That's why the lady is a tramp

It's been a bit dull lately. If I haven't been messing myself up with wall paint or trying to catalogue my record collection, we've been watching rubbish telly. Last Saturday we drove down to Exeter to celebrate Kerry's nan's 90th birthday reuniting us with her family. The build-up was quite stressful but everyone managed to enjoy themselves as much as you could at a 90th birthday!

Another tick in the box for being old was buying some hiking boots on Sunday. Lets get one thing straight - we're not becoming ramblers! These are for our New Zealand holiday and in preparation may do some walking around the UK as training. Plus Kiwis call hiking 'tramping' which I'm not sure really changes things. Anyway, the shop assistant really knew his stuff about feet and shoes, coming away £130 lighter but with special insoles to correct my pronation (another tick).

Couldn't find any decent photos of British tramps on the internet. Good thing really as homeless-ness isn't funny unless they're mad, waving a fist and swearing a lot happy in their own little world (not really). Norwich had its fair share of them with 'Marigold' topping the weirdest, wandering the city directing traffic with his bright yellow rubber gloves.

My latest source of amusement and addiction is the second Phoenix Wright game. The PAL version isn't even out until mid-March but I managed to buy a cheap Japanese version with English text for a third of the price.

Underworld in Gameboy game?

No. But it nearly read that way. Whilst scanning through the online gaming press I found out that the lead character is Mr. Hyde. Yahoo Games had a review of the Gameboy DS game called Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and had the quote below:-

"The salty, alcoholic ex-detective at the center of Hotel Dusk's tale (because it just wouldn't be proper noir without a boozing ex-cop at the helm) is Kyle Hyde."

Found the Japanese TV advert for the game as well.

Picture: One is Karl and other Kyle Hyde but which one hasn't done a live gig in the UK for like f&*king ages!?

Step away from the novelty record!

More sleep, DIY and watching DVDs - not exactly the tonic for late January blues. Still I was quite pleased with the choice of films. Superman Returns was ignored last summer as it looked a little cheesy and I haven't been sucked in by the popularity of X-men. How wrong we were. Well recommended! The second DOOVD was A History of Violence directed by Cronenberg. I nearly wrote this off at the start with its flat monologue and incredibly slow pace but that all changed after 15 minutes. Bit sexually charged as well with Viggo 'Aragorn' Mortensen getting treated to cheerleader sex from his missus - lucky boy.

I was going to add a link to the Cilit Bang featuring MC Barry Scott rave tune but I've a feeling it's going to be everywhere in a week's time especially with downloads pummeling the charts. It follows the steps of Michael Winner sampling in the Esure TV ad with 'calm down dear, its only a commercial'. Search and destroy I'd say before the chav-muppets use it for their mobilephones.

Other news is the Friends of Ted Festival. I like the idea of dressing up as a vicar after my nun outfit and some of the events over the weekend look good. Anyone for Buckeroo Speed Dating, Ludo Aerobics or the Ferrero Rocher Quiz Night?

Hot Fuzz: First web opinion

My attention span this week has been all over the shop. Whether its lack of interest in the job, not enough pressure, plain laziness or I've developed A.D.D.

Anywho, whilst diverting away from 'must-do' emails I rediscovered a good movie blog I ocassionally visit called Solace in Cinema.

Whoever writes this gets some great exclusives and even posts photos on FlickR. In fact it was this very site I read about the Spaced/Shaun of the Dead's crew up and coming project. Check out the first impressions of Hot Fuzz - looks like its going to be a blinder! First Hot Fuzz opinion

Bravia paint'em up

Need a bit of colour in your life? Dull January weather getting you down? Or haven't really got much on at work? Well, Sony has come up with a great online game to match their award-winning TV advert. Simply position your paint guns around a building and get as much paint coverage as possible (I should be charging them for writing their PR).

If anyone gets beyond the Tate Modern building you've obviously just got too much time on your hands!

Colour Luancher game

Driven to virtual drink

Came home Friday night a little depressed after another week of job unsatisfaction. Luckily I bought Wario Ware: Smooth Moves for Wii to cheer me up. It's completely manic with only seconds to do mini-games in various poses of the remote. The humour was good but could have been even more twisted and would have liked to do the mini-games a bit longer than 5 seconds given. Also, there's no interaction between players which lets it down. The funniest boss/end game was to dance in formation. Someone must have put themselves up for YouTube on that and they have! Other than that we finally caught up with James and Emma in NZ by webcam. It wasn't just the time difference that was completely opposite so were states of mind. Poor Emma was about to go to work and we had a few too many.

The rest of the weekend was home based and trying to record as much vinyl to mp3 as well as DIY stuff. By the end of year I want most of it sold really.

Sunday TV highlight was the world championship darts from Lakeside which gripped us for 30 minutes. What a great final! However their WAG equivalents needed a good workout in the looks department.

Volume

Volume
Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ.

Saturday was a jam-packed fun day taking advantage of the January quiet time. Kerry found a 2 for 1 offer for the Science museum's Game On exhibition at the station so bolted that on to our to do list. Second time for me and did more of the same. Whilst there I received a call out of the blue from Josh asking me to be his best man! Wedding on the 28th April.

After Game On we popped over the road to the V & A museum for the Volume exhibition (free). Set in the courtyard, this was an interactive art installation. Robert Del Naja (3D) from Massive Attack was behind the music part. Basically there's loads of 7 ft tall columns with pixelated light reacting to passers by. Very eerie but stunning to look at.

After taking loads of photos (see FlickR and YouTube) we tubed over to Leicester Square to buy tickets for Nightmare before Christmas in 3D. It would have been the last week of showing and for £13 each I hoped it was worth it. The 3D trailers were impressive with visuals leaping out at you. The main feature got better as you studied the animation. Not quite the characters at your nose but the effect gave you more depth and detail.

Before we went home, we stopped for a bite to eat around China Town in a Japanese restaurant called Okawari behind the cinema. Prices were reasonable and a great selection of food. If only we'd been here before our holiday to Japan!

XSXS (Xmas Season eXcesS)

Too much food and too much sitting on my arse over the holiday (blame Zelda and the Wii). Some great presents from the missus and a nice surprise from the old man. Just booked our NZ holiday flights.

Christmas and Boxing Day were in Norfolk. Treated my mum to a posh pub lunch and spent a very quiet evening with my dad watching possibly the worst TV ever (next time I'm bringing a DVD). The next day was travelling down Ipswich way and catching up with my nan and two aunties.

Other highlights were the snowboarding all-dayer - passed with flying colours. After 6 years of the board gathering dust brother-in-law, Kev and I had booked the Milton Keynes lesson. Shame Kev decided to give priority to Steve's birthday celebration the night before. After 30 minutes he gave up after hurting his shoulder from falling over too much. By lunchtime I had impressed the instructor so much I was allowed on the proper slope. Bit of a wrong move really as it was one icy bastard and took a tumble or two knocking my confidence. Still, I'm now licenced to board there passing Level 4.

NYE was a small affair but still able to party into the daybreak. Nice to see my old Alex Dolby vinyl going down a storm after the Final Scratch causing headaches. Coming back to work was a small shock to the system and had a legit skive yesterday with my nose leaking big time.