Skype details

So I've installed Skype and for those that are interested, my Skype name is tommabomma.

Transformers trailer is up. Grindhouse trailer for those that like Rodriguez and Tarantino stuff. And this is a very scary haunted house movie. And this a good choon.

Get ready for some man crying....Rocky's back

Despite how ludicrous the premise is, this will probably be great. After resolving the cold war, Rocky takes on ageism.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/rockybalboa/trailer2/

World's whitest room

The dining room project continues and is currently papered but not painted (because Lucy's changing her mind on the colour). As such, the room is completely white and has the effect of making you think you've walked into some kind of lab, which is novel for a dining room.

Maybe we could just have a big surgical slab in the middle of the room to complete the look.

The whiteout effect is complete once we switch on the 5 200 Watt halogen burst lamps. Y'know that bit in the matrix where they access all those gun racks? Well, its nothing like that.

Ethel's light is now installed

As part of the ongoing renovations to the dining room, we've gotten rid of the 18th century Gothic chandelier, which depressed anyone who entered the room. Lucy's Nan palmed off some light fitting that she didn't want, which we've gratefully received and have now put up. The sheer wattage change in the room (from 40W to 300W, now means that I'm going to have to go out a buy a dimmer switch (typical) or risk severe retinal damage for any unfortunate dinner guests..

Doug drums for Jesus

Trisha & Ian's wedding vow renewal service (which was very nice) was held in a little church hall in Iden Green, which happened to have a drum set (obviously). Unable to resist the temptation, Doug felt compelled to have a bash on it. Despite my offer, he felt it would be a bit too much to pose with a fag hanging out of his mouth, what with it being a house of Gawd and all.

New Transformers Trailer

The latest trailer for Micheal Bay's Transformers movie is available. Good popcorn nonsense, loads of stuff being blown up, the entire world being in peril but strangely the action will only take place in America. Y'know, the usual drill.

Recent stuff

Put an outside light up outside (funnily enough) which lights up the alleyway when you approach. It's all a bit Narnia and hopefully it won't attract any flea-bitten fauns. It also has some interesting settings, including:

• a "you're stealing from old people and spastics" alert that is triggered by any depositing of bogus charity clothing binbags
• a "fuck off pikey" alert that is triggered if a shammie leather or ironing board cover comes within 50 metres (of course I have to disable this feature if I know Bryan is visiting)

Bryan has also put me onto Mike Strutter's latest show, which he billed as "the most angry, sweary show I've ever seen" and I have to say he's not far wrong. Great to watch after a crap day at work, although certainly not one to put the parent's onto.

Watched "Little Miss Sunshine" at the weekend. It was pretty funny and avoided being too cheesy.

Also started watching 'Dexter', which is a show that's on in the US about a forensics serial killer who kills bad people (as coached by his Dad). It's based on a book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Not as grim as it sounds, it a novel take on the whole deluge of CSI shite that makes up most of Five's evening programming.

Latest trailer for 300. Boy does this look good.

Latest trailer for Hot Fuzz. Boy does this look good.

Brother and Bond at the weekend

Kerry was attending a 'hot stone massage' course in Windsor on Sunday, so Croyde, Kerry and Charlie came down to stay over on Saturday.
We went to see Casino Royale on Sunday which was double boss. I really like Daniel Craig as the 'blund instrument' Bond and the title sequence was pretty cool. I thought the theme music was a bit naff before I saw the film but the graphics somehow made it some much better. I do miss the tales of the unexpected style bimbo silhouettes though. :)
Charlie also made some jam tarts, mainly to keep him occupied :) , which was a great success but not as good as my mince rolls (oooo ducky).

Fireplace in!

Well the fireplace crew eventually remembered who we were, what we'd paid for and when we'd like it fitted, so the fireplace is in. It looks very posh and warms up the dining room nicely, which I guess is a primary requirement for a fire.

Had a good night out for Paul Morgan's leaving drinks. Mark & Simon dragged themselves away from Swindon and Jim 'Botox Ramsay' Kendall put in a brief appearance.

The service at Cumins was up to usual standards, I think I saw one couple actually age 5 years whilst waiting for their starter. The night was rounded off with a hunt for a late opening bar, and we found one at the Bully and then the Zodiac, within which I cut some fine shapes on the dancefloor.

I've created some stools

Just to finish off the kitchen, we found some kitchen stools on eBay that go over by the breakfast bar. Just need to install the optics and the bar will be complete.

Bryan and Lucy popped over last weekend which was alright I suppose. I had the most boring pizza ever at The Ferry but apart from that it was a lovely evening, marred only by the rather shit Crank.

Also watched A Scanner Darkly, which was very interesting to look at but kinda made me feel like you don't have to make a film of every Philip K. Dick story. Can't decide whether to go and see Bond or Borat next.

Kitchen floor dahhhhn

Well, the kitchen floor has finally gone down and it looks reet nice. Fireplace next week, oh the excitement. Looking forward to meeting the chimney sweep on Tuesday, I hope he looks like Dick van Dyke.

Not much else going one. Had the in-laws up last weekend, so we spent some quality time with Eleanor, which was nice. She still doesn't say much though.

I am currently considering my next pudding to master, all suggestions welcome.

The PhilF is 50

Took a trip up to London on Saturday to Phil's 50th birthday party at Bentley's Oyster bar in Piccadilly. It was great to see Phil again, he hasn't changed much, still whirling around like a dervish. It was shame that there weren't some other familiar faces there but still a good time was had.

For some reason, I can't help thinking that this what life would be like if Bryan and I became coppers.

Lucy's dresser makeover

Despite the illusion that I like to promote, Lucy also does lots of stuff around the house. Case in point, her most recent labour of love has been restoring the dresser we used to have in the kitchen.

Its all done now and it looks very good, so it looks like we'll be keeping the one we were given for free and chucking the one we paid 200 quid for. Typical.

Does anyone want a nice big Welsh dresser? Let me know otherwise we'll give it to charidee. Goes by the name of Glynn. Ho de ho.

I also made a bakewell tart. It was lovely but I don't think I'll be making another one as it took around about 6 man hours to make.

Behold my mighty threshold

After much sawing, gluing, sanding and varnishing I have finally finished the threshold between the kitchen and the dining room. I'm quite proud of it and have hopefully saved a few quid.

Here's a piccy of the kitchen, all done apart from the flooring which is due to go in at the end of October.

Had a call from the PhilF, who's having a 50th birthday party in Londay in October. Great to hear from him and hopefully it'll be a chance to meet up with some old work friends and network for a 100k job in the city.

Check out this Dutch TV presenter who just can't stop laughing. Apparently the guy getting interviewed has been castrated and the interviewer loses it when the guy starts talking in a high pitched voice. And I mean really lose it. :)

Guido's 35th birthday

Last Saturday was Guy's 35th birthday party, so we went out in St Albans for a few cheekies and a curry. Nothing too crazy, given Guy's advancing years, it wouldn't do for him to get too excited.

Sunday was spent doing sod all, apart from blitzing through the remaining episodes of 24 series 5. So at least that's another one done.

I varnished my threshold today, which was very rewarding. Pictures to follow, although I realise this may not be as exciting as recent patio / kitchen related antics.

Finally got rid of Scally

Well, after what seemed like his 9th leaving party, we had final farewell drinkypoo's with Scally and Rachel last night. It was at the Cos Bar at Blackfriars and after a very sweaty journey on the tube (I'd forgotten how dire it is in the summer) the fun began. Cue:

• banal games like 50/50 (which must have been a riot playing for 9 straight hours in the Dam)
• bundling
• breast grabbing (males only)
• scrotal displays (Scally and Chris - shock!)
• Mr Sam Buka paying an unwelcome visit
• continued assurances to Scally that I don't 'make bombs'

It was great to see Matt (x2) and Mick again and I'm sure things went from bad to worse after I scarpered around 11 ish. Matt was particularly impressed with the retort to the question about whether kids were forthcoming, which was along the lines of "Yes, they're on the way but they're still stuck in my penis" which he though was the funniest response to that question he had heard and for that I thanked him.

Anyway, Scally and Rachel leave on Saturday and I wish the all the best for their new adventure, I hope it really works out for them - I'm sure it will. If I ever get to NZ with work Scally, I'll drop in. :)

Jamie's also done a bonzer job with some pictures here.

Also, check out this trailer for 300, it's another adaption of a Frank Miller novel (like Sin City) that looks suitably cool as opposed to the cockless, pretty boy adventure that Troy was.

Loving these guys from the Daily Show - Even Stephen

And the unresolved question still remains. Muslims or Jews?

Scott Matthews gig

Went up to Oxford to see Scott Matthews at the Zodiac. It was a pretty cool gig although the place was baking. Scott has a leather jacket on so he must have been sweating like a bastard.

I'm really liking his album, but am also getting into Ray laMontagne and the Guillemots. Plus DJ Shadow's new album, the Outsider, is pretty good as well.

Doug's 60th birthday bash

It was Doug's 60th birthday last weekend, so there was a gazeebo-fest at the Chidley household. Doug and Marilyn were excellent hosts as usual and it was great that the extended Chidley family and friends were there. Doug's on a jogging gig at the moment, so he got some decidely 70s jogging gear, I just hope he can keep the boy's in the barracks otherwise he'll be up on an indecent exposure charge.

Back from holiday in France

We're now back from a week in the ol' Dordogne. We made it there despite Bryan taking a wrong turn at the beginning that could've ended us up in Lyon - the knobber.

It was very nice and relaxing although the weather could've been hotter. Despite my best efforts at sunbathing I have not yet achieved the mahogany tan I so desire.

It was still nice enough to go out and about or sit outside and read. Every night was spent feasting on good food and good wine. The old media drive came in very handy, since there was no English TV, even if half the films didn't work or were missing subtitles (in which case we could've just watched French TV).

All in all, a very relaxing break, which also got me out of the Amsterdam carnage (although I really wanted to go). From the photos it looked like the usual 'men stand around and drink loads' which doesn't come as a massive surprise. A very funny video of the Vet though. :)

Hannah and Jason get married

The final wedding!! After a fenzied drive down to Wiltshire and after asking a geezer in a tractor where the bloody church was, we made it to the wedding of Hannah Elizabeth Barnett and Jason Edmund Brian Kneen.

It was also great to see Paula and Arnaud, what a blast from the past. I had to restrain myself from rushing to the nearest terminal and heading N,N,W,W,N,E,N,E and start plundering the pit.

After an 6 in a Golf trip back to Andover, it was off to sample the highlights that Andover had to offer. Emma tried a novel approach to navigating the always tricky "Getting past the bouncer when you're pissed" dilemma. Her strategy was disarmingly, if ineffectively honest. "How much have you had to drink?"........."I've had alot and that's my perogative". Outstanding. Still 3 weeks and 4 days to go before we have to stop taking the piss about that one. Not that my tactics when dealing with meatbag, little-hitler doormen are much more successful.

Emma also cried because the people in the kebab shop were being so horrible to the staff there, which I think is just testament to what a lovely person she is and also to the mental delinquency of tits who frequent kebab shops in small towns after midnight (ourselves excluded of course).

Boyzee and Jude also look to be going official about the successful union of man juice and lady egg, so congratulations to the Boyes!! Here's hoping that it's a trouble free pregnancy and that the child gets the looks from Jude.

Visit to see Croyde and family

We whizzed up to Ashby with a bit of Zouch on Saturday to see Croyde and the rest of the family. It was really great to see them and made me think we should make the effort more often. Both Charlie and Elysia seem to have grown so much since the last time we saw them.
We had a nice BBQ on the Saturday night and then on the Sunday went over to Rutland Water for a bike ride.

Guy & Ginette popped round

The Pudney's (or is it still the Pudney and the Kennedy?) popped over on Friday night for a luxury barbecue, complete with modern art installation in our back garden.
Sounds like the Vet has landed himself with a bit of a learning curve at T-Mobile but I reckon he's up to the job. As P.T.Barnum once said, when asked for a comment following the demise of his human cannonball, he said "We will never meet another fellow of his calibre".

Kitchen almost done

After two weeks of watching other people graft, our kitchen is almost nearing completion. All the cabinets and stuff have been done, the tiling's just been finished and all that's left is just the decorating and the floor.
Given that we're doing the decorating ourselves (because we're cheap) that'll probably blow out the timescales of the project somewhere into September.
Pretty happy with what's been done though and dishwasher's are the most awesome invention ever.

Caught by the fuzz

Our next door neighbours were raided by the cops yesterday morning, probably on some kind of illegal alien thing I imagine. Lucy was very sweet and thought that maybe they were just delivering some bad news about someone in the family. I suggested that they don't tend to cover all the exits when delivering bad news (unless its really bad news like "Fuck off back to Russia".

Rob & Grace's wedding

Sped up to Thaxted on Saturday for Rob and Grace's wedding. It was the usual 4 weddings scenario, screaming around B roads and motorways, diplaying the sort of driving style that I usually refer to as 'driving like a dick' when I see other people doing it.

It will a lovely do, with Grace looking stunning, even more so when stood next to the unshaven bum she was marrying. :) Actually, Rob looked very dapper as well although I can't remember the last time I saw him in a suit that wasn't a DJ.

Rob's speech was delivered in true Dr. Bob style and Chris's was excellent, despite a tough, multinational crowd. :) I was particularly impressed by the poem and Chris's mastery of the Cantonese dialect (if not the region's geography / ownership). I'm also hoping Bops & Nia escaped from their B&B OK, it was a bit too remote for my tastes.

In other news, congratulations to Alex & Laura, for having a little cutie by the name of Eleanor May Chidley. She weighed something and was 5 weeks early, so she's a bit tiny but all are well.

Oh, and we also went to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 : Dead Man's Chest last Friday. It was pretty good fun and that's about it. The Kraken was cool and Johnny Depp was up to his old japes again, the scallywag. Keira Knightley does look like a big pouty fish at the start though.

Our toolstore has also arrived and is now one of my proudest erections in the garden. Ithankyou.

Kitchen cleared and proper use of garden furniture

Well, after much ado, the kitchen is all cleared and ready for the builders to come in a start reimagining it tomorrow.

We've also realised that garden furniture is actually supposed to be used outside (anyone who's ever had dinner here will know what I'm talking about).

Charity Ball for Lyn's school & Jack's birthday

Took a trip up to chez Haines for a charity ball in aid of Lyn's school. We all watched the England Portugal game on Ben's spiffy new flatscreen TV and suffice to say everyone was fired up and suitably gutted about the result. All holidays to Portugal have now been banned.

The ball itself was great, although the room was a wee bit hot. It didn't stop Gi eating his own bodyweight in potatoes though. The Puds loves his spuds for sure. Ben and Nia's friends Jo & Graham put us up for the night which was very nice of them, especially as it allowed us to have a lie in. :)

Sunday was Jack's birthday so everyone went down the local park to watch the little smashers play footie-type games. A brief practice session resulting in a bizarre double thumb injury for Boyzee and myself. I don't know about you Boyzee but my thumb's still killing me!

Anyway, the photo's are here.

Garden piccies

Lucy's taken some piccies of the garden, which is coming along nicely. I even planted some of the flowers myself, so they'll be the ones that are dead in a week then.

Ascot back at Ascot

A good day out with the usual Ascot team at the new and improved stand and stuff. It looks really snazzy and is pretty impressive. I didn't win any money (as usual) but a fun time as had. Saw the Queen but she didn't say "Hi".

The evening shinnanegans continued into Reading and despite no eating anything was managed to last until about 11. Boyzee, Guy and Freeman got into a club whilst Matt, Max at a club in Reading. I clearly wasn't that pissed (they let Boyzee in for chrissakes) but they weren't having any of it. Having said that, after looking at the photos, maybe I did look a little tipsy. I was thinking about writing a letter of complaint to the owners of the club but I've decided against it, since it would just be a waste of time and something a 70 year old woman would do.

Meal at the Ferry with Lou & Lou and Lucy too

Had a meal out last night with Lorraine & Louis at The Ferry at Cookham. Since it wasn't as hot as it has recently we only spent about 2 minutes out on the decking by the river but other than that it was really enjoyable. The food was great and the two Lou's were great company. Lou and Lucy hadn't met each other before so this was a good opportunity for them to size each other up. Luckily Lorraine didn't mention Lucy's obviously fake tan* and Lucy didn't mention Lorraine's bad hair, so that was good*. Phew.

Shed arrives on 3rd July, just in time for my birthday!! What a lucky boy I am.

* These are obviously jokes

I missed the second half - or did I?

It was great to see everyone up in London this weekend at the Bok Bar. Its been a while, since I keep missing out on meet-ups for some reason, but it was cool to spend some QT with me old chums and have some drunken conversations about Radio 4, Big Brother and of course, top 5's of various things.

Also good to see Sam again, who was there with his friend Elona from Horsham. He's going to be off travelling in South America soon, blowing all his redundancy money on grade-A cocaine. Or he'll become a missionary. Or both.

Looks like things are also getting set for Scally & Rachel's big move to New Zealand. It sounds like they'll be setup for the first few months but then Scally'll need to con some company into employing him.

Also watched Ghost in the Shell 2 on Sunday. What a pretentious load of toss. Very pretty to look at but after the 29th quote from Milton or Descartes or whoever I lost interest. Helloooo, you're a cyborg - do some cool shit with leaping about or guns, don't just stand around discussing the definition of 'self' or 'awareness'. I can listen to Front Row if I want to hear that sort of guff.

Albums I'm loving at the moment - The Life Pursuit (Belle & Sebastian), How we operate (Gomez).

Path-ological hatred

Well I've finally finished the path, sided by a mighty two-course wall. I did manage to get a nice but of sunburn due to my obligatory builder's arse whilst building the wall, but I'll hold back on supplying a photo of that.

I've also just listened to the new album from The Feeling, which is awesome. Hardly a duff track on the album and the songs are really happy-making, so I may even buy this CD. But I probably won't.

Cracking Big Brother tonight, talk about making me glad I'm a bloke. The women are all so bitchy, especially Lea, who's quite frankly terrifying the way she randomly focusses her outrage onto whoever seems to be the latest person she's been told said someting bad about her. What a bunch of bullies, although it does make for great tele, I don't think I've seen such a fucked up bunch of people on this show before.

Friday YouTube links

I know everyone thinks I'm a great dancer :) but this guy is fantastic.
I though Morgan drove fast but this guy takes the biscuit
Kinda doofy but clever beatbox stuff
and to finish off, an oldie but goldie.

I love YouTube on a Friday.

Latest patio pics

Here's some newer pics for your viewing pleasure. 7 May. 14 May.

Latest Superman trailer

Here's a link to the latest Superman trailer.

Scouses who use mouses

Apologies to anyone who may have read some of the comments on this site. Bryan, unable to resist a deep seating urge to post filth on any website that he encounters, enlisted the help of Scally to post some hilarious comments. I think this proves that Scousers are rightly thought of as the most intelligent ethnic group in the country.

One bonus of their visit was the leaving of a link to lost stag video footage. You can view it and marvel at blokes standing about, looking uncomfortable at being on camera. It's quite fuuny to relive the fact that they gave us guns though. All you need to do now Scally is sort out my wedding video. :)

More soiling action

Another weekend on the garden which involved the joyous task of getting rid of a skip full of soil.

Watched Wolf Creek which was an excellent tourism film for travelling in the Australian outback, if you like getting tortured. Mmmm, head on a stick. Lovely. The 'You call that a knife? This is a knife' rip-off of Crocodile Dundee was pretty funny though, in a kind off "something funny being repeated in a far from funny" type situation.

Also watched the Libertine, which was alright but a bit slow. although it did have some funny moments. I'm sure Lucy enjoyed it for the Johnny Depp side of things although he wasn't looking too pretty by the end of it. A lesson for us all, constant drinking and knobbing will catch up to you in the end. Venereal disease doesn't look like much fun.

Patio finished!

Doug & Marilyn were over again to help us finish off the patio. The last slab was laid just in time to watch the FA Cup final so that was a result. Cracking game, although I can only imagine the depth of emotional depression now being experienced by Sansom. I'm sure Nick will be there to comfort him when they next meet. :)

It was also Doug & Marilyn's wedding anniversary, so we went out for a meal at the Bel and Dragon in Cookham which was OK, although Doug wasn't too impressed by the chef deciding what type of potatoes you should have with your meal. Ask hime about it the next time you see him, I'm sure he'll fill you in.

On Sunday it was onto the path as the next stage, which will be another biggish job. I also finished Resident Evil 4, which is a cracking game.

Mum & Dad flying visit

Another flying visit from Mum & Dad, this time on their way through to Great Yarmouth for Uncle Bill's son's retirement party.

Of course!

The second course of bricks has been added. View it's magnificence!
Of course Lucy had to point out to me that you actually need to finish the job by doing the pointing but I say, screw pointing, it looks fine as it is. Anyway, its done, the quicker a shed gets put in front of it the better. Next, skirting board in the lounge, the challenge awaits.

Baltic Restaurant, Southwark

We met up with Lucy and Bryan last night for a meal at the Baltic Restaurant in Southwark. It was pretty swanky and the food was very nice. The Lagavulin we had to finish off was very smooth (one to try Greg!). Had a few drinks in the Ring next door, where I was surprised to hear that Bryan was intending to replace his stairway with a fireman's pole but then he's always been partial to a bit of pole action. We managed to get the midnight train home, which stops at about 20 stations and takes a bloody age. The temptation to just screw it and get a dirty cab for 50 quid is pretty high.

What a bunch of punts

Jeff was over in Oxford this week, meeting up with Bob F. Jeff wanted to experience the white-knuckle ride that is punting, so we went to the Cherwell boathouse and hired a couple of punts. Conclusion: punting is a pretty stupid way of getting about on a river and should be banned, replacing the punts will those big-fan airboats that they have in the Florida everglades, as shown in Gentle Ben.

Maximum strippage!

Another Bank Holiday, another load of DIY. After spending Saturday doing sod all (which was much needed to recover from Guy & Ginette's wedding), we decided to get rid of the cryptalike, purple wallpaper that had dazzled all visitors to our dining room. No more sitting in gloom, we now have bare plaster instead, which you'd think would be terrible but is, in fact, a massive improvement. I'd hoping we can just leave it like this and not have to wallpaper the room but it's unlikely that that will be allowed.

The Pudney Wedding v2

Just got back from Guy & Ginette's wedding, which was fabulous. Ginette looked really stunning (she scrubs up pretty good) and Guy seemed pretty happy as well. Everything went really well, the setting was really nice and all three speeches were spot on. The usual wedding reception antics followed and luckily this time there was no discotheque, so no demands for my spaccy dancing. Anyway, photies are here.

Flying visit from Dad

Dad was up in the big smoke so he stayed here on Wednesday night. Didn't manage to get any DIY work out of him so must make him stay longer next time.

Iccle brickle wall

Given that we needed something to block up the gap under a bit of the garden fence, plus the fact that it was going to be out of sight, I thought I'd build a little brick wall. This is my first brick wall and I'm very proud of it. You can look at a picture of it and marvel at its levelness.

Easter Weekend - It's patio time!

What better way to celebrate the ascension of the Son of God than by mixing lots of cement and pouring it into your back garden? There's some photos here, please contain your excitement when looking at these. You may think from looking at these photos that I did absolutely nothing to help on this little project. This would not be accurate, since I did quite a bit actually.

Team Christmas do in Chicago

Senor Galvan has kindly sent out his piccies from the last team trip in Chicago. There are some great moments in there, so enjoy. Believe it or not, we did actually get some work done as well.