Failed already.....but I have been to London!

So I've completely failed in my attempt to update my blog on a weekly basis, if I am honest it's because I'm rubbish and have been lazy, though I do have a few excuses lined up! I did have to send my laptop away for repair and have been on a short trip to London.

So whats happened since my last update. Thankfully I have been paid and as mentioned I have indeed purchased an Xbox360 which is brilliant and took a nice 2 day break in London.

My trip to London was the first time I've actually visited it with the purpose of seeing the sights, I have driven through the centre in the past and stayed near the centre whilst on a course but this time I took in the sites. My impressions are all good and things that struck me were:

• How big it is, yet how small! I know that may not make sense, but London is huge and when looking on the A to Z (thanks Jess, for letting me borrow it) to find out where I am and where I wanted to go it looked quite some distance, yet I found I would have only been walking for a few minutes I was upon my destination or close to it, so walking became a big part of the trip.
  
• The London underground or the tube, what an amazing piece of British engineering and something us Brits should be proud of, not only is it an achievement to build what is essentially a railway line 100+ft under the ground, the fantastic thing about it is..it actually works and in my opinion it works bloody well.


• People employed at the attractions. One thing I noticed it seemed most people employed at the attractions I went to were foreign, whether this is because the pay is so poor that no one else wants to take the job I don't know, but all were friendly and nice and doing a grand job.


• The amount of amazing things. I managed to take in a lot of attractions on my visit. London aquarium, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, Imperial War Museum, British Museum and a 'flight' on the London eye. all of these thing were very cool and amazing to see so much British and world history.

A picture of the Houses of Parliament at night taken by me, whilst awaiting my trip on the London eye

So after the highlight of a trip to London it's been back to work and same old, same old, though the 6 nations rugby tournament has started which is great and England are of to a good start having won both the opening games. A great performance against Scotland and the return of Jonny Wilkinson, but more of a lackluster performance against the Italians, but they still managed to get a win which is the important thing.

A big up must go to the England cricket team for winning the Commonwealth Bank one day series beating the Aussies 2-0 in the best of 3 series final, a great performance considering how bad the tour to Australia has gone. No doubt now as we have beaten the Aussies twice the great British press will get carried away and think we can win the cricket world cup next month, but if we get knocked out in the knock out stages or even worse do not qualify for the knock out stages, the press will then claim we are rubbish and demand that Duncan Fletcher is sacked and Ian Botham installed as the new coach as he was England's greatest ever player, even though he has never really coached before and has carved out a nice job as a cricket commentator. Lets remember the British sports press know better than any coach who has played the game at a professional level and coached at the highest level!! In my opinion they should either put up or shut up.

That's it for now, more again soon...

So far so good!

Well were at the end of the 2nd week of January and so far I'm keeping to my resolution of updating my blog once a week.

Not much to report on to be honest, work was work with nothing majorly exciting going on. Also it has been a quiet week on the social front as due to the Christmas period and some unforeseen car repairs funds are running low! Still only 11 days until payday and I'm pretty sure I'll get by.

I'm looking forward to payday for obvious reasons, not only will I have money again my pay should be boosted by overtime done in December. With extra funds available I am planning on treating myself to an xbox360 and thinking about a trip to London for a couple of days. I've never stayed in London and done the tourist thing, so with the extra this month I thought this would be a good a time as any to go up and see the sights and what London has to offer. I'm sure in the coming weeks I will be updating my blog with my London trip, should I make it there....

This week was pretty uneventful, so not much else to add. Next week is most likely to be the same on the social front and I'll just have to see what work throws at me.

Those eagle eyed ones of you that view my blog regular basis will have noticed I have added a new top 10 feature (on the right hand side!). The idea is to give people an insight into what I like and to get other people thinking about their own top 10s too. I am going to try and post a new top 10 each month.

The first top 10 I have gone for is films. These are pretty much my top 10 films in order of 1 to 10 (1 being at the top) I guess the best thing to say about them is they are the 10 films I'd want with me if I were stranded on a desert island with just a DVD player and a TV!

If the new feature has got you thinking about your own top 10 please feel free to leave a comment on what yours is.

Life update!

So it's been quite a while (does 18 months constitute a while??) since I last gave any update on what's been happening in the exciting world of Griff.....

Well nothing majorly life changing has happened, but here are the highlights.

The job interview I mentioned in my last meaningful post, which was May 2005! well I got that job and became and Incident Analyst - Medium Priority (catchy huh!) Withing the last few months I have moved on again and I am now an High Priority Incident analyst (even more catchy!) so on the work front not to bad.

Life wise not a lot has happened to me, still single, still playing softball, still in need of dropping a few pounds and getting fit! I like to think though nothing has gotten worse for me so that's good.

I have decided to try my hand at photography as a hobby, I'm still trying to work out what genre of pictures I may show some kind of ability at, but as of yet I haven't found it! Secretly I would love it to be sports as I would love to be a sports photographer, but talking about that dream can wait for another day. You can find my work here on Flickr and I imagine in the coming months I will be making a few references to pictures I have taken. So watch this space.

Not much has happened to me, but my close friends have had plenty of things happen and thankfully all positive. Andy & Fi became the proud parents to baby Harrison. Jess & Marla became the proud parents to twins Morgan & Maddie. Jason & Marie got married and their wedding was held in Antigua, I'm glad to say they invited me, so I packed my bags for a 2 week holiday in Antigua in April/May 2006 and a good time was had by all. Paul & Rachael have set a date for their wedding and are getting married in May this year, which I am looking forward too.

So good news all round and to be honest they have all left me in their wake, since May 2005. I think 2007 is the year that Griff catches them up, though by my calculations I have to meet someone, get her pregnant by March and then be married by the end of the year to be on a par!! Maybe on reflection I should take things as they come, as that is moving at quite a rapid pace, though as the title of the 1983 unofficial James Bond film said "Never Say Never Again" (OK so the again may not fit but you all know what I mean) So all that may actually happen and you'll find out here first on my blog!

I think that brings it roughly up to date....

I'm going to try and make the effort to update my blog at least once a week in 2007, so those of you that will get hooked on my exciting life will not have to wait 18 months between posts.

New Years Resolution!!

Like most people I have set myself some New Years Resolutions, one of which is to update my blog more (well more than once in an 18month period would be a good start). The likely hood is though, this will become the first resolution I break!

So Happy New Year to you all and watch this space, for whats been happening to me..........

She is 'Yar' a fine vessel we passed on our boat trip in Swanage

Engagement, Camping, Babies and Liverpool FC!!

I've been a busy since my last post and a some of my friends lives have changed forever!

First up congratulations to Jay and Marie who are now engaged to be married and are planning to get married next April in Antigua! I'm glad to say they've invited me so looks like Griff will be planning his first Caribbean adventure :o)

Bank holiday weekend saw the usual gang plus special guest Becky Findlay (Rachael's sister!) and her new tent 'Bernie' head off to Burnbake Campsite near Corfe Castle in Dorset. I can honestly say it was the best camping trip I have been on. The weather was not so good on the first couple of days, but by the end of the weekend we were basking in sunshine. We took a few trips out, but highlights for me were the boat trip in Swanage, Kingston Lacy and Paul's purchase of a handheld GPS!!

Tuesday saw a return to normal life with work but exciting news from Andy and Fi.
Fi had her 20 week scan and they found out the sex of their unborn child and having checked Andy's Blog (so I know he has made the news public) they are to have a baby boy.
To end the day it was round to the Loughborough's to watch the Champions League semi-final second leg between Liverpool and Chelsea. I will not publish my thought's on the match because all you need to know is Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0. Have some Chelsea we'll send you a post card from Istanbul.

The end of the week looks like it will be a busy affair as I have 2 birthday celebrations, my Nan turns 90 and Jess turns 31 and parties planned for both of them.

That's all for now see you all soon.....

Not so sunny Twickenham!!

It's been a busy weekend this weekend. Saturday saw myself, Jess, Marla and Rich head off to Twickenham for a glorious day out and see Bath lift the Powergen....Only one problem Bath lost 20 - 12 to a spirited Leeds Tykes side! Bath had plenty of possession and spent most of the game in the Leeds half of the pitch, but Bath made far to many mistakes and it just wasn't to be our day, but we are still in the hunt to win the domestic league, so lets hope we can make up for the disappointment of the cup final and win the league.

Sunday I attended the GB softball training organized by the Bristol softball league and even though I ache like hell writting this, I enjoyed the session a lot and was good to blow all the cobwebs away ready for our warm up game next week.

Not much going on in my life at the moment, but did have a job interview last Thursday with my current company to move to a different department, but I completely screwed it up so it will be a miracle if I get the job.

Finally I must big up my brother who ran the London marathon today, he ran a time of around 4 hrs 20 minutes.

Until next time......................

I'm back!!

Your eyes do not deceive you, yes I am posting something new in my blog.

So what's been happening since my last updated......quite a lot!! to much to go into really but probably the most exciting thing is the Clists & the Loughboroughs are going to become parents.

Nothing life changing for me since my last updated, still over worked under paid. I have turned 31 though!!

looking forward to the next few weeks though lots going on, Fi is celebrating her 30th birthday this weekend which should be good, apparently we will be wine tasting which I have never done before! Then the following weekend I'm of to Twickenham to see Bath play in the Powergen cup final (it's the FA cup of Rugby) a final I have not been to since 1996. The softball season starts at the end of April which I cannot wait for and to round the month off a weekend camping trip is planned with my friends.

well your probably still recovering from the shock of seeing my blog updated so I will stop for now.

Until the next time.............