Sinbad Ep 7

Our hero's sneak back into Basra and find its a changed place. Akbari has murdered his brother and is about  to be crowned king and Taryn has convinced him to bring the old ways back and is liberating secret black temples which are ironically hidden under places of wisdom. She starts destroying scrolls and knowledge.

The crew witness some of this and then Sinbad decides he has to play hero and chases after some guards who are harassing a scholar.

Gunnar is epic -saves Sinbads butt and fights off some guards with total ease. Then berate Sinbad for not sticking to the plan.

The scholar explains whats happened and states that important learner-ed and scientific people are in danger.

Anwar realises as his father is the professor of medicine he needs to get to them and there is a lovely scene where Sinbad tells him to go and bring them back to the ship. More lovely this is Rina suddenly offers to help him. They run off.

Sinbad goes to find his friend who is a guard and was in the pilot episode to find out where Tayrn has his gran.

Big bad - Taryn meanwhile is realising weird shadow beasts that are teleporting people to a cage inside a building somewhere. Gunnar and Sinbad start off to go rescue his gran and Nala keeps guard outside. She is immediatly taken by the shadows.

Rina and Anwar - Some beautiful dialogue. They walk through the streets and Anwar ponders if their paths ever crossed. Rina says not as she would have robbed him. Cut to outside Anwars parents:

Rina: “You must know a back way in. It’s safer.”
Anwar: “Really?”
Rina: “What? You mean you’ve never sneaked in late?”
Anwar: “No!”
Rina: “Typical.” Then she yanks him away to find another way in.

Great scene of Rina jumping into the house with ease and Anwar struggling to get through a window. They are caught by his mother and despite telling his parents of the danger they insist they have lunch first. His mother lets slip Anwar isn't actually a trained doctor only a student and Rina looks mad as hell and storms off. Cuts to her trying to make him see they are acting strange and it turns out they have called the guards who run in and capture Rina.

Anwar does an Anwar - His rescue of Rina is epically funny. He trys to jump on the cage/cart they have her in and just ends up flat on his face. Rina naturally frees herself.

Sinbad meanwhile loses Gunnar - he ends up on the shadows place too. Then he faces off with Akbari. Suddenly both men make up, the curse is broken and Taryn pretty annoyed at that kills Akbari informing him quite darkly that actually over the last few weeks he has been serving her purpose not her his.

Sinbads gran manages in all the hype to smash the stone Taryn has been using to control the shadows freeing Gunnar and Nala and then she dies but not before her and Taryn imply that Sinbad is so much more important and there are things about him we don't know.

The epsiode ends with a total shock. After some brilliant ribbing of Anwars rescue attempt, Nala leaves?????? Not without giving our hero a kiss though. Shocking, so unexpected.

Sinbad Ep 6

Our hero meets a siren.

The ship gets attacked queue Sinbad getting to dive beautifully overboard to check out the damage. Thank you writers - I am not getting tired of any Sinbad in the water shots :)

He gets washed up on shore complete with 4 scratches down his chest. Then our hero meets the rather gorgeous Roisin played by Georgia King.

He falls hook line and sinker for her. She meanwhile is stealing all his memories. Nala and Gunnar row over to the island and try to bring him back. Nala seems jealous. Sinbad insists he wants to stay so Nala gives him to sunrise to return back to them and the ship.

Gunner is Epic - Not so much fighting this ep but mention of this hilarious line:

Sinbad: “One night. One night where I don’t feel like me. You understand that, Gunnar, right?”
Gunnar: “You might want to write poetry. Life’s a bitch when you’re cursed.”

Romantic Action -  Sinbad and Roisin get it on. No surprises there. In the morning when the curse kicks in the siren removes all memory of his grandmother and it neutralises the curse. Roisin then proceeds to usher Sinbad off on a journey as he is getting more and more disorientated.

Back onboard the ship. The rest of the gang examine a razer sharp thing thats lodged itself on a plank of wood. Cook determines its a fingernail. Rina is not ready to let Sinbad go yet so she and Anwar go after him.

Rina and Anwar - I really do love these two. Finally we see a slight weakness in our scrappy thief. She doesn't like ghosts. They both encounter some swirly dark memories and run off then fall down into some sort of trench thing where they discover some of Roisins past victims missing teeth. Rina has lifted some teeth from Roisins hut so they realise they need to get a move on and stack up aload of skulls to climb back out. Where more memories are waiting including Sinbads gran below.

Rina and Anwar theorise - too quickly in my book that they are memories and Sinbads are being stolen and set off after them, naturally rescuing our hero in the nick of time. Rina does this by offering up her memories and mid way through her story turning them nasty thereby neutralising her.

Interestingly I think that even at the end when Anwar broached asking her if she really got sold into slavery and she made out he was daft to have fallen for it - that was what happened to her. I would love to see an ep exploring Rina's background.

Big bad -  Taryn meanwhile has taken Sinbad's grandmother prisoner and works some magic that ends up giving Sinbad a vision at the end of her calling for his help. Sinbad decides they are going back to Basra.

Twitter

I am actively making an effort to tweet more. Truthfully I don't fully understand twitter yet but got excited this weekend when I realised some of the Sinbad stars are on there. 

I don't know what a re-tweet is. I don't actually know if when I @ . . . .someone they actually read it? I mean where does the tweet I have just made go? I @ 3 people in the last 24 hrs but can't see them anywhere on their twitter feed.

And what is the deal with the hash tag stuff. Was I suppose to #Sinbad when I mentioned it in my tweet? Questions ehh but at least I managed to sort the widget whatever to link my twitter to show on here.

Interestingly as well I have tweeted more in the last 48 hours then since setting up the account so I will keep trying to get my head round it :) Its probably to do with my brother as well telling me he was getting into to twitter. If G can navigate this stuff then so can I. Though saying that G has only tweeted once so actually he is worse than me!!!!

Also I got an email his morning saying I had a new follower. I had a nosy at it and he's called onlinemarketinghelp. Not that exciting ehh but from what I can gather its a blog that possibly helps blogs ????? I will have to have a read properly. Hopefully its that and not some dude who wants to spam me with questionnaires or something.

I know one thing - I have been keeping this account for a few years now. Yes I know I deleted a couple of years of posts but I never really found my direction. The blog wasn't not going the way I wanted it too.

Now it is and I know I actually enjoy blogging about TV and films. And these posts seem to get the most attention. So I will continue doing it. But perhaps I need to look into making this blog more epic. Of course anything techie and I am pap . . . .

Oh well I will just have to learn somehow.

More Sinbad or #Sinbad (if I suss this) reviews to follow. Also I have just started Game of Thrones so might have to say a few words about that too.

Sinbad Ep 5

Some lovely character interaction in this ep. For once our hero's are not starving and at the beginning of this ep are relaxed, carefree and having some fun drinking in a bar. Rina is hilariously trying to give Anwar a tatoo.

Theres a lovely conversation as to why he wants the tatoo and then Nala asked Gunnar about his. The big man totally lies and makes out its a farming tatoo to bless and bring on success in sheep breeding. The group all laugh and Anwar asks Rina not to give him one of those. The writers have to be setting these two up as the looks between them was just brilliant. Just one little snag and we will get to that later

Anwar -  bless him either can't take the pain or has had too much alcohol and needs air. Much to amusement of the rest he runs off. There is a funny shot of him stood next to a donkey and you can clearly see that somethings going through his mind at that point as he trys to psyche himself up to go back. Then he see's 4 guards wandering round with a drawing of Sinbad.

He returns and trys to warn them. At first they all think he is trying to get out of the Tatoo but then they see them and realise they are from Basra. They hatch a plan, after Gunnar quite epically turns into some yoda type and convinces Sinbad who wants to confront them to run and bottle his anger. The distraction was brilliant and my inner fan girl was screaming with delight.

Rina and Anwar - This week to get Sinbad past the guards Nala and Rina pretend to fight over Anwar. Rina yells at him for kissing Nala. Nala pushes past Rina and says he's mine now and plants one on him. Then Rina pushes her away and plants one really long kiss on him then tells him hilariously not to get any ideas lover boy. How can you not after that???

Gunnar and Sinbad escape and the rest are to meet them later sailing round the cape. However when Anwar, Rina and Nala get back to the ship their are guards already on there and Taryn waiting. Quue them getting tied up. It seems every ep they get jailed or something haha.

Taryn seperates Anwar and realising his crush on Rina threatens to kill everyone if he doesn't talk. So he does.

Anwar does and Anwar - Okay I know I love ya and you were under threat of death but really . . . . did you have to mention the curse. You had given Taryn enough!

The sorcerous starts going through their provisions looking for something of Sinbads and dum . . . dum dum shockingly finds Rina has been keeping a lock of Sinbads hair. WHYYYYYYYYY Writers!!! Oh well she will wise up and realise the hunky doc is who she is meant to be with.

Gunnar is epic - Meanwhile Gunnar and Sinbad get attacked by some ninja types. Our warrior puts up a good fight but its not good enough and then in a surprise twist they take the norseman and leave our hero passed out.

Big bad - Taryn meanwhile does some freaky magic ritual with sand and Sinbads hair and creates a monster who wouldn't look out of place as Community's human being.

Anwar and co get locked up downstairs. Rina berates him for giving Taryn information. He berates her for fondly keeping a lock of Sinbad's hair also maintaining he did what he had to do to save their lives. Rina manages to free herself - nice skills theres and unlocks the cage letting them out.

Sinbad wakes up and goes after Gunnar. He finds him captured by the ninja dudes who are wanting to kill him for his past viking stuff. Anyhoo he manages to convince the ninja boss to give him a chance to redeem himself as they discover the monster is after Sinbad.

Back on the ship the rest hatch a plan to stop Taryn involving Rina covered in red making out to the guards that the creature is back. She and Nala wake up Taryn from her trance and they discover now theres no way to control the monster.

However  Gunnar is epic once more- when the creature catches up with him and Sinbad he makes another lovely yoda speech about letting go as its feeding off his anger. In a far to easy in my eyes finish Sinbad practically counts to 10, slows his breathing and the monster falls back into sand again.

They return and Sinbad releases Taryn who has a vision when he helps her up of a blond girl and flashes of Sinbad going somewhere. You know that will be important later!

Sinbad Ep 4

This was quite a creepy ep. Sinbad and the crew are stuck in the ocean. Theres no wind, no land just heat and when its night cold. They have run out of supplies and are having to survive on a tiny amount of water. It seems to be a running them that our merry band run out of food! Surprisingly they are not coping too well, poor cook seems to be suffering the worse having full on hallucinations.

Cook sees a ship but they put it off as being a mirage from their condition until in the evening Rina spots it too. Theres a lantern light on it. Rina and Sinbad row over (it seems only Sinbad and our scrappy thief were brave enough. Gunnar wanted nothing to do with it!) All they find is a rotting wedding feast and an old man strangly alive.

They bring him back and his name turns out to be Anicetus played brilliantly by Timothy Spall. Anicentus creeps out Gunnar who starts flashing back to some of the atrocities from his viking days. You can see Nala has a lot on her mind too. Anwar talks to him and finds someone with a lot of knowledge. He seems the most comfortable with him.

Rina and Anwar - sat very close together while telling stories to try keep their minds.

During this Sinbad has a vision in the fire and see's his brother.

Romantic Action - Surprisingly its not our hero this week. It seems that Anicetus turns out to be Death and even more freaky Nala's betrothed. Her people made a deal a long time ago that one of them would marry death to save their people and Nala got the nasty end of that straw.

In her cabin she pulls out a spectacular wedding outfit. I have to say all of Nala's clothes are fabulous. She gets dressed, goes to Anicetus - presumingly working out its him keeping the Providence in the state it is at the moment and she goes with him to fulfill her obligation and save the rest. Also to see her father again.

Gunnar is epic - Finally, our warrior gets his grove back and him and Sinbad go after Nala. And rescue her. From Death!!!! There was a nice scene involving butterflies and death's ship pretty much disappearing meaning all our sexy cast drop into the ocean. Any excuse to get them wet ehh. Im not complaining.

Sinbad swims down and rescues a sinking Nala. So queue Nala being the love interest??????? Who knows. But as soon as she's back on board the wind sweeps up again and they can sail to safety.

Sinbad Ep 3

I loved this episode. I think this is where I started to feel the show and the characters properly. House of games. It kicks of with a nice boat race - Sinbad and Gunnar naturally whooping the other boats ass with the providence. Nala was not overly impressed and told them both off for being boy races. Cooks kitchen got knocked about and he let out a little roar of frustration.

Turns out our merry band need supplies so they pull into a port and discover actually there's nothing there. Hilariously the boat they were racing pulls in and its a rich dude with tons of food. Our bods have to eat humble pie.

Rina, while everyone is trying to talk mr sour loser rich guy into giving them some food decides to rob them, turn tail and run off. Cook catches her but doesn't bother to stop her, merely hitting her with one of his brilliant lines "Little fox cannot change her nature."

The rich man says if they give him something of value he will give the crew food. They go back and realise Rina is gone.

Anwar does an Anwar - this my new section hehe. Silly Anwar barters the boats. Naturally this does not go down with the others. To his credit he did what he thought was right to save them. He apologises and Sinbad comes clean to him about the curse.

The group follow the rich man to the palace of games, stealing some table clothes to tart themselves up. This is a magical gambling house hosted by 2 twins - bit of a fanty and mingo feeling from Firefly on this one and a man with no eyes.

Sinbad convinces Nala to let him beat her hair butterfly clip thing in an attempt to win back the boat. He loses. So our hero pulls out the big guns, accuses the hosts of using croaked dice and they flip a coin to see if he can play one more game although he has nothing to wager. Luck is on their side and they are allowed into the high rollers room where the rich bloke is.

Before they go in through Rina arrives posing as Lady Samara and dressed like well I can only describe it as someone from a final fantasy game. Her hair all flicked up and weird makeup. The dress is nice though! The gang are non to pleased to see her and despite taking some obvious digs at her don't give her away.

Sinbad easily beats the other guy and they win the ship back. Suddenly the twins are treating them like honored guests.

Romantic action - Rina and Anwar are definitely making some eyes across the room at each other. So perhaps the Sinbad/Rina pairing isn't happening? He goes over and they have a slightly charged conversation.

Gunnar decides he doesn't like the place. Elliot Cowan has some brilliant facial expressions, especially when looking at a big pile of glasses of something pink. He decides to leave and gets magicked away somewhere.

Sinbad somewhat seduced on his good luck streak gets suckered into another game when the twins decide he can't leave. He has to rescue everyone in some bizarre spinning circle with lots of doors. The curse is also kicking in at this point. He manages to rescue everyone and Rina gets him out in the nick of time.

Sinbad is choking, Anwar explains the curse and they leave to get him on the boat. Rina hestitates but Anwar flirts "Lady Samara your ship awaits." Ep 3 ends with Sinbad coming clean about the curse to all and cook stating that "Little fox has found a pack to run with."

Sinbad Ep 2

We pick off exactly where we left. Our merry band of sailors are trying to learn how to sail. Cook is yelling and giving them lessons. At one point both Nala and Rina are getting nowhere hoisting a sail. Actually it was quite amusing. Rina was practically hanging in mid air, way to light to pull the rope.

They hit land and before going over during the night some creepy kids in heavy make up invade and take them prisoner. Dragging them onshore we are introduced to this weeks:

Big bad - Razia queen of the water thieves. It turns out the tribe are slightly cannibalistic. Razia however has some carnal desires and decides she wants a little bump and grind with Gunnar. Sinbad naturally can't have that. He's the hero after all so in an utterly charming speech - "Im Sinbad, you will never forget me" Elliot Knight - Nailed it!!!!! She chooses him instead and orders that the rest will fight each other later on.

Romantic Action - Sinbad gets it in with Razia and discovers she has a magical bird chained up in her den.

Meanwhile - Anwar, Nala and Rina are caged in one cell and Gunnar in a seperate one. Why who knows. One of the tribe comes and torments them saying Anwar and Gunnar will fight each other. The norse man refuses. Anwar also isn't warm on that idea. Neither would I if they wanted me to go up against Gunnar. Anyhoo Rina then offers to fight Anwar - que more hilariousness.

Razia leaves Sinbad locked up and returns to the Tribe for "dinner and entertainment." To punish Gunnar for not fighting they seemed to have dressed him up as a mermaid and were making him pour out drinks.

Rina and Anwar - fast becoming my fav characters. They bounce off each other brilliantly and are polar opposites. The fight starts and Anwar just stands there refusing to hit her on grounds that shes a woman so Rina beats the crap out of him

Sinbad meanwhile has a chilling conversation with Razia's son, where he discovers what happens to Razia's men after she's finished with them. Pretty much spit out to dry and made into trophies around her bed. He then manages to make an escape. Good thing too as the sun will be coming up and his curse kick in.

But being our lovely hero he goes back to rescue everyone regardless of the curse, just in the nick of time as Rina has Anwar under her in a choke hold hahaha.

Gunnar is epic - Gunnar snaps out of  his waitress duties, Shows off some of his warrior moves and they all get into a fight with the Tribe working together this time and end up taking Razia's son hostage. This leads to an exchange that shows the tribe Razia has a weakness and our hero's escape back to the boat except Sinbad who goes back to free the bird. Interesting as the creature didn't seem that impressed with him earlier.

This works to his advantage though when Razia catches him up intend on ending him for wrecking her reign. He jumps of a cliff and the bird no longer hostile and happy with his freedom catches him, drops him back at the ship and provides some much needed wind to get the boat sailing in escape.

Sinbad pilot

Exactly that, Sinbad gets his back story. He starts off fighting to try get some money clevely losing at a fist fight so his brother Jamil gets excellent odds. For some bizarre reason Taryn is watching him. Then he ends up meeting Nala and her father and robs them. But it turns out he is robbing to keep his family and the jokes on him as all he ends up getting is some weird totem/voodoo doll thing.

Then he accidentally kills the King/Sultan ermm not sure of the correct title, (Akbari) brothers son. Both he and his brother get thrown in jail and Akbari then shockingly kills Jamil in front of Sinbad in retribution.

Sinbad goes back home rather nicely managing to bust out of the Palace jail and unsurprisingly his grandmother is not that impressed one of her grandson's is dead and to teach him a lesson puts a curse on him by creating a snazzy looking locket that locks round his neck. She warns him he cannot be on land longer than 1 cycle of the sun and he must find atonement. He runs off to get off land by sneaking onto the Ship the Providence.

Taryn we discover works for Akbari and is a sorcerous. Again - why was she watching the fight?????? But Akbari's brother is currently in charge and all magic is outlawed.

On board the providence Sinbad meets Rina and discovers he is not the only stowaway although Rina's is accidental. She was stealing and meant to get off the boat before it set off. He also meets Anwar the ships doctor who hilariously is seasick. Sinbad is still covered in bruises from his time against the palace guard etc that Anwar decides to patch him up and then mentions to the Providence Captain that one of his crew downstairs is injured. Que Sinbad busted.

Also Nala and her dad turn up as passengers - it looks as though Sinbad might talk his way out of things and become crew offically on half rations and then tossed off at the next port until they tell the Captain he stole from them. So instead he gets locked up.

Que the evening - big storm. Anwar being the compassionate person he is checks on Sinbad who then captures him to get out of the cell. Rina makes another appearance and then more guests in the form of Watery bird like creatures.They watch in horror as one of these pretty much KO's another crew member. Then Nala appears and shes the next course until our hero lures him away from her.

Gunnar appears and basically takes charge helping the ship survive through the night but heres the kicker - Captain dead and all but Cook of the original crew can it. Also Nala's father bites the dust Leaving the boat to be patched up and now belonging to our merry band of sailors Sinbad, Gunnar, Rina, Anwar, Nala and Cook.

Oh after 1 more drama of course. Rina gets trapped under the hold and water is rising. Sinbad dives in gives her air via mouth kiss (1st potential romance????) and rescues her.

Sinbad

So my new favourite TV show at the moment  is Sinbad. I will hold my hands up I was not sure at first. I saw all the teasers on sky 1, thought fab this will be something like Hercules or xena and I will love it. Then I  watched the pilot and I was a bit meh . . . . However as I have the new fancy TIVO thingy I season linked it and decided to give it another go. I am so glad I did!

Elliot Knight (Who I think I recognise from Hollyoaks although could be wrong - there is no mention of that on his IMDB page) plays our hero. He is rather tasty and happy to announce he takes his top off a lot :)

However its Anwar my inner fan girl is totally screaming for. Dimitri Leonidas is adorable as the doctor who has led a rather sheltered life compared to the others and seems to always be getting into trouble. Where has this actor been hiding? I mean as another blogger (where I found the pic) put it. How can you not love that face??????

Marama Corlett plays Rina - a jewel thief. And if the writers are going the way my fan girl wants them too - Anwars gal. They are so adorable together and the interaction perfect. Rina is scrappy and at the beginning just out for herself.

Elliot Cowan plays Gunnar the ships warrior. He is pretty dam awesome and very funny at times. Dark past as a warrior and very handy with a sword and axe. Also he seems the only one on board bar cook who knows how to raise and knot sails properly. Gunnar seems to do the hard labour most eps bless him.

Estella Daniels plays Nala a noble women who was in the first half of the series and then just disappeared. Not sure why, she had so much more character background to delve into. Perhaps she will be back for season 2. Fingers crossed. Well fingers crossed there will be a season 2. So many cool shows seems to be getting discontinued i.e. defying gravity, Terra Nova and least we forget FIREFLY - FOX WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

And Tuppence Middleton is Tiger - fast becoming Sinbads chicky dee. She joined after Nala left. Called Tiger as she was brought up by Tigers. Tiger has only been in 2 eps so far.

And we have Taryn played by Orla Brady who is the or seems to be the big bad. Although thats kind of debatable now.

And lastly Junix Inocian as cook who is just epic. The only man I know who can put robbers to sleep with food and seduce with Kaffa lime. I also suspect that he's more than he seems. He has not set foot off the boat yet making me wonder if he's actually some magical part of it. Perhaps he is the providence personified or something. Who knows!

I will do some spoilerifc reviews of each ep in some more posts.

MIA for a while

Well as usual my blogging has been pap! So I guess I need to catch the world up on a few things. Since my washer went down and I had to buy a new one I stopped going to fat club. This decision was fiscal as I am trying to save money to sort my kitchen out. So I have been trying at home to follow the plan. I have lost a bit but I have to say it is harder by yourself.

Its fast coming up to mine and my gorgeous niece's birthday. So that's to look forward too. My friends Yvonne, Helen and Rebecca decided to plan a trip down to the Harry Potter tour for my birthday. We could only get tickets on a Saturday in November but still it should be brilliant. I am really looking forward to seeing all the sets and things.

I have not really been up to a whole lot. Guild wars 2 is out and its well pretty dam awesome. I am happy or maybe sad depending on the crowd . . . to say that I have lost many many hours to this game so far. I am playing a Slyvari Elementalist - just got up to level 46. I would put a picture up but as I am completely crap and have no idea where on my pc it has been saving game screenshots it will have to wait until I have spoken to Yoda at work!

Also I have been watching some TV which I need to update about. Warning ...... as always these posts will include spoilers :)

Hubbaloo

So today I bought myself a one of a kind, elegant and vintage cake stand made by my one and only artistic and brilliant friend Becks. How cool is this?

Cannot wait to have an opportunity to bake some delicious goodies and showcase them on that :)

Heres a couple more pics:

Becks awesome stands and my mate Jon making himself comfortable on a deck chair as we listened to the brass band play their version of Lady Gaga

I also got to see my gorgeous niece today:

Ellie is growing up so fast. Today she showed us she had learnt how to do a high five. Sooooooo cute and when you ask her how big is Ellie, she opens her arms really wide. I just wish she would learn how to smile for the camera lol. My niece is like posh spice in the smile department hehe

Translation

The new Mantra I have been trying to help ease me back into meditation translates as the below:

 

Gayatri Mantra

Om Bhur Buvaha Svaha
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayath

Gayatri Mantra English Translation

O Supreme Creator, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow and the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme sin-destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

 

Strange dreams and my new fish

So in an attempt to get my energies back under control and try forgive I am trying to restart doing yoga in my life - I used to do it everyday at University and it did do me the world of good.  I used to be a hell of a lot more bendy too!

I am also trying to start meditating daily again. It was suggested to me to check out Sai Baba and try some chanting. If you don't know who Sai Baba is/was - he is the incarnation of a hindu deity. The second incarnation has recently passed but a new one will be born I am told.



I have been doing this 2 days now and I had a very vivid dream last night but all I can remember is there being this amazing big and beautiful full moon. I had a scout around on the tinterweb and it seems to indication intuition and change. So that kind of fits with what I am trying to achieve which is good. Hey my subconscious is on board!!!!

My lovely dad took me down to the pet shop and I now have some more fish. Since losing bob a few weeks ago Eddie has just been so lonely and hiding in the corner. So now I have 2 more oranda's which one is just white and the other is white and orange. I also treated myself to a black moor. I have wanted one for ages. He's so beautiful and a little bit bigger. He is almost Eddies size.

I have named my new fish - Sheldor, Penny and Evil Wil Wheaton. Yes after characters in one of my fave shows - the Big Bang Theory. Also a nod to Wil Wheaton - who's blog and you tube stuff I am a keen follower of and have been for years. Heres some pics - sorry for the slight blurriness - my fish are not easy to get a clear shot on account of the moment lol

Back on track!

Since my oven blew up and I have been waiting for the part to come, I have had to eat a lot of non-kosher SW food. Last week lovely Helen and Andy fixed my oven. Honestly you never realise how much you use something until it dies on you!!!! I use my oven a lot! Anyway now its back and this week I am back on track and 4 pounds down!

Harcourt and Haigh 1 & DA Origins

So after a long long long long long wait and weeks of being teased. Exhibits A, B & C







My friend Vern got ep 1 of the webseries he and his friend Chris have been working on up on the web. Here it is:



If I am honest, I am not sure what to make of it yet. I have watched it three times and so far come to the conclusion there is a nod to the blues brothers and back to the future in there. But then you can't really come to the conclusion of something in 1 ep and 10 minutes can you. Clearly further viewing is required. And as with "the Room" its probably multi-dimensional and requires thinking about. Vern's clever that way.

A couple of points definitely made me giggle - most notably the unnamed for licensing purposes Sci-fi prop and well the books. I think they were as far away possibly as you could imagine. Verns character was holding Cannibalism by T. Harris at the beginning and mid way Chris had Liber Null -  Psychonant. Crazy evil cannibal criminal and chaos magik? Is this a hint of whats to come from the characters respectively??? Or am I just such a geek that I have come away watching it and picked up on something that's nothing at all?

Although the skateboard transport thing also annoyed me but probably more on account of all I could see was Francis Bouille from MIC. And if you follow this blog you know my feelings on the Skateboard incident lol

Regardless to me getting the full humour of it or not I enjoyed it and lets face it I'm not very good with a lot of comedy - I didn't find little Britain amusing and a ton of comedians that my sister and friends all seem to love . . . . . I imagine a lot of it has gone over my head. Sorry Vern!!!!!

But the point is the boys have taken something brilliant they have dreamed up and made it. Good for you!

A lot of thought and work has clearly gone into the making of H&H and I urge you all to keep tuning in. I know I will.

In other news . . . I have been working on a Dragon Age Origins fan fiction. The girls at work have been very encouraging, Jac even offering to Beta it for me. If Vern can take that huge leap and put his work out there I decided so can I. So I have put up the first 2 chapters of my story on fan fiction.net.

I am feeling quite nervous about it. I have written some stuff on and off for years and most of it is saved on my PC having been rehashed a billion times over and never seen the light of day to anyone else. So I am quite nervous. I imagine Vern is feeling the same about H&H.

I am not going to link it but if anyone does want a read (I know DA:O fan fiction is probably an acquired taste!!!!) However you can find it pretty easy enough on there. Theres a clue as to my fan fiction name in the blog tagline lol. Failing that drop me a PM and I will link you up!

RIP Bob the goldfish

Well I don't know what happened. One day Bob was as Bob has always been. A happy goldfish, eating and swimming around in the 35 litre tank he called home with Eddie my other fish. And then suddenly he was lying on the pebbles at the bottom and not eating.

I tryed water changes - although the other fish was fine. It kind of suggests it wasn't water quality. I went and bought some internal medicine and aquarium salt. My poor fish just got worse. I came home and he was on his side, hunched over just breathing really slowly.

Bob passed at some point friday night. I have since cleaned the whole tank out and Eddie just looks tiny in such a huge tank. And he's lonely. You can tell he's missing Bob. I will need to get some more fish now.

Table Table at Aspley Hudds review - Don't bother!

So I was tasked with organising a leaving do for a colleague at work and she picked this restaurant. To book a table the website told me to fill in this form indicating how many people I was booking for and my details. It said someone would be in touch within 48 hours.

Customer service fail # 1 - No one came back to me. I was forced through concern about the football making the place busy and the fact we had 10 people coming to then chase up the restaurant. It seems however that the phone details don't put you actually through to the restaurant. You get through to somewhere else entirely. Confused?????

Well I was when I had to have a conversation to a little Indian man who didn't seem to know anything about the offical booking process on the Table Table website and told me that the only way to book was a room only for the premier inn part. We ended up having a few words there, me bringing up the website again and finding exactly where it told you how to book a table. Not impressed!

He then informed me he would phone the restaurant on my behalf and then come back to me. When he came back to me he assured me that the staff were currently doing some sort of training. Every single staff member. And I would be called back within an hour. It was 4pm. I thought it rather strange that every staff member was training in the run up to one of their busiest times for food but did not question it.

They did not call me back within an hour!!!! Customer service fail # 2

In fact they called me back at around 11am the next morning. I was also told once again by someone slightly nicer to talk to than the chap yesterday that none of the staff there knew you could book online. I mean seriously . . . . I was then assured that the table had been reserved and it would be ready for 7.30pm that evening

However it wasn't! I was the first of my party to arrive. I told the man behind the bar who looked miserable I might add that I had booked a table for ten and all he said back was "Fantastic." I then had to ask where it was as no further information was indicated, he just went back to looking miserable. "Round the corner," was all I got and "It's not ready yet. We need to sort some cultery out."

Customer service fail # 3!!!!!!!

Interestingly "Fantastic" was pretty much his vocabulary for the entire night.

We finally got seated at our table and a waitress clearly on auto-pilot. I could make allowances if it actually had been  that busy but it wasn't! Anyway she informed us that the fillet steak was on 25% off today as a special. Ruth in our party quite fancied that so she ordered it.

I ordered a table table chicken burger with a swiss topping. Pam ordered a regular chicken burger. Helen ordered rump steak. Kirsty ordered chicken curry.

When the food came, not remotely at the same time I might add, they gave Pam my dinner. She almost bite into it before noticing the cheese and mushroom topping. I was missing onion rings that the menu stated came with it. Helen was missing mushrooms and tomato's that the menu stated came with it.

Kirsty's was the last meal to come out and her's was cold. So that had to go back.

Customer service fail # 4/5 & 6

I will give them their dues, Helen and I didn't bother mentioning our missing items. We were just so glad to finally get our food after waiting so long. The waitress did offer Kirsty a free drink when she returned with her now hot dinner.

The final customer service fail of the evening - they brought the bill and then didn't knock the 25% off for Ruth's fillet steak. So I had to go back and tell them the bill was incorrect. I got Mr Fantastic again.

In conclusion. The food was blah. To be honest I think I had eaten better in morrisons cafe taking my gran for her weekly shop. The staff were in their own little world. I dread to think how they cope when the place is actually busy. It was about half full when we went. And a good corner of the place were students just drinking and watching the football. And if you want to book a table - the website is useless.

RIP Captain Noah Mitchell

I feel like I need to say a few words for one of the people that I wrote with. Chris - an American, was someone I met on one of the Trek Sims I play. He was a lovely lad, full of inspiration and a passion for writing. I followed him to the Archimedes Sim purely because he asked me too and he was a joy to write with.

Chris was one of those rare people who made time for you. Talked with you and listened too your idea's. He wasn't a power-monger - yes they do exist in the trek online Sim world! He was genieune. 

It is with a sad heart that I found out today he had passed on. Chris has spent the last year or so battling cancer. I'm not sure what that means for the Sim yet. I think his brother will take over but we have to keep it alive in Chris's memory.

My own personal belief is you do not die. So for me I can take some comfort in those beliefs that Chris like Danny and my Aunty who we also lost to cancer is now in peace and gone forward for the next great adventure.

My love and prayers go out to his family. Captain - thank you for the good times and the memories. You will be missed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

How many files!!!!!!

So one of the main reasons for updating my "rigg" was so that I would be able to play GW2. I had many many many happy hours playing GW1 and have some mates - both online and in RL lol playing. I have the PC now, I bought the game and I d/l the beta client. My god though how many files and updates. I d/l everything again monday. All day it took.

Mark at work then says to me weds you need to do it again there was a big update. I said I did it monday. Okay he says its a small one then. Shouldn't take long. No just another 4 hours!!!!!!

I shouldn't be whining as it just means areanet are doing everything they can to make this game as good as they can make it. I am sure when I finally manage to log in this evening and create my original characters great great great great great grandaughter and step into the starting area all of this will be forgotten. Just have to get through an entire day at work now . . . . . .

The white queen

So I made a promise to myself this year that I would read more. This came out of a comment my sister made about  how I used to always read and well I did growing up. I'm not sure when I stopped reading as much but I decided to address it. I also decided that I needed to read different things. I love science fiction - have about a billion star trek novels and I love kind of your adventure almost Indiana Jones type stories. But I need to widen my horizons.

Anyway Waterstones was doing one of its buy 2 get the 3rd half price things and I picked up a book for work, a book I had been wanting by Iain Banks and took a chance on one called the white queen. This was about October time last year. It was the story of Elizabeth - wife of Edward during the time of the war of the roses. Not my normal cup of tea. Or so I thought. Yes its taken me over 6 months to get to it but once I started it was fascinating.

In fact I really enjoyed it. The author Philippa Gregory does an excellent job bringing Elizabeth's story to life. So much so that there was a taster chapter of her next book - the white princess - Elizabeth's daughters story that the end of the White queen sets you up for. So I have to read that too.

However Waterstones informed me its still in production. But what I wasn't aware of was there is a series - its called the cousins war. And the first book is called the lady of the rivers. So I picked that up yesterday for £5.99. And this is the story of Elizabeth (the white queens mother) - there is also a red queen one which I presume is the story of the Lancashire queen.

Here is the link  to the authors website:

http://www.philippagregory.com/

I'll let you know how it goes.

In order news I had my favorite Geordie down this weekend with Mr Chaney. They came down for the Mumford and Sons concert. We didn't get much time together but we did get to go for a nice Sunday lunch yesterday and I got to practice my tarot skills on them. Thanks guys Xx