So it took me on and off two years to pass my driving test. I like to think I'm a great driver, after all I only got two minors on my driving test. But there's things I see from other drivers that just make me think... What are you doing?
Number one. Parallel Parking.
I know for some it's the bane of their driving but working in a shop right next to a busy road I often see people parking. For some it can take well into 3 or 4 attempts before they've settled into the "that'll do" position. All this is regardless of sex too. I've seen plenty of men fail at parallel parking as well as women.
Some people instead of reversing in just drive right in with their front wheel on the pavement. If you were in a test you'd have failed straight away for mounting the kerb, regardless if anyone was there or not, so why is it acceptable now?
Is also bothers me how a lot of people don't indicate on roundabouts, You waiting to go only to find they're leaving the junction before you, but you don't have enough time to leave because the car behind them is going ahead of you. It's annoying, especially when there is a queue of cars behind you.
Saying all this I'm in no way an overly cautious driver nor do I drive too slow/too fast. I just obey the law that's there for all our safety.
Recently I've realised that I do things without it even knowing. It's messes with your head because you are 100% sure that you aren't doing it but you are. Here is my example;
I love music. Always have always will. The only time I really get to listen to my own music is when I'm doing housework, the dishes or just sitting on the laptop. When you're listening to a song you love and know all the words to you're going to mine along, wembly style. Even though my body knows I'm whispering the words, I've been shouted from the next room to find I've been singing aloud the whole time! It's wierd. I know it's true because I've asked what I've been singing and it's right. Bearing in mind I have headphones on, you wouldn't be able to hear from the next room.
So I got thinking and what if this has always happened?! When I lived at home I constantly had my earphones in and would mine along, would my parents hear me singing my heart out? And just never mentioning it? I've asked a collegue at work and apparently they do it too.
Now I feel like I have to constantly watch myself when I'm mouthing along to music. Or even humming away to myself.
Have you got any quirks you didn't realise you had?
It was one of the games I added to the poll on my last gaming post (HERE) but after finishing Dead Space, which I totally loved so much I might end up replaying it to unlock all the trophies; I decided rather than moving onto Dead Space 2 I'll give Bioshock a go. Especially considering that both franchises have recently had new releases; Bioshock infinite and Dead Space 3.
The whole background to buying the game was similar to how I've bought other games. The hype and the attention they got. I took notice of the "greatest game of 2008" sticker on the cover and decided to give it a go. At first I actually thought you got to play as (what I now know as) Big Daddy that features on the cover.
When I fired up the game on my PS3 it asked to install it. So I waited patiently for a couple of minutes. Them a couple more. And a couple more until 10-15 minutes had gone by. By them my excitement had dimmed a bit but nevertheless I carried on. First off the graphics were amazing. When the plane crashes into the water and you're left wading in the sea surrounded by flames from the wreckage you wouldn't be able to tell this is a game released nearly 5 years ago.
Anyway. The game is set during the 1960's and The whole premise of the game is that you discover this underwater city called Rapture. Owned by Andrew Ryan who made it to escape the rules of society and gods. He created plasmids which are basically powers that you can own throughout the game. Telekinesis, incineration, lighting, Ice and many more. Something went wrong driving the habitants crazy turning into "Splicers" who want to kill anything they see for "ADAM" the currency for buying powers in the game.
It really is a great game to play. I'm normally not a fan of first person games but its hard to put it down. It may be a bit late but if you haven't played it, it's definitely worth looking for a copy.
They recently released a two pack with Bioshock 1+2 which includes all the extra DLC on it already without paying for it on the PlayStation store. It's around £15 which isn't so bad too. If I didn't already have the first game I'd have bought this.
Here's the trailer for the first game, it doesn't exactly flow like the trailer but it's a good representation.
My first and only car so far has been a Fiat Punto RS.
I was halfway through my lessons when I thought I should maybe buy a car so I can pick up the pace and hopefully pass a bit sooner. So me, my mum and dad went on a car hunt, writing down details wherever we went on prospective cars. Until one day I came across this Fiat Punto, it was £700. There was another car (red) for £500, the obvious choice would be to go for the £500, after all I was paying for it out of my own wages, but no, as soon as I saw this Fiat Punto I had to have it.
My dad called the owner that night and was told someone else had wanted the car, however, if I could pay a £100 deposit that night, it would be mine.
So I got the car! I love it and couldn't imagine driving any other car, only one thing bothers me though, after the "Punto" sign on the back it has an "RS" which I assumed meant it was a sports model, however it only has 5 gears, while most sporting have 6?
At one point my car failed it's MOT, it needed to be fixed while I was on holiday, when I came back my mum had told me it would need to be scrapped, I was devastated Literally brought to tears, I couldn't bear to part with my Punto. Luckily it was fixed but it may be short lived. I will have to sell it on because it may be too much to repair. I checked on webuyanycar.com to see how much it was worth. £200!! that's a loss of value of £500 in the year and a bit I've had it!
another thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of Fiat Punto's in Cumbria! Light blue, dark blue, black, silver. Again I've noticed mine is the only one with a black bumper all the way round, rather than having the bumper the same colour as the rest of the car.
Am I the only one who thinks if you pass a car that's the same make as yours, you should acknowledge it in some way? like a wave or a flash of the headlights. Usually i just shout "PUNTO!" though.
As I've mentioned in my about me page I work in a retail store. I've worked in retail for nearly 5 years and there are still things to this day that wind me up. Here is just one of them. I've re-typed this so many times because of going on an angry tangent, but here it is! (heavily edited, mind)
The thing that winds me up is having packaging opened.I know we're a curious bunch and want to see/feel things for ourselves such as curtains throws bedding etc. though there are signs saying "please ask for assistance" packaging gets ripped open then the curtains or whatever are just shoved in a heap back on the shelf. It's not only a bitch to put the packaging away, but it puts off other people by thinking that's the sort of standards we have in the shop. By asking someone we (shop workers) can open it ourselves then fold it away nicely when you're done. Rather than pick up after their mess. I know it sort of comes with the job, but sometimes it just takes the piss.
That's all I'll get into for now!
Have you worked in a shop before? How do you feel about this sort of thing?
Also, the picture in the header isn't from my shop, I found it on Google but I would turn the air blue if I saw that.
I saw the ad for this album on the TV this morning and thought I would check it out, I love finding old songs I'd forgotten about and feeling the nostalgia of them. I'm often adding older songs I haven't listened to in a while on my "Car Playlist"
So I had a little look through, found some I still listen to regularly but I found some amazing tunes that will definitely strike a chord with some of you out there. Here they are!
The other day I decided to go through my video game collection. It's fairly modest compared to most. The reason I went through them is to see which one of them I have actually completed. I found that most of them I haven't come close to finishing, so by looking at the list I'm going to set myself a challenge. By the end of the month to complete at Least 2 of them. I don't spend that much time on the consoles so 2 is a challenge. But I want you to decide which games I finish first. They'll range from PS1, PS2, PS3, GameCube, Wii, DS, PSP and 3DS. Hopefully after a while I'll have whittled my collection down!
Ill add a poll and the top 2 results ill try and compete and ill blog my progress.
But if no one votes (it's a possibility) I'll just pick 2!
Here's 10 to choose from and their platforms:
These are a small amount of games I haven't completed so take your vote (vote for more than one if you like) and I'll take on the challenge to finish the stories. However in some cases I'll probably do on their own as it requires quite a chunk of time to finish.
I'll close the poll at the end of the month then ill get cracking on the games
I'm currently playing through Dead Space so ill hopefully have finished by next week.
If you wish to discuss them or have a reason for your choice feel free to leave a message below.
So with having an iPhone and iTunes one of my playlists is the Top 25. This is out of all songs the ones I've played the most times. It's been constantly changing with songs I love. Sometimes I get bored of them and reset the plays to zero but here are the most current. I'm not going to talk about all of them cause most are from the same album. So ill just talk about the top 5 then list the rest. #1 Teen Idle - Marina & The Diamonds
One of the highlights from the album Electra Heart she tells the story of assuming her self and how she wish she'd lived her younger life differently. Being bottled blonde, prom queen the works. It starts of as a ballad and turns Into faux-dubstep by the second chorus. The middle eight is amazing
"I wish I wasn't such a narcissist, I wish I didn't really kiss the mirror when I'm on my own, Oh god I'm gonna die alone, Adolescence didn't make sense, The little loss of innocence, The ugly years of being a fool, Ain't youth meant to be beautiful?"
It ranks up there with "Numb" as one of her best songs.
#2 Power and Control - Marina & the Diamonds
Another one from Electra heart it was released as the second single from the album but wasn't that successful. It's basically a song about a man that has all the power in a relationship but she wants to take it back.
#3 The Archetypes - Marina & the Diamonds
Another marina song! This is more of a teaser. It was released on YouTube to introduce the 4 archetypes of Marinas album. Still catchy though
#4 Roman In Moscow - Nicki Minaj
It was released as a follow up from Nicki's first album Pink Friday, the second album at the time was all about "Roman" her bitchy gay male persona. Itapparantly had a video receded at some point but hasn't seen te light of day. It wasn't even featured on the album Roman Reloaded.
#5 Birthday Cake - Rihanna
I'm not sure how many albums ago this was. There's a new one every week. But this song was released only 1:30 long and trails off at the end. The only full version is one she released herself featuring Chris Brown. Even then if you didn't know what they were singing about. You could easily misunderstanding it as him hitting her again. "Remember how you did it?"
As for the rest:
- Stupid Hoe - Nicki Minaj
- Lies - Marina & The Diamonds
- Judas - Lady GaGa
- Comptine d'une autre été - l'âpres midi - Yann tiersan
- Primadonna - Marina & The Diamonds
- Come On A Cone - Nicki Minaj
- Homewrecker - Marina & The Diamonds
- Seventeen - Marina & The Diamonds
- Bubblegum bitch - Marina & The Diamonds
- Living Dead - Marina & The Diamonds
- Right There - Nicole Scherzinger
- Lightspeed - DEV
- I Just Wanna F - DEV feat. timbaland
- E.T. - Katy Perry
- Kiss You - One Direction
- Hit And Run - Lana Del Rey
- Lonely Hearts Club - Marina & The Diamonds
What's your top 5? Or even just the top song. Tweet me or comment here and ill add it to my post!
They are a duo from Sweden and have released the one album, It's been out over a year so I'm not blogging about new music. I'm simply writing about them because I don't think enough people have heard of them.
They're of the electric genre, their debut album Voyage is a mix of electric songs with small intro's and outro's blending the tracks together. The physical album also came with a second disc of all the instrumentals from the album. (Doubly amazing)
They've releases a few music videos during the album and here they are:
Wonders
Conquest
Nova
I do honestly believe Nicki Minaj sampled Wonders in "Whip It" though. It's definitely in there!
Well there they are! You can find the album on Play, Amazon and iTunes etc.
They also have a FREE remix album on their Facebook page
No, not spelled wrong, this is the group HAERTS, not much is known about them apart from they're American and have a female lead singer other than one song and a music video
"Wings" the first wings video features clips featured from the 1970's public safety films, the ones that may have been watched in school no matter how old you were. The ones where everyone does a gruesome death to scare you not to go anywhere near a lake river railway line or road. The song itself is a throwback to the 80's power ballads which gives it a lovely sound.
Though the song has been available to watch on YouTube since October the song is now available on iTunes (Only Available via the Kitsune Maison album on UK iTunes)
Watch the video here:
EDIT:
We now have updates! The band's webpage has gone live and features more information about them and even a picture! HAERTS
HAERTS is a band from New York hailing from Germany, England, and the United States. The group consists of Nini Fabi, Ben Gebert, Garrett Ienner, Derek McWilliams, and Jonathan Schmidt. The band's first single, Wings, was produced in collaboration with Jean-Philip Grobler (aka St. Lucia). HAERTS' debut album is due in 2013.
They have a new video for their song wings which is actually on VEVO which shows a good sign!
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Which is equally amazing! It's sort of like Video Games video but amazing in it's own right. Amazing.
Out of all the films in my smallish film collection there will always be one that I love the most and that one is Amélie, or if you prefer; Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (The fabulous life of Amelie Poulain)
Amélie is the French film starring Audrey Tautou which came out in 2001
I first caught it on Film4 but even then I fell asleep watching. So the next time it was on I recorded it on VHS. The tape ran out before the end! Eventually I caved in and bought the DVD to finally finish it and I love it.
It's about a girl called Amelie (quelle Suprise) She's been devoid of much human interaction due to her father diagnosing her with a heart defect and her quirky grown up life life in which she starts helping people in their lives but manages to coincidently find her perfect half.
It's a great film to watch even if you don't speak French. It's subtitled but to be honest you forget they're there. Half way through I've convinced myself I can actually understand what they're saying in French.
But one of the best parts of the film is definitely the soundtrack there's this one song that has constantly stayed I'm my top 25 most played playlist and that is "Comptine d'un autre ete - l'apres midi" by Yann Tierson a piano song with no lyrics it's just amazing to listen to. Listen below.
So yesterday me and C were shopping after work in a... well known fashion chain shall we say. I happened to see a jacket which I liked the look of (above) after seeing a similar one in a store which just had a sale but didn't have the money for, I spend about... 10 minutes looking for a mirror in the whole place to find one right near the entrance (to be honest if you're taking your jacket off around the entrance and trying on clothes, It sort of makes you feel paranoid that the staff will feel like you're shoplifting.
Anyway. I try this jacket on and it is quite big on me, but the worst part is it was a size SMALL. Yes. A small was too big on me. We went and looked around to find there were no XS sized clothing at all, not just the jackets but t-shirts etc. They had XL, XXL so why not XS? Even on their website they only have 4 jackets in XS. But look how many massive there are!
But this isn't the first time this has happened. I've been somewhere in the same situation, try the hoodie/t shirt/shirt on and it's big on me but is the smallest size. Looking at me I'm not tiny. I've seen people slimmer than me etc but they have perfectly (albeit maybe too tight in places, you look like a douche) clothing. So what's the answer?
Bulk up? I can't imagine me working out just so I can fit into bigger clothing, Isn't is usually the other way around? There's still many places that offer XS and even XXS but part of the deal should be the price, I shouldn't have to pay over the odds for clothing that fits me like it should.
Needless to say I didn't buy the jacket. Which was a shame because I really liked it. I need to lay my Gilet to rest.
So Lately after finishing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance I've tried to move onto other games. I've plenty of PS3 games that I've bought Pre-Owned but never actually got around to finishing them.
I've mainly bought them because I bought into the hype of them and the good reviews. Yet I get so far in the game before another will come along. For instance... Dead Space, Bayonetta, Prototype, Bioshock and Xenoblade.
When it comes to playing them though I seem to lose interest as soon as I put the disc in! Is it ADD? Or am I just too spoilt for choice? I've always said I'll finish these games before starting a new one but god knows.
Anyway, It gets to the point where I've finally found a game in which I want to spend my hard earned time; Bayonetta. If you're unfamiliar with it you play as a long haired witch with guns, and her high heels are also made of guns too. SHE SHOOTS FROM HER ANKLES. However as it's known the PS3 port has been quite poor. The Publisher addressed with years ago and released a patch in which lets you install the game directly onto your PS3 allowing it to run a bit smoother and reduce loading times.
However it's not to be. When playing without installing the opening scenes are endless. You beging by fighting on a falling clock, then a voice-over is talking away, Only he doesn't speak for long. He suddenly cuts out leaving only the grunting of Bayonetta as you're kicking the hell out of angels. He eventually comes back to speaking with the subtitles on screen, however the subtitles from the last talk are still on screen, they're now overlaying on eachother making them unreadable. Then... That's as far as I got.
So I figured I may aswell install it. It can only get better surely? But no. In about 40 minutes the install has moved about 2% then randomly fails. After giving the CD a good wipe it manages to install 3% in as many minutes. But that's as far as it gets. The PS3 is no longer churning away then fails altogether.
Now what? I've either got to buy another copy or have GAME to their magic on it and see if they can clean it further with their machine. Will it make a difference?
Either way I'll have to pay as the copy I've got is way over the 30 day guarantee.
Ok so after the recent discovery of a sort of furniture restoration shop (Rosie's Corner, Workington) where we got our funky sideboard and chair (ill post some other time) we've felt like doing our own little bit of restoration. Taking drab old things and giving them a paint job. The whole shabby chic works. So C brought this frame was home with the intention of "doing it up" I didn't think to take pictures when we got it so just have the corner of it to see what it was like before! It's painted 120S Lavender with an enamel spray paint (You can find these in Wilko's for £3.49, It's a small tin as seen in the pictures but lasts a bit, there's a fair bit left in the tin after doing the frame so it's al right for little jobs.)
We took the painting out so as not to damage it then laid it on a bin bag outside, I had to use stones to hold the bag with it being slightly windy, otherwise the bag would have stuck on the paint. We left it a couple of hours and Viola! We have a vintage gold frame brought into this century. The lavender goes well in any room cause of the neutral walls. See the result below with the painting too. The painting was bought in a charity shop so the overall cost of the up-cycled frame is... £4.49. Not bad eh!
It now sits on top of the sideboard looking amazing.
Music is definetely a must for a post. My current obsession is a mix between Iggy Azalea's "Work" and Bastille's album "Bad Blood"
I've listened to Work that many times I've managed to learn the first half of the song from memory and constantly walking around the house singing "Valley girls giving blowjobs for Louis Vuittons, what you call head? Head over heels?" Much to the annoyance to C (my partner) I've even gone as far as shaking my none-existand chest when listening to it on "the chair"
Now get this work.
As for Bastille whenever I'm doing the housework around the house It's always a tough choice between the album itself or the mixtape. There are two mixtapes of covers mixed with their own songs and I'm bordering on saying the covers are better than the originals.
Favourite album track: The Weight Of Living Pt.2
Favourite Mixtape track: Killer feat. F*U*G*Z (Seal Cover)
Hello, my name is George, I'm in my early 20's and I'm living in Cumbria. (UK) I work full time in retail for a nationwide store as a Sales Manager/Duty Manager. I'm hoping to manage my own store soon though... This is the 3rd blog I've attempted to start up, the first being about music, the second about home. I've decided to focus on this so I can just talk about anything! Think twitter (@georgioies) but long winded. I'm going to be talking about everything that happens in my life aswell as movies, music, films, clothing, work, home, whatever whenever.
So "follow" me or bookmark me or whatever you what to do to keep up, If you could be good to RT my posts or reccomend me to other blogs or even who I should follow too that would be great :) Enjoy the blog. George
