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Last night me and Mr O went along to the London Bloggers meet up, this was my second time and met a great bunch of bloggers and also had a drink or two paid for  by Vodafone who sponsored the evening. While most were just there to chat about their blogs and meet similar minded people I did meet a couple of so-called experts in SEO which I have since found out means ‘Search engine Optimisation’. Anyway one of them gave me her card after quite a hard sell about how great she was, the card was impressive so I thought Id take a look and see what it was all about only to find a crappy looking site riddled with spelling mistakes and what seems like lots of copy and paste jobs from press releases.

Not a great way to sell yourself! I don’t claim to be an expert in anything really, but if I did I would make sure I know my onions or at least give the pretence that I do!

Last night myself , Mr O and Smokey went to see Dan Clark at the Apollo theatre in London. Dan is the writer and star of the sitcom ‘How Not To Live Your Life*.. I find HNTLYL hilarious so was really looking forward to this stand up show from Dan which is why it pains me to say it just wasn’t very good. The whole set felt badly put together with no flow and the jokes themselves felt like something your mate might come out with down the pub that you find mildly amusing but not worth the ticket price IMHO. Looking forward to the next series of the tv show though, maybe Dan should stick to what hes good at!

Last night I saw the much hyped ‘The Road’ now maybe I’m just not getting it but I really don’t see what all the hype is about? I admit there was some good acting going on from Viggo Mortensen, but well the rest just didnt work for me… and when the movie got to the end I thought it was just about to kick off and get somewhere! …. now this film will most likely win an Oscar or something and become a classic why though will forever elude me

New years eve to me has mostly always been a let down, I’ve done the pub thing , I’ve done the going into London to see the non-existant river of fire thing, a few years ago I even paid to go to the local upmarket bar for a promised evening of food, drink and live music… and guess what they all kind of sucked for  various reasons. Pubs tend to be packed to the rafters (not in a good way but in a so busy you can hardly move/ take 30mins to get served at the bar kind of way).  in 2000 I went down to London bridge for the promised river of fire, and  guess what?  it didn’t even happen! unless you believe the person who was paid to put it on anyway, he claimed it was just all very quick… yeah whatever….. 

I have had one really cool NYE, me and some friends went to Edinburgh to see Culture Club play on a massive outdoor stage and afterwards went to a party in a closed shopping centre somewhere….  I think the reason that was fun as it was an a gig and a holiday wrapped up in one, I really don’t think NYE had a huge amount to do with it all…. ahhh I dunno  but the last two  New years I have stayed in and amused myself… the thing is this year I kind of felt I’ve missed out on something……..

My friend ‘Smokey’ wants a group of us to go to Amsterdam next NYE which works for me, but then anything sounds great to me right now rather than listening to endless crap fireworks and receiving endless texts wishing me happy new year from people I don’t know because I must have deleted their number long ago but they feel the need to send everyone on their phone the same message?

Am I just being miserable? well yeah ……

I have nicked the following from Tommy Boyd’s blog, the man is thought provoking, fun and very rarely wrong, unless he’s trying to be for effect, anyway Tom was talking about Capital Punishment which is currently in the  news , I loved this little snippet  :

Living badly should be seen as the ultimate punishment. Murderers and drug dealers should be condemned to a shitty mediocre -existence.  A life where they are content with crap dinner parties in cramped kitchens, commuting and package holidays, where they track house prices, foreigners in the high street, and their cholesterol.

That’s capital punishment.

from : https://mrtommyboyd.wordpress.com/

I’ve been thinking alot over the last few days about other people and how we treat them.  A week or so ago I brushed shoulders with a man while walking down the street, he went totally crazy at me convinced our shoulders connecting was no accident and was part of some devious plan on my part, I’m not sure what he thought my objective was but anyway the point is he was so angry at this non event.  The thing is I can’t get this bloke out of my head, why was he so angry?  did he really think I did this on purpose?  Will I ever see him again for round two? (this happened right by my office). 

I spent Boxing Day with my friend Bryn who was over from LA, she is a wonderfully positive person and it was a pleasure to walk the streets of London with her, and thats largely all we did, but it was so much fun, walking along the river Thames ducking occasionally in somewhere for a light refreshment before continuing on , my feet were killing the next day but it was worth it.  

So then today I heard an argument on the radio about asylum seekers, there were the usual people calling in saying “send em all back” etc and there were a few that asked why do they come here in the first place? with this being an island and all…an argument  I kind of agreed with…. but then this lady called in and totally changed my mind, she told her story of how she was tortured and abused in her home country which she fled and was so thankful that Britain gave her asylum… she then asked what would you do if you had to flee Britain tomorrow? it’s a good question …. I think Id want to go to the country I felt I would be the safest and would care for me while I was in this weak state.  What would you do?

Well this last week was eventful, on Wednesday me and Mr O met up with a couple of bloggers we met at the London Blogger event for a few beers at http://www.lowlander.com which is a Belgian beer bar located in Covent Garden.  It’s not the first time I have been to this place but I have to say while I love the idea in principle, every time I go to this place its a let down, the service isn’t great, the beers aren’t cheap and well the atmosphere just isn’t there for me.  Even my beer wasnt cold.  Note to self don’t go back!

On Thursday I was due to meet up with a few friends from a cigar forum I belong to and check out the beer garden at http://www.doggettscoatandbadge.co.uk a pub just off Blackfriars bridge.  Well it was so bloody cold on Thursday we had to cancel which was a shame as I was quite looking forward to shooting the breeze with some fellow cigar lovers, I have found for the most part they tend to be a decent sort, not the stereotype you would expect at all. 

Friday was our staff Christmas meal/drink at work, we ended up in a low end french chain despite having a budget of £50 a head we end up in a place costing £15 a head, what gives??   anyway after the so so meal we went to a nearby pub which Mr O described quite accurately I thought as feeling like we were at a wake!

But all that didn’t matter because I was due to go on the Eurostar to Paris with MrO and 8 other competition winners for an action packed weekend away…… well I got to the station at 7.00am slightly hung over and craving my bed to find the Eurostar is broken!!!! so no Paris for me!

So what I’ve been trying to say in a rather long-winded way is that this last week really wasnt great…..

My new obsession is anything Michael Caine, the man is a fantastic Actor but my interest in his past work has peaked again after a colleague lent me a DVD of ‘The Man Who Would Be King

So if you haven’t seen much of Sir Michael here are my top 5 in no order really:

The Man Who Would Be King   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341/

The Italian Job http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064505/

The Ipcress File http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059319/

Harry Brown  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289406/

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095031/

Well what did I do this weekend?  the answer is nothing, I feel ashamed it was against all my plans of doing something  but well nothing just got on top of me….   but  this week will be the week of something, in way of making up for the nothing…..