graeme.blog

Tag: new year

  • On a cold crisp New Years Day

    A happy new year to everyone who bothers to read this! I’m sat with a cuppa, watching what David Vine used to refer to on Ski Sunday as “The traditional hangover cure”, the second leg of the Four Hills ski-jumping tournament. Garmisch-Partenkirchen looks lovely and snow-bound, and I’m glad to be indoors.

    We had a good fun New Year, went to a party at the Victoria Arms in Marston, invited by one of Mrsfb’s friends. Lots of good food and drink, not too busy, and a good group of people. Everything you need really.

    So what does the new year bring for me? Well, we’ve got to move house fairly soon, so the search for that is the first priority. Hopefully after that, we’ll manage to get across to France to visit flotskysister, which will probably be our main holiday for the year. Other than that, I think all I’m after is to be fit and healthy (well slightly fitter, slightly healthier) and enjoy the year. Write a bit more, ideally a lot more. That should do for me.

  • Obiligatory New Year’s Resolutions post

    Right, let’s get this down and out of the way. Lose weight, give up the fags, cycle more, take more photos, learn more things, blog more, pay off some debt. That should do it.

    It is odd, I always take a bit of a dip around December, get less motivated than usual. I’m pretty sure now, having had it happen for a few years very consistantly, it is S.A.D. or just getting fed up with too much darkness. It was much better this year, given that I felt more aware of it, but it was still there. Now is the time to say it is past, push on, and get myself going again I reckons.

  • Happy 2006 to one and all

    Wow, apparently there is this hour called 7 AM. I had forgotten it existed for a couple of weeks, but it is there, as I found out today when I had to get up for work again. Ouch.

    Have had a very good Christmas and New Year. Not too hectic, but plenty enough merriment for me. Got everything I hoped for for Christmas, and then some. Nice little stack of xbox games to keep me busy through the next few months. A secret agent cheeseboard (it has a secret compartment with a set of cheese-cutting implements). And a breadmaker, which although I couldn’t be bothered with the concept before I got one, I now have to admit are absolutely brilliant. Have made a loaf a day since we got ours, something about that fresh bread you cannot beat. Having to get used to cutting non-doorstep size pieces, but hey, practice makes perfect.

    My main resolution that I haven’t covered previously would have to be “Make more soup”. The Christmas dinner joint of lamb made, if I say so myself, one fucking awesome soup for Boxing Day. Combining that with fresh-made bread cannot be a bad thing.

    On the gaming front, as I said, have a lot to be getting on with, but the absolute highlight has been Jade Empire, which is an RPG-style game with a great Chinese style to it, real-time combat, and a great deep story behind it. Very engrossing. Reminds me a lot of Shemue on the Dreamcast, which is handy, as I had forgotten that you could get Shemue II on the Xbox. Something I intend to pick up cheap on ebay once I’ve worked through my games stack a bit. Have also been enjoying Project Gotham Racing 2 still, top-notch racing game that in all honesty makes Gran Tourismo 4 seem a little flat, and Links 2004, cracking golf game with a great Xbox live implementation. Very nice to play late at night with mates for a mellow session that doesn’t impact too hard on the brain, nor the wrists for that matter.

  • New Year

    today the observer pointed out things to watch in 2004. They include The Alan clark Diaries, Lost in Translation and Girl with a pearl earing (both of which star Scarlett Johansson, the blond one from Ghost World), kraftwerk touring the UK, the School of Rock (Jack Black stars). I would add Nighty Night and Kill Bill vol.2

  • New colours, New Year’s resolutions

    For those of you used to reading in black and white, we are now in a different colour scheme. Luckily due to the way I have designed this site, it only takes a few minutes. Used to take me hours in the old days.

    Right, I have decided on the ways I shall improve myself over the forthcoming twelve months. Obviously I reserve the right to ignore these within a week. My plans are learn Japanese, give up smoking, lose a stone in weight to try and dip below fifteen stone, walk to work more, and write my diary in a more regular fashion. I might even start a new page for the new year.

    Have a new little camera to play with, which was one of my Christmas presents. You may see some of the results of that on here at some stage. Can do video too, no sound, but it can fit about five minutes on there.