SAW II

Well surprisingly, last night Sky Movies was showing Saw 2. I have got a copy of Saw 3 but haven't tried watching it as I hadn't seen the 2nd yet.

I was truly disappointed. It was nowhere near as good as the first. In fact it seemed like an inferior made for TV movie. Yeah you had your gory moments but It didn't stand up for me at all. Heaven knows how awful the 3rd movie will be.
OK I had to hide my face with the girl in the pit of needles and the other girl with her hands in the glass case but that is the only time I felt it got anywhere near the first movie.

So to Saw 3 and I will give my review of that.

Hopefully it will be like the Elm street series where no 2 was terrible but they brought it back on track with no 3.

Sundays issues

First of all - How can I get Chicken Pox??

Yes that's right, I have Chicken Pox, would you believe it? The spots started appearing earlier in the week and at first I thought we had a flea infestation or something (Damn Cats!) but as I took a closer look and compared to what I could find via Google I realised these were Chicken spots (as the kids call them) Once DD had a good look she confirmed my worst fears.

There are 4 small spots on my lower right arm and 1 on my upper arm. I have 3 on my lower right leg and about 5 on my lower left leg. They do get really itchy in the evening and early morning but not much in the daytime and not at all once I am in bed. Now I will never be able to utter those words "I am alright I can't catch Chicken pox"

I am not sure where I caught them from...I have an idea but I can't really talk about it yet.

That old red button

I spoke to my Nan on the phone today as always for a Sunday. I was telling her about watching the England game last night as she told me that her and Grandad watched the Rugby on ITV. Anyway, then out of the blue she says "A number one kept appearing in the corner" What, in a red square? Have you got digital TV? I can't believe only a couple of years ago me grandparents only had a black and white TV now they have Freeview!

They played, I saw, I wasn't impressed

Remember all the excitement of finally being able to watch The England football team play? Well all I can say is thank god I wasn't paying any extra for it as I would have felt seriously ripped off. They were absolutely Pants! I don't think I broke a smile the whole way through.
Earlier in the day we had sat and watched the U21s team play against Italy in the inaugural game at the brand new Wembley stadium and that had been a much better game with plenty of action and 6 goals into the bargain too. What a great occasion.

Getting a better deal on Virgin Media

With all the hype recently about us cable customers losing out on (3) Sky Channels. Virgin have had to do a lot of bowing and scraping to keep the customers.

After keeping tabs on the relevant threads on MSE, I decided it was my turn to give Virgin a call and see what they can offer me. There was a lot of waiting in queues and then when I finally got through a lot of wheeling and dealing. Eventually I didn't get a reduction in my bill but I did get all the channels added to my package including Sky Movies and Sky Sports as well as the 24/7 free calls. All for teh same price I am paying now so a saving of about £30.

Ultimately this all means that tomorrow I can watch the England U21 game which is the first official game from the new Wembley. Then I can spend all afternoon watching all the other International games until the evening when I can sit back on my sofa with me can of Skol and me microwave popcorn and enjoy the England V Israel game from the comfort of my own home.

It also means there should always be a movie on to watch for a Sunday afternoon and most importantly, when The mighty Rams go into the Prem next season, I will never have to miss any of their televised games again!!

FAO Barrowman fans!!

I got this gorgeous signed picture this morning and just wanted to show it off.

I will be blogging in more detail HERE later but couldn't wait to share.

NOOOoooo

It is a year ago that JK was taking part in The Games on CH4...remember all this?


I was devastated when he said in passing whilst chatting to Moyles on air that The Games are no more. Along with The Match it has been axed!

I would be sad about The Match too if Virgin hadn't already removed Sky One from our cable service so I am not so gutted as I wouldn't have been able to see it anyway.
Why do they get rid of such great reality shows and leave us with Big Brother?
Oh and while we are on the celeb shows, have you seen Soapstar Superchef? Whose idea was that?!!!

Happy Mother's Day

It has been a very understated day for me but a lovely one all the same.
DD stayed at her friend's house overnight but not before handing me a gorgeous bunch of Pink Roses.

This morning DS woke me at 11am with breakfast in bed. Toast and Jam with a hot cup of Cafe Switch which may I add is gorgeous even if it does give you RSI

Later on DS presented me with a box of Cadbury's Roses Luxury collection which you know I will devour later.

I have spent most of the rest of the day continuing my catch up TV of everything I missed during Fame Academy week. Thank the lord for On Demand and Omnibus editions!!!

Birthday +1

Friday was a fantastic day. The children were off school so we decided to go to Notts for the day and meet up with Brian as well as do a bit of shopping at the same time.
I bought the Pink accessories pack for me PSP which I wanted and while I was in Gamestation I picked up a couple of DVDs which were buy one get one free and only cost me £3 altogether.

We didn't manage to get DD a coat though which was more important so we are going to have to look around Derby again. Why is it so hard to find clothes on a budget these days.

Finally we got to the Victoria centre which is where Brian lives. Unfortunately though DD wasn't aware that we would have to go 19 floors up in the lift. I had forgotten about her fear of lifts but there isn't really any alternative. We had a bit of a panic. I don't know why you can't just get in the lift and go up to the floor that you want. I tried to press the button to take us up and it looked like all DD's fears would come true as we seemed to be stuck. We made it in the end though and after the first time she wasn't so bad when we had to use the life 3 more times.



We had decided that for lunch we would go to The Big Wok which has recently opened in Nottingham. It is a huge Oriental all you can eat buffet diner which has absolutely oodles of choice of all number of Chinese dishes. I think it is a great way to introduce authentic oriental food to DD & DS who have never tasted it before. DS was ready to get stuck in but DD was a bit cautious.
I can't remember much of what I had. Although the idea was to take a note of everything, I was too excited. I did start with some sesame toasts and veggie samosas. There was BBQ spare ribs, sweet potato tempura and a bit of wan ton which was very nice.
I had a bit of Chicken curry and some gorgeous Chicken and Pineapple. There was a point where I had to move on to the desserts.
There is an ice cream machine and a huge chocolate fountain.

I went to get myself a bowl of ice cream which would seem easy enough but not for me. I pulled the handle down but when I thought I had pushed it back up again, Ice cream was still pouring out into my bowl. When I finally managed to push the handle back up I had a huge mountain of the stuff in my bowl. I poured some gorgeous chocolate over it and added a few marshmallows before going back to my table.

As you can imagine it took absolutely ages to eat but I got through it in the end. I was feeling incredible sick and didn't need to eat for the rest of the day but it was well worth it.

After we had all filled up we made our way back to Brian's where I helped him set up his Freeview boxes and we supped wine.

I could have stayed there all evening if truth be told and had Brian not been going out I would have. I decided that we would try and get back home for the start of Comic relief and we did. It was about 6,45 when we got home. More surprsies awaited us as I found a little tub of cakes on the doorstep as well as some chocolate from my very good friend Dot.

It was an excellent Birthday +1 celebration day. Thank You to Brian and DD and DS for making it such a special day.

The end for Colin

So the Fame academy semi final came on Thursday night and we were all fraught with nerves.
Being totally honest, I sort of figured out that Colin would be out first. Shaun and Tricia were the talented ones and the land seemed to have gone TPT crazy. However you never know how it is going to go so I still had a little hope that Colin would go through to the next round if not the final.

They were surprised in the morning with a visit from last years finalists Kim Medcalfe and Colin's bestest friend Edith Bowman who of course went on to win the thing.





It wasn't to be though.
He did his best performance ever of "The boys are back in town"


Just watching it made me want to jump around the room and the judges gave him full marks all round...That alone should spell disaster and Colin knew it so he took the microphone and told everyone he was rubbish.
His second song -Back for good - would have been awesome if it hadn't been for the fact it was a duet with TPT. She slaughtered it with her loud drowning out voice and out of tune-ness as well as the fact she forgot half the words. The judges again slaughtered them.



Colin was first to go of the night which meant that his position was 4th overall in the series. I think that is a brilliant finish when you look at some of the students who has gone out earlier.

WELL DONE COLIN!!

The final was played out on Comic relief night and as well predicted by everyone TPT was the winner. Shame it had to turn into such a farce.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to.

I was a bit worried about going to the Crem on my own this year. I was looking forward to it in a way but wasn't sure I could handle the whole thing with everything else that's going on.

I bought some flowers to take up with me and got a cab from town. The cab driver was very chatty and as I was going to the Crematorium he started talking about his sister in law that died. He insisted on telling me all the gory details too and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I just shut off from his words and came in with the appropriate sounds every now and then.
The thing that always seems to happen is there is a service just starting as I get there. The hearse followed us in and there at the door were all the mourners dressed in black.
I took a walk round the long winding path and read all the memorial plaques as I always do.

When I got down to the area where my Mum and Dad's ashes were scattered, the place was covered in Daffodils. This instantly got to me as my Mum really loved Daffs. Always at this time of year coming up to Easter she would have them around the house. I thought to myself that I needn't have brought flowers as they were all there for her already.
I walked round to the memorial room where the books are held. I didn't have to search long for Mum's name as I remembered this time exactly where it was.
Someone else came in so I left and went to get a vase to put my flowers in.

I sat on a bench for a while. It was so peaceful and quiet. My head started to whirl and I started to cry. I have never cried before. I always feel sad but it never really brings me to tears. I am not quite sure what did it but I quickly composed myself. Silly really that I should want to hide my crying from strangers especially as this is the one place where people expect you to react in that way. Suddenly though it seemed like there were people everywhere so I decided to leave.

I walked back through Markeaton Park up to McDonalds. I wasn't hungry at all so I ordered a Hot Chocolate and sat down near the door.

When I got back into town I planned on spending my birthday money but wandering around I had no idea what I really wanted to buy. I decided that I would save it for Nottingham and go home to watch the FA Streaming.

When I got home there were packages waiting for me. Surprisingly there was a parcel from one sister and a card from the other. I nearly bought the Comic Relief does Little Britain Live DVD so It was a good job I had saved my money as that was in one parcel and also the UMD movie 50 first dates. I wondered if DD had suggested that as it is one of her all time fave films. It is a great movie though and one that you can watch over and over again. (Irony? What irony?) Although I have watched loads of movies and TV shows on my PSP this is the first UMD actual disc I have owned.
Another package was the DVD recorder I ordered from Amazon (With triple nectar points) I am well chuffed as for the £30 I paid, It is a great little recorder and player.
I had lots of lovely cards from people who I thought would have forgotten about me so they were lovely surprises.

I decided to make myself a Vodka Smoothie and sit down with my birthday Cream Cake and watch Colin and TPT rehearsing for their fated Take That duet - Back for Good.
I did get a lovely surprise when Brian rang me to say Happy Birthday. I am so glad we are doing this reunion thing as it has brought us back closer again.

Altogether my presents... The Moyles book "The Gospel according to Chris Moyles" The Gary Barlow book "My take" Comic relief Little Britain live DVD, 50 first dates UMD for PSP

Basically that is that for my 37th birthday. Tomorrow will be much more fun though so I will pretend it is my day all over again

Update on DS MP3 player

Remember this post
Just an update - DS came home with his brand new MP3 player on Monday and is over the moon. The best thing about it is it is totally rechargable so he will never need another battery. Just plug it into the USB and away you go. It is twice the memory of his old one too so he should be able to fit on a whole loads more songs.

FA caps

As you have seen, I have been taking quite a few screencaps off of the streaming to post on here.

So thought I would share the whole Colin Murray collection for you to peruse.
They are a bit wonky and Colin's head looks very long and thin but with hundreds to go through I haven't time to edit them myself.

So all you Murray fans...help yourselves ;-)

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/JenM_photo/ColinMurrayonFA/
http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/JenM_photo/ColinFA2/

Circle of Fear becomes Ring of fire

Fame Academy certainly hotted up for Colin last night as he sang his old favourite - The Johnny Cash classic Ring of fire.



The performance was absolutely amazing. Colin has trouble getting to the lower noted but when he dos, his lower range is gorgeous. There is real improvement on his voice and the attention to technique was really evident. All this breathe and support stuff that Griffin has always dismissed really does work you know.



It was a bit manic here as we were trying to watch the show and listen to the match on Radio Derby at the same time. I hate having divided loyalties but unfortunately I don't have the power to pick up the phone and help Derby win like I have the power to pick up the phone and vote to save Murray.

I was so chuffed when he finished that it didn't matter what the judges said because I (and anyone out there watching) knew he had nailed it well and truly. I wished that I could have been able to record it as I want to listen again and again.

The results show was only half an hour to wait and luckily came at half time.
It was excruciating though. Of course there was more chance that Colin would be in the bottom as there was only 6 students left.
With Colin Tara and Angellica in the bottom 3 I was sure the judges would save Tara and the students would save Angellica and Colin would be on his way back to Radio 1.
I was right about Tara, the judges love her for some reason. So to the students. With 4 left the vote could go either way. Then as they step up to make their choice it ends up with 2 votes each.
Then it was back to the public vote and luckily Colin has more supporters than Angellica so it was finally Bye Bye to the CBBC presenter who made even my cats feel ill with her caterwauling.

So Colin is back along with Tricia, Shaun, Ray and Tara to fight another day.
Last night was lovely too as after the show they had a visit from Jamie Cullum and they just jammed around the piano...It was like going back to the days of Griffin and Fox.

VOTE FOR COLIN NOW!!!!

Text COLIN to 84466
or call 09011 32 30 02
only voting when the progamme is on air will count (costs 50p)

Phew !! That was a close one!

Colin Murray in the Bottom 3!
What is going on when Angelica still gets through? She is abysmal. Don't get me wrong, she is a great presenter but a singer she is not! When she sings my cats get scared and start howling along with her.

Please get on your phones and

VOTE COLIN!!
Text COLIN to 84466
or call 09011 32 30 02

Richard Park is an idiot!!!!!!!!!!

Fame Academy was a joke tonight.
First of all after his best performance of the series Park told Colin that he was bad. He then told Tricia that she wasn't great even though she was the best of the whole night. Then he saved Zoe who is the second worst in the whole group. Which meant that Tim - one of the best and the funniest in the whole show - went home.

I don't know what planet he is on or maybe he has a script to follow. I could see that even the Grants weren't happy and Carrie looked distressd to see Tim leave.

I know it is all for Comic relief but do they have to serve up the same Bloody Pantomime every single time.

Random

Fame Academy

It's back! Comedy relief does Fame Academy. This year the starring Radio 1 contestant is the Irish charmer himself Mr Colin Murray. Apparently he said after bullying Edith to take part in the last show he had no choice in going in himself this year.
On the first night Colin sang Teenage Kicks and really kicked it up. Wednesday night was a bit of a toughie as he tried his best with the Elvis hit Always on my mind. He got through by the skin of his teeth though and Tonight blew us away with the old Diamond hit Sweet Caroline.

For more info on Comic Relief go to



And don't forget


Heroes
Thanks Shaun for commenting on the last entry and letting me know I wasn't at the end after all. I watched Episode 18 the other day (couldn't wait to convert it and watch on the PSP so just sat and watched it on the computer while I ate my lunch.)
Please tell me I wasn't the only one shouting at the screen when Mohinder had Sylar there pretending to be Zane... I hate cliffhangers!!!

Fancy a Smoothie
The Smoothie making is going from strength to strength. DS is thinking up new concoctions every day and they are getting a whole lot more of their 5 a day which was the intention. Not sure if the novelty will wear off...I am sure that if I keep a good variety of ingredients in then it won't. I made a gorgeous one today. It was so jam packed with fruit that it was too thick for a straw so I ended up eating it with a spoon - Delicious though.

Ginger Minger

I have finally gone back to Ginger. It is so surprising how much better I feel. My hair was awful and dull before and I just needed a lift. Besides now there is a chance I am going to be on TV I had to do something. Of course before the filming actually goes ahead I will go and have a nice cut done, maybe even have it coloured professionally as well...depends how much is going to be filmed. Having your picture in the paper is one thing but being on the News is another altogether.

A mother's Pride

I received this letter this morning concerning DS.

Dear Ms Maskill

*******'s work, effort and progress in ICT has been excellent. He has been identified as the most outstanding student in ICT during the Autumn term in Yr 8.
To reward his most outstanding achievement, we propose to present him with an MP3 player.

I couldn't be any Prouder if I tried.

As time goes by

Excitement was rife today as I finally managed to get through on the phone to my old supervisor from The American Adventure.
My heart was beating so fast as I dialled the number and I expected it to ring and ring again until suddenly i heard the voice say "Hello"

Brian had told me to write a list of the questions I wanted to ask her but as soon as I was on the phone I forgot all about the questions. I was just so excited to speak to her. Imagine - This woman was my first ever supervisor. She was like a surrogate mother to us young 'uns back then and I really looked up to her. It has been 18 years since I saw or spoke to her last and a lot has happened in those years and there is a lot to catch up on. I would have loved to have spoken all afternoon as I wanted to tell her everything but I didn't want to bore the poor woman to death and put her off totally about coming to the reunion.

So even though she said she might be on holiday she really hopes to make it to the event.
The only sad thing is that although I was really looking forward to seeing her son again, that won't be happening as he is millions of miles away in Canada with his partner and daughter.

This is one more very important name to cross off our wishlist of people to see again. Many more to go though.

Heroes - UPDATE

Well since I last mentioned Heroes I have now completed the season and am up to date with the US. How can they leave me hanging like this...I shan't spoil the end for you because frankly there are a lot of twists and turns from where it is now on Sci Fi to episode 17.
It did get a lot more intereesting when Christopher Eccleston appeared. He plays the Invisible man and adds an extra dimension to the whole show.

I have to admit that this has been the most compelling show I have ever watched on TV a lot more than even Lost when it first started. The last 2 episodes are the best in the whole season though so please make sure you carry on watching...you won't see it coming!

SAVE THE CHEERLEADER..SAVE THE WORLD!

5-1 Win and a return to the top

Remember when a few weeks ago I got to go see Derby play because DS got free tickets? Remember also how DD couldn't go because she was chucking her guts up?

Well tonight she got to go see Derby with her aunties as they were playing Colchester and the tickets were only £5.

Lucky for her, The Rams were on fire and by half time they were 3 goals up. It didn't stop in the second half and by the final whistle the score was 5-1 to Derby and 3 points and a return to the top of the table.

DD came home although wet she was beaming and she had lost her voice completely. Looks like she is good luck for the Rams!

I made my first Smoothie

A breakfast smoothie to start off my day Healthy for a change.

a few Big juicy Strawberries
some Pineapple
bit of Pineapple juice
a couple of spoons of Yogurt
some Semi-skimmed Milk
couple of spoons of Optivita breakfast cereal

It was gorgeous and very filling!
Today I am hoping to fill up the fridge with a lot more healthy items for the kids to make their own Smoothies/Milkshakes. Including some Ice Cream and maybe a few liqueurs to experiment with some adult cocktails for myself to wile away the evenings.