Yup, I finally almost have my personal finances straightened out. Thanks to a significant amount of cash coming my way from a will (not a relatives, either), I have actually mad a serious dent in my credit card bills!

Hurrah!

And i have treated myself to a few goodies (natch):

a shiny new iPod Touch 32gb
an arcade 'SuperGun' (allows me to play genuine arcade pcbs on my tv... sweet.)
Batman: Arkham Asylum for my PS3
and a full set of Return of The Living Dead part 2 lobby cards.

Just over 6 months infact, since I last updated this blog. Dosen't time fly?

So what has the last 6 months brought me?

Well, redundancy for one. Yup, I'm now a member of the 'great unwashed' as some folks like to describe this countries unemployed masses. Shan't complain too much though, as my back has now been pain free for two whole weeks (which is a miracle in and of itself).

Other stuff:

Went to Nottingham with my good buds Russ, Caz and Ange for the end of season playoffs. My boys (the Phoenix) were not there, but about 600 of our fans were. And we made a hell of a racket. I even got into a very heated 'discussion' with agentleman from Belfast who took objection to our insinuation that they (and a number of other teams) had openly broken the league wage rules. Ahh, fun for all.

Found a stunningly good pub called 'Pit & Pendulum'. All goth themed with a wicked set of cocktails themed around the 7 Deadly Sins. Tasty. I swear I drank my weight in alcohol that weekend. We started off at 8.45am Saturday morning on the train with a few cans, hit the pubs in Notts, snook some Vodka into the arena, drank more in the pubs, slept, and repeated the pubs and arena bit the day after. I stopped drinking when the train returned to Mancheste rlate Sunday night, just in time for Wrestlemania.

Speaking of which, apart from the superlative Taker/Michaels bout, this years was a stinker. One to put in the 'must try harder' box.

And thats it really. Gods, my life is boring.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Went to the Wacken Open Air metal festival.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Don't make 'em.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My aunt Rita had her 2nd child.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope. Was a good year on that front.

5. What countries did you visit?
Non

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More money, and peace of mind.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Non in particular

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting the trip to Wacken organised.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Still being stuck in my shitty job.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
The usual shit. Stomach bug in Jan, back problems all year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My HD TV and PS3.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My other half. She is a fucking saint.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My boss. Tells us he is considering redundancies, then in the next breath says he is buying his wife a new car because his new house is more 'prominent', and her current one looks old. No tact at all.

14. Where did most of your money go?
My credit cards.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My PS3.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Guns N Roses- Chinese Democracy.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder:
Happier.

thinner or fatter:
Fatter.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Nothing. Literally. I wish I had spent more time just doing nothing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
At home, with my mum and my brother.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yup.

23. How many one-night stands?
None

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Dr Who.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope. Still hate the same old folks as last year.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Devil in Amber.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Airbourne.

28. What did you want and get?
Happiness.

29. What did you want and not get?
A new job.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Dark Knight!

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 30. I went to see The Damned in concert.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A new job.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Black jeans, black t-shirt.

34. What kept you sane?
My girlfriend.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Christina Ricci

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Credit-Crunch

37. Who did you miss?
My Dad.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Didn't meet anyone new.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
Can't think of any.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
So, who's paranoid?

So, this years haul:

From my Mother:
A new waterproof jacket for work.
A new tent for festivals (much bigger than my old tent...yay!)

From Hayley:
LittleBigPlanet for my PS3 (Which is fucking brilliant).
Dara O'Briain Live DVD
Kenneth Williams Unseen book
'Dandy' (brit comic book) cufflinks.

From others:
Money (£65 in total from various Grans/aunts etc)
Toiletries from various relatives.

Not a mega haul, but not too shabby for a 30 year old.

Already spent some of the money on the following:

Component A/V cable for my Wii (more on that momentarily)
Diary of The Dead Blu-Ray
Talladega Nights Bly-Ray

Now, the A/V cable... I needed this as my Wii resides in the lounge here in my mothers house, and she bought herself a lovely new LCD TV for chrimbo. Nice Sony 32" model. And the Wii looked shit through a Scart connection, so I had to buy the component cable to enjoy the pseudo HD 480p output.

Well, I made it past the big 3-0 alive, and relatively sober (8 beers and a bottle of cheap white plonk).

And now I'm off work til the 29th. And given that I know what the good lady is getting me for xmas (LittleBigPlanet), I know what I'll be doing for a fair bit of it.

Stuff:

Fallout 3 for my PS3. damn, this is a fucking good game. One of the increasingly rare games I am putting the hours into these days.

The Dark Knight blu-ray. THE superhero film of the year. And it looks fucking amazing on BR. IMAX action scenes, awesome detail. Yes, I'm a cine-geek. Sue me.

Iron Man blu-ray. The 2nd best superhero film of the year.

All i need to complete the year is the 3 disc DVD set of Poultrygeist, and I'm done.

Not been up to much lately.

Buys:

'Chinese Democracy' digital download. And its pretty fucking good.
'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls' Blu-Ray. Very enjoyable, b ut not quite as good as the original trilogy.
'The Young Ones complete series 1&2' DVD, to replace my worn out originals.
'Family Guy season 7 (UK)' DVD set. Still the funniest fucking show on TV.

Other gubbins:

Still looking for a new job. Getting very pissed off with the lack of responses from prospective employers. Seriously considering working for one of those txt chat companies. I can pretend to be a girl/homosexual.

And, I'm 30 next Saturday (6th). Gulp. Where the fuck did my 20's go?

So, what the fuck have I been up to of late?

Quite a bit for a change, actually.

So, here goes...

3rd November: Hanoi Rocks concert at Manchester Academy 3 (AKA upstairs at the Students Union building). Top notch old school hard rock.

8th November: Airbourne concert at the Manchester Academy 1. Fucking loud. Loudest gig I can ever recall, tbh.

10th November: WWE Raw taping at the MEN Arena. YES! Finally! An early 30th birthday pressie from Hayley. Twas a top night of entertainment. Great seats too. (Pictures are on facebook).

Plus the usual hockey games and work.

I even found enough spare cash to get the new Family Guy boxset (I now have them all), and Indy IV on Blu Ray.

I'm now off to go and watch some more hockey (and drink a few beers)!

Mine is a full on Goatee.

Nicely coloured (I think) with a mix of Ginger, Brown,Black,and in a sign of advancing age, White.

So, whats been going on in the world of Robb?

Quite a bit actually.

Hockey season has started (yay!), and for a change, we seem to have a winning team.

Had a very busy week:

Friday: Went to see Dragonforce and Turisas at the Manchester Academy. Nice, sold out crowd, and a damn good show (if a little long).

Saturday: Travelled down to Stoke with my better half, Haylo, for a 2 pronged visit. First stop was the home of Ebon and Darkkat. Spent the afternoon geeking out with Ebon. In the evening it was off to see Razorwire play and record their 1st live album. Pretty damn fine show, if a little sparse on the crowd front. Then back to Ebons for more geek-chat (Haylo and Darkkat both bailed at fairly sensible times (between 12 and 1am, me and Ebon were still chatting at 3am).

Sunday: Up, and a mad dash back to Manchester on the Rail Replacement Bus. Then a quick hop over to the other side of town for the hockey (sand Haylo, she went home to chill). Cracking game. Beat the Sheffield Steelers (YAY!), and found out that I am allowed in the VIP Bar (priviledge of holding a season ticket) along with my good hockey buddy Russ.

Then back to the grind of work.

Other stuff:

Buys:
Cloverfield (BR-D)
TNA Impact! (PS3)
Bloodbath at the House of Death (DVD)
Grindhouse Trailer Classics vol 2 (DVD)
Universal Monsters DVD Collectors Box Set (17 films, 3 polystone busts)
PVC leather-look Biker jacket.
Death Magnetic CD (which fucking rocks)
Buckcherry 'Black Butterfly' CD

That is all.

Had a damn quiet week with Hayley being on holiday with her gran.


Not really known what to do with myself. I've played some PS3, watched some films, done some reading (re-read Monstrous Regiment for the first time in an age), and re-launched my Manchester Phoenix site.

Oh yeah, i got Wrestlemania 24 on Blu-Ray. Fuck me, it looks stunning. Seriously stunning.

Well, what to say? Its been a quiet week really.

Major activity was me trading in my Xbox 360 and HD DVD drive (with all the games and films), plus my PSP (used about twice in the last 6 months) for a PS3. Which means I now have a Blu Ray player! Yes, the tech nerd in me won out.

Not got much for it though. Only got Sweeny Tood, Be Kind Rewind, and Casino Royale on BD, and a handful of games.

Funniest part of the trade was the reciept that CEX gave me for the stuff I traded. Must be about 2 feet long!

Other than that I've been embarassed by some old school photos surfacing on Facebook. *cringes*

Well, I'm back from my week long trip to Germany.

The Wacken Open Air metal festival....what can I say.......it was fucking awesome.

Iron Maiden ruled. Hands down the best band of the festival.

Opeth surprised me by being so bloody good.

Airbourne almost outshone Maiden witha display of pure rock madness (busting open full beer cans on your head, climbing up a 40ft lighting rig just to perform a solo).

Carcass. Nuff said.

Nightwish....amazing. Just amazing.

Lordi were the perfect band to close the whols shindig...at 3am on Sunday morning.

and there were plenty of other cool bands. Kreator, Girlschool, Children of Bodom, Gorgoroth, the list goes on.

Can't wait for the next one.

Yup, tomorrow lunchtime Haylo and myself board our flight to Bremen, on the first leg of our trip to the Wacken Open Air festival. 7 days in Germany, with 4 being spent at the worlds biggest metal-only festival.

Got all my shit packed in my backpack. Tent is at Haylos ready to go. Weather report says rain at the end of the week, but I don't care. It ain't a festival if you don't get wet at some point (plus i get my complimentary Wacken poncho when I arrive on site...as well as a free Wacken brand condom, amongst othe rstuff in my 'Full Metal Bag').

Passport? Check.
Money? Check.
Beer? When I get there.

In other news, I'm sat at home sweating my bollocks off. Far too hot, and no breeze....bad combination for me. I swear I have lost half a stone in the past 3 days or so.

I went to see 'The Dark Knight' last night.

It is fucking amazing.

'The Dark Knight' might well be the best superhero film ever produced. A flawed hero, a truly disturbing nemesis (yes, Heath Ledger is that fucking good), and a mature handling of a tricky story make for an adult film.

It also has some truly wince inducing moments, as Batamn and Harvey Dent both spiral towards an inevitable conclusion

See it. See it now.

Here are a few reccomendations for books not on the list:

The complete works so far of Terry Pratchett ( I reccomend either 'Mort' or 'Guards, Guards' as a starting point)
The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell
Lords Of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind
The Dirt by Motley Crue and Neil Strauss
Red Dwarf series by 'Grant Naylor' (Rob Grant and Doug Naylor)
Bill, The Galactic Hero series by Harry Harrison and guests

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - Assorted people supposedly speaking for God
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984- George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Not bad....30 of the 100 titles/series read.

I hate them.

Next door has a new baby, which has woken me up at 3am every day for the past 2 weeks. Argh.

I need my sleep. If I don't sleep, I get cranky. If I get cranky, I tend to upset/annoy those around me. Which pisses me off and brings me down. Which affects my sleep............

Grrr.

Oh yeah, and I have a cold. In the summer. Whilst its hot. Fuck.

To Oktoberain!

Sorry its a bit late....I'm a bit useless with these things.

1. Name: Robert James Hitchen

2. Age: 29. I'll be 30 in December

3. Location: Manchester, Greater Manchester (or Lancashire depening on your preference for recognising 'new counties'), England. The most well known part of reasonable sized conurbation of about 2 million people (made up of Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Stockport, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Hyde, Ashton, Sale, Altrincham and other assorted towns & suburbs). Probably most fmous for the world best football (soccer) team, the mighty Manchester United. Also considered to be the UKs unofficial 'Second City' after London (Birmingham has the official designation, but it hotly contested).

4. Occupation: I am a furniture delivery man. Yup, 3 years and a degree really gave me a great career.

5. Partner?: Hayley (aka Haylo). My wonderful young lady.

6. Kids: None.

7. Brothers/Sisters: 1 brother, Liam. aged 26.

8. Pets: My beloved 12 year old west Highland White Terrier, Eric.

9. List the 3 biggest things going on in your life:

A) Me and Haylo. She rocks my world.

B) My aunt about to becoem a mother for the 2nd time. This will be my 12th cousin. Im the oldest.

C) Wacken Open Air. My choosen holiday for the year. A week in Germany, listening to heavy metal and drinking German beer.


10. Education? 9 GCSEs, 3 A-Levels, and 1 2.ii Degree.

11. Parents? MY Dad died of Cancer a few years back. My Mother is very much alive, and celebrates her 50th birthday next year.

12. Who are some of your closest friends? apart from Haylo, there is probably Ebon Bear, Darkkat, and thats it really.

I have noticed I tend to catalouge my lifes purchases on here....I wonder why?

Anyways, the latest batch of stuff I have wasted my income on over the last month or so:

Everybodys Golf and Scooby Doo: Who's Watching Who? for my PSP
Burnout Paradise, Halo 3, and Mass Effect for my Xbox (bless CEX and Gamestation...trade ins are so much fun)
The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, and Shaun of the Dead on HD DVD
Heros of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs (which is fucking awesome...far better than the WWE DVD) and Kissology Vol. 2 on DVD
And A Lions Tale, the Chris Jericho autoboigraphy.

I really do wonder why I do these posts sometimes.