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Dec 13 2011
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Life

24 hours in Manchester

Over the weekend I went to Manchester to see Manchester United play Wolves in the Premier League at Old Trafford. I’ve been supporting them since 1996 so I’ve been waiting to see them for a long time and was very happy that I finally could go t0 the Theatre of Dreams. This also came just after the humiliating exit in the Champions’ League thanks to Basle. My main concern was that we’d struggle to get past Wolves and that we’d probably just squeeze a victory. Infact, when the first shot of the game came from them with just under a minute played I got worried.

In the end we thumped them 4-1. This was exactly the performance I wanted to see at such at such a legendary stadium. The first half was full of glorious attacks by United with Nani in particular being outstanding. His brace of goals was well deserved and Rooney also seemed hungry – he also got a couple.

The atmosphere was fantastic and it confirmed to me that the reason that some naysayers think that Old Trafford doesn’t make any noise is because the sound on TV is considerably low. There seemed to be an endless supply of chants from down the years emanating from the stands and it really added to a fantastic atmosphere.

This was taken about mid-way through the second half I think on my pathetic camera on my pathetic phone

Other than the game I didn’t get to see too much of Manchester unfortunately. It was also a Saturday so there were plenty of people looking for Christmas presents. Going to shopping centres is one thing, going on Saturday is another…but going so close to Christmas is quite scary.  We went to a nice restaurant in the evening where we sat opposite the pass to got to see lots of tasty steak being cooked. I’d probably like to go back at some point in the future to explore the city further but this was still an enjoyable weekend.

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Nov 01 2011
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Life

Movember

This month I’ll be taking part in Movember, which is growing in popularity. Basically it involves grown men growing a ‘nose neighbour’, as Ned Flanders would call it, for a month to raise money for testicular cancer initiatives. It’s a fun thing for a great cause.

What I’m asking from you, blog readers, is to help me raise as much money as possible. I figured that if half of my Twitter and Facebook friends gave me money I’d be raising £289.50. That’s a lot of money. So even if you could give me just a £1 that’d be super. I mean, what’s £1 worth to you. If the world’s economic markets crumble and we all perish into some sort of ‘nu apocalypse’ as Fred Durst would probably call it then probably a huge amount but we’re not at that juncture yet! So please give me your money and I’ll keep growing this moustache for the whole month.

To donate, go and visit my profile on the Movember website and press the Donate button under my profile picture, which looks a bit weird but it’ll do.

Thanks!

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Oct 11 2011
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Arts & Entertainment, Life

Some odds and ends on the 11th October

Here’s a summary of things that have happened or will happen:

  • Tomorrow I am going to see Sam Amidon play a gig at the Crypt Bar in the Angel Hotel, Guildford. I’ve been there once on Heritage Open Days this year and I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how that plays out. It’s a near sell-out the last I heard from Howard Blake, who owns the People Independent Music store in town and is promoting it, and he’s hoping to put more shows on. I hope so. I get the feeling that something good is happening in regards to the Guildford music scene; more doors are opening and in a few years I think it could be a really thriving community.
  • There’s a new project I’m in the early stages of planning that I don’t want to talk too much about but it’s probably the most entrepreneurial project I’ve undertaken in the sense that, if it succeeds, it might be a profitable venture.
  • Very soon I will join the iPhone world. I’m not going to get the new model because it doesn’t feel like a huge step up from iPhone 4 and I’ve managed to find a very reasonable contract deal for two years. I’m still going to keep the old Nokia smartphone because it’ll still have some uses if I need a back up phone but I think I’ve outgrown it. It’s a good beginner phone for those who are daunted by the iPhone and the sheer number of things it could do but developer support is waning and I’m jumping ship now before it sinks.
  • Me and Aino went to the Scandinavian Show at Earls Court last Sunday. It was a relaxing and enjoyable day. One of the food stalls was occupied by a Michelin Star restaurant, which means I can now say I’ve eaten Michelin Star quality food. It was pork belly with tarragon and pickled carrot. The pork and tarragon were divine, the pickled carrot less so but that might just be my palette.
  • Also at the Scandinavian Show was Sofie Gråbøl and Søren Malling from Forbrydelsen (aka The Killing), who did a Q&A that was so popular there wasn’t enough room for everyone to fit so some people spilled out onto some stairs. They both came across as really charming and lovely people and the amount of times that Søren swore throughout was amusing. I’m very much looking forward to the second series.
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Sep 06 2011
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Life

Hello Autumn

It’s been a while (again) since I last wrote down an order of coherent words here and clicked the button marked ‘Publish’ on my WordPress dashboard. I’ve been too busy doing a whole multitude of things so it might be best to summarise all that’s happened in the past few weeks in one simple blog entry.

Guildford People – Still going pretty well. August could have been a very quiet month but the riots and the general paranoia and confusion that surrounded it boosted traffic lots as confused residents wanted to filter fact from fiction. As luck would have it, a small fire broke out at a disused nightclub in Guildford whilst I was in town and I knew almost instantly that this would be widely misreported by people looking out of bedroom windows. So I got some pictures on my phone, posted them to Twitter and then posted them again plus some others on the website that afternoon. The traffic we got was extraordinary and just went to show how wide-ranging this story was even in places where nothing was happening.

The next month should be busier still. The new entertainment venue, G Live, opens officially on Thursday and I’ve got some ideas floating around as to how to cover events at the venue. This week I’ll be going to the press launch as part of the Heritage Open Days. There’s also other things happening which will prompt me to go in again on Saturday. It’s a busy long weekend but one I look forward to.

Label Love – In the aftermath of the riots, it emerged that the PIAS distribution centre in Enfield got destroyed and countless stock for many independent labels were lost. Label Love was born in order to raise money for those affected and I’ve been helping out whenever and wherever I can on the press side of things. There was a benefit gig at the Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park last night that I couldn’t get to but was a success according to those who were there. More events are currently being planned so it’s worth keeping an eye on their website and their Twitter account. They should also give you information on how you can help.

The Musical Chairs – The blog that I’ve been using since 2008 to express thoughts on all things relating to music before I became a writer for magazines and webzines is currently in a state of flux. I’m currently not sure what to do with it. Part of me wants to bring the curtain down and call an indefinite hiatus but that would also mean losing some articles that I was really proud of – okay, most of them were rants but entertaining ones I hope. I’m going to reach a decision hopefully in the next couple of weeks but I know that it’s certainly no longer the priority that it once was.

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So that sums it up I think. This blog will also see some changes I think. In order to kick my own bum into gear I’m going to be promoting more of my own work here as soon as it’s published. Hopefully you’ll see some original content here too. Who knows, eh? This concludes my “Hey, I still exist!” post.

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Jul 17 2011
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Life

So, didn’t miss much then?

I’m fully aware that whilst I’ve been away being busy that the media industry has been rocked by the scandals that are circling News Corp – bad time to not blog for a while I guess.

I’ve been trying to find a good time to express my thoughts on it all but I still can’t think of something that would make sense yet – too much has happened in the last two weeks and so much could still happen, so anything I write could be out-of-date quite quickly. The only thing I will say is this brief but amusing anecdote: I went away to Bilbao on the morning of the day that News Of The World was announced to be closing…I was unaware of any news until I got back the following Sunday, so you can imagine my surprise when I found ‘that’ copy of the tabloid at Stanstead Airport.

I’ll try and write up something about this soon. Either way, it’ll be a heck of a lot more interesting than writing about my decision, since the last time I blogged, to grow a beard.

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