?
Contestant: Goosey, Goosey?

Anne Robinson: What insect is commonly found hovering above lakes?
Contestant: Crocodiles.
Anne Robinson: Wh...?
Contestant (interrupting): Pass!

CHRIS SEARLE SHOW, BBC BRISTOL
Searle: In which European country is Mount Etna?
Caller: Japan.
Searle: I did say which European country, so in case you didn't hear
that, I can let you try again.
Caller: Er... Mexico?

FAMILY FORTUNES
1) Something a blind man might use? - A Sword

2) A song with the word Moon in the title? - Blue Suede Moon

3) Name the capital of France? - F

4) Name an occupation where you might need a torch? - A burglar

6) Where is the Taj Mahal? - Opposite the Dental Hospital

7) What is Hitler's first name? - Heil

8) A famous Scotsman? - Jock

9) Some famous brothers? - Bonnie and Clyde.

10) A dangerous race? - The Arabs

11) Something that floats in a bath? - Water

12) An item of clothing worn by the Three Musketeers? - A horse

13) Something you wear on a beach? - A deckchair

14) A famous Royal? - Mail

15) Something that flies that doesn't have an engine? - A bicycle with wings

16) A famous bridge? - The Bridge Over Troubled Waters

17) Something a cat does? - Goes to the toilet

18) Something you do in the bathroom? - Decorate

19) A method of securing your home? - Put the kettle on

20) A sign of the Zodiac? - April

21) Something people might be allergic to? - Skiing

22) Something you do before you go to bed? - Sleep

23) Something you put on walls? - A roof

24) Something sold by gypsies? - Bananas

RADIO LINCS PHONE-IN
Presenter: Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
Contestant: Barcelona.
Presenter: I was really after the name of a country.
Contestant: I'm sorry, I don't know the names of any countries in Spain.

STEVE WRIGHT SHOW, RADIO 2
Wright: What is the capital of Australia? And it's not Sydney.
Contestant: Sydney.

THIS MORNING
Judy Finnegan: The American TV show 'The Sopranos' is about opera. True or false?
Contestant: True?
Judy Finnegan: No, actually, it's about the Mafia. But it is an American TV show,so I'll give you that.

BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE
Paul Wappat: How long did the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant (after long pause): Fourteen days.

BBC GMR, PHIL WOOD SHOW
Wood: What "K" could be described as the Islamic Bible?
Contestant: Er...
Wood: It's got two syllables... Kor...
Contestant: Blimey?
Wood: Ha ha ha ha no. The past participle of run...
Contestant: (Silence)
Wood: OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I...
Contestant: Walked?

DARYL'S DRIVETIME, VIRGIN RADIO
Daryl Denham: In which country would you spend shekels?
Contestant: Holland?
Daryl Denham: Try the next letter of the alphabet.
Contestant: Iceland? Ireland?
Daryl Denham (helpfully): It's a bad line. Did you say Israel?
Contestant: No.

All work and some play makes a dull, dull month

January is the pits of a month. It's probably the first time in my life when the time of the year has affected my mood as much. Work is starting to pick up a bit with changes to the department. My patience will be rewarded when I'll no longer have to do the helpdesk duties. Still no word on those jobs I applied for but saw they'd advertised in the Guardian last week so more depression.

Our house DIY is progressing slowly with all necessary walls prepared. Shame the f*cking builders can't give us a simple quote in good time. Received a quote for the halls/stairs and bedroom flooring. Sea-grass is expensive but didn't think it would be that expensive.

With DIY in full flow and everybody avoiding going out we've been buying, renting and playing alot of stuff. Bought Battalion Wars (Gamecube) a few weeks ago which is great fun. Not as good as Advanced Wars (GBDS) which is as addictive as honey-roasted crack. Also bought Taito Legends (PS2) which has some great classic arcade games including: Bubble Bobble, Continental Circus (a right pocket-money stealer that one), New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, Operation Wolf and Space Invaders (3 versions). There's also some strange games I never saw in the arcades when I was a teenager which are fantastic especially being 2 player: Plotting, Super Qix, Tube It, Volfied and Zoo Keeper. The last one has crap graphics as early 80's design but just as exciting as Chucky Egg!

Loaded with a few double vodka and Redbulls we tried out Buzz, the music quiz with special gamepads, and SingStar with the Popworld and 80's Song packages and special microphones. Buzz was great fun using the large red button whenever you want to answer the question then 4 colours for the multi-choice stuff. Fact: Jason Donovan did the voice for Buzz. It was presented just like a TV quiz show and you could choose whatever character you wanted.

SingStar was even more funnier though the microphones were rubbish as only one worked so no duets and, according to Choices Video, kept failing. 80's songs favourites were Erasure 'Respect' and Foreigner 'I wanna know what love is'.
Run DMC 'Tricky' proved a new found respect for rappers as saying 20 words in a second isn't natural to do, Culture Club: Karma Chameleon was my first song to sing and kept us laughing how funny I sounded, Simple Minds: Don't You (Forget About Me) was class (now getting used to making a prat out of myself), should have done Europe: The Final Countdown but somehow we avoided that one, Kerry did Vanilla Ice like a pro as she knew the words by heart, Dexy's Midnight Runners: Come On Eileen was a nightmare in dungarees to sing so fluffed that one up big time. Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You was my favourite to sing on the other disk though Outkast - Roses was near impossible though shouting 'craaash, craaash, craaaaaaaaaaaaaaash...into a ditch' rounded off the night nicely.

Saturday we had to call the Gas board out after smelling a leak. After that I decided to clear the cupboard out of all our old videos revealing some strange programmes recorded. Discovered a show from a few years ago starring the Poet stooge from Space Cadets! Hired ‘40 Year Old Virgin’ which turned out to be quite funny. Sunday was some retail therapy which I bought the Glimmer Twins DJ Kicks CD, Etienne de Crecy CD from Habitat plus a couple of books: 101 things to do before you die and one about survival tips when robots turn against humanity - could be useful in 20 years time when AIBO puppies start biting your ankles and Robocop gets a death-wish for forgetting his favourite baby food. Just you wait and see!

New Year smell not like new trainer smell

Everyone goes on about new car smell especially the yanks but new trainer smell is the new new car smell. New trainer smell is great. It’s a mix of new rubber, leather, glue, sweatshop kid sweat and a joint government/Nike conspiracy of an addictive cocktail of drugs to make you want to buy new trainers. During the peak of my sneaker-snorting addiction in the mid-90's my life was ruined, my girlfriend had left me, I had to declare bankruptcy and I couldn't leave the house without strapping on a new trainer to my nose. My only hope was the trainer equivalent of the Betty Ford clinic, the Jordan Shelltoe Priory. Salvation was through the bare foot, beach walking treatments, weekly tests of walking past JD Sports without entering and the final test of walking on hot coals. A number of times the staff caught me drawing logos and symbols on my feet which escalated to me claiming I had invented the world's first invisible and lightest Air Max. Creosote was substituted and I am now addicted to visiting garden centres and Homebase.

Second best smell is the smell of money, not the coins side of currency as they smell of my left pocket which is quite close to my other precious things. Interesting gingerdj fact: I always put my spare change in my left pocket, never my right unless its money I don't own. My keys always go in my right but cheap trouser pockets wear down quickly with spiky keys so may have to change that tradition plus the fact that any internet savvy picket pockets doing some desktop research could find themselves a good tip for robbing ginger bloggers. I won't advertise where I put my wallet which reminds me to finish my smell favourites - paper-based cash, hmmm lovely. If only money vouchers could capture that aroma.

As you can tell, work is non-existent at the moment which you'd think I'd be lapping up with trivial internet searches and general slacking. However, New Year's resolutions and planning are putting my aspirations into perspective therefore I've put two applications in for a couple of jobs in the university marketing department. I've previously applied for one of them 6 months ago and heard nothing so hoping a change of tact will get me an interview at least. It's more money and more responsibility so blogging and slacking will be reduced. Should hear something in February.

Last week was also pulling focus on goals for the year and future. The possibility of getting a bigger house in Southampton away from the chavs of the local area. Yes, the boring, snobbish, middle-classed, mid-30's have officially arrived! With the house looking to enter the final chapter of our residence we've been planning the repair and decoration. Stripping the shoddy wallpapering effort we did 2 years ago on the hall/stairs yesterday revealed a dark green and black look out of the 1930's and smelt a little like piss! Not sure if it’s something to worry about. Does arsenic in old paint smell of urine?

Telly for the New Year is getting better. After this years Celeb Big Bro, which already has had some classic moments, My name is Earl of Friday night (Channel 4) is ace. Hearing Rob Base and  DJ EZ Rock will never be the same again. Looking forward to Hyperdrive which could replace Red Dwarf as the next Sci-fi-sit-com. There's a good cast: Nick Frost (Mike from Spaced) and Kevin Eldon (Big Train), so it better be good or there'll be trouble. On the same night, Lost series 1 will complete this Wednesday which will put us out of our misery ready for series 2. Finally, Life on Mars could be interesting with Human Traffic bloke in a back in time cop drama.
Dates to get excited about are 2nd Feb for Goldfrapp and Mighty Boosh on the 9th, both at the Southampton Guildhall. Plus, 15th May will be Dara O'Briain at the Nuffield Theatre which is only metres away from where I sit now at work.

Found this interesting link which came from the same place as the photo:

http://www.blueteagames.com/cactusbruce/index.html

Interesting facts

Red light district
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Found these facts on the BBC website magazine:-

6. WD-40 dissolves cocaine - it has been used by a pub landlord to prevent drug-taking in his pub's toilets.

25. Nelson probably had a broad Norfolk accent.

"Hardy, 'ave ye gotta loight boy?"

Happy New Year

Land ahoy
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

More family stuff before the end of the year. Bro-in-law Neil let us down which left just us to visit Kev and Karol, Brought the new poker kit Donna kindly gave us for Christmas to introduce the game. For beginners, they stole our chips like pro's and I somehow think a hussle was in the making that night.
A day's rest from the alcohol and futon bed ready for the big one in the little room. Kerry had left her stolen goods of pirate flags for decoration and I turned up with some surprise disguise accessories as pictured. I decided to take first shift of DJing as I had a few light weight tunes to play (although spent all day and the previous evening listening to alot of shite and sorting out downloads that didn't work).
Jake, Steve's son was the surprise of the night. Normally content with a bottle of Dr Pepper and a playstation, Jake was allowed a few alco-pops and joined in the fun with glow sticks and comedy hat.

Happy days

Happy days
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Celebrated Steve's birthday on the first evening of the Christmas holiday. Somehow managed to get out at 1pm! Had to visit Kerry's hairdresser Tony in Notting Hill to collect something then tubed it over to Clapham for a bar called Inigo. Usual suspects were there though Steve looked like death and was forc-fed his Stella and shots. The bar had some great DJs lined up for other nights. Shame that night didn't have one.

A day of recovering and food shopping on the next day then Xmas Eve a bit of fresh air was needed so headed over to Hythe. Southampton spreads itself north and east of the Itchen river and Hythe is on the west side of the water with the New Forest behind that. The main (and only attraction is the pier with mini train to the ferry depot. Originally built in the victorian ages, the pier is built with boards paid for by those who want to leave a lasting message like wedding anniversaries, deaths and birthdays. Best one has been pictured above.

Christmas Day was just me and the missus. Cooked some French Toast and strawberries for breakfast whilst Kerry spoke to Emma all the way from Oz. Ripped into the presents which we both got some great results. Camera tripod, t-shirt, jumper, headphones, mp3 player case (and more) for me. Kerry got her Armani rings back after over a year of losing them courtesy of me, plus a posh necklace, Dick & Dom annual, Perplex City game (and more).

Boxing Day was when everyone in the whole country decided to drive in the direction as us up to Norfolk to see my dad that night. He spoiled us again with a Jaguar car calendar, some champagne glasses and briefcase full of very, very sharp chef knives (Oh and a nice big cheque).

Next day saw most of Norfolk covered in snow with more still falling. Slightly worrying as we had to see my mum and nan then drive another 200 miles home. Great to see my nan again though she couldn't really say the same as her eye-sight had got worse - bless. Still, she had the cheekiness still there boasting she's 96 and like to let everyone know about it.
The main road around Norwich (A47) was starting to look a bit dicey with snow settling on both lanes. However after Norfolk there was no problem and got back in excellent time.