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On Saturday I travelled to Cardiff to meet a friend to watch the BOSS (a.k.a Bruce Springsteen)…. and for 60 and the way his butt looked on the big screens I think he still has the right to be called the boss by the way he moves around the stage.

After a very long trip to get there, I took the bus in fact, only after I had checked the internet to find out that the train was going to cost me £58 one way (yes, that isn’t a typo, and its only about 2 hours down the railway line). So I called the helpline to check and yes that was right, so after making my point that it was extortionate I was told that it was something like a jump on day fare and that you are spose to book in advance. So that decided it, thank you very much I will take the bus for £12 (or £20 return if I had of wanted to bus back – but I didn’t need too as I was catching a lift). Anyway that’s enough about the travel there, lets talk about Bruce…..

We had seats in the work corporate box in Millennium Stadium (which were expensive, but I had never been before so it was quite fun, and the drinks were included in the ticket). The concert itself, what can I tell you, he started about 40 mins late, which went down like a lead balloon, and he only played about one song from his old stuff and the rest was from his new stuff (so a slight disappointment there), however that is not to say that his new stuff isn’t any good, cause it is! But I am not sure he really ever recovered from his faux pax, of saying, ‘its great to be in England’ – he was booed for about a song after that!

The work box itself was great, and the music wasn’t bad, it just would’ve been nice to hear some of his older stuff as it was so good. All in all we made the most of it and had a good time. It made for a very long trip back in the car on Sunday trying to learn Spanish from CD’s and then when back in central London at one point taking about 30 mins to go 1 mile. Next trip to the box is hopefully to go and watch some sport there (if I am lucky enough), it would be great!

It’s been all go around here over Easter and this latest weekend. Never a dull moment and all that.

Well, actually, there has been quite a lot of dull moment, and what better to fill them in than a few more puzzles!

One of us mentioned the “P” word one Easter hol day, so we decided it was worth going into town to find some to fill in the rest of the weekend. Finding a decent puzzle seemed like it was going the be an impossible task for a bit. It took us searching vainly in 5 big department stores before we gave in and went to Hamley’s toyshop. Not a pleasant experience on an Easter hol day. But at least they had a few decent puzzles to choose from. (Memo to self. Never go there again if there are any school holidays on!)

We ended up getting a box with eight 500/750pc Planet Earth puzzles in it, and one other of a Van Gogh picture. So far we’ve done five of the Planet Earth ones…

As I said, there’s been a few dull moments lately! And the challenge makes them somewhat addictive!

For about a month every year around this time I keep a close eye on the BBC weather waiting for evidence that the shortest day is finally coming.  And today was the first day I’ve seen that evidence! (Yes, I do know that it’s about the 20th of December every year here, but I just need to see some proof, in case the universe is suddenly going horribly wrong or something.)

YIPPEE!  Won’t really help with the cold, I suspect, but at least it’s the start of the trip to being able to see the sun for a decent amount of time again!

While there’s a set time to take down the Christmas tree, there doesn’t seem to be one for setting one up.  Except if you’re in retail, in which case the 1st of October seems about right, apparently.  But as we’ll be a bit busy the first weekend of December, and the second one seems almost a bit late, we decided it had to go up last weekend.

Of course that could have just been because Bec wanted to have a glass of champagne, as it is apparently somehow an integral part of the ritual!  Which of course you remember from reading last year’s entry on this topic.  Don’t you?  You did read it, didn’t you?!

Anyway, up it went.  This year we both decided that there weren’t enough lights on it, and as I didn’t get around to sneaking some more on last year we had to go and get some more the next day to lighten things up a bit.  Looks about right now, I think.

Not the best photo of it, but I’ll avoid putting a video up of it in it’s full glory. There’s enough crap video on the net already.

Now we just have to remember to take it down at the right time…  Oh, and get a few presents to put under it to, I guess.  That’s the hard bit!

We saw the purple Prince live tonight. What a great concert, well worth the visit…..  and at the old Dome…..  We thought it was a good venue. Well the sound was good from where we were.  Anyway more about ‘Prince’, how petite is he?  About 5′ 2″……  but those stilettos made him taller….they would make fantastic wedding shoes!

He started with all his old hits, and played snippets of each, just him and a guitar.  One big medley really, but it was so well done, just a real subtle change between each song.  And it got rid of a whole lot of old hits that everyone would like to know he played too. And the highlight later in the show was when he played Purple Rain – kinda had to really, you can’t go to a Prince concert and not hear Purple Rain.

We had a great time, I’m even contemplating going again.  At 49 he’s still got it, a great entertainer that can still sing! Honestly it was a real bargain  at £31.21 along with a free CD, it makes me wonder how artists like Madonna, Elton John and all those others charge such extortionate amounts.

Thanks to a work contact of Bec’s we were provided with a great day out yesterday to watch the Monaco Grand Prix at the Williams team factory site at Grove.

The day involved breakfast, a tour around the Williams museum with all the old cars from the last however many years, a go in an F1 simulator and some scaletrix racing, and then the race on large screens with some live link-ups from the team in Monaco, all followed up with a very nice lunch.

Highlight of the day was probably the simulator ride. Great fun, and a lot harder than, say, a Playstation racing game. Also helped that the guy running it, Andy, was a real laugh.

The race itself was pretty boring. Of all the races of the year I always find it pretty tedious. There’s not a lot of overtaking generally in F1 lately, but Monaco is just impossible. You just have to wait (hope?) for an accident (there wasn’t anything notable), rain (there wasn’t any) or something absolutely unpredictable (millions of frogs crossing the circuit?) to happen to make it at all interesting. I’m sure it’s a great day out for all the rich and famous, but for TV viewing I think it pretty much sucks. Can’t see them getting rid of it off the calendar though. More’s the pity.

Given that it was pouring down constantly all day, and I mean all day, it was a great way to spend a long weekend Sunday. A big thanks to Mike for letting me tag along after a late cancellation. I was all prepared to be very, very jealous of Bec for getting to go while I sat home on the couch…

This appeared in the Metro the other week. Love the tag line!

And yes, we still want one!

It’s now exactly a year since I got this blog site up and running. And looking back it’s obviously been a really interesting one! Well, ok, not that interesting… But hope you enjoyed keeping up to date with life here a bit. Beats the emails that you didn’t get, anyway…

And at least now I can remember what we did and when for the last year!

We’ll see if the next year is any more interesting!

Check back then!

As well as the UK passport I got a few days ago, I’ve also had to get a new NZ passport to replace my old expired one. I was quite surprised by the difference though. The UK one lasts for 10 years, and has 28 pages, while the NZ one only lasts for 5 years now and has 48 pages!

I can’t work out if that means that generally Kiwis just travel a lot more, or what?! Oh well. I’ll just have to see how many pages I use in the next 5 years.