Matt and Will's big day out

Today the boys & I spent a glorious day in Chichester.

It being half term, I am off all week and as the weather forecast for today was "clear blue skies" we decided that a day out was in order.


Matt now has a paper round delivering the local paper (his second - the first one ended in the newsagents closing down- not his fault!) so we couldn't go until that was completed. Now to me the "local paper" tells me what has happened today, and therefore to discover that it can be delivered at 10am tends to suggest that it wouldn't meet my definition!


Anyway by late morning we were on our way and after a event free 40 minute drive we parked up and were on our "find lunch" hunt. This was completed at The Buttery where we enjoyed Bacon and Cheese ciabattas (Matt & I) and pizza, smiley faces and beans (Will regressing to a 5 year old!) all washed down with pots of tea. (Earl Grey tea apparantly "smells funny")


After a brief trip around the shops we moved on to the cathedral, which in todays bright sunshine looked at it's absolute best, both inside and out. We didn't have to pay to get in (unlike Winchester, which really hacks me off) and the staff inside were really helpful and informative. The star of the show was the cathedral however.

All in all a day to remember.

Winning Ugly

This week end I thought that one of "my" teams would have to win ugly.

I got my wish...sadly Saints not England!

Systematic chaos

Last night Matt & I together with my good friend John (who flew over from Jersey especially) went to see Dream Theater at Wembley Area. As you can tell by the spelling they are American and if you had to guess what their music sounded like, then based on the picture then you would probably say LOUD! And you would be wrong as it is VERY LOUD and actually well written and melodic and their musicianship is amazing

Now as a teenager I was fully exposed to all the excesses of 70's prog rock and am still a complete sucker for intricate time signatures, keyboard/guitar duels and lyrics that make no sense. With DT you get all of that and more as it's VERY LOUD. They played for 2 hours and included all the songs that we wanted to hear, the visuals were great, the sound excellent and best of all it was the first gig I've ever attended with one of my boys.

Now before you get the "dragging his kids to see bands they don't want to see" face on, Matt is probably a bigger fan than me (although I have seen them before) and enjoyed it just as much as I did. He knew all the words and drummed and clapped along like a good 'un.

We stayed at Wembley TravelSauna. Why do hotels have to have the heat up to tropical and why was it next to the North Circular so that sleeping with window open would mean that you could be cool but not sleep through traffic noise or quiet (window closed) but not sleep through the heat.

Lunch today was at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then the obligatory trip the Apple store in Regent street.

Oh and we won the Rugby semi final as well.

Awesome television

Much has already been written on this subject but here's my two penny worth.

For the past 10 weeks I have been absorbed with "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" which goes out on More 4 at 10pm every Thursday. Written by Aaron Sorkin, who was the man behind "The West Wing" (probably my all time favourite TV programme) it's a drama that shows life behind the camera on a top rated US comedy show (which as far as I can make out is Saturday Night Live with a slight name change). It's funny, sad, intelligently written, uncomfortable (it pokes fun at almost everyone except Muslims) and has a natural doubleact at it's centre.

Most people know Matthew Perry from Friends, less are familiar with Bradley Whitfield who starred in the aforementioned "West Wing". They star as the executive producers of the show and just have a natural "buddy/buddy" chemistry. Off screen you just feel they probably finish..... each others sentences. They are backed up by a great cast who are probably quite well known in the US but who are all unknown to me. I expect a lot of them to feature in many future imported US series. Talent like that will rise.

It's an intelligent attempt at (I think) showing US TV audiences some of what is wrong with the broadcast system it currently employs. Ultimately it has failed as the very people it portrayed as taking offence to it's subject matter, have in reality done just that. I suspect that the studio bosses were not equipped with the same backbone as the fictional ones, but perhaps that was to be expected. In addition it had the misfortune to be shown on the same timeslot as "Heroes" and as that is of the genre of the moment (well made, good effects and a storyline that you have really concentrate to have any idea whats going on - plus super powers as well!!!) and as a result it didn't do as well in the ratings as it should have. (That being a massive understatement!)

So after one series it got cancelled.

To be replaced in part by a reality TV show based on the film "the Wedding Crashers".

That says it all really.

World gone crazy!

Well I didn't see that coming!

Firstly, despite being everyone's (including some of the team's Mums) favourites to be back in England by teatime having been beaten by a cricket score, England's rugby team reminded us all they are world champions. They did this by beating Australia (just typing that feels good!) 12-10. So, as you can tell by the score, it wasn't a try fest, but the semi-final place goes to the team who scores the most points not who plays the more free flowing rugby. (Ha Ha!)

Then we all sat down to watch New Zealand flatten France, so that we would know beyond doubt that we had better enjoy this feeling as next weekend it would be us being flattened. And even more unbelievably what we did to Australia, France did to New Zealand, only to be honest, more so.

In between that the Saints played WBA and having led 2-0 allowed "the Baggies" back to 2-2. So given our season so far we lose 3-2. But no we won 3-2!

And most amazingly of all, after all of that, I didn't wake up!