Pirate Paul's Parrot Posse Pub Quiz

Thursday night was a visit to the Pond pub on Gloucester Road, Brighton, opposite Paul and Sarah's house for some tasty Thai food and to take part in the weekly pub quiz. The food went down very well and at 8:30pm we'd paid £1 for each team member to the quizmaster, a character called Horace McSquirter(?). Our team name of Pirate Paul's Parrot Posse won us a prize for the funniest, thanks to Kerry, with a prize of some chocolate doughnuts.

There were five rounds with a current affairs/news for the first, a topic round on Heroes, a picture round to identify famous people when they were children, a music round (a bonus round that didn't count towards the main points and a bottle of wine as the prize) and a multiple choice. We climbed the ranks through the rounds and playing the joker on the picture round we were 2 or 3 points off the leader. We somehow managed to win the music round for some bad wine to add to our hangovers including latecomer Julian who was already pretty half-cut and helped the other teams shouting out the answers (he did convince the others that I was right on a couple of questions so he did help in the end).

We honestly didn't think the last round was a good score until the quizmaster called us out as winners and the pot of cash was ours! Hopefully, us winning all prizes hasn't put off the competition or banned us from the next time.

Conchords release horror film

Couldn't believe I saw this through Facebook but there it was, an advert for a new film, straight to video, for a full-length feature starring the Flight of Conchords main cast including Murray!

The film has its own website which interestingly is a co.uk site and not a co.nz. The cover looks slightly dodgy as well to be a little suspicious of its credibility. There's a trailer to view as well but I haven't found any reviews to say whether its any good or not. The website quotes Talksport Magazine review "as funny as Shaun of the Dead, more horrific than Severance". I've never heard of TalkSport but it looks like a Nuts clone for sport billys.

The website says: "Featuring the hilarious trio from Flight Of The Conchords (Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby & Jemaine Clement) this slick comedy horror is a riotous and gruesome nod to Peter Jackson’s (Lord Of The Rings) early films.

A supernatural force brings together two lost souls undergoing radical treatment at an experimental drug-testing facility, but when the facility is locked down for the weekend and the drugs take effect, the human guinea pigs experience sinister hallucinations pointing to a horrific double murder.

Unsure of where reality stops, the apparitions become more and more threatening until the only way to leave the facility alive is to solve this haunting secret."

www.diagnosisdeath.co.uk

New Tron film trailer

This looks really slick and crisp. No Daft Punk music yet. Apologies but no embedded code so use the link below.

YouTube video for Tron 2 Trailer

Wii Sports Resort

Another Nintendo license to print money as you must buy another accessory for a future car boot sale/ebay listing. Plus, you need to buy another MotionPlus ('mote' sensor) if you want to play another person (another £20). Wii Sports Resort is another mini-game spoon feed for the causal/newbie gamer. The first few goes are simple, good clean fun but when you look for more depth its not there. The new sensor does work better than the Wii-mote especially when you compare the golf between both Sports games. Out of the 12 type of sports I keep going back to are Sword Fighting, Basketball, Archery, flying the airplane around the island and Table Tennis. Nintendo really should have added the online play to lengthen its play-life.

I've been eye-ing up Wii Virtua-Tennis as the reviews say its the best tennis sim yet using the MotionPlus but after forking out £50+ I'm going to wait until ebay prices come down.

Course and kart

I was almost looking forward to this evening as much as the Ferrari racing day. Somehow I managed to get another three like-minded people from work to form a go-karting team to enter a Le Mans style competition at the Crawley track. It was supposed to be a competition between 'research' industry types but they'd only managed to get two teams of dentists and merged them with three semi-pro driver teams. With only myself and another having go-karted before it didn't bode well for racing success.

The go-kart company was a little disorganised starting late and we didn't even get a chance to use our comedy team name of Stig's Sussex Love Children, instead we used my employer's name of IDS. We split the 2.5 hours into two sessions for each driver with myself starting for an 18 minute drive. I managed to scramble into third and kept us there until my time was up. After that we slipped into last. A dodgy burger and chips later I was back out for my second session and managed to regain a position to fifth place. My racing time ended and the others failed to make anymore difference to the ranking. Pass me the wooden spoon!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I'd completely forgotten most of the book's content apart from Dumbledore dying, new teacher Slughornh and a lot of backstory about Voldemort so watching the film unfold to get to these key parts didn't make much difference to me. There were a few scenes which I think were devised to add some suspense but had nothing to do with the book as well as some funny teenage rom-com love stuff to keep it from being too dark. Overall, if you're patient with the slow burn its one of the best of the series if you can ignore the book details missing. Jim Broadbent is perfect for Slughorn and the cinematography is excellent.

WKND & MSTRKRFT

WA Sort Of Homecoming [Jaytech Satarday Mix] on AnjunaDeep and Boys Noize -Jeffer.

Sunday was a slight write off. I had some energy but my mind couldn't concentrate on one task or make any decisions. Caught up with a load of telly though.

Japanese Robot Cat

Very bored today hence two blog entries. I must also be missing our old cat to have come across these videos. Watch them in order from top to bottom.

Split/Second

I'm liking the look of this forthcoming racing game. It looks like a cross between Burnout/Midnight Club with some cheat moves to slow competitors down. Looks like a 2010 release around February time according to Amazon. Shame, I wouldn't have minded this for Christmas.

Thruxton Driving Day

I'd been praying for good weather all week for this and watching the forecasts like a hawk with a driving license. Luckily all that happened on the track was the odd flurry of drizzle. So after 2 and a bit hours of M25 and M3 traffic we made it to Thruxton, the other side of Andover to do my birthday present from Kerry.

After a long briefing video, three of us were driven around the track in a Mazda 3MPS (hatchback) by an instructor who pointed out where to brake, accelerate, positioning of the track etc. The track had some useful cones to mark these useful points which were greatly appreciated later.

Porsche Cayman
The next bit was to drive myself in a Porsche Cayman with an instructor pointing out when to brake etc. Whilst I was driving he was marking me on my performance. The car itself was very smooth and quick but driving on a race track was so different to the road you almost lost the speed sensation. There were a few places where you couldn't really floor it like near the grid/pit area where everyone was watching from. 4 laps was all we were allowed.

Ferrari F355
Shame it was yellow, left-hand drive and there were other, more modern Ferraris going around the track but that didn't stop me smiling from ear to ear. Unlike the instructor before, the older guy took time out to point a few more characteristics of the car and how to drive it. Again, driving it around the track was slightly unreal as I normally get good feedback on what the car can do. The accelerator was really stiff so it was as raw as an Italian beast could be as the car would lurch with a delicate push of the foot. I could have pushed it so much more without fear of spinning off the track. Four short laps was still not enough.

Formula Renault
Although they quote it was a Renault, all the decor was Mazda so slightly confusing. They didn't look much but driving the single-seater car around was more memorable than the Ferrari. First off was being kitted out with racing boots, gloves and a helmet. Next was getting in it - 'imagine sitting in a bath' was the advice as there was no proper seat just extra back cushions (looked like swimming floats) to move you forward. After an embarrassing engine stall I was out on my own. The gear shift was slight nightmare as I realised I wasn't close enough to the clutch but the acceleration, g-force and against the open elements blew me away. I even managed to overtake some cars along the way and the in-car video (a whopping £30 for the dvd) was worth buying. I even got to wave at Kerry, James and Emma along the way as I approached the start/finish line. By the 5th lap I really started to find my confidence but that was my lot.

Mazda RX-8 Instructor lap
The last part of the experience and everyone was having a go at it. For £20 you could pay on the day for an instructor to scare to silly around the track for a lap of which Kerry, James and Emma did. The driver pushed the Mazda to the limit whilst having a small talk along the way. It was a world away from the speeds I was doing.

Wanting more...
That was it as far as driving went but I was slightly tempted at adding on the Lamborghini Mercielago experience but at £125 for 3 laps it was wee bit extreme.

Moshi Moshi

Neither of us wanted to cook Friday night so we headed over to Jamie Oliver's restaurant hoping the queue would be short before 7:30pm. How wrong we were as it looked like an hour's wait. Instead we headed over Moshi Moshi, the Japanese restaurant located near the city hall.

First impressions were a little tainted. Maybe they could do with some decor update and they didn't serve Kirin or Shochu which is scandalous in my book. Still the conveyor belt of sushi was quite fun to look at and the food itself very tasty and reasonable in price - I'd strongly recommend anything teriyaki there. Would I go back? Probably no as Oki-nami offer a better drinks selection and better placed in town, plus Wagamama has perfected its food quality and offers a better atmosphere.

We ended the night in the Om bar for some 2 for 1 cocktails. They seem to have reduced the choice and menu size but still managed to have some delicious bargain booze.

July catchup

After a marathon session of DIYing and the recent heatwave, motivation to do anymore decorating has dried up. For the last weekend of June whilst Glastonbury was on (slightly jealous at not going), we went to Norfolk to visit my dad and put Sasha's ashes on my mum's grave. My dad is still trying to sell his business and had a couple of people interested after an advert placed in a Jag magazine but banks are making it difficult for borrowers. Set up a blog for his company just to see if it helps SEO.

July the 4th was Paul and Sarah's basement party which had a good turn-out. I was amazed at Sue's singing voice on Paul's Gaydar Euro-trance track, TXT. I could honestly see that going down well somewhere. After Paul's house-disco set I came on with some new tunage like Grum, Mark Broom's Meltin Pot, some tracks from the excellent Gildas and Masaya's New York album, and Afrojack's Radioman always goes down well. Shame my mixing wasn't up to scratch but something was affecting my concentration.

A few random conversations about why there isn't drinkable cheese and other things I rounded the party appearance off with a ride on Julian's BMX bike trying to bunny-hops and ride down stairs. Apparently it's the new mid-life crsis must-have.

Chaser's War on Everything

TV treats

Summer usually means dull TV but our 40 incher has been good for us lately. Flight of the Conchords has recovered from a dodgy start but episode favourites so far are The Tough Brets (Westside Story with Jim from Neighbours appearing), Unnatural Love (Jermaine dates an Australian) and Prime Minister (NZ PM gets weird with The Matrix film references). Last nights' 80's song with added hair gel was possibly their best song yet.

US imports of House and Lie To Me have been impressive on Sky HD. But a couple of new comedies have really got my laughter juices running are Psychoville and The Chaser's War on Everything. Psychoville's first episode was just a twisted enigma waiting to be opened up like Pandoras Box.

Waiting to see Flight of the Conchords, I came across BBC4's showing of The Chaser's War on Everything. These Aussie guys do the odd sketch but its mainly their set ups acting around the general public or political figures with secret cameras obtaining some uncomfortable Borat style cringe-worthy humour. Try their Wikipedia entry for some interesting reading especially their controversial stunts.