July's Heat The Hottest

Looks like the uncomfortable heat Britain experienced over the past 31 days is going to be the hottest of this year - more importantly, it's been the hottest July in England since 1914 with temperatures of 39C reached in some areas around me (London). I'm not so interested in the record being matched (or there abouts), but I'm more interested in something else I've read.

According to Sky News.com, speculation of August temperatures being even hotter than July's have now been thrown out of the window. On average, August is generally the hottest month in England, with temperatures of 33C being the real maximum we normally see - 25C being the average. But it looks as though July is going to be the hottest month of this year. According to the report, Met Office forecasters say that August will be the same as always and won't follow the trend of this months constant heat waves.

That's really reassuring, especially for commuters on London's underground and bus network. 45C has been the average temperature on the Underground this month with 57C being reached in some buses across the capital. On that note, I believe it's against the law to transport cattle in temperatures exceeding 27C - good job we don't let cows on our bus network.

Youth Scum

At around 10:30 this evening I gave my mother a call whilst I was out at a local bar, turns out there had just been a fight and my parents and neice were in the thick of things.

I ran home with my cousin and mate at top speed (I knew working out would come in handy) to see my parents just standing there. Apparently some yobs were having a fight down the road when one broke away and started breaking the windows in some cars. My mother screamed at him to stop with my father calling the guy a moron and telling him to stop it - that kind of backfired though. The little shite yelled at my Dad and ran off over a park fence. He hurdled back about 10 seconds later with what appeared to be a car battery from an old Jewish settlement near us. He immediately ran toward my Dad with this car battery whilst my Mum both bravely and stupidly put herself infront of my Dad and raised her hand in a "please-don't" style gesture. The guys mate, who was actually rather nice, rugby tackled this idiot whilst my Dad put him in a lock. My Mum then called the Police who showed up nearly an hour later, saying that there wasn't anything they could do - in reality, there's nothing they wanted to do (Government tax well spent aye?)

I don't know whether I was most petrified that my parents had just got in a fight but were safe, or that they could have gotten in a much worse fight and ended up injured, especially with my 15 year old neice present.

Thankfully though, my Dads quick reactions at stopping this prat and the even quicker gathering of my family out the front soon put an end to it all. I joined a few minutes later (after the phone call). In a sick kind of way, it was nice to see my uncle, two cousin, two mates (who are like family), myself and my father all outside in a line with our arms crossed waiting to wave off anymore trouble before the police arrived.

All in an evenings work, but I had to put down a bottle of Corona after only one gulp of it. I'll go back there tomorrow.

One Of Those Moments

This post is going to be one of those moments where I look back in about a years time and think to myself "my god, what an idiot! What were you thinking?".

I'm low again and I'm not sure if it's because I've not been out in weeks, whether I have no money to go out or whether I'm jobless - it's actually probably a combination of all three really. This post is more about feeling sorry for myself, so I doubt it'll be much fun for anyone to read.

Anywho, I'm pissed off and it's becoming a daily thing now, just always grumpy and fed up. I'm annoyed with people who keep saying I don't do anything all day long, if they actually spent a day with me and saw how frustrating it is they'd understand. They've got it easy having jobs, believe me. See, I'm desperately trying to get into the I.T industry, whether this is in I.T support, like a technician, or for an Internet Service Provider. I have a Diploma in IT which I could have progressed into a HND in IT had I stayed in the location I lived in before, but moving with family has completely ruined those plans and it would now cost me an awful lot to step up to a HND. Anyway, it appears that a Diploma in IT just isn't good enough these days. It's great that I've got it, but companies now require that I have experience. Normally I could get away with "must have 1 year's experienced in.." but most are asking for 3 years plus. How the hell am I supposed to get any kind of experience in IT when no company will take me on.

I've thankfully seen a couple of jobs that don't require experience and I have applied but, so far, to no avail. I'd even be willing to do voluntary work for 6 months or something, but how am I supposed to afford travel expenses and bills as well as juggling a pay-less job? I just don't see how it's possible. Some could say 'get a loan', but I'm not going down that route because I've seen what it's done to my family - evidently, no good!

I'm fed up of looking for jobs now, even though I must continue. I just wish someone would give me a break and employ me already. I'm increasingly frightened I'll still be unemployed come Christmas. Please, no!

Funny Weather

Weather is a funny thing. Take a look at the forecast for the next five days in London, England. Despite the fact that although we're scheduled thunderstorms on Thursday, we know this won't happen due to the unpredictability of English weather (and possibly bad intelligence at the Met Office). But for Weather in general, it's amazing how a thunderstorm can be compared to someone putting out a fire.

The fire gets hot, so you sprinkle it with water to bring it under control, now although the fire doesn't get any less hot, its mass can be brought down a great deal by constant spraying of water.

Weather is similar. Although weather can never be 'put out', it can control itself in weird and wonderful ways. The heat at the minute is rather intense for English weather, but with one thunderstorm the temperature drops, however, not enough. After a few days of the weather cooling a little, it decides it's not nearly cool enough and so in an attempt to bring the temperature down to something bare-able, it shocks and wets itself further more... Most probably until the English stop moaning about how hot it is.

Film4 Free

I don't know how things work in America, but over here it's difficult to get things free, especially on T.V. For years those of us who refused to pay money for rubbish Sky/Cable television have now got something to laugh about. Freeview, the terrestrial digital service which offers 25 more channels to the already 5 available, has now got its very own film channel, Film4.

What was a subscription service has now gone, and although adverts do unfortunately cut the film in half, it's a decent price to pay (pun) for some quality television.

Just finished watching the excellent Lost in Translation with the brilliant Bill Murray and the beautiful and talented Scarlett Johansson - okay I have a soft spot for her.

Film fun!

Football Fever Settling In?

It's around three to four weeks now before the English F.A Premier League campaign kicks off again, and what better way to build up to this with some football fever flying around my estate.

Friday night at around 8.30pm, a few friends and I decided to head over the field for a kick about and to our pleasant surprise, a 55 year old goalkeeper veteran joined us and turned out to be more of a challenge than we had first thought. It was mainly myself and another friend knocking some crosses in to the penalty area to witness some rather funny goals - and the odd shoe doing its rounds for an early space visit!

Saturday morning continued the football vibe as a friend and one of my cousins decided to head to Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, London. There's an official West Ham United store there and to my joy, had plenty of jerseys in for me to nab. Of course, after witnessing my happiness at finally grabbing hold of a West Ham jersey for the first time in exactly 10 years, my mate and cousin decided to head over to another sports shop to pick up a horrible, in my honest opinion, Arsenal FC jersey. I've never liked the red and white combination.

One of the funny things that happened today though was the ring-sticking-moment my cousin had. We walked into a men-only shop and browsed for a few things. I'm after a rather expensive suit for my newphews Christening next month you see, I'm due to be Godfather so must dress the part. Anywho, my cousin got a little bored and decided to try on some rings, only to find that one of them was a little too tight and got it stuck on his middle finger. In a panic, trying to get it off, he started causing himself a lot of pain, to which he then decided that there was no other option but to buy the ring. Fortunately for him it had come down in price quite a lot, but I'm sure it's something he could do without. For those who are worried about my cousins overall welfare, the ring is now safely off and on a finger that isn't as fat.

Oh also, does anyone remember the London-Gangster film, Snatch? The female behind the counter in the bookies, I can't remember her name. She had short hair and was rather odd looking, but had a typical east London accent. Well, she walked straight past me today. I haven't seen the film in a while, but I do, apparently, have a memory for faces and hers was one I recognised. I've tried searching for a picture of her, but it appears she's only ever been in one film, and that was Snatch.

Stealin' stones and breakin' bones people!

We're Being Watched

If you put some thought into it, it's not an odd thing to have someone famous or in the spot light come across your blog. If I were to type something about Scarlett Johanson in my blog, and she one day decided in an incredibly boring state to search for her name on Google, she would, eventually (after a long long trek I mean) come across my blog, especially as blogger.com is owned by Google.

But this was really brought to light from an article by Newsnight Editor, Daniel Pearl, of the BBC. He was basically stating the obvious to many tech heads, but the not so obvious to those out there who think they can write a blog and keep it private between friends and family.

Last year I had another blog on the go via Wordpress. It was a little more personal than this one, with my name and photo being published up on a regular basis. The one thing that got me all exicted about blogging though and really brought my attention to what Daniel mentioned, is that an old old friend managed to track me down to an e-mail address via a search for my name in Google. After browsing for a few pages she came across my name on a website to which she clicked. To her amazement, she saw my photo and a diary of my past year in London and instantly e-mailed me.

And we're now talking a regular basis over MSN Messenger again. Fun stuff!

Don't Get Fired For Blogging

I never really thought enough about this to let it bother me, but apparently people all over the world are being sacked because of their blogs, and even a pseudonym won't help you!

An article at the BBC news website runs through a few people who have recently lost their jobs through blogging, although I think two out of three of those people now have book deals because of their blogs, so it can't be all bad.

But to go tangential to the topic of my post, I've started to wonder why I didn't write a blog back in the day when I was a kitchen fitter and call it "Life of a London Kitchen Fitter". I mean, you hear stories all the time about the 6ft man who entered some womans house to 'fit her kitchen', don't you? Nothing sexual ever happened on my job, although there were a few clients who were absolute stunners, but to write about it surely would have lead me to a book deal like the rest of these average joes?

Bollocks!

It Might Snow

...On the contrary, it's too bloody hot for that.

The funny thing about the English is that we complain about the weather at all times of year, except Spring and Autumn when the weather is quite similar. During Winter months when we're all wrapped up, sitting by fires and heaters, we love nothing more than to moan about how cold it is and you can place money on someone piping up with "I can't wait until Summer". Then when Summer does arrive the same thing happens. We sit outside basking in the gorgeous sun, bikinis, shorts and a lack of tops and someone, somewhere, always complains about how hot it is. Once again, you can place your hard earned cash on someone saying "I can't wait for Winter to arrive".

Many tourists complain about British weather, but I love it. It's one of the most varied weather patterns in the world, with some other countries along the lines of the equater experiencing heat all year long and of course, our friends way up north and way down south experiencing some rather similar weather to the title of this post.

England's Summer temperatures are, on average, around the 25C mark, which most will tell you is a nice comfortable temperature to be doing your daily things in. However, 2006 in England has seen some rather odd behaviour with weather patterns. We had a rather warm winter for a start, our Spring felt like early Summer and now our Summer feels like we've been gifted the weather of something you'd see on a holiday destination, it's lovely. For the first time since I can remember, I'm experiencing temperatures of nearly 38C in London. Having lived in Boston, Lincs. for the majority of my life, I've been used to much cooler weather than this, so it's definitely something new to me.

Am I complaining? Certainly not! Now it's time to catch some rays and read the newspaper.

The Juggling Man

I don't know much about this, who this guy is or why he is doing what he is doing, but it amazed me enough to make a post about it.

I present to you, some guy called Chris Bliss




Thanks my friend at Movie Guff.

Heat exhaustion or other problems?

I'm a very active person who loves nothing more than to keep fit, my life is revolving around it at the minute, not in an obsessive way, and so I make an effort to eat the right foods and do the right things. But the past week I think I've either failed myself somewhere, or the heat of Summer has hit me more than usual.

I've ruled out dehydration due to me drinking water all day long, I've ruled out the possibility that I don't eat enough because I have four to five small meals each day, I've ruled out me being worn down because I don't have much stress in my life at the minute, I haven't ruled out me not eating enough vegetables, which is now probably taking its toll on my body - I have, however, done my best to rectify this problem by eating vegetables on a daily basis now, no matter how much I dislike them.

I've been feeling pretty lethargic all week and was in a race against time to be fit for football yesterday afternoon - and the result of that race came to a miserable conclusion half way through the match.

I managed to make it to the end, but not without getting cold chills in 32C heat, nearly passing out toward the end and almost collapsing to the ground in one last push at goal - to sum up the feeling of my body after the match? Exhausted. I ate all the right things before the match, drank plenty of water before, during and after and did the required amount of warm up exercises before the game, yet come the end I was ready to dig my own grave - although I doubt I could have even managed that.

I've felt alright today but my physical activity has been kept to a minimum, although I have just finished my routined weight-lifting work out. I think if things don't get better with me in the next couple of days, I'll be forced to make a visit to the doctor for a blood test or something. I've spent much of the day writing my next article for a certain website as well as filling in an application form for an IT Technician post at a local Secondary & Science school - something which took nearly four hours to complete - sign of desperation there?

In other news, I'm quite happy and relieved that Space Shuttle Discovery has succesfully completed its mission of dropping off a Germany astronaut and a few other supplies for the ISS today. It landed back at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, at 13:14 BST.

The Little Giant Girl

I was just browsing the internet when I came across this 5 minute video. It's a little hard what to make of it at first, but it is pretty impressive and I suppose one would call it art of some form. It impressed me anyways.

I've read that 'The Little Girl Giant', as it is actually called, is a living fairy-tale theatre event and parade called The Sultan's Elephant, involving a giant girl marionnette and a 42-ton mechanical elephant. It's all been created be a French art group called Royal de Luxe.



I think you'll agree that the music plays a huge part of the video experience. You can download a free and, I presume, legal copy of it here.

Feeling... Different

Tonight, whilst I should be out with friends and family at a cousins moving in/girlfriends birthday party BBQ, I'm stuck in suffering from, I presume, the effects of a lack of iron. For the past 6 months I've been eating healthily-ish, training on a near daily basis and generally looking after myself as best as I can, but one thing I forgot... Iron! Turns out those green leaves known only as Kale, Spring Greens and Cabbage actually contain a vast amount of iron which I've been reluctant to eat due to, well, the incredibly boring taste of them. I've learnt my lesson, especially so as I was looking forward to going out tonight.

So whilst I'm under the weather, what do I do? I was pondering around the house and, with everyone out, decided to venture over to a bottle of D&G scent cream that my niece is using. I opened the bottle and got a whiff of what can only be described as heaven. A major mistake in my tirey state, I came to the conclusion that I would be cheating myself out of a pleasantly boring evening if I didn't put some of this cream on my arms. Well now I'm partly regretting it, not only am I wanting sex with some illustriously hot female, but I'm also feeling rather camp.

Time for Die Hard!

Superman Returns

As I said in my previous post, my cousins and I took a trip up London to go and see the new Superman movie. In fact, we ended up going to Thurrock (Lakeside) to the My Vue cinema to watch it - fab location.

After an extended play of annoying advertisements and more than enough trailers, the movie began.

All those memories of when I was a child, watching the movies with Christopher Reeve came back to me, the music hit, the lights went out, my heart began to race!

The effects were amazing, the sound was excellent and the acting was top draw. I was a little skeptical that the characters in this new movie would alter slightly compared to the previous and original movies, but I was wrong. Brandon Routh, who plays Superman, portrays the mysterious fella himself perfectly and his acting of Clark Kent is just spot on - the old geeky and slightly awkward Kent is back. Routh actually studied Reeve's performances in the original films so well that at times you forget who you're watching. Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane) and Kevin Spacey (Lex Luthor) both get their characters traits across excellently, helping to forget that this film has been released 30 years after its predecessor.

The plotline is a little basic unfortunately, but I think that's to be expected of a Superman film. The real action is toward the end, with Superman saving a few lives along the way. It shows him returning to Earth after a five year absence visiting his home planet from being told it had been destroyed. He rejoins the Daily Planet, tries his best to rekindle the now awkward relationship between him and Lois and, in an unexpected twist half way through, finds out about a 'little' treat. Let's just say that the Smallville series didn't see this coming and, as such, will now have to change their storyline a little.

The ending of the film definitely leaves a gap open for a sequel and I think there is already a new movie in the works for a 2008 release - this is unconfirmed though.

Anyone wanting to get into Superman, there's never been a better time, and to anyone who is a lover of Superman, well, I'm sure you've been to see it already. Definitely well worth a watch, even for the stunning effects.

Spreading My Name

I'm a writer, am amateur one at that, but still considering myself a writer. I write for a few websites, one notable though and, unfortunately, I can't give the name of that website away for anonymity reasons. However, I was increasingly bored last night and decided to search for my [real] name in Google and I was surprised by the amount of entries that came up. I came across the obvious articles I had written, but I also came across an extended array of links from other websites where users (and professional journalists) have spoken about me and my articles. Nine times out of ten, the feedback was positive, with a few minor criticisms here and there (most were unjustifiable). Definitely made my night.

Through more boredom, I decided to search blogger.com blogs for interesting weblogs to visit. I came across one through a search term that I've now forgotten, called Ob's Musings. I've only managed to read a few of the posts on there, the more recent ones, but they're well written and I can some-what relate to the guys current relationship problems. I've [almost] been in the situation he is in now, so I felt it was only right to drop by and leave a comment. Having read a few more of his posts, I'm actually intrigued. So to stop myself from losing it, I've linked it up on this blog. Have a read sometime.

On another note, it's the U.K Premier of Superman Returns this evening. My cousins and I are going up London to watch a showing at 9.30. I very much doubt I'll be back this evening to give an account of the movie, but I'm sure I'll leave a brief review of it over the weekend.

Until then, adios!

3G Fun

Okay, so my first real post is a little tech-savvy for most, but it's still something new to me. I recently acquired a Nokia 6680 3G phone from my cousin after he got an upgrade on a different network. I had never had a video phone before, so the novelty was still something new to me and, thus, couldn't wait to bare my arse to a few mates in a drunken night in (or out). I managed to sway my sister (please read on before thinking about incest video calls) into calling me on her partners phone.

...And then it happened, 30 seconds of excitement contained in one [probably expensive] phone call. My sisters movements were a little jaded, but I got to see my wee niece just smiling at me through the phone. Oh the happiness. What's more, I'm told that at the end of this month, O2 (my phone network) are going to give me free video calling minutes...

...Then my arse will make its cinematic debut!

My First

...Over 600 days later and I finally give up with Wordpress and make a move to Blogger.com. Why? Well, a good question, afterall, Wordpress is a damn site better than the software on offer here, but it lacks one thing - a network of other blogs. The sheer thought that someone, somewhere, might come along and read this is enough to persuade me to create an account and start blogging.

So here I begin, and what better way to start than with a little explanation of myself and a brief description of my goal. I'm male, 20 years old and living in London, England. I'm currently unemployed although that doesn't mean to say I haven't been desperately looking for work. I don't ponce off of anyone, I'm thankful I have enough cash to keep my alive for now, and I do have some other (legal) ways of making cash as well. For the past two years I've been fitting kitchens in and around London, so I do have some experience in that trade, but unfortunately fitting a kitchen isn't the required experience to get into I.T - not even a Diploma in IT helps with that.

My music taste varies, although Indie and Rock are up there on my favourites list, but it should probably be mentioned that I do have a soft-spot for Rn'B, Soul, Funk, Reggae and Hip Hop. I'm into a variety of films, but the typical chick flick and common Hollywood blockbuster don't generally interest me. As such, I prefer films that delve a little deeper into the meaning of everything, such as Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream. Of course, the comical films with any member of the Frat Pack is always a hit with me - cheesy comedy always cheers me up.

On other side of things that don't involve sitting on my arse, I am a very active person playing sports on almost every day of the week, as well as working out at home using a combination of weights and bananas (don't ask) three times a week.

Gosh, this sounds like a C.V doesn't it? Anyway, that's all you'll know of me for now.

My reasons for being here? Well, besides my point in the opening paragraph, I have a love for reading and writing and would seriously take up any offer of employment in Journalism - and I will be taking a course soon enough. I'll be using this blog to better my writing, as well as get a few things off my chest that I may or may not be able to talk about with others close to me. The moment my identity becomes jeopardised, I'll be swiftly heading off without a trace.

Let the fun begin!