Christmas Lights

Recently, Naomi posted pictures of some rather tasteful Swiss Christmas lights, and I was challenged to write a blog about Christmas lights in England, to see how they compare. Never one to back away from a challenge, (unless it involves any more than a moderate amount of effort); I set out with my trusty camera-phone to take some snaps.

Now I have to say that my street's effort this year was pathetic. Not a sparkly light in sight...



Apart of course from the neighbours, who didn't disappoint. It took me a good fortnight to pick my moment to take this shot though, waiting until all their curtains were drawn and upstairs lights turned off. After this incident, who can blame me?



The neighbour's effort was ok, but I knew I could find better if I ventured further afield. Perhaps Bristol City Council would come up with the goods...







That's a no, then.

Christmas came and went, and I still hadn't managed to get any decent snaps. I was growing frustrated, but still had hope. I knew that if I took the Gloucester Road route to my parents' house for a belated Christmas dinner last night, there was a good chance of finding some gems. I wasn't wrong...



Apologies for the blurriness of the photos. Obviously, taking a really decent shot would involve setting up a tripod in front of the house, which is probably not recommended on the boarders of Horfield, Filton and Southmead.



My parents' truly suburban street was very tastefully illuminated. It seems that the new craze for this season is to have flickery lights hanging from the drainpipes. Pretty much every house had them. One year, someone put up some candlelights in the front window, and within a week they were dotted all over the street.

Having said that, there was one house this year that had taken things just that little bit further. It wasn't my parent's house, by the way (who had flickery lights hanging from the drainpipes).



We have a winner!

Christmas Time

There's no denying it any longer - Christmas is here. Yesterday, my day typified that in so many ways. Firstly, I had a selection of Christmas cheese and a couple of Mike's legendary homemade pickled shallots for lunch. Thanks to Mike for bringing them round (and H, for asking him to!) It just wouldn't be Christmas without them...



I even managed to watch 15 minutes of "Santa Claus: The Movie" while I was munching, but then it occurred to me that I should probably go and do some Christmas shopping, seeing as I hadn't actually started it yet. The fog, (which appears to be covering most of the northern hemisphere) added to that festive feeling.



The shopping went remarkably well. Of course, it was horrendous in the Mall but I managed to get in and out, buying seven presents and cards, in just under two hours. Perhaps the only slightly uncomfortable moment was when I handed quite a bulky present to the shopkeeper at BHS, just as I noticed that her right arm ended at the elbow. She then proceeded to struggle to get the box into a bag, and I was left with that difficult decision... Do I help and risk treating her like an invalid? Or do I just leave her struggling and risk appearing heartless? I decided to take the third option of looking uncomfortably down at my wallet, and pretending that I hadn't noticed her struggling. Thankfully she got there in the end.

When I got home, I decided to use my bumper wage (thanks to backdated petrol claims) to buy myself an advance Christmas present. I'd been keeping an eye on this badboy for some time on ebay, and generally they were going for at least £250, so I took full advantage yesterday when I spotted one with a 'buy it now' price of £210. The guy even phoned me on my way into Town to tell me that I'd got myself a really good camera at a bargain price, which was a nice touch.

Anyway, perhaps the final confirmation that it was Christmas came later that night, with the return of Mr Skinner...





...And, we "had it"!

Pegs™ Preparations

Preparations for Pegs™ 2007 are already well underway. Perhaps the only problem with the ingenious ten-point option introduced near the start of the 2006 season, is that we tend to get through a lot of corks. Generally they end up in the peg graveyard at the back of our garden, or lodged into the bush. I do seem to remember a few particularly terrible efforts that might well have made it into someone else's garden. By the end of the summer I was struggling to get through enough wine to keep the game going, but as the season drew to a close my habit of collecting corks continued.

It's been some time now since it was warm enough to consider having a game, and the rather old-fashioned vase that we employed might finally be full. Well, that's what I thought anyway...

Possibly, the best Breakout yet.

Well, it was probably my favourite anyway. Despite the fact that we only put up about 30 'legal' posters and didn't book any 'big name' DJ's, it was a top night.

So simple, and so much fun!

Also, I've been beavering away to create a 'myspace' page for Breakout, which includes a couple of my tunes, a photo slide-show, and a comical spiel that I wrote in the early hours one night last week just to test it out (possibly during the lunch-break in the ashes), and for better or worse it appears to have stuck.

On a personal note, it's my last day at uni on Tuesday and I've got a few more random blogs up my sleeve.

Cranes

I've spent most of the last five days sitting in my rocking chair writing two very dull 3000 word essays, watching the clouds speeding past and straining to hear the quiet jazz over the torrent of sleet and hail battering against the window. This photo was taken on the day of the tornado in London, that far-away readers may not have heard about as they were out sunning it on beaches and balconies.

So, I thought this week I'd publish some pictures I've taken over recent weeks of the cranes and roadwork's for the redevelopment of Bristol city centre, which I regularly have to negotiate my way past on the way to and from work or uni. In fact, all of these photos were taken from my driving seat when waiting at a red light, which is probably highly illegal but I figure that as long as you scout for coppers first it's fine. In any case, there's only been one occasion that I've looked back after taking a photo to discover that there's 20 metres of empty road in front of me.

Right, well these first two were taken from the Old Market roundabout direction, after coming up through the underpass...





This one was taken on the new road that winds up to the M32, looking back towards town. In fact, I think that's the Holiday Inn on James Barton roundabout in the bottom right corner...



The next two were taken from the bottom of the M32. You can see the corner of Office World in the left of the second shot...





Finally, I managed to get these snaps yesterday morning on the way to hand in my essays. The first is from the Old Market roundabout looking towards Easton where the car park used to be, and the second is off the Counterslip road...





I was very chuffed with that last one, especially as I'd managed to take it while stuck in a traffic jam, as it would probably get some good reviews at an art display. I say that, because there's something about the curves and angles that are visually pleasing. No doubt the amount of parallel lines has something to do with that, but to be honest I've never really understood why that sort of arty shot always gets good acclaim at exhibitions, as I'd much rather look at the slightly unparallel lines of a row of trees any day of the week...

A New Addiction...

I have made a new discovery. I received a text from a guy who I met in Thailand nearly three years ago, who knew I was a fan of online poker, to tell me to check out pkr.com.

"It's 3D," he had said.

Seeing as I have two essays due in this week, neither of which I've started, I figured it was worth a look.

It's superb!

The idea is that being 3D it's supposed to be far more realistic to a real poker table than the other online poker sites. Your character can be created to the finest detail - with about fifty different 'heads' to choose from, male or female, and a seemingly unlimited variation of hairstyles, clothing, and accessories. As you play you earn pkr points, and these can be used to purchase clothes, hats and shades. If you save up a lot, you can even buy 'chip-tricks' that you character can perform at the table, such as the 'ten chip shuffle'. It's therefore easy to tell the experienced players from the newcomers, which is a nice touch.

After some deliberation I decided to go for a cross between Richard Prior and Samuel L Jackson, mainly because I've always secretly wanted an afro. I gave him a south USA accent, and so far I've purchased a nice pair of combat trousers, as the free tracksuit bottoms that you start off with just didn't do the character justice.

Here I am playing with my chips when waiting for another hand to finish (looking cool)...



When you're at the table, you can select a mood for your player, ranging from angry to casual, and your cards remain face down so you have to keep checking them, just like in real poker...



There's also about 20 different actions that you can perform, including tapping your fingers, shaking your head, yawning, coughing, cheering, booing, dancing and laughing. Check me out here, casually twirling my chips in my hand before folding. I bet he was worried...



It seems like there's a lot of 'loose' players around too, perhaps concentrating more on the tricks and interactions than the actual poker. In my first two days on the site I've managed to turn $20 into $47. Now I realise I said I'd never invest money into poker sites again, but this one was just too good. In any case, if it keeps going this well then maybe I will be able to go on holiday at Easter again after all.

Thinking about it, I'll probably have a few essay resubmissions due in around that time, so maybe not.