Lunar Eclipse

There is going to be a full lunar eclipse this Saturday night.

Geeky details here www.hermit.org/Eclipse/2007-03-03/

To quote the linked site “The total eclipse should be a spectacular sight; the Moon will be well within the Earth’s shadow, the umbral magnitude being 1.238, and should be deeply coloured by the Earth’s atmosphere.”

I’ve never seen this happen before (or never been interested before) so I’ll be watching the skies! It’ll be weird to see the Moon go a funny colour, should be a sight to remember.

The eclipse starts about 21:30 and should be fully eclipsed around 22:43.

I wonder if I can get some photos? Tripods to the ready now!

This is all assuming the clouds, currently covering the entire UK, clear off before Saturday.

Heroes

Have you seen it?

Sharon told me about it last Thursday, describing it as a bit like X Files meets X-men, I think its better than that.

You can watch the first episode here.

After watching the streamed episode on the website, I had to see the rest, and seeing as its all been on TV already, in my book its fair game to torrent it.

One grumble for me though, in episode 8 or 9 we had a street scene, supposedley in Chennai, India. Now, I’ve been to Chennai and that wasnt it. You know in the show Friends, when they are on the street outside Central Perk? These scenes are like that, its like a sanitised, technicolour version of, I’ll give it 3 out of 5. Ho hum, most people wont know the difference I suppose.

I’m on episode 10 so far, I’m going through it even faster than I do with Stargate epsodes so it must be good!

Like I say to Paul, “Try it, you might like it” 😉

Recycling TV shows is one thing, but……

We got the Sky magazine through the door yesterday.

Do you get this delivered? Its a bit rubbish, no proper goss but some nice pics, depends who has a new film or series starting on Sky.

Before having a flick through, I have to get rid of the leaflets, arent they annoying? Especially how they put some in the bag with the magazine and you think you’ve disposed of them. Then you get to the middle and there are more hidden inside!

Anyway, I noticed this printed on the bag.

RECYCLABLE

This wrapper is totally recyclable.
To recycle, return the wrapper to:
RR Flexo Ltd. (Mailing Film Suppliers)
Unit 6-12 Concorde Road, Norwich NR6 6BW

I beg your pardon?

You want me to send a 2’sqaure of poly-bag through the post to be recycled?

Now, I’m not a big fan of the whole “how big is your carbon footprint” brigade, but even I cant get behind this one.

Surely, this would involve the following extra resources being wasted.

An envelope, though perhaps you could recycle one that came with a gas bill.

A postage stamp and its manufacture.

A van to empty the postbox and deliver it for sorting.

Lights and heating and stuff at the sorting office.

A big lorry to take it to the sorting office in the other city.

Lights and heating and stuff at the 2nd sorting office.

A van to take the sacks of post or the postman to the recycling place.

Probably loads of other stuff that I’m not green enough to even think about.

How about they just send it in a paper envelope to begin with? I can then put it in my blue bin, the Council take it for recycling along with all our other paper and card. Sorted!

That reminds me, you know those supermarket carrier bags that promise to be bio-degradable? They are made from some super special plastic made from vegetables. I opened a seldom used cupboard at work last week meaning to clear it out. Inside was a Co-op carrier bag with some old party decorations inside, I picked it up and POOF! The whole thing just disintegrated in my hands. The floor was covered in bits of flakey white dust.

It really works!

But, it does make a mess, however after rubbing it into the carpet with my shoe for a bit, it had dissipated enough to leave it for the cleaners with feeling too guilty 😉

Crumbs, its another triumph for Madge!

Madonnas biscuits Originally uploaded by Andy2Boyz.

Gasp! Is there anything she cannot turn her hand to?

Music, Dance, Acting and Writing have all been tackled by Ms. Ciccone, to varying degrees of success.

And now, I give you Madonnas biscuits!

I know! She can bake too, she truly is a Superwoman*

Currently on sale in Aldi, if youre interested.

* Not really, unlike most Gayers, I’m not a massive fan of her “work”

***Stop Press***

Look what I “found”* she’s really doing it! check out those Eclairs 🙂

*Umm, I made this, please dont sue me Madge. Please?

X-Factor Live & Celeb Spotting

X-Factor Live Ticket Originally uploaded by Andy2Boyz.

We went to see The X-factor Live last night and I can exclusively reveal that it didn’t suck 🙂

There were about 10 acts in total, not sure I can remember them all, but here goes and in no particular order.

Eton Road, Nikitta, Robert, Ashley, The MacDonald Brothers, Ben, Ray, and of course Leona.

Oh, yeah, that young lad that cried all the time, well he managed to get through his whole song last night. He got a great response to this but secretly I wished he’d have blubbed a little bit 😉 Isnt that his act? Everyones going, aawww hasnt he got great voice? Well actually no, I find him nasal and annoying.

THe MacDonalds were good. They stood out as they were much more upbeat, even getting everyone on their feet for “I’m Gonna Be 500 Miles” The other acts were mostly doing ballads and slow stuff, showing off their voices is ok on the show but we’ve seen that, give us some POP! Ray did the whole “Swing” thing, prompting comparisons to Robbie William, if youre comparing how cocky he is, then I agree.

You may have guessed from the title of this post that there is a “you’ll never believe this!” moment coming up. Well here it is.

I can also exclusivley reveal that also in attendance and mingling with the riff-raff was TV’s Brian Dowling.

I saw him like 4 times, he may have been stalking me a little bit. The last time he saw me, he was next to me in the queue for drinks at the interval. I dint take a photo, sorry, lots of others did but it thought it a bit rude how many people were pointing camera-phones at him, without asking at all. I think I’d hate that. SOme people did ask to have a photo with him, he was very nice about it and agreed every time, What a nice young man.

So thats it, the story of my 3rd “gig” I’ll give it 8 apples, something for everyone but a bit heavy on the ballads.

I can see clearly now…..

The dust under the cover of my Nokia 3230 was getting so bad, I could hardly make anything out unless the backlight was on and I was in shade. If the sun was shining, no chance of seeing even the time, never mind looking at pictures or playing Gintris!

And yes, I do realise that most of the “dust” will actually be dead skin. Most of it Paul’s, since he had the phone for a year before me.
Eeuuuuwwww!

Its the first Nokia I’ve had where you cant just snap off the covers to give it a good cleaning. I got hold of a T6 screwdriver yesterday, not wanting to pay like upwards of £6 for one on the ‘net, I’d been hanging on. I finally spotted a T6 as part of a set in Poundland. Hurrah for Poundland, I love that shop.

I’ve now given it a good clean out and its like new, It’s actually made me like the phone again, I keeping having to get it out and admire it! How sad 🙂

Other fabulous items currently on sale in Poundland are a “mini tv remote on a keyring”, “mini camera tripod”, “USB memory stick” that uses your spare SD/MMC/RS-SD card as memory. All of which I have bought. All of which have also been put on ebay by other enterprising folks hoping to cash in on those of you that dont live near a Poundland!

Will you be my friend?

What is it with Myspace people? I’m sure some of them must spend all their time searching for anyone and everyone to send a friend request.

For example

EMILY, Female, 17 years old, United Kingdom, feels a bit emo.

Wants to be my friend. WHY!

Oh look, she already had 2806 friends. As if!

Get a life people 🙄

Shop-a-rama!

We went out on Saturday night, first time in weeks. It was pretty good, but I’ll not go into the details here it could be a good post for later! Cant waste good blog-fodder 🙂

A-ways, we went shopping on Saturday afternoon for a new shirt, not my idea and I didnt want anything, I had something to wear, it was Paul wanted a new shirt. We went to Crystal Peaks, not a lot of choice I know, but more and more I’m happy to buy cheap and wear once or twice, fashions change fast, so why spend £50 on a shirt to wear it 3 times? You just feel like its got to stay in the wardrobe cos it cost loads, at least I can chuck away cheap stuff with no remorse.

So, we looked all around and hehe I found 2 tops I liked, a shirt and a tank top thingy. Unfortunately Paul couldnt find anything he liked. Then just to make matters worse, I also see a pair of shoes I like, Oops I did it again!

Thats karma!

Then on Sunday I went to Asda to get flowers for Val’s birthday. Oops again, I spotted a nice coat, I’ve been looking for a while so its no surprise, and they have 20% off on coats, bargain.

He isnt happy but, together we are working through it.

And, I look fabulous! 🙂

We aint here to party

We had a note through the door last Wednesday, warning us of a party on saturday night . It was from our neighbour, no not Kev and Jon, the other side, the girl that moved in while we were on holiday. Her note was very nice, inviting us to attend her gathering at any time during the evening.

On Friday morning we went to get in the car to go to work and OMG there is a shopping trolley in her garden. Ok, so she doesnt drive and stocking up on food and drink for a party is a lot to carry, but hey! anyone heard of a taxi??

The worst thing about it really is that it was Netto trolley. At the top of the hill you a choice, Netto or Somerfield, why did she choose to have a Netto trolley? If it was me I’d have shopped inNetto then gone across to Somerfield to steal a trolley for the walk home.

So, the party. We already had plans for Saturday so were not planning on “popping in” However, we did witness the early stages, dozens of youngsters wandering around with drinks in hand. Did I mention that they were all (whats the PC phrase?) black guys and gals? We had phoned a taxi at 20:15 and told it was coming in 10 minutes, 3 repeat calls later it finally arrived arond 21:30.

I had to laugh when I was standing at the door looking if the taxi was coming and I heard one guy telling a group to come indoors. “The party is inside guys, there are white folks in this street that will be scared if youre all hangin on the street.”
Made me laugh so much, not sure if he was taking the piss out of us “whites” or out of the whole race thing?

Whatever, I had a laugh, I was doing jokes about bling, gangsta raps, drive-bys and being lined in chalked.

The trolley is still there today, I’ll let you know if it ever finds its way home 🙂

What’s Brewing?

For some reason, I got it into my head last week that I was drinking too much coffee. I think I’d seen a TV show about coffee and its evil effects.

Now, I drink a lot of coffee, 2 large mugs in a morning, maybe 10 cups at work and then a mug or 2 when I get home from work.

One thing I’ve never understood though, is when people say it gets them buzzing, wired, jitter-ey etc. if they drink lots of coffee. I’ve never felt it, unless I had it constantly and didnt know!

Anyway, last week I decided to have a coffee free week. At the supermarket on Saturday, I bought 2 types of fancy tea bags to help me through. I chose a Ginger and Lime infusion and a Green Tea Chai blend. I’ve only been having one of each per day and the rest of the time drinking water. Usually, I drink the water because I bring hot water from the machine, get distracted with work and forget to put a teabag in it before its gone too cool.

So, its Friday afternoon and I’ve managed it easily, no cravings, comedown or withdrawal. I realise that I’ve still been getting some caffeine from the Tea, but still. I’ve just been thinking about if I feel different in any way. Does coffee cause back pain? I’m probably imagining it but I do suffer some back pain at times and I dont feel it now, also I feel focussed and clear-headed but thats probably because I’m thinking about it. The end of the day office/coffee breath seems better too 🙂

I always thought I just liked coffee and didnt drink it because I needed coffee, this week seems to have proved me right.

Now, in conclusion, I’m not saying I wont be drinking any more coffee, rather I will be trying to achieve more balance.

After all, a little bit of what you fancy does you good 😉

Btw, the Morrisons own brand Ginger & Lime infusion is wonderful, fresh and zingy, it wakes up your mouth and your brain! 4 out of 5 stars from me.
the Green Tea Chai is from Dr Stuart’s and contains Green Tea (duh!) Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Cloves and Black Pepper. Its a revalation, tea with spices, very Indian in flavour but not overpoweringly so. My favourite, 5 out of 5!